"Green" costs a lot less if it is designed in from the beginning rather than retrofitted later. From what I have seen and read a newly designed "green" commercial building can cost less than 10% more than a traditional design. The higher cost is probably for more plumbing and electrical controls.
I too live in Michigan near Pontiac (where I work) but I decided to design my house remodel to be as energy efficient as possible; given the restraints of an existing building on a narrow North and South lot. Direct solar heating or electrical is out of the question, but I added a sloping bump in the roof with south facing vertical windows. They are not as large as I wanted, but I have managed to turn the lemons into lemonade by designing an awning that reflects more light into the house through the windows in the winter and away in the summer. The windows facing East and West also are tilted to face South as much as I could get by the zoning setback requirements. I am working on reflective sun screens for those windows too. When I replace them, the north facing windows will be as small as the building code allows. I got the most reflective standing seam metal roof I could. Solar heating in the winter is not practical, but rejecting solar gain in the summer is. The walls are 2X6 instead of 2X4. I specified 24in centers, but the dumb carpenters put them on 16in centers anyway. I am taking vacation time next week to have a company come in and finish applying closed cell foam insulation in the new addition and garage. I ended up with a 90% efficient boiler supplying domestic hot water and radiant floor heating in the house and attached garage. The radiant heating allows me to keep the thermostat in the house at 68-69F while keeping the floor comfortable enough for the dogs. It is actually more comfortable in the coldest part of the winter when the boiler runs more than in the spring and fall when it cuts out for long periods. I am wiring the house lighting for room occupancy sensors because I have a habit of leaving the lights on. I have a heat exchange ventilator to install for bathroom exhaust and replacement air. I understand that those are required in the far white north. I guess what PO me most is that I have read that the builders in Michigan have been stalling implementation of the higher thermal standards that have been in the International Building Code for years. The state has a blanket approval of the Electrical, Plumbing, etc codes from the same organization, but the builders are afraid that they might lose some business. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric McCord Sent: Thursday, 10 July, 2008 11:28 Cc: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OK, I get it now. Gas prices are high! WOW! thanks for the long reply. I guess things are better than they were in the old building but I still feel they should have done more. As far as heating/cooling losses with sky lights, we actually could stand to have heating losses since we actually do not heat the building with our HVAC system due to all the heat generated by our machines. Carlton P.S. I want MY office to do more. On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Jim Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: A lot of companies have been holding off on raising prices as long as they can but it's beginning to come to a head. Dow Chemical raised prices TWICE in June which cumulatively raised prices by 25%-35%. Dow is also adding fuel surcharges on top of that. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:01 AM To: Eric McCord Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: OK, I get it now. Gas prices are high! The USPS is actively trying to do *something*, maybe not enough though. The current design standard is not only meeting ASHRAE, but to beat it by 30%. Easier to do on large scale buildings like the Metroplex in Pontiac, quite difficult on the small branch post offices. They have also commissioned a few firms to conduct a large scale Energy Audit (of which my firm and fellow workers are involved in some of them) and that is the target.. beat it by 30%. They aren't performing construction, but relamping/new fixtures are in fact one of the methodology's used (I think another is HVAC revisions), but as Carlton points out, some of the obvious stuff perhaps elude them. I know they have recently lowered the lighting standards for non-work space, which lowers power usage (Pontiac Metroplex is HUGE and the majority of the footprint is either machines, cart storage or walkway). Skylights, even on light cloudy days, could still share some of that light, but I believe there is also losses for heating/cooling as a result so you rob Peter to pay Paul to some degree. There was discussion on one of my projects regarding skylights but I can't recall the outcome.. As a point of reference, one of the large scale processing centers for USPS consumes $500,000 worth of electricity a MONTH. That's a lot of juice.. 6 services, some as large as 800 amps. The postal system has a lot of very heavy machinery driven by electricity and air. In talking solar, FM has it made based on location. Another project I was involved in for Detroit doing Intelligent Transportation Systems (traffic monitoring via stand alone solar telephone pole mounted sensors) found that Detroit gets less usable sun for solar per year than Seattle. :( It's not that sunny of a place. We had to double the size of battery cabinets to be able to survive 20+ days without sun in the winter. So while FM can give back on the weekends, you'll probably never see that sort of payback in Detroit (or Michigan as a whole)... it's not that sunny here. I think the reason the for the overall lack of green in construction is a lack of $$$. Green is **expensive** to build, that's all thee is to it. FM could have opted out of the solar bit and saved $42,000.. I'm betting $42K is a decent percentage of the total bill. With all the construction costs increasing (steel is WAY up, I heard door hardware is following suit due to it, carpet is also up a lot due to oil) any penny saved on the front side looks good to the owners/construction companies. Wallyman P.S. The postal service is trying.. another project we did for them is a large Green Roof (Morgan P&DC).. outdoor garden to help reject heat and minimize heat island syndrome, reclaim rainwater and maintenance free plantings. So there is progress, perhaps just not as fast or as large scale as we all need. "Eric McCord" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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