Naturally convective cooling can be accomplished through proper shading options, either through building design elements or through naturally occurring, or planted vegetation, coupled with thoughtful placement of operable windows. Unless the site is particularly difficult to access or traverse, there is usually no additional cost at all to place the building in such a way that it will benefit from passive solar gain through a broad southern facing faГ§ade.

An unprecedented opportunity lies ahead for us to dramatically reduce our energy needs (and our carbon footprint) by better and more efficient building designs and construction practices that will enable and encourage the healthy and efficient operation of those buildings for many years to come.ДЇor almost every construction project, the first issue to address is the location and orientation of the building on the site.

According to this schedule of construction, by the year 2035, about 75% of the built environment will be newly constructed or renovated. While these may be rather discouraging statistics, the up side is that each year we will demolish about 1.75 billion square feet we will renovate about 5 billion square feet and we will build new about 5 billion square feet. The existing U.S building stock comprises roughly 300 billion square feet. Department of Energy estimates that 37% of the energy and 68% of the electricity produced in the United States is used by buildings. These pollutants are primary contributors to smog, acid rain and global warming. Energy production in this country releases sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide and is a significant contributor to air pollution. The relationships between energy efficiency (through the reduction of a reliance on fossil fuels), climate change, global warming, pollution control, water management, resource management, global economies, and human health have never been clearer. But, aside from the energy crisis of the 1970вЂ™s, we have never really been pressed to consider energy efficiency as necessary criteria for improving our physical and financial well being as much as we are today. The topic of energy efficiency has been studied, discussed and written about in newspapers and magazines for decades and much of the technology that exists today was developed years ago as well. Energy Efficient Practices in Building Design, Construction and Operation

Energy efficient building envelope