tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48056930616946834382024-03-13T03:12:40.964-07:00Passive House TorontoDesigning and Building a Passive House in TorontoLyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-91691005821962094762019-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:002019-01-25T08:05:09.443-08:00Presentation at the Agency for Co-Operative Housing<div>
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I had the pleasure of presenting to the Agency for Co-Operative housing yesterday, Jan 24, 2019. Its a 1-hr presentation touching on a number of design points related to Passive House and providing some context to Passive as a design strategy of choice for the coming infrastructure renewal phases in Co-Operative Housing in Canada.</div>
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Here is the collection of Slides I used.</div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/16FmeDCM_lE3jI-RKvw1PdG7wIJSjjQs-/view?usp=sharing">Agency for Co-Op Housing Presentation, Passive House Intro</a></div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-89149055569280115852017-09-02T07:41:00.001-07:002017-09-02T07:41:46.133-07:00Design Business and Delivering Passive House at MArket ValuePassive Buildings Canada has been busy recently and they are teaming with Yestermorrow to offer the following 2 courses. Very tempting.<br />
LT<br />
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It takes far more than being a great designer and builder to establish a successful design/build business. Adam Cohen shares his insights in developing a successful business model to produce low energy buildings on time and on budget. Join several Toronto based firms,make contacts and grow your business. <span> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/designing-and-building-successful-designbuild-business&source=gmail&ust=1504449334126000&usg=AFQjCNGyAN_j6IyBbJIv1YGhLEh4UwtojQ" href="https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/designing-and-building-successful-designbuild-business" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://yestermorrow.org/<wbr></wbr>learn/courses/designing-and-<wbr></wbr>building-successful-<wbr></wbr>designbuild-business</a><br />
<span color="#222222;font-size:14px;font-family:arial;" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"></span><br />
Interested in the LEAN process specifically geared to the work you do? This class will discuss the basics of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Passive Building design principles, LEAN construction, work flows specific to IPD, BIM integration and in-depth instruction in the design ~ estimating integration needed for a successful project. It would be amazing to have the tools to run projects smoothly and effectively with all team members on board helping to get to the same goals then this course is for you and your team. <span> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/delivering-high-performance-buildings-market-rate&source=gmail&ust=1504449334126000&usg=AFQjCNHvABXK-OWaU4GF4ykhWNPBuu8utw" href="https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/delivering-high-performance-buildings-market-rate" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://yestermorrow.org/<wbr></wbr>learn/courses/delivering-high-<wbr></wbr>performance-buildings-market-<wbr></wbr>rate</a>Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-48014541805857730132017-08-28T16:08:00.002-07:002017-08-28T16:08:31.889-07:00Adding Screens to European Passive House WindowsI recently had the most pleasurable experience of designing an entire off-grid cottage for some awesome clients, including the architecture, the structure, and the energy systems. <br />
A major issue with this house was the insect screens! We used Klearwall Passive House windows, and they don't come with screens. This was an inconvenience because the northern ontario cloaction for this cottage is rife with insects.<br />
Klearwall sent me some 'clips' for insect screens, which arrived sans instructions. Having just received them, I was surprised. They are nothing more than what is well-known as 'lift-off' hinges. These ones are black, and came without any manufacturer markings. - Perhaps of asian manufacturing origin? But looks like something Southco or JW Winco would carry.<br />
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This whole issue is a complex one, as the windows have really no provision for the addition of insect screening. We have to build our own, using these plastic lift-off hinges, which I plan to attempt on our own house. There is a good amount of friction or grip on the lifting-off motion, so I can see they could work.<br />
In the meantime, I found an article online which has an even simpler solution, one that is just beautiful for cost and elegance.<br />
Here is the link.<br />
<a href="http://afbtoday.blogspot.ca/2015/06/how-to-install-screens-in-your-german.html">http://afbtoday.blogspot.ca/2015/06/how-to-install-screens-in-your-german.html</a><br />
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Will provide further updates shortly, as I continue to search for that super cool adhesive strip with nubbies that grip the screen - like a specialized velcro.Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-7388566338223357602016-08-13T09:23:00.004-07:002016-08-13T10:29:34.599-07:00Central Vacuum and Hide-A-Hose in a Passive HouseMy wife was very against central vacuum in the house, and for a long time, we determined not to install a central vacuum system. (She despised having to carry around the long hose - and she'd had only a little experience of this before, but it was with a very long and heavy old style of hose. Today's hoses are much lighter and more flexible.) In addition, we didn't know if central vacuums and airtight houses would work well together - but this ended up being just a small part of the project. The answer is just to place the central vac inside the house, and do not vent it. - But even venting it might be fine (we've not tried this as yet).<br />
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Given the very long time it was taking to build our house, I was able to research this more and more, and I eventually realized that cleaning and maintaining the building was of great importance - and this ongoing job would be done better and more frequently if the cleaning process was made easier and more pleasant - so investments in the building maintenance systems seems a good idea. Moreover, the lovability of a building is likely to have a lot to do with the ease of keeping it tidy. A major criticism of larger houses is the effort required to keep them clean, right after the energy required to keep them conditioned.<br />
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In the end, I decided to purchase a cheap, used central Vac (it was a decent unit, actually) and install it and see how it worked. The nice thing about getting a cheap used one is that we could clean up the construction mess - even drywall dust, and not worry too much about destroying an expensive unit.<br />
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The best central vacuum strategy appears at this time to be the Hide-A-Hose approach, in which the flexible hose is 'garaged' in the rigid tubing inside the walls and frame. If you are not familiar with this, I encourage you to youtube it. The needed length of hose is pulled right out of the outlet for vacuuming. When finished, the hose is sucked back into the outlet by the vacuum force. This means no coiling of the hose, so very little entanglement, and no carrying hoses around. I find the costs for this system are overly high (we had a consult with a dealer), so we went about doing what we could to do it ourselves. The dealer discouraged us over and over again from installing it ourselves, but we did it anyways, and it turned out perfectly fine - really there is no big mystery to it, but I will outlay some of the design points below:<br />
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<li>First, the tubing that forms the garage must be dedicated without any tees. This means the run must be planned long enough to avoid any section with a Tee. We basically ran the tubing in circles around the room to get the required dedicated length. We wanted more than one outlet per floor due to the way our space would be used, so our layout consisted of a central pipe with branches leading to each hose 'garage', which would wrap around the room and come back to the centre of the house where the outlet would be.</li>
<li>The tubing is standard central vac tubing, but the elbows must be the the special extra-long radius Hide-a-Hose elbows - they come in 90, 45, and 22.5 deg. You can buy them online easily enough.</li>
<li>The outlets need to be placed 4' above the floor if the pipe comes from above, and lower if from below - we placed ours at 4' above the floor as all our outlets came from above (so this allows the ergonomic pulling down of the inside hose).</li>
<li>If possible, place the garage tubing in the same horizontal plane - this prevents the hose from falling out of the garage when it is mostly out - but no big deal. Our first install was with 3.25 elbows, and mostly not in plane - still works fine.</li>
<li>USe 'Rapidflex' tubing as the hose - available online.</li>
<li>The dedicated run for the hose garage needs to be about 5' longer because the rapidflex hose stretches a fair bit sometimes and can get a little stuck in upstream fittings if there is no extra length in the garage section.</li>
<li>Plan your runs very carefully. Try to get a central location in the house to minimize HAH outlets per floor, and keep in mind the HAH elbows - should be max 3 x 90's per garage, less is better - but our first one is 3.25 (3 x 90 and a 22.5) - and it works fine.</li>
<li>Silicone spray applied to the rapidflex hose helps a lot to make the hose come out smoothly. We've not used any and it still works fine.</li>
<li>When gluing pipe and fittings, apply the glue only the male part of the joint, to avoid getting any glue inside the pipe.</li>
<li>In my first use of the HAH vacuum, I sucked up a short wire with a little plug on it - it got stuck. I was able to remove it by disconnecting part of the pipe in the basement and using a shopvac to blow air into the pipe in the reverse direction from which the dust usually flows, and this cleared the jam. I wish there were clean-out fitting for central vac, but I've not seen any.</li>
<li>The dealer told us again and again that special, powerful vacuums with true cyclonic action were required to make the HAH work. Well these are only available through them at high prices (about $1000). I tried my cheap 2nd-hand ACV vac ($150) with the HAH and it works perfectly fine so far.</li>
<li>I complain the prices are high for HAH, and they are. However, if installation comes with those prices, you might get a good value - but I wanted to install it myself, so the component prices seemed ridiculous to me. Each outlet (just the outlet) is $230 (includes rough-in kit) - compared to about $10 for a regular central vac outlet. But I couldn't find any alternative to this. The elbows are about $15 each online. ($45 each at our dealer). The rapidflex hose was about $90 for 30'.</li>
<li>Central vacs appear to be a slow-moving technology (probably due to the sometimes dumb patent protections). They should have adopted brushless motors a long time ago - but Ametek Lamb only offer one or two units out of their huge selection with brushless motors. Also I do agree with the true cyclonic action, but not for twice the money. The self-cleaning filter units seem OK. Having central vac to clean construction messes seems great so far. I'd like to install one in the garage as well.</li>
<li>There is a product called Zoom - appears to be a very good value for money compared to the HAH.</li>
<li>Power: I'm always amazed at how manufacturers market the 'power' of their appliances. I think most consumers know that the amount of power a unit consumes has little to do with the amount of useful work the unit produces. In the case of central vacuums, airwatts is a fairly good measure of performance, which describes the useful 'power' of the actual vacuum, not the electrical power going into the machine. However, there is a measure which is better yet: This is inches of water column (pressure or vacuum) at a given flow rate. The better machines seem to offer about 125 inches water column at some 150 cfm. These two numbers together give you a very clear idea of the suction pressure and the flow rate. Dust collectors have quite different pressures and flow rates - but they can have the same 'airwatts', which is the product of suction and flow. </li>
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Having installed the central vac now, we have both HAH and regular outlets, I can say that it seems much better to have central vac than not, and the HAH is definitely worth having, especially if can do it for less money than what we were told it would be. The suctionof a central vac is a lot stronger, and the convenience a lot better, and you never have to go looking for the vacuum, nor do you ever have to drag it around. It can also be more quiet, since the machine is generally not close to where you are working.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zy3IWDX5gnk/V69YQhJXwwI/AAAAAAAABJU/yd_MU6iKY_Mp8FMJxG_uHaVrEfTUp4AiwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0407%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zy3IWDX5gnk/V69YQhJXwwI/AAAAAAAABJU/yd_MU6iKY_Mp8FMJxG_uHaVrEfTUp4AiwCLcB/s320/IMG_0407%255B1%255D.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Central Vac Pipe with extra long radius bends for Hide a Hose</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MpQmwIB6KMM/V69YTJBAJdI/AAAAAAAABJY/I69t4vQ34hQxHQDw_VFZId2LVXXOiyRJACLcB/s1600/IMG_0404%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MpQmwIB6KMM/V69YTJBAJdI/AAAAAAAABJY/I69t4vQ34hQxHQDw_VFZId2LVXXOiyRJACLcB/s320/IMG_0404%255B1%255D.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hide a Hose Outlet, with Rapidflex hose</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQdJd3M6go4/V69YXZK2kjI/AAAAAAAABJc/943-Di0KaqQdX8Y4SMfWDjy5kpZQ2ELcQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0406%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQdJd3M6go4/V69YXZK2kjI/AAAAAAAABJc/943-Di0KaqQdX8Y4SMfWDjy5kpZQ2ELcQCLcB/s320/IMG_0406%255B1%255D.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hide a Hose outlet, rear</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6RP0ImW4FJs/V69YaQJCBCI/AAAAAAAABJg/fPnzgTrH3fARHwngT9kB5Q4xhuP1ytnmQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0405%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6RP0ImW4FJs/V69YaQJCBCI/AAAAAAAABJg/fPnzgTrH3fARHwngT9kB5Q4xhuP1ytnmQCLcB/s320/IMG_0405%255B1%255D.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hide a Hose Outlet, front side with door open</td></tr>
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-73715199084846570002016-05-19T08:26:00.004-07:002016-05-19T08:43:46.844-07:00Ontario Government to Phase out Natural Gas for Heating (!!!)<div class="MsoNormal">
These pics have little to do with my article. Here's our electrical meter arrangement.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vH4sbuG-BFk/Vz3b-HVLcZI/AAAAAAAABHU/uC_e9cq5lekLM7BW0aFoDZmiL5GsfM2qACK4B/s1600/20151214_124510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vH4sbuG-BFk/Vz3b-HVLcZI/AAAAAAAABHU/uC_e9cq5lekLM7BW0aFoDZmiL5GsfM2qACK4B/s320/20151214_124510.jpg" width="320" /></a><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jbnOxe6gzGs/Vz3b1vDJ5HI/AAAAAAAABHM/W9OjO8JByegwfBhs_n9JRHPuRE0TQUJdACK4B/s320/IMG_9553.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uejBQXd3lF0/Vz3di64k-LI/AAAAAAAABH0/-dHsooQ26TsyyIyMKl3VZ05kpy-WjNb2gCK4B/s1600/IMG_0141.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uejBQXd3lF0/Vz3di64k-LI/AAAAAAAABH0/-dHsooQ26TsyyIyMKl3VZ05kpy-WjNb2gCK4B/s320/IMG_0141.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l-Zmy89wQac/Vz3di_RpLBI/AAAAAAAABHo/k9WifZgXQPwBmpPxzlG6GUfhKgVGqj9TwCK4B/s1600/IMG_0136.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l-Zmy89wQac/Vz3di_RpLBI/AAAAAAAABHo/k9WifZgXQPwBmpPxzlG6GUfhKgVGqj9TwCK4B/s320/IMG_0136.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the welded aluminum ducting we are installing. Smooth interior bore, totally leak free. Bit of work, but I'm doing all the welding myself, so ...busy. One of the pics is of stainless material (209 stainless, 3.5" tube, 0.080" wall, polished inside and out, $30/10' tube). Much more work to weld due to the purging process. The aluminum is better, but the stainless was got at such a great price - cheaper than the aluminum. I should have gotten more.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yesterday the Globe issued an article that the
Ontario Government is legislating the phase-out of natural gas or any fossil
fuel heating for houses. They plan to
spend 7B on reducing the carbon footprint of Ontario, and the revenues will
come from the new carbon cap and trade scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here's the link:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-spend-7-billion-in-sweeping-climate-change-plan/article30029081/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-spend-7-billion-in-sweeping-climate-change-plan/article30029081/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is <b>incredible</b> news for a province and country
rich in oil and natural gas, with economies dominated by the resource sector,
and millions of homes heated with natural gas, and the incredible clout Enbridge and
Trans Canada seems have had in recent years with both the Canadian Government
and the US government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I received this news from my clients on the
SmartHome project. As I began sending
it out, my own disbelief was mirrored by that of others - and <a href="http://www.bluegreengroup.ca/">Blue Green Group</a>
said 'Its like a dream come true!' and
also 'Is it too good to be true?'. and
'Lets hope the legislation comes through intact.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These are comments indicating we are hoping for,
and wishing for a transformation that, we've practically given up on based on the lack of changes in legislation over the past decades. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I noticed my attitude changing right away -
First, I was ashamed at my own lack of action on this front - how it was not me
influencing legislation, it was not me believing in the people of Canada, and
it was not me acting to create this big change.
All I've done is work on my own house, and I've shared some of the
things I've learned along the way - but my hopes of achieving a change like
this were indeed left in the dust of just trying to manage a house build, a
family, and a new business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But after that, I began to realize I no longer
wanted to specify gas boilers for my clients (while some of the houses I work
on are electricity only, I still do mechanical designs for clients involving
gas boilers). Two projects on the go
right now could potentially be changed, and my discouragement of natural gas
will be stronger in all new projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then, I've been looking for a utility vehicle
recently - and I began to think hey - I should really be focused on getting an
electric truck (they don't really exist right now on the market - but making
one seems plausible) - or something really fuel efficient. - while efficiency
was on my list of requirements, I wasn't intending to use the vehicle
frequently, so versatility and utility were more important. And
then those solar panels I've been thinking about for my domestic hot water - I
should take some action on those.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All this stuff. - One action by the government,
and my own attitudes have been affected so much -. Suddenly the idea of living in a carbon-accounting
economy appears very real, and the fact that money will be attached to the
amount of carbon we produce, seems natural, obvious, and necessary. Its corny, but I feel like saying 'Canada is
Back!'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the strategies clearly noted in the policy outline is the intention to condition homes (not sure about other buildings) using no fossil fuels. This means electricity and heat pumps, both air source and geothermal are to take a big role. But there is confusion about electric heating, of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>My Mom asked the following:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I always thought that electricity created a larger footprint
on the environment because of the steps needed to generate it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>My response:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is a big misconception about electricity
- it is based on the costs of using it directly for our biggest load - heating
- which is generally not good. However, employing (groundsource) heat
pumps, we are able to get about 3.5 times the mileage from every watt, so then
it is getting much much better - however, even then it is still more expensive
than today's natural gas - and cheaper than propane, only by about 10% (compared with air-source heat pumps)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Electricity generation happens in all sort of ways -and with the
solar boom, wind boom, significant nuclear advances on the horizon, and many
governments phasing out coal, generation is getting cleaner and cleaner - Of course, in Quebec, a ton of home are heated with straight hydro electricity).
One big thing to watch for is the cost of distribution - losses due to
distribution can amount to about 60% of what is produced - so local production
is of great importance - but inefficiencies don't always matter if ultimately
the practice is in general sustainable. The main thing is that with
electricity, there is every chance of getting off of fossil fuels, and much of
our generation portfolio already emits no greenhouse gas. Continued use
of gas simply means NOT getting off of fossil fuels, so legislating away from
gas is awesome.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-91506518871727703362015-06-27T10:04:00.002-07:002015-06-27T10:20:29.206-07:00Solar Water Supply and DesalinationWell there is a lot of news these days and I am constantly bombarded by articles on solar, on renewable technologies, and the like, but we are in a unprecendented energy and infrastructure revolution. <br />
The overall global picture has to my mind the following salient points:<br />
<ol>
<li>Climate Change, leading to varied phenomena</li>
<li>Energy and Infrastructure Revolution, combined with the IT and AI revolution</li>
<li>Population Decline, massive movements of people, new religious movements, and the rise of global black population, and global trade</li>
<li>Water resource awareness and scarcity</li>
</ol>
<div>
A lot of times the news focuses on one of the above aspects of change in our world, but I saw an article today which brought together both water scarcity, the energy revolution, and global trade.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here it is:</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/solar-thermal-desalination-now-underway-in-water-hungry-cali-fornia.html">http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/solar-thermal-desalination-now-underway-in-water-hungry-cali-fornia.html</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What I found very interesting about this article are three points which were not greatly emphasized:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
California will soon be bringing the massive Carlsbad desalination plant online, but at the same time, another smaller desalination plant is coming online. The two have big differences in scale, being orders of magnitude apart in capacity and cost. The freaky thing is that the smaller (Only $30M US) plant is highly competitive economically, and converts 93% of the intake to distilled water, leaving behind only 7% of volume as highly concentrated brine. The huge Carlsbad plant has a conversion rate of only 50%. </div>
<br />
<div>
And here is a link to website video describing the system in greater detail.</div>
<div>
<div>
<a href="http://waterfx.co/aqua4/">http://waterfx.co/aqua4/</a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
So this small system by WaterFX is efficient, produces a brine rich in minerals that is an appealing economic resource, and is small in scale, is scalable, and is ideal for distributed deployment. There is some complexity to the system, and the smallest unit produces about 65,000 gallons (250 m3) per day, and requires about 6000 SF (560 m2) of space to deploy. Possibly a bit too large for a rural house property, but could be excellent for a small campus or a community. Finally, something deeply striking about this technology and approach: Watering our crops with water that is <i>cleaner </i>than the groundwater - for hundreds of years now, humanity has been making their fields more and more saline by irrigating these fields with water containing salts (freshwater from streams and rivers has some salts). Eventually the long-term concentration of salts in soils renders the fields far less useful for growing crops, Now imagine we water the fields with pure H2O - this is likely over time to reduce the salinity of soils.</div>
<div>
I feel this is definitely a technology and a company to look carefully at.<br />
<br />
There are others in the race to low-cost, distributed water purification and desalination - this time focused more on drinking water.<br />
Take a look at this one:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/small-scale-solar-powered-water-desalination-system.html">http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/small-scale-solar-powered-water-desalination-system.html</a></div>
<div>
<br />
Looks like a very simple and accessible system, costing some $450, lasting 20years, and requiring no power inputs other than sunlight. Still in fundraising mode, but also likely to be a major player in the near future.</div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-2149298503928105902015-01-24T11:12:00.002-08:002015-01-24T11:12:57.089-08:00Electricity Generation and Off-grid for Low Energy HousesI was recently involved in two low energy house projects and they were both on rural, undeveloped land. In these cases, I always ask, is it cheaper to have on-site generation and storage, or is it cheaper to be grid-connected? Actually, I even ask this question all the time in the city, every time I get my electricity bill - the delivery charges are frequently higher than the electricity charges.<br />
<br />
So dimensions of the question go like this: <br />
<ol>
<li>It is often something like $10k to $20k to create a new grid connection for a rural property. Wouldn't it be nice to put that money towards electricity storage or on-site generation/both?</li>
<li> Sometimes there is a microFIT project involved - so if we are going to sell solar electricity to the grid, then we need the grid connection anyways</li>
<li>Electric vehicle - If we are going to have an electric vehicle, then we are no longer purchasing gasoline, but must instead supply additional electrical energy to our vehicles as well as our house - well, do the math and you'll probably find that net zero may often be practical for our houses, but net zero including our transportation? - that can be quite an additional load, depending on how much one travels, or plans to. While the vehicle can act as a big battery for the onsite storage of electricity, everytime I look at vehicles storing energy for the house, I come up short - either for the house, or for the vehicle - so in terms of timing, this option has yet to prove viable.</li>
<li>Microgrid stability - In one project, there is kind of a significant computer activity in the house. This owner is looking seriously at back-up generation, but one also needs a transition system - like a battery bank or an ultracapacitor bank - basically a UPS that gives the generator the few seconds needed to come online in a black-out. This house is also in a valley, so the back-up generator will be perfect to run pumps for flood protection - Even though we are in a big city, power outages frequently come when there are big rains.<br />If we need back-up-generation AND the grid connection is costly, why not forego the grid connection altogether?</li>
<li>Finances: In one instance, the bank decided what to do, rather than the buyer of the land - The bank's position was this: Build all services - septic, water, and grid connection, or we won't lend you the money to buy the land. - Sheesh! They must not have heard of solar PV! </li>
</ol>
<div>
This question always fascinates me - I get to go out looking for off-grid technologies. So today I came across this on Gizmag: </div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/power-pallet-20-gasifier-biomass-generator/32245/">http://www.gizmag.com/power-pallet-20-gasifier-biomass-generator/32245/</a> - the power pallet. This is a machine which eats biomass, and makes heat and electricity, and it is smallish - relative to many biomass machines. it produces about 20kW, and costs about $30,000. Kind of attractive if a grid connection costs $15k and back-up generator $10k.</div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-73292262763119275502015-01-14T16:26:00.001-08:002015-01-14T16:43:52.549-08:00Thoughts on Hiring Designers and Engineers, and the Design Process<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most residential projects involve little if any
contact and exploration with the structural or mechanical designers, despite
the fact that all projects present a range of not only challenges, but also opportunities. As a provider of services in this area, I
recommend clients think carefully about their goals in hiring 'professionals'. One thing I feel is important is that the
professional must have a sense of service.
All professionals are privileged to be in their position. They must endeavor to serve their community
as a primary and important goal of their work.
This applies to doctors and lawyers - so also to architects and
engineers. And frequently the first
aspect of service is that each time one comes in contact with a professional,
one should probably find that they are learning something useful. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is much to determine and discuss regarding
the mechanical systems, which go beyond heating and cooling, and can include
aspects such as;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">self-reliance,
secondary and back-up systems</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flood, snow, and disaster planning <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Versatility,
reliability, future service, cost of ownership, etc<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA">Indoor
Air quality, </span>comfort,
noise</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Accessibility (for the infirm, etc)</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Home
Automation, internet of things<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">thermal
envelope design<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">electric
vehicles, vehicle servicing, hobbies<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-CA">ecological footprint, </span>energy and water conservation,</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rainwater collection, irrigation</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">waste management</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">food
production - both for cooking, and for growing<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lighting<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Renewable
energy generation<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Energy and water Storage, recycling, and use</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Consumption monitoring</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These are broader categories, so wood heating back-up and solar thermal back-up, or ice energy systems, or snow melt would be specific approaches that fit into a given category.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I believe every construction project should
consider all of these opportunities, if only briefly in some cases. Unfortunately, houses and other construction
projects are frequently seen mainly as a financial instrument or a domestic instrument, and
considerations such as resale value, turn-around time, and costs are
over-riding, over-powerful factors. I
have seen many projects in which people build too big a house, and often wonder
what they will do with the additional space.
Frequently, there is a feeling that one must maximize the lot coverage - but why? I firmly believe we should design houses to serve the existing owners - not the potential future owners - that approach is what led us into ridiculous protocols such as valuing houses by their square footage, or the number of fireplaces - in short, designing for 'resale value' on your own house project is the thing that often perpetuates many of the dumb things we did in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
key point that is missed:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A building is YOUR project. It should be built to serve you and your life
and your goals, keeping in mind the broader community's needs as well. It has to be something that will serve you in general - not create a problem in one area while making a small improvement in another, as so many buildings have in the past. We have houses that are ugly, houses that are energy hogs, houses that have poor layouts, houses that are a major tax burden, houses that didn't fit their use, houses that are oriented the wrong way, houses that are disposable, houses that only suit younger people, houses that are always dark inside, and so on.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you are too busy to deeply define what the
building should do for you, then consider not rushing into it, or be clear that
your goals and needs for this project will be determined by others.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A project has the potential to provide very
valuable dividends for the owners for a long time.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This can take the form of shelter, money, protection, serving the community, artistic expression, production, among many other benefits.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But a project can also be a big liability and burden both during and
after construction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We all know the three dimensions of project management and outcomes are:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Schedule, money, and quality - but I would argue that schedule and money are frequently going
together, while quality stands a little on its own. When projects are complex and large, quality
needs to be carefully understood as far more than 'quality', also intention and opportunity. A high quality building or project may be built,
but it can still be redundant, malfunctioning, or deficient. Many things have been made that should never
have been made. One who over-emphasizes
schedule and cost risks producing scrap at a highly efficient rate. A common stumbling block is that pre-conceptions and (unrealistic) expectations obstruct the heavy work of exploring and identifying the truest and best intentions and opportunities of a potential project.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So in buildings, and civil projects, give
importance to design, intentions and opportunities, against how the project should serve for
generations to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In other projects, I have been in the situation
where what is needed, is mainly to get the permit. This must be the lowliest task for the
designer. What happens is the client
sees no value in the design, as it is little more than a bureaucratic hurdle. Sometimes, the design fee is substantial, and
yet there is no value in it for the client.
So I say, discuss this with your designer and find out if there is an
opportunity somewhere, in which value can be created in the process of
design. On the other hand, at the
moment, most buildings offer a lot of low hanging fruit, upon which good
design may be brought to bear, with the potential for reaping great savings or improvements for
the client, not to mention the environment or the community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-86777950455378568142014-11-21T08:16:00.003-08:002014-11-21T08:22:26.087-08:00Snow on Solar Panels in Toronto<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k461adszXVs/VG9aiLcTSBI/AAAAAAAAA1A/ju1-AYvIW60/s1600/IMG_7804cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k461adszXVs/VG9aiLcTSBI/AAAAAAAAA1A/ju1-AYvIW60/s1600/IMG_7804cropped.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3 in 12 roof (14.0deg)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYk5yUvcJEw/VG9bbCULr9I/AAAAAAAAA1I/xMgoapUQBhU/s1600/IMG_7809cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYk5yUvcJEw/VG9bbCULr9I/AAAAAAAAA1I/xMgoapUQBhU/s1600/IMG_7809cropped.jpg" height="173" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">8 in 12 roof (33.7 deg)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It snowed two days ago - We got the normal 2" of snow while Buffalo got the 50"! (1.5m of snow, in 24hr). <br />
A neighbor recently installed solar on their roof, and there is a bit of snow covering the panels. The two photos below are to indicate the tenacity of snow cover over the panels. Their roof slope is 3 in 12 (14.0deg from horizontal). Ours is at 8in12 (33.7 deg). As I mentioned, the snow arrived two days ago on a cloudy day. Temperatures yesterday were below freezing all day, with night time temperatures about -9 deg C and daytime about -3 peak. Some sun yesterday. Last night was similar, and the sun came out earlier today so at 10am (when both these photos were taken) it has risen to about -3 C already, and sunny. You can see the roof angle makes a significant difference. On the steeper roof, the snow was actively shedding and within about 1/2hr after the photo was taken, pretty much all the snow had slipped off the panels. It is great when snow slides of panels - it has a cleaning effect due to the slight rubbing. I'll be monitoring the snow over the next few hours and days and months and updating this posting. There are is a lot of knowledge and data out there on how much sun solar panels receive based on their angle and local climate, but less information on how the panels shed snow or dust, which appears to be a bit more complex and difficult to figure out (due to a lack of experience). One thing I can suggest for low-slope panel installations: frameless panels such as these from Lumos (photo from http://www.lumossolar.com/).<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jlIJb__8sb4/VG9k-6J1dvI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/2NGVIRucMSg/s1600/LS_ProjSpotlight-over_poipu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jlIJb__8sb4/VG9k-6J1dvI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/2NGVIRucMSg/s1600/LS_ProjSpotlight-over_poipu.jpg" height="176" width="320" /></a></div>
- these will probably shed the snow a little more easily, I suspect - but no real data, as far as I can tell. But I would want this kind, just for the improved appearance. A number of manufacturers offer them. <br />
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-72769592068848692042014-11-02T07:04:00.001-08:002014-11-02T17:46:58.110-08:00High Efficiency and LED Lighting for Passive Houses, AgainNews: Cree recently announced another breakthrough in LED technology: a commercially available LED with a new level of efficacy: 200Lm/W ! This is only a chip at the moment, but it is available for purchase - and this is of great interest to makers of flashlights, at the very least. For actual luminaires, they offer a troffer, 2' x 2' for commercial applications performing at 150 Lm/W, not necessarily with the same chips - I don't know. Pretty awesome performance, and I think people are already aware of their other items I've mentioned in the past - I have no affiliation with them, but their news seems to reach me easily. Here is the troffer (it has a CRI of over 90):<br />
<a href="http://www.cree.com/Lighting/Products/Indoor/Troffers/ZR-Series">http://www.cree.com/Lighting/Products/Indoor/Troffers/ZR-Series</a><br />
<br />
The complexity of switching to LED lighting keeps surprising me. At first I began to learn about the three main specs:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Efficacy (Lumens per watt)</li>
<li>CCT - Correlated Colour Temperature</li>
<li>CRI - Colour Rendering Index</li>
</ol>
<div>
Armed with just these 3, one goes shopping for energy efficient LED replacements or integrated fixtures. Very quickly, we find ourselves surprised at the field of offerings. The first surprise is that all the major manufacturer's offerings are low-efficacy, offering usually not more than 60 Lm/W. I scoffed at this, in error. The next thing you run into is that there are often no claims of efficacy on some products, and then frequently, there is no certification label. Never mind the CRI - which hardly ever appeared. Then, we were in Costco the other day and found this:</div>
<br />
<br />
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</div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xQWtGdxU8a8/VFYx-RsWiRI/AAAAAAAAA0E/ntt4ERD_GRA/s1600/IMG_7746.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xQWtGdxU8a8/VFYx-RsWiRI/AAAAAAAAA0E/ntt4ERD_GRA/s1600/IMG_7746.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>The Luminus product. It lists all three main specs, and carries all the certs, and the purchase price (it was a sale) was $5 ea! Pretty impressive to find a product with this level of efficacy, at this colour, with a CRI of over 85, and at a $5 price.<br />
<br />
Yet, looking around we find highly acclaimed products like this one from Soraa:<br />
<a href="http://www.soraa.com/products/MR16-GU5.3">http://www.soraa.com/products/MR16-GU5.3</a><br />
Which uses a different LED technology - GaN - I assume this means gallium nitride. At 54 Lm/W for the 3000K MR16 bulb, one is not impressed by the efficacy. But look at the CRI - 95% - a figure you just can't find in the common PC (phospor coated?) LED technology.<br />
<br />
And then I discovered LED Benchmark (<a href="http://www.ledbenchmark.com/">www.ledbenchmark.com</a>). These are the same guys doing benchmark testing of things like video cards and hard drives. I highly recommend their website, where you can expand your knowledge of LED lighting beyond the three main specs. They also have comparison with halogens. It was there I found that we can go beyond to also look at:<br />
<ul>
<li>Flicker</li>
<li>actual performance</li>
</ul>
<div>
...and we find that many of the lesser-known product offerings (the cheap ones generally) frequently do not live up to their claims of efficacy, colour rendering, or even colour temperature. And all those low - efficacy major brands? Often they have sacrificed efficacy for colour rendering and reduced flicker. Having purchased a number of LED products now, I can confirm that flicker and CRI are important measures of light quality and should be given significance in the purchase decision. I am now, unlike before, willing to compromise on efficacy to get a light that has no flicker, and a high colour rendering index.</div>
<div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz8RSKaj5Ps/VFYx7z7Iv4I/AAAAAAAAAzg/ifkDlr7H7K8/s1600/IMG_7732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="The photo above shows an LED chip I bought on Ebay. It claims a 1000 Lumen output. Using my lab power supply, I found it consumes only about 4W, so I highly doubt the claimed output. The colour is warm white, as claimed, but the light quality was terrible - I'm not sure why, but probably CRI is low, and flicker high." border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz8RSKaj5Ps/VFYx7z7Iv4I/AAAAAAAAAzg/ifkDlr7H7K8/s1600/IMG_7732.JPG" height="320" title="" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz8RSKaj5Ps/VFYx7z7Iv4I/AAAAAAAAAzg/ifkDlr7H7K8/s1600/IMG_7732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></a></div>
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The photo above shows an LED chip I bought on Ebay. It claims a 1000 Lumen output. Using my lab power supply, I found it consumes only about 4W so I doubt the output is more than 500 Lumens. The colour is warm white, as claimed, but the light quality is terrible - I'm not sure why, but probably CRI is low, and flicker high.</div>
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The following 5 photos show commercial lighting quality hardware. We were very lucky to come across a batch of these on Kijiji and bought about 60 trimless recessed light fixtures (two types shown below - these are RSA brand by Cooper). These are about $200/fixture plus about $65 per trim ring. Costly when you consider a house can easily have 100 recesssed lights. We got them for about $6 ea, so we are installing these - they are low voltage (12V), with a solid -state voltage converter per the photo.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7dPu5dn_lf0/VFY9MclCtVI/AAAAAAAAA0k/h-tc5x9smIU/s1600/IMG_7589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7dPu5dn_lf0/VFY9MclCtVI/AAAAAAAAA0k/h-tc5x9smIU/s1600/IMG_7589.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a> I was interested to know the quality of the output waveform on these, wondering how the LED lamps would respond. But the output frquency is about 40kHz. A little high for my old oscilloscope to read well.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zX0GUvflAXo/VFYx7lAs8WI/AAAAAAAAAzc/WKPcF2RFQJ8/s1600/IMG_7736.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zX0GUvflAXo/VFYx7lAs8WI/AAAAAAAAAzc/WKPcF2RFQJ8/s1600/IMG_7736.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>These are the fixed trims for the RSA trimless pot lights. There are adjustable ones, and square ones for the square version of these lights also. This is a used one, of which I have only the one.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KuIleoqWHtM/VFYx8t9ba6I/AAAAAAAAAz0/FGFHDtiZ0Qk/s1600/IMG_7737.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KuIleoqWHtM/VFYx8t9ba6I/AAAAAAAAAz0/FGFHDtiZ0Qk/s1600/IMG_7737.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FxjxDGaIA_Q/VFYx94_xigI/AAAAAAAAA0A/1Kcdi_-51gg/s1600/IMG_7738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FxjxDGaIA_Q/VFYx94_xigI/AAAAAAAAA0A/1Kcdi_-51gg/s1600/IMG_7738.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>These are the trimless lights. They come with mounting bars and also butterfly clips, but I just didn't like the flimsy-ness of the mounting, so using wood rails - I got 50 of the white square ones below. An interesting feature is that since these are all trimless, they are mudded right into the ceiling drywall. This means no removing and replacing the fixture - but there is a facility to service them - the fixtures are designed so you can reach inside the opening and remove steel covers to service the wiring and the voltage converter as well.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1asukAa5L5E/VFYx97_vUZI/AAAAAAAAAz8/DpkwF8gOFII/s1600/IMG_7740.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1asukAa5L5E/VFYx97_vUZI/AAAAAAAAAz8/DpkwF8gOFII/s1600/IMG_7740.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-19298935898819380562014-10-20T21:45:00.004-07:002014-10-22T15:58:32.179-07:00New Technology Renewable Energy System:<div class="MsoNormal">
Wow! I just had a 2
hr conversation with Bruce Gray. It was
at a presentation organized by Terrell Wong and Kathy Garneu, here in
Toronto. Bruce is the inventor and
founder of a disruptive technology called Sunpump, (see <a href="http://www.solar-hot-water.ca/">http://www.solar-hot-water.ca/</a>) located in Vancouver. They have a new heating and cooling technology
that blows everything else right out of the water.<br />
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It is a major shift to a new way of the using the very
familiar vapour compression cycle. We're
all familiar with the mini split heat pump. They have been around quite some time, and over the years, their
efficiencies have improved. In the last
month or so Mitsubishi released (in Canada) their FH09 mini split heat pump
with a SEER rating of 30.5. That is news
in itself! But tonight, I learned about
something even better.<br />
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The Sunpump is a heat pump combined with a solar thermal panel -
but there is no glycol, and no water. The thermal panel hosts refrigerant. In addition, there is no outdoor fan. The thermal panel sits on the roof or on the wall, and exchanges heat
with the sun and the environment, without any moving parts on the outside of the
building. The panel is a solid plate of
aluminium with many small channels running through it. This configuration is classically difficult
to produce - but the company has overcome this challenge with the employment of
3D printing, so the panel is not two sheets stamped and brazed or somehow fused
together. It is a monolithic plate. It is anodized to be blackish, and has a
hydrophobic coating on it. What is
amazing about this whole concept is a number of things - and I feel dumb for
not having thought of it - but the elegance of the whole configuration is just
wonderful. Unlike regular evacuated tube
or flat plate solar panel systems, there is no stagnation, no drain-back, no
thick lines to the roof (the copper lines are 1/4" and 3/8" dia), no
freezing, no glycol, no pump, no fan, no nothing. The system is very economical to purchase because
there are so few moving parts. The only
moving part is the compressor rotor and perhaps a valve. But efficiencies are huge! Studies show that installed COPs of mini
splits are about 2.5 and groundsource heat pump systems, 3.5. This new technology has a COP of about 7 or
8, in the installed condition, and I think these numbers are not exaggerated. If you are a little familiar with heat pumps
and heat transfer, you'll see why. Even
evacuated tube solar panels have working fluids (water, glycol) that struggle
to take heat from an environment that is say -5 Celsius or colder outside. But when you have direct exchange with the
R410a refrigerant, which is operating at much lower temperatures, you can
extract heat from much colder ambient conditions. In addition, because there is no fan, there is no bulk movement of air over the heat exchanger (in this case the panel - in a regular mini split outdoor unit, it is a finned heat exchanger). This means there is no freezing of moisture on the heat exchanger, and a significant portion of the heat exchange is carried out via radiation. To top it off, the company also offers these
panels with PV cells grafted onto one side - so you can get electricity (just
like a standard PV panel) as well as heat. There are numerous hybrid panels on the market, including PV with Air,
PV with water/glycol - but this is PV with R410A refrigerant. This is a big step forward. And, finally, the system's output side seems
available in more than one configuration (which was always something I hated
about mini-splits - their lack of ability to have a hot water output at a good price). Sunpump offers their units with hot water
outputs as well as straight refrigerant outputs - so their systems can work
with hydronics as well as air-based HVAC systems. BTW, the system cools as well as heats.<br />
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Costing is only about $1/watt of total output - I believe
this includes the panels, accessories, and heat pump. This means the system is cheaper than many
many systems out there, and I think will even compete with the low price of natural
gas in North America. Apparently they
intend to compete on installation costs with electric baseboard heating!<br />
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The company is well developed already, has sold much product,
and has CSA approvals on their products also. And the panels produce some 7 to 8 times as much energy as regular solar
PV panels today produce (!!! - I know !). They also have partnered with a
financing company so builders can have these panels for ZERO dollars down - the
company recoups the money by having the consumer pay their energy bill savings
towards the loan.<br />
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So, this is the biggest, baddest news out there in the world
of energy systems. Absolutely must look
into this for every project, not even just low energy buildings. Remember the panels work at all hours of the day, (the thermal aspect of them), and on all sides of the house - they are
about twice as productive on the south side, but even on the north side, they
perform well compared to other heat pump systems.<br />
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I discussed groundsource with Bruce as well. He said their testing showed ground source loops to eventually degrade in their heat transfer capability due to freezing and shifting of the soils around the pipes - but the performance potential is ultimately limited by the working fluid. There have been what are called direct exchange systems in the past, in which refrigerant is passed directly into copper pipes in the ground - but the copper seemed to be unreliable and developed leaks, etc. (I 've heard also of the difficulties in these systems). One great advantage of the groundsource system is that they tend to store the summer's heat in the ground, and then, later, store the winter's cold in the ground as well, reducing both heating loads and summer air conditioning loads. This system does not have an inherent storage aspect like the groundsource, but the simplicity and greatly increased efficiencies seem to me to make things much more worthwhile with these thermal panels - ultimately groundsource has some environmental issues and is really quite expensive, as well, and involves a fair bit of plumbing and pumping. The Sunpump system does away with that. Storage can be added to the system of course, with the use of a water/ice tank.<br />
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So - it is not often I am impressed with a new product - but this is one of those times. The concept is absolutely fantastic, and the product appears to have great potential.<br />
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Actually, I was badly conflicted in writing this article. They are currently in explosive growth mode, so production is very tight and it may be hard to get a unit right now - and of course, I want one, so I didn't really want to tell everyone about it - but hey - must do the right thing......and tell you all.<br />
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Have at it!<br />
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-45862908104602237622014-08-20T11:03:00.000-07:002014-08-20T11:03:36.357-07:00What Engineers Should be DoingSure, I'm building this net-zero passive house. It is taking too long because I want to put so much into it, and because I'm also busy trying to earn some money to keep things working in the family, in the project.<br />
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But recently one of my engineer colleagues, Lukas Vos, left Toronto to seek out a deeper meaning - he's actually been seeking for some time, but he went to northern Europe, took a bunch of photos (here <a href="http://14pots.tumblr.com/">http://14pots.tumblr.com</a>) and he's constantly out there learning about our world so he can make a difference in it. I was reading his stuff and I realized, that I have so far to go!<br />
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So I asked myself: What should an engineer be doing in this world, at this time? Do a google search and you come up with basically nothing. For some time now, I've been learning and learning about the technical aspects of how to build a house that is nearly self-sustaining. The answer can be summed up simply:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Build a net-zero energy Passive House. - This has been my focus, but it leaves three major aspects of sustaining our present human lives unaccounted for: Food, Water, and Waste (I'm assuming everyone already has enough sex and oxygen - for now). So for these other 3 aspects, I have also been learning about:</li>
<li>Food: Design and build a permaculture garden/farm - see Geof Lawton Videos for more on this.<br />consider including aquaponics</li>
<li>Water: See # 2, but also use rainwater collection, filtration, and a recirculating shower</li>
<li>Waste: implement Eco-sanitation - see the current eco-sanitation project in Haiti - basically harvest human waste for the incredible resources it offers - this is simple and useful</li>
</ol>
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These 4 points, as best as I can tell are the basic directions we must all move towards. I'm slowly figuring out that what an engineer should be doing is basically becoming an expert in the above, then going out into the world to help others achieve...the above - in the most ecological way possible. Life's work, here I come.</div>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-3785692309939679552014-07-15T17:25:00.000-07:002014-07-15T17:32:09.551-07:00Green Plumbing Design and Urine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-miMUdMF4V1w/U8XH7dhUmOI/AAAAAAAAAxE/U4-OKOwXZp0/s1600/IMG_7257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-miMUdMF4V1w/U8XH7dhUmOI/AAAAAAAAAxE/U4-OKOwXZp0/s1600/IMG_7257.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Pic of the house - nothing to do with this blog post.<br /><br />
Well, maybe I was the last to know. Our wonderful urine is a fantastic resource we have been wasting!<br />
Its a bit late to incorporate this into our house project, but with a little reconfiguration, we can make some big improvements.<br />
Basically, the thing we need to do is collect our urine - not throw it away. It is full of excellent nutrients plants love - like nitrogen and phosphorous - and it carries these nutrients in forms easily accessible to plants. Addiing urine to plants can double their yield, says Patrick Makhosi from Uganda. Our urine is sterile for some 24 hours after pissing - after which time, the urea begins turning into ammonia, and that pee smell starts to waft out. We can apply it to plants diluted. Heck lots of details on the internet, like here:<br />
<a href="http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/605742/urine_the_ultimate_organic_fertiliser.html">http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/605742/urine_the_ultimate_organic_fertiliser.html</a><br />
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So back to plumbing. The big deal is that while urine is great for plants, it is bad for rivers and lakes - giving rise to algal blooms, which can spell death for the other animals and plants in the waterways. Urine's nutrients are difficult to remove from the sewage once it is in there - so the best thing to do is to plumb our houses and buildings to separate it at the source - And now, looking at our plumbing fixtures, we can only conclude that as a society, we are embarrasingly primitive - All the time I was made fun of in school for talking about our bodily fluids, but who knew! There is no urine separation!, and there is no proper urinal for women! Meanwhile we are polluting our waters like idiots. We should all be pissed that our scientific and other leaders led us so far astray.<br />
A long time ago, before I ever designed my first house, I wanted to have a washroom with two toilets. It was not for separation of urine from poop - it was because so much productive talk was happening while I was on the John - so I figured I might as well invite the person to join me, except it wouldn't be fair if they didn't have a toilet, too. But now I see a much more acceptable reason for having this feature in a house. The one toilet dedicated for urine would be such that our ratio of water to pee was between 15 and 30, to 1. Then we don't really have to add the water later. The whole thing would go to a P-trap, then to plastic tank in the basement or somesuch, which could then feed the garden - hopefully with gravity feed. - I'm sure there will be people who tell me this is not a hygienic system - I'm all ears.<br />
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All the while we haven't even started talking crap. Next time?<br />
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-80859259341686040882014-05-10T11:58:00.000-07:002014-05-10T11:58:09.960-07:00100 in 1 Day Toronto<div style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px;">From: <a href="http://100in1day.ca/toronto/">http://100in1day.ca/toronto/</a></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px;">What if hundreds of people united, each putting in place the changes they wish to see in their city, all on the same day?</span><strong style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></strong></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<strong style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On 7 June 2014, for the first time-ever, Toronto will host 100 in 1 Day.</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
This citizen-driven festival will unite people across the city to make Toronto a better place by creating acts of urban change.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
These acts, or <em style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">interventions</em>, have the potential to raise awareness of urban and social issues, inspire ideas, and motivate leaders to consider new approaches to old problems.</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<b>From 2-4 pm, we will be hosting Net Zero Passive House Tour</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
For more information: <a href="http://100in1day.ca/toronto/?page_id=420#/?id=213">http://100in1day.ca/toronto/?page_id=420#/?id=213</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 27.200000762939453px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-line;">We invite the community to come and see what we've done with our house project to minimize our ecological footprint. The design directly targets net zero energy and passive house certification and aims to achieve this at no cost premium. The tour will include a presentation of features and strategies to make the most of every opportunity to improve performance, comfort, function, and versatility. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; border: 0px; color: #676767; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 27.200000762939453px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-line;">Note: As the house is currently under construction, the tour will not be suitable for children and those with mobility challenges.</span></div>
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Do you have an idea for making Toronto a better place? Share it here: <a href="http://100in1day.ca/toronto/">http://100in1day.ca/toronto/</a>.</div>
Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-23524523379564167772014-02-04T08:58:00.001-08:002014-02-06T20:15:21.952-08:00Smells, Moisture, CO2 and Indoor Air Quality in Tight HousesIn past blog posts, I've noted various areas in which we are in a technological revolution - including lighting, renewable energy, energy storage, not to mention high performance buildings and windows..<br />
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But smells! The science of smelling/sniffing is definitely in its infancy, but the potential for advancement to yield results is huge. I looked into this just today because I've been working on our ventilation system, and we happened to install the PAUL Novus 300 HRV (probably the most efficient machine on the market). But effective and efficient ventilation goes well beyond the heat recovery efficiency. The energy demands of the ventilation strategy have a lot to do with sensing and control. (And this was the main reason we chose the Novus. It allows up to 4 channels of control. )<br />
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The ventilator should slow down when users are not occupying the house, or windows are open, should ramp up when users are having vigorous activity in the house, or there are a lot of people in the house, and should operate with a big imbalance if there is a vented dryer in operation or a vented kitchen range hood. What if 6 people took a crap nearly at the same time? The indoor air quality could be very poor for a while.<br />
So, to minimize energy demands and maximize effective provision of fresh air to house, I would consider sensing the following, in order of importance with first items most important;<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>CO2</li>
<li>moisture</li>
<li>Pressures inside and out</li>
<li>windows and doors</li>
<li>smells (!)</li>
</ol>
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(this listing is not including the CO sensor - which could be important if you have gas appliances).</div>
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Using CO2 sensing, one could minimize the delivery of fresh air to the house and not over-ventilate. It would also take into account the presence of more or less people and plants, and probably even fires. CO2 sensors on the market for HVAC applications (there are also lots for greenhouse applications) are about $300 with NDIR (recommended) sensing systems). Companies like Honeywell, GE, Senseair all make them). You can get desktop CO2 monitors on Amazon for about $150.</div>
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Moisture sensing is important to protect the building contents, but more importantly to protect the structure, and prevent mould formation, etc. But don't forget to protect houses from dry conditions also - moulds wont' grow, but anything made of wood will shrink and crack - very low humidity is just as bad as high humidity.</div>
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Pressure sensing would compensate for any other exhaust fans as well as open and closed windows.</div>
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Smells! - what if someone were to be using a harsh paint, or a cleaner, or indeed, the washrooms. The science of gas analysis (all smells are due to gases in the local atmosphere) applied to smells has incredible implications. For example, this company <a href="http://www.enose.nl/">http://www.enose.nl/</a> says they can make electronic sniffers that can detect pathogens in the air - this means one could potentially detect a virus in the air in one's house, and record that event in a log. By smell detection, the house could 'know' when the washroom was being used, or when cooking was being done, or when there was a fire, or when laundry is being done, or when mould was growing in the walls (!), when animals have nested inside the attic, perhaps, or when the outdoor air is more polluted than the indoor air.</div>
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There is much to read online regarding electronic noses. The process of technological smelling involves 3 steps: acquiring a standardized sample, detecting the chemicals in the sample, and analyzing what was detected. This last part involves a fair bit of software, including databases - because various odor events are logged as a certain configuration of results form the gas chromatography or whatever detection method was used. - the device needs to learn and grow its knowledge to be effective.</div>
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All the above is another way for me to feel good about all the low voltage wiring we've been putting into our house - we'll have the built-in ability to employ sensors all over the house because of this, and things are telling me the future of buildings will have a lot to do with sensing.</div>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-35830877576005951032014-01-30T07:11:00.000-08:002014-01-30T08:35:28.187-08:00How Best to Plumb a Drain Water Heat Recovery SystemIf you are not sure what a drain water heat exchanger is, google it or read the following:<br />
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<a href="http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/drainline-heat-exchangers">http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/drainline-heat-exchangers</a><br />
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Here's a couple pics of our installation:<br />
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Below I summarize salient points on this concept/product, and then give my thoughts.</div>
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<li>Cost is $500 to $1200 for the item. Installation is extra.</li>
<li>Go with the largest diameter and longest exchanger you can fit into your plumbing, assuming a vertical installation. There are horizontal ones available from <a href="http://www.ecodrain.ca/en/how-does-it-work">http://www.ecodrain.ca/en/how-does-it-work</a> , in which case, I'm not really sure - but I think they have just the one size. Leave at least a 12" (0.3m) of straight drain pipe above the exchanger to smooth out the flow. You can see we've done this, and we've used 4" pipe</li>
<li>It is still worthwhile to pump shower drains in the basement back up so they can drain into the heat exchanger. Cost of these Gulper pumps with a kind of control that senses the water level in the drain is something like $300.</li>
<li>Gather all your drains to one place, if possible. In our case, we've done this with all the shower drains in the house, which all happen to be clustered together in the building.</li>
<li>Savings of some 50% on water heating energy are possible depending on how things are plumbed in the house and cost of energy.</li>
<li>Hot water recovery times can be dramatically improved - this, to me, is a very sure sign of energy being saved.</li>
<li>The design requires a double walled heat exchanger - in other words, there must be an air space between the copper pipe carrying the drain water, and the copper pipe carrying the potable water - this severely limits the efficiency of the unit, and increases the costs - more on this later.</li>
<li>Gravity film - surface tension effects cause the drain water to stick to the drain walls in a thin film - this is why heat exchange is arranged at the surface of the drain pipe.</li>
<li>Simple payback periods range from 2 years to 10 years.</li>
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<b>My Thoughts:</b><br />
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<b>Leaving water in the Bathtub</b> One comment I've read is this: Recover your 'waste' hot water heat by just leaving the shower water in the bathtub and letting it cool to room temperature before allowing it to drain away. This is an excellent measure, and no cost to install, but it has some issues: - first, it adds moisture to the house - good thing in winter, probably, not so good in summer. 2nd, only possible with bathtubs, showers can't hold much water. 3rd, ring around the tub, 4th, it gets difficult to have multiple showers in a short period of time - such as on busy mornings with a family of 4, and 5th, don't assume it is 100% heat recovery. The water in the tub cools only to room temperature, which is almost the halfway-point from the cold water inlet temperature to the 40deg C or so needed for a shower/bath. So heat recovery is something like 60%, similar to a good drainwater heat recovery installation.</div>
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<b>Efficiency</b>: The best units are limited to something like 60% efficiency - measured in terms of inlet and outlet water temperatures. Industrial heat exchangers are good for over 90%. Even over 95% in some cases. A much more 'effective' design, would be to simply have a copper drain pipe inside of another larger, plastic pipe filled with the pressurized, cold water. This would increase heat exchange efficiencies a lot (to probably above 80%, easily more), and reduce the cost of the units greatly as well, and also reduce the pressure drop incurred by the units we use today. Given the huge potential for energy saving across a nation like Canada, one would think it is possibly worth the very small contamination risk - after all, if ever there were a leak, the pressurized water would go into the drain, not the other way around, and it would be fairly easy to detect - just check the water meter while all fixtures are off - perhaps an annual check would be worthwhile. Imagine - if we could recover 95% of the energy used to heat hot water for bathing, small electric point-of-use hot water heaters would be so much more viable (read my post on POU Hot Water) - they could be built right in to shower fixtures, and this could lead to all sorts of interesting plumbing configurations (just plumb one line, for example - no need for both hot and cold?). I can see Doc saying "What, are we in the Dark Ages?!".<br />
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<b>Alternative Strategy: </b>One way around this is to avoid the issue altogether. Instead of directing reclaimed heat to the DHW system, transfer it to the space heating system instead - ie to a non-potable heat sink - such as a hydronic heating component, or direct to refrigerant in a heat-pump system. This avoid the water contamination issue, and can recover much closer to 100% of the energy used for heating water. Sadly, I know of nothing on the market that does this as yet, but it would be very easy to build something - a coaxial pipe heat exchanger is all you would need.<br />
Another thing not being explored - use heat pipes to do the heat exchange work - this would probably increase the options for horizontal exchangers.<br />
And yet another approach involves using an auxiliary tank and a pump - so we recover heat even from processes like clotheswashing and dishwashing, in which the hot drainwater is not expelled at the same time cold water is being drawn in. Here is a link to one company to doing this:<br />
<a href="http://www.synergensystems.com/enercyclerreg-rc.html">http://www.synergensystems.com/enercyclerreg-rc.html</a></div>
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<b>Installation:</b> You can see there is a lot of copper in these things - the one pictured was a good 60 lb. We came up with a simple way to mount the item effectively. We used a 4" water closet flange. We removed the small groove inside this flange so the 4" ABS pipe could be passed right through. This is basically creating a bulkhead fitting on your pipe - but there is no break in the pipe. Glue it on with solvent, and then mount to a couple of wood runners. Makes a good support. Notice also we've installed unions around the exchanger - this will let us more easily check its insides from time to time and clear out any build-up.</div>
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<b>Water Pressure Losses from Drainwater Heat Exchangers:</b> Something not mentioned too often: What about the pressure losses? The one we chose to install uses a single 3/4" copper tube (about 60 feet of it) wrapped around the 4" drain. In choosing a product, it is a matter of heat exchange performance and this is measured by the Canadian government testing apparatus, so after finding units that perform well, we looked for designs that retain water pressure the most, and most robust. So how to plumb in order to retain water pressure? If you have high water pressure, this may not be an issue, but keep in mind, water pressure is not free. Someone, somewhere, must provide it, and I feel we must always think of our buildings as 'off-grid', so we want to minimize energy losses at every opportunity. Therefore, buy a unit that performs just as well, but results in the least pressure loss. then, I would plumb everything through it. After all, we heat a lot of water to just room temperature via space heating - it sits there in the toilet, in the pipes, etc. But to recover that heat using the drainwater heat exchanger, the cold side must flow - therefore, as per manufacturer recommendations, just plumb everything through it - I would still provide a small line to a drinking water fountain or icemaker, however.</div>
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-64036493788661395422013-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:002013-12-20T11:37:30.651-08:00Low and High Voltage CAN go in the Same Box<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
All our lights are low-voltage. I looked for boxes for the switches, but I was surprised to find the plastic LV boxes were expensive, and in my view, not that great. I searched for a steel box and found one! It is the Hubble product pictured below, the price is reasonable, (less than the LV mud-ring boxes) and the divider is removable (additional $1 for the divider), so the box can accommodate both regular household voltage and low voltage in the same double-gang box. We used double-gang boxes for all our switches and plugs in the house - (almost all). Most will have a CAT6 cable and an 18g. cable in the LV side, plus whatever goes on in the household current side. From these, we can eliminate power adapters in the house by providing LV direct from the plug, and we also can use any 12V devices, and have DC lamps (so DC power direct to LED COB lamps). DC-DC boost or buck pucks are available online now for about $5, so you can get almost any voltage you want by placing it in the box (we are supplying 28V), and it would remain within the electrical code rules as long the voltage remains below class 2 wiring limits. In addition, every plug location becomes a data/voice/LV/automation/sensing/instrumentation node as well, without adding additional boxes all over the place. So we can have things like motion sensing that controls things far away from the box, microphones, speakers, bluetooth, wifi, fire sensing, temperature, humidity, etc.</div>
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In many of the switch locations, there is no household current component, so the whole 2-gang box is for LV.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GyzUbkBQ8NU/Uq5VOgXdbhI/AAAAAAAAAjw/u9ylVueFALg/s1600/IMG_6556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GyzUbkBQ8NU/Uq5VOgXdbhI/AAAAAAAAAjw/u9ylVueFALg/s320/IMG_6556.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are virtually no octagonal boxes in our project - Just one, actually in the utility room because I wanted to have a different source of lighting while the LV lighting system was being worked on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tYi0QjfRlTU/Uq5bMTQJA4I/AAAAAAAAAkA/ijNc8qFklsU/s1600/IMG_6440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tYi0QjfRlTU/Uq5bMTQJA4I/AAAAAAAAAkA/ijNc8qFklsU/s320/IMG_6440.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see the LV wires come from above the plywood - they were incorporated into the acoustic floor assy above. This could be done with 115V also, but you would likely need for it to be in conduit depending on the acoustic floor thickness.</td></tr>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-81751249416458358012013-12-15T17:04:00.001-08:002013-12-20T11:37:55.105-08:00Exterior Cladding is Finally Going UpThe exterior cladding is finally coming together, but its hard to photograph due to scaffolding, and the difficulty of getting a good camera angle.<br />
We've made so many changes to the project it is no longer funny, so I've figured out now that one way to avoid changes is to build it fast! Everyone seems very unwilling to change things once the money is spent and the construction complete. Sadly, that is not our current situation!<br />
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Here's a rendering of what we are doing:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pCLNHTzlfd8/Uq5O26eRqtI/AAAAAAAAAjY/XGYDMEkSGjo/s1600/2013+Dec+12+View+from+SE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pCLNHTzlfd8/Uq5O26eRqtI/AAAAAAAAAjY/XGYDMEkSGjo/s320/2013+Dec+12+View+from+SE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I offered to go up there and paint the roof white (because we both felt we chose the wrong colour shingles for it), but she's not keen on the white idea, so the brownish mistake will remain. I find the house pleasing, though it is simple.</div>
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And here's a pic of the cladding going up:</div>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-67459587017274433452013-12-15T16:32:00.001-08:002013-12-15T16:47:16.332-08:00Removable Basement Floors and Interior or Exterior Insulation Placement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A basic decision that one faces early in the design of a super-insulated building is the strategic choice of interior/exterior insulation placement and thermal mass. This a strategic decision because it has far-reaching implications and ripple effects. Think of the building as a shell on all sides, including the parts in the ground. If we are designing an airtight envelope without thermal bridging, then we want to avoid having some of the insulation inside, and some on the outside - it can be done, but this frequently leads to thermal bridges and sealing problems. For example, if we have insulation under the footings, (this being outside the structure of the shell), but then we want to have insulation inside the basement walls, how to connect the insulation under the footings to the insulation inside the basement? The problem is there because in general, insulation materials are weak and soft, while structural materials are hard, but conduct heat. To simplify the design and construction greatly, and improve the effectiveness of the insulation system, work to have all the insulation either outside the shell, or inside the structural shell. Cross-overs are to be avoided. In our case, we decided to place all the insulation inside the shell, and forego the thermal mass benefits - I believe thermal mass benefits are less well proven than insulation benefits, and that 'thermal' mass can be achieved without 'mass' (for ex. by the use of water - a very thermally massive material without much mass, that can be moved around). </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XPXgmR8Xy7c/Uq5BLCG01pI/AAAAAAAAAi4/AaB-VPU_gxY/s1600/IMG_6362.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XPXgmR8Xy7c/Uq5BLCG01pI/AAAAAAAAAi4/AaB-VPU_gxY/s320/IMG_6362.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w0Lt6XDvpq4/Uq5BC30YZKI/AAAAAAAAAiw/4er_H_EhbtU/s1600/IMG_6354.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w0Lt6XDvpq4/Uq5BC30YZKI/AAAAAAAAAiw/4er_H_EhbtU/s320/IMG_6354.JPG" width="320" /></a>SO, here are more photos of our basement floors - they are above all of our interior insulation (about R55, or 15" of Roxul) above our basement concrete slab. As posted earlier, they are removable, and they are a common material - regular construction lumber 2x12. which means we can remove and replace pieces, but we can also remove and look underneath. We're currently pretty happy with these floors, and the system feels very solid to walk on - as if the floors were resting directly on concrete. It turns out the wood has shrunken a little in the 2 months since we installed it - but only the pieces that were wetter. those nice planks in the 2nd photo have not shrunken at all.</div>
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Some astute observers have commented that the floors will allow moist interior air to go into the spaces below the slabs. What will happen to this moist air when it reaches the cold concrete some 17" below? Well, we have Tyvek under the floor boards in one area to prevent this bulk movement of air, but most of the floor is left without any kind of air barrier. Since it is removable, we can make a correction if this turns out to be an issue, but I have a feeling the issue is fairly minor for a couple of reasons. If we think of regular basements, many have no insulation under the concrete floors, and they are perhaps a bit damp on muggy, hot summer days, but often this problem is short lived in the Toronto climate. In our case, there is a floor assembly blocking the bulk movement of air to some degree, and in addition, the space beneath our floors may be warm for much of the summer due to our under-floor (sub-slab) heat storage strategy. This raises the temperature of the basement concrete slab right when the chances of hot moist air condensing on it may be highest, which should reduce that whole issue quite a bit.</div>
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However, as there could be a small concern, we did place some sensors at the bottom of the floor insulation, in three locations. The photo below shows a small pump with tubing, a water level sensor, and a temp/humidity sensor in the background. The sensors are inexpensive devices for Arduino, and cost about $5 each. The pump was from Princess auto and was about $20. We had some problems with our basement floor pour - there was not enough slope in some areas, and during the big Toronto flood in July 2013, we noticed a little water in three locations on the floor, and so marked these spots and placed these little pumps to transfer the water to the sump pit.</div>
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Later on, as the systems become live, we will be able to report the fluctuations in temperature and humidity at the bottom of our basement floor assemblies.</div>
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We will also probably place sub-slab soil temperature sensors as well, one day...</div>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-35367563405192992182013-10-27T13:48:00.002-07:002013-11-10T07:34:22.945-08:00Cellulose vs Urethane Foams - AgainI've noticed that in much older posts I reported on costs of various types of insulations. More on this here. We have now finalized our cellulose insulation contract with Greensaver - a not-for-profit in the Toronto area. Costs for dense-packed cellulose insulation for walls seems to break down like this, at least on our project:<br />
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Walls: 4085 cubic feet, at 3.5lb/cf density = 14,300 lb cellulose, at 33 lb/bag, we need 433 bags at about $10ea. - so materials for the walls are $4330.<br />
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Attic: 4183cf at 2.0 lb/cf = about 8400 lb in the attic, or about $2550 worth of material.<br />
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Labour in the walls is about twice the material cost, and labour in the attic, about 70% of material costs.<br />
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Much thanks to Climatizer insulation of Toronto for providing a fantastic price on the material for our project! (They've had a tour of our house and took a step to support us as a contribution toward green initiatives). Here are the bags we will be using:<br />
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<a href="http://www.climatizerinsulation.com/CelluloseInsulation/Overview.aspx">http://www.climatizerinsulation.com/CelluloseInsulation/Overview.aspx</a><br />
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In the past I've noted that spray-foams are about 10x the costs of cellulose and the other fibrous insulations. There is a bit more to note regarding this issue, which has some impacts on the 10x difference. I discovered this video on youtube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F26eIesDDQg&feature=player_detailpage">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F26eIesDDQg&feature=player_detailpage</a> showing the use of pour foam - liquid foams that you pour into things. This is very similar or the same stuff that is used in the spray foam process, (it is basically the same, but additives may differ). The video points to Aeromarine Products <a href="http://aeromarineproducts.com/">http://aeromarineproducts.com</a>, where you can purchase the foams right from the website. You'll notice you can purchase about 500 cubic feet of 2# foam for about $3900 - which works out to $7.80/cf, or about 10.8 cents/sf-R. This is still a lot more than cellulose, at $0.303/cf, or $0.0072/sf-R. Something like 15x the cost on the materials. Here is a place you can purchase spray-foam kits: <a href="http://www.sprayfoamkit.com/products/spray-foam-kits">http://www.sprayfoamkit.com/products/spray-foam-kits</a>, and they also give you the prices right online - I love it when they do this. Here the price of spray foam on their largest kit works out to $14.3/cf - almost twice the price of the pour-foam. This is some 30x the cost of cellulose, R for R (not accounting for the fact that cellulose takes about twice the space to achieve the same R levels - the value of space and the construction details required to build this space for cellulose are pretty variable - but then, we are also not accounting for the health and environmental footprints of the two materials, which are vastly different as well, with cellulose miles ahead on both accounts). Note that labour costs are not included in the comparison, but given the labour portions noted above, we are still well ahead with cellulose.<br />
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Why is spray foam so much more expensive than the pour-foam? Pressure vessels, and possibly additives - but mostly the pressure vessel/ hoses, gun, etc. So the interesting point here is that if one must use urethane foam as a DIY, consider buying it in the liquid phase - that's what contractors do. If you don't need to spray it on walls, but can pour it into a cavity, this is really the way to go. In our case, we could have poured it into our walls - just like we will be 'pouring' the cellulose.<br />
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PS - We are purchasing larger amounts of mineral wool for our project as well, and Winroc has also given us excellent pricing on the material - again, to do their part to support 'green' projects. Our cost for this material worked out to about $0.034/sf-R - about 4.7 x the cost of cellulose, not accounting for installation labour, which would reduce the cost advantage of cellulose, probably bringing it nearly even with the Roxul.Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-77471206659232862942013-10-08T15:34:00.002-07:002013-11-10T07:25:17.363-08:00Above Floor Acoustic Assemblies, Basement Raised Floors, Porcelain Tile ExteriorsDamnation! A power outage caused the loss of almost the entire article I was writing for this post. Here it goes again.<br />
Below are steel plates with screws holding the plywood floors in line with each other. We had issues with this (plywood not flush with adjacent plywood) due to the exposed beam ceiling below - we used good-one-side fir plywood for the sub-floor, and it does not come in T&G. With exposure to weather, the plywood warped and bowed. The plates, with short screws, bring it back in line. The steel was clear-coated. Not shown are holes we drilled just after this step to accept low voltage wiring for lights. In the background you will see the wood frame for a structural wall. One must be careful when framing a structural wall over an exposed beam ceiling - or any ceiling. Having the studs directly over joists is important to reduce warping of the plywood - but this is especially so in exposed beam ceilings. We also beefed up the bottom plates of the walls to support studs which were between joists - see photo. There is much to learn about open beam ceilings, in terms of construction finesse. Some concepts are thus:<br />
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<li>Reduced height joists: Joists in the exposed beam area that are not as tall as the regular joists are advantageous. This is especially achievable if you have steel-beam joists, but heavy barn beams and other thick members would work as well. The reduced height allows one to add some thickness of structure above the exposed beams - such as diagonal planking, acoustic floors, and sleepers and wiring chases.</li>
<li>Use all galvanized/stainless hardware to prevent stains due to weather exposure. Avoid making beams out of thinner, doubled members - It is difficult to double them properly due to the desire to avoid exposed fastenings. Also, protect the assembly from wetness after the floor above is built.</li>
<li>Beware the structural wall above: Any wall built above exposed beams should have the studs aligned with the beams. Point loads due to door openings are to be avoided to reduce uneven loading on the exposed beams, which would cause some beams to deflect more than others, or even twist.</li>
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On the right, we are laying in an above-floor acoustic treatment. Above the 3/4" ply subfloor, it consists of 6mm cork, then thick foamed poly sill gaskets under 1x4 sleepers. Sliced up roxul batts fill the spaces between sleepers. This allowed us to run our low voltage lighting wiring above the sub-floor as well (covered by Roxul in the photo), so no wiring is visible in the exposed beam ceiling below. Then we glued and screwed 3/4" T&G ply to the sleepers, again with short screws. The sleepers hold the ply together, and the ply holds the sleepers in place. Much cheaper than two layers of ply. Sound ratings unknown for this assembly, but the difference is very noticeable to our ears. This we are doing all over the 2nd floor except in washrooms and other areas of hydronic radiant flooring. Total thickness of this assembly not including the first sub-floor is just under 2". All the door openings were framed to accept this added height.<br />
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R-54 Insulation in the basement. That is an R32 Batt under the 2x6 joists in the basement floor, and an R22 roxul batt will fit between joists. Below these batts is a space made from PT lattice and landscape fabric, held up 2 to 3 inches using small PT blocks stapled to the batts. This lattice assembly keeps the insulation off the concrete floor beneath, and provides an unimpeded 'surface' drainage path for any water in the basement to flow towards the sump system. Any water which remains is able to dry through the insulation upwards. Any water in the insulation can also flow downwards through the porous landscape fabric. We were able to get the lattice material super cheap - it was culled material - an entire skidful for $50. The landscape fabric was about $8 for 150sf. We stapled it to the lattice.<br />
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In the next pic you see a 2x12 pine floor screwed to the joists in in the basement. We buried the screws about 1/8" so we could later sand the floor and get a somewhat finished surface. The boards will help to regulate moisture below the floor by passive moisture through them, but also by absorbing and releasing moisture. The main reason for using this kind of floor - low cost (again, we were able to purchase the material for a great deal - 25% discount from regular contractor pricing) at about $1.25/SF. This single layer of floor will become the finished floor (with sanding), so it means we can easily remove sections of flooring to inspect/service the spaces below in future. We therefore install without overlaps and plan the layout to allow removal. The floor feels extremely solid! Air sealing is not required at this floor - this was determined from previous air-tightness testing on the building, so we know we are already down to Passive House levels of air-tightness.<br />
The last photo shows large porcelain tiles we plan to use in the cladding. These are 16x32" porcelain tiles. The clips you see are stainless steel. More on this later.Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-1837578407153064802013-10-07T18:00:00.003-07:002013-11-10T07:32:20.196-08:00Geo-Exchange is a Largely Untapped Resource in CanadaA new study found ground temperatures in Canada have risen significantly in recent years. Find this article <a href="http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2009/03/09/canadas_ground_temperatures_rising_study_finds.html">here.</a><br />
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Jay Egg of Egg Geothermal in Florida writes in the Sept 2013 issue of Plumbing Engineer on some interesting approaches to ground coupling which were certainly new ideas to me. With geo-exchange (or 'groundsource'), we normally think of a flowing liquid in a closed loop of pipe inside the ground. This can be a regular pipe made of various materials, or it can be a completely sealed 'Heat Pipe' (look up heat pipes if you are not familiar with them <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe</a>). However, there are other approaches of strong merit as well.<br />
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One such approach is the open-loop concept, in which one pumps water from the ground, harvests its thermal potential energy, and re-injects this water into the ground. This system has the significant advantage of reduced tendency for the local soil to drift in temperature, especially in dry periods.<br />
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Another approach is the standing column well (SCW). This I need to read more about.<br />
Perhaps Here:<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Geothermal-Engineering-Control-Applications/dp/0071792686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381195543&sr=8-1&keywords=modern+geothermal">http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Geothermal-Engineering-Control-Applications/dp/0071792686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381195543&sr=8-1&keywords=modern+geothermal</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Geothermal-Engineering-Control-Applications/dp/0071792686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381195543&sr=8-1&keywords=modern+geothermal">http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Geothermal-Engineering-Control-Applications/dp/0071792686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381195543&sr=8-1&keywords=modern+geothermal</a><br />
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A strong resource on ground temperatures in Canada:<br />
<a href="http://archive.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irc/cbd/building-digest-180.html">http://archive.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irc/cbd/building-digest-180.html</a><br />
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LTLyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-2934829617895629512013-05-26T08:53:00.000-07:002013-11-10T07:37:56.707-08:00Super Energy Efficient Lighting for Low Energy BuildingsThere is a lighting revolution going on right now - just as there is a solar energy revolution and renewable energy revolution, and energy storage revolution! I don't remember anyone predicting that <i>after</i> the information age began, we would be going through a major shift in energy and infrastructure. And this is not to mention Passive House. I feel like saying people building standard houses today will face some significant obsolescence issues within a few short years - namely in energy, IT, and lighting. At first these seem like parts of the house one can easily change - but the energy aspect is a big one, and certain things are really hard to justify changing - like missing out on good solar exposure, major thermal bridges, and insulation values that don't cut it.<br />
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About the lighting: Cree announced in December they have an LED that offers 200 lumens per watt (!).<br />
Here's the press release:<br />
<a href="http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/cree-news/press-releases/2012/december/mkr-intro">http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/cree-news/press-releases/2012/december/mkr-intro</a><br />
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If you are in the big box hardware stores, take a look at the LED offerings. They are all hovering around 60 lumens per watt right now, if you get a good one. Most are at 50 lumens per watt, often less.<br />
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How to get highly efficient lighting without spending too much? Low Voltage distribution.<br />
Watch the Video on What Is Lumencache: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eULjpkf7oE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eULjpkf7oE</a><br />
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It seems the thing to do is to separate the COB (chip on board - which is the actual LED chip) from the power supply. This has two advantages: purchase a single, centralized, high-efficiency, high-efficacy power supply; and then reduce the cost of the actual luminaires. All those backward-compatible LED bulbs you can buy to replace the bulbs in your existing fixtures have the significant issue in their design that they have to have an on-board power supply, which is cheaply made to reduce costs and therefore, not that efficient. This also means the cost of those low performance power supplies is included in every bulb. Eliminate this circuitry and you can improve the lighting.<br />
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So, we wire the house as per the Lumencache strategy, but there is another issue to handle. LED's are pretty sensitive to voltages and current. Say we have a living room with 12 LED luminaires, each one with nothing more than the COB in the luminaire. We need to arrange these luminaires into groups that match the voltage and current output of the central LED driver system, or at least keep the demand within the range of output levels available at the central power source. <br />
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-41163750152603727782013-05-26T08:33:00.000-07:002013-06-05T07:43:12.780-07:00Welded Stainless Steel Floor - Waterproof<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There are a few options for waterproof exterior decks/balconies.</div>
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<ol>
<li>Use roofing on the deck - for small areas, a single EPDM membrane - black or white - over a wood frame. I would think something needs to go on top of this to protect the membrane and make it more suitable to deck furniture and foot traffic - don't know what. Regular built-up roofing is not my preference - I've been on this kind of balcony before and found the odour quite strong - so I assume the tar and rubber are off-gassing - anyway, it makes the space unpleasant. I also would not do this over a deck which has had rigid insulation applied under the roofing membrane. There is a mushy feeling underfoot, and a sense of doubt as to whether one can place furniture on the surface.</li>
<li>Extruded aluminum deck: These are generally powder coated extruded aluminum with either a rough or a smooth finish, such as available from Wahoo decks. These work well, I think, but they are pricey at about $19/SF. In our case, I couldn't find anyone local who imported them.</li>
<li>Rubber membrane installed in a slanted scallop shape under the deck - it drains to one side - not an elegant solution, though cheap and simple. Perhaps more suited to decks over soil, to carry water away from the house.</li>
<li>The option we chose: welded metal.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welded stainless flashings not yet installed.</td></tr>
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Why? Cost of stainless is low right now - about $1.75/lb. (it was about $4.55/lb ten years ago). If you calculate the volume we are buying (1/8" thick plate is 18 cubic inches per sf), and multiply by the density of 0.3lb/cubic inch, you get the weight per sf. Multiplying by price, we get about $9.45/SF - not too costly for smaller areas and it's an easy purchase from local sources. I figured on a small area, I wanted to try this, and the thermal expansion issues would be minor - I expect this could be an issue on large expanses outdoors - the stainless steel has been in place a month or more now, and it is obvious that despite the high reflectivity, it does get quite warm in the hot sun - like a roof, so thermal expansion is something to keep in mind, as they do on steel roofs. Stainless steel will also accept tons of abuse without any maintenance, feels solid underfoot, doesn't smell bad, and modifications can be made by welding to it....<br />
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I always wondered why people don't employ this solution in their projects for roofs and balcony floors, but even for interior floors. What I found was that it was a fair bit of work, but not ridiculous, and the result is (I'm hoping) going to prove very practical and durable. The steel frame in grey primer you see in the photos is regular structural steel, 3" deep C-channels welded to 6" deep hollow beams. It is far stronger than it needs to be, but we ended up doubling up the joists from what is in the photos - It is a slightly difficult calculation to figure out the floor deflection as a diaphragm, and my rough numbers turned out to be close enough, but I didn't trust them, figuring the floor was supported on all sides. The deflection of the diaphragm proved noticeable enough and it was simple to add additional joists so they ended up at 9" on centre, originally about 18" OC. The floor feels very rigid now. Originally, I thought I would have it plug welded from above and ground smooth, but the mag drill wouldn't stick well enough to the steel through the 1/8" stainless, so we mig-welded from below. We tig-welded the seams from above (with some mig tacking from below) as the photos show - this is the reason for the tarp.<br />
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One thing I really like about stainless - I always feel it is easy to add to it with welding. You needn't grind off the paint as you would have to with steel, and then re-paint after welding. I knew I'd want to add some fittings, possibly cleats, hold-downs, etc. This is easily done on exposed stainless. The flashings were all welded on. Most are 22ga, bent on site with a heavy brake - this proved tricky to weld to the 1/8" plate. The flashing under the door was 14ga, fitted into a grove in the PVC door frame - it is just a window placed on the floor.</div>
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Distortion: There was some distortion. We had a 1/4"/ft (1 in 50) slope on the floor. In some areas there was enough distortion to upset this slope and cause pooling - mainly on the long seam you can see near the 6" deep beam, where small sections were welded on. I'm not too concerned, but we'll be working to correct this and see where it goes.<br />
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We used 304L for all the stainless - I'd done a little stainless tig-welding before, and I was familiar with the significant movement of carbon and chromium within the material in the heat-affected zone. This causes non-stainless areas to appear near the weld afterwards - this is why you need to passivate the stainless after welding (dip into an acid bath to remove the surface areas of non-stainless material). In our case we would not be giving acid baths to the stainless. The 'L' in the material designation stands for 'Low carbon', which reduced post-weld corrosion quite a lot. As it turned out, we did have some surface corrosion appearing on our project, but it was not due to the welds, which seemed to work well. It was actually due to the use of wire-brushing with steel brushes. We switched to stainless brushing after noticing this and all was well.<br />
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Welding was with both 308 and 309 rod - yes, welding regular steel to stainless is entirely fine and routinely done.<br />
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The reflection off the stainless is very bright - it is blinding, actually. I was hoping this would be a good thing to raise the light incident on the deeply inset glass balcony door - but we did plan to have real wood-slat tiles or boards to block this reflection anyways. I also plan to do some solar experiments on this balcony, so the reflective surface may be an interesting feature for this. I've not seen anything on how to integrate this effect into the Passive House thermal modelling. There are solar reflectors you can purchase that actually track the sun, and reflect it into a given window on the house, such as these:<br />
<a href="http://www.creativemachines.com/special_projects/Solar_Mirror/Solar_Mirror.html">http://www.creativemachines.com/special_projects/Solar_Mirror/Solar_Mirror.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.egis-rotor.de/helio_us.html">http://www.egis-rotor.de/helio_us.html</a> This would be a significant energetic effect on the house - one that might be an attractive solution in some cases. This one is really cute: <a href="http://wikoda.com/">http://wikoda.com/</a>.<br />
However, if this were part of a design, I would place the reflection-receiving windows high on the wall of the house reduce glare inside the building.<br />
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The experience with this has had me consider other metal flooring solutions: A carbon steel sub-floor/finished floor in the basement (the beauty of this is that the subfloor is the finished floor, reducing labour and materials, and the floor plates - I'd use 4'x2' plates, screwed down - can be removed to gain access to the space beneath)......and also radiant stainless steel staircases (designed well, a radiant staircase can be good for both cooling and heating, since the stair is both a floor and a ceiling).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">C3x5 (75mm deep, 7.5kg/m) C-channels welded to 3"x6" deep hollow steel tube beam - Beam wall was 3/16" or 1/4" thick.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Too bad we've not cleaned off the dark residues from the welding for the photo. Need more photos of this part of the project.</td></tr>
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<br />Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4805693061694683438.post-53288570382512519372013-05-15T21:51:00.003-07:002013-06-05T07:47:50.682-07:00Is Solar Thermal Too Expensive?Recently we were invited to visit with Patrick Spearing and Suni Ball at Enerworks in Woodstock. These guys do nothing but solar thermal. We were pretty much blown away by their knowledge, professionalism, and by how much they taught us about solar thermal in one afternoon. I'd like to recount some of the knowledge transfer as a way of note taking.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Narva Solar Thermal evacuated tubes and heat pipes</td></tr>
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Solar Thermal Collectors:<br />
Enerworks uses Narva glass tubes for their evacuated tubes. Narva is long established as a UV-light glass tube manufacturer in Germany. Making high quality tubes for evacuated solar thermal was a natural extension for them, and they've done some interesting things to address two critical issues: Vacuum and stagnation. Apparently you will find it very difficult to find any warranties on the vacuums of evacuated tubes. This is because the borosilicate glass usually used is actually more permeable to helium than regular soda-lime glass. Why use borosilicate glass, then? I think it is because the clarity of the glass may be better than regular glass, and perhaps this is cheaper than manufacturing the low-iron soda-lime glass that Narva uses. Anyway, Narva tubes are evacuated to 10 to the -6 torr, (pretty deep vacuum), and the vacuum is guaranteed for 10 years, so this is a big deal. The vacuum greatly improves the efficiency of the collector, and it also protects the materials inside the heat pipe from freezing. In addition, the Narva tubes are single-wall, which makes them very robust. The double-wall tubes are highly susceptible to breaking due to the long moment-arm that multiplies the stresses on the part of the tube that supports the whole inner glass wall.<br />
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The other thing is stagnation. Somebody actually did a bunch of research and analysis and designed a heat pipe which self-limits at ____ temperature. We asked how this was achieved, and the answer was thus: by controlling all the physical factors affecting heat pipe design, one can actually make a heat pipe that self-limits its heat transfer and therefore its temperature. These heat pipes are carefully manufactured to control:<br />
<ol>
<li>internal volume</li>
<li>chemistry of working fluid</li>
<li>volume/mass of working fluid</li>
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Without tight control of these parameters, there can easily be run-away temperatures and significant system stresses which can cause vapour-block, glycol break-down, etc. It appears the Narva heat pipes contain a lot less working fluid than other heat pipes. This one fact is sensible to me - it means they can completely vaporize their working fluid, which can limit the heat-pipe's upper temperatures, as well as reduce damage due to any freezing. It also seems to me that heat-pipe technology is one area in which lower-cost and copycat products may be hard pressed to perform in.</div>
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Another Issue: SRCC ratings for solar panels are somewhat skewed or inaccurate for solar evacuated tube panels. They count the whole area of the panel without subtracting the spaces between the tubes. Apparently the Solar KeyMark metric is much better to go by.</div>
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Will continue this another day as there is much more to tell.</div>
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Lyndon and Phi Thanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15905919606181622527noreply@blogger.com1