Tuesday, December 30, 2008

More Great Press

BrightBuilt Barn had a banner day, being favorably mentioned on two premiere eco-blogs on the same day.

First, a follow-up post by Preston Koerner of Jetson Green blog, who first reviewed us back in September:

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/12/brightbuilt-bar.html

Second, an extremely favorable mention in Treehugger - headlined "BrightBuilt Barn is Built, Bright, and Beautiful":

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/bright-built-barn-built.php

And we are expecting more to come....
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Monday, December 29, 2008

Light Skirt in action!





The light skirt is finally up and running and the first snow has fallen, giving BrightBuilt that striking glow we've anticipated since the initial renderings. To view more of Naomi Beal's latest pictures, go here: BrightBuilt Barn Photos

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

LEED Platinum Buildings Go Mainstream


Preston Koerner at the Jetson Green blog has compiled a compendium of 33 buildings who have achieved, or are in the process of receiving, Platinum ratings from the US Green Building Council's Leadersip in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative.


The link is here:




BrightBuilt Barn is referenced in the article. Now that construction is complete, we are in the process of applying for a LEED Platinum rating - we will keep you posted on our progress through the rigorous certification process.


More on LEED can be found here:



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German PassivHaus Construction Similar to BrightBuilt




Yesterday's New York Times contained an article on German "PassivHaus" construction; you can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/world/europe/27house.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Passive Houses use superinsulation and strict air tightness to reduce the heating energy requirements of a building by 70% - 90%. BrightBuilt Barn has used some of these same concepts to create its own approach to sustainability.

The Wikipedia entry explaining the history and background of Passive Houses is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house

The PassivHaus concept grew out of a collaboration in the late 1980s and early 1990s between two professors of architecture, Professor Bo Adamson of Sweden and Dr. Wolfgang Feist of Germany. Over time, their ideas were codified into a standard of building performance, as described on this English-language page of the PassivHaus Institut's webpage (most of which is in German):

http://www.passiv.de/English/PassiveH.HTM

The UK branch of the PassivHaus movement has an English-language website with more information here:

http://www.passivhaus.org.uk/index.jsp?id=667

It's gratifying to see advanced but pragmatic approaches to sustainability in building design and construction begin to get recognition in the mainstream press.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Last Pieces of the Puzzle?



Here are photos of the concrete sink and kitchen countertop at Jon Meade's shop today. They are just about the final substantial outstanding items which the Barn awaits.

They were a long time coming but look quite beautiful. Jon is a true artisan. They should go in next week. The final blower door test will follow shortly after!
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BrightBuilt at GreenBuild


None other than Bensonwood's fearless leader, Tedd Benson, was the Keynote Speaker (along with Kevin O'Connor of This Old House and Steve Kieran of Kieran Timberlake Architects) at this year's GreenBuild event in Boston last week. The special track was specifically for Green Homebuilders and within this track, Tedd also led another seminar called "Extreme Green", in which he talked at length about a number of Bensonwood's cutting-edge projects, including - of course - The BrightBuilt Barn.

The picture you see here from the Main Event is of Tedd in the midst of giving a truly inspirational speech to 800+ attendees. Many people  after the event relayed to me how much they were moved by his words. Include me in that bunch. And yes, that is BBB on the big screen in the background. Pretty cool, all around.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

BrightBuilt in Electronic House


BrightBuilt has been featured in another excellent Blog, Steve's Castle's "Green Technology" Column for the magazine, Electronic House. Take a look, and be sure to view Steve's other interesting postings.
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Light Skirt in Action!





The Light Skirt is finally up and running and it looks just as cool as we'd hoped. Our Lighting Designer, Greg Day of DayMatero Studio, came up with Steve Barlock of Visible Light, Supplier of all LEDs in the project including the Light Skirt fixtures, to program the lights, choose the colors, and make some final adjustments. The barn glows GREEN when it is producing more energy than it consumes; YELLOW indicates a borderline condition; RED means that energy usage is current higher than required to meet our yearly NET ENERGY goal. These colors are indicators of real-time energy usage, and will soon be visible on our website. The first photo shows the LEDs in the shower. Pretty dramatic, eh?
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Big Push







Keith and Mary's dream is just days away from becoming a reality. Alan Gibson and his team are pushing to get the remaining (major) items crossed off his list before the weekend. Keith and Mary welcome Tedd Benson and a group of his Timberframer colleagues up this weekend for a tour.

Some of the final items are the lighting, deck, fixtures and various minor finish details. 
They were installing the 'light skirt' yesterday, preparing for the colored LED fixtures to go in. Our lighting designer, Greg 
Day of DayMatero Studio, and the LED systems supplier, Steve Barlock of Visible Light, will be 
up Friday to do some fine tuning.

The heat pump is in and all systems will be fired up this week as well. Although fairly imposing, the exterior portion of the heat pump will be such an efficient contributor to the comfort of the space that it's well worth it. After all, 
removing a furnace from a year-round structure in Maine necessarily involves a couple trade-offs. 

Alan's craftsmanship has been excellent and Keith and Mary's patience with this truly groundbreaking project has been pretty exceptional as well.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

350 - A Number to Remember

Veteran eco-activist Bill McKibben appears to be the guiding force behind a new social networking approach to advocating for sustainability.

Check out the web site for his newest initiative, known as "350" (for the 350 parts per million  concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere that is deemed to be sustainable - current level is 387 ppm):

http://www.350.org/

The 90-second animation explaining global warming without narration is worth the visit.

Current efforts seem focused on raising awareness of global warming, through social activities ranging from traditional rallies to postcard mail-ins to craft competitions.

Skeptics may question if there is any "there" there, the movement seeming to be all awareness and no action, but the 350 message is spreading globally at an impressive pace.  Definitely a space to keep watching, to see if this global network of enthusiasts turns into a force to reckon with.
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Friday, September 19, 2008

Another Green Blog Appearance

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/09/net-zero-living.htm




Interest in BrightBuilt is gaining some serious momentum. Jetson Green is a cool blog that gave the team a nice nod today. Gee, Thanks! We like you too.

They've covered Bensonwood before, so they know what kind of great stuff our Walpole buddies can do. 

Please don't forget to check out the rest of the team's links over there to the right. It's a talented bunch who helped put this together.
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Naomi's New Photos



Alan and his team are making great progress. Most of the interior finish boards are in. The cool part is that this can happen before the electricians are finished with their work. This is a true mark of a disentangled building.

Keith, Alan, his electricians (Kevin and David), and Myself worked out the footswitch details, based on Brian Lazarus' prototype (below). There will be no actual light switches on the walls, but instead we'll have integral, clickable plates at various locations along the face of the base chase. This will not only keep the walls pristine, but also easily allow for future changes in switch location if walls are ever moved or added. They will be LED-backlit and just proud of the faceof the baseboard for visibility, and proportioned so that a simple push from the foot, even from the side, will activate them.


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BrightBuilt on TreeHugger!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/bright-built-barn.php


BrightBuilt Barn has been Treehugged!

Funny end line: "If it isn't the greenest project we have presented, it is certainly the best marketed, with a website, a wiki, a blog and an extensive press kit. We will check back when the interior is finished."

Click on the link to view the full article.





file:///Users/pka2/Desktop/Bright%20Built%20Barn%20is%20Net-Zero%20Energy%20:%20TreeHugger.webarchive
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Thursday, September 18, 2008

We Get Treehugged!


Today BrightBuilt Barn received a nice review at Treehugger, a leading eco-tech and sustainable lifestyle blog.

Here's the link:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/bright-built-barn.php
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Great BrightBuilt article in the paper!



The BrightBuilt Barn was featured on the cover of the Portland Press Herald Business section today. Maine USGBC has also linked to it on their front page.


http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=209134&ac=PHbiz
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Tuesday, September 2, 2008




Progress continues on the Barn. Naomi Beal, our photographer, grabbed some great shots last week of Alan Gibson's progress. The plumber and electrician are in there now, integrating their work with the renewable energy systems, which were started by Revision Energy a few weeks ago. The irony is that in the next one(s), all of this work will be done in Bensonwood's factory, and brought in completed.

On site, Alan, Keith and I added a cool new feature: some of the baseboards will be attached on magnetic latches for easy access. This is primarily for show-and-tell. And no, we haven't run this by the code guys...yet.
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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Balloon Power


There are lots of new ideas circulating about how to reduce the cost of alternative energy. In our previous  post, we linked to sites explaining how inexpensive kites can be harnessed to produce wind power cheaply.

In today's story, we learn about how balloons can decrease the cost of solar energy. The balloons are cleverly made with a reflective back surface and a transparent front. They act as concentrators of the sun's rays, and focus their high-energy beams on a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell. This allows a small PV panel to produce as much electrical power as a much larger one. Since the balloons are light and cheap, and can be held in place with light and cheap wires rather than the heavy and expensive steel frames required by metal concentrators, the total cost of solar energy production is much reduced.

The link is here:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/cool_earth_gets.php
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Go Fly a Kite


Dutch researchers have demonstrated a prototype wind energy generator that uses kites, rather than wind turbines. The kites can ascend to heights a half mile or more above the ground, where the winds are much stronger and more reliable than those that drive the near-earth wind turbines.


Scientists from Delft University in the Netherlands have developed a 10 square meter kite (ca. 100 square feet), that in tests produced 10 kilowatts of electrical power when tethered to a generator - enough to serve 10 homes. They say that the idea can be easily scaled to produce megawatts of electricity at prices comparable to coal fired electrical generators - far cheaper than wind turbines.


Last year Google invested $10 million in an American company with a similar idea, called Makani.


The link to the article in the Guardian is here:




A link to the description of the project on the website of the Delft University of Technology is here:




And a link to an article on a similar scheme from Italy, from Wired News, is here:


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Friday, August 1, 2008

MIT Scientists Discover Cheaper Way to Produce Hydrogen from Solar Energy

In the July 31 issue of the premiere scientific journal Science, a team of MIT scientists reveal a new method of producing hydrogen from electricity. This new method uses cobalt and phosphorus, both being abundant and widely available minerals, to dramatically lower the energy required to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The proposed application of this technology is to store energy from solar electric panels for use during the hours when the sun isn't shining. The scientists suggest that this will make it feasible for each household to produce its own energy, with no need for the present system of transmission lines from central power generators. The household will use solar energy directly during the day, and use the stored hydrogen energy at night, in a fuel cell or other hydrogen powered energy generator.

The scientists predict that the technology could be in widespread use within 10 years.

A link to the MIT News Office release is here:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html
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Friday, July 18, 2008

Home Delivery - Exhibit at the MOMA

The BrighBuilt team and the project itself is unique for many reasons - the collaboration of designers and technicians, the combination of off site fabrication and on site finishing, and the high standards for sustainability in a tough cold climate. But we are hardly the first group of idealists to come together to create a prototype for an ideal living unit and there is a great deal of interest in pre-fabricated housing in today's shelter mags and blogs.

An exhibit opening this weekend at the MOMA presents a history of pre-fabricated houses and includes five full scale model houses. It looks to me like the BrightBuilt Barn should be among them! Below are links to the exhibit itself and to a review in the NY Times.

http://www.momahomedelivery.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/arts/design/18dwel.html
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

56 Hours

One of the remarkable differences between conventional construction and the Barn's offsite construction method is the speed of the build.

On Monday morning, July 7, the barn was still just a hole in the ground, as it had been since the foundation was laid last November.

At 11:15 AM that day, the truck arrived with the first of the structural panels from Bensonwood. By 7:15 PM on Wednesday, July 9, we had a complete weathertight shell in place.

Floor, walls, roof, windows, doors - all assembled in just 56 hours from start to finish. (Actually, since no work was performed at night, it was only 32 working hours.)

Contrast that with the weeks it would take to attain the same result with conventional construction.

Check out the pictures below to see the process unfolding.

Having seen it in person, I'm now a believer - this needs to be the future of homebuilding.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

We Get Press

Today's edition of the Rockland Courier Gazette/Village Soup has a nice article on BrightBuilt Barn written by Dan Dunkle, the paper's business/enterprise reporter. Dan has long covered the environment/green technology beat, and his expertise shows.

The link to the article is here:

http://knox.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=121489

Dan also includes lots of pictures showing the barn raising in progress - so enjoy.
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Great Press

We are so thrilled to have a great article in the local newspaper, Village Soup today. Here is a link: http://knox.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=121489
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Friday, July 11, 2008

Barn Raising - Day 3

Day 3 of BrightBuilt Barn Raising in Rockland.




All photographs courtesy of Naomi C.O. Beal Photography.
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Barn Raising - Day 2

Day 2 of BrightBuilt Barn Raising in Rockland.




All photographs courtesy of Naomi C.O. Beal Photography
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Barn Raising - Day 1

The barn and a team of 3 from Bensonwood arrived on site on Monday July 7. Working at a rigorous but deliberate pace, this team, with help from Alan Gibson and his crew, and the local boom truck operator, have been lifting the building components into place, fitting them together like pieces of a large puzzle.

Below is a slide show of images from Monday, Jul 7 - the first day the Bensonwood crew was on site.



All photographs courtesy of Naomi C.O. Beal Photography.
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Sunday, July 6, 2008

Two New Articles on Sustainability

Green technology is generating more media buzz by the day. Two recent articles have caught my attention, both because of their content, and because they are in mainstream publications aimed a general, albeit upscale, audience.

The first article is by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the slain political leader and a prominent eco-activist, writing in Vanity Fair. The link is here: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/rfk_manifesto200805

RFK Jr. argues for the federal government to underwrite a an alternative energy infrastructure, including building a nationwide High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power transmission network. Although HVDC may seem arcane, it actually addresses one of the major impediments to switching to alternative sources of energy, namely that the best places for capturing sun power or wind power tend to be remote from the population centers that use the energy. Alternating current (AC) power lines are cheaper to build and maintain, but over long distances lose much of the energy they transmit. Direct current (DC) power lines are more expensive, but lose much less energy over long distances. A HVDC network could bridge the gap between where sustainable energy is produced and where it is used.

RFK Jr. is putting an important idea out into the public discourse. Time will tell whether the idea gains traction. An alternative to HVDC, of course, is the local generation of energy near the point of use. Solar panels on each roof, wind generators in the back yard, etc. My guess is that we will see some of both strategies implemented over the next several years.

The second article that caught my eye this week was in the New Yorker (I'm addicted to the cartoons). Titled "The Island in the Wind", the article describes the Danish island of Samso, an island about the size of Nantucket with some 4300 inhabitants, who have become energy independent by switching to wind power. The link is here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_kolbert
Actually, Samso Island is a now a small but steady energy exporter, producing more electricity than they use, and selling it to the mainland.

The islanders apparently made the switch to wind power without government support or subsidy of any kind, as a sort of community project. The wind turbines were all erected with private funds raised by the islanders themselves. Each turbine is owned by one or a group of investors, who get annual dividends based on the economic performance of the turbine they own.

A fascinating story in its own right, the achievements of the Samso Islanders make you think, "If a small population of rural, mostly agricultural residents can successfully switch to sustainable energy, what's our excuse?"

The article is also full of revealing anecdotes about how this small real world community has evolved in its use of energy under a sustainable regime. For example: the Samso Islanders have little interest in energy conservation. The local eco-activist, an island native proud of his neighbor's achievement of energy independence, becomes indignant when discussing the results of his attempts to persuade the community to conserve energy. Families that insulated their homes better, for example, would then heat more rooms in the winter, so that the net savings were always close to zero. 

There is much more to glean from this article, and I will probably return to it for further insights in the future. I highly recommend that you take the time to read it.




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Friday, June 27, 2008

A second day of production at Bensonwood.




All photographs courtesy of Naomi C. O. Beal Photography
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Thursday, June 26, 2008

MONTHLY kWh PROJECTED OUTPUT

BBB is projected to produce approximately this amount of power per month.

Month AC Energy (kWh)



Jan 587
Feb 687
Mar 796
Apr 734
May 762
Jun 712
Jul 770
Aug 761
Sep 706
Oct 631
Nov 455
Dec 463

Total 8062
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BrightBuilt assembly at Benwonwood Day 1

This week the BrightBuilt Barn is in the shop at Bensonwood. Detailed dimensioned drawings of the floor, wall and roof panels have been sent from the Bensonwood CAD software to their CNC cutting machines on the shop floor, where the panels are cut and assembled.



All photos courtesy of Naomi C. O. Beal Photography.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Embodied Energy: Carbon Debts and Kilowatt Holes


As we try to decrease the carbon footprint of our buildings, we need to consider two distinct, but inter-related issues: reducing the carbon footprint of the building process itself, and reducing the carbon footprint of running and maintaining the structure once built.


Addressing the second issue led us to choose super-insulation (to minimize the energy required to heat the place) and sustainable energy sources such as solar thermal and photovoltaics.


Here I want to say just a few words about the other issue, minimizing the carbon emissions resulting from the building process itself.


First of all, this is to my mind a much harder problem to solve than that of reducing the carbon impact of ongoing energy use. Ongoing energy needs can be straightforwardly addressed by judicious design (to decrease consumption by eliminating waste) and switching to zero-emission sources of energy such as wind or solar. To solve the problem of reducing the impact of the building process itself, we need to consider the carbon load introduced by making, transporting, and assembling each and every component of the building. This calculation quickly becomes extremely complex, requiring detailed knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes, and modes of transport.


To take a simple example: the chemical process by which cement powder is turned into hardened concrete (just add water and stir!) releases CO2 - lots and lots of it, it turns out. So we have tried to use more wood and less concrete, even though concrete has many desirable properties as a building material (easy to shape, high thermal mass). But if the wood is harvested in Indonesia (as much wood is) and transported to us by boat, train, and truck, we have incurred the carbon load of all that transport. So we have tried to minimize transport by local sourcing of wood, to the extent feasible. And on and on.


The underlying concept here is generally called embodied energy: each structure embodies all of the energy (and associated carbon emissions) used to make its constituent parts, transport them to the site, and assemble them into the finished building. On the BrightBuilt team, we usually call it the carbon debt we have incurred by building a structure where there wasn't one, or the kilowatt hole we have to dig out of by generating zero-emission electricity that displaces high-carbon fossil fuel use.


It turns out that there is no central database containing data on the embodied energy of common building materials. Worse, there is no single, widely accepted method for calculating embodied energy.


We have consulted experts around the globe, from MIT to Australia, in an attempt to calculate the embodied energy of BrightBuilt Barn. While we believe that we have made a serious and intellectually honest attempt, we do not claim to have precise and unassailable results.


Brian, of Opus One Studio, has become our resident expert on the subject. In a future post, he will give some of his findings and methods.


For now, we will only say that the carbon debt incurred by even a small building such as BrightBuilt barn is surprisingly high, and will require years of excess clean energy production to pay back. We are helped here by 1) our commitment to durable materials, which greatly lengthen the usable life of the building, and so give us a longer time frame over which to amortize the carbon debt; and 2) our decision to maximize the excess energy we produce, by using superinsulation to reduce energy demand while covering the roof with solar energy systems despite the reduced need for ongoing energy.


Brian's Energy Meter will track the energy surplus, both minute-to-minute and cumulative, and we will put the results on the web at the BBB site, so anyone can track the progress we make in climbing out of our "kilowatt hole."
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

"Barn-Raising" Set for Week of July 7




We seem to have a firm date for the delivery of the offsite-fabricated structural panels from Bensonwood - they are due to arrive onsite July 7.

Assembly of the pre-constructed panels into the unfinished Barn will take approximately one week.

Those in the Rockport area are welcome to watch the "barn-raising" (accomplished with cranes - no bystanders will be pressed into service :-) ). [The picture above is of an old-fashioned Amish barn-raising, and has nothing to do with how BrightBuilt Barn will look or be constructed - apologies for my offbeat sense of humor.]

Those following progress from afar will be able to see pictures and video on the Barn website.

At long last, BrightBuilt Barn will fulfill our promise to make it a built structure, not just a design study.

Stay tuned for more developments.
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James Hansen PhD - Climate Crusader


Yesterday, on the 20th anniversary of his ground-breaking first testimony to Congress on the perils of global warming, Dr. James Hansen, esteemed head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, provided Congress an update.


The verdict: 20 years later, the evidence suggests that his warnings of 1988 were, if anything, understated, and that climate change may be fast approaching a "tipping point" where massive disruption becomes inevitable. In his view, only vigorous action to bring atmospheric CO2 levels below 350 parts per million (ppm) can stave off serious consequences (current levels are 385 ppm, and rising approximately 2 ppm per year.)


Dr. Hansen's 1988 Congressional testimony brought into the public discourse the subject of climate change due to greenhouse gases released in the burning of fossil fuels. Hansen has been a clear and steady voice publicizing the findings of climate scientists around the world, and a tireless advocate for a greener future. Vilified by climate-deniers, he was subjected to censorship by the Bush II administration, which required all of his public statements be run past the NASA public relations staff, who edited many of these statements to soft-pedal suggestions that climate change was man-made and potentially risky. Dr. Hansen refused to be muzzled, and his whistle-blowing on the Bush II administration's attempts to censor climate science led to a public outcry against political interference with science.


Yesterday's testimony before Congress was a typical blend of impeccable science, blunt warnings, and outspoken advocacy for change to save the planet for our children and grandchildren.


You can read his testimony here:




His associated slide presentation is here:




Together, these serve as a handy summary of the science, the issues, and many of the major proposals for ameliorating global warming.


A quick summary of Dr. Hansen's life and career can be found here:




Read, and be enlightened - and, hopefully, inspired to action.


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Monday, May 5, 2008

Energy Meter



Inspirations and Sketches for the Energy Meter from a design charete with Kaplan Thompson Architects and Brian Lazarus of Opus One Studio






Comments from Brian Lazarus of Opus One Studio
"So I have been playing around with concepts in an attempt to find a
simple solution to our display. Here is what I have come up with so far.

The real time has gone from instant to updated to average out the use
over 10 minutes. I am doing this to eliminate wear on the cheap parts we
are going to end up using in an attempt to meet the budget when they cut
it. Also less movement means easier to build which ultimately they are
going to ask us to do. When they ask use to deliver on our idea I would
like to be able to do what a consultant usually can't (oh you want us to
actually build it)? I am still on the sweeping arms for now although the
extension with the movement is in peril as we speak. The cam means more
moving parts and there are three arms which means three drivers which
means Triple the cost. This is not like a clock that works off a gear
because there is no direct relationship between the movement of the
three outputs. (this is where the light-bulb goes off in our heads,
Excuse the pun). So For now lets just play with three arms. Although I
did draw a dial with 120 dots on the outside of it and two arms within
the circle pointing in opposite directions with the sweepy thick/thin
swoosh still intact. I need from you guys some sort of scale to work
with here. I am not sure how wide the structure is at the mounting
height. This could play in to the design more then we perceive at the
moment. I am assuming we can get to the back of this divice very easily
for service and repair. This means no going up the outside of the
building and pulling it off the front. I would love to be able to go
from the inside for now like a clock considering this is the first one
and it will break it is just a matter of when. The input for now Is a
computer feeding three servos moving a simple pivot conected to an arm
with off the shelf parts from radio shack and the hardware store. I am
not sure the budget will allow us to to to have parts machined for now."

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Monday, April 21, 2008

ALTERNATE FLOOR PLANS









Finally they are here... two alternate floor plans for the pre-fabricated two bedroom building. The skin, mechanical, and structure remain the same with a slight adjustment to the floor plan. Although mechanical remains in the loft it will be divided with a simple wall to provide additional extra storage for users. Both scenarios require the deck and french doors to switch sides which will allow access outside via the living area rather than the bedrooms.
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Thursday, March 20, 2008

... AND THIS IS HOW WE DO IT, ADOBE ACROBAT CONNECT

objective

One of the key objectives of this project is the open source collaboration.


tool

Our tool of choice for communicating and discussing the project's issues is Adobe Acrobat Connect. Adobe Acrobat Connect is web conferencing program that allows professionals from multiple companies anywhere in the country to log into a web-based conference via their computer. It requires no software downloads and has a toll free number one can call to join the meeting. We have found it extremely helpful because it allows all participants to view the same thing at the same time. Not only do we know we are looking an d talking about the same details we can mark up the screen, circling and highlighting specific details of the image showing exactly what we are describing over the phone. We even have the ability to pass control of the screen amo ng the participants allowing multiple people to edit and draw on the image or d ocument we are discussing.

issue


The latest issue at hand was trying to fit the requested 50mm duo-guard panel into Thermotech's windows. What appeared to be a seemingly simple solution was far from that because of the multiple parties involved and complexity of detailing. There were too many specific details needed from each company that if x changed at Duo-Guard it reverberated throughout all the other parties details. In short, the complexity forced a simultaneous collaboration among the differing companies. After a successful Adobe Acrobat connect between Thermotech’s David Sargent located in Canada, Bensonwood’s Lovell Parson located in New Hampshire, Duo-Guard’s Dave Miller in Michigan and KTA’s Phil Kaplan and Michael Wilcox located in Maine, we were able to resolve the latest issue of fitting the Nano-Gel pieces into the window’s glazing clip. It took ex ploring a few options and some back-and-forth between each company to finally get us to an overall duo-guard panel size of 46mm, which fits if Thermotech uses a custom “screw-in” clip.

solution details

Screen shot above of actual meeting discussing the connection and fitting issues on Adobe Acrobat Connect. There will be the following: structural tape laminating the pieces accounting for 1mm, (1) 25 mm piece w/ nano-gel, (1) 8 mm piece w/ nano-gel, (2) 6 mm pieces clear w.o./nano-gel that will sandwich the nano-gel filled pieces t ogether hiding the necessary seam down the center of the 25 mm & 8 mm piece that has to happen because their overall length of 123” will not fit in the machine that fills the Duo-Guard panels with the nano-gel. The R-va lues of each panel are as follows: 25mm w/nano-gel = R-Value 6.25, 8 mm w/nano-gel R-Value 2.56, (2) 6mm R-Value 1.70… TOTAL R-Value approx. = 12. This should not delay the process significantly. Although, it will take a little more time to get the Duo-Guard panels to Thermotech there is an option to expedite. If the panels are shipped individually and Thermotech laminates the panels together at their factory with the structural tape supplied by Duo-Guard it will save a considerable amount of time. We are waiting for Thermotech to confirm ownership of this step and Duo-Guard to cut, fill, and ship the remaining panels. As of now that is where we stand in the project
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Time to Tell the World!

With site delievery drawing near, we have been talking about ways to get the word out about this exciting project and along with our client, have decided to bring on a PR firm to help us reach out to media and other promotional outlets. After meeting with several well qualified firms, we knew we had found the right fit with the folks at Dwell Creative (www.dwellcreative.com) - a PR and Advertising firm based here in Portland with a focus on promoting socially and environmentally responsible businesses/products/ideas. Their clients are from around the country and the world, and we think it is very cool to now be one of them.

Our PR effort will be multi-pronged, pitching to local media as well as national, and to web based media as well as better known print publications. We are also just as interested in getting the word out to the mainstream press and readership, as we are in targeted industry publications - as Keith would say, the goal of this project is to create ripples - to let others learn from our successes and ..... less than successes, so that ultimately we can all get closert to changing the way we build and tackle the creation of a sustainable future.

We are also looking forward to several special events once the barn begins to go up: barn raising; ribbon cutting; first time the mood ring lights go on - all great opportunities to get folks out to see the project. Perhaps Keith will begin an annual open house day when the public is invited to come for educational tours about this house and the technologies it demonstrates. Sky's the limit!
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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Duo-Guard Obstacle



Duo-Guard panels too large to be filled with Nano-Gel insulation product raises a new obstacle. Unfortunately Duo-Guard was unaware of the size limitations on filling their panels with Nano-Gel. They send their panels to Cabot who fills them with the Nano-Gel and they can only fill panels up to 109" and our panels are 123". In order not to delay the project any further our only option is to have them divided. Whether we divide down the middle or off to the center is to be determined (see images). In any event the unit will remain one with a single vertical mullion and won't affect the wall framing or pan detailing. We don't prefer splitting the panels but we are not left with many choices. Although, the options our limited we may have one other opportunity to be further explored. Attached are the images showing what our options would look like.


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Thursday, February 21, 2008

BBB Delivery Timeline

As of now the Bright Built Barn project is grappling with delivery dates and a tight time frame. The latest news is that the Duo-Guard delivery did not and will not happen as originally scheduled for delivery; which was the first or second week of February. Thus, this has delayed the window and building delivery dates from Thermotech and Bensonwood. Not to mention the other complications. In short, Bright Built Barn won’t be delivered until middle of April.

To break it down from the beginning of the year. KTA and Bensonwood worked back and forth to finalize designs, it was a great effort and collaboration between the two teams. At the same time Thermotech, Bensonwood, and KTA were back and forth on finalizing window sizes. After a lot of communication and order changes a window contract was finalized late January. Unfortunately Thermotech just submitted a change of order early last week to Duo-Guard which in turn has caused a delay to the delivery of the Nano-Gel polycarbonate sheets. And as it usually operates, any company that works on scheduling and forecasting delivery dates of a product has a lead time to an order. As of last week Duo-Guard was operating on a 6-8 week delivery time. However, a phone call from Phil to Dave Miller, President of Duo-Guard, saved the date… as best as it could. Dave Miller expressed a sincere interest in the project and has assured us he will expedite the delivery of the Nano-Gel. So we can expect a delivery date at the latest by Mar. 17th or possibly sooner, Mar. 10th. Thermotech is in construction progress, with the glass arriving this week and the frames soon to be painted we can expect them to finish their part when the Nano-Gel arrives. Once it reaches Thermotech’s shop in Ottawa we are looking at another 2 to 3 weeks at the most for Thermotech to install D.G. and ship the finished windows to Bensonwood. From what I know of BWC, they will remain flexible to insert the construction process into their schedule as soon as they have the windows. If all goes accordingly we are forecasting a project delivery sometime between early to mid April. Although, we are pushing the date closer to warmer weather we are keeping our fingers crossed that we won’t get pushed back any further. We are trying to avoid the mud season which potentially could raise a whole new set of issues, such as driveway work and snow removal.

This is where we stand as of now. To date this has been a great collaboration on all teams involved. Bright Built is truly on a “forward” approach to evolving the discourse between research and application. Much patience and interest on all invested in the project has kept it moving ahead and breaching the seam that divides all parties. Keep on Keeping on.
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Monday, January 21, 2008