The Greening of the 2012 Building Codes: Air-tightness Testing – A Must Have for Consumers

Posted January 10, 2013 By Lucas Hamilton and has 2 comments.

 

Blower Door Testing

Blower Door Testing

The 2012 energy code, which we are very excited about because it is very advanced compared to the 2009, requires two things which have never been required by aU.S. code before.  These are:

  • Blower door testing of houses
  • Duct pressure testing for leakage

These two things are extremely influential on energy efficiency and have always been assumed were part of best practices. We have seen changes in the codes saying “install air barriers or tighten up your duct work” but they never required that these tests be conducted to ensure that the house is airtight.

These are two physical tests that need to be conducted on every new home if the 2012 building codes have been adopted by a state. While this is one of the best ways to ensure efficient thermal comfort for home owners, the potential impact on the builder must be understood. If you are building a house in say 120 days scheduling someone to come out to conduct this testing could severely impact the building schedule: these tests need to be conducted before installing the drywall. No drywall until you have passed the inspection- imagine it.

But who conducts this testing?  Code officials are not typically trained or funded to execute this type of testing.  This testing has been done in the past for NAHB, Energy Star and other programs by internally or externally certified raters. Home Energy Rating System (HERS) raters are a great example of one group that is trained to do this testing.

However, there is no organized resource, clearinghouse or national database for building professionals to find all of the various local professionals who can conduct these tests. To ensure that these tests are conducted and that states do not “opt out” of this requirement, a national database needs be developed so that third-party testers can be easily found and scheduled.

This is an important part of the 2012 code that qualifies for the consumer that the home is energy efficient and that some of the most critical passive elements of that efficiency were done right.  It’s not what you spec; it’s what you inspect.

 

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

Building America Solution Center a Great New Resource for Consumers and Residential Builders

Posted December 18, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has 3 comments.

The U.S Department of Energy has launched the Building America Solutions Center website.  Building America is a program that is operated by the Department of Energy to investigate best practices for residential construction.  They have accumulated a great deal of information from the field and done several experiments that up until now have only generally been shared within the Building Science community. It is a wonderful resource for building professionals and consumers who want to make the best choices when improving the energy efficiency in residential construction.

The Solution Center website shares best practices and other project resources to help plan, implement and measure energy efficiency programs for residential buildings and homes. The site includes resources to answer questions regarding new energy efficient technologies, projecting savings, financing home improvement projects.

This is public / private partnership funded research and everyone should be aware that it exists so they can make the best choices as we all move toward improving the energy efficiency of our buildings.

Spread the word about this great resource!

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

Don’t Forget the End Users When Building for Energy Efficiency

Posted November 30, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has no comments yet.

While at Greenbuild 2012 I was asked “What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?” My answer was posted on our Blog but there is more I want to say about this so here we go!

Users or occupants of high efficiency buildings need to understand and be a partner in the process because  ultimately they influence the  success or failure of a building’s efficiency over time. For example, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes will give you credit for and requires Energy Star performance which means certain insulation levels, certain air tightness and certain efficiencies on the mechanical systems (among other issues). The energy efficiency of the building is based upon a combination of highly efficient equipment and permanent passive systems.

When the active system wears out, if the consumers don’t appreciate the importance of the efficiency of that system on the overall performance of the habitat they are unlikely to take that into consideration when they have to replace equipment.  They can go from a high efficiency piece of equipment that made their sustainable building sing beautifully and perform wonderfully and stick in something that is on sale or is perhaps promoted by their contractor but with a whole different efficiency rating.  Now the building goes from being a Prius to being a Hummer simply because the driver wasn’t told the difference between the two.

In sustainability circles we often talk about “the Prius effect”.  This comes from the engagement of the driver with the car.  Once the driver understands the savings due to the offset of the electrical to the fuel and you give them real-time feedback, they began to drive against the machine to improve the efficiency. The build community needs to develop dashboards or other tools for high efficiency buildings so that end users can see the benefits provided by the systems.  That buy-in is critical to sustaining efficiency over the life cycle of the building.

There is no point in doing a sustainable building for someone unless you teach and show them how to maintain it. That is one aspect I especially admire about the Living Building Challenge. The Beauty petal has components which include inspiration and education. Couldn’t we all use a little more of both?

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

Greenbuild 2012 is a Wrap! Philadelphia Here we Come!

Posted November 21, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has no comments yet.

San Francisco is among the top sustainable cities in the U.S. so it was exciting to be out there for Greenbuild this year.  The expo portion of the conference was only two days this year but from the beginning of the first day the show floor was packed with attendees who were really engaged. In fact, it was the most engaged audience I have seen since the recession began.  Hopefully, that is an indicator that the building market is returning.

NOVA speed dating

NOVA speed dating

In my travels around the show, I was surprised that I really didn’t see too many new innovations. There was nothing that stood out as a bright, new product or very innovative with the exception of the Saint-Gobain NOVA Innovation Competition.  The NOVA External Venturing division of Saint-Gobain rewards start-ups offering the most innovative solutions in the field of habitat, energy and the environment.  This was the first time the competition has taken place in the U.S. Over the last several months Saint-Gobain reviewed and selected eight finalists who would come to Greenbuild for a final interview process during the show days.  From those eight, three entrepreneurs where awarded cash prizes, however, all the contestants will have the opportunity to partner with Saint-Gobain in exploring potential joint development, licensing and other collaboration.

It was amazing the buzz that was created on the show floor by the NOVA Competition.  The final eight entrepreneurs participated in what might be referred to as a “speed dating” round.  These innovators were pitching their ideas to some of the best business leaders in our industry. It was exciting during the speed dating and a large crowd gathered for the announcement of the winners.  The top winner was Heliotrope, a developer of energy-efficient electrochromic glass that that switches reversibly between three states:  solar transparent, heat blocking, and heat and light blocking or darkened.  The second place winner was PlanGrid, a complete collaborative platform for construction information and the fastest PDF viewer in the universe.  Third place went to SmarterShade, a unique approach to the emerging technology being called “smart windows.”

Greenbuild 2013 is coming to Philadelphia – CertainTeed’s neck of the woods.  But, for Philadelphia, following San Francisco is like having the Beatles as a warm-up band.  While many folks who are into urban sustainability are aware of the great progress made my our Mayor Nutter and his team, just how far and how quickly Philadelphia has transformed its sustainable future may come as a surprise to some of our visitors next year. I’m certain that none of this would be possible without the support and efforts of groups like the Delaware Valley Green Building Council who is hosting GreenBuild for 2013. There are some very exciting projects taking place in Philadelphia and we are eager to share them with the green world.

I hope to see you in Philadelphia for Greenbuild 2013!

 

 

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Lucas Hamilton, CertainTeed Building Science

Posted November 16, 2012 By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

Lucas Hamilton

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

In order to achieve and maintain a healthy, sustainable built environment we need to educate the end users of these buildings.  The people who use the buildings need to be a partner in the process and be educated because they figure strongly in the success of the sustainability of the building. Only if the end users understand that their behaviors contribute to the success or failure of highly efficient systems can we ensure a healthy, sustainable built environment. There isn’t a life cycle without that three-quarter part of it – the people using and maintaining it. The Living Building Challenge is doing it right because they include an education component to the process.

What is your business doing to support this goal?

What we are doing is to educate, educate, educate – through training, webinars, and providing information to all audiences. We need to help end users understand that they are a critical part of the process. 

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

A Powerful Green Building Partnership

By Angie Dye and has no comments yet.

Saint-Gobain, CertainTeed and the Youthbuild Philadelphia Charter School took center stage at Greenbuild 2012 to share their experience in preparing young adults for a career in the building industry, while transforming a long vacant structure into a sustainable home. This public-private partnership provides a useful framework that can easily be leveraged by other communities, offering a win, win, win scenario.

First of all, the partnership provides young adults with valuable hands-on training that will prepare them for a career in the construction industry.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a growing demand for construction-related skilled workers, which means these students are especially well positioned for future success.

The CertainTeed building scientists who provided on-site training walked away with new ideas on how to design and install products — which was fueled by the fresh insight the students brought to the project.

From the community’s perspective, the project is helping to expand the availability of affordable, green housing.

Categories:
 GreenBuild

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Steve Jette, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics

Posted November 15, 2012 By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

 Greenbuild 2012 is the perfect venue to capture interesting perspectives on sustainability. We’re highlighting a few noteworthy individuals through our “Green Building Guru” column

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

The most important thing we can do to ensure a healthy, sustainable built environment is to be more efficient in the manufacture of products to lower the embodied energy in our products.  As we manufacture, we need to save on energy and water so that there is less embodied energy in products when they go to market, when they get assembled or when they get fabricated. We are components of end structures so we need to do our part to ensure the sustainability of the end project.

 What is your business doing to support this goal?

To accomplish this, we have conducted an industry first Life Cycle Assessment on our ThermalBond® foam tape.  This is a cradle-to-grave assessment that measures the environmental impacts of manufacturing and the benefits of using our product. For our customers to be efficient they need their components to be efficient and that is what we have to done – quantified our processes with the LCA.

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

Greenbuild 60-Second Stopby: Kohler

By Vicky Gallagher and has no comments yet.

Kohler unveiled a somewhat surprising new look at their Greenbuild 2012 exhibit. A far cry from their typical pristine white, appearance, the company took a rustic approach in showcasing their kitchen and bath products. Using a structure comprised of reclaimed wood, their entire booth was transported in one compact semi-trailer. After the show, the wood will be donated and repurposed. All in all, an interesting, environmentally responsible approach.

About Vicky Gallagher

Vicky Gallagher is Communications Manager for CertainTeed Corporation

Categories:
 GreenBuild

GREEN BUILDING GURU: Drew Brandt, CertainTeed Insulation

By Angie Dye and has no comments yet.

Greenbuild 2012 is the perfect venue to capture interesting perspectives on sustainability. We’re highlighting a few noteworthy individuals through our “Green Building Guru” column.

What do you think is the most critical factor in ensuring a healthy, sustainable built environment?

Companies that are developing and manufacturing products for green construction need to fully embrace environmental transparency and provide quality, accurate information to end users. This is the foundation for continuous improvement and innovation in product design that will help us collectively protect and preserve the environment.

What is your business doing to support this goal?

Most recently, we created the “Recycled Truth” website in reaction to the U.S. Green Building Council’s ruling that calls for more stringent parameters for calculating the recycled content of products. In essence, the ruling requires manufacturers to report recycled content on a by product, by plant basis versus a combined national average. At CertainTeed, we’ve always embraced plant-specific analyses and developed the site to help share our experience with other manufacturers, architects, builders, etc.

 

 

Categories:
 GreenBuild, Insulation

A New Perspective on Environmental Impact

Posted November 14, 2012 By Lucas Hamilton and has no comments yet.

From a product standpoint, conducting life cycle assessments has become a fairly standard practice. Building industry professionals as well as end users expect this kind of transparency and want to be equipped with information on how products are manufactured, the raw materials that are used, and their ultimate fate at the end of their useful life. This is all good (actually it’s great), but what if we also look at the environmental impact of an installed product from a broader, collective perspective? For example, there’s a whole range of products that can save — and even generate — energy for homes and buildings. This energy savings and generation can equate to significant reductions in carbon emissions.

Working in conjunction with Sustainable Solutions, we set out on a mission to further explore this idea. Using Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed products —  such as fiberglass insulation, solar window film and photovoltaic roofing systems — we created a model based on data from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. What we learned is that the carbon reductions of installed Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed products on an annual basis equates to the carbon dioxide emissions produced by more than 300,000 passenger vehicles or the amount of electricity needed to power more than 189,000 homes. Ultimately, these types of products have a long-lasting impact on the built environment and we take great pride in that…

Interested in learning more? Stop by the Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed exhibit #4359 at Greenbuild 2012.

About Lucas Hamilton

Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed

Categories:
 GreenBuild

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