Journal of Indoor Environmental Quality

Georgia Department of Natural Resources completes historic preservation project.

One doesn’t often hear about sustainable design projects that are also historic preservation projects. But despite some preservationists who don’t believe that historic restoration can be accomplished sustainably, the restoration of a 19^th century Italianate farmhouse demonstrates that historic restoration and green building principles do in fact complement one another. The house, once home to a former Georgia governor, was built around 1870 in the North Georgia mountains and is now owned by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR challenged the design/build team to complete a historic restoration project that would incorporate principles of sustainability and retain as much of the existing farmhouse structure as possible; the result – a project that has earned LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Architecture firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent utilized a computational fluid dynamics (CFD), energy modeling and life cycle costing to incorporate sustainability principles into the project. And, in keeping with the history of early adoption of technologies such as indoor plumbing and electricity by earlier owners, the team selected an area near the farmhouse to install a 3.2 kilowatt grid-tied system that will generate power to offset much of the electricity used by the house.

Photo credit © Jonathan Hillyer/Atlanta. If you’d like to view and download additional photos, you can find them at http://bit.ly/ubIdAL.

For further details contact: Annie Kohut | Kohut Communications Consulting (tel) 770-913-9747 | (cell) 404-786-6062 (fax) 770-913-3197 | annielk@bellsouth.net www.kohutcommunications.com | Follow me at http://twitter.com/kohutcomm

Lord, Aeck & Sargent is an award-winning architectural firm serving clients in scientific, academic, historic preservation, arts and cultural, and multi-family housing and mixed-use markets. The firm’s core values are responsive design, technological expertise and exceptional service. In 2003, The Construction Specifications Institute awarded Lord, Aeck & Sargent its Environmental Sensitivity Award for showing exceptional devotion to the use of sustainable and environmentally friendly materials, and for striving to create functional, sensitive and healthy buildings for clients. In 2007, Lord, Aeck & Sargent was one of the first architecture firms to adopt The 2030 Challenge, an initiative whose ultimate goal is the design of carbon-neutral buildings, or buildings that use no fossil-fuel greenhouse gas-emitting energy to operate, by the year 2030. Lord, Aeck & Sargent has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For more information, visit the firm at www.lordaecksargent.com

 

EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information

November 28, 2011 -- EPA reported its progress reviewing and declassifying the identities of chemicals claimed as confidential under TSCA. This two-year effort is part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's commitment to increase public access to chemical information. The declassified and newly available information can be found under a new "declassified tab" using the Chemical Data Access Tool.

RBc: More progress in the transparency of potential chemical exposures.

 

New Appliance Integrates Multiple Renewable Energy Sources

We don’t usually cover specific products here but industrial design and product ergonomics is on our radar screen and this new item has caught our attention.

I’ve had some time to look at the SDPM appliance for integrating and controlling multiple energy sources for hybrid HVAC systems.

Here's the thing, for a long time I’ve been a big fan of the appliance principle and specifically for systems which incorporate hydronics as the integrating medium.

The SDPM line developed by Bill Shady, P.E., and his team enables the merging of renewable and non renewable systems into a form that facilitates function by overcoming the complex challenges of custom on site fabricated systems. 

 With this product line, Bill has applied his engineering skills with his passion for conservation in demonstrating that even the most complex energy management system can be standardized by simple recognized shapes.

Short strokes: it looks like an appliance, has the same parts as an appliance and its very coolness is elevated by how effectively it conserves time and energy in the world of engineering, contracting and sustainability.

For more information contact:

William Shady, P.E.
Sustainable Design and Product Management
122 Fairmount Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
831-459-7300 office
831-234-5151 mobile
bill@sustainabledesignpm.com
www.sustainabledesignpm.com

Read more about our thoughts on this concept of Designing For People, Familiarity, and Simplicity read: Tower of Babble - Confused over comfort

 

Age-related thermoregulatory differences during core cooling in humans

excerpt: "In summary, aging is associated with reduced intensity of the vasoconstriction and shivering responses during cold challenge. The ability to perceive cold is also somewhat impaired. The decreased vasoconstriction response is explained by a delayed and reduced (norepinephrine) NE response as well as a decreased vasomotor responsiveness for a given amount of endogenous NE. Shivering and the associated heat production are decreased in older individuals, with decreased threshold, gain, and maximum response that cannot be attributed solely to differences in lean body mass. These findings contribute to our understanding of why older people are susceptible to core hypothermia during cold challenge."

ref.: Frank, S.M., Raja, S.N., Bulcao, C., Goldstein, D.S., Age-related thermoregulatory differences during core cooling in humans, Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, 279: R349–R354, 2000.

RBc: This is an area of interest for us and we've posted several related papers in the past. We've also touched upon the ergonomics of the indoor environment for senior housing in the last issue of HPAC Canada (see previous post). In a related topic you can hear our interview on IEQ with Matt Nelson from www.buildingx.co. He's made available numerous interviews with industry leaders and I would recommend you spend some time listening to his guests.

In the Continuum of Architecture, HVAC is Front and Center.

Three industry publications featuring our 2011 Fall/Winter articles on architecture, HVAC, energy and indoor environmental quality - hope you find them useful.

 

Be sure to sign up for these publications - they have great content with equally great editors.

 

 

HPAC Canada Magazine: “Meeting The Need For Lifetime Housing” draws attention to IEQ as an “Aging in Place” element as important as any other universal design concept.

Better Buildings Magazine: “Raising the Benchmark”, is all about changing how we look at HVAC and enclosures and indoor environmental quality - they are one of the same.
 
The Ontario Technologist: “Are Your Clients Going Green” defines what it takes to actually deliver energy efficient buildings with great indoor environmental quality. This was written on behalf of CIPH/CHC of Canada supporters of http://www.beautifulheat.com/.

A not so trivial statement on ventilation in the National Building Code of Canada.

Those who still stand firm in the belief that the V in HVAC is exclusively about delivering indoor air quality might want to read this clause:

 "A-6.2.1.7.(2) Outdoor Design Conditions. In the past, the practice of ventilating buildings with outdoor air assumed that the outdoor air was of better quality than the indoor air. It has become evident that the outdoor air in some areas of Canada may not be of an acceptable quality for ventilating buildings unless certain particles and gases are first removed or reduced. A recent estimate suggests that 30% of Canadians are exposed to contaminated outdoor air via buildings’ ventilation systems, which may lead to health problems such as cardiovascular and cerebral vascular diseases, respiratory irritation and illnesses, asthma, allergies, cancer, mucus membrane disorders and possibly death."

As we have stated before, the general populations misunderstanding of HVAC is that H is exclusively heating comfort, V is indoor air quality and AC is comfort cooling. This misunderstanding also extends regrettably to a large segment of the construction industry.

This is how we define HVAC:

• Heating (H) influences the relative humidity, surface and interstitial vapour pressures, surface temperatures, drafts, material durability, and material VOC emission rates ergo its more than heating for thermal comfort.
• Ventilation (V) in and by itself does not guarantee air quality as its function is to exhaust indoor air and replace it with outdoor air. One would think that a higher ventilation rate would be better than a lower ventilation rate but if the outdoor air is contaminated with ozone or has a high humidity, bringing more air in from outside actually makes the inside worse.
• Air Conditioning (AC) or conditioning the air allows the designer to treat the air through dilution, filtration, deodorization, temperature regulation, dehumidification, humidification, and air velocity control ergo it is not just cooling for thermal comfort.

Thus, the H in HVAC is not exclusively heating comfort, the V is not exclusively air quality and the AC is not exclusively cooling comfort.

If I had it my way we would change the HVAC to HVCA thus we would have a much better descriptor with Heating, Ventilation and Conditioning of Air.

For a back ground on the topic be sure to read these resources:

• http://healthyheating.com/Definitions/HVAC.htm
• http://www.healthyheating.com/How_Much/DIY_HVAC.htm
• http://healthyheating.com/Definitions/enviro_ergo_def.htm

A study in warmth and air velocity and their role on the perception of air freshness.

excerpt: “Three methods were used to evoke a sensation of warmth at the threshold level: (1) by increasing the intensity of the radiant heat falling on the skin over that from the solid surroundings of the cubicle by an amount which was just sufficient to evoke a sensation of warmth, and obtaining values of such threshold intensities for various areas of skin; (2) by exposing the skin to a stream of air moving at one of several velocities and determining the increase in air temperature above that in the cubicle required to evoke a sensation of warmth; and (3) by increasing the intensity of the radiation falling on the skin, and simultaneously exposing the skin to a stream of moving air.”

Source: Turner, D., Radiative and convective stimuli of threshold intensity, Environmental Hygiene Research Unit, M.R.C. Laboratories, Hampstead, London, N.W 3, J Hyg (Lond),1955 March; 53(1): 32–49. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2217808/>

RBc:  I love these old studies because much of what we know today in the world of architecture which relates to occupant comfort, comes from this type of research work. A few statements that are of interest from this paper include:

1. "On the whole, a change of 1 C. in air temperature is equivalent to 1.40 C. change in mean radiant temperature in its effect upon thermal sensations."
2. "Bedford & Warner (1939) found that changes in both the average value and the variability of the air speed and in the temperature had a marked effect upon impressions of freshness."

Additional reading:

1. http://www.healthyheating.com/Definitions/facts_about_skin.htm

What could you do with Ph.D. in Physics? See what housing expert Dr. Allison A. Bailes does with his know-how.

Industry colleague John Barba turned me around to have a look at what Allison A. Bailes III, Ph.D. was doing over at his Energy Vanguard site. I’m glad I did because the good doc has taken his Ph.D. in Physics and applied it to everyday challenges facing the world of building science.

He’s one of those guys that can take complex topics and turn them around so the average Jill and Jack can understand them. We’re a big fan of talent like that so we’re giving Allison A. Bailes III, Ph.D and Energy Vanguard two thumbs up.

We’ve signed up for his topic notifications which are always valuable and suggest you do the same.  Plus if you want to hear a great discussion on buildings and building performance check out John Barba's interview with Dr. Bailles over at the Taco FloPro Podcasts. Well worth the listen!

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Be sure to check out all the new pages we've been uploading over at the www.healthyheating.com site. Here are just a few including some that have been updated: 

1. Effects of enclosure performance on thermal comfort and energy use.
2. Wall R value correction spreadsheet - effects of framing factors and window area (free!)
3. Housing Performance Characterizations
4. What is Radiant Based HVAC?

Plus you can read our thoughts on raising the benchmark in the inaugural issue of BetterBuildings (7mb).

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