SPARK

Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

A “passive” look at the future of energy efficiency

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Passive House in Portland

This Passive House—the “O2Haus” in Portland, Oregon—is one of the more than 120 certified by the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) since 2001. The house was designed by PDX Living. Interestingly, it’s also available to rent on Airbnb. Photo via Flickr & courtesy of PHIUS.

In writing the 2012 Seattle Energy Code, the Seattle Code Committee did something that is perhaps unprecedented in the history of municipal regulations.

Namely, the new code included a path to compliance that would allow developers to essentially do anything they wanted to a building, so long as the building plans met a few simple prerequisites and a strictly-defined energy performance target. This is a provision that provided developers with a unique degree of flexibility, while also giving the city real leverage in mandating energy efficiency.

While this new compliance path in Seattle is optional (there are three other paths that design teams can use to comply with the code), it represents a shift in energy policy that is truly groundbreaking in America. This alternate compliance path is one of the first true “performance-based” codes in the country, and it represents a glimpse of the future.

Quite frankly, the modern construction industry evolved during a time when high performance wasn’t required in the built environment.

That time, however, is passing.

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LED streetlights need smart controls

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Difference in LED vs. high-pressure sodium streetlights.

Before and after Los Angeles replaced their high-pressure sodium streetlights with LEDs. © COPYRIGHT 2015 CITY OF LOS ANGELES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

LEDs aren’t just for student science projects anymore.

Out on our city streets, LED streetlights are an emerging technology that use significantly less energy, offer improved light quality, and last longer. On an apples-to-apples, technology-to-technology comparison, LED streetlights easily beat out all the other streetlighting technologies.

No wonder, then, that cities nationwide are beginning to replace their streetlights with LEDs. However, many cities are missing out on the real opportunity with LED streetlights: smart controls and the potential for a networked city.

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McKinstry and sports: a winning team

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CenutryLink Field Aerial View

This is an aerial view of CenturyLink Field and Event Center, which is topped with an array of solar panels—as seen in the lower left. The view is from the south facing north towards downtown Seattle and was photographed on August 13, 2011. (ROD MAR/SEATTLE SEAHAWKS AND SOUNDERS FC)

As the leaves fall and the air grows colder, there’s one thing which draws an opinion from almost everyone:

Whether it’s football, basketball, hockey, or another fall sport, people love to play, watch, and talk about athletics. While we love sports at McKinstry, they’re also part of our job.

Much as teams have to practice and plan in order to play their best on game day, McKinstry has to work hard behind the scenes in order to make sure the stadiums and arenas hosting millions of fans are up to that task.

Here are the stories of three athletic facilities where McKinstry’s work has had a major impact on fans and players alike:

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How to make smart buildings

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At McKinstry, we think about smart buildings all the time.

Whether we’re working in factories, offices, or schools, our core goal is always the same: making the built environment more efficient and less siloed.

A building or space can be “smart” in many different ways, but the smartest buildings are usually extremely efficient. How, then, should building owners and operators strive to make their buildings smarter and attain that efficiency?

Recently, we produced a video that answers that very question:

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Policy innovations propel energy efficiency

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NEEC report cover

Cover photos taken from report commissioned by NEEC. Photo at center courtesy of Diana Rothery; right cover photo courtesy of Nate Watters.

Policymakers take note: energy efficiency may be your best economic development strategy.

A recent report commissioned by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council (NEEC) found that energy efficiency investments boosted the economies of Washington and Oregon by hundreds of millions of dollars more than if that money had been invested elsewhere. Not only does spending on energy efficiency generally remain localized, it also frees up capital that can be redirected towards other projects. Places that encourage investment in energy efficiency can then reap the long-term benefits of a stronger local economy, higher wages and lower unemployment.

We need a mix of market based tools to promote investments in energy efficiency. Here are three innovations that encourage broader adoption of efficiency and stimulate deeper, more persistent energy savings.

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Moving beyond design—and toward performance

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Stone34 building in Fremont

McKinstry provided design-build mechanical and plumbing services for Stone34, a high-performance building in Seattle seen here. McKinstry has also measured and verified energy and water use ever since the building opened in August 2014. Stone34 is fully embracing performance-based outcome thinking, as project partners are still working to adhere to strict building performance guarantees. Photo by Doug Scott.

Today—more than ever before—building owners are pushing the construction industry to meet increasingly aggressive, socio-economic-driven energy performance targets.

Whether that push is motivated by a desire to save money or driven by more indirect benefits of lower energy use, owners are nonetheless demanding that building performance (in the form of energy efficiency) drive how their buildings are designed, built and operated.

Currently, the industry has two main strategies when it comes to constructing a building. The traditional approach is design-focused, siloed and—importantly—quite inadequate when it comes to guaranteeing building performance. As a result, the construction industry should be shifting and adapting to a new, performance-based approach across the board in order to meet the energy efficiency goals of building owners.

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5 key takeaways from the DOE’s Quadrennial Technology Review

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Sun shining off a building

Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR) may be a mouthful, but here’s an easier way to think of it: it’s an important report covering energy technology that comes out every four years.

McKinstry is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest research and thinking in our field, so we’ve been taking a look at the QTR ever since it was released a few weeks ago.

Feel free to chime in with your own opinions and questions in the comments, but here are our five main takeaways from the whopper, 505-page document:

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Solving the equation: Energy efficiency + healthy classrooms = happy students

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teacher classroom

Photo by Bart Everson via Flickr

We ask our schools to do a lot on a tight budget: Invest in new technology, adapt to national standards, keep teachers and staff happy, maintain discipline, collaborate with other schools, mentor teachers—the list goes on. Little wonder, then, that maintaining the school building itself falls near the bottom of the priority list.

However, the learning environment is fundamentally important to student success. When it underperforms, so do our students. What’s more, overspending on a poorly ventilated and/or uncomfortable learning environment is the worst of both worlds.

If better buildings make for better students, how should cash-strapped schools prioritize and actualize more energy-efficient school facilities?

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Why ‘Net Zero Commissioning’ could revolutionize building performance

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NetZeroGraphicWP

This infographic demonstrates the growing prevalence of net zero energy buildings over the past few years. Infographic courtesy of the New Buildings Institute (NBI).

McKinstry’s Phillip Saieg and Josh Harwood are pioneering the concept of “Net Zero Commissioning”—a re-envisioning of the industry that posits the necessity of commissioning agents positioning themselves on the net zero energy frontier in order to stay relevant.

Though most in the construction industry are familiar with the concept of a net zero energy building (wherein the total amount of energy used by the building is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site), Saieg and Harwood think commissioning agents need to become a vital part of the net zero discussion.

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Tunable LED lighting is illuminating the future

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From the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow, there’s one constant in your life—light. Whether it’s natural or artificial, in your home or your office, fluorescent or LED, light is always surrounding you.

For being so omnipresent in our lives, it’s remarkable how lighting isn’t always focused on what’s optimal for people. Surprisingly often, the various lights in our lives are too harsh, too dim, building-centric, or one-size-fits-all.

One company—PLANLED, based in Federal Way, Wash.—is betting that people fed up with inadequate illumination will embrace the new concept of human-centric lighting (HCL). PLANLED distributes, markets, and sells a variety of different HCL solutions for indoor, outdoor/sports, and industrial settings.

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