[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Collective wisdom over the last quarter century of renewable energy/e-efficiency?

[Lawrence Lile]

I'd be interested to see if they considered moisture, drainage and
cleaning in the Earth tubes, and how they held up.  These could be a
maintenance headache. I'm putting some in.  

> As interest and the requisite skills dispersed, new people didn't know
to add glycerin to the bead tank to get rid of the static cling between
beads. 

So THAT'S how you do it - I saw a homemade beadwall that failed almost
immediately due to static cling.  I always wondered how they got that to
work.

> A Clevis Maltrum composting toilet required too much maintenance and
so was the first to go.

Nobody likes to shovel out poop.  
 
>The insulating panels remain under the bed.

This is not surprising.  Some friends of mine lived with putting in
insulating panels every day for 25 years.  After a fire, they rebuilt
their solar house, and dispensed with the panels.  With the right ratio
of glass and mass, insulating panels are not necessary

How about Energy Star rated reflective metal roofs?  

Energy star appliances?  Super low energy refrigerators?

T-8 fluorescent lamps with electronic ballasts (50% better than compact
fluorescents) 

Motion sensor switches for lighting in low-occupancy areas like the
garage, shop, and non-sleeping areas

Tyvek house wrap? 

 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of
wmdorsett at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 10:16 PM
To: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Collective wisdom over the last quarter
century of renewable energy/e-efficiency?
Importance: Low

   We are writing a grant to repair and update a passive solar
greenhouse that was funded by DOE as a demonstration project twenty five
years ago. It has a large beadwall, earth tubes, large Kalwall water
tubes and stone thermal mass, active water heat storage and a defunct
solar water heater, and very good insulation. All things considered, it
has performed quite well. The characteristic common to several of the
failed components is the lack of convenience. A Clevis Maltrum
composting toilet required too much maintenance and so was the first to
go. Thermal shutters were forgotten to close, even the beadwall was
neglected much of the time. As interest and the requisite skills
dispersed, new people didn't know to add glycerin to the bead tank to
get rid of the static cling between beads. So one of the things we've
learned is that unless it is convenient as in putting the beadwall on a
timer, effort overcomes people's interest. The insulating panels remain
under the bed.

   The grant will update to today's technology. however aside from the
water heater and maintenance, the structure is largely current. Thermal
mass and good insulation matched to the amount of glazing is still as
good as twenty years ago. After all we're still pointing to the cliff
dwellings four hundred years later. 

   So what major advances have we made in the past twenty years? Can you
name the last twenty years' top five innovations in building related
renewable energy and how about another five in energy efficiency? I'll
throw in some crumbs of my own:

PV balance of system hardware has clearly leaped forward with sine wave
inverters instead of square or semi-square ware, maximum power tracking
charge controllers, largely dispensing with batteries for grid
connection. The modules are still fairly evenly divided between
multi-crystalline and thin film. Poly junction amorphous is only ten or
fifteen years old. I think the jury is still out on PV shingles due to
cost and labor. The industry seems to be moving away from 12V modules to
much higher voltages more adaptable to grid connections than stand-alone
systems. I am afraid this focuses heavily on the needs of industrial
countries and neglects technical advances needed for developing ones to
leap frog past our aging grid.

Solar water heaters? I think in much of the US, it is still hard to beat
the simplicity of batch water heaters...tank in a box such as Cornel's.
They fail from corrosion inside so a lifetime stainless tank and
fittings would be a huge impovement. 

Load efficiency has undeniably improved. Refrigerators, microwave ovens
and CFL lighting with electronic ballast's, variable speed and DC
motors, washers and dryers (though none approach a clothes line). Remote
pumping hasn't changed all that much in twenty years.  The Italian pump
which seemed a lot like Grundfos' SQ Flex was a maintenance head ache.
We're still choosing between high voltage/high powered centrifugal and
small diaphragm pumps. The point of failure is the diaphragm for which
the best material to my knowledge is Santaprene. I suspect the SQ Flex
will suffer similar wear points. 
   
The selective surface metal roof coatings mentioned by Alison Kinn and
Eva Wong, and the new low-E glazing films which exclude solar heat gain
but allow high visible light transmission are major advances. 

   As they've called it for two decades, solid smoke, aerogel has been
suggested for insulating between the panes of double pane glass for an
R10/inch. I am concerned that the gel is fragile enough that nearby
passing traffic would vibrate the gel into dust. Are there any
manufacturers who actually are offering windows with aerogel? Are there
other glazing systems which perform dramatically better than triple and
quad glazing with argon and non-conducting edge spacers? From my
experience the frame material and weather stripping is a weak point.
Even clad windows dryrot when the weather stripping fails with drying
and flexing, so I think the maintenance free-est choices are fiberglass
and foam filled vinyl frames. If it is used for 7000 hours of flexing in
pumps Santaprene ought to be the best lasting weather stripping. Loewen
is perhaps only one window manufacturer which uses it. 

Our understanding of moisture transmission in walls and ceiling
structures has dramatically changed. no longer are we wrapping interiors
with visqueen. Blown in insulation, cellulose and perhaps fiberglass
BIBS


What wisdom has all your collective experience given us over the last
twenty five years?







   
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