Monday, May 30, 2011

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.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

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.