Indoor Environmental Quality, Work Performance, and Health

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ),Work Performance, and Health A peer reviewed paper on quantitative relations between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and work performance or health from the Helsinki University of Technology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory presents relationships between ventilation rates, temperature, and perceived air quality to short term sick leave, work performance, and sick
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Building Enclosure Commissioning Overview, Part 2

Why Commission the Enclosure? Building Enclosure Commissioning Overview, Part 2 In the ideal world, all components of the building enclosure providing waterproofing and air leakage mitigation – air and water resistive barriers, flashings, primary and secondary membranes, sealants, coatings etc., would be thoroughly analyzed for compatibility and detailed with great care to maintain integrity at
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Piping for New Construction – Plastic vs. Copper

Plastic vs. copper
Piping for New Construction: Plastic vs. Copper What Do We Know – What Should We Do? Water, it has been revered since the beginning of time. It sustains and nourishes us; we couldn’t live more than three days without it. Fortunately, in the Western World, it is readily available. It is so seamlessly intertwined with
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Lessons Learned Working on LEED Projects

LEED_logo_USGBC
Lessons Learned While Working on LEED Projects   I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work on a wide array of LEED projects in many different LEED rating systems and versions. While most LEED professionals, especially those that work in architectural firms, have seen the design side of the LEED delivery process, I
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Sick Building Syndrome and Building Related Illness

Sick Building Syndrome
Sick Building Syndrome and Building Related Illness What is the Difference? Sick Building Syndrome and Building Related Illness are two distinct diagnoses. People often use the term “sick building” when referring to a property, but buildings don’t get sick – people do. I believe if there are numerous people suffering from Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) it’s okay to
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Healthy Building Material Research

Healthy Building Material Label
Healthy Building Material Research Let’s Prove that the Good Guys Don’t Finish Last! Building material manufacturers are trying to clean up their act. Leading companies are disclosing more chemical ingredients than the laggards, and if your healthy building material research relies solely on an MSDS you may be fooled into choosing a less healthy building material.
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5 Ways Property Managers Limit Risk From Environmental Claims

Property Managers Limit RiskProperty Managers Limit Risk
5 Ways Property Managers Limit Risk From Environmental Claims A property manager is often stuck between a rock and a hard place. Environmental claims are common pitfalls that cause even the best property managers to wind up on the wrong side of the bench in a courtroom. Here are several tried and proven ways property managers
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Building Enclosure Commissioning 101 – Part 1

building enclosure commissioning 101
Building Enclosure Commissioning 101, the Why? – Part 1 Building Enclosure Commissioning 101 is relatively new and many teams don’t yet understand its value. I remember attending a seminar on HVAC commissioning at the Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco 18 years ago. This was a new, upcoming service at the time and commissioning agents
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Is California’s Drought Affecting Bay Area Water Quality?

bay area water quality
Is California’s Drought Affecting Bay Area Water Quality? Throughout 2015, Bay Area water quality has been getting worse in some areas. Along with the numerous other issues associated with the California drought, low water levels in our reservoirs and aquifers may be causing a noticeable decline in the quality and safety of our tap water.
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Stealth Meters

stealth power meters
“Stealth” Power Meters: Analog Meters with Hidden Transmitters A client recently shared their experiences regarding a stealth power meter that had been installed on their home. The following has been anonymized: We had opted out of the Smart Meter program about a year ago.  The electric company had come out and swapped in an analog
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