Building Science
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Building Science
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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Prefabricating Green: Building Environmentally Friendly Houses Off Site
Feature
Prefabricated housing offers several potential environmental benefits, including reduced transportation impacts, reduced waste, and quality control for better durability and performance. Aside from a few industry leaders, however, most manufacturers do not take full advantage of those efficiencies to create affordable high-performance houses.
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Controls Go Wireless
Feature
Particularly for lighting and ventilation controls in retrofit situations wireless systems offer potential energy, money, and resource savings. The technology is still new, however, and potential drawbacks like health risks, interference, and even the potential for increased energy consumption need to be examined.
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Water: Doing More With Less
Feature
The U.S. uses about 400 billion gallons of water a day, and water shortages are becoming more common. Water-saving products and technologies, some currently on the market and others in development, can reduce that wasteful flow to a trickle.
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Alternative Water Sources: Supply-Side Solutions for Green Buildings
Feature
Water efficiency should be a top priority for our buildings. At the same time, finding alternative sources of water is also important for sustainability and passive survivability. Several sources of water can be harvested at the building level as well as through municipal-scale wastewater treatment and desalination.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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How Insulation Works
Explainer
Understanding how insulation works can help us find the right material for a particular project.
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How Water Moves Through Buildings
Explainer
Whenever we improve energy efficiency, we have to deal with water in new ways to prevent damage and mold.
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How R-Value Is Calculated
Explainer
You know what R-value is, but how do they figure it out? And is it really a reliable measure of insulation performance?
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How Blower-Door Tests Measure Airtightness
Explainer
Blower-door tests: what they are, how they work, and understanding airtightness measurements.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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Delta-Dry Takes New Approach to Housewrap
Product Review
A new entry in the category of housewraps offering a textured drainage surface, Delta-Dry housewrap is also vapor-impermeable.
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Zurn Offers Urinal With a Pint-Sized Flush
Product Review
The new EcoVantage urinal from Zurn flushes with an eighth of a gallon of water.
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Cold Climate Heat Pump Redux
Product Review
The two-stage high-capacity cold-climate heat pump that was introduced in 2004 and then discontinued in 2005 is back, and from more than one company.
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Fiber-Optic Luminaire Mixes Sun and Electric Light
Product Review
A new system from Sunlight Direct includes a roof-mounted concentrating mirror that tracks the sun, fiber-optic cables, and conventional-looking light fixtures on the ceiling that deliver a calibrated mix of sunlight and electrical light.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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EPA Partnership Focuses on Commercial Refrigeration
News Analysis
GreenChill, a new partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, supermarkets, and equipment manufacturers, aims to improve refrigeration technology, save energy, and eliminate the use of ozone-depleting refrigerants.
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Revolutionary Vacuum Glass Coming from Guardian
News Analysis
Revolutionary vacuum-insulated glass coming from Guardian provides an insulating value of R-12, and should be available in 2009.
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LED Lamp Sets Efficiency Record
News Analysis
A prototype reflector-style LED lamp from LED Lighting Fixtures has shattered efficacy records, achieving an efficacy of 113.6 lumens per watt.
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2007 Energy Bill Promotes High-Performance Buildings
News Analysis
Although several important provisions were stripped from the federal energy bill, key improvements to appliance standards and building energy-efficiency standards remain.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Want to Love the Future? First, Figure Out What It Looks Like
Op-Ed
Bringing forth a habitable planet will require energy, ambition, and purpose. What will fuel this work? Not data and doomsaying—instead, imagination.
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COP28: Noise and Progress
Op-Ed
The COP28 politics and protests were crucial, but behind the scenes, it was all about good-faith collaboration, community, and commitments.
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Drinking the Heat Pump Kool-Aid
Op-Ed
Reader Thomas McGrath questions the choice of heat pumps over other forms of space heating.
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How Much Insulation Is Enough?
Blog Post
Most leading energy experts today recommend installing a lot more insulation than is common practice. This wall for a Passive House in Seattle will hold about a foot of insulation.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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Just For Fun
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