PROGRESSIVE POLICY & RESEARCH: 300-level

SESSION 8

DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – 2:00 pm – Altman Gallery

ABSTRACT:

Recent studies explore energy loss from building envelopes.  One of these, commissioned by Urban Green Council and released at Urban Green Expo, examines the impact of room air conditioners (Window ACs, Sleeve ACs, and PTACs) on building envelope thermal conductivity and air leakage. The other examines the impact of glass envelopes on building energy use.

PRESENTERS:

Fiona Cousins, Principal, Arup
Mark Zuluaga, Steven Winters Associates

MODERATOR:

Scott Frank, Partner, Jaros, Baum & Bolles

PANELISTS:

Leo Baez, Director of Construction, Enterprise Community Partners
Charlotte Matthews, Vice President for Sustainability, Related Companies
Mo Siegel, President, Co-CEO, Ice Air

DESCRIPTION:

INTRODUCTION AND GLASS ENVELOPES STUDY

The building envelope has a substantial impact on building energy use, affecting heating, cooling, and lighting loads directly.  Its thermal integrity and resistance to infiltration depend on the structural components specified, the skill and care with which they are assembled, and the level of maintenance contributing to ongoing performance.

Glass Envelopes Study:

Highly glazed facades have been a design norm for the past half-century, and provide both a pleasant connection to the outdoors and the possibility of ample daylighting. However, with a strong push for sustainable building design the question arises whether these types of facades are actually energy efficient.

To approach this question, Arup New York, in conjunction with Environmental Building News, modeled the energy performance of large buildings, varying several key parameters, including building footprints, US locations, glazing types, and the fraction of wall given over to vision glazing.

The analysis showed that there is a distinct energy penalty associated with increasing the amount of vision glazing, and this penalty is more dramatic in lower performance glazing types and in more extreme climates. This has an obvious impact on the size of the heating and cooling plant capacity and on fuel and electricity consumption. While these results are not surprising, they do provide quantifiable data to support further analysis.

While the connection to the outdoors and daylighting are important in building design, the energy penalty associated with substantial vision glazing is also a major consideration. Proper design should aim to balance these keys inputs.

ROOM AIR CONDITIONER STUDY

Energy codes and sustainable design increasingly stress the importance of building envelopes. However, in cities across the country, builders and tenants routinely penetrate the envelope with metallic, heat-conducting devices: window and sleeve air conditioners, PTACs, and packaged terminal heat pumps (PTHPs).  Surprisingly, their impact on envelope performance is not considered or regulated in energy codes, whether following the prescriptive or the performance path.

Recognizing an important research need, Urban Green Council established a competitive solicitation to undertake original research on this topic and selected Marc Zuluaga and Sean Maxwell of Steven Winter Associates (SWA).

This second portion of the session will present their paper and findings on the impact of PTACs, PTHPs and window and sleeve air conditioners on building envelopes, examining the impact on both thermal conductivity and on infiltration in a cross section of building types.  The results will be extrapolated to estimate the total impact on New York City’s energy use, and will also examine potential alternative technologies that would improve building envelope integrity and reduce energy consumption.

Following this presentation, a panel of members of the Research Advisory Committee will discuss the findings and the study’s implications for building design and product innovation.

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PROGRESSIVE POLICY & RESEARCH: 300-level

SESSION 38

DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:

Thursday, September 30, 2010 – 2:00pm – Metro 2C

ABSTRACT:

Origins and goals of the NYC Green Codes Task Force, ASHRAE 189.1, the International Green Construction Code, and CALGREEN.

MODERATOR:

Laurie Kerr, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Long-term Planning & Sustainability, New York City Mayor’s Office

SPEAKERS:

Russell Unger, Executive Director, Urban Green Council
Mark MacCracken, President, CALMAC
Allan Bilka, Senior Staff Architect, International Code Council
David Walls, Executive Director, California Building Standards Commission

DESCRIPTION:

The first quarter of 2010 heralded a reshaping of building codes. In January, California issued its Green Building Standards Code (CALGREEN), followed by ASHRAE’s release of 189.1 Standard for the Design of High Performance, Green Buildings. The NYC Green Codes Task Force issued its report at the beginning of February with 111 recommendations to green New York City’s construction codes. The next month the International Codes Council introduced its model green code. Not since energy codes were first introduced in the 1970s has the building industry undergone such an intense period of code activity.

These efforts reflect the market demand for green building and LEED, and the recognition by policy makers that the building sector provides among the most cost-effective options for reducing carbon emissions.

This session will explore the origins and goals of the NYC Green Codes Task Force (Russell Unger), ASHRAE 189.1 (Mark MacCracken), the International Green Construction Code (Allan Bilka), and CALGREEN (David Walls). Presenters will provide an inside perspective on the development process, how the codes differ, the makeup of the committees, and offer insights on future direction.

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PROGRESSIVE POLICY & RESEARCH: 300-level

SESSION 22

DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:

Thursday, September 30, 2010 – 9:00am – Altman Gallery

ABSTRACT:

A discussion of different carbon reduction strategies being pursued by New York, other American cities, and the federal government, and how closer coordination between these entities can significantly shrink our carbon footprint.

SPEAKERS:

Laurie Kerr, Senior Policy Advisor, NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability
Cliff Majersik, Executive Director, Institute for Market Transformation

DESCRIPTION:

Many cities have set or would like to set citywide carbon reduction goals, but they lack clear strategic direction.  Since they are unable to estimate the carbon impact of the building-related policies that they are pursuing, it is difficult to know where to begin, how to set priorities, or how to track progress.  A lack of such analytical tools means that they may have thoughtful individual strategies, but no overarching plan that could connect the smaller pieces and create a compelling narrative.  Understanding the scale of impacts from particular code strategies would make the critical difference between traveling by instinct or having a map, and would help policy-makers prioritize which measures are most worth pursuing and which measures are ultimately most worth fighting for.

The first major steps in mitigating climate change are doable now at the scale of a city as large as New York, and they will not just clean our air, but will create jobs and save money.  Necessary ingredients include:

• A clear analytical foundation
• A mix of strategies that includes a focus on existing buildings
• A requirement that the strategies be sustainable – economically beneficial and environmentally sound
• Knowing the impact of these strategies
• Political will

In developing PlaNYC, there was a careful analysis showing that providing cleaner, more reliable power, embarking on cost-effective efficiency efforts, and improving transportation could lead to a 30% citywide carbon emission reduction by 2030.  Now, three-and-a-half years after the publication of PlaNYC, the city’s efforts are very much underway, and appear to be on target.

Laurie Kerr, Senior Policy Advisor in the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, will explain how New York City’s strategies fit together to reach the City’s 30% carbon reduction goal.  She will take the audience through policies already in place like the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, potential future policies such as the passage of Green Codes Task Force proposals, and additional contributions including the repowering of cleaner power plants and other strategies that will collectively shrink the city’s carbon footprint.

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PROGRESSIVE POLICY AND RESEARCH: 300-level

SESSION 3

DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – 11:00am – Metro 2B

ABSTRACT:

Insights into the growth of Passive House in Europe and what lessons may be found in it for Americans.

SPEAKERS:

Tomas O’Leary, Founder, Irish Passive House Academy
Ken Levenson, Partner, Levenson McDavid Architects
Brian Phillips, Principal, IS Architects
David White, Principal, Right Environments

DESCRIPTION:

Passive House, the most rigorous voluntary building energy standard today, has been growing exponentially in Europe since its introduction fifteen years ago.  It is now being considered for EU building codes. Entering the United States seven years ago with the construction of the first Certified Passive House in Urbana Illinois, Passive House is an incipient, yet fast growing presence on the American building scene from coast-to-coast – with dozens of buildings now Certified and even more in the design and construction pipeline.

Tomas O’Leary, founder of the Irish Passive House Academy will provide insight into the growth of Passive House in Europe and what lessons may be found in it for Americans.  What have been the biggest catalysts for the fast growing acceptance in Europe?  What have been the biggest impediments?    How might a decade difference – between Passive House’s formative years in Europe and the U.S. – change the context of Passive House adoption in America? How can Americans better leverage what the Europeans have already done to help ensure success?

The three American panelists bring an understanding of the local construction, regulatory and financial realities facing Passive House here in the United States. David White, a mechanical engineer, Certified Passive House Consultant and Passive House instructor, is engineering building systems for a number of Passive House projects in the New York region. Brian Phillips, an innovative Philadelphia based architect has recently designed housing to meet Passive House and LEED Platinum standards.  Ken Levenson, an architect, and a founding director of NY Passive House (a non-profit recently formed to promote Passive House locally) has two Passive House projects currently under construction.

Passive House may be a compelling standard, but what does its pathway forward look like?

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