It’s a given that a green home should provide its occupants with superior indoor air quality, but the reality is all homes need good ventilation to exchange indoor air often containing moisture, odors and pollutants with fresh outdoor air. Thanks to environmental programs such as the Clean Air Act and other regulation our outdoor air [...]
Posts Tagged energy retrofit
California First is a statewide program adopted earlier this year in Sacramento allowing property owners to participate in the state’s AB811 program, providing financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrade to their properties. California First is an example of a Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE program. Here are some of the basics of how [...]
There have been a lot of marketing dollars spent promoting the advantages of tankless water heaters, but little attention given to the issues that could reduce those advantages. In the last couple of posts in this series, we examined a number of important issues any homeowner needs to weigh before deciding to replace their existing [...]
Tankless or on-demand waterheaters have been enjoying a rising popularity for a number of years now. During my years of custom homebuilding they were considered a must have feature for a number of reasons. They are purported to save energy over a standard storage type waterheater because you aren’t paying for the standbuy losses of heating a tank [...]
In an earlier post we calculated the minimum whole building ventilation requirements for a 2000 sf home under the 2008 Title 24. What are our options for controlling the ventilation system? It depends on the type of ventilation system we have selected. If it as simple as using a bathroom exhaust fan as our continuous [...]
Solar Power Inc. of Roseville a manufacturer and installer of commercial, industrial and residential PV solar systems has recieved $24.7 million in Stimulus funding. Founded in 2005, Solar Power has installed numerous PV solar systems including the largest PV system in the state of Georgia at the Mannheim DRIVE Center a 165,000 square foot auto [...]
Simply put, yes it can. Traditionally, wood framed structures supplied needed ventilation and moisture control by infiltration through the building’s shell. This worked well except there was a trade off: excessive heat loss and cold drafts. Even with the addition of insulation, excessive air infiltration across fiberglass batts renders them ineffective at preventing heat loss. Fast forward a few years. In [...]
Before I weigh in on the question of windows and energy efficiency, let me first say that there are plenty of great reasons to upgrade your windows. Aesthetics would be high on the list, along with improved function and definitely resale value. It’s a no-brainer that all things being equal, you would choose house A [...]
Following up on a previous post regarding the stimulus money SMUD has received for energy retrofitting homes in it’s service area. A crucial part of building performance has always been the initial diagnostic assessment or energy audit. This provides important information to the home performance contractor allowing them to tailor a plan that fits the individual [...]
The new Energy Standards take the subject of lighting controls and there effect on energy performance more seriously than ever before. There are basically four types of lighting controls recognized in the Standards. An Energy Management Control System (EMCS), that controls on/off times, duration and dimming levels by means of a computer. A programmable wall [...]
According to an article today in the Sacramento Business Journal Sacramento County has received $16.5 million in state funds to start their AB811 energy efficient loan program. If you haven’t read my previous posts on the subject, AB811 was a bill enacted last year to allow California cities and counties to set up special assessment districts [...]
According to the Building Performance Institute, building performance is a systematic approach to improving the comfort, health, safety, energy efficiency and durability of our customers homes and places of work. Comfort is improved by treating the building as a system of processes…
On Friday of last week we were finally able after months of hard work to submit our package of paperwork to HUD for review. This has been the culmination of an extraordinary effort led by Sacramento architect Michael Malinowski AIA and his staff at Applied Architecture Inc. Worthy of particular credit is Nitisha Gilra LEED AP a member of…
There is a new program working it’s way through congress right now and hopefully will be part of the upcoming jobs bill. It’s called HOMESTAR or as it’s been called in the media “Cash for Caulkers”.
I thought I’d share some details of the program and how it could be a benefit to our local economy.
HOME STAR was originally proposed by a coalition of….
