This just in, TE Studio has been ranked the 4th greenest startup for 2008 by Startup Nation. I will be realeasing more complete information about this, soon. I just wanted to share my excitement right away. Here is a link to my entry on Startup Nation’s website.
I will be speaking at tonight’s Eco Tuesday meeting at Pizza Luce, downtown Minneapolis, at 7 PM. This is a Q & A style conversation about Passive House design.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 6.30 PM to 9.00 PM
Eco Tuesday
Pizza Luce Downtown Minneapolis
119 N 4th St
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 333-7359
I was just invited to speak at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center this Saturday night, 11/15/2008. The talk will focus on an introduction to Passive House Design. Start time is 7 PM. Eagle Bluff is located outside of Lanesboro, MN. Directions.
During last night’s neighborhood board meeting, the Hawthorne neighborhood passed a motion to collaborate with the minneAppleseed Association on a passive solar house for the Eco Village. This is great progress and means that the Appleseed House Project is one step closer to reality.
I produced an Appleseed House Project flyer I made in case you would like to read up on the project. You can download it here. 2008-11-13_appleseed-flyer
minneAppleseed will present the Appleseed House Project and building site research tomorrow, Thursday 11/13/2008, at the Hawthorne neighborhood board meeting. The meeting will be held at the community building at Farview Park, at the intersection of 29th and Lyndale Avenue North at 7 PM. Directions
Speaker Manfred Brausem from Cologne, Germany, demonstrated this handy little software tool during his conference session. There is a toggle button at the bottom to change it to English. I will try to find out if it can also look at gas prices, or if it uses the oil price to extrapolate gas prices, since natural gas is such a prevalent fuel source in MN.
This just in: I will be speaking at the next Eco Tuesday about Passive House building standard and my practice. Here are the details:
“A conversation about Passive House Standard and TE Studio with Tim Eian”
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 6.30 PM to 9.00 PM
Eco Tuesday
Pizza Luce Downtown Minneapolis
119 N 4th St
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 333-7359
Directions
“Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
Chief Seattle (1786-1866), Native American Suquamish Tribe
Need I say more?
Tonight, minneAppleseed present once again at a Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Housing Committee meeting. Over the last few weeks we have done research into available lots and analyzed the texture of the four blocks that comprise the Eco Village in North Minneapolis. For more information, click this link to read the minneAppleseed blog.
For a map of potential building sites for the Appleseed House, follow this link.
I am a guest speaker on a panel on sustainable lifestyle today, at 10.30 AM, at Christ the King Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake. If you would like to join the conversation, or be a guest, you are welcome to join us in the fellowship hall. Christ the King Lutheran Church is located at 1660 Birch Lake Avenue, White Bear Lake, MN 55110, (651) 429-4828. Directions.
Just a quick reminder that the 3rd Annual North American Passive House Conference is coming up November 7 through 9, 2008, in Duluth. Please find more information at this link.
16" SIP
I just took delivery of a 16″ SIP panel sample piece courtesy of Enercept. As you can see in the picture, the sample includes a TJI spine—this piece came off a run they did for a roofing job. Enercept offers thermally broken studs for wall panels as well as the pictured TJIs. They claim that the EPS foam is made largely from recycled content. I am looking to verify that.
The seam tape is labeled as Ashland’s Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) Sealing Tape, a patented, pressure-sensitive, vulcanized butyl rubber adhesive laminated to a polyolefin carrier membrane. This sort of product is of interest not only to SIP construction but would be useful for any wall assembly that utilizes OSB as an air tightness and/or vapor retarder.
What is the relevance of a 16 inch SIP, you may ask? Well, it turns out that for Passive House walls in Minnesota climate, this panel provides nearly adequate R-value. For those not familiar with the term, SIP stands for “structural insulated panel” and basically describes a sandwich product that can be used for building envelopes: floors, walls, and ceilings/roofs.
At TE Studio, we believe that Passive House design—both for new construction and retrofits—delivers tremendous value for our clients. Here is a brief summary on why you might want to consider Passive House Design for your next construction project.
Economy: Significant conservation and improved performance = cost savings to the owner
