The Sustainable Construction Blog | A tech blog for zero energy, sustainable design, and passive house

Windows are detrimental to whole wall R-Values, but advancements in materials and window construction have turned windows into an asset for net zero energy buildings.

DIY Energy Audit

Making energy efficient upgrades will add value to your sustainable renovation. These tools will help you identify the most essential upgrades to make in your home.

What is Demand Response?

Our increasing demand in energy ultimately results in consuming more natural resources and producing more carbon emissions. Demand response is one solution to mitigate the pollution and save money.

Alternative Energy

As opposed to conventional fuel sources such as gas, oil, or coal; alernative energy fuel sources include clean burning technologies such as nuclear, or are products of renewable resources such as the wind, the sun, and water. These forms of energy are vital to designing successful net zero energy buildings. (see glossary)

Popular Articles

The Solana Project

This renewable energy project will develop one of the world's largest renewable energy power plants. Recent funding has given the green light to the construction phase.

Recycled Aggregate Concrete

Along with steel, concrete is one of most widely used structural materials in buildings. While concrete is very carbon intensive, we look for ways to use this material in carbon neutral projects.

Home Energy Audit Tools

A home energy audit is the first step to improving your home's energy efficiency. Do it yourself with these affordable and easy-to-use tools and save even more money!

Passive House vs. LEED Standards

As the building sector looks for sustainable reform, which leading sustainable building standard will influence the future of building codes.

5 Components of Net Zero Energy

Unfortunately, there is not a recipe for constructing a net zero energy building, but these guidelines provide a fundamental basis of how net zero energy is acheived through smart design and innovative technologies.

Top 5 SCB Articles

Take a look at this year's top 5 trending sustainable construction blog articles. These articles feature the most popular topics from each blog for news, construction and renovations.

FeedWind

The Net Zero Energy Influence. The construction industry is constantly changing and improving as new sustainable technology and techniques are developed. New building products are developed that are more environmentally friendly and are developed with the cradle to cradle mentality that will contribute to a healthier planet for future generations. Using these products are necessary to create a fully sustainable building, but are often cut from budgets during the design process because of their higher price tags compared to conventional products. This does not mean that the building cannot be sustainable and contribute to the environment. In fact, it further advocates a special aspect of sustainable construction; this is the influence of net zero energy. Net zero energy is an effective design goal acheived by applying several priniciples to early designs of a building.

These design principles utilize the most sustainable and economical building system technologies that are most likely to influence our building codes in the near future. As we look to lower certain regions average energy consumption, the buildings that occupy the land must be demanded by code to use alternative energy sources and energy efficient building envelopes that encourage lower energy consumption in that region's paticular climate. Because net zero energy is not acheived with a cookie cutter recipe, we may start seeing building codes develop regional standards to make a stronger and smarter effort to lowering our nation's energy consumption.

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blogging the latest news and technology for sustainable construction and net zero energy

blogging the latest news and technology for
sustainable construction and net zero energy