Brick Going Up!

The brick is rapidly going up on the building and--like every material--was carefully considered for its impact on the environment and its economics.

The Benson brick for the Berks County Community Foundation is manufactured at Glen-Gery's York, PA plant, which is 57 miles from the job site.  100% of the materials used in the manufacturing process are harvested from three quarries, all of which are located in close proximity to Dover, PA, which is 63 miles from the job site.  Using materials that come from relatively close to the project--like this brick--reduces the energy required to transport them.

We had hoped to select a brick that was manufactured at the Berks County plant, but none of the styles from that site were the right fit for the neighborhood.

Brick is durable.  It likely won't need to be replaced during the life of the building.  And, it's attractive.  We chose a brick that would complement the brick of the original wing of Zion Baptist Church and the GoggleWorks, two dominant structures in the neighborhood.

Stop by and take a peek.   Or check out the webcam to follow the progress at http://www.app-techs.com/files/download/client/burkey/netCamSample_webcam.html

Archived Episodes of Building Green

Building Green is a monthly television show on BCTV. You can access archived episodes and learn more about the foundation's building by clicking here: http://www.bccf.org/building/aboutthebuilding.html

Waste Report

I know it's a little strange to get excited about the monthly trash report, but building green means being concerned about every part of the process the whole way through the process. Our goal is to divert 75% of the total waste generated on the site to recycling or other non-landfill destinations.

Our February report says we've now removed about 200 tons of waste and diverted 99.23% of it from the landfill!

I'm just coming back from a conference of funders interested in green buildings who were absolutely blown away by that number!!

Building Green on St. Patrick's Day

Every detail in this building gets a green review, including our signage. On Friday morning Teresa and Jeff from Partners Design in Bernville met us at the building to check the size for the lettering over the front entrance. We're spelling out the whole name ... Berks County Community Foundation ... on the fascia over the front windows.

In true green spirit, Partners created a way for our signs to eliminate waste. In addition to the lettering over the front windows, we need a large sign on the north side of the building that will face Washington St. We're going to punch the letters out of the north-side sign and use them to spell out the name over the front entrance. Two signs, one piece of metal. The northside is pictured at right. I don't think we've shown you this view before.

Partners is also designing the artwork that will appear inside the building. We're including "Impact Points," which are graphics that tell visitors what's green in any given location. One impact point will be the lid to our cistern. Here you see a standard manhole cover for the cistern. The final manhole cover will be embossed with the image from the foundation's logo. You'll be able to see it when you walk from the lobby down the hallway to the Community Conference Center.

Heidi

Burkey Building Our Building and Capacity

Congratulations to the folks at Burkey Construction. With three of their team members having now passed the LEED AP test, they're up to five professionals who have great qualifications to help build a green building.

Energy Modeling

One part of our effort to design and build a very energy efficient building is a process called "energy modeling".   This is a complex computer-based system for evaluating all of the energy use of our building.  After all, one of our goals is to create a building that maximizes both the stewardship of our financial resources and the stewardship of our region's environmental resources.

The way that the engineers do this is to compare the expected usage of energy in our building to a "standard construction" building.  The standard construction benchmark is based on a set of standards known as "ASHRAE", which stands for the organization that issues the standards, The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.  This is essentially the energy that a "regular" building would use.  

The current projection for our building is that it will use 42.3% less energy than a standard building!!  That's an amazing performance, but frankly, a little off what we had hoped.   We had initially hoped to save as much as 50%, but the tradeoffs that were required to hit that number didn't pay off.   

To translate these savings into dollars--something that directly benefits the community--our team put together the following budget comparison:

              Standard Building   Our Building Budget

Electric                                 $16,113                    $11,392

Gas                                        20,344                        9,643

Total Energy Budget            36,457                      21,035

Energy Cost/SqFt                      $2.50                      $  1.44 

This $15,000 a year (every year) savings is money that can go to important programs in the community....and it reflects a benefit to the community in lower energy consumption.  That's cleaner air AND cheaper energy.   A great deal!

The report is pretty technical and probably best understood by engineers.  If anyone would like a copy, just drop me an email and we'll be happy to send it to you.

This Log House - Entry 4

The problem: how do you balance the beauty of exposed old logs with the desire to heat the building with as little purchased energy as possible -- and meet or exceed the RESNET home energy standards (http://www.natresnet.org/)?

Wood is a rather poor insulator. Although the mass of the 7” thick old-growth oak heartwood log walls does absorb and release heat, providing somewhat more thermal comfort than indicated by their nominal low R-value, that doesn’t mean there is adequate insulation. The insulating quality of traditional chinking (the “filler” between the logs) is even worse.

Our solution: leave the logs exposed on the interior for parts of the southern and eastern walls – the living room, dining area and morning coffee alcove -- then super-insulate the rest.

In every wall of the house, the spaces between the logs have been packed with insulation, awaiting the application of modern chinking material (yes, there is such a thing) to the exterior, as well as to the exposed interior walls. The interior face of the remaining walls has been covered with rigid polyisocyanurate (R-6.5 per inch). Parallel stud walls, filled with the same material, will soon be paneled with old beaded boards recovered during dismantling of the log structure. The resulting R-29 walls largely offset the low insulating value of the exposed areas in the log structure, and combine with the insulated concrete form (ICF) foundation to make the total structure energy efficient.

Other components: layers of insulation adding up to R-52 between (and on) the attic floor joists, insulation on the band joist (rim joist) of the structural deck supporting the house, and extra caulking in other places where cold air could infiltrate. The foyers on the living and garden levels are essentially air locks to keep cold air from sweeping in when the outside doors are opened.

It’s snug.

Highlands at Wyomissing Visit

Yesterday, I had a chance to do a presentation about our building project to the Public Affairs Breakfast at the Highlands at Wyomissing.  Over 50 Highlands residents gathered to learn about our project.   We had a great visit and they were probably the most interested and informed group that we've met with on the project.  My thanks to June Gwyn for inviting me.

If you'd like to have someone come talk about the building to your group.....or better yet....if you'd like to schedule a group visit to the building after September 1, give us a call at 610-685-2223 and we'll work with you to find a date.

Excellent progress on green home

I am thrilled to report that our "green" house is totally closed in and being heated with the geo-thermal system. All of our outside windows and doors are installed, and the interior trim and doors are now being put into place.

The recycled cement siding has been placed on the exterior walls and the metal roof is in place. The foundation for the portions of the roof that will be planted is also done. The actual plants will be placed on those roofing areas in the spring. The 10,000 gallon cistern is buried and will take the roof water and distribute it to the gardens and the toilets as "gray water."

The next phase of the construction will entail finishing the interior. This includes painting, laying the recycled oak floor in some areas and cork in other areas, installing the cabinetry and all the hardware.

We are using all local subcontractors and buying locally whenever possible. This way we are saving fuel.

Every day there are more decisions to make. Always we take the "green route" by trying to find an environmentally friendly solution. It has been informative and exciting to realize how many products are now available that meet the "green" test. While often the product might be slightlymore expensive in the beginning, the payback will quickly make it more economical.

Carolyn Holleran