Posted in Information, tagged energy efficiency, green, New York, thermal imaging camera on October 29, 2013| 2 Comments »
I stole this photo from the website of Fabrica718. It is an image taken with an infrared camera of a block of Brooklyn brownstones. The blue one is the one they remodelled….blue because its envelope is so well insulated that very little heat is escaping. Pretty cool. I’m not sure why most of the other houses have blue second and third story windows. I can’t imagine that the whole block has been upgraded to triple pane. Any ideas?
Posted in Information, tagged appraisal, appraisals make me grumpy, earth sheltered, green, houses, landscape, underground buildings on October 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Appraisals make me grumpy. It seems brutal to reduce the value of a house to square footage, numbers of bedrooms, and whether the bathroom floor has tile. There are so many intangibles that contribute to the value of a house. For example the two large trees in front of my house that shade my bedroom in the summer with their dense greenery then turn bright orange yellow and red in the fall. Of course there has to be some way to quantify a house’s worth for banks.
One guideline that seems pretty silly is the rule that square footage that is even slightly below grade is not counted as square footage. This realestate agent’s article has some funny comments. One guy actually seems to have hired a bulldozer to unearth his house so that he could qualify for a loan. Another homeowner determined that he has no square footage because his entire house is dug into the earth.
I thought of one of the inspirations of my youth, Malcolm Wells. He was an architect in Massachusetts who built most of his buildings underground. Here are some of his words about this way of building (from his website):
“…By letting our structure hog all the sunlight wherever we go, we stamp out much of the natural riches of our land. Weather is not kind to building materials. They need to be protected by a blanket of earth. Otherwise, ice cracks the freeways, water rusts bridge structures, floods rage because water cannot soak into impervious ground….”
“…We live in an era of glitzy buildings and trophy houses: big, ugly, show-off monsters that stand—or I should say stomp—on land stripped bare by the construction work and replanted with toxic green lawns. If the buildings could talk they would be speechless with embarrassment, but most of us see nothing wrong with them, and would, given the opportunity, build others like them, for few of us realize that there’s a gentler way to build. It’s called underground.”
Posted in Information, tagged energy efficiency, garden, green, utilitarian, value on September 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A simple diagram taken from this site….full of a lot of similar concepts for sustainable living.
Posted in Design Projects, tagged garden, gray water, green, grey water, plants on September 15, 2013| 2 Comments »
Yes, my Bougainvillea looks pretty sad, but hopefully soon Ill have some good “after” shots for you. I just installed a bathtub greywater system! (See the green hose attached to the drain line?)
Posted in Information, tagged green, LED, LED light fixtures, lighting design on May 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The building energy code for California is getting stricter in January 2014 and the new rules have been published.
The real goal is for all new homes to be net zero energy by 2020.
One of the biggest hopes for energy savings is LED lights, and the CEC is cracking down on the industry demanding tighter tolerances and standards so that consumers can trust that they are getting the amount and color of light and the longevity that they are paying for.
I just got home from a presentation of some of the latest in LED lighting technology by Param Electric at Laner Electric Supply. I learned a few new tricks and I have some of their product recommendations to share.
1) You can add a current limiter to a track lighting system so that it can pass inspection in a kitchen where lights are required to be high efficacy
2) This one isn’t strictly for LED lights: MR16 fixtures need filters to diffuse the light and eliminate spotty wallwashing
3) The amazing new Cree “A Lamp” only dims to 40%. The new Title 24 for 2014 will require it to dim to 15%, so hopefully Cree will be able to make that happen. These sorts of LED bulbs that can screw into traditional sockets are a great and simple solution for energy savings without throwing out the whole fixture. Beware that overheating is a problem for these bulbs. Many cannot be installed in enclosed fixtures and some cannot be installed facing up. Most are directional, which can be a good thing, but doesn’t work so well in situations where you want light to shine up and down and all around.
3.5) I have used Cree recessed LED lights myself for at least the last 5 years with success, but learned from these specialists that Cree has good quality control and makes the lamps for many of the more high end LED fixture manufacturers. Cree itself keeps it simple and is able to produce basic recessed lights for a very affordable price. If you want something with more bells and whistles you will need to go to their competitors, Juno, Halo, Tech lighting and more. Many of their more expensive competitors are using Cree lamps in their own products.
4) Creative Lighting Systems makes a 2″ diameter recessed light that puts out 800 lumens for 11 watts. (Laner sells the whole package for about $220, the 4″ version is about $160) You can get lenses to change the lighting effect/ beam spread. According to Param, the color of CSL LED lights is not well controlled. You might get one where the color is off, otherwise they make great lights.
5) The color in Kelvins of LED light varies a lot. There has been poor regulation of this standard, but this is one of the things that the regulators are cracking down on. Soon the LED manufacturers will be held to a higher standard of accuracy. Read this for more info on color temperature in lighting.
6) Tech Lighting makes very high quality recessed lights and they are the only option if you need something that puts out a lot of lumens.
7) Diode LED makes very user-friendly strip lighting. A remote driver is required, but it can be far away and it isn’t very big. I have one of these strip lights over the door to my office. I love it so far…been about 3 years.
8) Max Light and Phillips Color Kinetics both make some good self-contained LED fixtures for undercabinet, closet, cove etc that do not need remote drivers.
9) RAB makes some great exterior LED fixtures. I can vouch for these myself.
Posted in Found Objects, tagged compost heating system, green, small buildings on April 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I’d like to try the charred cedar, especially if it is truly durable/weather-resistant. The composting heating system is cool… might not work for everyone. The place looks great!
Posted in Design Projects, tagged color, doorways, El Cerrito, exterior shades, fibercement, green, houses, mahogony, modern, railings, rainscreen, redwood plywood on April 1, 2013| 4 Comments »
This 1972 budget modern house needed a tune-up. In the process of replacing the windows & siding, adding insulation, replacing the double level deck, and adding exterior window shades and a bright red-orange awning on the NW & SW sides, we also rearranged things and made the floor plan work better. That was the most satisfying part of the project, but it is hard to show it in photographs. Type “Navellier” in the search box to the right for photos of the process.
Here are some photos after construction:
Approaching the house
New entry door and porch
Exterior window shades and awning (retracted) and fibercement siding installed as a rainscreen
Redwood and stainless steel railing
Guillaume and Freddy under the bright red awning
Posted in Found Objects, tagged Berkeley, green, windmill on February 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Design Projects, tagged boxes, furniture, green, paint, patterns, wood on November 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I finally had a chance to take a few photos of one of our most recent treasure chests. We made this one for Kavi out of maple and a painted poplar top. The hinges are special soft close hinges to protect his small fingers. The paint is my favorite Bioshield Aqua Resin Trim Enamel. I had to use a bit of a different paint for the dark brown part.
Here is a picture of Kavi and his box
Posted in Found Objects, tagged colorado, cottages, green, houses, metal, painted columns, porches, small buildings, whimsy on July 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Design Projects, tagged Berkeley, cabinets, green, houses, interiors, paint, remodelling on May 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The painters are finishing up. All the trim, doors, and cabinetry are painted with Bioshield Aqua Resin Trim Enamel, a very pleasing product that is also very green.
Linen
Guillaume and Freddy, of Canivet Construction, making sure everything is ship-shape
Posted in Design Projects, tagged Berkeley, garden, green, landscape, process, small buildings on May 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
My friend Matt is making progress on his little buildings! Here are a couple of older posts about the project:
It will be very nice to have the garden and patio between the main house and the small buildings with good southern exposure. (See site plan below)
deedsdesign 