Climate Analysis for a More Sustainable Architecture (Series)

Climate Analysis for a More Sustainable Architecture (Series) 

AIA Seattle's partners in the AIA+2030 Professional Series, the Integrated Design Lab, ASHRAE Puget Sound and BetterBricks, are offering an education series this fall to provide a deeper level of understanding about the key topic of climate analysis.

Tuesdays, October 4 – December 6, 2011 6-9pm
Integrated Design Lab l Puget Sound
100 Northlake NE, Suite 100
Seattle, Washington

This course will focus on the practice of climate analysis for the purposes of designing more sustainable buildings that respond to local site and weather conditions to reduce their use of energy while optimizing occupant comfort.

We will define what is meant by climate, examine its constituent variables, identify sources of data, and evaluate tools and techniques to display, analyze, and interpret these conditions in a useful way. The interpretation of local climate conditions will specifically focus on graphic tools and techniques to understand key climate variables. These techniques will include the use of free and commercially available software packages, but importantly will include the use of manual digital techniques such as Excel or other data management programs that allow the user the greatest flexibility in interpreting results.

While much of the class will focus on the analysis of climatic data specific to individual building projects, the course will examine issues beyond the limits of the building envelope: microclimatic interactions between buildings, their landscape settings, and the local site specific weather conditions; and the role that changing climate conditions might play for the future of a more sustainable architecture.

Chris Chatto is a Sustainable Design Architect. He focuses on optimizing building efficiencies, from energy and daylighting studies in early project development to tracking the performance of completed projects, to monitoring the energy performance of ZGF projects in the context of the 2030 Challenge. Chris developed an expertise in daylighting, climate analysis and bioclimatic design for high performance buildings while working with the BetterBricks Integrated Design Labs at the University of Oregon and University of Washington.

MORE INFORMATION:  Call 206-616-7966 or email linneak@uw.edu

Registration:   http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=222252 or http://www.aiaseattle.org/node/5975

COST:  $500 for the series - Registration is open until class fills.

Brought to you by:

BetterBricks <http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe3b157075640678711478&ls=fdfd16717367047b7c177374&m=fef91c71746301&l=fe9f15717466027e77&s=fe3210757664067b731572&jb=ffcf14&t=> ,

the University of Washington's <http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe3a157075640678711479&ls=fdfd16717367047b7c177374&m=fef91c71746301&l=fe9f15717466027e77&s=fe3210757664067b731572&jb=ffcf14&t=>  

Integrated Design Lab <http://www.integrateddesignlab.com/Seattle/> with the support of AIA Seattle <http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe42157075640678711570&ls=fdfd16717367047b7c177374&m=fef91c71746301&l=fe9f15717466027e77&s=fe3210757664067b731572&jb=ffcf14&t=>  and

ASHRAE Puget Sound http://pugetsoundashrae.blogspot.com/

NEEA - Better Bricks - City of Seattle

August 3, 2011

Energy Star Portfolio Manager Training

NEEA BetterBricks and the City of Seattle offer this FREE workshop for building owners, property managers and service providers to support compliance with the City of Seattle’s building energy benchmarking and disclosure ordinance. This hands-on session will teach you how to benchmark your building’s energy performance using the free on-line tool ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager. Participants will also learn about the ordinance reporting requirements and new services available for automated benchmarking from Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy and Seattle Steam. Registration required.

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
University of Washington
Mary Gates Hall, Room 044
Seattle, WA

AIA Seattle - Committee on the Environment (COTE)

Passive House - Presentation

Passive House (passivhaus) is the world’s most rigorous approach to energy efficient design and construction, achieving a 75%-90% greater efficiency than standard built-to-code buildings in the US. With the addition of a relatively small amount of site-produced energy (PV, wind or other), Certified Passive House buildings can achieve Net Zero Energy today.

For more information and to register for this presentation go to: http://www.aiaseattle.org/node/5573

Association of Energy Engineers

Online Submission Forms are due by February 11, 2011.

The Association of Energy Engineers invites you to submit an abstract for consideration to speak at the 34th World Energy Engineering Congress, being held October 12-14, 2011 at the Navy Pier in Chicago, IL.

Suggested Topics

• Carbon Reduction & Sustainable Development
• Energy Basics
• Energy Management
• Energy Policy
• Energy Services
• Green Buildings
• High Performance Buildings
• Natural Gas & Electric Purchasing
• Power Generation
• Renewable Energy
• Transportation Systems

To submit an abstract or to view more topics, please visit www.aeecenter.org/weecabstract. Suggestions for topics other than those listed above or on our website may be submitted.

Note: If your company is a product manufacturer or rep firm selling a product, the presentation must be non-commercial in content.

Registration fees for the conference will be complimentary for speakers and chairs.

For questions, please contact:
Michelle Oxner, Conference Speakers Director, Association of Energy Engineers
Michelle@aeecenter.org / 770-447-5083, Ext. 215

AIA + 2030 Professional Series 3

AIA + 2030 Professional Series 3

AIA Seattle, a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is taking tangible steps toward reaching the 2030 Challenge. One of those steps is creating the AIA+2030 Professional Series™, a 10-part series of intermediate-level professional development courses designed to provide specific ways to make our built environment energy-efficient. However, architects can’t do it alone. It will take engineers, construction professionals, facilities managers, policymakers, and more to reach our goal and all are invited to participate in the series. The third year of the AIA+2030 Professional Education Series™ is produced by AIA Seattle in partnership with Architecture 2030® and BetterBricks and is sponsored by the City of Seattle’s City Green Building, Wood Harbinger, MacDonald Miller Facility Solutions, Interface Engineering, and PAE Consulting Engineers.

AIA Seattle has already heard positive feedback from previous participants:

“One of the most significant and usable workshop programs I have seen so far for actually incorporating the specifics of Architecture 2030 into our work. We have had multiple staff in our office lined up to attend. Great series, great benefit."

“This knowledge is critical for everyone in our industry. Very inspiring”

“I am going to take on more challenging projects now”

“Groundbreaking”

AIA+2030 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION SERIES™ 3:

Feb 25, 2011 The 2030 Challenge: Setting + Achieving Energy Goals with Integrated Design
Mar 25, 2011 Getting to 60: The Power of Targets + Load Reduction
Apr 15, 2011 Accentuate the Positive: Climate Responsive Design
May 6, 2011 Skins: The Importance of the Thermal Envelope
Jun 3, 2011 Aggressively Passive: Employing Passive Systems for Load Reduction
Jun 24, 2011 Illuminating Savings: Daylighting and Integrated Lighting Strategies
Jul 22, 2011 Right-sized: Equipment and Controls for Super-Efficient Building Systems
Aug 19, 2011 Site Power: Renewable Energy Opportunities
Sep 16, 2011 The Hand-Off + Staying in Shape: Operations, Maintenance + Education
Oct 14, 2011 Putting it All Together: Achieving 2030 Goals on the Project and at the Office

TIME: All Sessions held from 8.30am-12.30pm

LOCATION: All classes held at the Bertha Knight Landes Room at
Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

COST: 10-session package:
$800 AIA Members
$400 AIA Associates
$1,200 Non-members

REGISTRATION: www.aiaseattle.org/aiaplus2030
NOTE: Registration is for the entire series only.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: February 15, 2011

LEARNING UNITS: 40LU/40HSW/40SD for the series (4LU/4HSW/4SD per class).

MORE INFORMATION: Cassandra Delaune, AIA+ 2030 Program Manager
cdelaune@aiaseattle.org, (206) 448-4938 ext. 106

ASHRAE’s 2011 Annual Conference Seeks Papers on Alternative Technologies, Engineering Tools, Net-Zero Buildings

Call for Papers
ASHRAE’s 2011 Annual Conference Seeks Papers on Alternative Technologies, Engineering Tools, Net-Zero Buildings

ATLANTA– Papers addressing advances in alternative technologies and net-zero buildings, as well as HVAC&R fundamentals and commissioning are being sought for ASHRAE’s 2011 Annual Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The deadline for paper submissions is Sept. 17, 2010. For complete information on tracks, contacts and submittal requirements, visit www.ashrae.org/montreal.

The 2011 Annual Conference takes place June 25-29. The technical program includes tracks that push the engineering envelope. The Alternative Technologies track seeks papers on photovoltaic (PV), geothermal, wind power and variable-refrigerant-volume (VRV) systems, solar and other technologies, as well as how these systems affect the first cost and operating cost of the building. Papers describing the science behind emerging technologies incorporated into net-zero-energy (NZEB) design are sought.

The Net-Zero Buildings track seeks papers that examine NZEB design, cost to achieve these buildings, existing NZEBs and operational and maintenance issues and costs. Case studies illustrate how to achieve NZEB in designs are sought, also. The Engineering Tools track seeks papers that address the range of different energy modeling and building information modeling tools available, their use and specific applications and integrated approaches.

Papers from owner or architect perspectives or case studies that illustrate modeling techniques are requested. In addition, papers are sought for tracks on Commissioning, HVAC Systems, HVAC Fundamentals and Applications, Professional Skills and Refrigeration. Full-length technical papers or conference paper abstracts (400 words or less) should be submitted by Sept. 17.

For more information about the two types of papers and to submit a full-length technical paper or conference paper abstract, visit www.ashrae.org/montreal.

The conference is expected to attract some 1,500 attendees from 60 countries. The technical program takes place Sunday, June 26–Wednesday, June 29, and includes paper presentations as well as non-paper presentations. Approved papers are published in ASHRAE Transactions.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.

Contact Jodi Scott
Public Relations
678-539-1140
jscott@ashrae.org

ASHRAE WebCast - "Right From The Start"

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

1-4 p.m. EDT

Hear from leading commissioning experts about how commissioning supports a smoother construction process, maximizes energy and cost reductions, and provides a facility that operates as intended. This program will define the “what, why, when, and who” of the commissioning process and provide you with tools to commission your high performing building.

This free webcast is sponsored by the ASHRAE Chapter Technology Transfer Committee with support from ASHRAE’s High Performing Buildings Magazine, and has been approved by AIA and the USGBC.

How to Participate

• You may host a webcast site for your colleagues.
• You may register to view with others at a site near you.
• You may register to view the Webcast on your PC.

How to Earn Credits for Continuing Education, License Renewal or Certification

Three (3) Professional Development Hours or three (3) AIA Learning Units may be awarded to viewers who complete the “Participant Reaction Form” online by April 30, 2010. Visit www.ashrae.org/CxWebcast for complete details.
About the Presenters

• Richard Casault
• H. Jay Enck
• Ronald Wilkinson

Visit www.ashrae.org/CxWebcast for complete details.

Registration

Online registration begins now at www.ashrae.org/CxWebcast. There is no fee for registration. If you have questions, call 678-539-1200 or email ashrae-webcast@ashrae.org.

To learn about ASHRAE membership, visit www.ashrae.org/membership.

From ASHRAE Society:

Existing Buildings in Urban Areas:

Dramatically Cutting the Energy Waste

April 19-20, 2010
Grand Hyatt • New York, NY

For more information go to:

http://www.ashrae.org/events/page/2473

AIA+2030 Professional Series

Register today for:










AIA+2030 Professional Series
Prepare your firm and your career for the new energy frontier! The AIA+2030 Professional Series is a national pilot program endorsed by Architecture 2030 to help design professionals create buildings that meet the ambitious energy efficiency goals of the 2030 Challenge.

The series of ten, four-hour sessions offer strategies to reach 50% reduction in fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions, giving design professionals the knowledge and leverage to create next-generation, super-efficient buildings and provide firms with the skills that will set them apart in the marketplace.*

TIME: Sessions are 8:30AM-12:30PM

LOCATION: Seattle City Hall's Bertha Knight Landes Room.**

COST:

$800 AIA members
$400 AIA associates
$1,200 Non-members

COLLABORATOR SPECIAL
Do you work with an AIA member or Associate? When an AIA member or Associate refers their engineer, that engineer can sign up at the AIA member price! One referral allowed per AIA member.

TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE.

Registration is for the entire series only. Payment plans and a limited number of scholarships and are available. For more information on scholarship availability, contact Danielle Henderson.

SERIES SCHEDULE (click title for full description):

February 5, 2010** The 2030 Challenge: setting + achieving energy goals with integrated design
March 5, 2010 Getting to 50: the power of targets + load reduction
April 2, 2010 Accentuate the positive: climate responsive design
April 30 , 2010 Skins: the importance of the thermal envelope
June 4, 2010 Passively aggressive: employing passive systems for load reduction
June 25, 2010 Illuminating savings: daylighting and integrated lighting strategies
July 23, 2010 Right-sized: equipment and controls for super-efficient building system
September 10, 2010 Site power: renewable energy opportunities
October 8, 2010 The hand-off + staying in shape: operations, maintenance + education
October 29, 2010 Putting it all together: achieving 2030 goals on the project and at the office

*This series is an encore of Series 1, which is still in session.
**The first class is being held in the Seattle Central Library. All others are being held at Seattle City Hall, in the Bertha Knight Landes Room.


Many thanks to our Founding Partners:






Thanks also in part to our AIA + 2030 Professional Series II sponsors:

Click on the image below to see a more legible version.

Seatle City Hall Featured in ASHRAE High Performing Buildings Magazine

ASHRAE's second issue of High Performing Buildings Magazine features an article on the new Seattle City Hall.

Designed by local engineering firm Wood Harbinger, the building has become a new landmark and a center for civic pride.

The article (pdf) has a very insightful section on "Perceptions and Evaluations" that examines the factors and misconceptions that contributed to the initial bad press that criticized the energy use of the building. It stresses the importance of establishing appropriate expectations and baselines when evaluating the success of a sustainable building. This section alone is worth a read since similar issues are bound to be a part of future green building projects.

As always, the HPB article describes the subject building, highlights the sustainable features, provides real data on performance and highlights lessons learned. HPB is well worth reading and is an amazing resource that ASHRAE provides free of cost!

Spring 2008 Digital HPB Issue

Seattle Tops in Green Buildings

According to an article in the April, 23 2008 issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels claims that Seattle has more LEED™ certified buildings than any other US city.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels pointed to the U.S. Green Building Council, which said Seattle has 41 projects that have certified by the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) national rating system. Nickels pointed out that 10 of those LEED-certified projects, including the new central library and City Hall, are municipal projects.

Congratulations to the members of Puget Sound ASHRAE who have helped to realize this accomplishment!

And congratulations to the Cascadia Region Green Building Council for having two cities in their region top the list for the nation!

ASHRAE Offers Advanced Design Guides for FREE Download!

ASHRAE is pushing the envelope of sustainable design. And, in keeping with that push, they are now offering their series of Advanced Design Guides for a free electronic download!

This is a great offer for anyone in our industry--these design guides are a must add to any designer's library.



The ASHRAE Press Release:

ATLANTA – To encourage energy efficient design in a range of building types, ASHRAE and its partnering organizations are making available for free the Advanced Energy Design Guide series.

Electronic versions of the newest book in the series, Advanced Energy Design Guides for K-12 School Buildings, as well as the existing guides on small office and small retail buildings are available for free download at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg. Future guides, including one focused on warehouses to be published this spring, will be available for free electronic download as well.

“Energy efficiency is still a vast and underutilized energy resource that is essential to the long-term survival of our world,” says ASHRAE President Kent Peterson. “Buildings consume approximately 40 percent of the primary energy in the United States. As part of our energy efficiency market deployment strategy, we want to get this valuable building guidance into the marketplace and into the hands of owners, contractors and design teams. The technology is available today to construct substantially more efficient buildings. Free distribution of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series will help educate the marketplace on how to build energy efficient buildings that use significantly less energy than those built to the minimum code requirements.

“The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) supports the electronic distribution of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series to ensure widespread availability of these voluntary recommendations,” said Rita Harrold, IESNA member of the AEDG Steering Committee. “Offering these important Guides for free download to a large audience of users will help further the partnering organizations’ efforts to create a more secure energy future.”

In addition, the K-12 guide was sent to nearly 14,000 school systems around the country to assist with the design of energy-efficient schools that create safe and comfortable environments conducive to learning.

Partnering organizations include the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the U.S. Green Building Council and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Addressing energy use in our buildings is one of the most important measures we can take in our efforts to protect the health of our environment,” said Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council. “The Advanced Energy Design Guide series are critical publications for the building industry. Every percentage point reduction in buildings’ energy use brings us that much closer to our goal of mitigating climate change.”

"The importance for all design and construction professionals to move toward carbon neutral, sustainable buildings is of paramount importance to the American Institute of Architects," said Christine McEntee, executive vice president and CEO of the AIA. "The Advanced Energy Design Guides are an approachable, important tool to help achieve that goal."

The guides provide a sensible, hands-on approach to design through use of products that are practical and commercially available as “off-the-shelf” technology. They offer designers and contractors the tools needed for achieving a 30% energy savings compared to buildings that meet the minimum energy efficiency requirements of Standard 90.1-1999.

Hard copies of all of the guides are available for purchase. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/freeaedg.

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 404-321-5478, or visit at www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

Building Science and Integrated Design

The cover story in November's HPAC magazine made a critical point about integrated design: In order to optimize building performance, HVAC designers need to take a more proactive role in the design of the building their systems are serving.

The author describes the traditional 'reactive' role of the HVAC designer, and advocates for a more active role in the design of what was traditionally left to the Architect. He provides a compelling example in the illustration of the effect of architectural detail on overall building component thermal performance.

A recent study focused on architects' building-envelope details and their impact on HVAC designers' heating- and cooling-load calculations. Four identically insulated and glazed building models were set up with R-19 wall insulation, but with variations in window frames, wall detailing, and wall construction. The models had the same window areas and center-of-glass thermal performance. The overall wall thermal resistance varied from a low of R-4.8 to R-12.6. (This included adding the R values of the glazing and frames to the wall thermal resistance to get an "overall" R value).

Thermal bridging caused by accepting cheaper/faster construction products and details can degrade wall and roof thermal transmission by more than 25 percent below insulation values. For example, R-20 wall insulation, coupled with poor thermal-bridging details, may provide an actual R-13 to R-14 thermal-transmission barrier.

But to be effective, the HVAC designer must, of course, understand the building science behind the way these components perform. The author suggest the use of free software modeling the effect of glazing details at windows.lbl.gov/software/therm/therm.html
or more basic education at www.arch.hku.hk/teaching/learn.htm and www.bestofbuildingscience.com.

ASHRAE members also should not overlook the excellent series "Building
Sciences" by Joseph W. Lstiburek, Ph.D., P. Eng. found in the ASHRAE Journal (membership required for access). Dr. Lstiburek brings humor and insight to a subject over which mastery is demanded by today's energy performance goals.

Puget Sound ASHRAE and IEEE Announce Engineering Vision 2030 Conference

Puget Sound ASHRAE and IEEE Seattle would like to announce an exciting new conference focused on high-performance, resource-smart building engineering: Engineering Vision 2030.

(click for bigger image)

The flyer above gives a quick overview of the topics that will be covered.

Date: March 26th and 27th, 2008
Where: Pigott Hall, Seattle University

Brochure and Program
Registration

WSU Selects Shoreline CC as Site for Solar Decathlon House

In 2005, WSU students built an ultra-low energy house for competition in the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. They were the only team from the Northwest competing in that year's event.

The structure was built to be portable, and was constructed from a discarded shipping container. It utilizes ultra-efficient insulation, recycled construction materials, and heats domestic water with the rejected heat from the refrigerator.

Recently, WSU donated the structure to Shoreline Community College where it will serve as the focus for the college's programs exploring renewable industries, architecture, construction management and engineering.

It's a great example of forward thinking engineering in our backyard. The Zero Energy House is located on the northwest corner of the campus, at 16101 Greenwood Ave. N., just west of Aurora Avenue and north of Seattle city limits. Community organizations can schedule private tours by calling Brian Mast at 206-280-8167.

ASHRAE Green Guide

I spent some time over the holidays catching up on my reading--I had at least three old ASHRAE Journals to review and I have a copy of the ASHRAE Green Guide just taking up room on my shelf. While I was familiar with the Green Tips portion of the guide (Available for free at the Engineering for Sustainability website), I really hadn't spent much time reviewing the book itself. After a quick review, one of the portions of the book I found interesting was in Chapter 7: Conceptual Engineering Design-Load Determiniation. The guide had some sample pie charts showing average energy use of particular building types in specific climactic areas of the US. The guide provided a web-link to where software to create this type of graph for a given project could be found. The idea being that it would help to know what the state of the industry is when setting performance goals for your high-performance project. The software tool identified, however, is a commercial product and requires the user to purchase a site license to gain the capabilities highlighted in the Guide.

After a little snooping around on the web, I found that much of this information is available for free online: One place this sort of data is available is The Energy Information Agency website. This site publishes a lot of data about energy use in commercial and residential structures in the US, including basic data of energy use broken out by region. This data is compiled from extensive surveys of many, many facilities throughout the US.

More limited in scope, but more detailed in the description of the projects profiled is the DOE High-Performance Building Database. Nearly 100 different high-performance buildings are identified with their energy budgets (in kBTU/sq. ft, based on actual metered performance) provided. Each sustainability strategy for the building is described in detail in the project report that is on public file.

Another resource is the DOE Building Energy Data Book which breaks down energy use by fuel type, occupancy and size for residential and commercial buildings.

These other resources may not be as convenient as the highlighted software, but you can't beat the price!. And other resources are very likely available online.

NYC Geothermal Heat Pump Manual sets a Lofty Goal

In August of 2002, the City of New York Department of Design and Construction published a Manual guiding engineers through the design and installation of geothermal heat pump systems in their city. This manual covered the basics of geothermal heat pump designs, the intricacies of the complicated NYC geology, and the intricacies of the complicated NYC permitting process. As such it was a positive step by a government agency to facilitate the adoption of high-efficiency building systems. And it was a somewhat counter-intuitive move, since ground-loop heat-pump systems are often considered prohibitive in dense urban areas.

This manual sets an intriguing example for other local or state governments--especially ones where the underlying geology of their areas of jurisdiction are complicated or where strict building or energy codes exist. In cities like Seattle, where both are the case, a similar manual would be of great utility to local designers.

A link to the manual can be found here:

New York City DDC Geothermal Heat Pump Manual

There is probably much of benefit to any designer working in areas of jumbled glacial deposits as are found in the Puget Sound region.