Archive by category 'Blog'
As the industry continues to create more and more LEED Certified buildings the bar is continuing to rise in the marketplace. Not only through new versions of LEED, LEED 2012 is on track for release at the end of the year, but also with the reality of…
Concrete is not new. It has been around for thousands of years. Everyone knows that.
Not everyone knows that production of portland cement (the magic binder in concrete) accounts for about 5% of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions. That’s a lot of CO2!
There is research going on at the Massachusetts…
No, this isn’t about glass and shading coefficients. This transparency is about a concept of knowing what effect a material has in the broader context of the environment, social equity, and human health.
If the building industry has access to in depth information on the building products they are choosing….
The recently completed FIU School of International and Public Affairs building has been officially certified LEED-Gold earning 44 points under LEED-NC v2.2! Designed by Arquitectonica and built by Suffolk Construction the FIU SIPA building incorporated a variety of sustainable elements making this truly…
If you are interested in Solar you may have heard about the FPL Solar Rebate Program. Probably in a negative way, “All of the money is already gone.” or “FPL opens the application process online and five minutes later all of the money is gone.” But did you know there is a…
When commissioning multi-stage HVAC equipment, remember to test the staging all the way up and all the way back down. A recurring issue has come up on a couple of our jobs recently and has also been noticed during past commissioning projects. Compressor staging logic is commonly set-up without…
The AIA Miami Chapter hosted their 57th Annual Design Awards and Gala on November 5th at the historic Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center in Downtown Miami. As a sponsor of the AIA Miami, The Spinnaker Group, is excited to see AIA Miami recognize the best sustainable design each…
Building commissioning is relatively new in south Florida, and every project I find myself explaining at least once just what the heck I was hired to do. My stock phrase is that commissioning is “quality control for the construction process”. True enough but it doesn’t really tell the contractors…
I’ve been writing a lot of functional test procedures recently. At least once a day I look up at the heavens (or my office ceiling fan) and say, “There must be a better way!”
In truth there is, and my workflow for writing procedures has gotten…
South Florida is sunny, humid, and typically has outdoor air temperatures within 15 degrees of your indoor temperature set point.
That means the two biggest energy consumption and energy demand drivers, (those items that increase your energy bill), which carry a higher percentage of the total energy costs in the…
