Cross posted from Daily Kos
Here are my notes from a couple of sessions at NESEA's Building Energy conference on March 14 and 15, 2007 in Boston's World Trade Center.
This edition covers Edward Mazria's keynote speech introducing the concepts of his 2010 and 2030 initiatives, a session on Zero Energy Homes, and another session on Sustainability and Climate Change: The Big Picture.
I especially wanted to hear Mazria who wrote the classic The Passive Solar Home and is confronting the architecture and building design community on climate change by pointing out that buildings consume about 48% of all the energy we produce. Ain't just cars, folks. Mazria is organizingThe 2030 Challenge and The 2010 Imperative, to promote
specific achievable strategies to transform the built environment. These strategies are designed to immediately stabilize emissions in the Building Sector, and then reverse them to acceptable levels over the next ten years.
<!-- polls come after this -->
3/14/07
Keynote
Ed Mazria
http://www.architecture2030.org
http://www.2010imperative.org
150 coal plants in the next decade in US. Clean coal is a decade to two decades away.
380 ppm CO2 now. 2ppm per year increase at present rate. 450ppm = 2ºC rise
By 2050 25% of all plant and animal species in danger of extinction
50% of all species by 2100 if we continue as usual
125,000 years ago world was 3ºC warmer with 4-6 meter sea level rise. It took 125 years for Greenland/Antarctic ice to melt then.
[Mazria showed google map satellite shots of 1 meter and 6 meter sea level rise at places down the the East Coast - Kennebunkport, Boston, Nyc, Hapmtons, Florida keys, Fort Lauderdale...]
US energy consumption 25% industrial, 27% transport, 48% buildings. 8% is the energy used in building buildings alone. 43% of total emissions from operating buildings. 75% of electricity is building operations. By 2035 3/4 of building stock will be new or renovated.
Moratorium on new coal plants.
Any new construction or renovation needs to be 50% more efficient and use 50% less energy. By 2030, new buildings should be carbon neutral, no GHG.
US Conference of Mayors have adopted this proposal.
Do it on site scale with design, passive technologies, on community scale with recycling of materials and sprawl prevention; then add technology; finally buy green power.
Average residence 42.7 k btu/square foot/year
Commercial/industrial 85 k btu/square foot/year
In Seattle, just about the worst solar site in the US and about the equal of Germany which is the largest solar market in the world today, about 650,000 btu/square feet/year is available on roof and south wall through solar alone.
50% reductions and more were done in the 1970s and 1980s. [And can be done today as well with existing technology and techniques according to the workshop on Zero Energy Homes.]
Extend Energy Policy Act to five years and double the tax credits up to $2.75 per square foot commercial and $4500 unit residential $1000 non business, no cap on residential solar tax credit. [I wouldn't trust my numbers on this.] Representative Udall is working on a bill now.
Product rating system (A-F) on embodied energy/GHG
Design tools monitoring design in process to 50% less energy specifications. No one gets a permit unless they reach the 50% benchmarks.
Transform design education by bringing ecology into the design process.
"All projects to be designed to engage the environment in a way that dramatically reduces the reliance on fossil fuels" No GHG emitting fuels.
Wants the box on CAD/CAM design programs that gives you energy performance of building as you design it.
3/14/07
Zero Energy Homes
Duncan Prahl - http://www.ibacos.com/
A super-insulated, passive solar house requires heating and cooling loads that are half of what the smallest heating and cooling equipment now is.
A tight house can feel warmer than the thermometer temperature because there are no drafts.
Ground source heat pumps and right-time cooling for the future? Big drain is appliances and miscellaneous electrical loads.
40% [lower energy] house fairly easy today. To get to 50% to 70% will require more research.
Real thermal break with ground contact in slab construction is essential.
Robb Aldrich - Steven Winter Associates, http://www.swinter.com
West Mass Electric Co in 2004 helped build a Hadley MA Zero Eenrgy House in 2004 with a 90% electricity reduction compared to typical.
26 affordable homes in Chicago, very tight houses, 50% CFM [I am assuming he means a reduction in air filtration as measured in Cubic Feet per Minute], 50% reduction in gas heating (with an electricity hogging fan). ACEEE web for most efficient appliances, pumps generally use less energy than fans and pipes leak less than ducts thus hydronic heating more likely to give better performance. 2-5 kw PV should be able to meet non-heating electrical needs in NE if the space is tight and the occupants energy conservative. [People who installed solar generally get better savings than expected as they adjust behavior towards more energy conservation and efficiency some studies have shown.]
Betsy Pettit - http://www.buildingscience.com
Refrofit of Sears kit house. 2/3 of houses need renovation. Residential 21% of GHG and energy use.
1/4 of all homes built before 1950. 3/4 before 1980. Space heating is the biggest energy usage in houses.
Retrofit: 2000 square foot to 3600 square foot through attic and basement renovation without an addition. Boston area. Biggest loss is inadequate air seal. 3.5 kw PV for $17000 with rebate.
3/15/07
Climate Change and Sustainability: Big Picture
Steven Winter - http://www.swinter.com
Back of America is doing a $20 billion green building initiative. Only 500 LEED certified buildings now in the US with 5000 entering the pipeline and 3500 LEED certified professionals. Only 1/3 of proposed buildings get LEED certification. Alphonzo Jackson, Sec of HUD gets green building.
Comment from floor: Tie energy not to btu per square foot but energy per occupant.
Deane Evans, NJ's Science and Technology University
Next step in sustainable design - whole building approach to design and new Federal high performance building standards. "You can't add green later." [But we damn well better learn how.] Integrated design approach - sustainable, accessible, aesthetics, cost-effective, functional, historic preservation, productive, safe/secure. Most architects think mostly about the first thing people see when they drive up to a house, the "circulation of access," not energy or solar or sustainable. Double duty solutions. Design is the cheapest part of the process.
http://www.designadvisor.org - green design case studies
http://www.wbdg.org - Whole Building Design Guide
High performance building standards written into Energy Policy Act of 2005. National Institute of Building Science is assessing standards and performance, building a reference standard based on industry consensus. See http://www.sbicouncil.org - beyond green
http://www.nibs.org
Harvard Bernstein - McGraw-Hill Construction - new magazine Green Source
Buildings account for 38% of CO2 emissions and 40% of energy worldwide. 300 billion square feet of US built environment. Green buildings can save 30-50% of the energy they currently use.
Among 13-25 year olds 89% are likely to switch brands, all things being equal, for a social cause, 74% likely to pay attention to companies committed to their causes, 69% consider company's social commitment when deciding where to shop. Over $200 billion invested in social responsible investments now performing better than the market.
Green building at 2% of starts and $10 billion today, by 2010 it will be 10% of starts and $60 billion - not including retrofit. 2005-2006 saw a 20% increase in green builders. This year more green builders than conventional. No statistical first costs in traditional versus green construction [excluding PV I would assume. Note that Bernstein seems to be saying that green construction is not at a premium to conventional.]
In schools, green buildings saw reduced absenteeism, improved test scores with decreased operating and energy costs. In green hospitals, patients are released 2 days earlier, doctors more effective. Dongtan, China island 3/4 size of Manhattan, dsigned to be carbon neutral. China's green Olympics will be used as part of primary and secondary education systems curriculum throughout the country, green teaching.
__________________________
