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We have an MEP engineer that is calculating peak loads at about 6 times passive house levels on a large commercial building that is at or near passive house levels of insulation and air infiltration. We suspect one reason is that he is figuring a 50% efficiency level for the ERV. We are showing him ERV systems with 80-90% efficiency, but they... Read more
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If anyone else has gotten confused going between parts-per-million and percentages (parts per hundred!) for material reporting here's a little infographic that might help. Feel free to use or improve!
Author
As BuildingGreen’s Content & Data Wrangler, Fran is a spreadsheet and content-management wiz who:
crunches data for our consulting team’s product vetting works internally and with our education partners to manage our continuing education program supports the editorial team with Drupal magicFran also compiles data submissions... Read more
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hi all! I'm almost at the finish line with this year's 2030 reporting...whew. I'm running into an issue that I wanted to throw out to this group, regarding the zero tool and national average baselines. Hoping some of y'all who manage your firm's 2030 data, or are just more familiar with CBECS and related data, have some insight / experience to... Read more
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Hi SD Leader: Please review, consider or pass along this terrific new position leading the Sustainability strategic direction at the Washington University School of Medicine. WashU has an ambitious sustainability leader role regionally and across the nation and the School of Medicine (highly ranked nationally) plays a big role in that. The job... Read more
Quiz
Welcome to the quiz portion of Passive Solar Heating.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
1. Explain the three classic approaches to passive solar.
2. Understand the relevance of passive solar today.
3. Describe some key elements of passive solar design.
... Read more
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Hi Carbon Working Group,
It’s been a while since our last online meeting on 3/31 –- admittedly, a bit too long -- so I wanted to share some updates. You might have seen Candice Pearson’s 5/13 post about the structure of the Contractor’s Commitment and how it’s evolving into a set of guidelines available not only to our SCL Group but to... Read more
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Hi Everyone - I'm posting this on behalf of Jeff Frost whom many of you know from his days as an SD Leader with SmithGroup and SERA and in his new role as head of Brightworks Sustainability's materials group. I am excited to be working with Jeff on this concept of multi-attribute product scoring. Cheers, Lona
Dear SDL’ers,
We’ve... Read more
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Hi everyone!
I've seen a lot of claims over the years of living walls or planted buffers that can mitigate *outdoor* air pollution and have always assumed there's no real scientific basis for that idea, unless we're talking an actual forest that's 10s of feet thick. Am I wrong? Are there examples of living walls that actually have been... Read more
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What’s the net present value of that extra insulation? Join us on Tuesday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Eastern for a Peer Networks webinar on “Balancing Embodied and Operating Carbon.” Bill Smarzewski and Jason Fierko of Ewing Cole have developed a method for combining energy modeling with embodied carbon data to determine the carbon “payback” of... Read more
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Are there any metrics for % increase for building PH vs conventional? These questions are always really hard- especially when there are none to compare to in area.
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Hello SCL,
Quick reminder to sign up for our SCL Summit in May! True to usual form, we ask what’s important to YOU before we finalize an agenda. In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out a draft agenda and asking for your feedback. Sign up now so your voice will be heard. Initial ideas so far have included:
Refining our... Read moreProduct Guide
Ventilation is essential for indoor air quality, but it can bring very hot or very cold outdoor air into conditioned space.
BuildingGreen-Approved ERVs
Heat-recovery ventilators (HRVs) and energy-recovery ventilators (ERVs) can save energy by capturing nearly all of the heat in the air being exchanged. BuildingGreen approves:... Read more
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Here are the links I mentioned at today's meeting:
Timeline:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RlN4t23uvBtxEzp4QuyqL-w5bqmE4P90...
BG Contacts and Responsibilities:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MWYuAEitjk7Zpc8KUNf1LwG3-5wK6sIlgwro...
BITuser Contacts and Responsibilities:
https://docs.google.... Read more
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Hi everyone, on our SDL Regional Leaders call today we touched on how different offices are engaging with the Youth Climate Strike on Sept 20, and I offered to share a few resources that we've developed:
1) Here is our public-facing official statement/endorsement: https://www.vmdo.com/architecture-blog/vmdo-youth-climate-strike/?fbclid... Read more