Championing the
Changemakers

To function properly, any ducted HRV has to be balanced after installation Barry Stephens measuring the airflow through a ceiling register of our HRV.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

 

After choosing and installing our state-of-the-art heat-recovery ventilator (HRV), we completed a critical step in the installation of any... Read more

Predicting performance and rationally selecting window coverings—from awnings to films to cellular shades—is incredibly challenging, but real help is on the way.

There is a lot of interest in just how much (and at how low a price point) window coverings can improve building thermal performance.

Both the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)... Read more

Balanced ventilation requires two fans: one bringing fresh air into the house and one exhausting indoor air (see 6 Ways to Ventilate Your Home). By balancing these two fans and the airflow through their respective ducts, the house is maintained at a neutral pressure—which is important for avoiding moisture problems or pulling in radon and... Read more

One of the features in our new house that I’m most excited about barely raises an eyebrow with some of our visitors: the ventilation system. I believe we have the highest-efficiency heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) on the market—or at least it’s right up there near the top.

Why ventilate?

... Read more

Testing the limits of the air-source heat pump in our new house with this cold weather The interior unit of our Mitubishi air-source heat pump. Click photos to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

 

It’s been pretty chilly outside. A number of people have asked me how our air-source heat pump is making out in the cold... Read more

With a new group of online BAC courses starting this week, I’m reminded of the benefits of learning—and teaching—from home. San Francisco Bay Area traffic. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Getty Images

Truth be told, I was slow warming up to online instruction. Ten years ago, in early 2004, BuildingGreen was approached... Read more

Workers entering the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in 2006.Photo Credit: Isaac Breekken, AP

 

With nowhere on land to turn, we should look under the seabed for places to bury high-level nuclear waste

For more than 30 years the nuclear industry in the U.S. and nuclear regulators have been going down... Read more

Cold weather, when wood stoves are cranked up and portable electric space heaters are brought out of the basement and plugged in, is when most house fires occur Enjoying a wood stove on a cold winter day.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

The morning paper had yet another story about a destructive house fire—fortunately no... Read more

Six items on my policy wish-list for 2014 and beyond. Safe bicycle commuting and walking is high on my wish list for 2014.Photo Credit: Yuba Cargo Bikes

It's fun for me to dream about stuff—building products and materials—and how we can make that stuff greener. I recently wrote about 7 wish-list items for greener... Read more

I spend a lot of time writing about innovations in the building industry—the cool stuff that’s coming out all the time. But I also like to think about what’s needed: stuff that’s not (yet) on the market or performance levels not yet available.

1) Rigid insulation with no flame retardants and insignificant global warming... Read more

Can we replace foam insulation? What does energy modeling really tell us? Find out what you, our readers, have picked as this year’s top 10 stories!

Our resident number-crunchers have spent hours slaving over metrics to bring you … your own most-read BuildingGreen stories of the year. Ta-da!

We just have to say, you guys have great taste... Read more

Are we going to find the same NIMBY opposition to larger solar systems that we’re experiencing today with wind farms?  The 197 kW solar array at Logan Airport in Boston—on the top level of the Terminal B parking garage. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

When the economy-of-scale with wind power led to larger... Read more

Beacon Power pushing the envelope and creating a more resilient utility grid with large-scale flywheel power storage Schematic of Beacon Power's Energy Smart 25 flywheel.Photo Credit: Beacon Power

After I wrote last week about a company developing power grid electrical storage systems using lithium-ion battery... Read more

A recent memo hints that the Department of Defense will accept Green Globes certification for buildings—but that was already the case.

It started with a press release from the Green Building Initiative, developer of the online Green Globes tool—“Department of Defense Recognizes Green Globes for Assessing Building Sustainability”—and it spread... Read more

I should have known I was in for something unexpected when I walked into this year’s Greenbuild session on “biophilia”—humans’ love of living things—in a dark, windowless auditorium.

The irony of the setting was not lost on the four presenters of “Biophilia; Moving from Theory to Reality.” Amanda Sturgeon, vice president of the Living... Read more

Solar Grid Storage is at the forefront of efforts to use renewable energy to create a more resilient utility grid  The PowerFactor250 from Solar Grid Storage. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Solar Grid Storage

Last week I reported on The Navy Yard in Philadelphia, a remarkable 1,200-acre business campus with 300 companies... Read more

Philadelphia’s Navy Yard is achieving robust economic development while demonstrating a wide variety of energy innovations One of the restored, historic buildings at The Navy Yard that serves Urban Outfitters.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

I’m just back from Philadelphia, where I spent most of last week at Greenbuild, the... Read more

Producing ethanol from corn is a bad idea not only because of the poor energy return on investment (EROI), but also because of the impact it is having on ecosystems in the Midwest Production of ethanol has dramatically increased acreage devoted to corn in the Midwest.Photo Credit: Lynn Betts, USDA-NRCS

Corn-based... Read more

For insulating our buildings, vacuum insulation panels may not be cost-effective, but they will become common in other applications Microtherm's vacuum insulation panel, with a microporous substrate covered with an impermeable aluminum skin. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Microtherm

I’ve recently worked on revising the... Read more

 

Recent BuildingGreen resources give a pretty good picture of just what building enclosure commissioning (BECx) is and how its use is on the rise in high-performance buildings. But a logical follow-up question I get asked a lot is: how can I get the necessary education to become proficient in BECx—or actually get credentialed or certified as... Read more