Technical | Green Compliance Plus - Mark English Architects

SolarClover: Plug and Play Installation

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Rebecca Firestone.

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With the solar industry booming, manufacturers and installers are racing to improve their products in every conceivable way: more efficient PVs; better inverter technologies; remote control, sensing, and automation; better energy-use reporting; smarter appliances; open systems integration; and a proliferation of grid-tied and off-grid configurations. One area that hasn’t gotten quite as much attention is the installation, which takes special training, and can be as much as 30-50% of the cost of the system.

Bay Area startup Armageddon Energy has a new angle with a patented product that GreenTech Media has dubbed “The Ikea of Solar”. The SolarClover snaps together in cute little 3-panel modules, each with its own inverter. Lightweight and easy to handle, these modules can fit “almost anywhere” as they say. That includes small areas of roof, or uneven roofs that wouldn’t accommodate larger arrays. Three of them (9 leaves), make a 1-kW system that’s enough to power most major appliances for an efficient household.

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Designing For Solar: What Every Architect Should Know

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Rebecca Firestone.

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While researching solar technologies, we at Green Compliance Plus heard from solar installers who all seem to think that architects are hard to work with. So, we spoke with Fernando Valenzuela of Alter Systems in Berkeley about how to design a solar-ready home. Note that only about 5-10% of Alter Systems’ customers are owner/architect teams. Usually it’s the homeowners approaching them directly because they want to “go solar”.

So… why are architects hard to work with? “They have a groupthink… they like design, the look, but they don’t understand systems. They ask questions like ‘why can’t we use this roof’ without realizing that you can’t split up an array. Their projects aren’t always quick, either, and rebates that were designed for may be gone by the time the project gets through approval.”

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Solar Retrofit for Affordable Housing: Case Study

Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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One of our Title 24 clients, Okamoto Saijo Architecture, recently completed a $50M retrofit that included creating a 900-kW PV system that is currently one of the largest affordable-housing solar installations in the world. We interviewed one of the principal architects, Eric Saijo, about how the Crescent Park project went from his perspective. He was actually quite happy with the outcome, and after 4+ years of budgeting, negotiating with utilities, the project is completed.

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LED Lighting Design and Title 24 Compliance

Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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Many of our Title 24 clients have been asking us whether they can safely specify LED fixtures that would qualify as “high efficacy” lighting under Title 24. Could one conceivably create an entire lighting plan for a custom home using mainly LEDs, and if so, would it pass Title 24? Would it look any different to the untrained eye? Would it actually use less energy? Or, are LEDs better used as a supporting component in a diversified lighting plan rather than as the main workhorse? Are LEDs sustainable to manufacture? Do they use less power in a real-life installation, not just in the lab?

The answer to LEDs in California is a qualified but definite yes. There are definitely products out there that will comply with California’s energy codes, and we should see more coming to market this coming year. The issue is not the LED lamp itself, but the housing, because the fixture’s efficacy depends on the entire assembly.Many of our Title 24 clients have been asking us whether they can safely specify LED fixtures that would qualify as “high efficacy” lighting under Title 24. Could one conceivably create an entire lighting plan for a custom home using mainly LEDs, and if so, would it pass Title 24? Would it look any different to the untrained eye? Would it actually use less energy? Or, are LEDs better used as a supporting component in a diversified lighting plan rather than as the main workhorse? Are LEDs sustainable to manufacture? Do they use less power in a real-life installation, not just in the lab?

The answer to LEDs in California is a qualified but definite yes. There are definitely products out there that will comply with California’s energy codes, and we should see more coming to market this coming year. The issue is not the LED lamp itself, but the housing, because the fixture’s efficacy depends on the entire assembly.

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Whole House Ventilation and Title 24

Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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After January 1, 2010, all new homes in CA must include whole-house ventilation systems. Yes… we’ve made building envelopes so efficient, that now we have to in essence introduce highly controlled leakage. There are two mandatory ventilation features in the new Title 24:

Intermittent exhaust fans for moisture control in all kitchens and bathrooms
Whole-house continuous mechanical ventilation for indoor air quality (IAQ)

A good ventilation system will filter out indoor air pollutants (VOCs like formaldehyde from particleboard or acetone nail polish remover) as well as filtering outdoor air on the intake side; however, not all whole-house ventilation systems include outdoor air filtering. Here’s a summary of the ventilation course module from last week’s Title 24 update class.

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Title 24: What Really to Expect

Posted on 12. Nov, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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This past Monday, I went to an all-day Title 24 class with CABEC and didn’t fall asleep once! There were a few eye-openers worth sharing, since we’ve already been trumpeting the endless “Change is coming!” for months.

Title 24 has grown from a minor paperwork requirement into a PROCESS, with more forms, more steps, and more people involved. Bifurcating bureaucracy… what a surpriseThis past Monday, I went to an all-day Title 24 class put on by CABEC and didn’t fall asleep once! There were a few eye-openers worth sharing, since we’ve already been trumpeting the endless “Change is coming!” for months.

Title 24 has grown from a minor paperwork requirement into a PROCESS, with more forms, more steps, and more people involved. Bifurcating bureaucracy… what a surprise!

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Solar Technology: What’s The State of the Art?

Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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Renewable energy companies must be doing well these days. Between green stimulus dollars, soaring energy costs, recession-weary homeowners, and increasing public demand for clean energy, it seems like homeowners would be queueing up for the next Net Zero Energy conversion. And those who can afford the initial outlay probably are. But what about the rest of us who don’t have $35,000 just lying around?

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GreenPoint Rating: What’s In It for You?

Posted on 12. Oct, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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After our recent interview with a GreenPoint Rater, several people wrote to us and we realized that since our last coverage in the Chronicle, many of our site visitors aren’t architects or building officials. They’re interested homeowners, or just plain interested.

Some confusion is perhaps justified. Even a cursory web search for “green building rating systems” turned up a pile of competing standards and organizations, some of which merely promote green building without issuing standards. (Mark, Alan, and myself have all contributed to the answers below.)

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Interview with GreenPoint Rater John Eckstein

Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by Rebecca Firestone.

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A few months ago, we had the pleasure of working with a GreenPoint rater on one of our recent Title 24 consulting projects. John Eckstein is a building professional with expertise in both home energy performance, and indoor air quality, particularly mold investigation. Since GreenPoint rating is still relatively new, we asked him what is involved in working with, or becoming, a GreenPoint rater.

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