DIY Green Home Improvement » Energy Efficient

LED Lighting, It it Ready Yet?

rcovington — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:34:54 +0000

Yes, oil has dropped 50% in the last year natural gas has been more than cut in half in the last year, so your electric bill will go down…right? I would not count on it and given the political situation in the world today, you must consider the impact your new home or home improvement will have on energy consumption. There is also the

LED GU-10 Lightbulb

possibility you may face large increases in your electric bill if Cap & Trade passes into law. LED lighting is fast becoming a viable option for you to consider in the design phase for your house. LED’s have a solid history of performance in commercial applications. Most traffic signals incorporate LED’s. The typical traffic light will contain 196 LED’s and will draw 10 watts. To produce the same light requirement with incandescent lights would consume 150 watts. Replacing all 260,000 U.S. traffic signals now using incandescent would reduce electrical consumption by 2.5 billion kWh annually. This is just the tip of the iceberg of savings in this one example. Maintaining the incandescent light bulbs in all these traffic signals is far more expensive than the electrical consumption. With and average life of 2,000 hours, a typical signal will have to have the bulbs changed at least 4 times a year. Some LED’s will last 15-20 years. The cost savings from the reduced replacement cycle should justify the cost of replacing the existing bulbs, even with a unit cost for LED’s which runs 50-60 times that of an incandescent bulb. But the savings do not end here. If LED’s started to replace lighting in the broader scope of lighting both residential we would see savings from the reduced need to build new power plants, reduced emission from reduced power requirements for the plants to produce, reduced recycling cost to process the burned out fluorescent and incandescent bulbs and a host of other energy and economic impacts attendant to lighting. They could also solve the dilemma of Mercury in CFL that we al face with the demise of incandescent bulbs slated to occur in 2012. The cost of LED’s is coming down as their use spreads. To date the light output and the color rendition have been the main inhibitors to seeing them spread to general lighting purposes. Both of these issues are finding solutions through research and development. There are lighting solutions for the home now available for residential applications. Quasar makes a fairly broad line of LED light solutions that will work for your home lighting needs. Even if you investigate them and decide they are not right for you, it appears that the industry is looking to make the transition easy once the light source gains greater acceptance. In the mean time, you should look at the possibility of using these in your new home. The benefits are very attractive for the investment. Just imagine if you did not have to change a light bulb for 20 years.

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Evaluating The Installation Of A Solar Power System On Your Home

rcovington — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:22:18 +0000

The decision to install a solar powers system is necessarily open to a great deal of work on your part to determine the economic feasibility and payback period. There is no doubt that a photovoltaic system is quickly becoming a viable method of generating a relatively significant percentage of your power demand. However, the capital costs of such a system are themselves, not insignificant.

In many states there are tax credits and incentives, both public and private to defray the cost. Tracking them down can be difficult. There are a few tools now available to help you do some intial analysis of the costs and benefits in order to establish a preliminary basis for you to advance your search for the answer. One is the Petersen Dean Solar Calculator.

The Petersen Dean Calculator (click the button below to access) factors in location, electric rates and most importantly, know Federal and State incentives and grants to derive a payback, internal rate of return and the impact to home value. to present a rather detailed consideration for you to start from.

Beware still, you need to do plenty more homework in order to make a well-informed decision. There will be many other places for you to investigate and some leg-work to confirm that some of the assumptions in the calculator (Availability of incentives and grants) are still valid. For a free download on evaluating a solar installation for your home see the “Downloads” page. The downloads are free to registered users. You may register on the downloads page or in the “Admin” widget box in the sidebar to the right.

Some may even be interested in building their own solar system. It is becoming more feasible with leaps in the technology. For more information of a technical nature on Photovoltaics see “The Energy Blog“.

Build Your Own Solar System

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Aleutia Pocket Desktop PC Uses Just 8 Watts Of Power | Green Technology

rcovington — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:10:47 +0000

The Aleutia E2 is a small form factor Pocket Desktop PC that runs on a 5 VDC power supply and weighs just over a pound. Capable of running Linux and Windows XP, the systems is a perfect, small, lightweight devise perfect for websurfing and e-mail. It will also cut power consumption over a traditional desktop by about 85%.

You can get more information here.

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Icynene Insulation – Full Seal Against Air Infiltration

rcovington — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:42:39 +0000

Icynene Sprayed Foam Insulation

One of the important considerations in the the design and construction of your new home is considering the insulation system and its impact on other systems in the home. There are a few different forms of insulation, the more common ones:

Fiberglass Batt
Recycled Denim
Blown Cellulose
Blown Icynene

Green Aspects Of Sprayed Icynene Foam Insulation

Each has different benefits and features and we are going to concentrate here on Blown Icynene. Icynene is a chemical, sprayed in a water base, that adheres to most anything that it touches like glue and also quickly expands to a volume around 100 times the sprayed liquid. The chemicals are considered safe and non-toxic. Because the chemicals are non-toxic and the superior insulating qualities of the system, it clearly supports green building objectives. while it is not a typical DIY project due to the very specialized and expensive equipment required to install the product, it is well worth your consideration in either your new home, or now, as a retrofit in your attic. There are vendors now that sell the systems in pressurized tanks that make a DIY project feasible. One such vendor is Tiger Foam.

They tout a rather unique approach to using a hybrid of Icynene and fiberglass batt to give a reduced cost method of insulating with the installation of a R-13 layer of fiberglass batt over a 1″ layer of Icynene which seals the cavity against air-infiltration while the fiberglass offers. I have not been able to fnd any figures on what the savings may be or if this alternative is not as energy efficient as an all foam cavity. You will have to investigate this yourself. Here is a video:

Traditional Icynene Installation

Icynene rises, much like bread dough, to fill the void completely, fill in around concealed pipes and wires, seal all air cracks and provide a solid air barrier and excellent insulator. The material itself is somewhat like styrofoam in its properties. The net result is a quiet, air leak free wall assembly that can make your home more comfortable, quiter and more energy efficient. The reduced air infiltration makes a very significant difference in the energy efficiency of the home.

This video explains the process and many of the benefits:

Other Benefits Of Icynene Sprayed Foam Insulation

Some of the other benefits that you will get with Icynene that you will not get with fiberglass are:

reduced dust infiltration (better if you have allergies).
Superior insulation and sound deadening of the underneath of floors.
Elimination of cracks though which insects can enter.
Higher energy savings.

The major downside is cost. The installed cost of Icynene is about 3 times that of fiberglass batt. In general though, the increased energy efficiency will pay this back in about 4-5 years. This is especially true if you you live in Energy Star zones 2 or 3 and have your HVAC unit in the attic and insulate the bottom of the roof deck. If you do this, your installed HVAC plant can be sized smaller and work more efficiently to heat and cool your house.

Reduced Loads On HVAC Systems

It is becoming quite common now to insulate the bottom of the roof deck. That means the space in which your HVAC system resides, that previously that would get to 140-150 degrees in the summer, is now 80-90 degrees. This means the HVAC unit works less often and will last longer.

R-Value

While Icynene in and of itself, does not enhance R-Value over other forms of insulation. It’s real benefit lies in the reduction of air infiltration, which is responsible for up to 40% of the heat gain or loss in a home.

93% of conductive heat flow is already stopped by R-13 insulation. Upgrading from R-13 to R-40 reduces conductive heat flow by only another 5%. (Source: U.S. Department of Energy).

Icynene^® delivers ideal R-value and air-sealing in one step, helping you address the most significant source of energy loss so you can take energy performance beyond R-value.

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Vinyl Windows, Top Value And Performance That Support Green Building Objectives

rcovington — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:46:55 +0000

Vinyl Windows offer the lowest cost to performance ratio of the the three major types of windows. Vinyl has a low co-efficient of thermal transmission relative to Aluminum and while they are closer, a properly designed vinyl window (with multi-chambered extrusion) will reduce the amount of cold transmitted through to the interior of the home.

Multi Chamber Profiles

Multi Chambered Vinyl Window

Multi chamber profiles create an insulation barrier of air that reduces the transmission of cold to heat. The optimal window profiles use two and preferably three chambers between interior and exterior faces. The multi-chambered profiles also increase the strength of the profile tremendously over a solid extrusion by increasing the surface of welded seam.

A typical welded profile will yield between 9 & 20 inches of welded seam. Some multi-chambered designs offer as much as 25 inches of frame and 14 inches of sash weld seam. This results in a weld that is stronger than the extrusion itself. Some manufacturers used to offer windows with mechanically fastened corners instead of welded. These would invariably separate early and begin a freeze-thaw attack or heat induced expansion that would shorten the life of the window and reduce its thermal performance. Avoid any mechanically fastened or glued corners. Always opt for a multi-chambered , welded corner window.

Colors In Vinyl Windows

Initially, vinyl windows were offered only in offered in white. This was to keep the cost down, but it was also to prevent obviating the issue of fading and color degradation. Over time, white PVC will become yellowish with age. Some extrusion manufacturers counter this by adding some blueish color to the polymers to balance this out. If you are driving around, and see some vinyl windows with a sickly looking yellow cast these were probably lower cost extrusions and you will see the result.
Additionally, the UV is the light spectrum most affecting the color degradation so the higher your altitude, the faster the process of color degradation will occur as UV at altitude is unfiltered. Some manufacturers now offer a rage of colors including darker browns. Be very wary of darker colors, especially at higher altitudes (Rocky Mountain Regions) as you will likely see a rather quick degradation of the color. There just is not a long enough history with darker colors under longer term exposure to intense UV. PVC formulations are improving, but more time is need to judge the effectiveness of the color imparting materials before taking the plunge.
That said, I have seen some beige colors under service for several years in the Colorado region that seem to be holding up quite well. One final caveat, PVC is subject to becoming brittle under long term exposure to high heat as in a desert environment. In these areas it is critical that you get a high quality, multi-chambered extrusion to counter the effects of long periods of exposure to high heat.

Maintenance of Vinyl Windows

The most attractive feature of vinyl windows is their low maintenance. Vinyl windows do not require any exterior maintenance other than washing. Do not paint them; ever, the chemicals in the paint will likely reduce their longevity…and your neighbors will want you drug-tested.
All in all, vinyl windows are a tremendous value. I have had aluminum windows, wood windows and vinyl and I preferred the vinyl windows. It is of course a matter of choice and budget.

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Concrete – Green Building Material?

rcovington — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:30:44 +0000

Many people have a negative view of concrete as a building material that supports green building objectives. It is true that concrete does take a lot of energy to produce and transport (to smaller sites where on-site batching is not feasible). Concrete does consume water during the manufacturing process. But those are narrow views that do not hold up under critical examination.

LEED sustainable design principles have five disciplinary focuses:

Sustainable sites
Water efficiency
Energy and atmosphere
Materials and resources
Indoor environmental quality

Concrete is recognized as a green building material in terms of qualification under LEED certification principles. The five ways that concrete can help support green building objectives:

This is a video that explains how concrete fits these principles:

Concrete creates sustainable sites.
Concrete enhances energy performance.
Concrete contains recycled materials.
Concrete is manufactured locally.
Concrete builds durable structures.

For residential construction, the main guiding principle for design over the last 60 years has been on affordability. Trying to match the overall cost to produce the home to the ability of the local market’s economic base to afford the home.

This led to design decisions solely focused on initial costs that did not account for life cycle analysis that would dictate different decisions if the installed and operating and maintenance costs were analyzed over a specific life cycle. If fact, not one has ever sat down and really focused on what is a reasonable economic life cycle to build to when it comes to residential structures for the mass market.

There have been some studies, but the market has never really focused on this previously in establishing a target sustainability for building homes to. The focus has been on costs, profit to the developer, profit to the builder and profit to the financing entity. to be fair, there are so many layered costs dictated by housing regulation, that has made it almost an impossibility to make these considerations very high in priority. Part of that is attributable to the structure of regulations that deal with the development of housing for the larger market.

But, getting back to concrete. Because it creates very durable structures, first and foremost, lands it in the sustainable category. It would be hard to argue that building a home that lasts 2-300 years is not worth the expenditure of resources required to build that home. Properly built and maintained, this is definitely an achievable goal, we have examples all over the United States and Europe towards this end. One thing about concrete is that it is not a very friendly DIY material to work with. The skills, and equipment necessary typically exclude it as a DIY project.

Next, final production of concrete occurs close to the site of installation, again this is in conformance with LEED principles. Concrete can also contain recycled concrete as an aggregate although there are greater opportunities to expand this practice. The highest profile example of large scale concrete recycling back into a redevelopment occurred in the late 90’s and early part of this decade in the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport from the main airport in Denver into an urban mixed use suburb. All of the concrete from the runways was recycled back into this and other construction projects in the Denver urban landscape.

To be sure, there are new technologies and ways of thinking, such as precast panels used as basement walls.

Precast Concrete Basement Walls

So analyzing concrete as a sustainable material is perfectly valid and in the case of residential foundations and homes built in high-risk areas (Florida and coastal hurricane zones) certainly support green building objectives. There is no currently available material that can offer the durability of concrete under the stresses of soils that are subject to expansion forces that can destroy a foundation. Building a foundation that can be viable for 2-400 years allowing the recycling of the basement over that lifespan, further establishes the viability of concrete as a green building material.

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Coming Changes To Building Codes and Energy Codes

rcovington — Sun, 31 May 2009 10:39:10 +0000

Photovoltaic Shingles

Massive changes are coming to an energy code near you. Under a Federal Law under consideration in the Congress (H.R. 6279). The law requires the model energy codes establish minimum targets of increases in energy efficiency as mandates of the Federal government on the order of :

30 percent in editions of each model code or standard released in or after 2010
50 percent in editions of each model code or standard released in or after 2020.

The law also mandates that if the body that governs the IECC model energy code that is the basis of almost all energy codes in the various states do not achieve these goals, the Secretary of Energy is commanded (within 12 months) to institute a Federal energy code that achieves the mandates. The law will have the effect long term of mandating that all new buildings have solar panels, photovoltaics or wind turbines installed on all new construction.

The law will also mandate the enforcement of the new mandates on states could risk the loss of Federal funds. It also does not fully fund the regulations and structure to oversee all the enforcement that will occur under this law.

Funding shall be considered adequate, for purposes of this paragraph, when the Federal Government provides to the States at least $50,000,000 in a year in funding and support for development and implementation of State building energy codes, including for training and enforcement.

Of course, the problem with all this is that what is good for one area of the country is not good for another, but the imposition of Federal regulations on issues that are local in nature many times distorts the solutions and results and brings massive inefficiency to the markets. The other problem, it adds costs to the system that will in all probability far exceed the laudable goals.

There are provisions in the code that will make it necessary for all new “buildings” to consume “zero net energy”, by the year 2050. Well this will be enormously expensive to attain. If they include residences in this provision, imagine the cost of adding solar and wind systems and what that will do to the cost of building that home. It will exclude many first time home buyers from being able to purchase or build their own home and will drive rents up dramatically.

You should get educated about this bill. It will start to have an immediate impact in the next 2-4 years. It couls cost you personally and it is not necessarily the best method to move the country towards energy efficiency. In fact there is no technology that gets us to these goals without dramatically higher costs of energy. This bill is more about a stealth method of impsoing limits on green house gasses than it is about energy efficiency.

Solar, Photovoltaic, Wind and other methods of generation that are available to make a new building “zero net energy” have not reached the stage where they can fill this role in an economically efficient manner. The reason we do not have them in place in a massive way is that the market is waiting for the economics to change for that to take place. No amount of government intervention can force that to change. Only massive investment in the technologies and adoption that brings economies of scale that lowers the cost of these technologies can do this. Otherwise we could end up with massiv energy inflation along the lines like we have seen sscoiated with food and corn ethanol. This is the example we must all consider when moving down this road.

There are other methods of moving forward towards these goals. The better approach would be to embody incentives towards the investment in these technologies. Tax credits and other mechanisms, modulate investment into technology in a market efficient manner and avoid the kinds of distrotion you see with mechanisms like mandates and regulation.

Expanding the credit for Solar generating systems will do more towards these goals. Adding a credit for the installation of wind turbines and establishing a registry for manufacturers to concentrate information on available systems would increase the use of this technology. There is a serious shortfall on readily accessible information on wind generation systems and there is apparently a lack of independent independent research and ratings for systems that consumers like to see before committing to such a large investment. There will also have to be a change of heart in zoning commissions and HOA committees to allow expanded use of Solar Panels, Wind Turbines and Photovoltaic. This is one area that Federal Legislation could be of benefit in supporting and expanding investment in these technologies.

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ICF – Insulated Concrete Forms Structural Systems

rcovington — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:23:26 +0000

Insulated Concrete Forms are a modular structural building system that mimics the Lego concept of pieces that fit together to make a larger structure. The forms are made of either Expanded Polystyrene or Urethane based products. By themselves they will not burn, have been found non-toxic and emit no gasses in place.

Typical Properties of Plastic Foams

	PS	XPS	Polyurethane	Composite
Density (lbs/cu ft)	1.35-1.80	1.60-1.80	2.00	21
R-value per inch	4.17-4.35	5.00	5.90	3.00
Compressive strength (psi)	15-33	25-40	30	72
Tensile strength (psi)	18-27	45-75	30	42
Water absorption (%)	<3.0	<0.3	2.0	NA
Retail cost ($/bd ft)	.17	.35	.70	NA

Source: Insulating Concrete Forms Association

As part of a system, there are provisions made to support the rebar necessary to hold the concrete together after the pour and to support the attachment of siding and interior drywall for direct attachment of these finishes to the system. Many times, the exterior finish will be a troweled on stucco type finish that will add additional fire resistance to the structure. As the structure is reinforced, solid concrete, the structures have a high resistance to windstorms (hurricane and tornado) and to seismic events. The structure is also fire resistant.

Insulated Concrete Forms Efficiency

Since the systems are engineered, they tend to maximize the efficiency of the concrete needed to support a residential structure and eliminate to typical overuse of concrete for the limited loads involved. A standard formed concrete foundation will have a full 6″ thickness of concrete wall where as an ICF will have 4″-12″ of solid concrete depending on the load you need to engineer for, but you can select that which maximizes the resources for the needs of your specific project.

In addition to having excellent strength characteristics, the insulating qualities of the foam and the solid, construction reduce air infiltration to minimal levels increasing the energy efficiency of the system. The structures also are impervious to attack from insects or mold and are much quieter in urban environments. There is much to recommend them.

Insulated Concrete Forms As a DIY Project

ICF With Corbel

While Insulated Concrete Forms are a project you may undertake as a DIY home building project, get well educated in advance. Because they are the core structure, there is no room for mistakes in planning, and construction of the system so you need to take advantage of all the expert advice you can find from ICF manufacturers and ICF contractors. You would be well advised to hire a professional ICF contractor if you have any doubts as to your ability to do this project, make sure at a minimum that you hire a qualified Engineer or ICF contractor to consult with and most importantly to inspect the forms before you pour the concrete. In many jurisdictions you may be required to have a licensed Engineer inspect the forms before the pour anyway. Spending a few hundred dollars for expert advice could save you thousands of dollars down the road.

The ICF forms are lightweight and assemble like blocks or are sheets that are tied together with pre-designed form ties. The blocks may be simpler for the DIY home builder while the sheet systems can be faster and offer a cleaner surface to stucco over. The system you select will determine the overall complexity.

All of the systems rely on steel reinforcement to tie the structure together, add tensile strength and to distribute temperature stresses throughout the wall. In very cold climes, often times you will see another wall re-framed to the interior to increase the available cavity for adding to overall u-value with sprayed in Icynene foam or standard fiberglass batts and to proved access to install mechanical and electrical systems. Additionally, ICF structure act as a heat sink in the winter, storing heat energy. and can act as a barrier to the transmission of heat energy in the summer months.

Green Aspects of Insulated Concrete Forms

There is some controversy over whether or not concrete supports green building objectives because of the energy intensive nature of its production. But ICF’s have been recognized for LEED points on the basis of their insulating capability and when fly ash is used in the concrete they are an excellent example of recycling waste to produce a high strength structure with maximum durability, another LEED characteristic. The structure will last a long time, with lower maintenance costs, reducing future impacts to the environment from having to rebuild the building say 100 years hence.

This system is becoming very popular here in Florida for their Resistance to storms, fire and for their superior thermal performance compared to CMU. They are certainly a very viable system for you to consider for your DIY home building project.

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