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Green Home
A green home is a type of house designed to be Sustainability, environmentally sustainable. Green homes focus on the efficient use of "Low-energy house, energy, Water conservation, water, and Sustainable architecture, building materials". A green home may use sustainably sourced, environmentally friendly, and/or recycled building materials. This includes materials like Reclaimed lumber, reclaimed wood, Scrap, recycled metal, and low Volatile Organic Compound, VOC (volatile organic compound) paints. Additionally, green homes often prioritize Efficient energy use, energy efficiency by incorporating features, such as high-performance Building insulation, insulation, energy-efficient Major appliance, appliances, and Home automation, smart home technologies that monitor and optimize energy usage. Water conservation is another important aspect, with green homes often featuring water-saving fixtures, rainwater harvesting systems, and Greywater, grey water recycling systems to reduce wate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Energy
Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is an essential source of renewable energy, and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include designing a building for better daylighting (architecture), daylighting, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and organizing spaces that ventilation (architecture), naturally circulate air. In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Policy Act Of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems, changed US energy policy by providing Energy subsidies#Allocation of subsidies in the United States, tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types. The most consequential aspect of the law was to greatly increase ethanol production to be blended with gasoline. The law also repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, effective February 2006. Provisions General provisions * The Act increases the amount of biofuel (usually ethanol) that must be mixed with gasoline sold in the United States to by 2006, by 2009 and by 2012; two years later, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 extended the target to by 2022. * Under an amendment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Association Of Home Builders
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is one of the largest trade associations in the United States, representing the interests of home builders, developers, contractors, and associated businesses. NAHB is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Overview Founded in 1942, NAHB is a federation of more than 700 state and local home builder associations (HBAs). About a third of the more than 140,000 NAHB members are home builders or remodelers. The rest of the membership works in closely related specialties such as sales and marketing, housing finance, and building materials manufacturing and supply. Each year, NAHB members build approximately 80% of new homes constructed in the United States. NAHB's various groups analyze policy issues, take the industry's story to the public through the media and other outlets, monitor and work toward improving the housing finance system, analyzing and forecasting economic and consumer trends, and educating, training, and disseminating infor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Code Council
The International Code Council (ICC), also known as the Code Council, is an American nonprofit standards organization sponsored by the building trades, which was founded in 1994 through the merger of three regional model code organizations in the American construction industry. Since 2023, ICC's headquarters has been based at Capitol Crossing in Washington, D.C. The organization creates the International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC), two model building code, model building codes, which have been adopted for use as a base code standard by most jurisdictions in the United States. The ICC's model codes have been criticized for inflating housing costs and reducing housing supply in the United States through arbitrary and stringent standards that do little for safety and are out of sync with best practices in other countries. The IBC has contributed to the spread of 5-over-1 type of buildings across the US and contributed to a lack of medium-density ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Price Of Oil
The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC Reference Basket, Tapis crude, Bonny Light, Urals oil, Isthmus, and Western Canadian Select (WCS). Oil prices are determined by global supply and demand, rather than any country's domestic production level. Through the years The global price of crude oil was relatively consistent in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This changed in the 1970s, with a significant increase in the price of oil globally. There have been a number of structural drivers of global oil prices historically, including oil supply, demand, and storage shocks, and shocks to global economic growth affecting oil prices. Notable events driving significant price fluctuations include the 1973 OPEC oil embargo targeting nations that had supported I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Building
Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages.Yan Ji and Stellios Plainiotis (2006): Design for Sustainability. Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, largest annual emissions are from China followed by the United States. The United States has List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita, higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are Big Oil, large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before. Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 (2575 ), of which 484±20 (177 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Panel
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct current (DC) electricity, which can be used to power various devices or be stored in battery (electricity), batteries. Solar panels are also known as solar cell panels, solar electric panels, or PV modules. Solar panels are usually arranged in groups called arrays or systems. A photovoltaic system consists of one or more solar panels, an solar inverter, inverter that converts DC electricity to alternating current (AC) electricity, and sometimes other components such as charge controller, controllers, Measuring instrument, meters, and solar tracker, trackers. Most panels are in solar farms or Rooftop solar power, rooftop solar panels which grid-connected photovoltaic system, supply the electricity grid. Some advantages of solar panels are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Landscaping
Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden. Benefits Maintenance Natural landscaping is adapted to the climate, geography and hydrology and should require no pesticides, fertilizers and watering to maintain, given that native plants have adapted and evolved to local conditions over thousands of years. However, these applications may be necessary for some preventive care of trees and other vegetation. Native plants suit today's interest in "low-maintenance" gardening and landscaping, with many species vigorous and hardy and able to survive winter cold and summer heat. Once established, they can flourish without irrigation or fertilization, and are resistant to most pests and diseases. Many municipalities have quickly recognized the benefits of natural landscaping due to municipal budget constraints and reductions and the general public ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daylighting (architecture)
Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, other openings, and Reflective surfaces (climate engineering), reflective surfaces so that direct or indirect sunlight can provide effective internal lighting. Particular attention is given to daylighting while designing a building when the aim is to maximize visual comfort or to reduce energy use. Energy savings can be achieved from the reduced use of artificial (electric) lighting or from passive solar heating. Artificial lighting energy use can be reduced by simply installing fewer electric lights where daylight is present or by automatically Dimmer, dimming or switching off electric lights in response to the presence of daylighta process known as daylight harvesting. The amount of daylight received in an internal space can be analyzed by measuring illuminance on a grid or undertaking a daylight factor calculation. Computer programs such as Radiance (software), Radiance allow an architect or engineer to quickly calculat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Rebecca Blumenstein. The NBCUniversal News Group also comprises MSNBC, the network's 24-hour liberal cable news channel, as well as business and consumer news channels CNBC and CNBC World, the Spanish language and United Kingdom-based Sky News. NBC News aired the first regularly scheduled news program in American broadcast television history on February 21, 1940. The group's broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NBCUl's headquarters in New York City. The division presides over the flagship evening newscast ''NBC Nightly News'', the world's first of its genre morning television program, ''Today (American TV program), Today'', and the longest-running television series in American hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
