KEC Week 46

The past few weeks have focused on interior mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and sprinkler rough-in.  This is when all the wiring, piping, and ductwork that is in the walls and above the ceilings is installed; all the work you cannot see when the work is complete.  With all of the various systems and metering on this project, the mechanical and electrical is very dense, meaning we have to fit a lot of systems in a tight space.  It is very important to sequence the work properly and inspect the work before it is closed up with the sheetrock.

There are many sets of eyes that inspect the work before it is closed in including the Construction Manager, the Owner's facilities group, the Engineer, the Commissioning Agent, and local Town Inspectors.  System pressure tests are also performed to ensure the systems hold the proper pressure of air or water and there are no leaks.

[faculty ceiling framing and lighting rough]

[piping above faculty apartment]

[tub at faculty apartment]

[plumbing rough at dorm bathrooms]

[ductwork rough at dorm corridor]

[evacuated tube controller and plumbing rough in basement]

[waste oil boiler in basement]

As work is inspected and accepted it is signed-off and insulation and sheetrock can begin.

[spray insulation in exterior walls surround sprinkler piping]

[spray insulation expands at a high rate as it is sprayed and then it is shaved back to the face of the wall]

[spray insulation around an electrical box]

[sheetrock in west wing labs]

[sheetrock in west wing labs]

[sheetrock ceilings at timbers are recessed into a dado cut in the timbers for a clean finish]

[interior wall insulation between dorm rooms]

[sheetrock at dorms]

[sheetrock at dorms]

KEC Schedule

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KEC Concrete

Concrete used in the KEC foundations includes recycled content, fly ash.  Fly ash is becoming a more common ingredient in concrete mix designs.  LEED projects require a certain percentage of products on a project contain recycled content, and adding fly ash to concrete mix designs is an easy way to help earn this point.

Fly ash is a by-product of coal-fired energy plants.  Fly ash was previously released into the atmosphere during the production of electricity.  It was then regulated and was disposed of in landfills which became expensive and due to the volume was filling landfills very quickly.  Now it is being used in concrete mix design to offset the use of cement.

There is a significant environmental value in using fly ash in concrete.  For every ton of fly ash used to replace cement in concrete:

- Enough energy is saved to provide electricity to an average American home for 24 days.
- The landfill space conserved equals 455 days of solid waste produced by the average American.
- The reduction in CO2 emissions equals 2 months of emissions from an automobile.

There is also a structural performance value in using fly ash in concrete:
- Fly Ash improves workability, durability, better long term strengths

- It provides a resistance to freeze/ thaw damage

- It reduces permeability, efflorescence, shrinkage, thermal cracking, alkali silica reaction (ASR) and sulfate attack in concrete.

Fly ash makes better concrete that is more economical and better for the environment.

@Home: t-stats

According to the Energy Star, the average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills - nearly half of which goes to heating and cooling. Homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats (t-stats) and maintaining those settings.

A programmable t-stat helps make it easy for you to save by offering four pre-programmed settings to regulate your home's temperature in both summer and winter - when you are home, asleep, or away.

The pre-programmed settings that come with programmable t-stats are intended to deliver savings without sacrificing comfort. Depending on your family's schedule, you can see significant savings by sticking with those settings or adjust them as appropriate for your family. 

The key is to establish a program that automatically reduces heating and cooling in your home when you don't need as much. Use the programmable thermostat calculator to see what you can save with set-back temperatures that work for your family. The pre-programmed settings for a programmable thermostat are:

So lets see how I am doing...

So on the cooling side I left it as-is out of the box.  On the heating side I was a little more aggressive staying just under the higher set-points.  My family is home all day with these temperatures and typically are very comfortable.  

There are certainly days when we use the override feature to take the edge off.  What is great about the override is at the next scheduled time it returns to the program.  So if you bump up heating at 8pm by a couple degrees, it will not run all night at the higher temperature, it drops back down to the Sleep setting at 10pm.  The t-stat I have also allows you to program weekends different than weekdays.  Quite often we are out during the day on weekends so our set-points are more aggressive assuming we are out.  If   we are home, again the override allows you to make a temporary adjustment for comfort.

I have two zones, one upstairs and one downstairs.  So I get even more aggressive with these set-points upstairs for afternoons and evenings when upstairs is seldom used.

@Home Series

Every now and then it's good to look back at where you have been before deciding where to go next.  I looked at my initial expectations for this blog and I would like to take a look at this statement from my first post:

"I hope to inspire others to act more sustainable in their every day life, to help make good decisions today that preserve what we have now for our future generations."  

With this in mind, I am starting this @Home series that will provide tips for sustainable living.  @Home will look at the three R's; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, as well as improvements to your home environment.  See my previous post about using Zero VOC paint at home,  and stay tuned for the next post in this series regarding programable thermostats.

Some of the ideas from this series may resonate with you and some may feel out of reach based on your lifestyle.  I would encourage you to start by making the changes that are easiest for you.  You don't have to take extreme measures to realize significant results.