Building Green

[Chris Stewart]

Thanks Eric, I forwarded those to the client. I hadn't even heard of soy based insulation.

[Chris Stewart]

I do have some clients that are interested in energy efficiency just not to the extent that they would be willing to make changes to the design (particularly the front elevation).

So most of my houses are randomly oriented for whatever lot it happens to be built on. That even includes many of the houses I do for larger rural sites where there is some flexibility in orientation.

Around here the trend is lots of windows facing whatever direction they happen to face and then try to make up for that with better insulation and air sealing. Even houses that happen to have good Southern exposure on the back side do not usually take any advantage of it.

Also thermal mass is almost never used here.

[Chris Stewart]

Of coarse a lot can be done towards energy efficiency even without good passive design.

The low-e low solar gain window coatings required by code here reduce the total amount of light coming in through the windows by 30%. Install solar screens and reduce it by another 30% or more.

I think these sealed attics have a lot of potential. Especially here where all of the AC duct work is run through the attic.

[Chris Stewart]

Here is a study done in Las Vegas which suggests an energy savings of 15% for a sealed attic.

Only two days where monitored (late Sept. early Oct.) and there was some variation in the total air infiltration which may have skewed the data some.

http://www.buildingscienceconsulting...s_lasvegas.pdf

Also I would have liked the input data to include cold weather. I suspect that there would not be as much potential savings during heating days.