Latest Posts
Air Sealing Doesn’t Just Happen
One of the biggest challenges in a high-performance building project is getting the air sealing right … and it doesn’t JUST HAPPEN. It has to be carefully designed and detailed in the construction documents. A number of architecture firms are doing a very good job at this, one outstanding example being Coldham & Hartman Architects [...]
Read More →ZNE Home Retrofitting Classes in San Diego
San Diego Gas & Electric will be hosting our 4-part class series on retrofitting existing homes to achieve deep energy reductions while targeting zero net energy. Here’s the schedule: May 9: Overview – yours truly (Ann Edminster) May 23: Mechanical Systems – Rick Chitwood May 30: Enclosure – Rick Chitwood + Gavin Healy June 6: [...]
Read More →Habitat X 2013 Summer National Conference
Come Join us at Habitat X Tuesday, July 30, through Friday, August 2, 2013 Just for HouseTalk readers, Super Early Bird registration has been extended until April 22nd. Trainer-par-excellence Chris Dorsi writes: The most common comment I hear from people who have attended the Habitat X Conferences is that the solid network of colleagues is the most [...]
Read More →Net-Zero Energy Summit, October 8-10, 2013
It is with great excitement that I announce, on behalf of the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition, that we are hosting the inaugural Net-Zero North American Leadership Summit this October in Irvine, California! Thanks to our early sponsors, US DOE and Southern California Edison, for their participation. The Summit is being held in conjunction with the [...]
Read More →Help Make Insulation Safer
Dear Green Building Enthusiasts, My dedicated friends and associates at the Safer Insulation Solution have forwarded the plea for support below. Please do what you can to help move this important initiative forward! We all want energy efficient buildings that are also fire safe and healthy for people and the environment. The [...]
Read More →Can Home Energy Efficiency Gain Traction?
Unfortunately, it’s just not simple to make our homes more efficient, both personally and as a society. Katherine Tweed reports in GreenTech Media Can Home Energy Efficiency Gain Traction? : Greentech Media.
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Help Make Insulation Safer
Dear Green Building Enthusiasts, My dedicated friends and associates at the Safer Insulation Solution have forwarded the plea for support below. Please do what you can to help move this important initiative forward! We all want energy efficient buildings that are also fire safe and healthy for people and the environment. The [...]
Read More →Your Gadgets Are Killing . . . Part 2
Yesterday I wrote about the fact that our gadgets and their chargers now use up more electricity, in USA homes, than heating and cooling! Alex Stadtner weighs in from another angle, presenting evidence — a lot of evidence — that they may also be harming us with the electromagnetic fields they generate. Those fields surround [...]
Read More →Your Gadgets Are Killing Home Efficiency Improvements
We are building tighter, more efficient homes — but using more juice keeping all the lights and devices charged and humming. Stephen Lacey spells this out in Greentech Media: Your Gadgets Are Killing Home Efficiency Improvements : Greentech Media.
Read More →a new view of concrete
Concrete is by far the most common material used by humankind for anything, excepting only water. And it gets villified in green building for its carbon footprint. But there’s more to the story. Here’s a longer view of how we make the artificial rock called “concrete”. 21st Century Concrete — a New Look
Read More →Towards A Hemp Architecture
One of the most promising natural building technologies — “natural” meaning minimally processed, low energy intensive materials — is hemcrete, a mixture of chopped hemp hurds and lime plaster. It can be pressed into blocks, or stuffed or sprayed into wall cavities, and provides excellent thermal insulation, thermal mass, and moisture durability. Check out this [...]
Read More →In the market for fridge+baby monitor?
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was reportedly chock-a-block, as always, with the latest and greatest (??) gadgets and gizmos. We spend a lot of time in our zero net energy classes talking about the rising significance of these devices (a.k.a. plug loads) in otherwise-efficient homes. The notion of combining functionality is admirable, and for years [...]
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Air Sealing Doesn’t Just Happen
One of the biggest challenges in a high-performance building project is getting the air sealing right … and it doesn’t JUST HAPPEN. It has to be carefully designed and detailed in the construction documents. A number of architecture firms are doing a very good job at this, one outstanding example being Coldham & Hartman Architects [...]
Read More →Virtual Net Metering for Multifamily Solar-Electric Systems
A couple of years back, frustrated by obstacles encountered to installing a large photovoltaic (PV) system at the Solara community, multifamily housing energy guru Nehemiah Stone (now with Benningfield Group) spearheaded a lobbying and education effort by a stakeholder coalition that resulted in the California state government enabling “virtual net metering.” This is a mechanism [...]
Read More →Net Zero & Net Zero Ready Certification from Earth Advantage
Earth Advantage Institute Offers First Energy Model-Based Net Zero & Net Zero Ready Certification in the U.S. Earth Advantage Institute, a Portland, OR-based nonprofit focused on designing tools for better buildings, announces that it has launched the first energy model-based net zero and net zero ready green home certifications in the country. This distinguishes it [...]
Read More →WalkScore Your Neighborhood
Gotta love WalkScore! This website has been around for a while, but keeps adding new features. Enter any address and get its pedestrian-friendliness rating. My neighborhood? “Car-dependent.” Now I can agree or disagree with this rating, Tweet it, post on Facebook, etc. Better still, I get a list of amenities in the area. Another feature [...]
Read More →Your Gadgets Are Killing . . . Part 2
Yesterday I wrote about the fact that our gadgets and their chargers now use up more electricity, in USA homes, than heating and cooling! Alex Stadtner weighs in from another angle, presenting evidence — a lot of evidence — that they may also be harming us with the electromagnetic fields they generate. Those fields surround [...]
Read More →Resilience: the best technology is not technology
Climate disruption. Floods, drought, fire and hurricane. Peak oil. Peak everything. There are massive, unprecedented changes under way around us, giving new meaning to the notion of “home” and “shelter”. Scientific consensus not only confirms that anthropogenic climate change is happening, but also that it’s too late to halt it. Even if we stopped emitting [...]
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ZNE Home Retrofitting Classes in San Diego
San Diego Gas & Electric will be hosting our 4-part class series on retrofitting existing homes to achieve deep energy reductions while targeting zero net energy. Here’s the schedule: May 9: Overview – yours truly (Ann Edminster) May 23: Mechanical Systems – Rick Chitwood May 30: Enclosure – Rick Chitwood + Gavin Healy June 6: [...]
Read More →Habitat X 2013 Summer National Conference
Come Join us at Habitat X Tuesday, July 30, through Friday, August 2, 2013 Just for HouseTalk readers, Super Early Bird registration has been extended until April 22nd. Trainer-par-excellence Chris Dorsi writes: The most common comment I hear from people who have attended the Habitat X Conferences is that the solid network of colleagues is the most [...]
Read More →Net-Zero Energy Summit, October 8-10, 2013
It is with great excitement that I announce, on behalf of the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition, that we are hosting the inaugural Net-Zero North American Leadership Summit this October in Irvine, California! Thanks to our early sponsors, US DOE and Southern California Edison, for their participation. The Summit is being held in conjunction with the [...]
Read More →Can Home Energy Efficiency Gain Traction?
Unfortunately, it’s just not simple to make our homes more efficient, both personally and as a society. Katherine Tweed reports in GreenTech Media Can Home Energy Efficiency Gain Traction? : Greentech Media.
Read More →This Army Camp Can Cut Soldier Energy Use by 75% : Greentech Media
We often think of the military as a stodgy, tradition-bound organization — not a thought leader. But very often they prove out the old adage “Necessity is the mother of invention”, as when they find themselves the biggest consumer of energy on Earth. Here’s one example of how they make skillful use of available clean [...]
Read More →Reuse & Salvage April Events
There are two upcoming events next month for salvage and reuse enthusiasts — luckily, on one each coast. First, the Reclaim & Remake Symposium: April 11-13 in Washington, DC, hosted by the Catholic University of America. Second, DECON ’13: April 29 – May 1 in Seattle, WA, hosted by the Building Materials Reuse Association. Both [...]
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Ann’s Kitchen Remodel
I’m all for longevity of finishes and not junking serviceable things before they’re shot, but I think 27 years is long enough to put up with ugly, cracked, avocado tile with hideous dark (and eroded) grout seams PLUS an equally horrid avocado sink. So now they’re gone. Hurray! Replaced by a white farmhouse sink (Villeroy [...]
Read More →Managing expectations: the 22½ rule
So, you think you’re going to beat the odds. You think you’re going to build that house or add that bedroom or remodel that kitchen for less than everyone else, because you’re smart, you’ve planned carefully, you got good advice, you were disciplined in choosing all that stuff you have to choose, all those fixtures [...]
Read More →A Better Way of Building
For high-performance home enthusiasts, Green Home Builder magazine’s holiday issue includes “A Better Way of Building” (page 42) an article in which I offer some observations about what high-performance project teams can do to pave the way to more effective collaboration and improved project outcomes. Also see page 46 for a story on the ABC [...]
Read More →“The Greenest Modern Home in the World”
When I was recently in Victoria, Canada, I had the pleasure of touring Ann and Gord Baird’s EcoSense home just outside of town. I was deeply impressed, as was Jason McLennan of the Living Building Challenge (and author of this blog’s title quote). Here are two lovely people who built their dream home — not [...]
Read More →ZNE Home Retrofit in Los Angeles
The Green Idea House is one family’s project to affordably retrofit their house into a net zero energy, zero carbon case study. Says homeowner Robert Fortunato, “The building has surpassed all our net zero energy, zero carbon goals, is a joy to be in and won the 2012 Green Leadership Award for Los Angeles County, [...]
Read More →a roll in the hay — a modern straw bale home
Straw bale buildings were first tried on the American plains 130 years ago, and have now spread all over the globe. Here’s a recent example from Dwell Magazine, featuring a Santa Cruz house by two of the best architects anywhere, David Arkin and Anni Tilt.
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Your Gadgets Are Killing Home Efficiency Improvements
We are building tighter, more efficient homes — but using more juice keeping all the lights and devices charged and humming. Stephen Lacey spells this out in Greentech Media: Your Gadgets Are Killing Home Efficiency Improvements : Greentech Media.
Read More →Build tight, ventilate right
You may have heard that before, but you can never hear it too often. Even here in warm,sunny California, just leaving the windows cracked is not a great strategy for the health of you or for your home. Here is a great post from my friend August Hasz in Colorado on the subject, lifted from [...]
Read More →Mulling over mold . . .
If you live in a bowl of mold food– which most of us do — you’re smart to keep it dry. Joe Lstiburek published this article in Fine Homebuilding some years ago, but it’s still completely timely and useful.
Read More →We Need To Do It Different This Time
You can’t overinsulate, right? Well . . . Joseph Lstiburek (pronounced STEE-brek, in case you’re curious) of Building Science Corporation, and the Lady Gaga of Building Science worldwide, offers a few thoughts on the unintended consequences of super-insulation.
Read More →Bad concrete, good concrete, green concrete
Make low-carbon concrete by limiting the cement content — not just adding pozzolans. Concrete is artificial rock that you make by mixing sand, gravel and a binder. Modern building codes require that a large part of that binder be Portland cement, a really fantastic binder that comes at a very, very high carbon cost — [...]
Read More →Why didn’t somebody TELL him?
As my colleague Ann Edminster likes to say, you don’t so much want “Integrative Design” as “Integrative Project Delivery”. This is one of several cabins I engineered for Siegel & Strain Architects for which we all wanted to use Optimum Value Framing. By carefully detailing each wall and opening, we could reduce lumber usage by [...]
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