Storm Water Slide Show (1/12/08)

Carbon Footprint

I calculated my carbon footprint at http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/
I had a total of 10.1 tons which is larger than average (7.5 tons)
I watched the tally as I was entering the information. It didn't jump at all when I entered my GMC Envoy, major jump when I put the miles driven per year. The other large item was the number of airline flights. My gas and electric bills seem minor to these other items.
Thinking about strategies to reduce this number would be to carpool when possible and try to teleconference or WebEx long distance meetings to avoid the air travel.

5. By All

M. What if any are the conflicts between strategies?
Cooling: Stack venting strategies could have a negative impact on heating loads in the winter months.

Day lighting: Could impact the cooling loads in the summer because of the additional heat gain.

Solar Heating: Landscaping that is planted for passive solar gains could affect winds currents utilized in natural ventilation.

Water: Landscaping which is best for solar gains may not be the best planting selection for minimal water use.
This is somewhat difficult without studying each of the areas. It will be interesting to hear what others come up with.

N. What are the economics of climate design and how do they relate to other sustainable strategies?

Climate design takes advantage of something that is occurring around you to your benefit at little or no cost. Sustainable strategies can range from saving you money to large up front and life cycle costs. Climate design strategies are free; you just need to be aware of what strategies work for your particular design problem.

O. How can the psychometric chart (Climate Consultant 3) help?
This chart gives you many considerations in your building design in which to gage performance. It helps you to understand the issues around comfort, sun shading, thermal mass, evaporative cooling, natural ventilation, heat gain, solar gain, humidity, wind protection, air conditioning and heating. I can't wait to use this program for school and work.

4. Spring - Water

I located the rainfall by month for the Boston area as follows:

This graphic shows a fairly steady amount of rain over the year ranging from approximately 3-4 inches every month. The driest month in Boston is July with 3.06 inches of precipitation, and with 3.98 inches November is the wettest month.

I then looked up Omaha, Nebraska for purposes of this assignment. I found that Omaha has a much larger spread between the low and high amounts as compared to Boston.
The driest month in Omaha is January with 0.76 inches of precipitation, and with 4.57 inches May is the wettest month.

Study Area: (20'x50' portion of my workspace - 1,000 s.f.). Estimated occupancy in this 1,000 s.f. area is (1000/150 s.f. per cubicle) 7 occupants.

The average annual rainfall for Omaha, Nebraska is 30.08 inches annually.

(2/3)30.08 = 20.05 inches annually would be the Design Precipitation.

I then consulted table 4.271 - Sizing Rainwater Catchment Areas; A 1,000 s.f. area at a total precipitation of 20 inches annually would yield approximately 9,500 gallons per year.

Water closet calculation: 7 occupants at 1.6 gal/flush X 3 flushes/day X 260 workdays/year (52 weeks x 5 days) would be 8,736 gallons per year.

My office area is situated on the garden level of an eight story residential building. Located in an urban context without landscaping or irrigation needs (property lines are the face of building on all sides). The collected rainfall would be enough to address the toilet water usage of the occupants in our sample office area. This indicates that it should work for the entire footprint of our office space (approx. 11,000 s.f.). Grey water from other sources (i.e. dishwasher, sink and shower) are potential resources which could be shared with resident tenants above us. Resident tenant sources would also come into consideration if we were to study the entire building in which our office resides.

Our cistern size would be 1/4 of our annual water need which would be approximately 2,200 gallons. It would be located in a back of house area of our office in close proximity to the toilets being served.

The following conceptual section shows how this approach could be realized. The key component would be finding the space for the cistern (I am assuming that the sand filter could be located on top of this cistern because of higher ceiling heights).

Climate of Omaha, Nebraska

I went through and made screen captures of the different charts provided within the program with the exception of the Time Table Plot and the 3D Charts. These charts had many variables which will prove very useful but difficult to represent all the options. This program is incredibly interesting and I am anxious to learn the different areas and how they can impact design.