Archive for December, 2011|Monthly archive page

A Benefit for AFAC 12/17/11

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

If you’re going to be around Ballston this Saturday, 12/17/11,  make sure you check out the Green Drinks Arlington 2nd Annual Art+Wine Bazaar. Our friends Marina Ospina, Sweet Root Village and Genevieve Concannon have put together another great line up for a fun, festive holiday event to benefit the Arlington Food Assistance Center.

Save the date a wonderful holiday event that will inspire you to think about Local and free-trade artists and bring together community at a fun, laid back gallery opening. Art and Wine Bazaar is back.

For the 2nd year in a row, Green Drinks Arlington’s founders, Genevieve Concannon and Marina Ospina along with Sweet Root Village bring you a festive party to engage the community in local art, wine and the spirit of the Season- Giving.

With such a successful event last year, we have added more local artisans and hope to arouse your senses with food, fun and creativity. Shop local artist’s photography, paintings, pottery, glass art, floral design, gift baskets and more while listening to laid back music and sipping wine. Doesn’t that sound better than wresting people for sweaters at the Mall? Yeah, we thought so!

Join us and enjoy music by DJ Walz Street, wine by Matt Carroll and a gallery of unique art by various local and free-trade artists!

2011 Art + Wine Bazaar

Entry: Suggested donation of a canned-good to benefit AFAC, our local area food bank. Our goal is to donate over 500 lbs of food to them.

When: Saturday, December 17, 2011

12-6:00pm

Where: 875 N. Randolph Street. Suite C (Entrance on 9th Street)

Arlington, VA 22203

A bit about the Artists:

Amber Kendrick is an architect and designer.  She applies her understanding of materials, color, design and form to warm glass for both functional and architectural applications. She works in warm glass at her studio at the Workhouse Arts Center.  Amber is the founder of Cloud Terre, LLC. www.cloudterre.com

Sweet Root Village is an inspired community of local artists and designers collaborating to create fabulous events through their inspirational photography and design eye! They specialize in photography, event planning and decor, and floral decor. They also offer videography, makeup artistry, custom music composition, and graphic design services! Four creative souls strong, Sweet Root Village has the capacity to design and implement event planning while focusing on the individual. At the Art+Wine Bazaar, Sweet Root Village will be displaying their photography, booking photo sessions, offering gift certificates for sale, and raffling off a free photography session!
www.sweetrootvillage.com

Margeaux Marshall Denham is an artist and designer from Central Texas. She has mastered the balance of color and texture through her jewelry designs of semi-precious stones and sterling silver. She utilizes the metaphysical properties in the stones to make one of a kind jewelry pieces that truly resonate to their owners.

Tortuga Verde Gift Baskets is the perfect solution for your eco-conscious gift giving needs. Founder and owner, Marina Ospina puts the personal touches that are much needed in a world of depersonalization and gift cards! All of the products chosen for the baskets are organic, environmentally conscious and are available for any occasion. www.tortugaverdegiftbaskets.com

DIAMANTINA designs, manufactures and distributes fashion-forward leather handbags and accessories targeted to stylish men and women in tune with fashion trends, and who are appreciative of avant-garde designs and modern aesthetics. Our collections include a wide variety of exclusive handbags, designer belts and wallets, all showcasing a wide variety of colors and textures. DIAMANTINA was created from the partnership of two good friends who share a passion for fashion and wanted to provide job opportunities to skilled men and women from their home country, Argentina. Behind Diamantina there is the legacy and support of a family-owned Argentine business, which for generations has specialized in producing and exporting genuine leather garments.

Twila Johnson, A teacher, mentor, skilled potter and artistic soul, Twila Johnson makes kiln dried pottery that is gorgeous and functional. Fina out more about Twila’s classes and studio sessions at Manassas Clay. http://www.manassasclay.com/classes.html

Emily Dolenz, principal owner of Emily Dolenz Photography, Emily has had her work displayed all over DC and Northern Virginia, most recently at a gallery opening at Tryst in DC and currently has copies of her work at Northside Social in Clarendon. Emily captures details that not everyone sees and makes them beautiful. Nature, abstract objects and portraiture, Emily has a keen grasp on the artistic elements that make an image pleasing to look at. http://www.emilydolenz.com/#/page/home/

Marsha Lederman is a published professional artist living and working in Arlington where non-profits make up much of her client base.  Marsha is accomplished in the arts of drawing, painting, portraiture and sculpture. A favorite endeavor is drawing people wherever she can ‘capture’ them without being noticed, from meetings to metro. Marsha also enjoys trying to infuse a sense of humor in her work and loves to anthropomorphize, especially animals. http://www.zazzle.com/marlederman

Silent Auction items for Amicus Green Building Center, Live Green EnviroHomeDesign and more will be available to delight you along with $5 wine tickets to benefit AFAC.

Passive House Training

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Passive House Rater Training in Urbana, Illinois took place last week. The Green Gobbler partook.

Last weekend I spent a jam-packed couple of days in a room with 16 other highly skilled RESNET raters

Listen and Learn

at the inaugural Passive House rater training in Urbana, Illinois. The Passive House Institute US, or  PHIUS for short (kind of short) rater training was spent talking about advanced products, materials, applications;  and yes, with all of these rock-star RESNET folks, it was easy to geek out on a topic or two with all of these advanced people to discuss energy efficiency and other passive house concepts with.

What is PHIUS training all about anyways? It is like a want ad, isn’t it: “PHIUS is seeking qualified RESNET raters who want to learn how to give accurate and meaningful ratings of buildings designed and constructed to the Passive House standard. Working with experienced RESNET raters, PHIUS has developed a curriculum leading to qualification to rate projects seeking PHIUS+ Certification.” Taking the Passive House training in hand with the scope of the project, PHIUS raters are able to bring a project full circle.

In a word or three: Project. Team. Raters. So here it goes…follow me on this one…  PHIUS appoints a consultant, then the consultant works together with project team and submits their planning package to PHIUS for review, then after project has been reviewed (pre-certified), a rater is assigned, reviews package and then the project will have the great privilege to be assessed across 4 phases of construction (read: inspections).  These 4 inspections are: 1.  slab and foundation insulation and site shading, 2. site visit for air sealing details before insulation which includes a preliminary blower door test, 3. Insulation, duct work and domestic hot water inspections and 4. Final Inspection and Testing.  Interesting note, not just caulking and spray foam for air sealing, taping is shown to work best when applied correctly. Raters take all of the elements of the project that they see on site and communicate the qualifications back to the project team in its entirety to keep the Passive House on track.

Talk about a house that was kept on track! Here is an interesting case study: The 16 of us rater trainees heated a Passive House home we toured  almost 10 degrees just standing around being the RESNET folks that we were- not because we’re hot (or full of hot air, even), but because of the proper air sealing techniques and insulation that the Passive House standards have been set and achieved. In this case study home, we got to see something super-cool: CO detectors were attached to ERV to ramp up the fresh air when needed- this was interesting and I’d never seen this system in person before.  Our second field trip lead us to t0 a Solar Decathlon house that was a passive house. Side Note:  After the competition it appears that the students who had built the home had -sneakily- taken out original HVAC and had installed a “super-secret” and small CERV system that has everything -heating, cooling, ventilation, de-humidification, all in one box. It is estimated that the very small CERV system will take 3 days to get the home to a stasis, but then once you get it to the temperature that you want, it just stays- talk about super-efficient. It might not be instant gratification, but it is definitely energy efficient. These were just some of the nifty case study items we got to check out towards the end of our rater training.

To wrap it up, PHIUS just wants us to build highly sustainable, energy efficient homes that focus on these key elements of design: Building Envelope, Shading, Heating and Cooling, Ventilation, Lighting and Appliances, Hot Water, Renewable Systems – and I’m on board with that.  The faster we get there the better.