One of our usual January cold blasts is in control this weekend. Lower than 20 below zero with wind chills in the 30 to 40 below range. I would feel better about it if it weren't for the last vestiges of the cold I've been living with, every time I'm out I risk an asthma attack due to my heightened sensitivity. The new furnace seems to do the job, and the new ceiling fan helps our woodstove keep up even below zero. Before we installed the ceiling fan we were lucky to keep the house comfortable using just the woodstove at temperatures below about zero, now it was comfortable all day in the house. We have a tall cathedral ceiling area in our living room and the heat from the stove would go right to the ceiling.
Friday I took a trip over to St. Cloud with Evan to visit with one of our clients and some heating issues he has been experiencing. Luckly it was as cold as it was as we were able to identify a significant lack of performance in the storefront glazing system used on the north side of the building. The aluminum frames were COLD! when we went into the unfinished areas we noted a lack of insulation around the framing system and even daylight through parts of the framing system that just let cold right into the spaces. The cold air coupled with the high ceilings and overhead heating system really caused problems, especially in the corner rooms.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Inspiring TED talk
Driving home today (in the MINI 'natch), I listened to James Howard Kunstler speak about the business I am in , that of creating places for people to live. While I am not an architect, I totally get this view of needing to create spaces and comunities that are worthwhile to be in. The importance of public spaces. this is a bit old, 2004, but even so listen to his words about global warming and the change that we will be living with.
I love his quote about how living in the future is "is going to be about living locally."
I love his quote about how living in the future is "is going to be about living locally."
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Blogs and a Cold
Sorry for yet another gap in blogging. Between Aliceon and myself, it
s been over two weeks of colds, coughing, sneezing, and blah. Those that know me know that if a cold gets down into my lungs I can sound like I am about to cough one up about every fifteen minutes. I t has something to do with my asthsma and a dunking I took in Lake Superior 30 years ago - ever since then I have had this issue.
LHB's Green Team steering committee met yesterday and discuss our new year. One of the items discussed was the idea of a blog discussing additional issues of importance to the Green Team and it's audience. This will be a collective blog to keep the work load of a blog down.
Last week several of us went down to Willmar , MN to help with a charrette for a project at Ridgewater College, a 2 year campus, where they wish to remodel reconfigure, remove, and add space to improve space utilization and programs. First phase is about 3.5 million, second is about 14 million - to be finished in 2012.
tomorrow Rick Carter and I are off to present a one day seminar on LEED-NC and B3 to local government officials in Apple Valley, MN under the sponsership of the MN PCA/ I've stocked up on cough syrup and Abuterol so I should be good to go.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Corporate Greening
Aliceon and I have been laughing our way through the holidays by watching 30 Rock on Netflix and now on HULU. There was a really funny episode where the owners of the network the "show" is broadcast on, decided to create a Green Mascot - watch for the cameo by Al Gore at the end.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Fun in the snow
Well, we did get over 12 inches of nice light snow. It was blowing around quite a bit and visibility in town was quite low at times, but the lack of traffic and the efficiency of MnDOT and St. Louis county kept us in the clear for the most part. I did run the plow down to the end of the road (about 1 mile) and back because we were expecting company (and the FIT and MINI have low ground clearence). We had lots of hands around to move snow that that got done without alot of effort.
With the snow covered drives and roadway it was time for fun. The "kid's" decided to would be fun to get towed around the driveway lop behind one of the cars - so that's what they did. Keep in mind we live at the end of a dead end road and can see traffic coming for quite a bit - so don't try this at home.
With the snow covered drives and roadway it was time for fun. The "kid's" decided to would be fun to get towed around the driveway lop behind one of the cars - so that's what they did. Keep in mind we live at the end of a dead end road and can see traffic coming for quite a bit - so don't try this at home.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Short days in Zone 7
Well, yesterday/today marks the beginning of having more light! I find that I am a bit seasonally effected, the dark mornings and evenings leave me with far less energy than inthe spring and summer. for us, the day was 8 hours and 30 minutes long, not even a full workday with lunch. Blah! Oh, well, walking back from the neighbors house this evening at 8 pm in the pitch black, snow crunching under our feet, LED Christmas lights glowing on the garages was pretty nice.
We are waiting for a storm tonight, The National Weather Service Has been changing the forcast several times over the last few days, but now that the snow is almost here:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN
406 PM CST SAT DEC 22 2007
...A POWERFUL STORM WITH HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW TO HIT MUCH
OF THE NORTHLAND OVERNIGHT AND THROUGH SUNDAY...
A NARROW TONGUE OF DRY AIR WILL PUSH OVER THE NORTHLAND THIS
EVENING...BRINGING A BREAK IN THE SNOW. HOWEVER A POWERFUL LOW
PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL QUICKLY OVERTAKE THE DRY AIR AND REINTRODUCE
THE SNOW THROUGH THE NIGHT. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE QUICKLY
TONIGHT...SO BE PREPARED IF TRAVELING AND CARRY A SURVIVAL KIT.
THE SNOW...HEAVY AT TIMES WILL SPREAD OVER MUCH OF THE REGION
BY DAY BREAK SUNDAY. THE BULK OF THE SNOW FROM THIS STORM WILL
FALL DURING THE DAY SUNDAY...TAPERING OFF SUNDAY
EVENING. EXCEPT ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR WHERE LAKE
EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO MONDAY MORNING.
STRONG WINDS GUSTING AROUND 40 MPH WILL BE FOUND NEAR LAKE
SUPERIOR ON SUNDAY. THIS WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING AND REDUCED
VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES. TRAVEL WILL
BECOME HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.
So we'll see what happens tomorrow.
We are waiting for a storm tonight, The National Weather Service Has been changing the forcast several times over the last few days, but now that the snow is almost here:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN
406 PM CST SAT DEC 22 2007
...A POWERFUL STORM WITH HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW TO HIT MUCH
OF THE NORTHLAND OVERNIGHT AND THROUGH SUNDAY...
A NARROW TONGUE OF DRY AIR WILL PUSH OVER THE NORTHLAND THIS
EVENING...BRINGING A BREAK IN THE SNOW. HOWEVER A POWERFUL LOW
PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL QUICKLY OVERTAKE THE DRY AIR AND REINTRODUCE
THE SNOW THROUGH THE NIGHT. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE QUICKLY
TONIGHT...SO BE PREPARED IF TRAVELING AND CARRY A SURVIVAL KIT.
THE SNOW...HEAVY AT TIMES WILL SPREAD OVER MUCH OF THE REGION
BY DAY BREAK SUNDAY. THE BULK OF THE SNOW FROM THIS STORM WILL
FALL DURING THE DAY SUNDAY...TAPERING OFF SUNDAY
EVENING. EXCEPT ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR WHERE LAKE
EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO MONDAY MORNING.
STRONG WINDS GUSTING AROUND 40 MPH WILL BE FOUND NEAR LAKE
SUPERIOR ON SUNDAY. THIS WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING AND REDUCED
VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES. TRAVEL WILL
BECOME HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.
So we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Flying Cranes and the Marshes of Sand Country
Late in November I traveled with one of our project teams to Necedah, WI, home of a US Fish and Wildlife National Wildlife Refuge. This NWR is well know due to it's program of training the endangered whopping cranes to migrate to another NWR in Florida.
View Larger Map
We were there to review a schematic design for a new visitor's center to serve the many visitor's that come by to watch the training of the crane's using ultralight aircraft. The "flight" training occurs throughout much of the summer and fall, but at this time the facilities available for groups to observe this are very limited. A design had been prepared by another consultant, but due to contractual changes we will be (hopefully) carrying out the construction documents.
As luck would have it, the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, WI was having a tour of their new Platinum LEED-NC building on one of our nights in the area, so we made a trip down with the folks from USFWS. A very interesting building that has great performance metrics, but also has some usability flaws, too. I think the biggest example we saw, was that ther was no parking lot lighting. Now in our climate, it can be pitch dark at 5 pm so if there was any idea of having evening programs (and this was one) this was a big safety item. The gravel driveway and slopping site made it a bit tricky. There was an attemp to install thouse little solar powered landsc ape lights, but with low sun hours and cold affecting the batteries, the car that was brought up to the building to shine it's headlights on the walkway was a welcome enhancement.
Quickly, the HVAC system was a bank of water to water heat pumps serving a radiant heating and cooling slab. A same high quality air handling unit served the ventilation air through an earth tube intake system and displacement supply grills into the occupied space. Also lots of areas that were put into "cold" storage for the winter months. There are a number of these so called net zero buildings around, but it does seem that a majority of them are low energy density (say classroom or interpretive) seasonal use buildings. Not a full blown commercial office or institutional building with at lease 2080 hours of near full occupancy and computers. Frustrating to me that there is use of the term net-zero without mentioning the seasonal use. This was the case with a NZE case study presented at Greenbuild this year.
View Larger Map
We were there to review a schematic design for a new visitor's center to serve the many visitor's that come by to watch the training of the crane's using ultralight aircraft. The "flight" training occurs throughout much of the summer and fall, but at this time the facilities available for groups to observe this are very limited. A design had been prepared by another consultant, but due to contractual changes we will be (hopefully) carrying out the construction documents.
As luck would have it, the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, WI was having a tour of their new Platinum LEED-NC building on one of our nights in the area, so we made a trip down with the folks from USFWS. A very interesting building that has great performance metrics, but also has some usability flaws, too. I think the biggest example we saw, was that ther was no parking lot lighting. Now in our climate, it can be pitch dark at 5 pm so if there was any idea of having evening programs (and this was one) this was a big safety item. The gravel driveway and slopping site made it a bit tricky. There was an attemp to install thouse little solar powered landsc ape lights, but with low sun hours and cold affecting the batteries, the car that was brought up to the building to shine it's headlights on the walkway was a welcome enhancement.
Quickly, the HVAC system was a bank of water to water heat pumps serving a radiant heating and cooling slab. A same high quality air handling unit served the ventilation air through an earth tube intake system and displacement supply grills into the occupied space. Also lots of areas that were put into "cold" storage for the winter months. There are a number of these so called net zero buildings around, but it does seem that a majority of them are low energy density (say classroom or interpretive) seasonal use buildings. Not a full blown commercial office or institutional building with at lease 2080 hours of near full occupancy and computers. Frustrating to me that there is use of the term net-zero without mentioning the seasonal use. This was the case with a NZE case study presented at Greenbuild this year.
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