Whitin Mill – Greening of the Blackstone
May 8, 2008
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- Plaza
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- Dennis Rice
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- Pagoda
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- Tulip wood Soundboards
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- Old water turbine
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- Mumford River
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- Art Gallery
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- Whitin Mill
The Whitin Mill (built in 1826) rising up along the Mumford river- tributary to the 45 mile long Blackstone River-has recently been transformed, along with three adjacent buildings including an old forge with an intact foundation from 1772, through a five year sustainable renovation project led by Alternatives. True to the spirit of innovation that drove the Whitin Mill to become the worlds leader in textile machinery manufacturing (cotton spinning rings produced through the 1970’s) Alternatives has delievered a green, “social capital” rich complex comprised of a theater, offices, art studio space, apartments, and a restaurant. 100% of HVAC demand will come from 5 geothermal wells dug down 1500 feet to 52 degree F water, saving $60,000/year in heating/cooling costs. Power for the buildings will be provided by solar and hydro power. 5% of the property’s 240,000 kW-hr annual demand will come from 32 solar panels (12,000 kW-hrs a year) while the remaining 80% will come from a soon to be completed 37 kW hydro turbine (320 kW-hrs/year) which will sell power at night back to the power company translating in savings of over $30,000 from unpaid utility bills and an additional $12,000+ from selling back to the grid.
95 % of the materials from the site were recycled, including the use of a diseased tulip tree that was cut and boarded for use as sound control panels in the theater. Built wood parts were routinely reused for flooring and the deck of the plaza is made from recycled plastic-wood composite. Take a tour yourself, it is an inspired work for an inspiring future, especially for the slumbering Blackstone Valley.
For more information go to http://www.telegram.com/article/20080422/NEWS/804220498
and http://www.alternativesnet.org/whitin_mill_restoration.asp
May 18, 2008 at 12:46 am
Design is a concept in America that people seem to be obsessed with. This can be positive or negative. “Going green” with the design of your home can be a positive impact on the environment, while renovating and not “going green”, can be a waste of time, money and resources. For each room in your home, there are statistics that are remarkable that go unnoticed. Let’s start in the kitchen. Your refrigerator uses 6% of your home’s energy, and all of your appliances are about 20% of your energy bill. Your faucets use about 4 gallons of water per minute, meaning that you waste about 2 gallons per minute doing so. For flooring in your kitchen, most materials especially carpet, use many toxic chemicals which destroys your indoor environment. Here you are spending excess money on your health each year. Also, you have to replace your carpet every 5-10 years, you are adding money onto your budget. Your heating and cooling system accounts for 50%-70% of the energy used in your home. If your home is not properly insulated it causes the air to leak right out of your home, it is the leading cause of energy waste. Also, windows are important in the same aspect; your windows are also ways for heat or air condition to escape quickly, especially in old windows, or in ones that were not properly installed. Next is lighting, your lighting accounts for 7% of your home’s energy costs. Incandescent bulbs cost more money than CFL bulbs do. They also use 66% more energy, and do not last as long. Lastly, your fireplace is only using 5%-15% efficiency. This means that 95% of the heat that it is producing ends up going right out the chimney.
Fortunately, there is a way to conserve money and energy using simple fixtures in your home. To finish where we started, you can use “Energy-Star” appliances. All of the appliances use at least 10% less energy than required by the law and 40% less energy than regular models. The appliances usually save around 5.4% of total household energy. Next is faucets. Low flow faucets use aerators in them to use less water. They use 40% less water than regular faucets, and 2.5 gallons per minute versus 4. Another simple way to conserve water is to turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, it seems small but it can save hundreds of gallons per year. Flooring is a key component to making your space environmentally friendly. If carpet is your choice, try to use recycled fiber carpet. They are made from recycled materials, and also use less toxic chemicals. It costs about 25$ per yard. Heating and cooling flooring is also a way to conserve energy. This uses warm water running through a small pipe under your floor with a metal covering over it to conduct heat through your floor. This works with carpet and wood, but best with tile. Lastly, bamboo flooring is a good way to go if you’re looking for wood. This gives the same appearance of wood but is actually a grass so it doesn’t cut down trees in the rainforest. Also, bamboo grows faster because it is a grass. For insulation, a safe way to go is to use twice the insulation so air cannot leak out. To go a step further, there is recycled insulation made out of newspaper that works the same way. For your windows, Energy Star makes Low Emissive windows that save 15% more energy. These windows can last up to 30 years as well. For lighting, a more green way to go is CFL bulbs. They use 66% less energy and last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs. They save 3.6% on average. Lastly, the fireplace. The best alternative is a pellet stove. Pellet stoves have a 90%-95% efficiency rate. This is because the pellets that are used are compressed with less air and are recycled. They also burn longer and stay hotter because of the materials like sawdust, corn and ash that are in them.
May 18, 2008 at 4:10 pm
The Whitens mill is a prime example of a building that is environmentally friendly. They have many different systems that take advantage of the natural things the environment gives us. Design is an important part of any building because it shows how much of the natural environment you are actually using to help cut down on the emitting of the things that hurt the environment, like fossil fuels. The mill has large windows that allow in lots of light. Whenever they are using wood they used recycled wood that was from trees that they cut down, that were in their property. They found something for every kind of wood they cut down on. They also have a pagoda roof in one room that allows air to come in. they also have thin walls that allows air to circulate in and out. Most places today do not compare to the mill, or even the Clark Lasry Center. They were the fist building in Worcester to receive a gold rating from LEED organization.
If people made more buildings like those two the environment would be better because they would use natural processes to power and support their building. We could use window hoods like in the Lasry center to get shade and sunlight. Also CFL bulbs would be another good investment. They last longer and are more energy efficient. They would help cut down on electricity use. Also when constructing a building it would be smart to have one area in the sun and have large windows to let in light or use solar panels so they could take in the suns power. Another good idea would be to put in a wind turbine for the building. For the floors they could use recycled wood from trees that have been cut down. They could also try to use plants that we have an abundance of instead of using plants that we do not have as much of. If we made more sustainable buildings the environment would be a better place.
May 18, 2008 at 4:40 pm
The homes that we live in now have little or no green designs incorporated into them. First off, whenever we buy new appliances, flooring, or have other renovations done, most Americans just throw away the old stuff, and think that it just goes away forever. But the truth is that by not recycling these, they end up in landfills, causing their toxins to leach into ground water. When we are buying new appliances, we usually tend to look at the price tag on it in the store, and not stop to think about how much money it will save in the future. As for the fixtures we already have in our homes, they are not practical in terms of living green. We let so much heat and cool air out of our houses by our old windows, fireplaces, and by not having two different sets of doors leading inside the house, we let all of it go out the door. In our bathrooms, a lot of our fixtures are to blame for wasting water. Our older shower heads send out 5.5 gallons of water per minute, opposed to 2.2 gallons that newer shower heads let out. In our kitchens, the appliances alone are about 20% of our energy bill. Even though we contribute to wasting many valuable resources, our old fixtures and designs also contribute to wasting and costing more money.
A realistic alternative to be greener in our own homes is to replace all of our old fixtures with new, green ones. First, by switching your appliances to Energy Star appliances can save $80 a year in energy costs, while also saving the environment. If one in every ten houses used Energy Star appliances, the change would be like planting 1.7 million new acres of trees. Imagine how much we would save if ten out of ten homes would use these appliances. Outside of the kitchen, other green renovations can be done. Instead of buying new wood floors, bamboo flooring is the better way to go because it grows faster than trees do. Even though bamboo is better for flooring, you can buy wood flooring coming from certified sustainably harvested trees. These trees are carefully monitored to make sure the health and character of the forest is maintained. Also, installing large windows or a skylight can bring in natural sunlight, so you don’t have to use lights as much. But when we have to use lights, replacing a 100-watt incandescent with a 32-watt Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb, also known as CFL, will save you at least $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a CFL bulb, it will prevent enough pollution to equal removing one million cars from the road. By adding these new fixtures and designs to our homes, we can save money as well as save the environment.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=appliances.pr_appliances
http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/index.htm
http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/08/16/green-building-101-environmentally-friendly-lighting/
May 18, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Renewable Energy/Design
Renewable energy and design focus on making houses or business more energy efficient. They do that by new ways of energy such as solar, wind, geothermal hydro, and biomass. Right now we use 50% hydro, 43% biomass, 4.8%geothermal, 1.4% solar, and 8% wind. Biomass energy uses natural materials like trees and plants to make electricity. Biomass is the second-most common form of renewable energy we use in the United States, providing enough electricity to power more than two million homes. Worldwide, water is the most commonly used renewable energy resource, providing enough power to meet the needs of 28.3 million people. Right now hydro power provides about 10 percent of the electricity in the United States. The biggest hydroelectric dam in the United States is the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. It has four power plants with 33 generators, and makes enough electricity for more than two million homes. Geothermal is found under the earth. Because about 4 feet under the earth the temperature stays the same through out the year we are able to use that for heating and air conditioning. They way we do that is bay raising the temperature depending what season it is. Solar energy is from the sun and more than 10,000 homes in the United States are powered entirely by solar energy. Enough sunlight falls on the earth’s surface every hour to meet world energy demand for an entire year. Solar energy can be used in 2 ways a heat source or an electrical source. Wind power is from the wind and wind farms currently produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 600,000 families in the United States. An average wind speed of 14 miles per hour is needed to convert wind energy into electricity. There are many wind farms in Massachusetts including in Hull and a future one by the cape.
There is also ways you can be rated in how well or sustainable your building or house is with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) the Green Building Rating System. There are 4 levels lead certified, silver, gold , and platinum and it is out of 69 point system. So, there are many ways to make your house green or even just a little greener.
May 19, 2008 at 3:16 am
Sustainable design
Sustainable design is a major problem, not only can our buildings put less of an impact on our environment but they can benefit the environment. Buildings can have gardens and plants along the side and roof of the building, providing shelters and oxygen as well as insulating the building. Other design changes include bigger windows and window controls to control sunlight, heat, and shade. Also with alternating fuel sources and limited water needs the buildings can basically run by themselves.
Currently our buildings destroy habitats, and burn a tremendous amount of fuel. They leak harmful pollutants into the water and ground and harm the ecosystem, but with a little extra planning and money invested this can stop
May 19, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Electricity is the key to everything, People use electricity to power their homes, electronics, and just about everything that we do in our lives. How we create electricity is the big controversy. There are four main ways to obtain electricity through non-renewable sources. They are Gas, Oil, Coal, and Nuclear. Today all three are used, however most produce CO2 that is harmful for the environment. Coal being the dirtiest also produces other harmful chemicals when burned like Sulfur Dioxide. Gas is the cleanest when burned, and oil is in between. Nuclear is another option it produces little to no hazards to the air, although it does produce nuclear waste, which can be harmful for the environment if not contained.
For the future, we need to find renewable sources that cause no waste and we can be completely dependent or in some ways independent from. One way that will be useful is using wind power. The wind is free and completely reusable, and it has no waste into the environment. Along with all of that it produces a significant amount of electricity unlike other renewable forms like solar. Geothermal is another interesting solution to the electricity problem. Again it is free and can last forever with careful moderation.