Three Vermont High-Performance Homes, Three Approaches

This session offers a thought-provoking comparison of the construction and performance of three high-performance homes completed in Vermont in 2015-2016: all two story, one with a basement, one traditional double stud, one double stud with air barrier behind the inner stud, one exterior I-joist wall. The projects’ architect and construction leaders will discuss design, ease of construction, cost and performance of the different systems, and reasons to choose one over the other.

Retrofitting Residential Properties

One-to-four unit homes present special challenges to energy-efficiency upgrades. Many of these homes were built from 1890—1960 and lack insulation, leak air, and waste energy and water. This panel will share data and solutions to improve the energy- and water- efficiency of these homes, discuss cost-benefit analyses of planned improvements, describe options for testing results of completed upgrades, and explore how to pay for this work.

All About Windows

Windows are arguably the most important architectural element in a home, impacting the appearance, comfort, energy use, ventilation, and overall enjoyment of our homes in a number of ways – some not so obvious. This interactive session will explore important details concerning windows, including how they impact comfort, how they can be used to supplement a heating system and assist with ‘passive survivability’ when the power fails (with real data from four homes), and their impact on annual energy use.

Permanently Passive: Building With AAC

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) is a masonry product with a long history in much of the industrialized world, yet it has seen relatively limited use in the United States. The two presenters, Dan Levy and Steve Bluestone, both find AAC preferable to wood as a building material for many reasons, including resistance to fire, water, mold pests, and structural loads. And AAC does all of the above with a single material installed by a single trade.

State of the Art: High-Performance Natural Building for Cold Climates

The phrase “natural building” tends to evoke images of humble, rustic homes built out of mud and sticks by barefoot idealists in rural backwaters. The natural building movement has come of age, however, and today's professionally-executed natural buildings can match any green building in air-tightness, energy use intensity, durability, and aesthetics, all while achieving reduced levels of embodied carbon and enhanced social benefits.

Data Loggers for Advanced Diagnostics

Data loggers are tiny computers which record temperature, humidity, water flow rates, and other environmental parameters over a long timeframe. How can they be used to diagnose building issues? What are some tricks and tips for using data logging systems? The possibilities of these inexpensive and useful devices will be explored through case studies on condensation issues, air and hydronic HVAC, and building ventilation.

Biomass Design and Potential

 This course touches on some of the considerations one should make when designing and planing an automated biomass heating system.​ It will cover fuel choice and logistical advantages, equipment availability and pros and cons of different choices,  sizing for financial viability, and emissions implications of fuels, moisture content and combustion equipment. We will also take a quick look into the near future and discuss a few up-and-coming cogeneration options.

 

Living Building Challenge: Historic Building, Modern Lessons

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) can be applied to any building project, including historic renovation and new construction. Charley Stevenson and John Rahill will compare and contrast the LBC renovation of an 18th century plank building to the design and construction of several new LBC buildings.  By examining the three most challenging petals (water, energy and materials) they will illuminate the benefits of and the obstacles to LBC compliance.

Achieving Zero Net Energy Affordably Today: Mobile Home Replacement

A modular home factory in Wilder, VT has opened to build zero-net energy mobile home replacement units. While there have been other efforts to replace mobile homes outside Vermont, they have done so with newer manufactured housing units that suffer from poor indoor air quality, high energy costs, and durability issues. This session will provide an overview of the issues with manufactured and mobile homes including financing and depreciation, attributes of the zero-net energy replacement modular home, the design and build process, and the comprehensive whole-house monitoring system. Detailed monitored energy and environmental data will be shared from two years of occupancy. The session will also discuss design challenges/constraints associated with cost, prefabrication, and transportation of a Modular/mobile home. We will present a comparative look at cost and energy with other related housing initiatives, as well as show the cost to benefit analysis of what it would take to bring the project to the Passive House level.

Navigating Product Selection: How to Find the Greenest Materials in the Age of Full Disclosure

Are you drowning in the arcane alphabet soup of product labels? Frustrated with inflated environmental claims from manufacturers? Unsure of the health and safety risks associated with your favorite building materials? Help is on the way! Join the experts from BuildingGreen, who have been researching and writing about green building products for 25 years. In this hands-on half-day workshop, you will learn how to cut through the b.s. and select safer, greener products, and you’ll get an in-depth understanding of the trove of information you can find in product disclosure tools like environmental product declarations, health product declarations, and the newly required safety data sheets. Understand the full context, get down and dirty with the devil in the details, and learn which information you can safely ignore. You’ll also glimpse some of the newest, most innovative products that are paving the way for a greener future, and you will leave with powerful educational materials to share with clients and other team members. Bring your questions, share your insights, and get ready for an enlightening and entertaining morning!
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