high performance buildings

The Federation of American Scientists has just released its latest tool to improve energy efficiency, sustainability, healthfulness, and safety in the affordable housing market.

In cooperation with six Habitat for Humanity affiliates from all over the U.S. and experts at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), FAS has created The High Performance Building Guide for Habitat for Humanity Affiliates.  Funded by the Building Technologies Program at the U.S. Department of Energy, the goal of this Guide is to provide Habitat’s construction partners (called affiliates) with the knowledge, resources, and basic background to make educated decisions about improving their building practices, materials and technology choices, and decision-making and planning processes.

Targeted to the needs of the Habitat for Humanity building community, this Guide features profiles and case studies of excellent Habitat affiliates, practical recommendations and steps for improving building practices and decisions, and guidance on obtaining the partners, education, and resources necessary to make the transition to higher performing housing.

Get the High Performance Building Guide on the FAS website here.

To learn more about the Guide and to read a synopsis of its contents, check out the new Earth Systems Program blog.

The Building Technologies Program has just released a new report titled “Adaptations of Cementitious Structural Insulated Panels for Multistory Construction“.  Written for the Charles Pankow Foundation, this document explores the procedures for designing and constructing cementitious structural insulated panels (CSIPs) elements in multi-story buildings.  While the International Residential Code currently covers SIPs for buildings of two stories or less, no code has been written and very little testing has been performed on utilizing SIPs, especially CSIPs in multistory (3+stories) construction.

Both in practice and in code, SIPs are primarily targeted toward single-story, residential construction.  However, FAS believes that SIPs have strong potential to play a wider role in both the commercial and residential sectors of the building industry.  One barrier toward the adoption of this advanced technology system is the lack of available information for architects and engineers on the properties of CSIPS and on methods to adopt in applying CSIPS to multistory buildings.

This report seeks to fill that information gap by providing material, data and appendixes in such a manner and in sufficient detail that a knowledgeable engineer can replicate and apply the design and construction methods and principles described herein.  In addition, the first chapter serves as a detailed overview of history, materials, fabrication methods and current uses and markets related to SIPs in general and CSIPs in particular.

A PDF copy of the full report is available here.

On Tuesday, President Obama signed the $787 Billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. The act is estimated to save three and a half million jobs over the next two years.

We’ve kept an eye on it through its development, and I want to give an update as to what made it out the other side and into law. My comments on building related portions are below. A more inclusive evaluation of the stimulus’s green measures by the Alliance to Save Energy can be found here and here.