Archive for August, 2009

When it comes to green building, the first place we all go to is the sun. If you’re keen on building a green home, or are thinking of remodeling your home to make it eco friendly — shifting to solar energy for electricity needs is, today, the easiest and a high-impact way of going green. And we’d like to make it clear – it’s a misconception that solar or photovoltaic systems can work only in tropical areas with loads of sunlight. Switzerland, a country with temperate climate and lots of cloud cover (and let’s not forget all the snow) has the first and largest number of closed structures built by the passivhaus (Passive House) model, which uses only solar energy to fulfill the cooling, heating and lighting requirements of a home. And it may surprise you to know, solar energy systems (incl. the passivhaus standard) are most popular among Scandinavian countries. So there’s little reason why they should not work in our own Olympia.

A few other reasons why you should seriously consider shifting to solar energy:

1. Of all the renewable sources, solar energy is the easiest to generate on an individual or household level. While on a large scale commercial level, wind power or hydropower are cheaper sources than solar energy, Olympia does not have the average wind speeds needed to make wind power feasible, and hydropower would be too cumbersome.

2. Technological advancements and innovation are making solar panels more efficient, cheaper and feasible for use. Already, third generation solar cells (low price and high efficiency) are in the market and as market competition increases, manufacturers are trying hard to reduce prices. China plans to create solar power grids that will be able to supply power at just 10 cents per kWh and First Solar, a primary solar systems manufacturer stated that its costs in 2009 had gone down to 93 cents per watt and benefits of this would go directly to consumers.    

‘Green built’ certified is a blanket term used to refer to any building that has been built with the environment and ecology in mind, using environment-friendly materials, and with sustainability and energy efficiency at it’s core.  Essential a building or any structure that has been ‘green built’ is built to minimize the impact it has on the environment by taking measures to curb effects known to cause maximum damage to the environment.

In the US, however, ‘green built’ certification is a highly evolved rating system created and dispensed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It’s known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The LEED rating system developed by the USGBC is a sophisticated system that rates buildings (new and under-construction) on five main criteria that make the most impact on the environment. In order to achieve LEED certification, buildings need to score a minimum of 40+ points out of a possible 100. Depending on the type of building, each of the 5 criteria are given weighted points depending on how much impact they have on the environment, and the system clearly informs individuals on what measure to take to gain points. LEED certification is divided into 4 levels: Certified (40+), Silver (50+), Gold (60+), Platinum (80+). Individuals can do as much, or as little as they’d like.

To making building green easier, the USGBC provides LEED certified and trained construction professionals whose services individuals can solicit to help them understand the rating system, and meet its criteria with ease.  

While it began as an initiative of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)and the US Department of Energy (DoE), Energy Star is now a internationally recognized rating system for all energy efficient electronic appliances. Simply put – when an electronic appliance (any appliance) has the Energy Star logo, it has been certified to use energy efficiently, cutting down consumption by almost 20-30% than non-certified product and along with that, cutting down the bills of the consumer as well. In fact, according to recently released statistics, in the year 2008, Americans who purchased and used Energy Star certified products reduced their energy consumption and thus greenhouse gas emissions by a quantity that could be equivalent to emissions by 29 million cars AND saved $19 billion in utility bills.

Almost every popular electronic product – be it for consumer, industrial, commercial or peripheral use can and is certified by Energy Star, making it very easy for anyone to do their bit for the environment. Also, using Energy Star certified products is an easy way to gain some credits if you’re looking at getting your building LEED certified. So when you’re looking and remodeling or redevelopment of your home or property, going green becomes very easy with Energy Star. Just look for the logo on every piece of electronic equipment you buy. Also, the Energy Star website provides lots of resources and step by step guides on how to make your home energy-efficient without superhuman efforts.

Design-build is a method or system of managing and delivering a construction project, by which one single contractor will take care of both the designing and the building. The alternative to this system is the design-bid-build system by which the owner would have to contract separately for the design phase and then for the construction with two separate entities.

The design-build system holds one individual usually the architect or a contractor, as the central figure, responsible for overseeing the entire project. This has obvious advantages for the owner – he has to interact only with one individual, co-ordination is easier and time is better managed. The design-build contractor or firm will strive to streamline the entire process of designing (drawing up plans), construction planning, obtaining permits, etc. Because of this streamlining, activities can easily be overlapped – construction on parts can begin even while the designing is in process. At times, the main contractor may involve other organizations on the project with him, but in those cases too, the contractor will be the one dealing with them.

This overlapping offers flexibility to make changes to the design of the house, while construction is in process. With the popular design-bid-build system, this isn’t possible, since construction can begin only once the blue prints are finalized. Thus, for a home remodeling projects, wherein owners may want to try out different ideas the design-build system offers a lot of freedom.