Middlebury Students Practice 'Self-Reliance' with Solar Decathlon House

In honor of the U.S  Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon -- which challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive -- we are profiling each of the 20 teams participating in the competition.

Comments, thoughts, suggestions....

American Institute of Architects Select Top Ten Green Projects

NREL's Research Support Facility was among the top green buildings cited by the AIA in 2011. Credit: Dennis Schroeder, NREL

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions on April 14. The new Research Support Facility at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was among the projects on AIA's Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Projects list, now in its 15th year. The jury noted that NREL's structure serves as a challenge to the building industry and a blueprint for it to pursue low-energy performance projects. The Green Projects program celebrates projects that result from thoroughly integrated approaches to architecture, natural systems, and technology that include the use of sustainable or renewable construction materials.

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DOE and HUD Announce Lenders to Participate in New Pilot Program

April 21, 2011

DOE and HUD Announce Lenders to Participate in New Pilot Program to Help Homeowners Pay for Energy Improvements to their Homes

FHA PowerSaver Program to offer low-cost financing to credit-worthy borrowers

DOE Webinar April 28: Calculating Loads for Heating and Cooling

April 25, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Building Technologies Program is offering a webinar on Thursday, April 28, 2011, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon Eastern titled "Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Right-Sizing Part 1: Calculating Loads." Register now to attend this free webinar.
Calculating energy requirements for heating and cooling a home is the first critical step in the design process for correctly sizing the HVAC system. Designers use models of electrical loads to help them select the optimal equipment and duct designs to deliver the appropriate volume of conditioned air to rooms of the home.
This webinar, presented by IBACOS—one of DOE’s Building America Research Teams—will highlight the key criteria required to accurately calculate heating and cooling loads. During the webinar, experts will also discuss current industry rules of thumb, perceptions, and barriers to correctly sizing HVAC systems.
Target audiences include residential builders and HVAC design firms, contractors, installers, manufacturers, and distributors.
Learn more about the webinar.
More Progress Alerts

EEWG Meeting Minutes

For those interested, here is a link to the minutes from the April 20th call.  We look forward to updates and additional participation on the numerous action items!  As always, please share comments and input through our various venues!

https://edinenergy.sharefile.com/d/s1aecfe10d8f415ba

EEWG Call Tomorrow at 2:00 AST

Hope to "see" you there.  Highlights will include follow-up from EDIN Workshop on St. Thomas and progress on some of the current action items.

April 20, 2011
2:00 AST
Call in information: By Phone 877-996-4844 Pin# 5621014

Energy Efficiency Programs

I have always been interested in what provokes (or stymies) people into adding energy efficiencies into their lifestyles. I've found that many people just need to be shown the way once or twice and then they form their own habits. One of the surprising methods that successfully engaged people into buying and enjoying energy efficiency measures turns out to be programs by the local utility. When these programs were started in the states during the late 80s and early 90s, many of the program managers thought they would be rebuffed by their customers. After all, it was at the utility that the customers expressed anger for the cost of their energy consumption. However, when the utility approached the small businesses to install more efficient lighting or the larger businesses to install better HVAC systems, the customers believed it was a great idea because they did believe that the utility knew about energy. The utilities would send in local vendors to do the work and soon the local vendors became capable of doing the energy audits and could represent the utility. But the utility was the key. The customer trusted the technology, were grateful the utility sent the vendors and loved it when they could pay for their installation through the utility bill where the savings were garnered. This set up works very well today stateside. I would love to see it applied here in the US Virgin Islands. What do you think?

Another EDIN Workshop is Complete

We covered a lot of ground over the last several days.  The Energy Efficiency Working Group (EEWG) was able to meet in a special break-out session that addressed many concerns and issues facing our progress.  We all left with an action list and will provide a debrief on the next working group call.  A special thank you to all of you that made the effort to attend the Workshop; we made a lot of progress and the future of energy efficiency in the USVI is looking bright.

Green Building Mold Issues

Green Building practices, like LEED, are still so new that many are untested. This article from Lodging Engineer is a wonderful read (for us LEED geeks). The fellows writing it seem well versed and experienced in the field of sick buildings. Mold is the culprit. As they suggest, LEED practices are relatively new or newly applied old ideas. What I love about this article is that the authors cite a right solution (there are more than just theirs, for sure) and not just for how to fix each project (follow mold and moisture level guidelines, duhh), they have correctly assesed how the USGBC (www.usgbc.org) can change the LEED methods to include these mold prevention practices. This article is a perfect criticism because it comes with a solution. That is so rare from critics. Kudos to the group that wrote it. Take a look at the article, linked in this title, and tell us what you think.