BackPage Primers

CO2 and Other Greenhouse Gases

The family of greenhouse gases extends beyond CO2, with each gas contributing to global warming to some degree.
BuildingGreen.com—June 17, 2008

Life-Cycle Assessment: Tracing a Product's Impacts

Life-cycle assessment—accounting for all of the environmental impacts of a product from its manufacture to its disposal—is a simple concept, but using it to compare products in practice can be difficult.
Environmental Building News—June 1, 2008

Evaporative Coolers

As water evaporates, it absorbs heat. Direct and indirect evaporative coolers use this property to cool homes efficiently.
Environmental Building News—May 1, 2008

How the Sun's Path Can Inform Design

Designing a building with the sun in mind can help reduce both heating and cooling loads.
Environmental Building News—April 1, 2008

Shedding Light on Light Quality

Two terms commonly used to refer to light sources—color temperature and color rendering index—tell us about the quality of light, but can at times be counter-intuitive. Lights with a low color temperature, for example, actually feel "warmer" on the color spectrum.
Environmental Building News—March 1, 2008

Good Ozone, Bad Ozone

The same ozone that causes air quality problems near Earth's surface protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation high in the atmosphere. This protective ozone layer is thinning due to manufactured chemicals.
Environmental Building News—February 1, 2008

Solar Reflectance Index and Cool Roofs

Understanding reflectivity and emissivity of roofing materials is important to evaluating their effect on cooling loads and the urban heat island effect.
Environmental Building News—January 1, 2008

Energy Metrics: Btus, Watts, and Kilowatt-Hours

Mixing units of electric power with those of energy is a common mistake, but distiguishing kilowatts from kilowatt-hours is not that complicated, and is worth getting straight.
Environmental Building News—December 1, 2007

Thermal Mass: What It Is and When It Improves Comfort

Heavy or massive objects like masonry can help improve thermal comfort, if used properly. They often don't insulate well, however.
Environmental Building News—November 1, 2007

Binders in Manufactured Wood Products: Beyond Formaldehyde

Concerned about emissions regulations, the manufactured wood products industry is moving away from glues formulated with urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde.
Environmental Building News—October 1, 2007
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Member Comments

Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters

Dave Mountin says, “Hi Brent, That is too bad! Looks like my next 45 tankless water heaters will be bought from a manufacturer that...” More...

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Sustainable Design Leaders Explore Their Profession

William Brown says, “How might a sustainability director tap into this network? Is there another session planned?...” More...


Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters

Dave Mountin says, “I just completed installing 45 Rinnai (R50LSi and R75LSi) tankless water heaters. The installation went fine and they are working...” More...


Water Policies: Encouraging Conservation

Nathan Brown says, “Although the article aptly describes many approaches that can be critical for reducing water use, it fails to address fundamental...” More...


Alternative Water Sources: Supply-Side Solutions for Green Buildings

Tristan Korthals Altes says, “Thanks for the question. We are making some improvements to the condensate calculator and plan to post a new version...” More...