Sep 29
I’m back from my trip out to Denver for the ASCE AEI Conference, so I’ll be putting up a few posts to catch up on a few things. The first I’d like to update on is the “30 Percent Solution” – an attempt to increase the performance of the model energy code by 30 percent – that I referenced a few posts back.
The final hearings were held in Minneapolis last week, and unfortunately the overall package of energy improvements narrowly failed (receiving over 60% of votes in favor, but not enough to reach the required two thirds majority).
Still, energy efficiency will substantially improve in the nation’s 2009 model energy code governing new home construction, as several individual measures were passed. The 2009 IECC will have several significant new provisions to boost energy efficiency, including:
- Increased insulation in basements, floors and walls;
- Improved window efficiency;
- Reductions in wasted energy from leaky heating & cooling ducts;
- Reductions in tradeoffs that fail to capture energy savings from efficient heating & cooling equipment;
- High-efficiency lighting; and
- Improved air sealing within the building envelope.
While FAS is disappointed the measures were not fully passed, these incremental improvements are encouraging. It is also heartening that over 60 percent of attendees voted in its favor, a clear demonstration of its growing support. We hope (and fully expect) that these efforts will continue, and model energy codes will continue to improve.
More information can be found at the EECC’s website.
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: energy efficient codes
Sep 25
I just got done presenting at the ASCE AEI Conference out in Denver. Overall, I was pretty happy with how the session went well. I introduced the speakers and topic, and then John Millhone, a senior advisor to FAS, made a very good presentation about the current energy crisis, and how and why buildings need to play an important role in its solution. I think his presentation really gets to the core of FAS’s mission, and is a great preface to our work in policy and new technologies. John’s powerpoint can be found here.
Eric Tompos, the Vice President of NTA Inc., followed John with a presentation on the sources of design information for engineering SIPs, as well as the ways SIPs typically perform. Eric’s discussion taught me quite a few things I hadn’t realized about panel performance, and was huge for any designer planning to use panels. His powerpoint can be found here (with a supplementary, more comprehensive presentation that describe the methods for developing an engineered design method for SIPs in detail found here).
Khalid Mosalam, a professor Civil and Environmental Engineering out at UC Berkeley followed Eric. Professor Mosalam’s presentation explained much of the work he’s been doing in conjunction with FAS. He explained the current approach to seismic evaluation, the development of a pseudo-dynamic approach that is cheaper than large scale shake table tests, and then how that applies to SIPs and CSIPs. A copy of his presentation can be found here. That said, Professor Mosalam’s research deserves a much more in depth look - I’ll write something more significant about it soon.
I concluded the presentation with a discussion of our Pankow research - how to apply CSIPs to multi-story buildings. My presentation can be found here. The followup discussion to the presentations was good - some very interested people from all different segments of the building industry, from engineers to construction managers.
written by Brian Doherty
Sep 22
I’m off to Denver later this week for the American Society of Civil Engineers Architectural Engineering Institute’s Annual Conference. FAS has been asked by Dr. Mohammed Ettouney, the conference’s chair, to present our research on applying cementitious structural insulated panels to multi-story buildings at the event.
I will be chairing the presentation, presenting along with John Millhone, Dr. Khalid Mosalem, and Eric Tompos. John is a senior advisor at FAS, and will be speaking about the role of buildings in the carbon economy, and how advanced building technologies offer one of the most important solutions to our national energy problems. Eric, the Executive Vice President of NTA Inc., is a very well respected engineer in the SIP community, and has provided instrumental advice and guidance to FAS throughout the research project. Eric will be presenting generally about SIPs, focusing on the panel mechanics and basic engineering. Dr. Mosalem, a civil engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, will present his research on seismic testing of CSIP panels. I will wrap up our session with a talk about the specifics of our research – the multi-story applications of CSIPs, future areas of research, and the overall potential for CSIPs in the architectural and engineering worlds.
I think the conference will be a great opportunity for FAS, and I’m looking forward to a positive dialogue about the research. I’ll be out of touch while at the conference, but I’ll be sure to post a recap afterwards with some thoughts and insights.
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: asce aei annual conference, structural insulated panels
Sep 18
Today Google and GE announced a new partnership, teaming to develop smart grid technologies and clean energy. The concept of the smart grid is essentially bringing electricity transmission, distribution, and use into the 21st century through the use of two-way communications, advanced sensors, and distributed computers to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of power delivery and use. The system has not been integrated into America’s energy distribution system, but the concept offers increased reliability, efficiency and safety of the power grid, enables decentralized power generation so homes can be both an energy client AND supplier (allowing individual loads to tailor their generation directly to their load, making them independent from grid power failures), and enabling flexibility of the power consumption on the clients side.
Developing and implementing this concept will be crucial if plug-in vehicles (getting closer and closer over the horizon) are going to be a benefit instead of a detriment to the electric system. Smart power grids would allow people to conduct tasks such as recharging electric cars at times of day when demand is not high, and enable them to sell solar or other renewable energy back to utility companies.
Surprisingly, it is political and regulatory hurdles, not technological ones, that block the path to revamping the US power grid, and it is this side of the puzzle that this new partnership will investigate. FAS hasn’t done much research into smart grids, but we see it as an important upgrade in the bigger picture of improving our national energy use, and we’re very interested to see where this partnership will go.
A fact sheet on the partnership can be found here.
written by Brian Doherty
Sep 18
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (HR 6899). While the bill itself is very wide-reaching, unfortunately the majority of it its focus (and debate) has gotten caught up in the issue of off-shore drilling, an issue that has been shown to have little impact (immediate or long term) on our national energy use and needs.[i] While the bill did pass the house, and now moves to the Senate to be voted on, President Bush has threatened to veto the bill.
Regardless of its unfortunate focus on drilling and its apparent doom by the hand of a presidential veto, the bill does include many positive provisions for efficiency in buildings. The bill also includes the GREEN Act of 2008, a bill sponsored by Rep. Perlmuttter (D-CO), a bill that FAS helped develop. Some of the many important measures included in the bill, along with some thoughts: Continue reading »
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: building codes and standards, building retrofits, energy efficient mortgages, house energy bill
Sep 18
In a few days, the International Code Council’s (ICC) final action hearings of the 2009 code development process will take place in Minneapolis. The hearings are the final step in a 3 year long code development cycle aimed at re-evaluating and improving the ICC’s myriad of building codes.
I bring this up because it’s the final determination for what has been deemed as the “30 percent solution” by the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC) to be adopted into the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the nationally recognized model energy efficiency code. The proposals included in this “30 percent solution” look to improve the energy efficiency of the entire code by 30 percent by using current, everyday products and practices that are affordable (paying dividends through positive cash flow for the homeowner).
This lengthy process began in 2007 with the submission of over 150 proposed amendments, which have been revised to incorporate comments and recommendations throughout the development process. The result is a set of 21 individual proposals - fourteen of which were approved by the Development Committee in Palm Springs, with modifications as appropriate, and seven other proposals which were initially not approved but have now been modified by the EECC in its public comments. One of these, EC-14 is a compilation of all the individual parts and would essentially revise the entire code, and another (EC-154) is a voluntary appendix, designed to provide jurisdictions interested in increasing their energy efficiency beyond the basic IECC measures with a means to do so.
The product of this “Final Action Hearing” will become the 2009 IECC, which can then be ratified as a new building requirement by municipalities across the country.
FAS is very interested in the outcome of these hearings. Improving building codes is one of the many ways to spur future focus and development on building energy efficiency, and if these measures are passed, they will represent a significant jump in one fell swoop. FAS will be keeping an eye of these hearings, and will update the blog with developments.
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: energy efficient codes
Sep 16
Tomorrow, the Center for American Progress will be hosting a panel on the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). This panel will examine the impact of rising home energy costs on low-income households. It will also explore what Congress and the president can do to strengthen the ability of LIHEAP to provide vulnerable homes with needed assistance this winter while also ensuring that WAP investments reduce costs in future winters.
FAS senior advisor John Millhone (former director of the Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy until his retirement in 2003) wrote a paper on these two programs, which can be found here.
I’ll be attending the panel, and will post any interesing notes here afterwards. More information on the event can be found here.
written by Brian Doherty
Sep 12
No topics have risen more quickly in recent years than procuring green energy alternatives and combating climate change. How can China and the United States work together to stop global climate change? What can the new U.S. president do to help China become more energy efficient? The Federation of American Scientists will host a symposium to answer these questions at the University of California, Berkeley, on Thursday, 25 September from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm PDT. Continue reading »
written by Brian Doherty
Sep 10
Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released a report by Dr. Robert Pollin and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute economists titled “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy”. The report demonstrates how a new Green Recovery program that spends $100 billion over two years would create 2 million new jobs, with a significant proportion in the struggling construction and manufacturing sectors. It is clear from this research that greening of our economy is not only possible, but it will create more jobs (and better jobs) than our current economic trajectory.
One of the central approaches to this rapid green investment in communities is a large-scale building retrofit program - one of the easiest, readily available and cost-effective approaches to reducing energy consumption. But what is exciting about this report is that it shows the details of how such a program could not only reduce residential energy use, but would also spur rapid economic development. Continue reading »
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: building retrofits
Sep 09
The biggest news of this week is by far the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which places the two mortgage giants in government conservatorship. Together the two own or guarantee about $5 trillion in home loans, about half the nation’s total, and have lost $14 billion in the last year. They are likely to pile up billions more in losses until the housing market begins to recover.
The primary goal of what is the largest ever financial rescue by the U.S. Government is to restore confidence and stabilize the housing industry. However, congress should embrace a secondary opportunity in this shake-up: attacking the current energy crisis by refocusing Fannie and Freddie to embrace energy efficient mortgages. Continue reading »
written by Brian Doherty
\\ tags: energy efficient mortgages
