I am happy to announce that we were listed as “Home Performance Blogger of the Week” by Energy Circle for this last full week of August 2010. Now in the grand scheme of things, it really is not that big of a deal in the whole world of blogging and social media, however in a still small but growing profession of home performance, it is a big deal. Energy Circle has only been in existence for three years at this point, but is quickly becoming a go to resource for home performance contractors, energy auditors, as well as home owners. They sell a vast array of products for both the homeowner and professional to help make homes more energy and resource efficient as well as publishing great articles to help educate us all in issues of home performance as well as to help home performance companies to improve their overall business and marketing campaign.
Therefore to be recognized as a colleague that is posting information that is worth bringing to other industry professionals, I am honored and excited to be selected. And glad that someone is even listening. So stay tuned, I have lots of good ideas for future posts intended to add some fun content, general knowledge/education, as well as to continue the series on my own home energy reduction so vividly titled “Kill’n a hog….an Energy Hog”
In the meantime follow my random thoughts and links to what I consider to be great articles related to design and energy efficiency on twitter (@JLSymHome) or become a fan of Sym-Home on facebook and let’s start a discussion.
Some of the very first projects that we did to the home even before we moved in had a great impact on our home, transforming it into a “green” machine. Now they had no impact on the energy efficiency of the home, however they have made a great impact on the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), which is a very important issue as you tighten up the home and improved its overall performance.
Loading carpet to be recylced.
The first project we tackled was removing about 75% of the wall to wall carpeting in the home. This ended up being the main living areas, hallways, as well as our expected child’s room. We did feel somewhat guilty for removing the brand new carpet that the previous home owner installed to sell the house. Especially since we removed it in July, and according to the label, it was manufactured in May of the same year. So as you can imagine, it was in excellent shape. So the larger pieces went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to be reused in someone else home. The remainder of the carpeting found its way into a trailer on its way to get recycled thanks to a local carpet installer.
Dirt found under some of the carpet that was removed.
Our primary reason removing the carpet was to expose the hard wood flooring that runs throughout the majority of the house and was hidden by the carpet. We had the floor refinished using Bona waterborne finish that has very low levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), and is very durable. Another reason for removing the carpet was we did not want our newborn child crawling on the carpet. So the carpet was replaced with an all natural handmade wool area rug in our living room. The reason being is an area rug can be thoroughly cleaned where wall to wall carpet will hold onto dirt, dander, dust mites and pollutants that people track in from the outdoors, such as oil and pesticides and can never be fully removed. A question posted after we removed our carpet here on the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Green Home Guide website stated that the average carpet removed from a home is seven times heavier than when it was installed. This being contributed to the fact that carpets cannot be cleaned thoroughly like an area rug can.
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In a blog post by Heather Beal over at THRESHOLD, she asks “So what’s prevented the “yes-in-my-backyard” (YIMBY) attitude toward sustainability from spreading like wildfire among green professionals?”. She even offers up a three tiered approach to having a greener home on a budget. But really I think as green building professionals we should be held to higher standard and move beyond the three tiered approach.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has their Walk The Walk campaign advocating for all design projects within the office to be green/high performance projects. But that is focusing on what a design professional should be considering when designing/implementing projects. But it does nothing for advocating our lifestyles and what we do with our own home improvement projects. We should be leading by example. If you truly believe in the mission, you should be taking what you do in the office and bring it home. So the question is, with some of the details that you draw/build for your projects, would you use them on your own home? In essence if you consider yourself a green building professional in any way, you should bring you knowledge and expertise to your own home projects and use your own home as a living laboratory.
Yes, like some of our clients, we may have limited budgets, and also cursed with seeing all these great products or cool ideas that we would love to use. However that should not stop us from spending few extra bucks to improve the efficiency of our home, or buy the low VOC paint, adhesive or other materials. Because we know the benefits these stratagies have on lowering our utility bill and carbon footprint, as well as improving the indoor air quality and the quality of our families lives.
So follow me as I lead by example with my own home. Turning my energy hog home into a lean, mean, green machine. Improving the energy efficiency, the indoor air quality and the overall lifestyle of my family.
-Josh
A recent article in my local newspaper titled “Building a better basement” explains the difference of using traditional stick framing and drywall with panel systems for basement remodeling projects. So, naturally red flags went up for me when I saw the title. Primarily because what we have done in the past that we thought were the right things to do, are really not and are causing lots of problems today. Especially the four letter word “mold”. I think back to when my father finished our home when I was younger putting up the sheet of plastic (vapor barrier) before applying the paneling to the insulated stick framing, not to mention the rotten wood I found when tearing down finished basement walls in my own home. If you are wondering what I may be afraid of, check out a couple of studies on insulating existing basements I posted last year. (Building Science Sunday: Basement Insulation)
I want to take a little time and explain some of these systems mentioned in the article a little further and make a couple of suggestions. Now the good thing is that all the companies mentioned in the article all agree that the basement has to address any moisture issues if any first. Because if you have water problems in your basement, it doesn’t matter how mold resistant a product says it is. If the material does not get a chance to dry and is not exposed to sunlight, mold can grow on almost any surface. So lets talk about some of these systems.
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This week is the annual Building Science Summer Camp hosted by Joe Lstiburek and his company Building Science Corporation. Now if you think you can buy tickets for this event like the USGBC Greenbuild or the AIA convention, think again. This is an invitation only event, with some of the industry’s leading building scientists handpicked by Joe himself.
Now I would definitely not expect to be invited (not this year anyways) to such a note worthy week of learning on the latest thoughts in the world of building science and elbow rubbing of the industry leaders. But I would have to say that for someone who is moving into the industry, this would be a great confirmation of one’s work and contribution to be invited. So for the time being I will have to be satisfied with the fact I was able to attend one of Joe’s great lectures and pick his brain at breakfast, as well as work with his partner Betsy Pettit on Ohio’s only LEED Platinum home.
Like Allison Bailes from Energy Vanguard, we will have to sit in our office glued to the computer screen watching as the tweets (#bscamp) come in from its attendants about some of this week’s topics such as spray and foam board insulation, IAQ etc. So if you’re interested to know more about the Building Science Summer Camp, check out the Energy Vanguard blog post (I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Building Science Summer Camp!), as Allison pleads his case for an invitation to next year’s event. Or do as we do and check out some of the thousands of papers that Building Science Corporation has published and posted to their site, free of charge. It is a great resource for some of the industry leading research for building performance.
-Josh
