The scaffold at the rear is nearly disassembled. With the windows in, railings installed, and stucco finished it is starting to look like a finished building.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
scaffolding on its way down
The scaffold at the rear is nearly disassembled. With the windows in, railings installed, and stucco finished it is starting to look like a finished building.
Coney Island Boardwalk Reborn
Nearly 1400 sf of Ipe was delivered to the site this week. Ipe, Tabebuia impetiginosa, is a tropical wood that we typically discourage any client from installing - it is harvested through destructive logging methods, destroying the rainforests of South America. So how can we use Ipe and still be sustainable? In our searches we came across a few salvaged sources, one of them from Olde Good Things. OGT was able to procure the Coney Island Boardwalk as it was being removed, saving it from the landfill, and thread is giving it a second life. Salvage and resource reuse is what OGT is an expert at. As a long established architectural salvage company, they help to deconstruct what others would quickly throw out - like the trim work from the Plaza hotel, and marble from old banks. Out in Scranton where their storage, and processing warehouses are you can wander for hours (or days) through a treasure trove of wrought iron, ancient stone columns, bathtubs, and it goes on and on.
The wood, despite its nearly 70 year age, was still in great shape, and when sliced open retained its rich color. The wood is in the process of being milled on site, and will soon run up the facade and become decking on our rooftop, balconies, and rear yard.
So getting our wood from a salvaged source was our first option for several reasons - prolonging the life of an already processed product, diverting from the landfill, and minimal transportation. But sourcing can be challenging, and is not always available. Another option is to purchase from sources that are third party certified. Certifications help guarantee sustainable forestry management and logging practices, and track the chain of custody. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is the leading organization, and recognized by LEED, but there are other companies such is SCS (Scientific Certification Systems). Ipe still has to travel significant distances since these hardwood species are not found in North America.
Another great option that we explored is a lesser known wood that can easily replace tropical hardwoods - Black Locust. Black Locust is native to South Eastern America, although is found all around the East Coast. The wood is comparable to tropical woods in its hardness, rot resistance, and water resistance. So its really well suited for outdoor uses. This is a good website to get more information - Black Locust Lumber
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
solar team on site
Our solar installers, Mercury Solar, were on site this morning in preparation of next week's solar installation. Kind of dig their tee-shirts and we are very excited to see this actually coming together. Incorporating solar on our own building is thrilling, knowing we get to harness a small fraction of the sun's radiation, and do our small part in lowering fossil fuel consumption.
Our system comprises of 24 Sunpower SPR-230 panels on a rooftop canopy, providing approx. 5.52 to 5.75kW of power. The 230 stands for 230watts generated by each panel. Sunpower right now is operating at 18.5% efficiency on the panel (18.5percent of the light hitting the panel will be converted to usable energy), which may not sound like a lot, but given the industry average of about 12% these are actually at the top of the market. A little more pricey, but worth it. Panel efficiency is where solar is criticized and where innovation is being focused. There are reports of efficiencies reaching upwards of 35% in lab based environments, hopefully this will make it out to the real world.
So how much does 5.52kW actually produce? Well, just about 7,286 kWh per year, and according to our energy analysis (more on that later) each apartment will consume approx. 8,500 kWh annually. So our solar system is predicted to offset one residential unit by 85.7%. Yeah! Perhaps we can even watch the meter go backward and earn a few dollars.
Our system will be grid-tied, meaning that we are connected to the ConEdison electrical grid, so not off-the-grid, as many associate with solar systems. This is for a number of reasons. The first is that the batteries are fairly toxic, hard to recycle, require maintenance, take up room for storage, and in this situation un-necessary. Grid-tying means that the power we create gets fed into the city grid, and our meter flows backward giving us credit. In the hours we are consuming more than we are producing or in the evening hours the meter flows forward. At the end of the month the difference is billed. You can actually watch and monitor the meter and see what is happening on a daily basis. Fun! So rooftop systems, like ours, is basically a way to decentralize and localize power generation. The draw back is that when NYC has a brownout / blackout, we will be in the dark as well.
The image below is of a solar shade calculator. For both NYSERDA incentives and just general efficiency of the system, shade should be kept to a bear minimum. The sun-tracker, and shade mapper gives an idea of how buildings, chimneys, and objects may cast shadows on rooftop panels. Our building happens to be as tall as our neighbors with nearly no obstructions, so we are in good shape. Doing a solar canopy, lifting it off the roof plane really helps with this as well.
Check back next week, the solar installation is scheduled for November 16!
the windows are in!
It's great to finally see the exterior wrapping up. Windows are the most vulnerable component of the building envelope, and it took us quite a bit of time to finally settle with Inline Fiberglass. From a design point of view, windows are critical to the overall look and feel of the building and will either enhance or distract from the facade; and from a user's point of view they need to function well. We spent many months researching the many options out there, trying to achieve a balance between energy efficiency, a modern aesthetic, and of course, cost. and below is a bit of what we learned.
Aluminum has been the industry standard in multi-family housing in NYC and one day we will look back, surprised that these were ever installed. They will be reminders of a by-gone era when energy efficiency wasn't of real concern. Aluminum windows offer a more commercial and modern aesthetic, but their performance is basically lousy, even with a thermal break. With U-values hovering around .45 they are they are true energy conductors, and can not meet new Energy Star (version 3.0) mandates.
So, we turned to Fiberglass. Fairly new to the market over the past 10years these windows have been in greater use in Canada and Europe and are slowly making their entry into the US market. The benefits of fiberglass are 1) their thermal performance rivals wood and vinyl so is a good option for multi-family 2) coefficient of expansion closely matches glass so their ability to stay tight within the opening over long-term is superior than other options 3) can be painted easily 4) structural capacity is high allowing for thinner frames 5) durability and life-span have been shown to be significant. A few downsides are that they have no recycled content, and recycling in the after-life only possible into aggregate, and emissions during production may be higher than other options.
There are a lot of manufacturers that offer fiberglass options, even the usual suspects. The costs compared to aluminum are similar, although a bit more pricey than vinyl. So we narrowed down the search and looked at Marvin, Pella, Serious, and Inline based on their price, and profiles. Windows really require a hands on understanding - images below are from reps that visited our office so we could get a real feel of what the windows would look like. Below is a quick chart rating each one for cost, thermal performance, overall quality and modern aesthetic.
Marvin, All Ultrex series
9ft h windows, floor to ceiling
In order to satisfy LEED and Energy Star requirements, our U-values had to meet the following requirements outlined in the Energy Star zone map. New York City is in the upper most reaches of the North-Central band, while the rest of New York State lies in the blue Northern Zone. Yes, the map is a little hard to discern this. We set our sights on the Exceptional Windows, to guarantee the best performance at the building's Achille's heel.
Wood, fiberglass, vinyl, and aluminum are three primary frame options to choose from. Wood and vinyl are superior choices for achieving low U-values at affordable costs, but neither were real options for us. Wood does not meet NYC Building Code for multi-family housing, and vinyl has many environmental issues associated with it. Vinyl actually has 60% of the market share as noted in this Environmental Building News article Choosing Windows, Looking Through the Options. But despite vinyl's great energy performance and typical low cost, the production and disposal of of vinyl is a toxic task, and as a known carcinogen that off-gases it is not on our list of materials that we want to go into our non-toxic building.
Aluminum has been the industry standard in multi-family housing in NYC and one day we will look back, surprised that these were ever installed. They will be reminders of a by-gone era when energy efficiency wasn't of real concern. Aluminum windows offer a more commercial and modern aesthetic, but their performance is basically lousy, even with a thermal break. With U-values hovering around .45 they are they are true energy conductors, and can not meet new Energy Star (version 3.0) mandates.
tilt and turn doors at the front balcony
So, we turned to Fiberglass. Fairly new to the market over the past 10years these windows have been in greater use in Canada and Europe and are slowly making their entry into the US market. The benefits of fiberglass are 1) their thermal performance rivals wood and vinyl so is a good option for multi-family 2) coefficient of expansion closely matches glass so their ability to stay tight within the opening over long-term is superior than other options 3) can be painted easily 4) structural capacity is high allowing for thinner frames 5) durability and life-span have been shown to be significant. A few downsides are that they have no recycled content, and recycling in the after-life only possible into aggregate, and emissions during production may be higher than other options.
There are a lot of manufacturers that offer fiberglass options, even the usual suspects. The costs compared to aluminum are similar, although a bit more pricey than vinyl. So we narrowed down the search and looked at Marvin, Pella, Serious, and Inline based on their price, and profiles. Windows really require a hands on understanding - images below are from reps that visited our office so we could get a real feel of what the windows would look like. Below is a quick chart rating each one for cost, thermal performance, overall quality and modern aesthetic.
Marvin, All Ultrex series
- cost rating : Moderate
- performance : uModerate, ranges from .29 to .33.
- construction quality : Moderate
- modern aesthetic : Moderate
- cost rating : Moderate
- performance : Moderate, with ranges from .28 to .45. Not all windows meet En.Star req's.
- construction quality : Low
- modern aesthetic : Low.
- cost rating : High
- performance : Excellent, with a range from .09 to .22, the lower the U-value the more costly.
- construction quality : High
- modern aesthetic : High
- cost rating : Medium
- performance : Excellent, with a range from .13 to .30, the lower the U-value the more costly.
- construction quality : High
- modern aesthetic : High
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