From the category archives:

Building

Passive Solar Post & Beam Home

by nan on 2010/03/09 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the fourth in a 10-part series. The previous post is here, or you can start at the beginning.)

My first home purchase in 1985 was a summer ‘camp.’ A retired couple from Florida spent their summers in Lee, NH on a wooded acre on the Lamprey River. Their camp was a 22′ travel trailer with a 12′x18′ living room added onto the south side. They were tired of traveling back and forth, and decided to settle in Florida year-round, so they sold, and I bought, their camp.

We finalized our transaction in early October, and I desperately and quickly needed to winterize it. This was my first experience with remodeling, but I got to put into play some of the carpentry I had learned the year before.

Jenkins Lane 1 I hired a carpenter friend to take care of the rotting roof decking and build a frame for insulation on the north side of the trailer. Then I hired a less expensive high school kid to help me insulate the frame and crawl underneath to insulate the floor, tacking chicken wire over it to hold it in place. Now I was ready for winter, but I knew I was not going to live in this summer set-up forever.

While I was working on the roof, I caught the view of the lazy Lamprey River. I decided I’d have to build a second story on my dream home to catch the view. Just then I realized an unseen bonus Jenkins Lane 6 of the property. The river was to the south, so I had solar orientation AND views! Over the winter, I watched the sun carefully. I charted its course through my living room windows, and as naturally as your heart beats, I designed a passive solar home.

I tried various floor plans, but came back to the same design over and over, because the principles of solar energy do not change. The winter weather patterns of northern New England do not change, either, unfortunately. I caught the most sun and retained the most heat with large south facing windows, small east and west windows, and a fairly closed in north wall. I took advantage of the cooling breezes off the river by placing casement windows opening south in east and west walls, and adding north and south doors to move that cool air through the house.

When I felt I had a good design, I talked to several contractors and finally hired a man who trained at The Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine. We built a post and beam house of native materials. It was super insulated with double framing and Tyvek, but today, Shelter uses SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels, ‘a high performance panelized building system. SIPs create an extremely well insulated and air tight building envelope. An efficient building envelope is a critical component in an effectively integrated green building.’)

We started in September, and in January, it was complete enough to move in (advice: don’t ever move into a home before it’s done!). It was well-insulated and sported top-notch double pane windows, and my first impression was, ‘There’s no air in here! It’s too tight!’ I’d achieved my goal of not letting heat get out, but fresh air could not get in, either. Since then, I have learned about air exchangers, and this was the perfect situation for one.

The following winter, I took a road trip out west. As I was driving across southern California and Arizona, I was amazed and thrilled with the endless sun! The idealist in me wondered why there were no solar power plants. This was unheard of back then (1987) unlike talk of it today. Just as that question crossed my mind, I came upon the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station fifty miles west of Phoenix on I-10. In my naiveté, I was appalled and angered.

I was determined to solarize the world!

Fast forward to 1999, and I was raising two girls in Taos in a rambling 1964 ranch house.

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Green Building Recap 3.5.10

by nan on 2010/03/05 · 0 comments

in Building, Eco Building, Eco-Building, News, Writings

> My love of buildings goes back to my childhood when my favorite toy was a huge dollhouse with two stories and a pink roof. It wasn’t so much that I played in it with dolls as I marveled at its construction. The scale of the stairs, the doors and windows, the placement of the bathroom and kitchen, the slant of the roof.

When I was six, my mom gave me a cute, German hand-painted toy room complete with furniture – a four poster bed, a hutch and a dresser. The windows had shutters on the outside and little cloth curtains inside. It was no bigger than a piece of modern day copy paper. I had this dollhouse until I was about 30 and decided to live in my pick-up truck. There was no room for unnecessary items. If I’d known then that I was going to have two girls, I’d have saved one or both of these building miracles.

As a young adult, I lived near a dollhouse store the size of a barn! I spent full afternoons in there gazing at the furniture and accessories, planning on owning another dollhouse someday. It never came to pass, though.

All these warm memories came rushing back this week when I read about an eco-friendly dollhouse! I want one!

> Back again to my childhood – when I was growing up outside of New York City, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the city. Again, I marveled at the construction every time we walked down from the observation deck. I loved that building. I did not like that the World Trade Centers took away the Empire State Building’s tallest building status, but I don’t need to say anymore about that. Now this inspiring building is getting a green makeover! Serious Materials, a supplier of building materials for Passiv Haus’, is revamping the existing windows to make them more energy efficient. That is 6,514 windows being upgraded that will save a lot of energy and not take up space in a landfill. Bravo!

> I have been reading and posting a lot about reusing shipping containers for homes, offices, dorms and studios. I think it’s a great idea! Someone called me last year to look at their property. It was six acres, and two shipping containers were parallel with a concrete slab between them complete with radiant floor tubing in place. The project had been abandoned many years before that, but I thought, ‘Wow, what a cool listing to have! I’d love to market this place!’ The owners never did put it on the market, but they were way ahead of the times in their use of shipping containers. Here is another creative example of recycling them into a cozy home.

> I don’t have a story for this last article, but this school shows how buildings can fit their surroundings and communities, recycle materials, and save energy with materials and systems. I can’t believe I don’t have a story to relate to this! It just warmed my heart to read.

See you next week!

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On the Road to Building Solar Greenhouses

by nan on 2010/03/02 · 2 comments

in Building, Eco-Building, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the third in a 10-part series. The previous post is here, or you can start at the beginning.)

After graduating from UNH, I worked on a couple of vegetable farms and a u-pick fruit farm and did some landscaping. What I really wanted to do, though, was build solar greenhouses. I called a local company that retrofitted them onto existing homes. The owner was excited about my enthusiasm. Remember, this was the early 80s, solar was not an everyday word yet, and not many women were carpenters.

In our initial phone call, he asked if I had any carpentry experience, or if I at least knew the terminology. Although I’d wanted to be an architect my whole life, I didn’t have the knowledge he needed. He suggested I work in a cabinet shop for six months to a year to learn carpentry basics. He recommended a shop to me, where I got a job right away. I was excited to get started on this new path! (photo: flickr pixelviz)

I built cabinet doors for several months. I played with pine, oak, cherry, maple and birch studying their grains and the differences in how they looked and felt, how each acted with a saw and a sander, and how each responded to stain and varnish. It was quite an education, and I loved it!

I spent a lot of my day sanding those beautiful raw woods. The orbital sander was my pal. I came home covered in and throughout with sawdust every night. It was exhausting, physical work, and the conditions were far from ideal, but I never lost sight of my plan to build solar greenhouses.

After six months of radial arm saws, table saws, circular saws and joiners, the lesson I learned was that I didn’t like power tools. The orbital sander remained my friend, but the rest were bigger and scarier than me. (photo: flickr Let Ideas Compete)

There went my carpentry career!

When I left the cabinet shop, I took my newly acquired knowledge of building, terminology and woods along with the few hand tools I had to buy. Little did I know the following year would bring me my first energy-efficient remodel.

Keep reading….

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Green Building Recap 2.26.10

by nan on 2010/02/26 · 2 comments

in Building, Eco Building, Eco-Building, News, Writings

I took the last week off from writing, because a sister I have never met came to visit. She’s been gone a couple of days now, and I’m having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I did manage to dig up a few tidbits for today’s wrap-up, though. This wouldn’t be a weekly recap without, well, a weekly recap!

> Green jobs are where it’s at. They will pull us out of this downturn besides being the future, bad economy or not. We can’t go about business the way it’s been done in the past. It’s time for freshness all the way around. If you are looking for a job in the green sector, check out these five cities – one more reason for me to move to San Francisco….

> Financing energy efficiency is a stumbling block for homeowners and businesses. Programs in use in one community may not work in another. We have to continually find ways to help them save money on their bills and reduce their carbon footprints. In California, creative financing allows businesses to borrow from their utility for an energy efficient retrofit. The zero-interest loan is repaid through their monthly bill. This is similar to the PACE program, where homeowners pay for energy efficient upgrades through their property taxes. Creative financing is the only way it is feasible for many people.

> Speaking of retrofits and creativity, check out this missile silo/home in New York. If you don’t feel safe here, there’s no hope for you!

> And here’s another one – resurrect an old brick building by making it the siding. I am constantly amazed and thrilled with the recycling efforts of designers and builders!

> As a Realtor®, I am always interested in real estate news. The Taos, NM market has not seen the financing problems other parts of the country have, so much of the news is not relevant here. All real estate is local, but I need to stay on top of national news and trends to talk to my out-of-state clients. I’m not an economist, and I don’t have solutions, but this one can’t hurt.

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Friday Green Building Recap 2.19.10

by nan on 2010/02/19 · 0 comments

in Building, Eco Building, Eco-Building, News, Writings

Again, there was a lot of inspiring green building news this week. I have compiled a few here and tweeted the rest.

> For 30 years, I have been wanting solar written into building codes. I never understood why new homes and subdivisions were being built with no consideration of the sun’s power. I lived in northern New England back then, too, and our heating bills were astronomical. Solar worked for me there, but it never caught on, even though it seemed like a sensible idea.

Here in New Mexico (and Arizona, where I have lived), I have NO IDEA why solar is not a requirement in building codes! The sun shines most days, and solar-on-every-roof or south-facing windows could cut emissions drastically. Although communities are beginning to implement greener codes (Taos, NM being one), solar is not a requirement. It should be! Dan Chiras agrees.

> For all the talk about the Olympics being green, I am not convinced. The energy to create the venues, the air travel of thousands of people from around the world, snow being flown in – wow, what energy suckers! There is a bit of saving grace, though, in Millenium Waters, the Olympic Athlete’s Village, a LEED Platinum Certified neighborhood! The entire neighborhood was certified as well as each building it it. I’m not sure how much of the Olympic carbon footprint this offsets, but it’s a wonderful example of a green re-use of an old industrial site. After the Olympics, it will be mixed use/residential property – I’d be honored to live there!

> Several years ago, a friend of mine bought a beautiful piece of mountain land about 15 miles from town. He intended to build a green home on it, then gas prices skyrocketed. Being a solar/renewables/eco advocate, he wanted to walk his talk and balance out the cost of commuting. We brainstormed about building, and thought a house that took less energy to build, run and maintain could offset his car use. We joked about building entirely from scraps – pallets, scraps of wire, cardboard, old clothes, and so on. We pushed it to the extreme, knowing full well we were just entertaining ourselves at the time. Well, someone else did it!

> As a Realtor®, Certified EcoBroker® and green home enthusiast extraordinaire, I would love to see a requirement that a home get an energy audit and a minimum HERS rating before being sold. This is a contentious topic, because of the cost to the seller. The audit costs a few hundred dollars, and improvements could cost a bundle. I said ‘could.’ I overlook the financial cost of it, though, and move to the big picture. If every home had to have an audit and minimum HERS rating, then every home eventually would be energy efficient. Does this make sense to you? It does in Australia! What is wrong with us?! This is a multi-faceted topic with all sides being passionate, but I will applaud the Town of Taos, NM for passing a High Performance Building Ordinance last year. It’s a start.

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Five More Ways to Green Your Home

by nan on 2010/02/18 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Writings

(The first five are here.)

1) Window coverings keep heat indoors in winter and outside in summer. You can get insulated shades in custom sizes, or put up drapes or heavy curtains. The point is to create an air space between your room and the window. Even energy efficient windows need to be covered at night.

2) More on windows: Replace old windows with low-e windows. If you are remodeling or building, place new windows to receive enough natural daylight to cut down on the need for daytime lighting. Create passive solar gain with south facing windows. If you have objectionable views to the south, consider a trombe wall for radiant heat or a clerestory window.

3) Add a solar thermal system for domestic hot water and/or radiant floor or baseboard heat. My domestic system cut my gas bill from $1000/yr to $200/yr. It will pay for itself in about 6 years and last about 20. Or more. A solar thermal system preheats the water in your hot water heater, reducing the need for gas or electric to heat the water.

4) Add a solar PV system to produce electricity. Net metering is the cleanest method of solar electricity. The home is tied to the electric company’s grid. The system creates electricity during the day and sends it to the grid, reducing the need for coal-generated electricity. At night, the home draws from the grid for power. There is no need for batteries to store electricity, making net-metering a cleaner power source.

5) Replace water-wasting toilets with low-flush or dual flush. When I remodeled, I bought low-flush toilets at Lowe’s for $44. Not a lot of money to cut your water use by half! A dual-flush toilet has two ways to flush, depending on how much water you need. If you insist on flushing pee, you can save water doing so with a dual-flush toilet.

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Solar Gardening

by nan on 2010/02/16 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Energy, Essays, Gardening, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the second of a 10-part series. Previous post here.)

At the University of New Hampshire, my Soils Science teacher, Art LeClair, turned me on to solar energy. He was my favorite teacher – enthusiastic, intelligent, knowledgeable, experimental, fun and funny. I naturally absorbed what he conveyed.

On a winter field trip, our Soils class visited Solar Survival in Harrisville, NH. This was the home and lab of Leandre and Gretchen Poisson, authors of ‘Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way.’ They grew food all winter in frigid, frozen, snowed-in northern New England using solar pods, which they developed.

A solar pod is a 4′x8′ cold frame surrounded on the outside with rigid foam insulation and buried partially in the ground. The lid is not a piece of glass or an old window, like a typical cold frame. It is an arch of two layers of Kalwall® greenhouse glazing with Angel Hair, a fine and translucent, yet heavy duty, insulation, sandwiched in between.

The thermal mass inside the pod is a black 55-gallon drum filled with water and laid on its side at the north end. During the day, the water absorbs the sun’s heat and slowly radiates it back out over night.

This photo from the book is a series of pods lined up end to end. You can clearly see the drum laying on its side at the far end of the front center pod.

The translucence of the insulation is key. It must transmit enough solar energy in low-light winter for healthy plant growth and to warm the water in the drum to a high enough temperature that it can radiate heat on a cold New Hampshire night.

My friend, Hugh, and I partnered up in lab to build a solar pod. We didn’t get to grow anything in it, but witnessing that process at Solar Survival was proof enough that it worked. After that field trip and construction project, I was completely sold on solar energy!

Art shared another source of information with us, a book by Rick Fisher and Bill Yanda of Zomeworks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called ‘The Food and Heat Producing Solar Greenhouse.’ It was published in 1980 and already out of print the following year. Solar hadn’t caught on yet, so I guess it was not deemed an important book. I tracked down a copy, though (remember, this was way before Amazon and used books!), and studied it as though I was having an exam on it. I now have a dog-eared copy (photo), which I repeatedly refer to, because, like I said last week, solar principles never change.

After my first semester at UNH, my love for solar construction and New Mexico was burgeoning.

Keep reading…

(Glazing and insulation materials to build Poisson’s solar pod and solar cones are available from Solar Components.

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Friday Green Building Recap 2.12.10

by nan on 2010/02/12 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco Building, Eco-Building, News, Writings

> I am somewhat a fan of the tv show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I love underdogs, houses and remodeling, but I do not care for the waste generated in their projects. This Sunday, Feb 14, though, I will be watching, because they are remodeling a house to be ‘near net zero.’ Net zero means a house generates as much or more energy than it uses. It’s hard to accomplish in remodeling, but these guys came close – ‘near net zero.’ In previous posts, I have mentioned many of the materials used to create such an energy efficient home – SIPs, solar, super insulation and energy efficient windows – but this episode will be an education for all of us!

> If I had to live in a city, it would be San Francisco. I visited family there several times when I was a kid and fell in love with it! I spent some time there 20 years ago and almost rented a studio near the ocean, the trolley and Golden Gate Park. Some days, I wish I had! Oh well, it’s on my bucket list. And here’s some impetus – Mayor Newsom just announced $19.2 million in funding for energy audits and energy efficient retrofits of businesses, multi-family dwellings and municipal buildings through SF’s Energy Watch program and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

AND! I’m not done with San Francisco yet! PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) is a loan program that funds energy efficient improvements through property taxes. This is a wonderful program, allowing any property owner to upgrade, since money is usually the main obstacle. San Francisco is making $150 million available through the PACE program. That is the largest in the country! San Francisco, here I come!

> New Zealand has been a dream destination of mine since I was young. My older daughter made it there before me, traveling with People to People the day after she turned 12! That was my vicarious trip to NZ, and I have hot pads and currency to prove it! Whale Rider? Seen it a gazillion times. New Zealand is another one for the bucket list.

I studied Maori culture and love it. I even started to learn the language! But now they have grabbed my heart even more by designing an energy efficient child care center, which also reflects their history and culture. All buildings should have this much spiritual depth and teach so much simply through meaningful design. Wow.

> I am not a gym rat, but I can imagine the energy spent in one as pounds get whittled away. Can that energy be put to use? Yes! A company called ReRev makes elliptical cross-trainers that generate power. It reminds me of our hamsters running in their wheels endlessly through the night, or cartoon mice in a wheel to power a light bulb. Now someone has put that idea to excellent use on a large scale. Double duty workout! No energy wasted!

> Ever since entering the 21st century, my life is filled with gadgets to charge and/or plug in – cell phones, laptops, printers, iPods, DVD players, remote control tvs. My house used to be dark at night, but now there are little lights all over the place telling me I will be portable the next day. And wireless is far from wireless! What a mess hides behind the router! Someday, though, we may be able to unplug the cables and charge our toys with energy beams.

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Solar Energy is Not New

by nan on 2010/02/09 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Energy, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

Greetings to all you energy conscious, eco-minded folks! I hope you are ready to read about solar energy and green building in this 10-part series! I’d like to start with a little background, though, so you can see:

• Solar has been around for a long time.
• Energy efficiency is not trendy.
• I’m a credible source.

Solar energy is not new. It has been around for as long as the sun! Did you ever notice that the cliff dwellings of indigenous peoples, such as the Anasazi, face south? Over a thousand years ago, people understood the power of the sun. They built their dwellings facing south to capture the sun’s winter warmth. The rocks absorbed the heat and released it slowly after dark. Cliff dwellings were also built under overhangs to shade out the high summer sun. (photo: flickr PhillipC)

The principles of solar energy have not changed in thousands of years, and we use them in building today. As energy prices remain unstable, passive solar and other energy efficient building methods are becoming more important. Many communities, such as Taos, New Mexico, where I live, are putting energy efficient requirements into their building codes. (graphic: NM Solar Energy Assoc)

We must incorporate more renewable energy, because fossil fuels are finite. They will not be here forever to heat and cool our homes, and as they get depleted, prices will rise. We cannot create more oil, natural gas and coal, but the sun, wind and water will always be available.

Fossil fuels also cause political struggle, greed and other negative energies. No one needs to die in the battle for fossil fuels when the sun, wind and water can supply our energy needs.

Your home is the first place to begin saving energy. According to the EPA, buildings in the US account for:

• 39 percent of total energy use
• 12 percent of the total water consumption
• 68 percent of total electricity consumption
• 38 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions

It is clear that saving energy in your home will have a positive impact on the planet and your wallet. An energy-efficient home is also a buffer against fuel price increases.

Energy efficient homes are my passion. I have wanted to be an architect since I was about six years old. I played with Legos more often than Barbie dolls. My passion for homes, solar energy and all things eco drove me to become a Certified EcoBroker®, a Realtor® specializing in green homes.

I’ve been attracted to the sun since my Lego days, too. Maybe I was an Anasazi in a previous life. Or maybe the large sunny window in my childhood room had an effect on me. My mom turned my room into a greenhouse after I grew up and moved out. Whenever I came home, I slept with geraniums and orchids without complaint.

I was always outdoors, too, running in the woods, catching frogs in the brook, or marveling at pansy faces and the multicolor sheen of Japanese beetles. I knew at a young age I was part of the natural world.

At 25, I got a grounds-keeping job at a large summer resort. I was in my element, working with plants and being outside every day. This was my first experience with a greenhouse, though.

The Wentworth by the Sea in Newcastle, NH had a greenhouse where we started from seed all the plants for the hundreds of lavish flower gardens. We mixed our own potting soils, transplanted seedlings into the ground, mulched, weeded, watered, fertilized, cleaned up in fall and spread composted manure on the beds in November. After eight heavenly months at the Wentworth, I wanted to study horticulture. I enrolled at the University of New Hampshire’s Thompson School of Applied Science for the fall of 1980.

There my solar studies began.

Keep reading….

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Friday Green Building Recap 2.5.10

by nan on 2010/02/05 · 0 comments

in Building, Eco Building, Eco-Building, News, Writings

There was so much inspiring, progressive green building news this week! I Tweeted most of it and narrowed the choices down to these few as most helpful for homeowners.

> Just last week, I was talking about ceiling insulation, and I said: “There is no rule that says you can’t do more than what the building code says. Code is a required minimum. You are free to do more, and that’s what I did. There probably is a cut-off point, though, where what you put in doesn’t contribute anymore to energy loss, but I don’t know what that is.” Lo and behold, the DOE heard me and responded.

> Physical comfort drives me. I change my clothes four or five times a day to regulate my body temperature (this is a sensory issue, which I have passed down to my younger daughter). I am much like every dog I’ve had, moving to various parts of the house or yard to stay comfortable in all seasons. I should consider a courtyard home for natural heating and cooling.

> Does the average homeowner want to monitor her energy use? Smart Meters are for exactly that, but if they get installed, will they get used? Will they help reduce consumption and emissions? Do people care? Or will they just wait to change their habits when the price of energy escalates, as it will, and has a huge negative effect on them?

> Once you monitor your home energy, with a Smart Meter or Google PowerMeter, you must act to manage it. Do people want to do that? I have found that people would like to curb their emissions and save money, but they do not want a change of lifestyle. If it was automatic, they may embrace it more quickly and passionately.

> Nobody is 100% green, and one of my green sins is not living in a walkable neighborhood. I live about six miles from the center of town, which is not far, but not close enough to ride a bike for running errands (besides that, it’s uphill all the way home!). I have lived in cities and in the heart of smaller towns, and walking or biking everywhere is one thing I do miss where I am now. The pay-off is killer views and peace and quiet, but that’s another story.

As a Realtor®, I was very interested in this article that states foreclosures are higher in non-walkable neighborhoods. The expense of travel is high and hurts a tight budget.

If distance from conveniences is taken into account while applying for a mortgage, this could hurt the people who want to live in a rural area. Would interest rates be higher? Would distance weigh as heavily as the home’s condition or a credit score? There are a lot of implications to ‘predicting mortgage performance’ based on walkability that could be hurtful instead of helpful. I’m open to hearing what you think.

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