Lighting and Refrigeration

Two energy hogs for your home are lighting and refrigeration. Though these don't effect you as much as heating does, there are some really elegant solutions to saving on energy cost. I haven't done a payback cost analysis on these, but they are both worth looking into.

First is lighting solutions. There are some fantastic solutions for lighting your home out there. Lutron lighting is one example of whole house lighting integration. This lighting system is set up by the user and has whole house override systems by using the away button to automatically turn off all the lights in your home when everyone leaves for the day. Whole house integration can be installed in new and existing homes with no new wiring. Other lighting systems will measure the ambient light in the room, and dim and raise the lights according to the desired light in the room. If you are watching a movie, you can dim the lights and even lower the blinds with a push of the button. Not only does the system save energy, but it is just plain cool. I haven't prices something like this but I can guarantee it is more expensive than the 99 cent switches and outlets that can be picked up at home depot.

My favorite refrigerators ever, are the Liebherr brand line. There are more energy efficient than any other refrigerator in the US, even the world. They have sleek designs and pay attention to every little detail. LED lighting, precision controls, supper freeze mode to flash freeze any item, it has it all. They come in stand-alone, integrated, and fully integrated built-in. These are also pricy, but if you're tired of the mediocre  line of refrigerators you can find at the appliance store, Liebherr is the Apple of the refrigerator world.

LEED Fixtures

We had a lunch and learn yesterday with American Standard and their product lineup and water saving devices. In these recent months there seems to be a huge push toward going 'Green' even with the things you don't think about like waste during manufacturing, energy used to manufacture, and chemicals and materials used in manufacturing. I didn't hear anything about any of these things from the presentation. I am going to email the rep. that came and get some answers.

They did however talk about their water saving devices, especially toilets that will flush more than 5 squares of T.P. My favorite was their dual flush lineup of toilets. Their dual flush has two flush modes, one for #1 and one for #2 (#1=pee, #2=poop if you didn't catch that). This provides a 32% water savings over conventional 1.6 gal water saving toilets by flushing at a rate of .5 gal for #1 and 1.2 gal for #2. 

In my opinion this is far from the end of water saving devices. There are many other ways to save water as well. The problem for renters is that developers are always going to go the cheapest route in apartments, meaning things like dual flush toilets and gray water systems, and super energy and water saving devices are out of the question for some of us. I don't have any answers but these are the things we need to be thinking about. We all have the ability to retrofit our faucets, our toilet insides, and our shower heads. What else can we do to save water?

Just to put some ideas out there. Homeowners have a lot more options, as do business and other building owners. Gray water and rainwater systems are big ones. This is the ability to save the rainwater and water from the sink, that is perfectly fit for watering your lawn or plants. If you want to take it one step further, drip irrigation is a 100% efficient use of your water. For lawns it is an underground system. This prevents water from evaporating away. I believe sprinkler systems are something like 60% efficient. 

I will talk more about the importance of water conservation later. 

Leadership and Education in Environmental Design (LEED)

I'm creating this blog as a means to share my education in environmental design as I journey toward LEED certification. I plan to share products, cost comparisons, Revit implementation, design ideas, and anything else I come across. 

It is my personal goal to grow and learn about design and architecture to be the best architect that I can be and make daily educated choices and recommendations. Without a little research and planning, we'll never know what is available to save our clients money, have healthier living environments, and educate others about making informed decisions, whether they choose to go green or not. 

I hope you, the reader, will be able to learn something from my blog. Please check out my Revit blogs as well.