Smart Energy

For the sake of efficiency, I’m a big believer in mimicry, in not reinventing the wheel. In what is ultimately a pitch for his new book (which I’ve ordered and will review here), Jerry Udelson implies our thesis, that there’s an urgent need for a rapid knowledge transfer from Europeans to Americans as regards smart green design. We’re curious to know what you think.

Cool, 11-minute film from San Diego public TV, providing the basic rationale for green building in a visually appealing elevator speech.

An explosion in green building is underway, with cleverly engineered libraries, office buildings, even public housing projects popping up across the Bay Area, and championed as much by landlords trying to cut energy and water costs as by environmental groups.

Termite mound in Tanzania

I’m fascinated by biomimicry, and here’s a great article by Tom McKeag on an African architect inspired by termites. Mick Pearce adapted termite tech to a couple of buildings with passive climate control, apparently to great effect.

Termites, you may recall, abide in elaborate structures that maintain a remarkably stable internal temperature. McKeag writes:

“The mounds that they build are extremely durable structures of mud, often employing sophisticated buttressing and, in the case of so-called compass mounds, a precise shape and siting that optimize the effects of the sun.

“The compass mounds of Australia are shaped like large blades, narrow at the top and gently curved to a narrow boat-shaped footprint. They get their name from their consistent north-south orientation, and it is this orientation and shape that allow them to optimize their environment. When the sun angle is low and temperatures are chilly the mound receives the maximum exposure to its flanks and gains heat needed to warm the nest. When the sun is overhead, in the heat of the day, the narrow blade edge receives very little sunlight and unwanted heat gain. Shape saves energy, again, in the natural world.

“What impressed Mr. Pearce about the local African mounds was the climate control. Despite a daily fluctuation from 40 degrees C to less than 0 degrees C, the termites are able to maintain a constant inside temperature of 30 degrees C.”

Get the full-meal deal on Greener Design…

Turns out most contractors radically overestimate the cost of incorporating green building techniques and materials into their construction bids. Typical overestimates are running at about 300 percent, according to a study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (via Treehugger). The real additional cost, according to the study, is only five percent.

Moreover, builders underestimate the percent of greenhouse gases emitted by buildings by about half – 19 vs. 40 percent, according to Treehugger, though they neglect to add units, so the numbers are only relatively meaningful. An HGTV post based on the same news release is clearer:

Respondents to a 1,400-person global survey estimated the additional cost of building green at 17 percent above conventional construction, more than triple the true cost difference of about 5 percent. At the same time, survey respondents put greenhouse gas emissions by buildings at 19 percent of the world total, while the actual number of 40 percent is double this.

Meanwhile, Business Week has an article claiming that green building tech has reached a “tipping point,” making it feasible on large scales.

And green even has a new (unofficial) spokesperson in Brad Pitt. This week the architecture-loving actor trumpeted the benefits of green building at a design competition for a low-energy apartment complex in New Orleans.

I’m pretty hopeful that by imitating plants and bacteria scientists will be able to amp up the efficiency of commercial solar energy production. Here’s a recent breakthrough that adds to the pile of knowledge building in that direction.

An international team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy. The team’s results one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy to electrical energy.

The scientists found that the chlorophylls are highly efficient at harvesting light energy. “We found that the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules make green bacteria extremely efficient at harvesting light,” said Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and one of the team’s leaders. According to Bryant, green bacteria are a group of organisms that generally live in extremely low-light environments, such as in light-deprived regions of hot springs and at depths of 100 meters in the Black Sea.

Read more at Science Daily…

Discovery News has an interesting piece on making concrete from rice husks.

Rice husks form small cases around edible kernels of rice and are rich in silicon dioxide (SiO2), an essential ingredient in concrete. Scientists have recognized the potential value of rice husks as a building material for decades, but past attempts to burn it produced an ash too contaminated with carbon to be useful as a cement substitute.

Rajan Vempati of ChK Group, Inc. in Plano, Texas, and a team of researchers have figured out a way to make nearly carbon-free rice husk ash. Heating husks to 800 degrees centigrade (1,472 degrees Fahrenheit) in a furnace drives off carbon, leaving fine particles of nearly pure silica behind.

In recent years, concrete has become a repository for various waste products. Slag from steel mills, coal fly ash and silica fume — a leftover from the silicon metal industry — all have found second lives as replacements for carbon-belching Portland cement.

Five to 10 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from producing cement, so finding ways to reduce that would be a big deal. Not to mention that adding value to agricultural waste products helps support farmers.

Greenopia has a photoessay on recycled buildings, including buildings made of recycled glass and plastic bottles.

This was Spiral Island I, a floating island in Mexico made entirely of discarded plastic bottles.  Designer Rishi Sowa laid out the bottles to support a structure of bamboo and plywood, over which he poured sand and planted plants.  Why was it called Spiral Island I?  Because it was completely destroyed by Hurricane Emily in 2005.  Apparently there is a Spiral Island II, but no word on if it can survive 120-plus mph winds.

I like this temple in Thailand made of recycled bottles.

A million bottles of beer on the wall….

The monks in the Sisaket province of Thailand used over a million recycled glass bottles to construct their Buddhist temple.  The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple is made up of green Heineken bottles and brown Chang Beer bottles.  It was constructed as a “visual reminder to the scope of pollution and the potential we can make with limber minds.”  Which is exactly what I’m sure every frat boy across America was thinking when he built a beer tower in his bar room.

Yo, check out these fine grooves from Tobias Palmer. Very fine work.

KJ recently passed her exam so is now a certified Sustainable Building Advisor. To celebrate her success, we started a new blog called Smart Energy Advisor. We think of it as “fun with sustainable building.” It’s all that, plus our dream-home wish list and more.

We hope you’ll check it out, leave comments and suggests topics for us to post about. Or, as with Puck, submit an article or photo yourself!