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Energy efficiency is one
of the most important aspects of building design and construction.
Knowing as we do that the cost of oil has gone from $25 a barrel to $120
a Barrel in a short five years we can only expect worse in the future.
So our mandate is to reduce and or eliminate dependence on carbon based
energy. Light gage steel is the right choice for a quality framing job.
Here at Steel Habitat,
Inc., we do not doubt doubt that energy efficient building design is not
an optional choice any more? Today’s society has been fooled into
thinking energy was cheap so we could be careless with its use. Well now
we are paying the price for our foolishness and in order to reverse the
trend of carbon based energy expansion we must develop designs for
buildings that allow us to use environmentally friendly, energy
efficient, clean products. Here at steel habitat we are well on our way
to being able to change the way people live and the way that buildings
are constructed.
Here at Steel Habitat,
Inc., we know the implementation of green technologies will lead us down
the path to clean living, clean environment and a lower cost for energy
translating into benefits we have yet to imagine. If your home is zero
carbon, and your not contributing to Global Warming the benefits are
many. Imagine living in a clean home environment where solar heat warms
your house, where solar power runs your electric meter backwards, and
where our oil dependence and so our carbon emissions are zero.
Energy efficiency is
not an expensive and distant goal. Energy efficiency is a cost
efficient, cost saving, income producing choice. Every gallon of oil you
don't use for heating is one more barrel that does not release carbon
into the air heating the atmosphere and causing poisonous chemical
reactions.
Solar photo voltaic
panels are no longer an expensive choice for energy production. They are
instead the smart choice for building a system that will produce energy
for a hundred years and allow you and people of like thinking to enjoy
the benefits of the free electricity produced from sun light. It is no
longer a fantasy that solar electric can make you money as it makes
electricity.
Remember the family in
Manhattan Beach California with the $130.00 a year electric bill? Well
those folks power two electric cars, four electric scooters, their house
and pay a whopping $130.00 a year for all that. Those nice folks don't
buy gas for their cars any more, they don't pay heating bills, they
don't buy gas for their scooters either. They get all that at a savings
of thousands of dollars a year in reduced energy costs. All that because
they were smart enough to purchase a photo voltaic electric system which
makes their electric meter run backwards almost to zero.
A growing number of
challenges, mandates, and initiatives are promoting building
construction and operation practices that do not require energy from the
grid. These would be buildings designed with optimum energy efficiency
and operated with the most stringent energy conservation measures to
reduce the use of energy to its lowest possible level. The remaining
energy needed to power the building would be generated on-site using
renewable sources.
California is leading
the way in this field. Their Public Building Commission and the Energy
Commission have established a goal to have all new residential
construction built as zero energy structures by 2020, and all new
commercial construction to be zero energy by 2030.
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by
Pres. Bush in December 2007, authorized funding for the creation of the
Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative. This is a consortium led by
the DOE and including The Alliance to Save Energy, AIA, ASHRAE, USGBC,
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. The consortium is responsible for
conducting research on new technologies, tracking real energy
performance, demonstrating concepts, and transforming the marketplace
into a zero energy mentality.
The DOE itself has a
goal of establishing Zero Energy Buildings by 2025. Their Partnership
for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) is also working on near zero
and net-zero energy home construction technologies with cooperation of
Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The American Institute
of Architects’ 2030 Challenge strategy aims at eliminating the use of
fossil fuel energy for buildings by the year 2030. The program is a
phased-in approach by incremental reductions in fossil-fuel energy
between now and then. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
includes the 2030 Challenge for Federal Building construction.
As building designers
and builders look to all means possible to reduce energy consumption in
a building, they need to consider the passive cooling effects of a cool
metal roof. Such a roof product, combined with above sheathing
ventilation, can have a significant effect on the reduction in heat gain
through the roof system. That effect translates into lower air
conditioning and heating energy usage in all types of climates. This
concept has already been adopted by California in their 2008 Title 24
Part 6 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. Other national standards
organizations are including the above sheathing ventilation with cool
roofing as a technique to improve energy efficiency. |
