Small change to keep blog organized

I think that this blog is becoming a little hard to keep track of. It would be nice to keep it organized, so that other REAP students can use it as well. Hence, I made some changes to the code which will help us keep the future blog posts shorter. We are now using the new blogger editor, which has a number of new features. Read here if you are interested. If not, all you have to know is that there is an easy way to keep posts short on the main blog page, as demonstrated here. You will have to read more to continue reading the remainder of the post.

Passive House Strategies

I extracted only the part that explains passive house standards for you. To get a full overview of the PHPP standard, and how it can be implied in different climates such as in Portugal, France or England, check out http://www.passive-on.org/CD/3.%20Training%20Module/TrainingModule-27Sep2007.zip for the full presentation

Passive House Strategies

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Is LEED on track to save the world?

From the BuildingGreenBlog:

Rob Watson recently published "Green Building Market & Impact Report," his second annual report on the impact LEED is having in addressing environmental problems. The report highlights the continuing remarkable expansion of LEED: 2009 registrations for new design and construction projects in the U.S. may actually exceed total new construction starts! (This is possible because projects don't typically register when they start construction, and a flurry of projects were registered just before the requirement to use LEED 2009 kicked in, to keep their options open.)

Energy Star suggest these steps to ntegrate energy efficiency into the design approach

As guidelines for an integrated design approach, I found this set of rules from EnergyStar to incorporate energy performance into the building design:

These guidelines are a strategic management approach, not a technical reference, to incorporate energy performance in the building design process. It is a set of suggested actions for design professionals and building owners to establish and achieve energy goals. These guidelines encourage best practices for energy design as part of the overall design process, and can help translate design intent to top energy performing buildings.

• Start Right – Set energy goal and assemble design team
• Pre-Design – Investigate energy design concepts
• Schematic Design – Simulate and compare energy strategies
• Design Development – Confirm that your design energy meets the target
• Construction & Bid Documents – Include energy goal in specs
• Follow Through – Commission building, rate operational performance, and apply for ENERGY STAR