green building concepts

architect journey begins

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this morning begins a new day in my web/architect journey. about every two years i make it out to the building industry show, and this time i have project in mind.

we are going to build a recreation room on the land of our father. it will be a demonstration room for high efficiency building, using the latest techniques and products. it should have a passive solar voltaic system, low-e glazing, and awesome building performance. what’s nice, as that structure goes up, then the natural gas absorption cooling will go to both units, along with the electricity, on demand hot water heating, hydronic warming, access flooring, and other things i’ve been wanting to do for seven years.

i just might get published for the work. do you know anyone that wants to study with the greenconcepts.com president in planning and building this unit? the pay will be poor, but the education will be priceless.

s class anew

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on 27 march 2003 saturn corporation launched the successor to the s class of cars with the ION class. with two body styles, the sedan and coupe, saturn wanted to re-enter the small car market with a popular configuration of a small car with a big 2.2 liter ecotec engine. they succeeded. i tuned into saturnfans.com and saturn regularly to find updates. i broke into the corporate auto journalist sites like saturnmedia.com to download pictures and more press releases and specifications. i read the usenet postings. i had eight months to prepare and research every detail of the car before it even went into production. on 29 august 2002, in spring hill TN, the s series went away, and the ION was born. initially only the sedan would leave the factory floor, and sometime in march 2003 the coupe would come. even though mom is single, she needs a four door model, to take her daughter-in-law around town when she comes to visit (hint hint). the trunk from the picture seemed very large, and the details fine this was the car i recommended to mom, but she would have to wait an entire summer and a little bit of fall to get to market. it was worth the wait.

ion car options

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there’s been only one good experience in my lifetime looking for a car. usually it’s at a public auto show, where the booths have corporate sponsorship. if GM is selling chevrolet, then as a consumer you get to see every chevy and every color available in a certain product line. when it comes down to it, a automobile is nothing more than a bar of soap with a particular scent. if you like how it feels on your body, and you don’t mind the slimey film and lather, you get the car.

on our visit many years ago with dad, van nuys chrysler plymouth (now called center) tried to upsell mom into a cirrus or sebring, even though she came into see the breeze or status. she’s always had a weird, but accomodateable request to have a fully functional top of the line model, but with conventional rolldown windows. why spend $1000 extra for a power window package, when you just bought a very complex device, and here are four more motors that can go bad? unless you live in a fastfood hell or never get out of your car, when does anyone leave the comforts of the air conditioned bliss of a car interior? who rolls down a winder anyway? if you go through a toll booth daily, maybe power windows make sense, or if you park in a secure garage with a parking ticket machine. so, she’s will not buy a car with a power or convenience package, and that pretty much eliminates 95% off all available cars.

mom would love to drive a volvo or BMW, but when they come over from europe, they only come in power. honda’s only come in power above the stripped version of a car without HVACR. now who wants a stripped car? mom could afford a $40,000 car easily, maybe two at that price. this is the accomplishment of a lifetime of thrifty living, and sound financial planning (i had a hand in some of this good planning over the last ten years).

web expansion

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teaching is fun. for now nearly five weeks i’ve been doing a three hour computer platform class. my students are doing relatively well, but my greatest success is developing the software for the course. maybe course and curriculum development should be in my future. i have several interests: computer science, energy efficient and resource efficient residential contstruction, and DVD production. i’m developing a website for my course, now with all the links filled with correct information (still typos), and soon will renew greenconcepts.com for take advantage of future technologies like PHP and dynamic database linking. i know there are many groups and individuals looking for a competent web architect, along with a good thermodynamisist.

PHCC

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being out all day is very taxing. this week i’ve been away nearly every day for over 10 hours. what a bear. first a couple hours in lancaster on monday, yesterday all day in buena park at PHCC, and today all day at the final cut pro user meeting and the education expo. i guess it’s only one week a year.

PEX piping

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in little under three hours i became certified as an installer of natural gas piping, along with revolutionary plastic PEX potable water piping. this means anywhere in the country i’m licensed to purchased these specialty equipment. it’s rather scary that anyone can take the seminar and walk out with a license. now i can “rewire” the natural gas lines for greater efficiency and appliance servicability. remember these little events called earthquakes in CA? with flexible water and natural gas lines, it less likely that they would blow up, or punch through a wall. i’ll let you know when i draw my first 10 meters of tubing next time.

CSST

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i think i’ve found a solution for my early waking up. why not go to sleep early! if i’m in bed by 9:30 PM to 10:00 PM, then if I’m awake by 4:30 AM, i’m getting 6.5 hours of continuous sleep, mostly terrible for an adult, who probably needs 8.25 hours of sleep, but much better than 5.5 or 4.5 hours of sleep. lately i’ve been building in long commute times to my school site in lancaster, and again sometimes i go to long beach, that’s a perfect opportunity to nap. at the end of the day i’m probably approaching 7.25 hours of sleep, but like any good sleep researcher would tell you, it’s the continuity of sleep that is most important, not the duration. this morning i’m off to buena park, about 1.5 hours away by subway, to learn about CSST. you ask what is CSST? this is the technology to deliver natural gas over corrugated stainless steel tubing. rather than wrench together black iron (conventional) why not deliver, using a manifold, natural gas to each and every appliance equally (homerun piping)? this is what CSST can do, along with added flexibility of the tube, which hopefully will last longer than iron (no rust), and not break in a earthquake. take a look at one major supplier gastite.

NEV

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being without simple transportation, can make the short trip long. yesterday i had an interest to attend the first major automobile show in north america, the california international auto show. i was told that there would be many neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) and the public introduction of the saturn ion. indeed the ion was there, and most like it will be mom’s next gasoline powered car, but their all electric shuttles lacked. i wanted to see the segway but it was not be be found. the most likely candidate at around $6,000 was the daimlyerchrysler GEM car. for a novelty, the sparrow was nice, but three times more than the GEM the last car i needed to see was a four door ford version, but it did not appear. if you know of a NEV i should look into, please send it to me.