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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

Ground-Source Heat Pumps: Tapping the Earth's Mass

Ground-source heat pumps take advantage of stable temperatures just below the Earth's crust for energy-efficient heating and cooling.
Environmental Building News—September 1, 2007

Light-Emitting Diodes: Chasing White Light

LED lighting is becoming more energy-efficient and cost-effective, but it has not yet realized its potential for efficacy, and for wider applicability.
Environmental Building News—August 1, 2007

Volatile Organic Compounds: Definitions Matter

Because of how air-quality regulators define VOCs, judging a product's contribution to indoor air quality using only VOC content can be misleading.
Environmental Building News—July 1, 2007
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Solar-Thermal News

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Energy Dashboards: Using Real-Time Feedback to Influence Behavior

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Free Energy Modeling in Google SketchUp

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