When It Rains, It Pours: An Opportunity to Re-Evaluate Your Water Use Habits
Part One in a Two Part Series With the onset of the winter rain and snow storms, it’s easy to forget about the dire predictions of drought and associated water rationing measures from the dog days of summer that gripped the Western United States. While this season’s storms may now seem like a nuisance, it’s important to acknowledge our dependence on them for the replenishment of the hydrologic cycle. In 2009, 45 states in the U.S. reported “water stress” conditions – a 50% increase over the past two decades and an increase that has far outpaced population growth. While there are...
Read MoreHow Much Do You Want to Save on Your Utility Bill? A Silver Lining to the Economic Downturn Part IV
Part Four in a Four Part Series Upgrading the Building Envelope Much has been made about the $5 billion Weatherization Assistance Program included in the stimulus package, which provides $6,500 in assistance to low income homes for energy efficiency efforts. However, energy consumption associated with conditioning a space can range between 40% and 50% of a home’s overall energy consumption. Therefore, such measures as sealing of air ducts, adding weather striping around windows and doors, and plugging holes with foam insulation (including holes around outlets) can make a huge difference in...
Read MoreHow Much Do You Want to Save on Your Utility Bill? A Silver Lining to the Economic Downturn Part III
Part Three in a Four Part Series Windows Windows contribute mightily to the heating and cooling load on a home and thus, the energy that is used to condition the home’s space – estimated at roughly 10% of a home’s energy consumption. There have been a host of technological advances that have dramatically improved the energy efficiency of windows – today’s most efficient commonly available windows insulate four times better than windows that were available two to three decades ago. Windows now come regularly with multiple layers of glazing – two or even three are common place,...
Read MoreHow Much Do You Want to Save on Your Utility Bill? A Silver Lining to the Economic Downturn Part II
Part Two in a Four Part Series Heating We generally take our home’s heating system for granted – that is until it isn’t working or we get the monthly utility bill during those nasty winter months. Most homes have a furnace, which uses an igniter switch to burn natural gas or in some cases propane (or fuel oil), to heat up air via a heat exchanger; which is in turn circulated throughout the house, at least in a central heating system. Furnaces are typically the single largest consumer of energy in a home and the largest contributor to the generation of greenhouse gases. Furnaces are...
Read MoreHow Much Do You Want to Save on Your Utility Bill? A Silver Lining to the Economic Downturn Part I
Part One in a Four Part Series The stimulus package signed by President Obama in February 2009 included $25 billion in core energy efficiency programs. Over 50% of this funding, more than $14 billion, has been allocated towards upgrading federal, school and higher education facilities to high performance buildings “in ways that are consistent with a recognized green building rating system.” While this is significant in and of itself, what is equally significant is the funding on the residential market that is available to home owners. Besides the over $300 million made available to...
Read MoreWhat’s Inside the Kitchen Cupboard? The Basics of Sustainable Casework
Part Four in a Four Part Series So why all the concern over formaldehyde? While formaldehyde is, indeed, a common chemical compound in our modern society and most, if not all, of the conventional resins used in pressed wood materials include some form of formaldehyde, formaldehyde is carcinogenic (see the various reports offered by the World Health Organization www.who.int/en/). Formaldehyde is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is categorized as a volatile organic compound (VOC), which will vaporize and off gas, thus, providing exposure to building occupants. Because of this,...
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