Sweeney Blog

Before It's too Late, Distinguished Speaker Series

Written by Tim Sweeney | Nov 6, 2024 12:34:52 PM

On September 19, 2024, Tim Sweeney gave a presentation to the Dianne Dodd Cheseldine Distinguished Speaker Series at Truckee Meadows Community College. Below is an edited transcript of the presentation with the slides. You can watch the presentation on YouTube here. 

 

Building to Benefit the Planet

Presentation by Tim Sweeney, CEO of Simplus Systems

We need to reverse climate change and the problem is that buildings are a big part of what causes climate change and I'll explain all of that in a minute.

But let me first say that I am not a salesperson, this is not a sales presentation. I'm not a TEDX speaker. I'm not a professional speaker, this is an informational session and I'd like it to be a discussion. So, we're going to talk about how buildings are really one of the biggest sources of climate change, how sustainable buildings are really the solution both for new construction and retrofit, what proprietary and nonproprietary solutions are available to you to use, and how everybody really needs to stop wasting all of This. It's really simple to do it right if you know how. That's what I'm here for.

Climate change really is slowly killing all life on the planet. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

And that evidence is really everywhere. You can read the list and you've seen evidence of this before. Some people think it's just part of a natural cycle but if you look at CO2 emissions through the history of time it's exponentially increasing to a level we've never been able to even, not only not document but conceive of ever happening.

So, as I said before, we're both the answer and the problem. But there is a solution. At least part of it is sustainable buildings. There are some global plans on how we can get climate change to be reversed, but a lot of us don't really understand what to do about it. Hopefully, that's where I can help.

As Diane said I've had a whole bunch of years of experience. It all comes with time and luckily without too many errors, so without dwelling on that too long let's look at the solutions that we want to try to get towards.

 

The International Energy Agency, IEA, has come up with their 2050 Net Zero road map and the US has their own version of that. And there are some deadlines such as the 2030 one, which is only six years away. And to be honest I don't think we're going to make that because we need to have all new buildings be Net Zero ready by that time. And 20% of existing buildings need to be renovated by that time to be on track. By 2050 85% of buildings should be Net Zero ready, and I'll explain more what that really means. But we're not going to make this deadline and hopefully, we will get it down with enough understanding and effort by everybody who's involved.

This is exactly the problem. The greenhouse emissions were in 2022, 57 gigatons, and if we keep on going on this yellow path we're going to have our temperatures increase, by 2100, to 4.8 degrees, when we really need to get down to 2.7 degrees, to be on on this blue path and to really not have some terrible things happening.

To make matters worse the population is increasing. It's astounding to me how much growth is going to be happening. An equivalence of an entire New York City every 34 days for the next 40 years. That's just bizarre, but that is what's happening around the world and it needs to be done sustainably. We've got to stop this greenhouse gas problem.

So, Net Zero, what does it mean? Well, it's basically cutting carbon emissions, which are caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which makes, in essence, greenhouse gases. Cutting it down to a level where the planet can naturally absorb it and deal with it. So Net Zero just means getting to where we're sustainable. We've got a long way to go, unfortunately.

There are four major ways we can reduce the greenhouse gases. Operational carbon is the fuel we burn to heat and cool and run, and power, and light our buildings. We can cut down on that. We can reduce the embodied carbon, the fuel that's used to make buildings, make the materials, and transport the materials to the job site. There's some good movement towards clean energy and solar and such. And sequestering, capturing the carbon that's already out there, and that is being produced. That's a good reason not to cut down trees and make lumber. There are ways to redo it.

The problem is that 39% of all greenhouse gases are by building operations and building construction.

Meanwhile, the codes are not adequate. They don't really get buildings built that are of a nature that limits those fuel usages both from construction and from operation. These are a couple of projects that have been completed recently in the Reno area. Tilt up buildings you use a lot of energy just to make concrete, and the steel.  Wood without a lot of insulation is a problem, and of course, any casino down in Las Vegas is going to burn as much energy as they can to get in the paying customer. We've got to stop all of this waste.

Now, if we didn't have leaky buildings that would be half of the battle right there. But buildings do leak. They leak air, they leak energy, and it's likely, well it's certainly because they don't have air barriers that are adequate to stop the moisture and air from migrating, and they don't have the amount of insulation to keep us from having to burn more fuel.

As an example, one electrical outlet on an exterior wall can leak up to 55 gallons of water vapor per heating season. Just one outlet. Now if that moisture, and in Nevada it's dry outside typically, and more humid inside, if that pressure drive causes that moisture to get to a point where it can't evaporate, if the building's not leaky, well then that moisture can collect and cause condensation, mold, deterioration, a lot of repair work, expenses, and health problems. So, you need to have an air barrier basically on the inside of the building to stop that moisture from getting out, but then there's more to it that I'll explain about ventilation.

Thankfully people are problem solvers. We've had a lot of problems that we've all had to face and we're pretty good at rising to the challenge, especially when it's our own dollars, and our own lives, and our own futures at stake. We can tackle this problem if we really put our minds to it. But it's all again lowering the amount of fossil fuels that we burn.

So let's talk about how buildings can be made better, and basically, it's two ways. Reducing the operational carbon, burning less fuel operating them, and reducing the embodied carbon by using less fuel making and transporting the materials. We'll start with the operational carbon first. Remember these numbers one and two, because that's really the basis of of everything.

 

The best way to make the most efficient, energy-efficient buildings, is with a way of designing that is called Passive House design. I'll explain how that name is a little confusing. But basically, you have the best way of designing that we're going to be coupling with the best way of building, that's the one-two punch we're going to be talking about.

Passivhaus is a German word that means inactive, passive, and it also means building. So, inactive building relates to the mechanical systems. This coffee thermos is a perfect example of something passive, you build it once it does its job. You can keep using it over and over as opposed to having to keep pouring more energy into something. This is a 26-story passive house dormitory that has been completed in 2018. Not one of my projects, I wish it was, but it is an example that you can do more than just houses.

Okay, here's a little little video about what a passive house is.

 

The video talked about windows being triple pane, in this area double pane is often adequate. And as I said before, it's not just for houses.

To prove the Energy savings, the column on the left shows energy used per year as, 4.75 thousand BTUs, that's basically 4.75 thousand candles per year, per square foot. It is minor compared to the way that homes are being built nowadays, and homes that exist. 20 times more energy consumed as shown in the right column. The center column shows the latest codes use 10 times more energy. There is 85 to 95% less leakage in energy use, fuel cost, and pollution just by using proper design.

It also makes a more comfortable, healthy, and enjoyable living space, besides all the fuel savings. There's less maintenance and longer-lasting materials. The more you go towards the right on this scale, the closer you get to Net Zero to true Energy Efficiency. And you are getting rid of the way we're building today. Greater energy savings, more comfort, healthier environment. Yeah, it is going to cost a little bit more, but without any other considerations, it's worth it. Because you're going to get that money payback, plus. And there are ways to save money with the construction systems that I'll tell you about.

Reducing embodied carbon, the material or the energy that's used to make materials, build buildings, and transport things.


 

RSMeans is the U.S.'s largest, most well-respected estimating service. They publish all kinds of estimating guides for contractors, architects, and engineers. They did a side-by-side test of a two-story, stick-built, 2x6 home compared to an OSB, which means Oriented Strand Board- it's kind of like a particle board, panelized house. They found that the panelized house was 55% faster to put up, and took 41% less labor. Now that all translates to cost. And that means it's easier and there's less call back if you're a contractor, that's very important. There are lots of different ways of panelizing, though. I'm going to run through these so that you know your options and you can make your own informed decisions.

We're talking first of all about what's called “Wood Open Wall”. And it's basically stick framing done in the factory. Making panels that are the size that can fit onto trucks, and go out, set it into the field, and you save a lot of time in the field, at least for setting, doing the framing part of it. But you still have to insulate it, you still have to sheetrock the inside of it. It is still stick framing, it's still subject to fire, it's still subject to mold, and other problems. Typically it's done with fiberglass insulation which often sags and causes gaps in the insulation, and every time you have a wood stud, you have what we just heard was a Thermal Bridge. A place where you have lesser thermal resistance compared to the rest of the wall. Even though you may say that it's an R-21 wall it actually often performs only R-15. And you can have hot and cold spots. Basically, it's better than stick framing in the field but it's still, still stick framing.

There's another version of stick framing, panelized, which is by the company called CertainTeed. They supply a lot of different building materials. They have what they call their OPA, or “One Precision Assemblies.” And that comes actually with the sidings, and with the windows, and this one actually has insulation in place. They leave off the drywall so you can run the electrical. And then put in the drywall inside, but it's still stick framing, it still has the same problems that any wood project does. And there's a lot of shop labor that goes into it, so it's not an inexpensive solution. Again the thermal resistance is really not all that great.

Now here's where we start getting into panels, true panels This is the OSB panel that I was talking about before. This is what RSMeans did in their evaluation compared to stick framing. And it's definitely a more energy-efficient way of building because there's basically uninterrupted insulation along the width of that panel, and there's just what are called splines, doubled-up studs, that happen every 4 feet on center. So you save a whole lot of Thermal Bridges. And it's done in a factory, so there's little shop labor, and it goes up fast in the field so there's little field labor, so you save a lot of money there. The cost is going to be more than stick framing just on a material basis, but you save a whole lot in time and effort. And often it's actually less expensive than stick framing. You do have to use drywall to finish off the inside of it because it is wood, unless you like the wood and you don't need a fire-rated interior, then you can live with OSB if you choose to.

The other kind of SIP, or Structural Insulated Panel, is MgO. MgO is a chemical name for magnesium oxide. It's just cement board, it happens to be made from magnesite ore. The cement most people think of around here is Portland cement, which is made by burning limestone, and so it's just a different kind of cement board. It is one of the two kinds of materials that they make MgO SIPs out of. The one pictured here happens to be a sulfate formulation and the more common one is called the magnesium chloride formulation. They're both good, they just have different features to them, but the bottom line is that there is very little shop or field labor required. Even though you're going to be paying more for materials than sticks, it's definitely, by the time you get everything totaled up, a more affordable way to go. So affordable that you can pay for those passive house increase costs and still end up with an overall less expensive building that is healthier, performs better, is more sustainable, exactly where we're trying to get to.

This is a little bit more information on Structural Insulated Panels. You'll see this it's a sandwich of insulation often expanded polystyrene or Styrofoam, and the cement boards, and then there's different kinds of splines that you can use. Metal has been used quite a lot. I don't agree with that approach because it's a thermal bridge, which means you need to put additional insulation over the exterior to stop the temperature from reaching that metal. Or you can use synthetics such as fiberglass, that's the best way to go because the thermal expansion coefficient of fiberglass is the same as the MGO board. Or you can use wood. You better use dry wood that doesn't shrink on you. Or you can use what are called block splines or surface splines which are kind of like what they call biscuits in cabinet work. But again, MgO is non-combustible, antifungal, fire-resistant, water-resistant, and non-toxic. This (illustration on the right) is a mini sample of a panel cross-section, with a thinner piece of insulation in the middle.

 

This represents two examples of using the magnesium oxide Structural Insulated Panels mentioned above, in projects. They happen to be two schools, one in North Carolina, and one in Florida. Both of them were completed from groundbreaking to students sitting in their seats in under 120 calendar days. Which is crazy fast. And as you see, the contractor saved over a million dollars in what are called General Conditions, the overhead cost, because it was done so fast. Hopefully, that went back to the owner's pocket. But these are two examples of buildings that have been done. One of them in Florida even survived Hurricane Irma with just a couple of windows that blew up out, they were fastened incorrectly. Even though other buildings in the area had lots of structural damage the Florida building didn't.

If you're doing what's called Prevailing Wage projects, that means you're required for any project using government money on a government project, or government-funded project to pay a minimum wage which is often equivalent to union wages. If the majority of your building is panelized you save a whole ton of prevailing wage costs by building those materials in a factory, shipping it out there, getting it up more quickly, and accurately, and easily done. So as it says, save a lot of time, labor costs, and grief.

Now, beyond the standard MgO panels, you add Passive House features to them and then you get the best of both worlds. There are two kinds of panels that you can use that have Passive House features. There are others on the market but these are the two that are more common. One is basically a wood double wall system. So, they have enough insulation, and often it's mineral wool or sometimes they'll use some organic insulation, enough insulation to get the R-value they need. They will also put on an interior air barrier and an exterior weather barrier. That's a great way of doing it but with the wood wall panels, again, you're combustible and you have a whole lot of shop labor because there's a whole lot of framing that goes on with it. And you have to add the drywall. So, you're ending up with more embodied carbon, but it's still a good alternative compared to conventional construction.

Or you use the magnesium oxide SIPs. This happens to be the image of our Simplus System panel. And it'll come in large units, (it's) very similar to this over here (Double Wood Wall + PH) except we're not using wood, we're using the MgO panels, (plus) the exterior weather barriers and interior air barriers.  Like we say, it's Legos for adults. Just set it down, glue it, and screw it, and then do the next one.

When you think about all the different building systems that are available to you, the common standard everybody uses is wood framing. And if you think about what's the most energy efficient, and (what's) the least, the slowest, and the fastest relative to wood framing, most of the methods may be a little faster, a little slower, but they're all definitely less energy efficient. In the upper right corner, you have, 55% faster than wood, and 80 to 95% more energy efficient. The double wood wall panel will be in the same energy-efficient range, and it'll be just as fast in the field but it will end up costing you a little bit more.

When it comes to embodied carbon and R-values this is really where the important things are happening. This is the amount of Kg of CO2 that are embodied in a standard wood wall, 17.4 Kg versus the Simplus System.  And again, this is not a sales job, but I just want you to know what's available. And other people who make this kind of system. Unfortunately, there is nobody else because I invented it. But we have less than half of that embodied carbon, which has been proven by analysis of a software called PHribbon, and we're double the R-value of the standard wood wall. So you put together magnesium oxide-based SIPs with Passive House and our own secret sauce, and we really believe it's the most efficient way to build.

This is more of the same. Roof panels sitting on wall panels sitting on floor panels. All of them are done with the same Passive House and magnesium oxide approach, but with 20% less framing cost. It depends upon how much of your building is going to be built with panels as to how much money you can save by using these kinds of systems. We're about ready to go to the Building Department on a Virginia City Highlands home and we're using panels for the roof, interior walls, exterior walls, and floor systems, for two stories. The foundation is the only thing that's not panels and it could be, but we're dealing with rock situations so it's best to use concrete. This house is coming in at 20% less construction cost than stick framing. The bottom line is, if you have a $12 million project you can save about $1.33 million. That's 10,000 additional, free, energy-efficient space that is available, it can be put to whatever use you have, whether it's housing, whether it's any other kind of building.

The dollar per R-value is what it all boils down to. 64 cents a square foot of wall area for our system, versus a code wall, versus the double wall, and here's (the fourth row) standard tilt-up concrete and (fifth row) concrete block. The trouble with the concrete and block is typically they only put 2 inches of rigid insulation in them, and you need typically, scaffolding, cranes, and more equipment to get those things built, often heavier foundations, more earthwork, more reinforcing, more concrete. This (Simplus) is a light system and you can avoid a lot of those problems.

You take what used to be 39% and we believe we're down to 7% or even less depending upon the project, and how much of the building is made with the Simplus System. Again, the choice is between many different systems but it's up to the owners to determine what is really best for their needs.

Let's see what the rest of the world is doing. Especially regarding Passive House Design. I showed you this dormitory. 26 stories, well, yes it is panelized also. I bet they use metal studs in here, but I would also bet that they have a lot of insulation on the outside to compensate for that. So dormitories are definitely easy to do.

This is a multi-family high-rise building that's about ready to start Construction in Vancouver. All Passive House. Whether it's panelized I don't know.

This is Multi-family, it actually has commercial space on the bottom so let's call it mixed-use.

Office Buildings. The fact that they can get by with all that glass means there's a whole lot of insulation somewhere.

Affordable Housing.

Elementary Schools.

Colleges.

Resorts.

Historic Renovations.

Historic or even non-historic renovations, you can retrofit the interior with the same kind of Passive House approaches. They're not as effective but they do work, and you will definitely reduce the amount of energy usage. The trick of course is when are you going to have the money to be able to put into place those changes? And that's why things are probably not going to happen on that International Energy Agency timeline.

Or exterior retrofits as this European building illustrates. It's called an EnerPHit. The PH of course relates to Passive House and it's an energy retrofit.

There are new building codes out there that are available to use. Here is the link to the organization ZERO CODE. They haven't been adopted. I understand that the City of Reno and Washoe County are looking at their planning, regulations, and codes. Hopefully, they're taking a look at this. I would expect so.

There is a study that's been done by a company called Emu Passive, that looked at all of the building codes and building standards across the nation and found that the passive house way of doing things is indeed the most energy efficient. See the seminar recording here and get a copy of Emu's report here. I'd like to point this out, the report covers how current building codes fail at delivering resilient and healthy buildings. It's more than just burning energy it's making good environments.

There are local sources of funding, incentives, and tax relief programs, at least directions that you can find from Kirsten, a great lady. Kirsten runs the Nevada Clean Energy Fund and she's building one heck of a of a group of people to really help redirect where Nevada is going. She also can help you with learning what to do about federal tax incentives. 

Here you can find information about Federal Tax Incentives from the Department of Energy.

So we're getting to the bottom lines. My personal recommendation is: yes let's get the codes going to where they need to be. Let's limit greenhouse gases. Let's promote better living and working environments for health and sustainability. Let's get some strong tax and rebate incentives going. Well, there's your political football. We're going to have both sides debating who's going to be able to do it and who's not going to be able to do it, unfortunately. It'd be wonderful if we could reward carbon reduction practices with tax and other rebates. And if we could actually penalize people who are not carrying their share of the load.

So, we all need to be responsible, if we're going to be building, if we're going to be retrofitting, we need to do it the right way. That goes for owners and developers, all professionals, code people, everybody. We need to be the adults in the room.

So, now you know ways to build more efficiently. You know how to do it with Passive House Design. You know how to do it with factory-panelized buildings. All these benefits come at about the same cost as for what we're paying for construction right now. So why would we not do it this way? Well everybody's used to doing things the way that they always have and everybody's in their boxes, and it's like trying to steer the proverbial Battleship, it takes a long time. But we don't have a long time. So, before it's too late, do what you can do.

Let's take action. As I said before our futures depend upon it, especially our children, and our children's children's futures. And it's up to you. I'm trying to do what I can do but I'm just one person. So please do what everybody can do here.

Click the above image to download the slides.