Green Building Open House

On Saturday October 4th 2008 people across the nation will open their homes and invite strangers in to learn about Solar Energy and Green Building. This tour is hosted by various organizations throughout the country. Here in New England we are lucky to have the North East Sustainable Energy Association, the regional host for this event. http://www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse/

I am proud to have 2 of the homes I have worked on open for the tour.

http://www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse/googleMaps/detail.php?id=1088
Directions http://www.eebt.org/Mapto101tispaquinst.html


http://www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse/googleMaps/detail.php?id=1222

My current project, which will be under construction at the time of the tour, allows for people to see some of the inner workings of an efficient home. The most predominant features will be Structural Insulated Panel wall system, along with our Warm Light Wall. What is a Warm Light Wall, you may ask? The WLW is a prototype window system for capturing and storing the suns energy in your window. This home will have 150 sqft of this window system installed along the south side. This is no ordinary window! The use of advanced glazing's to insulate and allow for max solar gain is just one of the elements within the window system and yes this is a window system not just a window. The exterior shading is another part of the system, which allows control of solar gains when they are not needed. By shading the exterior of the glazing, you stop about 75% of the heat which would other wise reach you window and heat you home, adding an additional burden on your cooling system during the summer months. Many solar home features large overhangs to protect the windows from exposure to the sun. While they work well in many locations, they do not allow for shading in the morning and afternoons when the sun is low in the sky. They also tend to be rather large and sometimes gaudy looking. These shades allow us to design with standard overhangs, used on thousands of homes throughout New England, after all we don't want it to look like a solar home. The main element in the window system is the water blocks used to store the suns energy. Built in a way in which they look like individual window panes, which they are, well actually two with some water in the middle. TheWLW is project under development by Wendell Colson, The vise president of research and development for Hunter Douglas. I am personally pushing for this product to come to market. I have seen the system work in their test buildings and now for the real test, THIS HOME. This will be the first installation of his latest design, and if all goes well we may all have them available in the next year or so. When I first met Wendell at the NESEA building conference I had no idea I would have the opportunity to work with him on such an incredible project. We worked together on the MIT Solar decathlon project where he generously donated the previous version of this system along with a tremendous amount of help and guidance. I personally feel that his window system could be the innovation passive solar design, that will bring it into mainstream. Saving people hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in energy costs annually. Time will tell all, and I will continue to post more information along with photos once the window is installed next week. The total system will not be in place, as the shades will need to be measured for after installation of the windows. Once completed we will be having another open house for people to come see the finished product. I hope that you can come and learn about green buildings and solar energy, if you don't live in this region there will be tours in most neighborhoods across the country for a complete list of tours from ASES click here http://www.ases.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=257&Itemid=58

` Tom Pittsley
ecobuilder@aol.com
http://www.eebt.org/