Read and Seed 4: Third Quarter of Green From the Ground Up

1. The third quarter of my book is 4 chapters and pages 173-251. The 4 chapters include Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning, Electrical, Insulation, and Siding.
2. Chapter 9 is about the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems that can be used in a house. One way to conserve energy is to use a passive solar design that allows the sun to heat most of the house with a lot of windows in facing certain directions. Forced air systems are the most common type, using duct work to dispurse warm/cool ari throughout the house. Making sure that all of the ductwork running through the conditioned space is insulated reduces the heating and cooling loads and conserves energy. Extracting heat using a geothermal system is a great way to use less energy but it is more expensive to put in. Chapter 10 is the electrical chapter talking about ways to use less and also produce energy in the house. Using solar panels are a great way to generate electricity. There is a big difference between incandescent light bulbs and compact flourescent light bulbs. Incandescent bulbs put off more heat than they do light which wastes energy and they do not last as long either. Making sure that you are putting in lights only where you need them is a great way to save energy and money. If you put the money into skylight windows or large windows, lighting would not be as necessary. Chapter 11 is about insulation, the different types and how to use them. The first part of the chapter talks about where the important parts to insulate are. They are where you would think, anywhere that could lead to outside. Making sure that the house is air tight in all areas is crucaial to energy efficiency. Keeping the insulation from being compacted is the best way to make sure that it does it's job to highest quality. Chapter 12 is the siding chapter. It begins with the importance of drainage planes, meaning  its design is to ensure any moisture getting behind the siding has a way to evaporate or flow away from the building. It then talks about the different types of siding, an example is stucco siding. It is slightly more expensive but requires little maintenance and very durable.
3/4. One of the cooler and very beneficial things that I learned was the details about the duct work. It was probably one of the more detailed and thoughtout parts of building the house. There was definet ways of making sure that it is as efficient as possible. All ductwork looks the same to me until I hear what simple and quick tips can be done to ensure they are correctly. There was a huge difference in efficiency from the poor ways of doing ductwork causing air leaks and low heat/cool loads. I would make sure that I spent the little extra money hiring people that know what they are doing to save myself money and energy in the long run.



Read N Seed 3: Second Quarter of Green From the Ground Up

1. In the 2nd quarter of the book it covers 4 chapters, framing, roof and attic, windiws and doors, and plumbing.
2. The 5th chapter is framing and it has a lot to do with things to help insulate the building more effieciently. One way to do that is to not waste wood and use whats called Optimum Value Engineering. There are different techniques to doing corners that does not squish the insulation making it less efficient. Recycled steel studs are another way to cut down on the amount of wood that is used. Chapter 6 is installing the roof and attic. One of the first things you ahve to do is decide if you possbily want solar panels because then there slightly different things that need to be done. Again there is some new techniques to make sure the insualation is not squished making it less efficient. Some greener roof types would be recycled metal roofing or vegetation roofing, opposed to variety of shingle types. Chapter 7 was windows and doors and they both have some common similarities. Positioning windows and doors in a room is important for the aspect of natural air ventilation saving electricity amoung other things. The 3 most important things are the framing, insulating value, and edges of multiplane window/doors for keeping the as efficent as possible. Mudrooms are a great way to "seal" off and area that might alter room temperature. Chapter 8 was plumbing and what can be done to not be wasteful of water. The first thing that you can do is use Energy Star appliances that specialize in using as little water as possiblr. The type of water hearter that you use is also a large factor. The longer you are waiting for the water to heat up the more cold water that is getting wasted.
3/4. The thing that I thought was the coolest and could help out the community with a large impact was the on demand hot water system. This makes it possbile to immediately have hot water so you are not standingt here outside the shower or sink watching the water go down the drain without using it. It doesn't seem like much but think of how much is wasted in one day, then in a week, then a month and so on. It would be an astronomical difference not having to wait. I think that communities should have so legal binding to use on deamnad water systems.

Eye Opener: CSPI

1. The environmental burden of animal products I eat in a year is .9 acres of grain and grass needed for animal feed, 19.4 pounds of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, .1 pounds of pesticides used to grow animal feed, and 5457 pounds of manure is made by the animals I eat. The daily nutrients that I get from my diet is 270 calories, 17 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, and 123 mg of cholesterol
2. After improving my diet my diet by one less serving from each category I made some pretty pleasing results. My results were 7 more grams of fiber, 7 less grams of fat, 5 grams less of saturated fat, 74 mg less cholesterol. These changes may reduce my risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity, and other diet related problems.
3. Yes I did take the pledge for a more plant based diet, I actually already took the pledge unofficially over a year ago. I'll admit that I was 22 years old with slightly high cholesterol, and a with a vegetarian girlfreind it was kind of an easy decision to make. To be honest my diet is still not the best but for how I was eating, I have shown a large improvemnent nad am still learning and getting better about it.

Read N Seed 2: First Quarter of Green From the Ground Up

1. The first quarter of the book is 81 pages and four chapter long. The four chapters are green building basics, the house as a system, planning and design, and foundations.
2. Chapter one was the intro to the book and cleared up a couple common questions and myths. It talked about the rising demand and popularity for building green. It cleared up a myths about the cost, who would want to build green, and how the buildings will look. Chapter 2 explained how the house is a system and how everything works throughout it. It talked about the different ways that heat is transferred and how to control heat flow throughout the house. Next was the importance or air leakage and barriers on windows, doorways, etc because of the presence of moisture. It finished up talking about noise pollution from inside and outside and how to minimize both. Chapter 3 was the first steps in building a house and what to consider and make sure you make an educated decision about. the biggest thing was siting the house and the position of it. many different aspects come into play including what part of the house faces which way in order to use the sunlight to help control the house's temperature. Also what kind of landscaping and vegetation would help with cutting cost off heating and cooling the house. Chapter 4 was the first step of actually building the house, the foundation. The major topic of this chapter was insulation of the foundation to prevent heat loss. It covered the best ways to do it and and what materials could be used to insulate it. It finished with making sure that moisture is considered and how to minimize it starting with the outside of the house then the foundation itself.
3. One of the cooler things that I learned from the first four chapters that I did not know was the use of straw for insulation. it said that it will probably never be a mainstream use for wall insulation but it has many positives. It is a renewable resource that can be harvested locally, it is relatively inexpensive, and straw-bale walls have a high R-value for energy efficiency.
4. One of the things that I thought could affect society was the siting and window placement on buildings, and use of tress in order to use the sun for helping to heat and cool the building. There really is a significant difference in good and bad spots to build in order to save energy. Doing some research in a community that is going to be doing a lot of brand new developing can really make an impact by picking the right spots using the landscape and sun to help keep the buildings energy efficient. I think that there should be an evaluation of the landscape before a developer can build on a large site legally.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

I took the Ecological Footprint quiz and ened up with and it would take a little over 4 earths to support my lifestlye if everyone in the world had the same as mine. The biggest thing that I can do to bring that number down has to do with food. I am not that conscience about whether my food is locally grown or processed and that is someting that is relatively easy to adjust and change for the future. I am pretty good about not driving my car all the time, especially when it is nice out I will walk, bike, or take the bus. My roommate and I are really conscience about our trash ouput and what we recycle, we try to make sure our output of trash is as little as possible. The same goes for electricity for our apartment, every one of our outlets has a power strip that can be turned off when we are not ussing things in that room or for when we leave.

Read 'n' Seed 1: Green From the Ground Up

Title: Green From the Ground Up by David Johnston and Scott Gibson
Summary: The book is about how to build a house from the ground up using forward thinking theories and methods for buidling energy efficient homes using the best green materials.
Why I chose this book: This book really interested me because there is so many things that can be done in our own homes to better the environment, reduce the bills, and make it last longer. Construction is something that I am not an expert in but a field that I am very interested in.
Info: I borrowed the book from my roommate who works on a construction crew but here is some links to information about the author, book review, and where you can purchse it yourself. Green From the Ground Up
Book Details: There are about 320 pages and 16 chapter to the book. I will dividing it 4 ways 4 chapters at a time.

My name is Casey Mithun and this blog is for my Environmental Health class at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where I am pursuing my a degree in Community Health Education. My blog is going to be about little things that we can all do in our everyday lives to better our world, community, and ourselves.

There are 6 types of posts on my blog.  They include:

1. Advocacy Project

2. Eye Openers

3. Refelctions

4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change

5. Read 'n' Seed

6. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all five kinds of posts.  You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page.  All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Kristen@Kristen's Atmosphere

 http://kristensatmosphere.blogspot.com/

2. Callie@Ecofriendly with Calista: 

http://ecofriendlywithcalista.blogspot.com/

3. Heid@Heidis Healthy Environment:

http://heidishealthyenvironment.blogspot.com/

4. Kara@Karas Coming Clean:

 http://karascomingclean.blogspot.com/

5. Danielle@Tree Hugging with Dani:

 http://treehuggingwithdani.blogspot.com/

6. Ashley@Ashleys Fresh Air Atmosphere:

http://ashleysfreshairatmosphere.blogspot.com/

7. Sonny@Sonny Days Ahead

http://sonnydaysahead.blogspot.com/

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."