The Impact of Climate on High-Performance Facades

When constructing a high-performance building, different climate zones require different design strategies. This Buildings article explains the impact that high-performance windows can make because they allow for natural ventilation. 

Buildings.com

When the common man imagines a building, he likely pictures a four-sided brick box. But the energy-minded owner and architect have to think outside that construction.

To maximize the effectiveness of the facade, it is likely that no side of it will look the same. Different climate zones require different design strategies, and those strategies entail taking a unique approach to the building’s orientation. Special treatment should be given to each aspect of the system.

CLIMATE CONSIDERATIONS
The U.S. is divided into eight climate zones, and each can be generally described as either hot, cold, or mixed. From there, classifications splinter into three sub-zones: humid, dry, or mixed. General principles pertain to each categorization, but it’s recommended to consider each city’s specific climate data before taking on a project, says Ajla Aksamija, assistant professor of architecture and design at University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Sustainable Facades: Design Methods for High-Performance Building Envelopes.

“For hot climates, you need to protect the building from sunshine, reduce solar heat gain, provide shading, and orient it so that you’re not maximizing east and west exposure, but instead north and south,” she explains. “Everyone wants to maximize daylight, and that can be challenging while minimizing heat transfer with shading. Skylights and light shelves can be effective.”

In cold climates, some of the same general principles apply. Buildings in cold regions should also minimize east and west exposure while maximizing north and south. But heat transfer is mitigated from the inside to the outside with increased building mass and insulation levels, Aksamija explains.

For mixed climates throughout the Midwest and into some areas of the Northeast and Northwest, it’s best to take a balanced and nuanced approach.

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Deferred Maintenance: Turning Crisis Into Strategy

When money is tight, it's tempting to reduce the budget by cutting cleaning costs. While it's a smart idea to restructure your budget accordingly, eliminating a cleaning allowance should not be an option. This FacilitiesNet article helps to explain why: 

Courtney Dirks, Flickr.com

Maintenance and engineering managers know all too well that deferred maintenance never went anywhere. In the last five years, many people inside and outside of institutional and commercial facilities were understandably preoccupied with fallout from the nation’s financial crisis.

While all that was occurring, managers were continuing to address the mounting backlog of maintenance needs many facilities have faced for decades. So while the issue of deferred maintenance might seem like it has only recently become a problem again, managers know that it never really stopped.

Deferred maintenance is the practice of postponing maintenance activities, such as repairs on both real property — infrastructure — and personal property — equipment and systems — in order to save money, meet budget funding levels, or realign available budget funds. The failure to perform needed repairs could lead to asset deterioration and ultimately asset impairment. Generally, a policy of continued deferred maintenance results in higher costs, asset failure, and in some cases, health and safety problems. Consider this example:

A neighbor of mine knew the large oak tree in his front yard needed to be removed, but he didn’t have the money to hire a professional, so he let a local kid try his luck. The young man had never cut a tree that large, had no idea how to cut such an imposing object, and in the process of trying nearly had it fall on him. Of course, nature took care of the tree the next week when a storm blew through and laid it across the porch and two cars.

Without an aggressive, proactive approach, deferred maintenance will always win.

To read the full article, follow this link. 

75 Percent of LEED Cleaning Product Purchases Must Be Green

In order to earn the Green Cleaning Products and Materials credit, BSCs must increase the amount of "green" products they purchase and utilize. Using only pure water to clean your exterior windows, Sky Pro is a wise choice for anyone interested in "Green Cleaning."

Wonderlane, Flickr.com

One of the biggest changes in LEED v4 is the amount of products and equipment BSCs must use to earn the Green Cleaning Products and Materials credit. This credit is still worth one point and covers the procurement of chemicals, paper and can liners. However, at least 75 percent of purchases (based on cost) must meet specific environmental standards, compared to LEED 2009 when only 30 percent of purchases had to be considered green.
“This credit is intentionally designed to raise the bar and drive green products into the marketplace,” says Ashkin.

While BSCs have to purchase substantially more environmentally friendly products, LEED v4 actually makes it easier to earn the credit because there are additional certifications available to choose from. For all product categories, LEED v4 allows products approved by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment standard, in addition to the Green Seal and Environmental Choice certifications.

Besides these third-party standards, BSCs can use ionized water or electrolyzed water in place of chemicals, assuming those products have third-party-verified performance data.

Two other newly accepted options include Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for fiber procurement as acceptable green criteria for paper products and California Integrated Waste Management requirements for can liners.

To help find acceptable products that meet the credit...

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Determining A Standard For "Clean"

This CleanLink article deals with the big question many people ask - "What is the standard for clean?" While there can be many expectations, Sky Pro's clean window standard will satisfy any customer.

Life would be far simpler if every area could be cleaned the same way to the same standard but that is not the case. One illustration I like to give in my workshops is to ask attendees if the room we are in is “clean.” The following discussion proves the point that each person in the room has their own opinion of whether is it clean enough to meet their expectations.

When I ask if the room is clean enough to delivery a baby, make microchips or work on a truck, the discussion focuses on many different factors including use of the room, health standards, age of building and even how it should be serviced.

Remember that the final judge on “clean enough” is the customer. Unfortunately they can have as many different opinions as the prior mentioned class when it comes to what is clean. A wise BSC will interview the key tenants to determine what are their “hot buttons.” These usually include items such as front door glass, entrance matting, corners and of course rest rooms (both stocking and/or cleanliness). As stated before, a restroom that smells dirty is dirty in the mind of the user regardless of the time spent servicing it. It will do the BSC little good to argue that they cleaned it as per the contract if the results are unsatisfactory in odor or appearance outcome.

Click here to read the entire article.