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10 things from the GreenV Sustainable Center grand opening

The Greenv Sustainable Center  of South San Francisco just opened for business under its new name and new sponsorship, and I took the opportunity to visit their grand opening event last Saturday. Points of interest:

1. The GreenV Sustainable Center of South San Francisco is a mixed-use green marketplace. Housed under one roof are alternative vehicles, sustainable building components, green retail, education, and events for the public and private sectors to access. They are a dynamic community resource for local governments, green businesses, and the public to utilize. The Sustainable Center is a networking junction for people to co-op their skills and marketing to advance the growth of the new green market.

2. The Center is located just off of El Camino Real and across from the South San Francisco Recycling Center. It’s a short walk from Bart. For more info contact: Evan Herceg, Green Building Exchange, 1 Chestnut Avenue, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Tel. (650) 588-1113, eherceg@greenbuildingexchange.com

3. The ‘GreenV’ in the Center’s name is from its major sponsor. GreenV is the manufacturer of the Apex-Block, an environmentally correct and sustainable advanced ICF (insulated concrete form) wall system. Unlike many similar products, Apex-Blocks are made of cement and recycled polystyrene foam. They are formed into large 51 pound homogeneous recyclable blocks (think fewer, larger parts to put together) with interlocking surfaces and networked inner cavities for filling with reinforced concrete. They form a load-bearing, shear resistive grid and can even be used for retaining walls. The blocks can be sawn, routed out for electrical installations, fastened to, and plastered inside and out.

4. Apex-Block details:
Fire Resistant: Tested to 4 hours at 2000 degrees F, the Apex-Block system does not burn or develop smoke. Unlike steel, it does not soften or bend in extreme heat.
Energy Efficient: Apex-Blocks are impervious to continuous frost and cold cycles. With a lab tested thermal value of R-52, buildings constructed with Apex-Blocks use up to 50% less energy to heat, and up to 60% less energy to cool (compared to traditional wood framed structures).
Healthy Environment: The Apex-Block does not absorb or retain moisture, instead - sheds it. The ability to keep dry makes it resistant to mold and mildew. Apex-Blocks will not rot, even in the wettest of environments, and provides optimal vapor release by allowing the building to breathe.
Infestation Resistant:Apex-Blocks are made from materials that are inhospitable to insects and rodents. For more info, contact Rick Rios, GreenV, rrios@verdevinc.com, (650) 588-1113

5. Keynote speaker David Gottfried was quite inspirational, talking not only about his involvement in founding the USGBC and the World Green Building Council, but about his struggle to ‘green’ his own personal life.  It’s not ultimately about buildings and technology, but about our life as human animals on the planet. Read David’s book “Greed to Green”.

6. David was the founder and the first staff president of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The USGBC has been quoted as the leading global green building organization, having the greatest impact on climate change. In 1998 Gottfried invented and incubated the World Green Building Council, now with established and emerging green building councils in approximately 50 countries. Collectively, the world's green building councils have likely done more for climate change reduction than any organization. USGBC is considered the fastest growing non-profit in the world, now with almost 20,000 organizational members and 80 U.S. chapters.

7. One of the Center’s main functions is to host classes. They have a year-long commitment to working with the Solar Living Institute to house their classes on solar and renewable energy, alternative fuels and vehicles, gardening and permaculture, and so on. (707) 472-2450.

8. Fluid Stone finishes made from minerals, recycled aggregates and flexible, low VOC acrylic binders, were interesting.  Can be used on walls, floors, roof decks, driveways, decorative surfaces. Contact: (619) 491-0671 .

9. I also liked Liberty Valley Doors, Inc., (707) 795-8040. They have a line of beautiful doors made from recycled ‘rediscovered’ wood.

10. Freebies you missed if you didn’t make it to the party: 1.5 GPM Evolve ‘Gecko’ shower head; compact fluorescent lamp; California Poppy seeds; Green Zebra savings coupon book.

Green Home Guide Posting

We are pleased to announce that we have been selected as the Green Professional of the Week by the USGBC's Green Home Guide website.  Check out their site Green Home Guide to see our technical responses to questions regarding wind energy analysis, options for environmentally friendly entry doors as well as residential solar installation options and costing.  They seem to be a great source of practical technical information from professionals in the design and construction fields.  Let us know what you think.

Water, water, down the drain

Turn on the shower and wait, wait, wait while fresh cold water goes down the drain until the hot water finally arrives.  Another waste of an increasingly precious resource.

It is often said that fresh water will be the oil of the 21st century, increasingly sought after by competing claimants, harder to obtain, and expensive. That annoying waste while waiting for hot water may account for as much as 10% of your home’s indoor water use.

Ever wonder how big hotels provide instant hot water? It turns out that most hotels continuously circulate hot water through a piping loop which connects to all of the plumbing fixtures and then returns to the water heater, so hot water is always close at hand.  A few years ago, as houses got larger, and as our wealth enabled us to layout houses for comfort more than efficiency, homes started to be equipped with these systems also. Unfortunately, though they save water, they waste quite a bit of energy.  First there’s the electric pump used to push the water around, then there is the constant heat loss as hot water flows through cooler spaces, so that the water heater has to cycle on more often. Piping insulation is mandatory on these systems, of course, but the bottom line is still a system that wastes energy or wastes water.

Another solution, increasingly in use for the last few years, is ‘demand’, also known as tankless or instant water heaters.  Instead of the conventional tank that heats fifty gallons of water at a time and stores it for later use, these heaters only operate when a fixture tap is opened and the water starts to flow.  They just heat the water being used immediately, doing so very quickly and reasonably efficiently. Ideally, they are installed close to the fixtures, so there is very little water waste, and they sometimes only serve a few fixtures.  A typical house might have two or three of them, especially if the bathrooms are far flung. Both gas and electric versions are available. The down side of these units is their cost – both for the heaters themselves and for the large gas or electric services they need, and also for the high temperature flues the gas versions need. For a thorough discussion of the subject see the online consumer information.

But what can the vast majority of us do, who have conventional water heaters and an existing piping system, fully concealed within the walls and ceilings of our homes? Some ingenious person figured out a very simple, efficient approach that is both water and energy efficient.  This system, called an open loop, connects the existing cold and hot water supply lines at the most remote fixture from the water heater to create an artificial loop system.  The only new components are a small electric pump, a pushbutton, a thermostatic sensor, and an electric valve.

Here’s how it works: A few seconds before you need hot water (maybe you have entered the bathroom to shower and are about to disrobe) you push a button by the sink. The button activates the pump, which is generally hidden in the base cabinet under the sink, and which is connected to the hot and cold water lines which serve the sink. Water from the hot water pipe is pumped into the cold water line, where it returns to the hot water tank, reversing the usual flow direction. When hot water arrives, the thermostat shuts off the pump.  Now you have hot water at the sink, without having spilled a drop and having used the pump for just a minute.  In most bathrooms the branch pipe which serves the shower is only a few feet from the main pipe that now has hot water, so the shower will get hot almost immediately.

Depending on the layout of your house, one pump station at the fixture furthest from the water heater may be sufficient, or you might need two or more if the piping system runs off in all directions. In any case, very little water is wasted and the pump is only running a few minutes per day.

A couple of manufactures make pump and control systems designed for this purpose. The product line which looks the most interesting to me is the ACT,Inc. Metlund “D’MAND” .  All of the components of the system are included and it looks easy to install. There are three pump sizes available and three control system choices: a push button, a motion sensor (the pump would start anytime motion was sensed – possibly not the best idea) and for those who are technology addicts, a remote control. The most difficult part of most installations, one imagines, is getting a power source to the location where you want to locate the pump. List price of the basic unit is $339.50. We plan to order one of these and will let you know how our installation goes.

Another manufacturer to look into is Chilipepper . Their unit has a bigger pump than the D'MAND systems, which presumably translates into quicker hot water, but also reportedly makes for a much noiser unit.  It is also cheaper, at $179.99, but to me silence is golden.  Laing Inc.also makes good circulation pumps but they don't seem to have a unified system.

Please let us know if you have any experiences with these systems - we would love to share the information.

10 things I learned at the Green Building Professional Training

Earlier this Fall, I attended a two day "Certified Green Building Professional" training organized by BuildItGreen.  The training was sold out and the room was packed for those two long days.  I was expecting to see other architects, contractors and design professionals, but was surprised to also see real estate agents, mortgage brokers, material suppliers, cabinetmakers and many city officials from all over the Bay Area.  It is exciting to see the changes developing in our industry and the commitment to environmental issues coming from all sectors.  It will take a concerted effort by all of us to reverse global warming, but it is possible!

Many of the topics covered in the training, such as proper building siting, planning and drainage, passive solar heating and cooling, use of efficient framing, proper insulation, use of long lasting and renewable materials are well known to architects, who are trained in building science as well as design.  I won't go into those issues here (or I would need to write a whole book), but here is a list of 10 things I learned at the training:

1. The construction industry is the number one cause of climate change. 8% of greenhouse gases come just from our use of cement.
2. In our lifetime, we will have used 80% of the earth's resources.
3. Water conservation issues will become more and more critical in the future.  Saving water saves treatment chemicals as well as distribution, pumping, and heating energy. Carefully select plumbing fixtures, check for leaks, and minimize the use of lawns.
4. Building codes and Title 24 energy regulations are a minimum guide; strive to exceed their requirements, not just meet them.  Energy costs will continue to rise as our supplies dwindle and the costs of heating and cooling will become much more critical to the cost cycle analysis of buildings in the long term.
5. The R value ( a measure of the insulative properties of a component of a building) is reduced by 1/2 in steel stud framing because of the conduction properties of the metal.  Steel is a good material in terms of its' recyclability, but the insulation details are key.  Wood framing (especially if the wood is sustainably harvested according to the principles of the Forest Stewardship Council) is still an excellent material and choice for construction.
6. Soil is a living breathing organism; one teaspoon of compost has 1 billion organisms. These organisms are similar to the plankton in the oceans.  They are the foundation for a healthy site ecology. Value and protect your topsoil that has taken millions of years to be created.  Carefully plan projects to avoid a lot of cut and fill.  Do not stockpile topsoil more than 6 feet high or the organisms may die.
7. On average indoor air pollution is 2-5 times worse than outdoor air and yet the EPA tells us we spend 90% of our time indoors.  The indoor air quality issues around green building are critical for health and productivity. Be especially careful of carbon monoxide from gas appliances and cars.  A strong vent over a stove can actually create negative pressure pulling in dangerous gases from attached garages and other sources. Install carbon monoxide detectors which will alert you to a dangerous level in your home.  A continued low level of exposure is also dangerous though.  Look for a detector that meets UL2034 and CSA 6.19 that measures both of these dangers.
8. Building materials offgas (think of that new car smell...) and some of these gases are dangerous to our health.  Urea formaldehyde (often used in interior glues in cabinets, furniture, fabrics, curtains) is the main culprit.  It is a known carcinogen and mucous membrane irritant.  The gases are sweet smelling and tend to hang at low levels, so be especially careful when you have young children who like to play on the floor.  There are other options and glues available, it is a matter of asking the question of the manufacturer you are considering. The denser the material, the longer it takes to offgas.  Particleboard can take 3-5 years... Also try to avoid soft PVC (polyvinyl chloride) products, such as sheet vinyl (the beach ball smell).
9. Carpet, especially wall to wall, which cannot be removed for proper cleaning, should be avoided wherever possible.  Here is a scary bit of data - carpet can weigh 2-4 times more when removed from a project than when put in...Just think of all those particles stored that a vacuum cleaner and carpet cleaner cannot remove...Carpet is also a source of VOC's (volatile organic compounds) that are known health risks.  If you must have carpet, try to let it offgas for 30 days before installation, or buy recycled or natural wool carpet.  With wool, double check that insecticides have not been used for moth control on imports.
10. Regular maintenance of a home, checking for leaks, replacing filters, etc. is key to maintain a healthy environment and to protect your investment in the long term, thereby increasing the usable life of the project.

Buckminster Fuller once said "The best way to predict the future is to design it."  I would like to challenge all of us in the industry to be conscientious in thinking of the future in every step and in every detail of the design and construction process.