[GSBN] Flinging stuff (was Re: Can bale buildings be air tight?- How to ventilate)

[John Swearingen]

*"There's nothing to prevent a person living in northern
Alberta....flinging open the triple-glazed windows and fibreglass doors....*
* then the question becomes one of willingness to accept **moral
responsibility** for ones actions in consuming far more resources than
necessary to allow one that carefree door and window flinging."*
*
*
The humble HRV is being touted as the moral alternative to an open window;
it provides fresh air (though not sounds, breezes or smells) at a low
energy cost.  However, if we're talking  about *moral responsibility**, *well,
it needs to be remembered that a HRV only mitigates a problem steaming, at
root, from our desire to be comfortable -and the criteria by which we
demand our comfort.  Perhaps in the back of whatever mind is left in
doddering old hippies, is the nagging feeling that this humble fresh air
machine is aiding and abetting a lifestyle that is consumptive to the core.
 Whereas our grandparents died of something called "consumption", our
current consumption may be dooming the entire planet.

Just a random, cheerful thought that I had while waiting in the
air-lock vestibule to be cleared by Homeland Security....I'll go back to
sleep now....


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 9:55 AM, RT <archilogic at yahoo.ca> wrote:

> A someone was was quoted as saying (to which several "Hear! Hear!`s were
> heard):
>
>  I prefer a design approach that minimises the use of expensive, resource
>> gobbling,
>> and complicated materials and systems.  A colleague of mine sums it up
>> thus:
>>
>
>  The.... division is between those who fling open their doors to embrace
>> the day,and those who huddle behind triple glazing worrying whether they
>> are going to be comfortable.
>>
>
> Sometime back in the previous millennium, on a quaint little email
> strawbale mailing list hosted by CREST, a Buddhist lay-preacher/strawbale
> building contractor from Northern California once uttered the wise words:
>
>     "Latitude determines the attitude (, dude)"
>
> when a similar discussion about the need for air-tight construction in
> super-insulated buildings was being carried out.
>
> That is to say, those building in the more mild and/or arid climates of
> places like the SW USA could afford to be a little more casual about things
> like detailing to ensure air-tight construction and hence, could stay
> blissfully ignorant about stuff like required ventilation rates to ensure
> good IAQ and such seeming nonsense.
>
> I also remember back to around that time (1996 or so ?), the fellow who
> started this thread on this list talking about blower door test numbers in
> 2013,  back then expressing sentiments similar to those written by NZ
> archiTony,  eschewing the complexities of the demands placed upon us by
> good building science and embracing a desire for a simplicity in building
> that would enable him to avoid (and I quote) "knob-twiddling,
> knerpwhistles" and by inference, anything having to do with numbers and
> yet, now in 2013, this List is seeing the same Canadian fellow boasting
> about European PassivHaus religion-inspired blower door numbers like "0.88".
>
> Last I saw of the Buddhist lay-preacher-hot-tubbing-**surfer-dude-SB
> designer/builder, he was running energy modeling programs on his current SB
> projects.
>
> Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose . Eh ?
>
> There's nothing to prevent a person living in northern Alberta ( ~ 7500
> HDD/yr (degC)  or ~13,500 HDD/yr degF) flinging open the triple-glazed
> windows and fibreglass doors on their SBH to embrace the day ... whether it
> be a minus 40 degree (same in Celsius or Fahrenheit) day in January or a
> plus 40 degC (~104 degF) day in July  pretending that they're a Kiwi in
> Northwood, Christchurch, Canterbury NZ (~933 HDD/yr near as I can figure)
> ... but I'm fairly confident that they wouldn't do it for very long or very
> often.
>
> That is to say, constructing a well-insulated building to be air-tight as
> is *demanded* by the principles of good building science does not preclude
> the option to avoid simply opening a window or door to provide the
> ventilation necessary to ensure good IAQ.
>
> But if one is also consuming fuel and spewing GHG emissions to condition
> the interior in order to raise or lower temperatures/ humidity in relation
> to ambient outdoor conditions and/or dumping hundreds of gallons of
> precious water into the desert atmosphere via a swamp cooler to make a
> building interior tolerable, then the question becomes one of willingness
> to accept moral responsibility for ones actions in consuming far more
> resources than necessary to allow one that carefree door and window
> flinging.
>
> Me ? I like to use air-lock vestibules on all entries.
>
>
>
> --
> === * ===
> Rob Tom                                 AOD257
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
>
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  >
> (manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")
> ______________________________**_________________
> GSBN mailing list
> GSBN at sustainablesources.com
> http://sustainablesources.com/**mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN<http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN>
>



-- 
John Swearingen
Skillful Means Design & Construction
2550 9th Street   Suite 209A
Berkeley, CA   94710
510.849.1800 phone
510.849.1900 fax

Web Site:  http://www.skillful-means.com
Blog:         https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20130328/232bcdf3/attachment.htm>