sym-home

Panelist at the 2011 AIA Ohio Valley Region Convention

Over the weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the 2011 AIA Ohio Valley Region Convention in Dayton, Ohio as a panelist for the topic “Alternative Career Paths in Architecture”. I represented myself as part of the home performance industry, performing home energy audits and quality control/quality assurance inspections. As a part of the panel, I feel that I was the furthest outside of the box from being in the traditional architectural field. Other fields or paths related to architecture that were represented were, specifications writing, historic preservation, university planning department, state architects office and web comics. The panel was moderated by Lee W. Waldrep, Ph.D who wrote the book Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design and moderated similar panels at other conventions such as the 2011 AIA National Convention.

The overall convention was invigorating. It not only re-energized my spirits, but helped show me some directions that I can take my career. I also had the opportunity to network and talk with some colleagues that I have not seen in the past year or so, as well as meet a couple of up and coming celebrities, the creators of the popular web comic Architexts. Therefore, until next years convention I am looking forward to getting more involved in the architecture profession again, even if it is just participating in AIA events and meetings.

Kill’n a hog….an Energy Hog

Our home as it was purchased in 2005

Back in 2005 my wife and I purchased this ranch with a walk out basement. It is/was your typical 1960′s stick built home. Very low levels of insulation, single pane aluminum windows, with an unfinished basement and a huge backyard for the area, with lots of old growth trees. The view out of the dinning room window was the selling point. Some other nice amenities is that it is in a developed neighborhood with schools that are within walking distance, grocery within a mile. The town also has a very active year round farmers market. Plus the home was the mid point between both of our jobs at that time and is relatively close to a bus route.

The back of our home as it was purchased in 2005

However during the home inspection we found some troubling things. There was little to no insulation in the attic, the basement walls were uninsulated. And what makes that even worse is the fact that half of the house foundation is above ground. Not to mention the aging heating and cooling equipment. So we looked at this house as a blank slate, giving us the opportunity to not only renovate the home to fit our needs, but to do everything in an environmentally friendly way and to do it within our limited budget.

So this is where “Symbiotic Home” originally began. A website to help educate others on what can be done to green their existing home. Now with a good portion of the projects done, I will be developing this new series of posts that will backtrack and document each of the projects that we have tackled, and will even discuss future projects that we would like to accomplish. Giving you a glimpse of what we have been doing, how we have been doing it, and why as we green this energy pig.

So follow my home renovations as I walk the walk and show that green/sustainable construction can happen on the typical working families budget and I look forward to the discussions that this may create.

-Josh

New Innovations in Energy showcase at COSI

Last week the Center of Science & Industry (COSI) introduced a new exhibit in their Innovations Showcase, Innovations in Energy. My family was invited to attend the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for this new showcase as one of my projects is featured in their Green Building touch screen display featuring green buildings in categories such as Homes, Big Buildings & Schools. The N. Twenty First Street project is currently the only home project featured in the touch screen display letting users know about the green features of each of these buildings.

However the showcase is about more than just buildings. There are some other great hands on exhibits featuring smart meters and electric distribution, fueling stations giving you hands on alternatives to fueling your car such as Bio-Fuels (E-85), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electricity and hydrogen. There were even games teaching kids about energy efficiency (Hog Busters Training Camp). Besides the green building section, my favorite area was the home energy efficiency displays with the infrared camera, showing visitors what is behind our walls. Of course I had my son go put his hand on the wall to show the sensitivity of the camera.

I look forward to the future expanded exhibit. In the meantime I encourage families to go and check out the new Innovations in Energy showcase at COSI.

Residential Energy Modeling

Energy modeling is becoming more common place with the design of commercial buildings. However it is primarily used by the mechanical engineer to design and size their systems. Very seldom is it used in the early stages of a project as part of the design process for the entire building to maximize the energy efficiency. In the residential sector of design and construction, energy modeling is rarely used. It is more common place with Energy Star rated homes, even then it is only used to show compliance with the requirements of Energy Star standards, not a part of the design process.

Energy modeling in new home design, construction and renovations can be a very effective tool to weigh the cost effectiveness of any design strategy used to improve energy efficiency in a home. Actually most energy auditors use some form of energy modeling to show their customers what kind of financial payback they could expect when implementing any of the recommended improvements. So why is this tool not used more within the design industry? Energy modeling is a standard service I provide with any home design work that I do, as well as a service that I provide to other design and construction professionals. I offer this because some jurisdictions do require an energy compliance certificate. Granted most design professionals and builders use REScheck as their preferred method. However, REScheck will only demonstrate compliance using the trade-off approach and the prescriptive packages approach as described in the energy conservation codes.

More advanced software packages such as REM/Design which I use takes this a step further. REM/Design and other software packages will not only provide you with a compliance certificate, but it will provide design loads along with estimated energy usage and cost to operate the home. This can be helpful as a preliminary sizing tool for your heating and cooling systems. What is also valuable about this feature is it gives you the ability to weigh the cost effectiveness of “upgraded” insulation levels or more efficient systems. The software will even break up the loads into building components, so you know where most of your energy is being lost in the homes envelope. For instance a recent project I was consulting on, I was able to determine that the six skylights the homeowner wanted in their passive solar home were more of an energy penalty than an overall gain. So there was a compromise and the number of skylights was reduced to 3 as a daylighting strategy instead of one for heat gain in the winter time.

Component loads

In an article posted on the American Institute of Architects website (Sustainable AIA: 2031–Why Energy Models Don’t Predict Actual Energy Use), it discusses the criticisms that energy modeling does not predict the actual energy usage of the building or home. To some degree that is expected, energy modeling simulates the energy usage of a home to determine design loads based upon your geographical region. Each software package takes into account occupants; however they cannot take into account occupant behavior which has a huge impact on the performance of any building or home. Of course each software package has its flaws and performs some calculations better than others.

In the coming weeks, Chris Laumer-Giddens with Energy Vanguard in Georgia who is a licensed architect and HVAC designer will tell us the basic differences in some of the more widely used energy modeling tools.

Deep Energy Reduction with the Thousand Home Challenge

Thousand Home Challenge Threshold Calculator Last week I had the opportunity to attend an introductory webinar of the “Thousand Home Challenge” whose mission is to demonstrate the possibility of reducing our existing home stocks overall energy usage by 70-90%. Their goal is to achieve these reductions by energy efficiency measures, renewable resources, community solutions, and behavioral changes. The intent of the challenge is to use these thousand homes as a resource and educational platform for change to help transform our existing building stock.

The first step is to determine your energy reduction goal by using their threshold calculator. You have two options when it comes to determining your reduction goals. The first option or as they refer to as Option A, which is intended for high energy usage homes, sets a 75% reduction goal based upon a recent years’ verifiable energy usage. Option B is for low energy users and sets an energy reduction threshold based upon your zip code, finished floor area, number of occupants and a few other simple inputs.

Our home as it was purchased in 2005

So to continue the Sym-Home mission of educating others and to show that existing homes can make deep cuts in their energy usage; I will be enrolling my personal residence into the challenge. Considering my family has made significant energy related improvements to our home to bring down our utility costs, we are at the point of pushing the envelope, looking to make those energy related upgrades that the average homeowner doesn’t even think about. However we are considered to be a lower energy user, so we will be enrolling into the challenge and attempting to meet the energy usage thresholds of Option B. As you can see, by our current usage and goals set, we are still looking at a 42% reduction in energy usage to meet the challenge. I will continue the blog series, Kill’n a Hog….an Energy Hog, of tracking our energy improvements and take them to the next level as we go beyond what most consider to be a DIY project.

If you are considering some major energy related improvements to your home, consider enrolling into the Thousand Home Challenge. The first step to participating in the Thousand Home Challenge is to attend the introductory webinar to learn more about the goals, mission, and determination of one’s threshold allowance. So if you are interested, the next webinar is currently scheduled for May 31^st. Check out the 1000 Home Challenge website and enroll to make some deep cuts and help our country reach energy independence.