Green Communities

If we let simple or even net-value payback analysis alone drive the economics of high-performance buildings, we might as well throw in the towel. It is truly crazy to apply just this approach to long-lived durable goods, such as homes.

Planning is an essential component to the new Energy Star Version 3. Not only is Energy Star Version 3 a component of the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, but it is also rapidly becoming the go-to energy performance standard for most federal and local funding sources.

“Rail-Volution.” The first time I heard the made-up word, I giggled and immediately had to know what it meant.

Well, I quickly found out: it is an annual conference focusing on building livable transit communities. In the interest of full disclosure, I did not attend this year’s conference, nor have I ever been. And, I admit that I fell in love with Portland before I had ever been there because I had studied its transit system in grad school and am outright obsessed with Portland now that I have actually experienced their transit.

In a past blog (“Return to Sender – HVAC Return Pathway Options”), a posted comment by GBAdvisor Mike Guertin introduced a new option for returning delivered air from rooms with closed doors, the Tamarack Technologies Perfect Balance. Perfect Balance is a grille and filter system installed into a cutout at the bottom of interior doors.

Recently, I have been able to work with the director of Enterprise Green Communities, Trisha Miller, on some local policy conversations. I think I have been roped in because of my extensive work with the public realm through NSP.

Are we really ready to say goodbye to incandescent light bulbs? The ones that give off 10% light and 90% heat? The ones with the shortest life span? The ones that have the lowest initial price, don’t flicker, are always instant on-instant off, and give off the “right” color and quality of light? Not so fast and not so easy…

We have been here before: 2- and 4-pin CFL fixtures!

Both closed- and open-cell spray foams are used widely to improve the thermal performance of existing homes. Installed properly, it’s hard to beat spray foam’s contribution to air tightness and R-value. But we need to keep our eyes on three important issues: quality installation, worker protection during installation, and safe re-entry times.

How spray foams work

Hello, Green NSP World. I saw this post on the larger Enterprise Community Partners blog by Ray Demers @the horizon and thought you would enjoy it! - Amy

Charrettes as a simpler fix

My associate Abe Kruger and I are the green raters on a set of 18 affordable townhomes currently under construction for the Chattanooga, Tennessee Housing Authority. We were brought in after design and specifications were complete, so we did not have as much influence on the project as we would have liked. Regardless, it is a good project with a very involved and cooperative team. With this in mind we hopped in my car for the two-hour drive up I-75 recently for the first pre-drywall inspection.

By Kim Stands

In 2009, the City of Columbus and Franklin County created and adopted the AWARE Manual (Accessibility, Water Conservation, Air Quality, Resource Conscious, Energy-Efficient) to be the performance standard for federally funded residential projects in both jurisdictions.