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Green Building Inspector
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 Heating |
11 articles |
| Page 1 of 1 | Previous | Next | GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR MAY 16, 2011  Confusion & Complexity – Can Green Building Programs Be Simplified? Then we could include the actual energy use and calculate the energy intensity, even separating out baseload from the energy used for heating and cooling. know I have. Unfortunately, the programs all just keep going further and further down that path. Take the ENERGY STAR new homes program , for example, the one I’m most familiar with. get all that. | GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR MAY 12, 2011  Oversized AC, Screwed-up Manual J, ENERGY STAR HVAC Tirade! I’ve come to expect Manual J heating and cooling load calculations submitted along with the files to be less than perfect. If you take the sensible load and divide it by the total load (stick with me here – we’re almost there), you get what’s called the Sensible Heat Ratio, or SHR. Mostly, I accept them because they’re close enough. Lower is better.). | GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR MAY 11, 2011 Energy efficiency absorbs water Sourcing, moving, treating, heating, collecting, re-treating, and disposing of water consumes19 percent of California’s electricity, 30 percent of its natural gas, and 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually, according to a 2005 California Energy Commission report. Efforts have been underway for decades to conserve both energy and water, but never in concert. This is unfortunate because energy uses a lot of water and water uses a lot of energy. Two leading conservation organizations have set out to bring the efforts together. They have some hurdles to overcome. | GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR MAY 5, 2011 Energy Efficiency and the Annoying Guy Next Door d probably give up my lights, heat and air conditioning before my five acres of trees shielding me from others. This is significant because homes that share walls typically require less energy for heating and cooling. Who would have thought backyards would cause so much trouble for the North American energy industry? First came the NIMBYs, the not-in-my-backyard protesters who block power projects from being built near them. And now we have the GIMBBYs – the give-me-a-bigger-backyard homeowners who are unwittingly getting in the way of energy efficiency. | | | | | | | |
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 How to Choose a Company to Do a Home Energy Audit
Most homes use more energy for heating and cooling than for anything else, so assessing how well the heating and cooling systems are doing is vital. It’s one thing to heat or cool the air with high efficiency equipment, but if you put that high SEER air conditioner or high efficiency furnace on a crappy duct system , the money spent on the equipment is wasted. My two sisters-in-law have been in town the past few days, and one of them needs to get an energy audit for the home she and her husband recently bought in Seattle. Well, let’s dive in and take a look. MORE >> -
GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR | TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2011  No More “Damn Architects!” – The Case for Integrated Design
like infiltration and heat loss/gain ), offensive aesthetic and functional problems (e.g. In 1997, I was helping my parents design and build their home. Early on in the process, I had suggested that the house be built 25 feet back from where we originally had it planned, and that the fireplace be moved to the back side of the living room. We had already put the stakes in the ground and were ready to start digging for the foundation, but now we had to take the time to move them. Sarcastically, my mother said, “damn architects!&#. reputation of all those involved. MORE >> -
GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR | SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2009 energy efficient mortgage encentives on the increase
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GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR | MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2009 greening your wallet? consider an energy audit
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GREEN BUILDING INSPECTOR | FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010 Heating and Cooling System Care
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