All things Green: Latest Green Building Ideas, Materials, Anecdotes, even Barns.

Factual Questions
1

I’m certainly happy to see your book Ed, I share some of your affinities, so I thought I’d post a little nod to the green industry, in what we are doing right now to restore, rebuild and recycle older buildings and even newer ones.

I work in the green industry and am quite excited to see where things are going right now, the future looks bright - and green.

I’m not really sure where a thread like this could go in this forum? If people have general questions that’s ok, I can answer any as they come. I can post a couple links to some of the more reputable sites for planing a green addition, restoration, or materials.

This could run like an "Ask the [blank]" thread or simply a place for people to share information about what it means to green their house, why they should consider it, and of course, can I green a Barn, questions. Or this thread might sink like a Lead Zeppelin

To get the obvious out of the way first, yes you can green a barn.

I should also mention these sites could be anywhere on the globe.

The folks over at Building Green, really know there stuff. Lot’s of good ideas, blogs to check out, community links for whatever state you are in. For more comprehensive state by state links Treehuggerhas a lot of great info as well.

As far as the latest and greatest in cool new materials, Inhabitathas a wealth of information. I was just involved with a group who was using recycled blue jeans as insulation, it was really neat.

A lot of this information is readily available to anyone, sometimes people don’t know where to start, or what material is the cheapest or most sustainably made. People find out all the time that there are businesses right in their own neighborhood who are selling green materials.

2

I imagine it will take a while for a critical mass of people interested in this kind of thing to develop, but I think your suggestions are terrific - green buildings and green technology are a deservedly hot topic. Feel free to post links.

3

I think the Green Building publicity machine is too concerned with gadgets and new materials, at the expense of fundamentals.

It’s amazing how many really basic questions don’t have ready answers. For instance, say you’re building a house (in a given climate). What is the optimum window-to-wall ratio for each face (N-E-S-W)? It takes a lot of computation to figure this out. Why isn’t there a table on the web?

I could list about 50 similar issues off the top of my head.

4

Thats a great question, so many variables, some one has to have figured it out, but that’s the point isn’t it? To get the answer.

As to specifically your question, I work with archicad so I can show someone on a plan view how the sun will look coming in the west windows in December and in June for a house located at 40 degrees north, 71 degrees east…but the calculations for efficiency for a specific heating and cooling system would have to be figured manuall…as far as I know.

There are architects who frequent the dope who can hopefully give a better answer.

5

Would this be a good place to ask about Deltech homes? What experiences people have had, etc? Or should I start a new thread? We’ve ordered the information package, and are very interested, but I’d like some outside source info and such. We don’t have our tv hooked up to anything but a disc player, so haven’t been able to see any of the Extreme Makeover shows that have apparently featured Deltech.

We’re really interested in green building and the package that Deltech seems to offer, but frankly, freaked out by the huge task of actually planning, permitting, building and fitting out a home.

6

**Tortuga **- just so everyone is aware here is a link to Deltechhomes.

To your question: This would be the right place to talk about them. If you enjoy something that is not mainstream [yet] Deltech’s are wonderful. A very close friend of mine lives in an enormous yurt, and the impetus he used to build his home was that this design has been around for millennia, and the efficiency [in his opinion] is second to non.

I like Deltech homes in that they are not mainstream and can be made extremely efficiently - the one downside is that they are not cheap, and with non-mainstream designs, there are non-maintrean costs associated with them. However, as this thread is basically for the non-mainstream let’s discuss.

You are in California is that right Tortuga? If I did not have familial attachments to New England I think midland to northern california would be the place for my wife and I.

Deltechs offer a packaged up mod-home design where the package takes care of the planning. This is a great plan home because you can have a one-stop-shop for building a green sustainable home without going to a large number of outside contractors. Manytimes the hidden costs of green homes comes when you sit down and begin looking for contractors. Unfortunately, smarmy contractors still exist, and there has been many reports of fraud, price gouging, and down-right lying taking place with some contractors. Always make sure when choosing a contractor that they are LEEDS certified, or at very least, not charging more for the green designs. If sustainable homes are going to become mainstream, we’ve got to keep the costs down.