Solar hot air collector, again

Im getting excited about this solar hot air collector idea, again. I found this book at our office: Sun, Wind and Light, Architectural Design Strategies. Its got over a hundred strategies for designing or retrofitting buildings with all kinds of passive green strategies that use the sun, wind, and light of your specific area. I like the mantra, "Passive buildings, active occupants," which encourages people to use buildings to temper their spaces, and not be so dependent upon "active" mechanical components, like fossil-fuel fired heating and cooling systems, or even super expensive photovoltaic solar panels. The simplest way to think about this would be to open the windows on a nice day rather than use the air conditioner. Or, turn off the electric lights and open the shades to allow daylight in, especially on the south face in the winter. Anyway, Im thinking about installing a rooftop unit like this one on our house instead of smaller window units in the previous post:

The basic premise of the panel is there is a glass / plexiglass face, with a thin air space, and a corrugated steel backing, painted black. In the winter, cold air enters the lower intake, is super heated in the sealed air chamber by the sun, and exits at the top, pulled by an inexpensive fan, through ductwork (or not) into the house. Because heat rises, you need to get that free hot air down to the first floor, so I would hook ours into our existing ductwork system, then it would rise throughout the house naturally. You can even hook these up to thermostats, so they turn on and off. All told, I'm told you can build them for between $100 and $500......free heat for about 25 years after that.

Sisters of Mercy

One of my jobs where i work is to help building owners, architects, and developers get their buildings LEED-Certified. LEED is a national benchmark and rating system for green building standards. Its got tons of flaws, but overall its a pretty good system to get a huge conversation going. I get to work on some pretty cool projects, like the newly renovated Mercy Family Center in the Tioga section of north Philly. The Sisters of Mercy run this amazing place, doing all kinds of amazing things for the people who make up Tioga. They take serving the 'least of these' seriously, as their life's vocation. They took up the mantle of green, healthy building when they planned a major renovation of an abandoned warehouse at 20th and Venango Sts a few years back. Its so exciting to see folks who dont compartmentalize between social and environmental justice. These great ladies see the direct connection between healthy daylit spaces that use much less energy and resources, treat the earth as the Created thing it is, and use their space to help positively shape the lives of the residents of Tioga. Check out this video...... might want to grab a box of Kleenex beforehand.

Van the man

not this one, although he is sweet.






this guy:











I went to a book reading / lecture last night to hear Van Jones speak. I was listening. He is a lawyer, an environmentalist, and most importantly an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised in this country, especially young African American men. He has a new book called The Green Collar Economy which I have been reading which outlines a set of ideas to bring millions of people out of poverty creating a new set of jobs based on a new green economy. Most of the jobs would be involved in skilled labor positions like manufacturing and installing solar panels for instance, so there is an education component to it as well. He likens the midwest plains to the "Saudi Arabia " of wind power, and makes the same metaphor for the sunbelt in the US for its national solar producing capabilities. His ideas really had me listening. So much of this green wave is about eco-elitism (building a green vacation home) or selfish self-reliance (disconnecting from the grid, and from community). He talk about China and India as our "brothers and sisters" in this economic and environmental mess. His language and view is inclusive, big, broad, for the least of these, glocal.

Hearing him talk about speaking the truth-in-love to those in power as well as to those in poverty, and bringing a collective spirit of action across all kinds of social chasms really got me thinking. Hearing ideas about bringing the greenest solutions to the poorest people really has me talking. Hearing him talking about re-honoring and re-recognizing the need for skilled labor education, really just got me. Hearing him talk about how we need to move beyond solely equal protection from the WORST pollution (environmental justice and advocacy) to equal oppurtunity for the BEST new clean technology and jobs was real paradigm shift for me. Hearing him declare his faith in God was pretty cool too.