The primary ecological benefits of Green Roofs are as follows: The Reduction of Urban Heat Island Effect. An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surroundings. As population centers grow in size from village to town to city, they tend to have a corresponding increase in average temperature, […]
Green Roof Benefits Read More »
Obviously, the author at these links is NOT selling PV systems (I haven’t checked their accuracy): A PV Alternate Energy Summary… (April 25, 2010) … http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu10.asp#d04-25-10 ” Present panel costs are $3.50 per peak watt. For a significant net energy contribution, 25 cents or less per peak PANEL watt is required. Thus, present costs are FOURTEEN
Reasons NOT to do Solar (maybe) Read More »
Here is a cool example of creative salvaging. They have taken planks from an old brownstone roof and flipped them upside down as a ceiling. The one consideration is fire. This was done in a restaurant, which means it shares the ceiling with an apartment upstairs, which means the ceiling has to be 2 hour
Salvaged Wood Synergy Read More »
Vermont Natural Coatings is one of the leading green wood finishes out there. Most of the time we mix oils and bases from staple ingredients like tung oil, linseed oil, whey pigments and citrus solvent, but sometime the situation calls for a more “conventional look”. This is when we might use Vermont Natural Coatings. Here
Natural Wood Finish Read More »
Cancers from Environment ‘Grossly Underestimated’. “Daily Exposures Cause Far More Cancers Than Once Thought”, a Presidential Panel Says. According to studies almost half of the US population will be diagnosed with Cancer over their lifetime…. It makes me think of the Roman empire where they regularly ate off lead plates and all their plumbing was lead.
Cancers from Environment ‘Grossly Underestimated’ Read More »
The table below gives R values of various building materials. To obtain a wall or ceiling assembly R-value you must add the r-values of the individual components together (this won’t give you an entirely accurate R value if you’ve got thermal bridging but it is good enough for rough estimates). If we are building a
Insulation Values For Selected Materials Read More »
With our new Passive House building standard a key component of our green brownstone renovations are the ERV or HRV, or Energy Recovery Ventilator and Heat Recovery Ventilator. Both units perform the same task of clearing the house of stale air and providing it with fresh air from the outside. In a “normal” brownstone this
HRV / ERV Efficiency Read More »
When most people think of wood they don’t think cancer, but studies have shown that wood workers have a higher level of respiratory cancer. This was brought to my attention when a local lumber supply sent me the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for wood . At first I thought, ” Why do you need
Wood, Cancer and Boiled Frogs Read More »
We went to check on one of the green roofs we installed last year in Park Slope. It looked good! Some of the edges were a little wind bare but for the most part the sedum were happy and growing. We are Brooklyn green roof installers and it is really satisfying watching us spread a
Brooklyn Green Roof Maintenance Read More »
The book CEPHEUS – Living Comfort Without Heating is actually the compilation of Passive House (PH) results for buildings in Central Europe. They turned their findings into a book to give a great overview of different houses with the one common element of being Passive House. As a Brooklyn Passive House contractor I found it
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