Peter Fairley

Peter Fairley, a journalist based in British Columbia, covers environmental issues for multiple publications including Technology Review and Nature.

Articles

ARTICLES

Feedback Loop

Continuing Education: Post-Occupancy Evaluations

Feedback Loop: With a frequent gap between predicted and actual performance, post-occupancy evaluations begin to catch on.
Peter Fairley
August 16, 2015
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Post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, is a diverse practice that can feed back data into the design process on everything from energy and water consumption to workplace satisfaction and even occupants' sleep cycles.


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Arup WeatherShift

Wizards of Weather

New tools for predicting the effects of climate change promise better-performing and more adaptable buildings.
Peter Fairley
March 16, 2015
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Arup’s WeatherSHIFT results for a proposed development in Mesa, Arizona, show an increase in average temperatures by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, resulting in a tenfold increase in heat stress. Architects and engineers must consider a building site's climate to create structures that efficiently keep occupants comfortable. 


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Wizards of Weather

Peter Fairley
March 16, 2015
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New tools for predicting the effects of climate change promise better-performing and more adaptable buildings. Image courtesy Arup Arup’s WeatherSHIFT results for a proposed development in Mesa, Arizona, show an increase in average temperatures by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, resulting in a tenfold increase in heat stress. Architects and engineers must consider a building site's climate to create structures that efficiently keep occupants comfortable. There are, however, basic deficiencies in the weather data that they commonly plug into energy simulations. Some new tools are addressing this data gap—tools that could help buildings to
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Seattle's Bullitt Center Shines

Peter Fairley
April 30, 2014
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Designed to be the greenest commercial building in the world, the six-story structure is outperforming its energy goals with an integrated design and motivated tenants. The Bullitt Center used 75 percent less energy than a new building that meets Seattle’s rigorous energy code. The designers of Seattle’s Bullitt Center have overachieved. The Miller Hull Partnership, co-founded by the late Robert Hull, set out to demonstrate that a six-story office building could generate all of the energy it needs, but after one year of operation, it is sending a sizable energy surplus to the local power grid, according to data released
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Converging networks

Converging Networks

As building-control apps go mainstream, home-automation providers explore wireless options.
Peter Fairley
April 16, 2014
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The Apple Store isn't a place you would typically look for residential building components. But you can find a new Wi-Fi-enabled lighting system from Philips called HUE there. This screw-in LED replacement for traditional bulbs can be easily controlled for color, color temperature, and intensity from a computer or smartphone.


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10 U.S. Cities Tackle Efficiency

Peter Fairley
February 12, 2014
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Buildings are the source of one half to three-quarters of greenhouse-gas emissions in most American cities. Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and six more large cities have joined forces to tackle the problem by targeting their biggest buildings. “The largest buildings tend to be 3 to 4 percent of the overall number of buildings but account for 40 to 50 percent of the square footage and energy consumption. You have this terrific opportunity to work with a handful of buildings and make a big dent,” says Laurie Kerr, director of the City Energy Project (CEP), which launched in late January.
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Green Globes Gets a New Leader

Peter Fairley
January 16, 2014
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The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standard, long synonymous with environmentally conscious construction in the U.S., is being forced to share some of its limelight, first with the Living Building Challenge, which has only certified a handful of buildings since its 2006 launch but is steadily gaining momentum since its 2006 launch, and now with Green Globes. Photo © Jill Richards Jerry Yudelson, president of Green Globes The rating system, which advertises cheaper and faster certification, is winning some important backers. In October the U.S. Government Services Administration (GSA) recommended, for the first time, that federal agencies consider Green Globes
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Performance Anxiety

Peter Fairley
December 16, 2013
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Creating buildings that deliver on progressively more ambitious environmental goals will require energy simulations that reliably predict post-occupancy consumption. Higher energy performance has evolved from an aspiration to an expectation. Owners of buildings—especially those certified under rating systems like LEED—increasingly count on an energy savings payback. And a wave of “net zero energy” buildings promises to generate enough energy on-site from renewable sources to equal or exceed demand. As a result, predictive energy models face new scrutiny. “In the last five years, energy modelers have learned that they will have to answer for their models,” says Laurie Canup, an associate
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