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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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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Daylighting Tips

Daylighting Design
Daylighting Tips If you wish to optimize daylighting for your building design but don’t wish (or have the time) to do a variety of simulations for different purposes such as illumination levels in the space, shading analyses, sizing windows/ skylights etc., there some basic tips to follow that will help you take advantage of this
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Building Science Terminology

building science terminology
Building Science Terminology This blog shares recommended terminology from the US DOE. We are considering terminology and frequently used words and phrases in this blog, not definitions of building science terms. Building science terminology is sophisticated and can be confusing, but I’m not sure that the DOE’s recent efforts will help the industry. According to
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LEED v4 Changes – What to Expect

LEEDv4 Changes
LEED v4 Changes We’ve been using LEED as a tool to assist owners and design-build teams for many years and helped guide many projects to certification. Now everyone is chatting about LEED v4 changes and many are curious what to expect. We began a pilot LEEDv4 EBOM project for a local hotel, but in the
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Natural Ventilation of Buildings and Spaces

Clothes drying in the open air
Natural Ventilation of Buildings and Spaces Many times when clients desire a “green” space or building that connects its occupants to the outdoors, they envision incorporating lots of day lighting and natural ventilation in the architectural design. Certainly, there can be many benefits to be had including lower energy bills, a connection to the outdoors,
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Materials Air Quality Testing

CARB Formaldehyde Chamber Materials Air Quality Test
Materials Air Quality Testing Since news broke that Lumber Liquidators distributed composite wood flooring in California that did not meet California Air Resource Board (CARB) formaldehyde emission standards, we’ve been getting lots of questions about materials air quality testing. Some folks are interested in joining the class action law suit, some distributors and installation companies
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EMF in Schools, CHPS Takes a Stand

CHPS Adopts EMF Credits
EMF in Schools – Collaboration for High Performance Schools For many years CHPS has been a leader in identifying sustainable and healthy building trends for school buildings. Long before LEED for Schools, there was the Collaboration for High Performance Schools Criterion and scorecard. This rating system has been tested and proven effective, and recently has
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EMF Electric Fields – Design Consulting

Visualize Electric Fields
EMF Electric Fields EMF design consulting for human-generated electrosmog should involve Radio Frequency (RF) radiation, dirty electricity (high-voltage transients), low-frequency magnetic fields, and low-frequency electric fields. These four elements can be wrapped under the umbrella term, “electromagnetic radiation,” or “EMR.” This blog focuses on basic practices to minimize low-frequency EMF electric fields during design and construction. This
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Eichler Remodel

Eichler MC-674 Street View
Eichler Remodel – Healthy & Efficient Home Why write about an Eichler remodel? Because my family is lucky enough to call this our first home, and remodeling has almost completely absorbed me for the past 3 months! This isn’t just a remodel, it’s a green Eichler remodel. What is an Eichler? Joseph Eichler was a
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