Build It Tight, Ventilate It Right: Part 1

What is the difference between air tightness, air infiltration, & air leakage? People often make the mistake of thinking that an airtight building is a ‘stuffy’ building. This is not necessarily the case nor is it the intent of creating air tight structures.  Airtightness is NOT the measurement of the amount of fresh air available to the occupants, but rather is the measurement of how much air will leak into and out of the home through undesirable locations, such as small cracks and holes in the building shell. 

Eavesdropping for Efficiency

My office, as one of EAI's Education Specialists, is quite close to our classroom. Naturally, the classroom dialouge tends to drift over the walls, so I've become pretty adept at tuning it out. Every once in a while though, something catches my ear. The most recent example of this was a statement made at our Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals (STAR) class a few months ago. 

A Wired Walk Through the Trek Haus

Ella Wong wrote in to update us on the status of her net-zero, passive house, duplex "Trek Haus" being built in southeast Portland by architect/contractor Robert Hawthorne and builder Bart Bergquist. KATU-TV just aired a segment on Tuesday featuring the Portland State University mechanical engineering students who are studying the phase change insulation material being tested in one of the units (the other is the control unit that uses more standard insulation).

Running On Empty

The smell of an exceptional bolognese sauce filled the kitchen of the house we were renting for the Christmas holidays. We had all descended on Cape Town to visit my mother. My sister, Tessa, bent over the pot to give the dish a taste as my wife popped a few loaves of garlic bread into the oven.

Changing Multifamily Tenant Behavior after Energy/Water Retrofits

K-Station is a multifamily project located in Portland, OR working towards LEED Platinum certification.

This summer Earth Advantage invited Fiona Hoffman Harland, an intern from Hamilton College, to assess multifamily energy and water retrofits. Her study is one of relevance to everyone involved in the multifamily market. How do you encourage tenant engagement and use of energy efficient living systems?  Fiona discovered that “after tenants and staff understand the importance of saving energy and know how the newly installed technologies work, systems must be in place to support those involved and allow them to act on the new behavior for an extended period of time.” 

Improve your Dating Life through Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is one of those few things in this world that nobody really dislikes. How many people do you know who wish that things would cost more? “Gee, my gas bill was only $50 this month, I really wish it had been $75?” The biggest problem with energy efficiency is that it isn’t sexy. I think we can agree that we all would like to live in energy efficient homes, but most of us don’t really want to pay a hefty up-front premium, especially if we don’t get the emotional satisfaction of impressing our friends with sexy features like solar and newfangled mechanical equipment.

Well, there is a pretty simple solution that is low-cost, easy to do and it reduces energy consumption… wait for it………air sealing! “What?!” you say, “How is that going to impress anyone?” Hold that thought.

Give It To Me Straight, Doc!

In their better natures, I truly believe people really do like to help. Whether it's holding a door for the elderly or giving unsolicited advice to a friend, people are often taking action for the "benefit" of others. Often times this "help" is not perceived as such, rather its viewed as interference or suspiciously regarded as a play for a favor in return.  The older man takes it as an affront to his fitness ("Don't hold the door for me sonny!") or "mind your own business" from the friend who didn't ask for advice. It seems to me that oftentimes people over think a situation, rather than communicating in a straightforward way. 

A Visit to K-Station: a Multifamily LEED Project

It’s been a while since our last Earth Advantage Broker alumni function, so after introducing our Earth Advantage Broker class coordinator Annah to architect Shawn Sullivan during an open house in June, we quickly hatched a plan to host an alumni event at his newest project, K-Station, along Killingsworth Street and Interstate Avenue in North Portland.  Not only is this project unique as a multifamily LEED project shooting for platinum status, but it also has financial funding for homeowners through the Portland Housing Bureau.  Funding which will ensure that the units, ranging from 600- 1200 sq. ft., are affordable for homeowners, especially those trying to buy for the first-time.