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WHAT IS A HOUSE AS VIEWED BY A GREEN BUILDER
A house is a SYSTEM
WHAT IS THE WHOLE HOUSE APPROACH?
The Whole House Approach considers each system within the house in relation to every other system in the house in order to build an EFFICENT more COMFORTABLE, SAFER and more SUSTAINABLE home.
What does Green Building aim to do?
Green building incorporates environmental considerations and resource efficiency into every phase of land development and home building processes to minimize the environmental impact.
What are areas that green building focuses on?
Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Water Conservation and Site and Community Impact. All of these areas are cross referenced against the following: High Performance Building Envelope & Systems, Mechanicals, Natural Light & Ventilation, Finishes & Trim, Waste Management, Outdoor & Site, Education & Innovation.
What is Thomas Flynn Construction and Flynn High Performance Building doing to lower their carbon footprint and to contribute to sustainability? Click here to find out.
WHAT IS A BLOWER DOOR?
It is a tool used to determine the amount of air leakage (air/energy leakage or air infiltration) through a building and/or HVAC duct work. It can also see if air exchange rate is sufficient to remove voc's from living space and bring in sufficient fresh air.
WHAT IS THERMAL (INFRARED) IMAGING? It is a tool used to x-ray walls and show a picture in different colors depending on temperature of various parts. It can be used to see where energy is leaking out of a building due to voids in insulation or holes not visible in walls. Usually, used just after a blower door test.
HOW DO YOU MEASURE HOME PERFORMANCE?
Blower door tests and thermal imaging are great ways to start measuring a buildings energy performance. Especially HVAC systems, insulation and air leaks in building envelope. Lower or zero utility bills compared to similar buildings can be also measured. Green commercial building performance can be measured by fewer days of worker absenteeism, higher employee productivity. Students in green schools may have fewer visits to school nurse for allergies and depression.
What if Gore is wrong about CO2?
At sustainable conferences I attended in Fall 2008' the concern had changed from whether Gore was wrong about Co2 as a cause of global warming to; the effects of climate change are coming much faster and sooner than estimated by Gore at the time Inconvenient Truth was released.
Other than the obvious, fossil fuels are in finite supplies and insufficient quantities to be a long term solution. I believe that if global warming and insufficient reserves were not a fact, there would still appear to be sufficient reasons for converting to clean renewable energy sources prior to the CO2 alarm.
Some of these reasons are smog, lung cancer rates, asthma etc. But apparently, it takes global climate change combined with escalating energy costs to get people to do something that has a lower impact to the our ecosystem. If we follow Gore's suggestion and stop burning fossil fuels and start using wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, wind etc. to save the planet from global warming, and later find out Gore was wrong. Where's the down side? By reducing CO2 we also reduce of all the pollutants that are a by product of burning fossil fuels such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury to name a few. By transitioning to renewable energy now 2008, before fossil fuels are exhausted. We can leave some of these resources for our descendants. Our descendants, your kids, grand children and great grand children will inherit cleaner air and purer water for them to play in and grow with in a more sustainable way than we did.
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF Federal Incentives for Investment Tax Credits for renewable energy? On Oct 3, 2008 the bill was finally passed to extend federal incentives for 8 years as an seamless extension of the existing incentives. Solar Electric Cap of $2000 on residential has been lifted up to 30% of installed cost. The new bill is more favorable to applicants that might have triggered a negative impact as Alternative Minimum Tax liabilities by accepting federal incentives. This cap of $2000 was not lifted on solar thermal leaving the $2000 as the maximum incentive for solar thermal residential. We keep up to date on these changes, so call us to evaluate your eligibility.
What additional incentives are available for residential Solar PV(Electric) in MA?
There are a lot of state Solar Photovoltaic (Electric) incentives available in MA. Amount of incentives are awarded per watt and varies depending if gross house hold income, accessed property values and amount of energy you consume.
How to do calculate the size of the solar PV or Thermal System I need? Calculations are different even if houses are the same size. We would be happy to assist you in determining how to lower your energy load, evaluate site for solar potential and to determine your eligibility for rebates, tax credits.
HOW CAN I IDENTIFY HOUSES UNDER CONSTRUCTION THAT ARE NEITHER ENERGY EFFICIENT OR RESOURCE EFFICENT( NOT HIGH PERFORMANCE HOMES). A 2"X4" or even, 2"x6" frame, 16" on center is a dead give away. Fiberglass batt insulation is another sign. Bear in mind those houses may be built to the most recent building code standard. The builder may have a great reputation for traditional home building. However, the minimum energy standard of a high performance home can be up to double the code R values of a conventional home. If the builder has not invested the time to become educated in the green or high performance home building techniques. Then your house will be obsolete before it is built.
Current building codes do not address resource efficiencies to save lumber (trees & all the resources & energy to grow, harvest, haul, mill, transport lumber or energy used to dispose of wasted lumber etc.). Building codes do not address if a forest was clear cut to get all those 2x4's for your dream home. Certified green contractor's address all these issues even though builders are not required to do so by law. Then independent third party contractors verify's that the green contractor work and where the products came from and how they were harvested or manufactured.
WHY CONSIDER ADVANCED FRAMING OR STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANELS (SIPS)?
Advanced framing can reduce lumber use by up to 30% over conventional 2x4 framing methods and increase energy efficiency. SIPS can eliminate most of the lumber and are even more energy efficient than Advanced Frames.
Why are leading edge builders and remodelers involved in green building?
Buildings consume a tremendous amount of resources from land to all the parts that go into creating a building, plus post construction resource consumption in terms for furnishings, operation (electricity, oil, gas, water etc), and their repair and maintenance, grounds maintenance fertilizers, chemicals and water. Therefore, builders and remodelers are in the position to have the greatest impact on the environment, resource efficiency, and energy use. For example: when you hire a builder to build house, addition or commercial building conventional builders use up to 30% more lumber than a green builder. The conventionally framed house will also require many times more energy to heat and cool in its lifetime than a green building. If the conventional builder does not verify where the 2"x4"s etc.come from, forests may have been clear cut to build your dream home. Resulting in soil erosion and flooding down hill from the forest. Green builders will only buy wood from forests rated by a third party for responsible environmental stewardship such as FSC http://www.fsc.org/. These are just two parts of a building where knowledgeable green practices can positively impact the resource use and energy use of a building for generations to come. With green building techniques we can find dozens of other areas in the building process to reduce resource and energy use and it is the sum of these parts that can have a massive impact on one home and a greater impact when multiplied by the number of green houses to converted to green or built green from scratch.
What type of paint should I use on Azek trim?http://www.azek.com/setcontrol/download_file.php?id=1&table=document&field=file
Azek Technical Paint http://www.azek.com/setcontrol/download_file.php?id=28&table=document&field=file
HOW IS THE PRICE OF A GALLON OF GAS/DIESEL DIVIED UP?
Why should I build green and protect the environment?
It is true that there is a perception out there that the "environment" relates only to animals and trees etc. and that people who care about the environment only care for those reasons. However, human existence and quality of life is dependent on the environment too. Weather it be the air we breath indoors in toxic homes(indoor environment) or air we breath in the outdoor environment, both can give you asthma, allergies lung cancer etc.(ever been to a big city or China?) The way products are traditionally harvested and manufactured to build, decorate and furnish a home and how we power our homes has a negative impact on the environment (indoor and out door) and decrease the quality of life for the homeowner and everyone outdoors too. The environment is also necessary for our water supply and food supply. Unfortunately, current laws do not do enough to mitigate these concerns, particularly if product is imported from an unregulated country. On a voluntary basis Green building addresses all these issues. Certified Green Builders are trained by the National Association of Home Builders to know which products to use in the building of your home that do minimize harm to environment and the occupant(you).
Flynn High Performance Building
