Today, the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA) published a story in their quarterly newsletter about FAS’s presentation at the 2008 ASCE AEI Conference. More information about the conference and presentations, including pdf files of the presentations, can be found here.
You can sign up for the newsletter here, and more information about SIPA can be found on their website at www.sips.org
In mid-November, Joe Hagerman and I traveled to China to speak at the US China Green Energy Conference in Beijing, and to meet with officials from Sichuan University and the town of Mianzhu regarding rebuilding housing after the Sichuan Earthquake. Continue reading »
So its been quite a while since I’ve given this blog the attention it deserves. And that’s unfortunate, because we’ve been up to some quite exciting stuff in the past few months, including (among other things): a trip to china about building a demonstration there in the wake of the Sichuan Earthquake, some exciting talks about developing a home energy retrofit plan that would save energy and create jobs, some interesting meetings regarding indoor air quality in manufactured housing, exciting updates on FAS’s research on the seismic capacity of SIPs, as well as some very exciting news in the world of building research.
I’ll be making several posts in the coming weeks to catch things back up to speed, and you can expect more regular updates in the near year.
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.
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.
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.
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 »
Every now and again its worth taking a look at how effective policies, programs, and market forces aimed at “greening” the building industry are. The results of one of the more qualitative ways of taking this peek, the Professional Builder Magazine’s 2008 Green Building Survey, was recently released. The survey, which is given to builders nationwide, looks at how many builders are building “green”, perceived drawbacks, preferred standards and materials, and green education. There are a few interesting notes.
Welcome to the FAS Building Technologies Blog. We intend for this blog to serve as a dynamic link to the program’s research, as well as a source for dialog and information on program research topics. The blog will investigate a number of policy issues regarding building technologies, energy, and climate change, including the need for improved codes and standards. It will also look into new building technologies that can minimize energy use while maintaining or improving safety and comfort, high performance emergency and manufactured housing, and other inventive solutions for improving our nation’s building stock and reducing the impact of buildings on our environment.
For more information on the FAS Building Technologies Program, please visit www.fas.org