Greening
Homes… without leaving homeowners
feeling Blue
Green Building Report Card
Grade• Prerequisites A • Site A• Water A• Materials B• Indoor Air Quality F• Energy: Comfort Systems D• Energy: Building Envelope A• Energy: Appliances, Lighting, and Renewables A
Student Carolina West
Recent missteps in Greening:
Case #1“Sick from mold”
Issue:A young couple suffers from overpowering moldy odor
inside 1-year old Energy Star home.
Cause:Lack of control over humidity in rooms and in crawl
space.
Case #2“Mold Attack”
Issue:A family is creeped-out from Mold growing on
walls inside their 3-year old Green home.
Cause:Lack of control over humidity in rooms and continuous fresh air venting in a damp forest.
Case #3“Forecast Sunny…
with a chance of Suffocation”
Issue:A new, tight, Solar Energy Green home leaves
its occupants feeling uncomfortable inside their home as they are surrounded by a stale, stuffy mass of air.
Cause:Poor fresh air ventilation set-up.
Case #4“The Poison House”
Issue:A homeowner finds herself having to live in a tent outside due to
severe respiratory irritation when she steps inside her newly-constructed Green Home.
Cause:Chlorine off-gassing from unfortunate mix of: Foamed Cementitious Insulation Magnesium Oxide Board Outside humidity entering wall system Magnesium Chloride content No fresh air ventilation.
Case #5“Makeover madness”
Issue:A mother and her daughter suffer from respiratory irritation
while they remain inside their Green remodeled home.
Cause:Odors from a lack of control over humidity in the crawl
space and from the use of high VOC construction materials compelling the owner to run an ozone generator non-stop.
Case #6“To Air is Human”
Issue:A woman cannot escape the relentless heat as
she moves from room to room inside her 5-year old Green home.
Cause:Cooling air was not set up to circulate from room-
to-room .
Fact ! ...not fiction.
Lots of Green progress !
• Materials and construction• Local sourcing• Site protection and use• Energy use• Aesthetics• Water use
What’s still missing?• Health and comfort focus: Cooling comforts Air filtration Natural and Manufactured odors• Air management focus: Air circulation Humidity control• Maintenance focus: Maintenance program Occupant instruction
Allies not Aliens
Building, HVAC, Health and Environmental
pros
For conversation pullingHealth, Energy, Green Building issues
together
Contact :Indoor Environment Connections12339 Carroll Avenue,Rockville, MD 20852(301) 230-9606
www.ieconnections.com
Building Science & HVAC
For conversation pullingHVAC, Energy, Green Building issues
together
Contact :Energy Vanguard, LLC
(678) 662-4332 1924 Clairmont Rd, Suite 50, Decatur, GA 30033
www.energyvanguard.com
For local conversation pullingHealth, HVAC, Energy, Green Building
issues together
Contact : Rick Bayless
A Healthier Home330 Rambling Dr. Hendersonville, NC 28739(828) 243-5192
www.RickBaylessHealthyHome.com
Rick Bayless243-5192
A Healthier Home
A Dichotomy ?
X-BRAND
X-BRAND RULES !
GREEN HOME TOUR
One Visitor Comment:
“Sure are an awful lot of: • petroleum-based materials • materials obtained in ways that are anything but "green“• massively energy-inefficient layouts and design• materials sourced from hundreds and thousands of miles
away
But I guess if you tack on a couple rain barrels and solar panels you can call anything green.”
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