Green Term Defined: Linoleum
Linoleum is a resilient flooring product that was developed in the 1800’s. It consists of cork flour, linseed oil, oak dust, and jute. Linoleum is durable, renewable, anti-static, and easy to clean.
Linoleum comes in either sheet form or tiles. It contains up to 97% natural raw materials.
There are some common things on the wish list for most custom homes. Clients want an open floor plan, lots of light, a beautiful kitchen, luxurious master bathroom, and connection to the outside. However, it is not often asked for – healthy indoor air quality.
Materials, structure, and the heating, ventilation, and cooling systems all contribute to indoor air quality. Making the right selections in all these areas is critical.
There are common elements that impact indoor air quality. A fireplace is a leak in the building envelope. When there is a leak, it will either bring dirty air into the home or pull dirty air through the building envelope into the home. This also happens with restroom ventilation fans, crawl space, and duct work.
If the ductwork is not tight, it will actually spread dirty air around your house. Insulate it right and seal it tight.
The building envelope is critical in the design of a home for healthy indoor air quality. Keeping the air from moving through the walls will allow you to filter make up air through a filtration system. This will, along with a fresh air system, keep the air flowing through your house healthy and clean.
Also, and this one has big impacts to durability and indoor air quality, keep the water out of the wall system. Water infiltration in your home will contribute to indoor air quality faster than anything else.
Finally, the materials used in your home impacts indoor air quality. Do the materials you use have VOC’s? What chemicals will they off gas into your air? Are they easy to clean? What do you use to clean the materials used? All of these questions impact indoor air quality and should be considered.
It is not going to be on the top of your list, but include healthy indoor air quality when building or renovating.
Green Term Defined: Net Metering
Net Metering is a method of crediting consumers for the electricity that is generated on their home or business in excess of the total electricity that they have used.
Consumers that have solar or wind power on their home or business offset their electricity that they use with the electricity they are producing. If you were to generate more electricity than needed in a billing period then the electric meter turns backwards indicating net excess generation. This is how the electric company tracks your total energy usage. It is also how you take advantage of needed power at night when solar pv is not producing – you essentially are using the power grid as your battery and paying if you use more than you create.
Net Metering laws vary from area to area and the amount that the power company pays you for excess will vary.
We are honored to be included in another design awards program. We found great success in the Marvin Windows Challenge finishing in the top 5 in the country. Now we have a house in the Integrity Red Diamond Awards that is located in downtown Harrisonburg. Please consider voting for this home if you like what we did for our clients. Please vote for us in the Red Diamond Awards!
Built by Beck Builders and landscaping done by the Natural Garden, this home is a great example of how to conserve green space while providing a comfortable energy-efficient home.
This 2,500 square-foot, four-story home was built on an in-fill lot in the heart of Harrisonburg’s historic Old Town neighborhood. The home features four bedrooms, an open living room / kitchen, one car garage and a home office. There is a bridge connecting the front door to the parking area and a roof deck with expansive views stretching as far as James Madison University. The homeowners wanted an energy-efficient, contemporary-style cottage look that would blend into the historic neighborhood.
Green Term Defined: Carbon Neutral Building
Carbon Neutral Building is the process of taking into account measuring, reducing, and offsetting carbon energy used by the building. A typical carbon neutral building integrates passive design, high performance building envelope, energy-efficient systems, and on-site renewable energy.
In order to measure carbon neutrality the building must have system boundaries – meaning an understanding of what is being measured. Are building material manufacturing processes included? What about travel to and from the building during construction or post-construction? What parameters are most important should be carefully considered and transparent to the client.
Carbon Neutrality for buildings can be supplemented by purchasing of green power. However, this misses the intent in my opinion.
T air leakage in your home is making your home dirty. For many years a house that could “breath” or leak air through the walls was important to allow for drying of the wall. Then we started adding insulation and mechanical air conditioning and heating to our homes. This limited air flow through a wall so it reduced drying potential. The air leaking through walls, crawl space, and attic brings with it dirt particles or dust.
Air leakage through a wall is not required for drying the wall system once we started using mechanical systems for heating and cooling. The cooling system will dehumidify and the air movement, if designed right, will dry the air in the home. The exact humidity level in your home can be monitored and controlled using your mechanical system. This will improve comfort as well and provide for a healthier and cleaner home.
The “dirty” air is caused through poor installation or missing insulation as air moves through your thermal envelope. As air moves through the crawl space, attic, and walls into your home it picks up dust particles and brings them inside the home. It can also carry insects into the home as some travel on the breeze that comes into your conditioned space. If you find dust in your home, that dust is the dirt moving through our thermal envelope into your living space. It also represents money wasted on trying to keep your home comfortable.
Using spray foam insulation or caulk in key locations can stop this air movement. This strategy will improve the air quality inside your home and reduce the amount of “dirty” air infiltrating your thermal envelope. Of course, building science is not a simple formula. If you stop the air leakage you will reduce your energy used to heat and cool your home, however you will need to have systems to control humidity year round. These are systems you should have anyway instead of depending on a wall leaking uncontrollably. No question for me that air leakage in your home is making your home dirty – understanding building science will fix this and many other issues faced in modern construction.
