Norman Alston Architects

New LEED Standards take effect Monday, August 3.

In April, the US Green Building Council rolled out LEED version 3, a significant revision to both the LEED certification process for projects and to the credentialing process for "green professionals" who hold the LEED AP designation. The intention is for the new processes to reflect the rapidly advancing technology and evolving techniques of green building. The credentialing, as universally understood, will be much, much more rigorous for those seeking the new designations, such as LEED AP BD+C. I have found the information about this transition difficult to follow until I saw this article by Tristan Roberts which showed up in my Linkedin update today. As an author for the tests, he has many interesting and useful insights for those looking to stay abreast of this fast-moving field.

Austin Energy Audits: Commentary in the Advocate Magazine's Back Talk Blog

Yesterday I read a piece in the Wall Street Journal that recounted how the City of Austin has enacted an ordinance that requires home sellers to obtain energy audits in order to sell their homes. Unfortunately, I see this as just another example Green actions getting out in front of Green thinking, a subject that seems to come across my desk alot these days.

In my role as a guest blogger on the Advocate Magazine's Back Talk Blog, I have posted my thoughts on this subject and what it may mean in the larger effort to improve energy efficiency and sustainability.

The post can be found at the following link:

Energy Audits: Will Dallas require them?

Texas Governor's Mansion: Capstone restoration funding in place.

This article from the Austin American Statesman notes that Federal stimulus money has been secured to finalize the restoration of the Governor's Mansion. I'll let the article speak to the details. Almost as interesting, however, are the comments posted at the end of the article. Even with this building, you will see caustic commentary to the effect that fixing the mansion is a waste of taxpayer money. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's just that I thought that this project would be as close as we get to one that could be immune to such complaints.

The comment I find the most concerning, however, was posted by CommonCents on 5/23. In it, a plea is made to discard the historic concerns and construct the building to "...the highest of LEED Green building certifications." I point this out because I am convinced that we are only just beginning to see the coming struggle between the value of historic integrity and what some will view as the social responsibility of sustainable practices. Supporters of sustainable design are clearly ready to match supporters of historic preservation, passion for passion, blow for blow. I have already experienced this first hand.

Light Bulbs: We're not sure what a bright idea looks like.

I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Compact Fluorescent bulbs (CFL) and how the struggling economy has been manifested in lower sales of CFL's, both the total number sold and as a percentage of all light bulbs. Seems that energy is still not expensive enough to motivate folks to go to the much more expensive bulbs. I have written previously about my concern regarding these bulbs, here and here. I just don't see them as the solution. Judging from the comments posted at the WSJ article, I'm not alone.  So bring on the next technology, be it LED or whatever.

However, the article also got me thinking about this issue in another way. Maybe it's all perception and timing. What if the roles of the bulbs were reversed? What if things had develolped differently over the years, and most light bulbs in common use were CFL's? Most of that technology has been with us since the 1930's anyway so it's not too far fetched. So what all we had known over the years were CFL's. What, then, if the incandescents and halogen lights were a relatively obscure technology that had burst upon the scene, championed by government initiatives and Wall-Mart? Imagine how they would be marketed and how we might feel about them.

The new bulbs (incandescent) would be promoted based on their advantages. They would be the new bulbs that were Mercury-free and more environmentally friendly than the standard CFL's. They would have a whiter light that performed much better on the Color Rendition Index, giving you more realistic skin tones and better color in fabric and artwork, or even wall paint. They would be truly, completely and elegantly dimmable (which the CFLs really are not), allowing previously unknown flexibility in lighting design and mood setting. Best of all, they would be a tiny fraction  of the price of the current bulbs, which would be more than a fair trade for the added energy they use or their shorter life span.

That sounds like a technological advancement to me.

LEED Accredited Professional

The process technically began back in college at the University of Texas in the mid 1970's. I became involved, mostly by accident, with an effort within the School of Architecture that focused on what was generally referred to as "Alternative Energy". We studied issues like capturing solar energy through solar collectors and Trombe walls. We worked with recyclable materials, oriented buildings and building components to capture breezes, developed site plans that incorporated natural water collection and rotating pond locations, studied wind power, promoted natural lighting and the like. The husband and wife teaching team I studied under the most lived in a 100 year old, stone farm house in the hills west of Austin. They had no electricity and cooked over a fire in the fireplace, by choice.

Downstairs, at the Architecture Annex where all of this took place, another professor was "growing" buildings by submersing electrically charged chicken wire forms into brine tanks, a process that sped up crustaceous growth that naturally occurred in seawater. As a quick aside, I should mention that one of the student stars of alternate energy program was the now well known movie producer and director, Katherine Hardwicke. It  was an, uh, interesting time. Little of this, however, had any real application when I graduated and began working in architecture in the late '70s.

When I started to focus on historic preservation in the late 1980's, many of the lessons about natural lighting and ventilation, site use and orientation and materials conservation came roaring back. It seems that many of these practices we had learned in school had been in common use for centuries.  They remained so through the early part of the 20th Century, but had been cast aside in the technology boom following World War II. By 2000, we had begun to refer to historic preservation as "The Ultimate Recycle".

Thirty years after those interesting days at university, those same concepts of energy efficiency and conservation of natural processes are now referred to as collectively as Sustainability and are being promoted, even required, in all areas of architectural and engineering practice. This effort has come to be embodied in the program known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, administered by the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

Included in this program is a process whereby those involved in a variety of building disciplines can demonstrate their understanding of the principals of LEED and can be recognized as a LEED Accredited Professional.

After more than 35 years of various levels of involvement of this effort, I am pleased to note that I obtained LEED AP status this past week.

Norman Alston to present at the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance Conference

This year the annual meeting will be held in Silver City, New Mexico,from  March 26 through 28, 2009. This year's theme for the conference is SUSTAINING THE ENCHANTMENT: PRESERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY. Norman Alston will be conducting a session on historic wood windows, their origins, restoration and their place in the quest for improved sustainability.

Historic wood windows are usually the most embattled and misunderstood aspect of historic preservation projects. Commonly held concerns about their restoration costs, durability and energy efficiency typically generate great pressure to simply replace the historic windows with modern units.

Often, however, these concerns do not square with the facts. This session will show you how to evaluate historic wood windows, develop a realistic restoration plan and address common misconceptions regarding restoration costs and energy efficiency.

There's more than energy going out the window

See, this is what I'm talking about. In today's Sunday Edition of the Dallas Morning News we find Section N, HomeCenter. There above the fold is this story with  a color photo and the large headline: "Energy needn't go out the window" by special contributor Kate Goodloe. The gist of the story is that windows are one of our greatest sources of heat gain (agreed) and heat loss (agreed) and that without energy efficient windows "it's nearly impossible to have an energy efficient home" (Ridiculous).

As I noted in my recent post on this issue, the common steps of insulated glazing and low-e glass contribute comparatively little to the energy efficiency of windows when compared to.... well, anything. Especially their costs. They say the right things and refer to the proper standards and codes, but they do not provide data, statistics or estimates of savings versus costs. This article takes selective facts and presents them in such a way as to portray a result that really isn't going to be there.  In this article they even throw in the relative heat resistance of aluminum versus vinyl frames while neglecting to mention the durability concerns of vinyl when compared to aluminum. They also fail to mention that the frame is typically less than 20% of the window area. And then there is the contention that vinyl windows are an "upgrade" and command more money. Holy cow.

My reason for pointing all this out is my previous contention that what passes today for energy knowledge, especially for windows, is little more than a sales pitch; marketing fluff. I looked to make sure that this was actually a bit of journalism and not an "Advertorial" and yep, the email address for comments goes to the paper's business reporting folks.

So perhaps there are more ways for windows to waste your money other than energy loss.

Wind turbine mystery

Recently I was driving through West Texas, home to thousands of large wind turbines. We had been on the road for an hour and it had been quite windy the whole time. We came upon an array of these turbines. I was admiring their size and elegance when an odd feature struck me.

None of them were turning. No one. They were pointed in every direction yet none were generating electricity.

As a private pilot, I'm well aware of the vagaries of wind above the ground, but dead still? No wind at all in West Texas? Unlikely.  I'm looking but so far have not found a reasonable explanation.

A few more thoughts on the simple light bulb

Following up on my previous post, I have tracked down a little more information on the role the light bulb plays in our energy consumption. I had speculated that the percentage of the power used by light bulbs in most homes would be less than 50%. I was able to find information at the Energy Information Administration that actually tracks this. Their data reveals that lighting only accounts for 8.8% of power usage on average across America. Compare that to almost 33% combined for heating and air conditioning, or 26.7% for kitchen appliances. So it seems pretty clear that the initiative to save power by switching to CFL's is much ado about.....not much.

The lesson from this is that the path to energy independence or to saving the planet does not come through here. Instead, it just shows that the common light bulb is an easy mark for making a dollar on the "Green" movement or to feel like you're doing something for the planet without really thinking too hard. Instead, consider how we can keep this simple, adaptable technology and better use the still unmatched light quality it gives us. After the jump, a few ideas.

Some thoughts on the simple light bulb

We may be seeing another example of where enthusiasm to ride the "Green" wave has combined with enthusiasm to make a buck, leading us down a path that gets our actions way out in front of our brains. Reference my thoughts on insulated windows.

There has been a lot of attention focused recently on political moves to outlaw the use of traditional incandescent bulbs in favor or more energy efficient solutions, particularly compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL is the common abbreviation, which I will happily use). This effort took an interesting twist early in 2007 when Wal-Mart decided to promote the sale and use of CFL's, as reported by the New York Times. It has gotten even more interesting lately as congressional efforts to ban the incandescent bulb have brought this issue into the partisan political arena. It seems to have been a popular topic with such diverse sources as NPR and Rush Limbaugh. It may be time to take a breath.