Hastily Composed VOC chemistry update

One axis of dilema in building-- does the chemistry of the products we use to assemble and attach our buildings together always in tension with other things such as durability, efficiency, tightness, etc.

This afternoon, I've spent a little time pulling together some resources on what resources we have now, and who's really pushing on the boundaries.

1.  Standard MSDS sheet:

We check it out, and scan its pages.  It's mostly not terribly helpful.  In other words, if you're looking for information related to acute exposure to specific high risk chemicals, and maybe some vague VOC content, then MSDS sheets will be awesome!   As a document for green building research, they answer few questions.
But, by law, they must indicate any regulated chemicals into the MSDS sheet, but not much more than that.   So, in the least, you could look up those chemicals in other databases and learn so much about the niceties of chemical exposure.

In fact, this leads me to...
2.  California's database of nasties to eschew indefinitely:

http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/allrels.html 

3. One great hope for the future:  The Pharos Project

Continuing to ask the questions, digging into the truth, is the laudable Pharos project.  It is starting with transparency first-- understanding what chemicals are built into the products we use in our projects, and being explicit about the risks.  They also host some very interesting information about the current events of 

http://www.pharosproject.net/

Cash 4 Appliances

So it's almost officially Earth Day, and there's yet another rebate program associated with trying to undermine the counterfactual, or in other words, get us to use energy and water more efficiently than you would be if you didn't buy new stuff.  

Before I get off on a rant, here's the website.

http://www.cash4appliances.org/

Note how it shares the orthography of hip-speak, supplanting the homophonic for for 4  (whoa!  Parse that Batman!).

"What for?"  you ask...

I'm really just talking about your standard fridges and dishwashers and washing machines, etc.  They just want you to buy new ones!  Why?!  Cuz it's a win win win for everyone!

It turns out that white goods salez (wait, is there some embedded racialism in there?) are good for the economies of our spaceship earth.  That's win #1. Of course, the program is trying to do good by making sure you properly "recycle" or "downcycle" your old appliances with certified, or "platinum" dealerships.  I'm not sure what precious metals that are highly productive as catalysts (like in the current lecture I'm not listening to on photoelectrochemical cells).

Of course, you'll probably save money on your utility billz too.  That's win #2

And, it's being funded by ARRA monies for it, so its coming from future us's!!!  How awesome is it that future me is investing is present me!  

Heat balance of nudist colonies

One of the three mechanisms for heat transfer is Radiation.  Just about everything outside of a lab that has a temperature radiates light in some visible or invisible form.  The hotter the temperature, the more visible the light (which is how our incandescent lights work). Radiation at the temperatures we live in (70 F) are not as small as I originally thought-- ~400 Watts per square meter of surface, and it's almost entirely in the non-visible infrared light spectrum.  Fortunately, everything around is throwing ~400 Watts/m^2 back and forth, so if the environment itself is enclosed, with no heat loss outward, then everything is just throwing out 400 Watts/m^2 while simultaneously absorbing 400 W/m^2 back.  

--In a sort of gross approximation, imagine two of those heat dishes facing each other, radiating to each other, keeping each other mutually warm.  awww... Loving...

Our radiant environment and the human body:
Us mortals are homeostatically around 98.6 deg F (actually, proven to be more in the 99 deg range, but 98.6 is exactly 37 deg C, so the math is easier).
The Radiant heat transfer given ideally by the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, which equals (5.67*10^-8)*([Temperature of one surface]^4  -   [Temperature of other surface]^4)
If we think of one surface as the human body, and the other surface as everything else around us (let's say, at 71 deg F, or 22 C), the net radiant heat transfer between the body and the room is roughly:
5.67*10^-8 * (37^4 - 22^4)= 84 Watts/m^2.
If we multiply by 1 square meter (a guess at the area of the human body exposed to the environment), then we get ~80 Watts net heat loss to the environment.
If we add in conductance, that equation looks like this, assuming a thermal conductance of the skin to the surrounding air of R-2:  (98.6 F - 71 F)/(R-2)*3.412[Btu/hr-Watt]=  255 Watts of heat loss to the environment.  YIKES!  brrr....
And, if you were wondering about that R-2 of the convection resistance next to the skin, I am indeed assuming for all of this that we're totally naked.  You'll see soon why we invented clothes.

[Caveats here for those who really can see what's going on and want to rightfully criticize my spherical cow approach here-- this will be a rather conservative estimate, as we'll see later.  The skin of the human body is not usually 98.6 deg F, but a bit lower, resulting in lower radiation as well as convective heat losses]

So, to keep track, we've got the following heat losses:
84 Watts of Radiation  +
255 Watts of Conduction/Convection
~330 Watts lost to the environment

Ok, now what about heat gains?  us mortals are also little power plants, converting food into thought, and waste heat (with about 20% efficiency overall).  Given our diets and average activites, we eat about 2000-3000 kilocalories of food a day.  Do some conversions, and we get a total of about 150 Watts of heat production  from just being living breathing things.

So, the net heat balance:
330 Watts loss-150 Watts of heat gain= 170 Watts of net cooling off.

Again... brrr.  We invented clothes for a reason.  It's because 70 degrees is a little chilly of a radiant environment to be naked, or so it seems.  Due to the aforementioned conservativeness of the calculation, it not actually as bad as 170 Watts of heat loss, and it's also a dynamic system, so our bodies are pretty good at reducing heat loss in these situations by lowering skin temperature.

But while continuing on the theme--
how warm would it have to be to be comfortable nude, standing, in a radiantly heated room?
The answer, per all my assumptions here is:
87 degrees Fahrenheit!  exhibitionists take note!  or put on some clothes already.


Ok, now on to some real work.

Green Building Incentives: 94301 version

Recently, I was reminded that I should once again turn my attentions to reviewing all the various monies and incentives available to green building/energy efficiency/water efficiency professionals and citizens trying to do better things.  I mean, solar energy systems, water efficiency technology, 

Fracking Fractalling fragmentation: What's good in your neighborhood?

If you've ever looked into these sort of incentive programs, being knowledgeable of them is similar to being expert in distinct island ecologies in the mist of Papua.  And, by that, I mean it's complicated to simplify.  There are large amount of incentives, but they are all spatially and temporally confined.  The City of Palo Alto has its own programs, which sometimes piggyback off of the Santa Clara Valley Irrigation District's incentives in just the "Water" category, and not the "Energy" category.  Technologies, such as washing machines, are spliced up like financial tranches, with their water savings incentivized by one entity, and their energy by another.  

All this makes it exceedingly complicated to be general and comprehensive about such rebates, since they change constantly, and they each have particular requirements.  

So, I've tried to assemble a mostly comprehensive list for the South Bay Aria.  

Here's the list all colorful and databasey.  

All the Rebates for Palo Alto are on top, and comprise most of the list.

The BEST Conference Day 1

Yes, they call this the Building Enclosure Science and Technology conference...  up in Central Cascadia itself-- Portland, OR.
This is kind of like the other green building conferences we go to, except this conference actually talks about performance, and brings the data.  They say such heretical things like "Green building may or may not include the use of green materials."  There are lots of charts and graphs and pictures of hilARIOUS failures and all these design/construction professionals' pets.

So, here's a summary from the day, selectively

1.  Invisible Window Installation!!
This was in a presentation on metrics for Zero-Net Energy Homes, mostly focused on Winnipeg.

2.  ENERGY STAR homes:  New standards coming out in 2012, incorporating all the more building science,  which is nice.  The guy, (Sam Rashkin) was pretty implicitly down on most existing buildings, since they are simply controlled failures, since they are either uninsulated (and consequently durable) energy hogs, or they're insulated inappropriately resulting in inevitable mold, lameness, and failure.
Highlights from the new standard:
-- no more ductwork outside of conditioned space!
-- all insulation installed to RESNET grade I, which pretty much makes batt insulation as cost-effective as spray installations (meaning, a lot more expensive)
--Toyota is starting to make modular homes for $200-$800.  they come with a 60 year warranty.  no joke
--no more energy model "score" in E-STAR certification


3.  In the construction of the Guggenheim museum in New York City (demigod himself F. Lloyd Wright)
 -- as a testament to divine intervention, the top level of the cylindrical complex there did not completely fly open in all of its 60 years of existing.  The top floor is formed like an old wooden barrel, with vertical planks of wooden cinched together (and bent like springs) against horizontal metal straps.  Instead of wood, they used gunnite concrete with metal rebar 'straps'.  Well the consruction foreman (or someone) decided to cut those straps before the gunnite was sprayed/formed, leaving the entire 6th floor of the museum unreinforced.
They only discovered this when, several years ago, they were trying to diagnose some cracking that they saw up there.  hmmm. scary.

--In Net Zero Energy Homes:
Rule of thumb for for the Northwest   75% energy efficiency, 25% building PV's
for Canada:  80-90% efficiency, 10-20% PV's

Stucco:  it will crack, it will fail, it will crumble, that's exactly what it's supposed to do.  That's why it's such a great protector, and has been used for thousands of years.

the keys are:
 --clean consistent materials:  e.g. polluted sand contains too many fines, which suck up way too much water, causing one to way water down the cement, resulting in a weak structure.
--consistent thickness:  makes for consistent movement, which is key for crack prevention
--proper hydration during curing: just like concrete.  it is concrete.
--proper detailing:  all those corners and edges and transitions and openings.

I saw some great 1-coat stucco systems over 1-inch foam.  awesome

Some parting thoughts:

The Parthenon meets LEED requirements for daylighting

Most Sustainable Building (that's actually a building) evfer!

Water pumping vs. Water heating energy

So here's the quandry--
We've got our house with a long distance of water pipe between the water heater and the faucet.  Each morning, we make ourselves some tea, and need to boil some water to do so.
It's nice to simply heat hot water from the water heater instead of boiling cold water from the tap.  But in order to get the hot water, we need to run the tap for a couple of minutes, and all that cold water just goes down the drain, wasting all the energy it took to pump it there to the tap in the first place.

We know that providing water and sewage treatment has an energy cost.
We also know that water heating itself is an energy cost.

The Answer:
Depending on the efficiency of the water heater-- between 30-60 gallons of water down the drain to be equivalent of the water heating energy needed to raise the water temperature to 130 (equivalent to the output of the water heater).

Note:  You may notice that I'm implicitly assuming that the heat from the water heater would be otherwise "wasted" which of course, it isn't all.  So, it's a bit of a simplistic calculation.  At least it gives a little order of magnitude.

Spring 2010 classes: not so free edition

So, to follow up with the previous posting about free classes—there are also some not so free ones out there.  The ones that I will reference here are offered by:

The California Building Performance  Contractors Association—and they do a bunch of classes on Building Science, residential retrofit practices, diagnostics, evaluation, and performance.  Theses classes, combined with a trillion or so dollars of retrofit/renovation monies from somewhere, could transform our broader energy systems and obviate half of our existing power plants, and all the pollution they provide.  There are lots of people who don’t want that to happen, for obvious reasons (they’ve invested a lot of good money into those things). 

Their formatting in the HTML seems to actively discourage reposting, so, here’s the link to the right page:

http://www.cbpca.org/contractors/trainingcalendar.html

Build It Green:
Located up in Alameda—they run the GreenPoint Rated home certification program that’s all the rage here in Palo Alto (because it’s required by code).  

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Monday - Tuesday, April 5-6 from 8AM-5PM
Location: IBEW Local 332 Headquarters 2125 Canoas Garden Road San Jose, CA 95125
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Green Home Retrofitting & Remodeling - Advanced Training
Day: Tuesday - Wednesday, April 27-28 from 8AM-5PM
Location: Scottish Rite Center 1520 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Thursday - Friday, May 6-7 from 8AM-5PM
Location: StopWaste.org 1537 Webster Street Oakland, CA 94612
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Monday - Tuesday, May 10-11 from 8AM-5PM
Location: Richmond BUILD III- Green Careers Training Academy 500 23rd Street Richmond, CA 94804
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Thursday - Friday, May 13-14 from 8AM-5PM
Location: Marin Builders Association 660 Las Galinas Avenue San Rafael, CA 94903-3687
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

CGBP & GreenPoint Rated: Advisor/Rater Trainings
Day: Monday - Saturday, June 7-12 from 8AM-5PM (M-F); 8:30AM-12PM (Sat. only)
Location: Richmond BUILD III- Green Careers Training Academy 500 23rd Street Richmond, CA 94804
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

GreenPoint Rated: Advisor & Rater Training
Wednesday - Saturday, June 9-12 from 8AM-5PM (W-F); 8:30AM-12PM (Sat. only)
Location: Richmond BUILD III- Green Careers Training Academy 500 23rd Street Richmond, CA 94804
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Monday - Tuesday, June 7-8 from 8AM-5PM (M-F);
Location: IBEW Local 332 Headquarters 2125 Canoas Garden Road San Jose, CA 95125
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Tuesday - Wednesday, June 22-23 from 8AM-5PM
Location: SoCal Gas Company - Energy Resource Center 9240 Firestone Boulevard Downey, CA
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Green Home Retrofitting & Remodeling - Advanced Training
Day: Thursday - Friday, June 24-25 from 8AM-5PM
Location: SoCal Gas Company - Energy Resource Center 9240 Firestone Boulevard Downey, CA
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Green Home Retrofitting & Remodeling - Advanced CGBP Training
Day: Tuesday - Wednesday, August 24-25 from 8AM-5PM
Location: North Coast Builders Exchange 1030 Apollo Way Santa Rosa, CA 95407
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Certified Green Building Professional (CGBP) Training
Day: Monday - Tuesday, September 13-14 from 8AM-5PM
Location: Orange Memorial Park Recreation Building 781 Tennis Drive South San Francisco, CA
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Green Home Retrofitting & Remodeling - Advanced Training
Day: Wednesday - Thursday, September 15-16 from 8AM-5PM 15-Sep-10 8:00 AM
Location: Orange Memorial Park Recreation Building 781 Tennis Drive South San Francisco, CA 94080
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Springtime Classes 2010 (Free ones)!!

Hi all,

Since I’ve negelected the blog for a while, the least I could do is update it with less thoughtful navel-gazing and give y’all readers (most of whom I work with) an update on Bay Area focussed green building or energy related Classes.  I’ve sorted through the chaff to find the ones most appropriate to us all in some form or another.

FREE CLASSES

City of Palo Alto Utilities

Water-Efficient Landscape Design
April 17, 2010, 1:30 PM—4:30 PM
Learn about California Natives, soil preparation, 
and the incorporation of landscape materials to 
create a beautiful water-efficient garden.
Instructor: Patricia Evans
Location: City of Palo Alto City Hall, Council
Chambers

New Water-Efficient  Landscape Ordinance: 
Calculations & Standards
May 22, 2010, 9 AM—12 PM
Review the requirements of the updated State 
Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance and 
local action surrounding its adoption. Hands on 
demo and practice with water budget calculations.
Instructor: Chris Todd
Location: Cubberley Community Center, Room H-6

Solar Water Heating Contractor and Self-Installer Workshop
The City of Palo Alto and the California Center for Sustainable Energy will be holding the next contractor and self-installer training class for the Solar Water Heating Program on Wednesday June 23, 2010.
To register for the class, please call (650) 329-2241.
Class Details:
Date: Wednesday June 23, 2010
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Lunch:  Provided (please let us know if you want a vegetarian sandwich)
Cost: Free 
Location:   Cubberley Community Center, Room H1
                4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, 94303

PG&E Classes

Spring 2010

Below are all the classes that match your criteria submitted above. Click on a class name for registration and other class details. Click on any column name to sort classes by that column. If a row appears gray in color, then the class has already passed.

Date	Class Name	Location	AIA Units
Tue, Apr 13 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm	Solar Hot Water Basics for Residential Customers	San Francisco--PEC	0
Tue, Apr 13 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm	Guide to Understanding Your Solar Bill  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Wed, Apr 14 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Full	Understanding Financial Analysis Methods for Residential Photovoltaic (PV) Systems	San Francisco--PEC	0
Wed, Apr 14 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Full	Air Sealing and Insulating Existing Homes	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Thu, Apr 15 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm	Guide to Completing Your CSI Application Using PowerClerk  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Thu, Apr 15 11:00 am - 12:00 pm	Understanding California Solar Initiative (CSI) Program Statistics  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Fri, Apr 16 9:00 am - 3:30 pm	California Solar Initiative Installer (CSI) Workshop  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Fri, Apr 16 9:00 am - 3:30 pm	California Solar Initiative Installer (CSI) Workshop	San Francisco--PEC	0
Thu, Apr 22 11:00 am - 12:00 pm	Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) - An Overview and Update  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Mon, Apr 26 10:00 am - 3:30 pm Full	CSI Thermal (Solar Water Heating) Program Workshop	San Francisco--PEC	0
Mon, Apr 26 11:00 am - 12:00 pm	New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) Program - An Overview and Update  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Tue, Apr 27 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm	Guide to Completing Your CSI Application Using PowerClerk  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Wed, Apr 28 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm	Low Income Solar - An Overview and Update  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Wed, Apr 28 8:00 am - 9:30 am	California Advanced Homes Program - Building Toward Zero Net Energy in Residential New Construction	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Thu, Apr 29 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Full	Integrating Energy Efficiency and Renewables in Home Retrofits	San Francisco--PEC	6
Thu, Apr 29 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm	CSI Thermal Program - An Overview and Update  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Thu, Apr 29 8:00 am - 9:30 am	California Advanced Homes Program - Building Toward Zero Net Energy in Residential New Construction	San Francisco--PEC	0
Tue, May 4 8:30 am - 12:00 pm Wait List	Retrofitting Attics	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Tue, May 4 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm	Retrofitting Crawlspaces	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Wed, May 5 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Energy Careers and Business Opportunities  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Wed, May 5 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Full	Energy Careers and Business Opportunities	San Francisco--PEC	6
Thu, May 6 10:00 am - 3:30 pm	CSI Thermal (Solar Water Heating) Program Workshop	San Francisco--PEC	0
Fri, May 7 11:00 am - 12:00 pm	Guide to Completing Your CSI Application Using PowerClerk  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Sat, May 8 10:00 am - 12:00 pm	Solar Hot Water Basics for Residential Customers	San Francisco--PEC	0
Tue, May 11 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Wait List	Inspecting PV Systems for Code Compliance	San Francisco--PEC	6
Tue, May 11 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Inspecting PV Systems for Code Compliance  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Wed, May 12 9:00 am - 12:30 pm	Design Responsibilities & Performance Expectations in a Carbon Constrained World	San Francisco--PEC	3
Thu, May 13 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Inspecting PV Systems for Code Compliance	San Jose PEC--IBEW	6
Mon, May 17 10:00 am - 3:30 pm	CSI Thermal (Solar Water Heating) Program Workshop	San Francisco--PEC	0
Wed, May 19 9:00 am - 12:30 pm	Residential Lighting Design Guide	San Francisco--PEC	3
Wed, May 19 10:00 am - 11:00 am	Guide to Completing Your CSI Application Using PowerClerk  - An Online Course	Internet	0
Tue, May 25 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Solar Water Heating Systems	Oakland--StopWaste	6
Tue, May 25 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Residential Building Science for Architects and Designers	San Jose--Pipe Trades	6
Thu, May 27 9:00 am - 4:00 pm	High Performance Residential Hot Water Systems	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Wed, Jun 2 10:00 am - 3:30 pm	CSI Thermal (Solar Water Heating) Program Workshop	San Francisco--PEC	0
Thu, Jun 3 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Combined Hydronic Space and Water Heating for Homes	San Jose--Pipe Trades	0
Sat, Jun 5 10:00 am - 12:00 pm	Solar Electric Basics for Residential Customers	San Francisco--PEC	0
Wed, Jun 9 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Photovoltaic (PV) Site Analysis and System Sizing	San Francisco--PEC	6
Fri, Jun 11 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Ventilate Right, Build Tight	San Francisco--PEC	6
Thu, Jun 17 4:00 pm - 8:30 pm	A Light Affair VII: Lighting Product Showcase	San Francisco--PEC	0
Tue, Jun 22 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Deep Energy Reductions - The Thousand Home Challenge	San Jose--Pipe Trades	6
Fri, Jun 25 9:00 am - 4:30 pm	Advanced Framing for Energy and Resource Efficiency	San Francisco--PEC	6
Wed, Jul 21 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Wait List	Designing a Zero Energy New or Existing Home in California	San Jose--Pipe Trades	6
Fri, Jul 23 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Wait List	Designing a Zero Energy New or Existing Home in C

The world's awesomest (and only) passive solar home calculators

I've been doing lots of work lately on passive solar homes and sizing of HVAC systems and trying to answer questions like-- how much air can you reasonably pass through an 8 feet deep pile of loose rock?  All this is in the interest of passive solar thermal design.
There's all sorts of funky designs, such as Trombe Wall (an eponym), Water Walls, rock bin storage, direct gain, sun space, and the ever mysterious exotic phase change materials, like Crisco or Paraffin.
For the lay reader all these are means of storing solar heat during the evening hours when you most need the heat.

I've perused through all sorts of energy modeling engines, and user groups, and listservs, and any other forum I could find, to try to find the most easy to use thermal modeling engine for Passive Solar Design.

Among those that I've reviewed--

E-quest/DOE 2.1.-- No dice, as it can't really handle the second law of thermodynamics.  Energy in=energy out when it comes to thermal storage.

Energy Plus-- it looks like it can, but the challenge actually setting the down model up.  It can actually handle thermal storage, but as with anything, one would have to fuss indefinitely.

SunREL:  Now free from the NREL website.  It can supposedly do simple passive solar thermal systems, and after about 16 hours of fussing, I have yet to get a model properly working in it.

Micropas/EnergyPro:  Mostly useless in terms of passive solar and thermal storage.  Good for lots of other basic modeling tasks, especially if you're going to try to prove code compliance in California.

Spreadsheets:
Awesome.  Take a long time to set up, but they do the trick for understanding other modeling output.  Some would say that these are essential in addition to all others.

So there's-- that's a blog post!  It took 10 minutes and shows it, but still has some relevance in fact and opinion.