Building envelope
The All Glass Building - Is Energy Efficiency Possible?
While glass buildings continue to rise throughout our cities, the question of their sustainability remains. The market is demanding high glazing percentage for the daylight, views, and marketing potential it provides, which can present a considerable hurdle in promoting energy efficiency in modern buildings. During this session, two speakers with varying views will frame the current debate surrounding the all glass building and its place in energy efficient, sustainable design. Specific examples with different methodologies will be presented.
Close the Windows! Changing Occupant behavior with Heat Pumps and Individual Metering
Advances in building envelopes and HVAC equipment enable widespread use of air source heat pumps by many in the "Net Zero Energy" and "Passive House" movements. Steve Bluestone will report on two related items: a three year performance study of an air source heat pump system using hourly measurements (done with Henry Gifford and built above his garage) and the design and construction of his new 101 unit high performance rental building in NYC utilizing the same technology.
Making the Financial Case for Net Zero Buildings
The presentation illustrates the financial prudence of net zero buildings today. From the outset of design through construction and operation, Maclay Architects and Energy Balance utilize comparative energy modeling and cost estimating to determine financial benefits of net zero buildings compared to code compliant or intermediate building solutions.
Minisplit Heat Pumps: Lessons from the Field
Inside and Out: Integrated Building Facade and HVAC Design
Solar Air Heating 2.0
Adventures In Building Science – Multi-Family Construction
In multi-family construction it is increasingly common to get a combination of concrete and steel and curtain wall on the first floor and wood frame on the upper floors. Are we combining the worst of residential and commercial? Or are we getting the best of residential and commercial? How do you specify, design and construct these types of enclosures? How do you “compartmentalize” these units? How do you ventilate these units? How do you condition these units? Roof design and wall design options will be discussed.
The Living Building Challenge: Two Northeast Regional Case Studies
This session will delve into two wide-ranging case studies representing the few Northeast LBC projects (only 50 active LBD nationwide). The Smith College Bechtel Environmental Classroom field station building is on track to receive full certification by early 2014. The Kellogg House at Williams College, a repurposed and expanded historic building, currently in construction (Fall 2013).
Benchmarking at Scale – Lessons Learned from Benchmarking 120,000+ Units of Affordable Housing
This session will report on the results of benchmarking over 120,000 units of affordable housing in Massachusetts as part of the utility sponsored Affordable Housing Metrics project. The process, challenges, and successes of benchmarking at scale will be discussed.
Deep Energy Retrofits: Full Value Proposition
This session will explore the actual performance over the past few years of 2 completed Deep Energy Retrofits in Massachusetts which successfully achieved the ACI Thousand Homes Challenge in 2011-12. From the combined perspective of a builder and an architect experienced with a variety of strategies for achieving energy efficient homes, we will compare the approaches in these two cases with other building techniques and programs such as Energy Star, Energy Plus, Net Zero, and Passive House.