Save The Rain Project

The County of Onondaga has a program to keep rainwater out of the combined sewers, and avoiding additional sewage overflow treatment during rainstorms.  One of the measures is at Forman Park, downtown, which is being relandscaped with trees.  Trees, shrubs and plantings slow down runoff and allow it to infiltrate the soil.  

 

Water Street, Outside of the Erie Canal Museum, Syracuse, NY

We were downtown this past weekend to visit the Erie Canal Museum and the annual Gingerbread House exhibit.  We did not park near the museum as that side ot the street was off limits due to constuction.  The city is constructing a strip of permeable pavement along Water Street.  The permeable pavement will allow capture of some of the street runoff, as it drains thru the pavement, temporarily stored in the gravel below, and is absorbed into the earth.

Our Urban Forest - Schiller Park Forest

Syracuse has some Wonderful Parks, each with their Own unique personality.  This is a walk thru Schiller Park, on the north side of the city.  Pedestrian road around the top of the park

At the Top of the Park

At the top of the Park

Statues of Schiller and Goethe

The Road Back

Fall Flowers

Mint

Begonias

Hosta

My Bike Path to work

 MY BIKE PATH TO WORK

Starting Out of the Driveway

A side road, parallel to Court Street

Court street, no room for Bikes, I ride
on the Sidewalk

Along Court Street on the Sidewalk, no room
on the road for a bike

Moved onto the street, waiting at the redlight

No Room along the road under the railroad bridge

Some bike Space along Military Circle

Swamp on the right

Approaching the thruway, the road narrows

Going Over the Thruway Bridge

A Side Road bypassing the traffic

Some Space along Molloy Road, but the
traffic is faster and heavier

A welcome parking lot along Molloy

Molloy Road carries a lot of trucks and cars at fairly high speeds

Parked at Work

Thoughts on our new Air Conditioning

This is our first summer with central air conditioning since we had the geothermal system installed, and the hydronic radiators and boiler removed.
Our air conditioned space has remained no warmer than 72 deg.F, no matter what the temperature outside.
 Earlier this spring, when the temperature had cooled after a warm spell, we opened our windows to cool the house.  That is natural ventilation.  However, after 3 days of this, our noses were stuffy and heads full from the allergens brought in on the breeze.  Our air conditioning not only cools the air, it also filters the air.  We have a MERV 7 filter on the water furnace heat pump.  MERV is a rating of size particles that pass thru the filter, from 1 to 16.  Some of the more common filters for residential systems are MERV 1 to 4.  A MERV 7 filter will filter 70% to 80% of particles 3 to 10 microns in size.  This includes the pollens, dust mites and carpet fiber, all larger than 3 microns.  I think we will keep the windows closed next time.
Then, about a week ago, the evening temperature was cooling, about 72 degrees, the same as inside.  But when I went outside, extremely humid.  We kept the windows closed and the humidity out.  Air conditioning also dehumidifies the air.
Conclusion:  That natural ventilation may not be a savings.  When the windows are opened, the filtered and dehumidified air escapes out the window.
Please note that at this time, we have an older home that is not airtight, and are not concerned about getting enough fresh air.

LEED BD&C - Getting the credits

LEED accredited professionals are now required to have continuing education as part of their accreditation.
I have attended the local Green Build conference to pick up credits.  Each year the CNY Greenbuild is 2 days.  I have attended one day each year.  A day can be up to 7 general credits in seminars.
If you participate in a LEED Certified Project, you can add some points.
USGBC offers courses over the internet, both for free and with some cost.  There is a quiz that you must pass.  The credits available vary according to the program.
McGraw Hill offers a series of courses thru their continuing education program.  There is a quiz for each program, generally an article from a trade magazine.
30 credits are required for the renewal every two years. 6 of these hours are prescriptive.  Credits are submitted directly to GBCI (Green Building Certification Institute) on your own activity page.  There are 7 categories that require credits.  After you submit a credit for consideration, the credit will be reviewed and accepted or not.  This process can take several days.
What would help me in the future, if more of the courses were applicable to my NYState PE recertification credits.

2030 Challenge

The AIA, American Institute of Architects, has put a challenge out to the building community.  The challenge is to have buildings  using no fossil fuel to operate.  This is a  challenge first for all new buildings.  Second, the challenge would like to see renovation to the same goal, in an equal square footage or more to the new buildings.  Starting in 2010, the goal is a 60% reduction in fossil fuel.  Then it is prorated every 5 years by 10% until 2030.  What does that mean?  There are other goals out there for green buildings.
First and foremost is the LEED, Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design.  LEED  is not a code, but a set of guidelines to make buildings more sustainable.
ZNE, or Zero Net Energy, is a building with zero net energy and zero carbon emissions.
Carbon Neutral is a goal.  It can be offsetting carbon emissions with surplus renewable energy, or buying carbon emission credits.  Or growing trees to offset your carbon use.  There are calculators online that will help you find your own carbon footprint.
Many of these goals start with the architect and the siting and design of the building. Lots of Insulation and renewable energy sources like wood burning, solar and photovoltaics can be used.

The Plumber Protects the Health of the Nation

The Plumber Protects the Health of the Nation is a slogan from early in the 20th century.
The history of plumbing has been to collect human waste separate from human drinking water, and to dispose of the waste in a manner that does not promote some of those water borne diseases we see in underdeveolped areas:  Cholera and Diarrhea.  Cholera is caused by a bacterium found in fecal matter, and can be spread by eating or drinking contaminated food or drink.  Modern water treatment uses Chlorine to kill bacteriium, while sewage disposal and treatment has been separated from drinking water supply.
The plumber provides a piping system that has been disinfected  and connected to the water source.

SARS is the acronym for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  It is a virus that  that was a world epidemic in 2002 and 2003.  Spread from person to person, it was also believed to be spread thru the sewer system through an apartment complex in Hong Kong, due to a faulty plumbing system that included dried up traps.lives in the sewer pipes.  Proper traps and venting in the plumbing system keep bacteria and other bugs from climbing out of the sewer into our houses.  Please notice that every connection to the sanitary sewer has a water filled trap to keep sewer odors and vapors from coming back into the house.  Vents are provided throughout the system to limit the variation of air pressure in the piping, to keep the traps being blown out.

Legionaires Disease is caused by a bacteria.  Though it is killed by chlorine, some Legionella does survive and reproduce int he plumbing systems.  Three factors are needed for infection:  1, A weakened immune system 2.  A large concentration of Legionella  3. Inhaling Legionella.  Legionella is lung loving, or pneumophilia.
Since the ideal reproduction temperature for Legionella is 84 to 115 degrees fahrenheit.  Current recommended practice is to keep hot water storage tanks at 140 degrees to kill legionella.  Since this a temperature that will scald people in 5 seconds.  A water tempering device is required in plumbing systems at sinks and showers to prevent scalding.

Bed Bugs:  These critters have been known to travel thru sewers thru dried up traps into buildings.  To keep traps moist, we have historically used trap primers, that automatically drip water into the trap.  Recent inventions have been to put a rubber valve that is self closing and only allows water to flow down the floor drain.  It helps keep the trap from drying out, and keeps vermin and sewer gas from coming up out of the sewer.

Scalding:  Temperature is recommended to be limited to 110 degrees coming out of a shower or faucet to prevent scalding.

Lead:  Non-lead piping and non-lead solder has replaced earlier piping and solders.  Lead is also limited in brass alloys for valves and other pieces of plumbing equipment.

Bicycling Wind Burn

I bike to work, I resumed in the middle of March.  I have had problems with my nose being sunburned so  wear a baseball cap under my helmet.  It keeps the sun off my beak.
So when I seemed to have the symptoms of sunburn, I was perplexed.  I was getting a scabbed up nose.
But then I thought about my ride, its been quite windy in March and April, and I was getting windburn.  A friend told me to try using vaseline before I ride, on my nose.  It worked.  Though I still have a windburned face, my nose has stopped blistering.

USGBC 9th annual Green Building Conference in Syracuse

This past friday I attended the Green Building Conference in Syracuse.
Ourkeynote speaker, James Howard Kunstler, gave us his predictions and warnings.  The collapse of the oil based economy will cut back airlines, due to the higher cost of fuels.  Cars will become more expensive to drive.  There will not be a one-to-one replacement with electric cars or biodiesel.  Our neighborhoods as well as our houses need to become more green.  Neighborhoods need to go back to a previous age where markets, churches, stores are in walking distance.  There is a large amount of use of cars just for everyday shopping now, in the suburb based city.   Suburbs have had their time, but not many new ones will be built.  The trains need to be revitalized.  Not high speed trains, but the trains on the revitalized infrastructure that was once used to get from here to there.  Not just the main corridors, but branches.  The smaller cities are in a better position to move forward to this era of neighborhoods.  The larger cities of sprawling suburbs will have problems adjusting.  In general, this is an era of downscaling.

Certainly a blunt assessment of where we could be.

The first technical seminar I went to was about a deep energy retrofit pilot program in New York State, presented by by Gregory A Pedrick from NYSERDA.   Greg presented a program that took place in Utica, New York.  It was a retrofit of a number of buildings in an economically stressed neighborhood. The houses were insulated with a complete wrap around of the house, and generally, new siding was applied.  The insulation envelope included the roof.  The existing roof was removed, and insulation and a metal roof installed.
A second seminar I attended was Climate Change and Ground Source Heat Pumps, presented by John Manning.  John gave us a quick review of the workings and energy savings, and showed us some actual installations.
As a home owner we installed our own last year.  Though there are savings, the upfront cost is a lot, and the savings of money are not as much as the savings in energy, as we are now paying for the higher cost electricity, rather than the lower cost natural gas in our area.

Where are sweaters made?

Whats made in America has been featured on the news.  Some people took everything out of their house that was not made in the US.  And their house was empty.
So I looked at the sweater I was wearing(I am a regular sweater wearer in the winter).  It was made in Bulgaria.  The next day my sweater was made in El Salvador.  Today, my sweater was made in China.  An inventory of my sweaters shows:  3 made in China, 2 made in Korea, 1 in El Salvador, one in Bulgaria, and 5 that we made in USA.