Green Building : Jetson Green

Investing in Energy Efficiency Pays

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) conducted a post-occupancy study of 25 LEED commercial projects in Illinois and just published the first round of results from their research.  The Regional Green Building Case Study Project is one of the first post-occupancy studies to measure energy performance, greenhouse gases emissions, water use, transportation effects, construction and occupancy costs, health benefits, and occupancy comfort on a regional scale.  Although CNT found that some LEED projects perform better than others, they also determined that investing in energy efficiency pays off. 

Hotel Chain Saves $4.4 M Annually with Fresh LED Signage

We all know there's money in energy efficiency, but sometimes, it's hard to justify the upfront costs to receive the benefits over time.  When crunching the numbers, it helps to recall the Energy Pie Chart that Steven Chu posted to his Facebook recently -- lighting accounts for 26% of energy use in commercial buildings!  Which is why Holiday Inn will save ~$4.4 million annually as they swap out their neon and fluorescent signage for super efficient LED signage. 

Video: Amory Lovins' Super Green Home

In the mid-1980s, Amory Lovins, co-founder, chairman, and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, built an efficient, 4,000 square foot home in Colorado.  By today’s thinking, the home is a little larger than most greenies would prefer, but it was built to be 90% more efficient than a traditional home of its size.  That’s pretty impressive, especially at a time when the panels on the roof of the White House were being taken down for “repair.”

An Efficient Coolerado in the Wild

About two days after hearing that Coolerado had won the Western Cooling Challenge for the hybrid commercial version of this technology, I saw this on a newly built home.  This is what appears to be the M50 Coolerado.  Coolerado says they have the most efficient air conditioning system made -- it uses up to 90% less electricity than a traditional air conditioner, depending on the humidity and elevation above sea level.  High and dry works best; see how:

Breaking Down Building Energy Use

We've all heard the numbers before, but here's a nice little chart with a helpful breakdown of information.  Buildings account for roughly 40% of all U.S. energy use.  Or stated with more particularity, residential buildings account for 22% of all U.S. energy use and commercial buildings account for 18% of all U.S. energy use.  When you parse the numbers out, here's where that energy is used:

Living Perfection with the Vantage Energy Management Solution

The energy management space is really crowded, and the pace of innovation is hard to keep up with.  While researching the various options on the market, I saw an opportunity to learn what one company's doing.  Vantage, a long-time provider of home automation solutions for luxury homeowners, is located down the road in Orem, Utah, and the company just released a new Energy Management Solution.  It's designed to save homeowners upwards of $600 - $1,500 per year, and the Vantage was kind enough to give me a tour of their offices to see how the solution works.

How to Unlock Energy Efficiency as a National, Low-Cost Resource

Unless you live in a cave, you've probably heard about McKinsey & Company's new report called Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy.  Starting in 2008, a research team from McKinsey began working with companies, experts, agencies, and NGOs to (1) understand the net present value (NPV) positive potential of energy efficiency gains, (2) identify barriers to realizing these gains, and (3) outline practical solutions to unlock the potential energy efficiency gains.  This comprehensive report documents that effort.

Efficient Modern Passive House in Utah

There's a new site called Our Passive House, where the owners are documenting the design and construction of the first Passive House in Utah.  It just so happens that I live in the same general neighborhood, so we'll try to present a follow up article when the home is complete.  Owners Joe and Rebecca, available on Twitter @ourpassivehouse, hired Brach Design, Utah's first certified Passive House consultant, to design the home.

The Waxman-Markey Building Energy Performance Labeling Program

There's been a lot of talk about various green building provisions in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454 or "ACES"), but there's one specific section of ACES that deserves more attention.  Section 204 needs to be included in the green building discussion, because this is where the Building Energy Performance Labeling Program is.  With this program, as we predicted with our Seven Green Trends, the federal government could lay the foundation for true and legitimate building environmental impact labels.  Let's talk about this unprecedented policy, with a little background discussion. 

LionForce ecoLiving Custom Green Home

San Antonio-based LionForce built this efficient home as a prototype for their ecoLiving System -- a web-based configurator that will help homeowners design homes and build them through a national network of certified building partners.  LionForce says their homes are efficient, healthy, low-maintenance, quickly constructed, and cost effective.  This first prototype home, the T-2 home, has already received a 2009 Green Building Award from the City of San Antonio (in the custom home under 2,200 square feet category).