Browsing Archive: June, 2010

Dynamic Windows: Soladigm awarded $3.47 million

Posted by John Noriega on Wednesday, June 30, 2010,

Windows are undoubtedly one of the greatest sources of heat transfer in a building. New electrochromic, switchable window technology is a recently patented high-tech solution to this prominent building deficiency. It may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie but switchable windows are sure to be a popular sustainable building technology in years to come.

As part of the DOE’s $76 million dollar funding, Soladigm Inc. was awarded $3.47 million. Soladigm is a company based out of...

RETScreen: software for sustainable projects

Posted by John Noriega on Friday, June 25, 2010,

Clean, renewable energy and efficient technologies (RETs) for heating, cooling and power have been developed and are now ready for use in sustainable construction around the world. However, we must first understand where it is necessary and what technologies can effectively be used. While loading up a building with every new renewable, energy efficient technology may seem sustainable, in contrast it is not. To make a sustainable building as efficient as possible, a design approach must b...

Passive House vs. LEED Standards

Posted by John Noriega on Wednesday, June 16, 2010,

The most popularly used sustainable building standard in the United States is the USGBC’s LEED certification. Its role in the construction industry has become well respected by professionals and offers designers, engineers, construction managers and contractors some consistency in developing aspects of a changing industry. In other words, these professionals are driven to become familiar with new sustainable construction methods and techniques that are required in order to achieve g...

BIM Software for Sustainability

Posted by John Noriega on Friday, June 4, 2010,

--Designing sustainable buildings

Advancements in software technology have led a new architectural drafting revolution. Building Information Modeling (BIM) software provides an innovative approach to developing a set of construction drawings for a building. Compared to CAD, the BIM software essentially creates a drawing for the user according to the provided input, hence the name, ‘information modeling.’ There are many additional advantages that BIM has over CAD software.

In gene...