You’ve got the efficiencies of building mounted wind turbines and then you’ve got the efficiencies of karma. In response to a recent Environmental Building News feature story about the inefficiencies of building-integrated wind turbines comes this subtly hilarious examination of the efficiencies of building-integrated prayer wheels. Now of course if you are a Tibetan Buddhist, […]
Building Integrated Prayer Wheels Read More »
Here is something from Bau-Biologie that is interesting: Microwave Radiation – Cell phones, Wi-Fi Are they safe? As fast as possible, our society is becoming more and more technologically oriented. Homes, schools, offices, entire communities are making decisions to go wireless. Cell phones are proliferating at an alarming rate. These devices were never pre-market tested
Cell Phone Control Read More »
Here is an image of the proposed plumbing setup for the green show house in Brooklyn. Chester Birchwood from New York Solar Systems is installing it. It has three interesting components. These apply to hot water only since we are really managing the amount of energy we added to the hot water. The cold water
Hot Water Home Run, Return and Mixing Read More »
I’m experimenting with a transparent heat transfer wall. It would be a transparent wall attached to the outer south wall, leaving about one inch between them. The out wall would be painted a dark color. Ideally it would be black but that would be too much of an eye sore. So dark brown would be
External Transparent Heat Transfer Wall Read More »
Above: Facade with planter and recycled joists. Originally the top facade of the building had a lot of rotted wood. And there was a great view. So in the heat of the summer I tore down the wall and planned on adding a wall of glass. It would have been magnificent. But then as the
Adding Solar Gaines and Recyclables to Facade Read More »
One technology I have my eyes on is developed by Isomax. They build homes that require basically no heating or cooling at all, regardless of where the house it. How do they do it? They use a series of air and water tubes and ducts to pass heat and cold around. They have tubes in
Zero Energy Houses Read More »
A “new” construction style coming out of Germany creates houses that barely need energy to run. They don’t even have heating systems. In the dead of winter they might need a little space heater but that is is. What is the secret? Insane amounts of insulation, triple pane windows, fanatic air sealing, smart solar design,
Passiv Haus (Passive House) Read More »
I have a moto that I live by when building: Fanatic Insulation. I’m not sure if I coined the phrase but I think I did :). We use weather barrier, caulk, insulation, foam, flashing etc like there we’re building an antarctic deep sea submarine. How do we Insultation a House ? Considering some European standards,
Fanatic Insulation Read More »
We have completely dug down the cellar by 3 and 1/2 feet. Then we put a vapour barrier and 3 inch insulation which we taped at the seams. Then we put down the salvaged fencing from the back yard to act as strengthener for the cement. On the fence we tied the pex tubing for
Laying the foundation for the concrete slab Read More »
We are inserting the salvaged poly iso insulation board into the top floor ceiling of the house between the joists. All the joists have been sistered with “new” salvaged joists. You can see the bolts holding them together. We are packing four layers of poly iso board, making it an air tight R 36. The
Inserting the Insulation Into the Roof Ceiling Read More »
