Construction and Demolition Debris...

At The Artisans Group, we are always looking for ways to reduce our jobsite waste and to avoid putting anything in the landfill. For you DIY’ers out there, it may be useful for you to know some of our local resources where you can dispose of your project ‘waste’. Our Preferred Approach Recovery 1 Tacoma, WA (800) 949.5852 This one works great for construction site debris, but the scope of their work is much broader than just that. A pretty cool outfit, worth a look at their site. Reuse Building Materials To purchase materials for a project or to drop off...

Fuel Cells: The Bloom Box...

This is an interesting article on the next generation of de-centralized fuel cells… like much of technology, it won’t be long before we all have our own clean power sources generated right at home!… I hope. Christian Science Monitor. Click here to link to the original article. By Husna Haq Correspondent / February 22, 2010 It’s being hailed as the Holy Grail of clean energy: a refrigerator-sized personal power plant that produces energy cheaply and cleanly and may one day replace the traditional power grid....

Green Home Guide-USGBC...

The US Green Building Council recently launched GreenHomeGuide.com. For homeowners or potential homeowners (those seeking their next home) who are making the move to green, this site is a good clearinghouse for answering many questions, it’s also a great aide towards helping a homeowner to ask good questions. The site features exclusive content written by experienced working professionals from across the nation, many architects, designers and other industry folks. The first page opens up with a rolling set of relevant and provocative questions all pertaining to some...

Disappearing Window Screens...

Now that the leaden skies of winter are receding a bit allowing us to enjoy the beauty of spring, I’m enjoying looking out my windows more than I have in the past few months. There are two things impeding my otherwise perfect view of my empire. One: I can’t see out the bottom third of my full-lite French doors. Eddy, our dog, while passively window-shopping the bird feeders from the comfort of the living room, she manages to fairly effectively apply an obfuscatory coating on the entire surface of the glass…. and then… after actively shopping the...

How is Energy Efficiency Measured?...

HOW IS ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURED?* If you’ve read my previous posts on the origin of Passive House, you’ll know it originated out of Europe and the Passive House standards were born of the Low Energy House standards. The chart below references European homes and is in kWh per square meters per year, but you can imagine use patterns are not extremely dissimilar in the U.S. On the other hand, since we are notoriously heavy energy consumers, the energy savings indicated would be that much more graphic! Energy efficiency ratings of cars are measured in miles per...

June 25 Insulating Concrete Forms –...

Insulating Concrete Forms – Installation Training  Thursday June 25th 9am-4pm The is the next course in our Green Building Education Series. Everyone completing the course will receive an Amvic ICF Installation Training Certificate Registration: Contact classreg.ecobuilding@gmail.com or call 360. 754. 6152 Sign-in: Begins at 8:30 Location: Regional Education & Training Center @ Satsop | 150 Technology Way, Building 34 , Elma WA Cost: $95 Class Description: This Construction Course is part of the Green Envelope Series. A one-day seminar on construction using...

How Does a Passive House Work?...

*WHAT IS A PASSIVE HOUSE? The term “Passive House” (not to be confused with passive solar design, though there are overlapping principles) refers to a design and construction standard that aims to drastically reduce heating requirements in homes so that oversized conventional heating systems are no longer necessary. The homes maintain constant temperatures and do not rely on wasteful amounts of fossil fuels to continually heat and cool, therefore passive. HOW DOES A PASSIVE HOUSE WORK? The strategy of a Passive House is to reuse “free” heat...

June 20 Wood Window & Door Restorat...

Wood Window and Door Restoration and Weatherization Saturday, June 20th This half-day workshop will show you how and why to preserve and weatherize original wood windows, doors and architectural details. Presented by Dave King, owner of Eco Woodworks, this hands-on workshop will be held at a member’s residence.  Address information will be provided upon registration. Registration is required: $25 class fee.  To register, contact classreg.ecobuilding@gmail.com or call 360.754.6152. The Northwest EcoBuilding Guild is an alliance of builders, designers,...

Origins of the Passive House Standards p...

ORIGINS OF PASSIVE HOUSE IN EUROPE (reprinted in part from Bau Technologies) If you’ve read part 1, then you know that the Passive House concept evolved from the European Low Energy House, which lowered energy consumption by improving the insulation and air tightness of a home. Mechanical ventilation and heat recovery were added to reach the Passive House standard. The Passive House Institute in Germany was founded in 1996 as a research / consulting firm to assist architects and engineers in the planning and designing of passive homes. Refer to their...

June 18-20 Solar PV Design Workshop...

Solar PV Design Workshop, June 18-20th Hosted by: NW Eco-Building Guild Space is limited to 10 participants, so go ahead and reserve your space–email us at classreg.ecobuilding@gmail.com today!   Workshop cost is $250 for all 3 days, with a $50 discount for the first 3 registrants. June 18-20: The Northwest EcoBuilding Guild is sponsoring a 3 day Solar Photovoltaic Design and Installation Class.  This class will present how to design, and install residential-sized, code compliant, battery-less and battery-based grid-tied PV systems. This class will provide...