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.
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.
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).
If you haven't noticed, the big news today is Microsoft Hohm, a free online beta application that's rumored to launch sometime next week. Microsoft Hohm will be a web-based service that takes information about your energy use -- not just electricity -- and examines it to provide recommendations to save money and energy. Here's what you can do:
Last week, Willamette Week Online published an article called "Futurehaus," which we linked to in our Saturday Week in Review. The article describes an Oregon Passive House project in the works by Root Design Build. The house is referred to as the Shift House, which, awkwardly enough, is not to be confused with the other Shift Home that we covered recently. But that's not to take anything away from it. With construction set to begin next month, upon completion in September, it'll be one of only a few certified Passive Houses in the United States.
I noticed BuildingGreen added these exterior venetian blinds to the GreenSpec Directory recently. Hella exterior blinds are distributed in the U.S. through Savannah Trims and available in slat sizes of 2", 3.1", and 4". The blinds are aluminum, have lateral tension, and can be controlled manually or electrically. They're slick looking and come in a variety of heights, widths, and colors.
At the beginning of the year, when we wrote that energy efficiency would come into greater focus, we didn't know the World Business Council for Sustainable Development ("WBCSD") was going to say "energy efficiency is fast becoming one of the defining issues of our time." But this is the message in a new report published by the WBCSD. They invested four years and $15 million in what's being called the most rigorous study on energy efficiency in buildings ever conducted. According to the report, energy use in buildings can be cut by 60% by 2050, but action is necessary soon. Let's take a closer look ...
The Shelton Group just published results of a January 2009 telephone survey of 500 people, and the basic idea is this: Consumers are more interested in saving money than they are in saving the planet. When asked why they would consider buying energy-efficient products, 71% said they would do it to save money, 55% to save the environment, and 49% to protect the quality of life for future generations. With the economy as it is, the results aren't surprising, but in prior years, consumers actually said they were primarily interested in saving the environment.
Depending on the method of construction, green building consultant Mark LaLiberte tells us there are a few common green building mistakes to watch out for -- errors he's seeing more and more as builders move forward with greener practices. Read through this list and then tell us what you think ... are you seeing any other common mistakes with green construction?
Just recently, we mentioned Copeland Casati in regards to the launch of Green Cabin Kits, but I thought it was high time to take a look at her SIPs home under construction near Appomattox in Central Virginia. The home is actually a prototype of the Casa Ti house kit designed by architect David Day. Designed to be off-grid, net-zero energy, and modern, the home has 1200 square feet of space with three bedrooms.
