BuildingGreen Report

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November 2, 2009
The Whirlpool Duet -- the latest washer to be used at the Wilson residence.

In the 1980s, when my wife and I were expecting our first child, we decided it was time to give up our weekly adventure at the laundromat and buy our first clothes washer: a used Maytag. It was rugged and generally dependable despite its age, but it had a big... Read more

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October 26, 2009
Earlier this year, Vermont became the first state to approve feed-in tariffs. The state has a goal of producing 20% of its electricity using renewable energy by 2017..

Vermont made history last week, becoming the first state to offer "feed-in tariffs" for electricity generated from renewable energy sources.

Feed-in tariffs have been... Read more

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October 21, 2009
Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time. Here's an unformatted, text-only version of the current bulletin: Free BuildingGreen Email News Bulletin - An overview... Read more

Blog Post

October 21, 2009
The low energy use of the first Passivhaus in Bremen, Germany, is surprising, especially since the house has neither solar collectors, nor a PV array, nor a boiler. I've been a big fan of building scientist John Straube for a long time. And equally as big of a fan, for just as long, of deep-energy engineer Marc Rosenbaum. To see the two of them... Read more

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October 20, 2009
>Insulating your water heater is a very effective way of reducing heat loss.

Last week I wrote about a high-tech solution for water heating--heat-pump water heaters that can cut costs by more than half compared to conventional electric water heating. This week, I'll address the low-tech efficiency side of water heating.

First, some... Read more

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October 16, 2009
The Boston Children's Museum expansion and renovation was designed to enhance the building's connections to its urban waterfront site, guided by a desire to build environmental education opportunities into the design. From the adaptive reuse of the onsite 19th-century wool warehouse and industrial site to the new graywater storage system and... Read more

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October 16, 2009
Robotics at the Trane factory In the Trane factory I took the last train into Clarksville, Tennessee this week (that will mean something to those with enough gray hair) to visit Trane's commercial HVAC equipment manufacturing plant. I was invited, along with a half-dozen other editors, to report on Trane's transition to an ozone-safe refrigerant... Read more

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October 13, 2009

When you can and when you cannot count one material as contributing to more than one credit in the Materials and Resources category of LEED has confused me for years. Even the LEED Reference Guide doesn't lay it out clearly. So, after sorting it out for LEEDuser, I thought laying it out in a table might help.

Multiple MR Points for the ... Read more

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October 13, 2009
The press release says, "Yosemite black bears select minivan as 'Car of the Year'": An article in the October 2009 issue of the Journal of Mammalogy examines the number of vehicles, by make and model, that black bears broke into from 2001 to 2007 in California's Yosemite National Park. In all years, minivans had the largest or second largest... Read more

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October 13, 2009
I received an email from a Design student at Kingston University (London) writing a dissertation on "why people are drawn to design inspired by nature." Three questions were sent; I went overboard answering the first one, and basically wussed out on the second two. I'd be interested in your takes on this highly subjective stuff, and will be sure... Read more

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October 12, 2009
The North Road Technologies Geyser heat pump water heater..

There's a revolution underway with electric water heating. It could be just as significant as the shift from top-loaders to horizontal-axis front-loaders that we've seen in the laundry appliance industry.

For years, electric water heaters were simply insulated tanks with a... Read more

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October 5, 2009
Alex and others from GreenBuildingAdvisor.com recently attended the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco -- the nation's largest green building conference and trade show focused exclusively on residential applications.

I'm writing this from San Francisco, where I've been at the West Coast Green Conference. This is the fourth year of... Read more

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October 5, 2009
We've received some comments about the recent decision to highlight the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation case study in our email bulletin. As the BuildingGreen case study manager, I chose to highlight this case study for one reason: many people have recently spent time in a synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The issue at hand here... Read more

Blog Post

October 1, 2009
Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time. Here's an unformatted, text-only version of the current bulletin: Free BuildingGreen Email News Bulletin — An overview... Read more

Blog Post

September 28, 2009
View BuildingGreen.com Campuses in a larger map Would you go to a liberal arts program that doesn't subscribe to JSTOR? No? Then why would you go to an architecture, green building, or sustainable business program that doesn't have BuildingGreen Suite? BuildingGreen Suite integrates online versions of GreenSpec product listings, high-quality... Read more

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September 28, 2009
When inspecting your heating system, recognize that some things you can do yourself, and others are best done by a professional.

Mechanical systems need to be tuned up periodically to keep them operating smoothly and efficiently. That's true with our cars, and it's true with our heating systems. If you haven't done so already, now is the time... Read more

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September 25, 2009
Social justice--it's a topic of conversation throughout the green building industry, but what does it mean, exactly? And how does it relate to buildings? I worked with the following definition while writing this month's feature article: Social justice ensures that all people have the ability to fulfill their basic needs and pursue social,... Read more

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September 25, 2009
If you've been working with LEED Online in the last, um, ever, you've probably noticed that it can be slow and buggy. And as the portal for certifying your LEED project, that can be a little frustrating. Then along came LEED 2009, part of the LEED v3 update that was supposed to include a new and improved LEED Online. Well, it turns out reality... Read more

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September 23, 2009
Over at The Last Straw blog, Jeff Ruppert has posted a review of Making Lime Mortars, the first of a four-disc tutorial offered by St. Astier Natural Limes. Perhaps the thing I like best about the review is that it doesn't get into the whole "Why use lime" conversation... it respectfully assumes that you already know. But in case you don't know,... Read more

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September 23, 2009

Architectural testing concern HTL will be at GlassBuild America shooting missiles at windows again. The demonstration/demolition follows the Miami-Dade large missile protocol by shooting 2x4s at impact-resistant and non-impact-resistant windows. A press release from HTL quotes NGA Industry Events Director Susan Jacob: "There is nothing quite... Read more