With consumers hyper-sensitive to energy costs and becoming more environmentally conscious in general, most observers agree that green is the color of the future, for builders and buyers alike. Eventually, the home-buying public is going to demand that their homes be built this way.

Building a modular home versus a standard “site-built” home can make green certification easier. In all, the modular process takes care of about 10 percent of the points toward certification, which puts modular construction ahead of the curve compared to a site builder.

By nature, modular homes are generally better-sealed, and the modular process itself minimizes waste. Modular manufacturers receive much of the wood pre-cut to length and then have programs for recycling the extra, which also earns points. A lot of the materials that the modular manufacturer is already using are green, even though they aren’t necessarily marketed that way.

However, despite more awareness about green building , there is still a lot of confusion about exactly what green building is. Modular Homes, Inc. (MHI) a New Jersey based modular home builder has broken the process down into five categories:

• Using energy efficient designs and materials. The use of shade and sunlight for cooling and heating is as old as time itself, but there are plans and materials specifically designed to keep the house virtually air-tight. With less outside air infiltrating the home, the indoor climate is much easier to control. LED lights use a fraction of regular incandescent bulbs, while Energy Star appliances are certified to meet strict guidelines on the amount of electricity they require to operate.

• Reducing a home’s water consumption. It’s true that the earliest low-flow plumbing fixtures caused problems for some homeowners, but today’s versions are as good, if not better, than the old water hogs. One technology is the incorporation of air into the process; the result is a low-flow shower that feels just as strong as the one using much more water.

• Having an environmentally friendly site. Some of the factors involved are orientation of the house to maximize natural sunlight. As a result, the home’s furnace and air conditioning don’t have to work as hard to maintain a comfortable home. Another goal is making a minimal impact on the area in which the house is built. Clear-cutting the entire lot has been replaced by taking down only the trees and bushes that would interfere with construction.

• Promoting a healthy indoor air environment. Air-tight houses are critical to energy efficiency, but an unwelcome result is indoor air quality that is five times more polluted than the air outdoors. Fresh-air ventilation is often used to exhaust the stale indoor air to the outside, bring in fresh air and conserve energy.

• Emphasizing sustainable products, material conservation and waste reduction. With modular construction, you typically have 30 percent more material that goes into the home with 30 percent less waste. Not surprisingly, green modular homes for sustainable living are growing in popularity. Another form of waste reduction is recycling job-site waste and using it for mulch in the newly planted yard.

Modular Homes, Inc. is a design/build firm that specializes in custom modular homes for the well-educated, discriminating customer. MHI is also a consultant- based organization, which works with builders who would like to enter the modular home business, as well as entrepreneurial clients who are interested in building their own modular home.

For more information on Modular Homes, Inc., visit www.modularhomesinc.com

A traditional-style terraced house has been built inside a three-storey, sealed testing chamber at the University of Salford. In addition to its original brickwork and roof, the world’s first ‘Energy House’, is fully furnished and fitted as a typical working home with fully functioning water, gas and electricity supplies.

The Coronation Street-style house – built in the same style as 4.5m pre-1920 UK homes – will be subject to some of the most advanced energy experiments ever conducted on a residential property.

Unique climate system

University experts will conduct a huge range of tests inside the house to gauge how its energy consumption varies depending on variable factors and conditions. The testing chamber will feature a unique climate system which will generate a range of rain, wind and solar conditions.

By studying the different ways the house consumes energy, the University will be able to devise ways to improve its efficiency. But, beyond simply testing new types of insulation, double glazing and low-energy appliances, Salford’s unique cross-discipline approach to the study of energy will see the University’s psychologists, health experts and sociologists working alongside designers, engineers and scientists to devise sustainable solutions.

For example, Salford is keen to explore if the use of certain colours and wall-coverings really do affect how we perceive temperature, whether smart meters showing the real-time cost of energy use in the house changes consumer behaviour and if, in the future, a games console like the Wii could be powered by physical energy generated by the user.

Salford’s ground-breaking approach is a response to the sustainability challenge presented by the UK’s ageing housing stock. 70% of the country’s residential property will still be inhabited in 2050 and 91% of all UK homes would benefit substantially from improvements in energy efficiency. Improved insulation and boiler upgrades alone could see heating emissions reduced by 22%.

The country’s least efficient properties were predominantly constructed prior to 1920. These currently make up 15% of UK homes but actually account for 23% of total notional C02 emissions. Of these dwellings, more than 2m, are the two-up, two-down terraced-style that the University will be studying closely.

New approach

The Energy House is the centre-piece of the University’s new ‘Energy Hub’ – a multi-disciplinary research centre drawing on the expertise of over 25 academics from 13 departments, and a centre of excellence for energy research in the UK. Its findings and facilities will be utilised by academics, students, government and business.

Professor Steve Donnelly, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Environment, said: “We need to find ways to make these old-build properties more efficient as they will continue to house people for generations to come. But to cost-effectively retrofit old properties and make them as carbon-efficient as possible requires detailed and robust research.

“To work out how homes perform under different conditions, and the most effective ways of reducing energy consumption, requires replicating one in laboratory conditions. The unique cross-discipline nature of The Energy Hub also means that our academics, experts and specialists from a range of fields can access and interpret the data, and work together to find innovative solutions.”

The Energy House project is welcomed by environmental campaigner and former director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper, who attended the launch of The Energy Hub.

He said: “Domestic energy use accounts for a huge proportion of emissions. If we are to have any chance of meeting targets to cut greenhouse gas pollution from UK homes by 29% by 2020, we must focus on improving energy efficiency in all kinds of properties, including the millions of terraced houses like this one.

“The Energy House offers the opportunity to measure energy-saving measures, but it will also address behavioural change.”

A great addition to Salford

Catherine Monaghan, Head of Energy Saving Trust North West said that the Energy House is: “A great addition to Salford and indeed the city region and its designation as a low carbon economic area. The Salford Energy House fits in perfectly with the aspirations of the domestic retrofit programme currently planned for Greater Manchester.”

Oliver Novakovic, Director of BRE Housing Futures said: “We are very excited about this project and its implications with regard to the generation of hard data to help deliver the step change needed if the UK is to achieve its carbon emission reduction targets. It’s essential decision makers have sound evidence from projects such as this one and the Victorian Terrace project at BRE’s site in Watford to ensure products are tested before being tried out in real homes.

“It’s through the collation of this data alongside that collected from over 500 demonstration exemplars that the National Refurbishment Centre (A EST/BRE partnership) plans to support the emerging refurbishment sector and homeowners alike in making the right decision when opting to improve the energy performance of existing homes.”

The Energy House is due to be completed by February 2011. Its unveiling will also mark the opening of the UK’s first ever conference, organised by University of Salford, that will focus on the national challenge to how to sustainably retrofit existing housing stock and commercial property.

Source of photo and article: Salford University.
Video: BBC

Solar system for water heating and generating electricity

This green home completed in 2008, can be found in Venice, California. The builder Tom Schey called it 737conserve. Even though this place is huge at 4500 sq.ft. of living space it has several green features worth noting.

For starters the insulation is made by Ultratouch Recycled Denim which is non-toxic. The large solar array will power the heating and cooling system, plus the appliances, sound and security systems, and the pools variable speed pump. The pool water will come from a natural underground stream. That stream will also be pumped into drip lines to feed the drought tolerant landscaping.

This place was built to conserve, from water usage to energy efficiency systems. But it must be said that the size of the place would go against the grain of the tree hugger. Take away a zero from the square footage and your foot print would be ideal. But with our Texas sized appetites big sells.

Photo credits: 737conserve

Contraflow Fireplace by Tulikivi

So what is a contraflow fireplace? Who knows how to build one? Not me as of yet. The idea sounds interesting, though. With a huge pile of bricks in my front yard, I started my research.

Turns out the idea, although it carries a very long and distinguished history, dovetails neatly with today’s green revolution. The northern European countries and Russia have been using masonry stoves for years since the 17th and 18th centuries, when kings in Prussia and Scandinavia ordered their craftsman and architects to produce better wood stove designs.

This concerted effort produced radically new heat-storing masonry stoves, which showed enormous improvement in efficiency and wood conservation.

Contraflow heater by Eric Moshier

Fast-forward to today, when masonry heaters are still in widespread use throughout northern Europe and are highly regarded for their excellent heating abilities, safety, and environmentally positive aspects. Countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland use the “kachelofen” or tile stoves, which are so popular that buying one can require a one-year wait.

In North America, our heating traditions unfolded differently, where an abundance of available, relatively cheap fossil fuels led to more widespread use. As a result, gas, oil, and electricity still have the lion’s share of the residential heating market (and the industry marketing budgets spend millions of dollars to keep it that way).

During the North American energy crisis of the 70s, many people turned to wood stoves to cut their heating bills. Environmental and economic concerns of the last decade have forced a critical look at better wood-heating devices. If we’re going to get this right ecologically, the stoves have to be efficient more efficient than typical metal-clad stoves.

How energy efficient are today’s masonry stoves? They are proving to be the cleanest method of burning wood, because the wood burns very hot and quickly, producing little or no smoke, soot, or creosote. When wood burns at 1100ºF, everything that can be burned is consumed. The secondary combustion chambers in masonry stoves reach temperatures of 1400º-1800ºF, and well over that point.

After the quick-burning but intense fire has gone out, the energy stored in the massive bulk of masonry is released slowly into the house over the succeeding 18 to 24 hours. Various forms of biomass heating, including masonry stoves, are getting a lot of attention from ecological architects and designers today.

If you’re considering a masonry stove, you can take one of three approaches: ready-made product, stove kits, or custom design. But first, be prepared for a long-term investment. The better-known soapstone fireplaces from Tulikivi will set you back anywhere from $7,500 to $10,000. Temp-Cast build-it-yourself stove kits start at about $3,500; then add another few thousand for professional installation.

Bread oven by Gulf Island Oven

The Masonry Heater Store in Holland, Ohio designs and installs custom masonry, which is a beautiful way to make the hearth the heart of your home. In talking with co-owner Nancy Matesz, I learned that business is brisk in their corner of the world. She said, “As the environmental and cost advantages of masonry are becoming more understood, our business is really growing. Whether we’re doing a custom design or installing a Tulikivi, we hear the same message from our customers–they like the security of protecting themselves against skyrocketing fuel costs.”

Like many decisions that support a more sustainable world, an investment in a masonry stove saves money. Then, as a bonus, add a pizza or bread oven to keep your buns warm.

LED Garage Lighting - www.betaLED.com

Even such a simple act as parking the car and walking into the house can be compromised by poor lighting design. Bumping into low shelves, tripping over toys and many other common garage accidents could be avoided with proper lighting.

But how can you achieve that?

The process starts by first recognizing the difference between wattage and illumination. A 100-watt incandescent bulb draws 100 watts of power from the electrical outlet. That’s how the number gets assigned. The bulb consumes 100-watts. That’s only indirectly related to how much light is given off, measured in lumens.

A standard 100-watt bulb gives off about 1,740 lumens. By comparison, a pair of 4-foot 54-watt fluorescent bulbs, the type commonly found in garage lighting fixtures, can provide anywhere between 5,000-8,800 lumens, depending on the design. That’s a considerable difference in efficiency, which is one of the major reasons fluorescent bulbs are so much cheaper to use.

In many garages, that ordinary 2-bulb fluorescent fixture may well be adequate, but usually just barely. Any garage with shelves, corners, or — most especially– a workbench will need much more.

As in any other area of the home, there are three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent. Accent lights are just what they sound like, lights used to highlight some feature, such as a decorative wall painting. Ambient light provides the overall illumination for the room. Task lights are especially important in a garage that is used for anything more than just to store the car.

Even something as simple as storing tools and tool boxes, gardening supplies and the like will benefit greatly from task lights. Imagine going into the garage to pull out the right chemical and grabbing weed killer instead of plant food. That means a trip back to the garage for the right stuff. Grab a flat head screwdriver instead of a Phillips head and you have the same problem.

Good ambient light is still important, though. No one should have to feel their way around the garage to avoid bumping into things. Slips and falls are more common in the garage than they are on indoor floors, even though both are about equally slick. Installing lights that provide good ambient light are a small investment to minimize that risk.

Finally, though it’s not often considered very much, a garage too creates a mood. Compare the dark hole of many home garages to the well lit atmosphere of a professional car dealership garage. Safety is one factor. But having lights to lift the spirits is just as important, especially since many garages have few or no windows.

Design a lighting scheme for the garage with the same attention to goals as you would any other room in the house. If you spend time there, it’s worth lighting right.

Global warming drives solar markets. Solar is perceived as the best, perhaps the only widespread solution to global warming. Every large enterprise has adopted a social responsibility strategy that makes a nod toward solving the issues of global warming and embraces renewable energy. Every person in the world is aware of the problems that global warming is bringing.

High growth is forecast for residential solar markets as solar moves to take on a measurable supply of world energy. As penetration from .3% of the world energy supply raises to over 15% in five years, residential uses of solar energy will represent a significant part of the growth. Residential solar energy represents a measure of energy independence for every household, used as hybrid systems independently of, but not completely in place of traditional grid electricity.

It is not economical to put solar generated electricity back on the grid, instead it will be used from batteries where the electricity is stored for later use. Solar systems will initially be used for lighting and charging hybrid and electric vehicles. Traditional grid electricity will only slowly be replaced. Grid hybrid electricity solutions will persist for a long time.

Demand for energy is accelerating as more of the world becomes developed. Developing countries are anticipated to double the worlds demand for energy in the next thirty years. Energy creation is becoming a central environmental issue with air quality, water quality, and flooding because of global warming having implications for the entire world.

Solar energy is a clean, reusable and affordable solution that is increasingly being recognized as the leading alternative energy source for the 21st century. While hybrid solutions are anticipated to evolve with wind, geothermal, and nuclear solutions, evolving as well, solar looks to be a dominant technology. The solar panel size is a tradeoff between the amount of money wanted to invest and the amount of electricity needed to produce. A typical US home uses 13,000kWh per year or 5kWp.

On average, the sun radiates 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of energy onto a square mile of the earth’s surface, and the most suitable way to harvest that light depends on two factors: cost and the available real estate. It does not matter that thin film solar panels are not more than 10% efficient initially, the roof of the home is not doing anything else except sit there. The sides of the home, the back fence can be used to collect solar energy and that energy can be stored for later use in vehicles and lighting.

This market segmentation is anticipated to shift as the thin film solar panels become commercially viable. The thin film solar panels will be used initially in utility applications, but also in residential applications for fueling motor vehicles. The ability to store energy from solar panels makes them a viable alternative to gasoline. The lithium and lithium ion batteries are a very dense energy storage medium providing incentive for people to put in a modest amount of thin film battery banks recharged by solar panels. As people do this, the silicon markets keep growing at a steady pace, due to the decrease in the costs for the silicon raw materials due to increased capacity for manufacturing the raw materials and increased demand for the silicon solar panels.

The thin film solar panel technology has yet to mature. It is in this segment where the phenomenal growth occurs. Versatile thin film solar products are based on unique manufacturing processes. Sputtering is used to do thin film solutions for solar cell manufacture based on defining a repeatable process. Solar cell efficiencies are in the 9 to 10% range for sputtering implementations, but roof installations are not sensitive to size restrictions.

Thin film solar sputtering technology achieves physical vapor deposition which takes an ion and accelerates it. In this manner, the sputtering is used to knock out a target, depositing uniform films at high rates.

Residential solar markets at $2.5 billion in 2007 are anticipated to reach $39.3 billion by 2014. Growth is a result of using residential solar systems to power hybrid and all electric vehicles. Units raise from 74 million solar panels in 2007 to 25.6 billion units in 2014. Growth comes not only because solar power is the cheapest power source which it will be in many cases, but because it fulfills a variety of convenience needs, not the least of which is a way to attack global warming. Every large enterprise has adopted a green strategy in response to public demand for better energy solutions.

Readers will find information on:

• Global warming and environmental degradation of air, water, and soil
• Sustainable living and how to do it
• Cutting down on carbon output with alternative cars and fuels
• Environmentally friendly home and lawn care products

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living
$16.95, September
Author: Trish Riley, Sunrise, FL

First off, half of fossil fuel use is for heating and cooling buildings, and for the manufacture of building materials. Also, half of the debris in landfills comes from demolished short life buildings. Most homes cannot handle climate change, extreme weather, storms and floods. They rely on mechanical systems just to remain “liveable”. With rising energy prices, the heating and cooling costs may soon exceet house payment.
In contrast, a sustainable home does not use up the earth’s resources, now or in the future. It is self-sufficient and strong enough to survive wind, hail, ice and floods. It is designed and build to LAST, sheltering many generations. Overall, the sustainable home saves more than it costs.

A new book by John Banta (indoor environmental consultant, with twenty years experience in building biology, building science and indoor environmental quality), Extreme Weather Hits Home, builds on the idea that as global warming continues, nearly 50 percent of North America has a potential for structural damage from shifting moisture in expansive clay soils; a condition that is already costing billions of dollars each year. As well, climate models predict that northern communities are going to become much more humid at certain times of the year, putting buildings in those areas at risk. As the climate changes, and moisture levels adjust, there are a number of proactive steps that can be taken to prevent or lessen expensive repairs.

Some of the areas covered in the book include:

• Risk to your property, due to climate change effects on region and soil
• Extreme weather’s rapid and slow effects
• Site foundation, wall and roof considerations and modifications
• Insurance options
• Anticipated changes for the United States, Canada and Mexico

While what is yet to occur weather-wise is unforeseen, we can take advantage of what scientists have been able to tell us about the years to come. An example of this is water. In many states, rainfall is expected to reduce in the decades ahead; and we’ll see more rain “events” rather than rain periods. This means less rain and what rain does fall will do so in more concentrated bursts.

Given this, many new house will have larger storage tanks and greater roof surface area. Landscaping-wise, it would wise to plant native trees that are the least thirsty of the local species.

The structures should also be strengthened to withstand higher winds than what is required by local regulations. Wind turbines, which weren’t an option before, may become a viable alternative or adjunct to solar panels. Extra expansion joints will be an important feature to cope with extremes in temperature. Even now in some cities; people are reporting huge cracks appearing in brick wall due to drought. Drainage is another important aspect. After a dry spell the ground can be somewhat resistant to soaking up moisture and initial rains can just sit on the surface causing flooding problems.