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Build It Green

APP-TECH Incorporated is a firm specializing in Energy Efficient Building Design, Code Compliance & Outdoor Lighting Design. We have been in business since 1982 and are located in Santa Cruz California. Our services include the integrated design of energy efficient Building Envelope, HVAC, Plumbing, and Lighting Systems for Residential & Commercial buildings. We can show you how your project can cost-effectively meet and exceed California’s Title-24 Building Energy Requirements.

Water Softener Replacements

Many of the building sites that we design plumbing and/or hydronic heating systems for have hard water. In an effort to be as “Green” as possible, we have stopped specifying traditional water softeners. App-tech now tailors the water treatment to the specific needs of each job. Our goal was to find a substitute for traditional water softeners that did not add chemicals such as sodium or potassium to the water and did not consume excessive amounts of water with back flushing cycles. We have spent a lot of effort checking out the fantastic claims of many of these products.

We have found only one test protocol that we believe accurately verifies the scale prevention properties of these systems. That test procedure is the DVGW (Deutscher Verein des Gas und Wasserfaches) Standard W 512. We will try to specify only products that have passed this test by an independent third party laboratory or that demonstrate similar performance. There is not currently any US standard test that is equivalent to this German test, but IAPMO is working on developing one. It will probably be another year or more before the IAPMO committee reaches consensus on a procedure.

Final Statement of Reasons

I have spent a lot of time over the last many years trying to improve the State’s Building Energy Code. 2 documents have been added to the Documents section of the website that deal with the adoption of the 2008 California Energy Code.

The first is called the Final Statement of Reasons (FSOR). When the CEC first proposed changes to the 2005 Energy Code they published an Initial Statement of Reasons explaining why the changes were necessary. The FSOR lists all the changes that developed during the adoption process prior to final adoption.

The second document is a summary of the CEC’s responses to all official comments made during the 2008 adoption process. The CEC staff either indicates how the comments were incorporated into the regulations, or why they were not. As you can see, many of my comments were ignored, but I did manage to get a few things changed.

Pat Splitt

Revised Website Design

I thought our last website design was OK, but it was all Flash based. Some of you had problems viewing the site, especially from business computers. So I have re-designed the site with almost no Flash. The only exception is in the Gallery section for viewing photos & videos.

The revised website now includes this (WordPress) Blog section. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to update the site and keep it from becoming too stale. Time will tell. If you want to comment on any of the Blog items, go right ahead. That’s what blogging is all about. If you want to leave a comment, click on the heading and a comment form will open.

Pat Splitt
Webmaster