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Green Building San Diego
Calm Waters Construction San Diego green building contractors seek to achieve not only ecological but aesthetic harmony between
a structure and its surrounding natural and built environment, although
the appearance and style of sustainable buildings is not necessarily
distinguishable from their less sustainable counterparts. At Calm Waters Construction San Diego Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.
Calm Waters Construction Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:
* Efficiently using San Diego's energy, water, and other resources
* Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
* Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation
A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture.
The related concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are integral to green building. Effective green building can lead to 1) reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, 2) improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, and 3) reduced environmental impacts by, for example, lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect.
Calm Waters Construction's list of the top non-architectural green-building innovations includes:
1. Hyper-efficient (92% or better) heating/cooling systems, including ground-source heat pumps (systems that use the earth as a heat sink and as a heat source—not the same as geothermal heat pumps).
2. Cool roofs and radiant barrier roofing, which reduces solar heat gain.
3. Tankless natural gas water heaters.
4. High-efficiency and low-water-use appliances.
5. Low-E (low-emissivity) glass, used in double-glazed panes with or without argon gas.
6. Use of pre-engineered wood structural components for construction.
7. Recycling of construction waste.
8. Use of durable materials (with higher upfront costs) that will last longer, require less maintenance (with very low maintenance costs over the life of the building). Materials that are not durable will require more energy in maintenance costs and in their eventual replacement.
9. Photovoltaic systems.
Calm Waters Construction's list of top architectural green-building innovations includes:
1. Site planning — This takes advantage of each site's micro-climate to assist in cooling and/or heating a house. Arrangement of rooms can strongly affect the comfort of the occupants.
2. Downsizing the house — People have come to realize that a smaller, well-designed house can be as livable and pleasant as a much larger house. Since smaller houses require less energy to operate and make a smaller impact on the environment, smaller well-designed houses with “green” features are becoming popular.
3. Informal floor plans — Informal floor plans tend to have rooms with multiple uses instead of rooms dedicated to one use, like a formal dining room, for example. Building costs being what they are, it is best to merge many activities into one or two rooms. This reduces energy costs since unused areas of the house are not heated.
4. Architectural form — By simply applying some smart architecture, reliance on mechanical systems for thermal comfort (heating and cooling) can be reduced. Use of major architectural elements, such as atriums, courtyards, massing of the building, in conjunction with the local micro-climate, can greatly reduce dependence on mechanical systems for thermal comfort all year long. Simply introducing a breeze can make a hot environment much more tolerable even if the temperature didn’t decrease. Look to structures constructed before there was air-conditioning and forced-air systems to see how they dealt with heat loss and heat gain.
5. Architectural details — Use of minor architectural elements, such as eaves, shading devices, well-placed operable windows and skylights, covered porches, breezeways, all in conjunction with the local micro-climate, can greatly reduce dependence on mechanical systems for thermal comfort all year long.
6. Landscaping — Well-placed trees and plantings can reduce the heat gain by any building.