Sustainable Design Update

The common light bulb is about 5% efficient. That means that a standard light bulb is much more efficient as a heater than as a lighting device. Recent developments in compact flourescent lighting including better color rendering, flicker free illumination, high efficiency and lower costs make the idea of “banning the bulb” a real possibility.

The free market is slow to catch on to the idea that it is much cheaper to purchase and use compact fluorescent lights than it is to use incandescents. The savings over the life of a CFL light bulb can be as much as $20 .00 per light bulb, depending on the wattage and how much you pay for electricity. See SDU recent post on household energy efficiency here.
Reuters reports VIA Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California’s groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The “How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act” would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

“Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications,” California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said on Tuesday.

“Meanwhile, they remain incredibly inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the energy they receive into light.”

Levine is expected to introduce the legislation this week, his office said. (more…)

The Architecture firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill are designing a zero energy office tower for the Guangdong Tobacco Company in Guangdong China. The building will feature:

From TheEnergyBlog:

Orientation, conservation, lighting efficiency, geothermal, energy reuse and energy storage techniques are used to enable the building to generate enough renewable power to meet its energy demands. This is done by five main methodologies:

1) By orienting the building towards the east the tower takes advantage of midday sun while the effects of late-day sun on the larger, southern exposure are minimized.

2) The south facade’s low-E-glass, double-layer curtain-wall system reduces heat gain, which leads to less demand on the HVAC systems.

3) The tower reclaims energy by routing each floor’s exhaust air into the south side’s double-layer curtain-wall cavity. This thermal barrier of hot dry air can then be reused on the mechanical floor for passive dehumidification. (more…)

From Itsgettinghotinhere.org (with a slight edit by SDU):

The newly crowned Miss Rhode Island has taped up her chest, Vaselined her teeth, and strutted her stuff in swimsuit and heels — all in the service of fighting global warming. The tiara’d staffer for the Harvard Green Campus Initiative says it’s all part of her plan to push the issue in front of millions of viewers.

SDU has covered other eco-fashionistas including Summer Rayne Oakes who models eco-friendly clothing and has a rigorous schedule talking and workshopping eco issues. While I still have some reservations about the eco-chic I do believe it brings more diverse people to the cause.

From Treehugger:

If, like me, your eyes tend to roll when pageant contestants talk about their (ahem) “issues” Miss America contestant Allison Rogers should grab your attention tonight–and not just because of her unfairly good looks. As hot as she is, the 25-year-old Miss Rhode Island is hoping to slow the warming of the earth with her “Go Green!” platform, and she’s got the credentials to prove it. After graduating from Harvard in 2004 (her thesis was on the convergence of religion and conservation), Alli became a driving force behind the university’s environmental revolution. As head of a landmark program that conducted energy and waste audits and encouraged recycling and conservation in the dorms, she added a healthy shade of green to the ivory tower. And while helping to shape the school’s sustainability principles, Alli led a student campaign that made Harvard the biggest university purchaser of renewable energy. Along the way, she co-organized the Northeast Climate Conference, earned a WWF fellowship to refurbish old computers for those in need, served as a youth delegate at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, met with green fashion designers, lobbied the US Postal Service (on a global warming fundraising stamp) and been personally tutored by Al Gore. Yesterday, she won the Miss America community service award for the awareness work she’s done and will do. Whatever happens tonight–and whatever you may think of pageants–Alli’s already a role model for little girls (and boys) everywhere.

Watch tonight: 8 PM EST on CMT

The U.S. EPA and its partners are seeking lifecycle designs from professionals and students in the following categories:

• Building: an entire building

• Component: a single building assembly or connector

• Service: a tool, system, practice, or method

Lifecycle building is the design of building materials, components, information systems, and management practices to create buildings that facilitate and anticipate future changes to and eventual adaptation, disassembly, or dismantling for recovery of all systems, components, and materials.

Also known as design for disassembly and design for deconstruction, lifecycle thinking encompasses the idea of creating buildings that are stocks of resources for future buildings. By creating building components that can be easily recovered and reused, materials are kept at their highest value, which reduces energy and resource consumption.

Waste production figures present a snapshot of valuable lost resources. Waste materials from the built environment are known as Construction and Demolition debris (C&D), and account for a large percentage of the waste stream:

* C&D accounts for 1/3 of total waste generated in the United States.

* Building renovation and demolition accounts for 91% of the C&D generated each year, while new construction accounts for only 9%.

Link to EPA Lifecycle Challenge

Architect Ralph Rapson Modular Home

We (Archiopolis Architects LLC) are working on a house design to be pre-fabricated and possibly mass produced. The benefits of PreFab are many. Indoor work makes construction to very tight tolerances possible. Much thought can go into reducing and/or eliminating waste. Careful installation of insulation and vapor barriers can greatly enhance energy efficiency and create a much more comfortable building. Personally I really like how strong PreFabs are because they have to withstand both moving stresses and installation stresses. PreFabs are usually much stronger than traditional construction.

Design for PreFab and repetition gives us the opportunity to really tune the building systems so that there is fresh air everywhere and natural convective cooling. Simple modifications to the basic design allow passive solar in any orientation.

The photo above is of a Ralph Rapson modular design that is probably 60 years old. He has been commissioned recently to update the design for a new client. Ralph is 90 yrs old and still designing some of the best buildings in the world.

Last fall I attended an energy efficiency conference sponsored by Michigan Interfaith Power & Light, a coalition of congregations and their partners across the State of Michigan whose mission is to “involve communities of faith as stewards of God’s creation by promoting and implementing energy efficiency, renewable energy and related sustainable practices”. A lot of people made it to the conference even though the weather was awful. Inside the “energy” came from the presenters. I was impressed. If we are to solve problems like global warming we need large well organized groups like MIIPL.

Rev. Charles Morris is executive director of the 124 member Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, From a NY Times Article:

WYANDOTTE, Mich. — To find St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church in this working class suburb south of Detroit, look toward the roofline, for the windmill. Not a big windmill, it is a spare steel structure maybe nine feet high, perched atop the rectory of the church and facing northeast into the winds that come off Lake Erie.

Yet the windmill, two solar panels on the roof, another atop the front porch and a solar water heating system above the garage are the pride of the Rev. Charles Morris, St. Elizabeth‟s priest.

Over the last five years, Father Morris has sharply reduced his small parish‟s energy use and emissions of carbon dioxide, the compound most scientists believe has led to global warming, and he has organized other congregations across Michigan to do the same.

“We‟re all part of God‟s creation,” Father Morris said. “If someone like me doesn‟t speak about its care, who will? The changes we‟ve made here, that‟s a form of preaching.”

A short and interesting video about churches taking on global warming is available at Google Videos Here.

Link to Michigan Interfaith Power and Light Here

Link to The Regeneration Project Here