Taitem now helps clients achieve LEED Green Homes distinction

Taitem is proud to announce that Senior Sustainability Consultant Courtney Royal has been named a LEED for Homes Green Rater. She is one of only six accredited professionals serving upstate New York with a local presence. Courtney works with homeowners and multifamily developers to create beautiful green buildings that minimize operating costs, while earning national recognition from the US Green Building Council.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The LEED for Homes and LEED for Multifamily Midrise certifications guide building owners to achieve environmental and financial goals. As a Green Rater for Taitem Engineering, Courtney Royal consults and provides technical support for new construction and major renovations of existing homes and multifamily dwellings up to eight stories tall.

Q: Why engage a Green Rater for a home or multifamily building?

A: Because Green Raters help:

  • Build for durability and sustainability
  • Improve the environment and your bottom line
  • Lower utility bills by avoiding energy waste
  • Support good health and beautiful aesthetics with natural materials, intentional daylighting, and clean indoor air.
  • Comply with local laws that require LEED certification (in certain locations)
  • Earn Energy Star certification then take it up a notch. Achieving a LEED Green Home rating satisfies the Energy Star requirements while also addressing water use, site impacts, building materials, and more.
  • Qualify for property tax abatements (in certain locations)

Taitem is responsible for on-site verification and works with the owner’s project team to complete the LEED for Homes Workbook certification packet. Courtney is involved from the design phase through construction completion to ensure sustainable features are incorporated and project certification targets are achieved.

Walking her talk
Courtney’s most recent project is her own home, completed in December 2016 on a hilltop overlooking Cayuga Lake. The house, collaboratively designed with her engineer husband Umit Sirt (also of Taitem), is slated to earn both the LEED for Homes Platinum and Zero Energy Capable designations. A few of its many notable features include:

  • Light-filled interior created with a low 15% Window to Wall Ratio (WWR); wedged walls surround all windows and highly reflective paints and surfaces enhance the space.
  • Gorgeous compressed-paper countertops with the look and feel of stone
  • Heat pumps for clothes drying, domestic hot water, and of course heating and cooling.
  • Stormwater management using grassed swales to feed an on-site pond

How do I learn more?
Schedule a complimentary consultation with Courtney. Expect her to ask great questions, listen for your goals, and clarify which building features matter most to you, including the look and feel of your renovated or future home. She will describe her process of working with the architect, contractor and entire team, and the benefits you can expect as a result.

Contact Courtney Royal at 607-277-1118 x126 or croyal@taitem.com.

Interior of Courtney’s LEED certified home.

Heating downstairs versus upstairs

Check out this three part blog post on the Building Evidence blog that outlines Ian Shapiro’s continued research on heating systems in two-story buildings.

“…I now have data for several buildings, and it all says the same thing:  The majority of heating that happens in two-story buildings happens downstairs.Continue reading…

Eliminating Energy Use in Existing Buildings: Easier Than We Think?

Check out this snippet from a recent post @Building Evidence:

…the focus of a talk on existing buildings raised a few eyebrows and people have been coming to ask:  Can it possibly be easy to eliminate energy use in existing buildings? Here is a summary of the talk:

  • Climate change is real. The widely-accepted goals of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 are important.  2050 is not far off. We need to get moving. And the task at hand may be … easier than we think. READ THE FULL POST….

Ladders, Lighting, LED’s

Check out this post on the Building Evidence blog and be sure to check back to see the results from their energy evaluation….

An interesting visit last week to Tilley Ladder, an old factory that used to make wooden ladders, which has been converted to apartments, in Watervliet, NY. The building is certified LEED Platinum and has geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation, heat pump clothes dryers, LED lighting, and more. Continue to full post…

99% corridor lighting energy savings

Check out this recent post from Ian on his Building Evidence blog:

Corridor lighting is a big energy user. How would you like to save 99% of the energy required for this important lighting?

I recently saw a beautiful new university dorm for grad students. It is a certified green building (LEED Gold). I was struck by how the corridors are lit. In fact, I was awestruck. I think I have seen the future of corridor lighting, with energy savings of 99%, relative to how we light corridors now. It’s nothing short of amazing. Here’s how they do it. Continue to full post at Building Evidence

Taitem helps lead the Ithaca 2030 District effort

Taitem Engineering joins 13 other Ithaca agencies, organizations and businesses to launch the Ithaca 2030 District, signing on to an ambitious challenge to reduce energy use, water use and transportation carbon emissions 50% by 2030. Led by the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI), this public-private collaboration works to create a groundbreaking high-performance building district in downtown Ithaca. Members pledge to make improvements to buildings and behavior to save resources and lower greenhouse gas emissions. They also aim for all new construction within the District to be carbon neutral by 2030.

As a Founding Adopter, Taitem supports the 2030 District with its technical expertise to rethink how commercial spaces are constructed and designed. Members benefit from the firm’s capabilities in energy modeling, green building consulting, design engineering, outreach, and education. Taitem founder Ian Shapiro owns two buildings within the District, and President Lou Vogel is on the Ithaca 2030 District Advisory Board. Taitem’s role aligns with the meaning of its name, Technology As If The Earth Mattered, and with its status as a B Corporation committed to supporting the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.

Ithaca takes its place with 14 other cities in the U.S. and Canada participating in the 2030 Challenge. Since 2006, 296 million square feet of commercial building space has been committed in the cities of Albuquerque, Austin, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland ME, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, Stamford and Toronto. The North American network shares data, supports peer exchange, and uses the aggregate purchasing power of District membership to secure reduced costs. The Ithaca 2030 District is helping to create national partnerships and influence national policy on transportation infrastructure and building science.

The national 2030 initiative was contributed to and coordinated by key industry players including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American Institute of Architects, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and the US Green Building Council, among others. For more information, member list, or to help expand the Ithaca district by becoming a member, check out the Ithaca 2030 website.

ithaca-2030-district-map-square

Energy Efficiency Strategies To Reduce Energy Permanently

Load-reduction improvements in buildings will permanently reduce energy use. They are a gift to the building and to facility managers for future decades.

Below is a link to Ian Shapiro’s article at facilities.net that explores load-reduction improvements that reduce the installed cost of energy improvements AND permanently reduce energy use in buildings. Take note and consider the gift of energy efficiency for your building in 2017.

3 High-Performance Energy Efficiency Strategies To Reduce Energy Permanently

FULL ARTICLE @ facilities.net

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By Ian M. Shapiro December 2016 – Conventional energy improvements save energy, but often only for the length of the product life. For example, a high-efficiency light bulb might only last for a few years, and then be replaced with a low-efficiency lamp, and the energy savings are lost. However, an emerging group of energy improvements takes energy savings to the next level, by permanently reducing energy use, with energy savings that can last for as long as the remaining life of a building.

Micro-apts in NYC – tiny, affordable, sustainable

You might be thinking, “But most apartments in NYC are ‘micro.'” These are different.

Carmel Place is the first micro-unit apartment building in NYC. These LEED-certified modular units were manufactured at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and were then stacked together 9 stories high along with stairs, an elevator, and other shared spaces. The building at 335 East 27th Street in Kips Bay was erected in 2015 and contains 55 “micro” apartments that range in size from 260 SF to 360 SF. Twenty-two of the units are affordable and the remainder rent for $3,000 a month.

nArchitects provided the winning proposal in the adAPT NYC initiative launched as part of former Mayor Bloomberg’s administration’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to accommodate the city’s growing small-household population. Taitem worked with the Carmel Place team to provide LEED, energy modeling, and commissioning services for the project.

Check out the video Making Carmel Place to hear from the architects who put this fascinating building together. For additional images and stats, check out Carmel Place on City Realty.

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Utility Bills Bash

109 S Albany St
Taitem solar clients often call with concerns about their electricity bills. To get answers and receive the greatest benefits from their solar array, we invite clients to a party and refresher course to answer common questions like:

  • What credit am I receiving?
  • Do I need more solar?
  • Is my system producing enough?
  • How do I monitor production?
When? Wednesday, Nov. 9, 5:30-7pm
Where? Taitem Office, 110 S Albany St., Ithaca

For example, the system anniversary date impacts potential cash outs. Taitem’s solar team can help with that issue.

Bring your NYSEG bills and billing questions, and also hear news on solar referral rewards and Taitem Community Shared Solar. Enjoy snacks, hot cider and local brews on us — at 5:30 or whenever you can stop in at the Taitem office, 110 S. Albany St., Ithaca.

Think you’ll join us November 9th?
RSVP to mjludgate@taitem.com.