New Orleans Launches Home Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program For Parish Homeowners

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has launched a new partially-federally funded program called NOLA Wise to help local homeowners make energy efficient retrofits to their homes.

Diagram courtesy of energyauditinstitute.com.

The program will be available to all local homeowners and will be a one-stop-shop for the process from evaluation to the completion of the renovations.

NOLA Wise is one of the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Neighborhood projects and it will be managed by the environmental nonprofit Global Green USA.

The nonprofit expects the program to give “homeowners the opportunity to reduce their utility use by 15 percent or more.”

Special financing will be provided to homeowners depending their needs, and free assistance to those eligible.

NOLA Wise says that “there are no income requirements for the program” and final upgrade costs, after incentives are applied, will either be paid out of pocket by homeowners or through special low income loans provide through the program. Loan application approvals will depend on credit scores.

The program will take a holistic “a house-as-a-system approach,” explaining that “if one system has a problem, it impacts the other systems’ ability to function properly.”

High energy bills can result from issues such as uneven temperatures from room-to-room, drafts, pest infestations, and premature deterioration of building materials, according to experts at NOLA Wise.

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WTC Complex to be Largest Gold Certified Green Urban Project in United States When Completed

As construction on the World Trade Center complex continues, developer Larry Silverstein spoke at a recent B’nai B’rith real estate luncheon about the progress being made. 7 WTC is now the first part of the complex to be fully leased and occupied, after 9/11.

The financial firm MSCI just signed a 20-year lease for 125,000 square feet in the tower’s top floors. The building’s other tenants include: the Brain Trauma Foundation, the New York City Academy of Sciences, Moody’s Corp., and the German bank WestLB

7 WTC is the first building in New York City to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold certification.

Some of 7 WTC’s green design features include:

1 WTC (Freedom Tower) under current construction. Stock photo.

• Direct daylight for more than 90 percent of its regularly occupied space, and daylight dimming controls.
• High-efficiency plumbing systems that reduce water consumption throughout the building by at least 30 percent.
• The use of paints that are low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
• No use of ozone-depleting HCFC refrigerants.
• A requirement that at least 50 percent of the building’s wood is certified as sustainably harvested.

Silverstein told those at the luncheon that “all of the buildings on the finished site will be LEED Gold-certified, and the complex will include a performing arts center by Frank Gehry, a new transportation hub, and public space covering 50 percent of the site.

“When completed, the WTC complex will be the largest sustainable and secure urban project developed in the United States.”

Right now, 80 of the 104 floors of 1 WTC (the Freedom Tower) are completed, and Silverstein said that “the project is single-handedly keeping the local construction industry afloat.”

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Buenos Aires Expanding Energy Efficiency Retrofit of Public Buildings

Buenos Aires is the political, financial, and cultural hub of Argentina, but also the country’s largest energy consumer, using far more energy than it produces.

Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo courtesy of solarthermalmagazine.com.

“Generation and distribution facilities are operating at their capacity due to lack of investments. For this reason, the national government usually imports energy in order to satisfy growing demand,” according to a joint report by the Environmental Protection Agency of Buenos Aires and the ICLEI, an international association of local governments implementing sustainable development.

Besides making sure the whole city has power to operate, the Buenos Aires government is also responsible for the maintenance of about 1,500 public buildings, including schools, hospitals, public service centers, and cultural centers. The city government spends about €20 million per year on electricity for these buildings.

To lower its energy costs and bring down its greenhouse gas emissions, the city is in the process of expanding its “Program of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings” that was initiated in 2008.

Under the program, the city’s EPA will expand its current retrofit study project to include 15 more buildings. Their current energy usage will be evaluated, and then modifications will be made to lower their energy costs.

The city’s agency is “expected to invest €150,000 in professional contracts to implement the energy saving diagnosis and €100,000 for equipment for the 15 buildings. The cost of human resources needed for each energy diagnosis is approximately €10,000,” according to the report.

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Free Online Home Energy Audit Calculators Helping Do-It-Yourselfers Reduce Utilities

Image courtesy of Missouri Gas Energy.

With the tight economy over the last few years, there has been a growing trend toward do-it-yourself home energy audits, with the help of online calculator websites that are often free to use.

The great thing about the do-it yourself approach is that besides the fact that it’s often completely free, it gives you a lot of cost-saving information.

Home energy calculators range from the very complicated, where you feel like you need to be a professional to understand them, to the very user-friendly with large print, simple language, and lots of drop down menus.

These calculator websites  also often contain a lot of free articles and blog posts that are very useful. Two of the best and most user-friendly are the U.S. Department of Energy’s Home Energy Saver calculator and Microsoft’s Hohm calculator.

The Home Energy Saver calculator has a lot of drop down menus and after completing the survey, recommends energy saving strategies and upgrades that are appropriate for a home, depending on its structure, the local climate, and local energy prices.

The Home Energy Saver calculator starts off by asking the user to enter their zip code to receive instant energy cost estimates for both typical and efficient homes in the area.

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Windows Refurbishing Marks New Milestone in Empire State Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit

The Empire State Building has been an iconic symbol of New York City since it went up almost a century ago, with its 80th anniversary coming up next year.

Empire State Building Construction. Photo from oldcitypics.com.

The Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world until 1974, also has the notable distinction of allowing visitors from its observation deck to see across to five states on a clear day – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Over the last few years, the Empire State Building has also become well known for its environmentally friendly energy efficient upgrades that began in 2009.

In its latest upgrade, the building has just refurbished all of its approximately 6,500 thermopane (doubled-pane) windows, using existing glass and sashes to create triple-glazed insulated panels to improve building insulation. This will improve internal temperature control, keeping heat in during the winter and out in the summer.

The new windows are “four times more thermally efficient compared to the older dual pane windows and are expected to reduce solar heat gain by more than 50 percent. The cost to refurbish each window is estimated at $700 compared to approximately $2,500 to replace them with new comparable windows,” according to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

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