David Gulyas

Revised Blower Door Results!

Mark Jansen, of Energy Efficient Homes Midwest EEHM, who rated our Bloomington, IN LEED Platinum home about two years ago, originally gave us a 200cfm / 50 Pa for air infiltration.  Mark was convinced that the measurement was even tighter, but he didn't have a smaller reducer ring for the blower door.  He showed up today, with blower door and more rings!  Guess what?  Our house tested at ~155 cfm / 50 Pa!  A nice bit of news validating the conscientious construction of our SIPs panels house!  The meter shows 155 cfm / 49.6 Pa.  Close enough to 155...that's really TIGHT!

Big thanks to Marko Spiegel of Conservation Technologies International, CTI, for his detailed design, guidance, and creativity.  His mastery of advanced energy conservation techniques used in our design allowed us to get to a pretty spectacular level!

 

Aquaponics Greenhouse Design

Aquaponics coming to Bloomington, Indiana!  Here is a design rendering for the project.  We are currently finishing the foundation work on the 24' x 48' greenhouse, and the trusses are soon to arrive.  You can see the 900 gallon tanks in the back, and each is connected to six 4' x 8' hydroponic beds which will host a variety of greens.  Each row of six beds is connected to one tank, constituting a "node".  I haven't shown any plumbing to make a clearer image.  Each tank will grow about 1000 lbs of tilapia, ready for harvest after 7 - 9 months.  The fish effluent from the tanks will be piped to each bed, where bacteria in the gravel beds digests and oxygenates the ammonia and nitrite to nitrates, which is taken up by the plant ribosomes.  The water drains back to the tanks!  I'll be documenting the process with videos and images, so stay tuned!

Architecture 2030: Green Design Imperative

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization established in response to the global-warming crisis by architect Edward Mazria.  Because "buildings are the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases",  Mazria is calling on everyone in the field of design and architecture pledge to change to sustainable design. Architecture 2030's  research page is sobering:

"Think you're making a difference?  Think again: There are 151 new conventional coal fired power plants in various stages of development in the US today.  Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions...  The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort."