The Impact of Air Tightness on Ventilation in Passive House Design When many first hear of the Passive House blower door test requirement of 0.6 ACH at 50 Pascals of test pressure, the first thing that comes to mind is the difficulty of designing and executing air barrier details that deliver… Continue reading “The Impact of Air Tightness on Ventilation in Passive House Design”
Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs with this new Free Tool Download Ann Edminster’s Free Tool ‘Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs (Energy Free: Homes for a Small Planet, Chapter 4)’ This chapter from Edminster’s award-winning, residential zero-energy primer covers key performance issues such as building geometry, enclosure design, comfort strategies and… Continue reading “Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs with this new Free Tool”
Sustainable Building Advisor: Greywater Uses & Project ROI On the Sustainable Building Advisor discussion board… Expert instructor Ann Edminster discusses greywater uses and the often intangible, but very important ‘non-energy’ returns on investments. Student 1: Has anyone heard of greywater solutions for dust mitigation? It is common in construction to… Continue reading “Sustainable Building Advisor: Greywater Uses & Project ROI”
Design Interventions for a Healthy & Happy Workplace Are you happy at work? Kirsten Ritchie, Director of Sustainable Design at Gensler, identifies 10 key health and happiness attributes prevalent in the workplace that affect personal productivity and, ultimately, the fiscal bottom line of a business. Kirsten provides suggestions for… Continue reading “Design Interventions for a Healthy & Happy Workplace”
Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015 At HeatSpring, we celebrate innovative builders and designers who work to improve the overall quality and performance of public and residential buildings… Our Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway was created for those who have helped plan, design, construct, and/or operate a high performance building. Entrants… Continue reading “Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015”
Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings Enroll in Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings Carbon Monoxide: What We Do Not Know Can Hurt Us‘ and ‘Green, Healthy & Profitable Buildings and Homes‘ In his free ‘Carbon Monoxide: What We Do Not Know Can Hurt… Continue reading “Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings”
Free Lectures: The Greenest Urban Building in the U.S. & The Largest HVAC Experiment Enroll in Two New FREE Sustainable Building Advisor Lectures “The Greenest Urban Building in the United States” & “The World’s Largest Side-by-Side HVAC Experiment” The Greenest Urban Building in the United States Remi Tan of KMD Stevens describes the San… Continue reading “Free Lectures: The Greenest Urban Building in the U.S. & The Largest HVAC Experiment”
Free Lecture: ‘Real Zero’ Net Energy Homes Enroll in ‘Real Zero‘ today! In this free lecture, Bruce King discusses the faults of our current home construction elements and the industry shift toward “net zero” buildings. During the lecture, King addresses questions that often arise in the green building… Continue reading “Free Lecture: ‘Real Zero’ Net Energy Homes”
Free Lecture: Human Habitat – The Evolution of Efficiency Enroll in Human Habitat: The Evolution of Efficiency today! “You can judge your impact on the planet by how much energy you use.” Chris Dorsi characterizes a dozen countries around the world in terms of electricity consumption, or kWh per… Continue reading “Free Lecture: Human Habitat – The Evolution of Efficiency”
FREE Lecture: Passive House – Less Energy and More Comfort Enroll in ‘Passive House: Less Energy and More Comfort‘ today! In this free lecture, James Bill cites several examples of Passive Houses and the comfort and efficiency these structures provide. Bill discusses the “FRAM” by Fridtjof Nansen (this first crew spent… Continue reading “FREE Lecture: Passive House – Less Energy and More Comfort”
HeatSpring’s Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway! At HeatSpring, we celebrate innovative builders and designers who work to improve the overall quality and performance of public and residential buildings… Our Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway was created for those who have helped plan, design, construct, and/or operate a high performance building. Entrants… Continue reading “HeatSpring’s Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway!”
New Free Lecture: “The Art of Placemaking” With David Bainbridge Ever heard of David Bainbridge? He’s a prolific writer and thinker within sustainable building and agriculture. He founded the Passive Solar Institute and published dozens of papers and books on topics ranging from irrigation to ‘true cost’ accounting. David’s thirty… Continue reading “New Free Lecture: “The Art of Placemaking” With David Bainbridge”
Building Codes, Efficiency & Passive House Principles On Existing Homes On the Passive House in the Real World (with Mike Duclos) discussion board… Takeaways: Homeowners looking to incorporate Passive House principles in existing buildings should consider getting a home energy audit. Still, after a home is built, serious energy reductions (say 50% to 90%) become very expensive.… Continue reading “Building Codes, Efficiency & Passive House Principles On Existing Homes”
FREE Lecture: High Performance Building Assemblies Take Peter Yost’s Free High Performance Building Assemblies Lecture today. Spend an hour learning about building assemblies with Peter Yost of BuildingGreen. Heat dries them out, so the more we manage energy flows through our building assemblies, the more we need… Continue reading “FREE Lecture: High Performance Building Assemblies”
FREE Lecture: Low Carbon Building Take Bruce King‘s Free Low Carbon Building Lecture today. What good is a “Net-Zero” building if just the act of making it dumps a huge load of CO2 into the air? The urgency of climate disruption demands that we… Continue reading “FREE Lecture: Low Carbon Building”
FREE Lecture: Life-Centered Design Take Carol Venolia‘s FREE Life-Centered Design Lecture a today! There’s more to ecological building than doing less harm. In Carol’s free lecture, you’ll learn the ten things we human organisms crave from our surroundings so that you can create built environments that… Continue reading “FREE Lecture: Life-Centered Design”
Free Lecture: Integrative Design Process Join expert instructor Bill Reed for his Integrative Design Process Free Lecture, presented with partner Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA). An integrative process consistently produces cost-effective solutions, higher performance, healthier living systems, elegant design, reduced time to market, and is a heck… Continue reading “Free Lecture: Integrative Design Process”
Free Lecture: Net Zero Water For Building and Sites Through a combination of rainfall harvesting, aggressive conservation, and water recycling, our buildings and sites can achieve self-sufficiency and reduce or eliminate their reliance on municipal water infrastructure. This free lecture, taught by architectural and landscape expert Jeffrey Bruce (FASLA, LEED,… Continue reading “Free Lecture: Net Zero Water For Building and Sites”
Maximizing Effectiveness in Sustainable Building Projects The following piece was written by HeatSpring Instructor Ann V. Edminster, M.Arch., LEED AP. Ann will be teaching HeatSpring’s Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA) course in October. Takeaways: While working on zero energy homes, a highly efficient, airtight building enclosure is a must and… Continue reading “Maximizing Effectiveness in Sustainable Building Projects”
Free Lecture: Introduction to LEED v4 Resources Still relying on pdf or hardcopies of LEED reference guides? This free lecture will introduce you to the powerful, interactive LEED v4 resources and tools available on the USGBC website, including the Green Building Information Gateway and the LEED Credit… Continue reading “Free Lecture: Introduction to LEED v4 Resources”