[Greenbuilding] energy savings myths

[Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn]

It makes me think of the recent lawsuit brought against USGBC's claims
of LEED anergy efficiency. Henry Gifford, the guy who filed the suit,
had very compelling evidence showing USGBC had cooked the numbers and
he showed that in fact many LEED buildings used MORE energy than
comparable buildings.

Gennaro Brooks-Church
Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231




On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 5:27 PM, Michael O'Brien <obrien at hevanet.com> wrote:
> Hi, Reuben and Gennaro--
> Your conversation points up the need for some practical yardsticks that we
> can use to compare houses.
> I've used annual energy per square foot and annual energy per occupant,
> because they are easy to calculate and for people to understand, though they
> have the same flaws John already pointed out.
> Any better ideas?
> Best,
> Mike
> Michael O'Brien
> obrien at hevanet.com
>
>
> On Nov 17, 2011, at 2:17 PM, John Straube wrote:
>
> You must have something weird going on Gennaro.
> A one inch hole in the air barrier overwhelmed the minisplits?  I doubt that
> unless the air ea passing through the one inch hole was moving at supersonic
> speeds or the minisplits had a capacity of a few hundred BTU/hour.
>
>
> On 11-11-17 4:07 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn wrote:
>
> Here is a myth I believed was true:
> Insulation is the biggest key to energy efficiency.
>
> After building a Passive House in NY I learned it only needed
> insulation to code - R18. What made it or broke it was how well the
> 6mil plastic air barrier was sealed. Just a one inch hole in the
> plastic rendered the house unable to heat with the tiny mini-splits.
> Seal the hole and you can heat the house with a hair drier.
>
> That was a pretty crazy realization.
>
> Gennaro Brooks-Church
> Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
> Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
> www.EcoBrooklyn.com
> 22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 5:05 PM, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> add away. One could take more time than I just did and do a much better job,
> surely.
>
> On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Michael O'Brien <obrien at hevanet.com> wrote:
>
> Hi, Reuben--
> Amen!
> May I add, Myth No. 6, Computer modeling during building design accurately
> predicts actual energy reductions and performance of the constructed
> building, and no monitoring or feedback is necessary.
>
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