We help our clients to build more energy efficient and livable buildings. Virtually all projects have sustainability as a key design parameter. We have a long-standing interest and involvement in sustainability and green design. Through our research and practice guideline work, we have helped to shape the way the industry approaches energy and environmental issues in buildings.
RDH focuses on reducing the loads on a building and typically includes the following:
- Design meetings and charettes with owners, architects and builders to establish energy performance goals and review building enclosure options.
- A thermal analysis of the proposed building enclosure design using two and three-dimensional software to determine the overall and effective thermal resistance (R-values) for the designs being considered.
- Environmental and climatic load analysis.
- Technical consulting on building products and material specifications for energy performance.
- Whole building energy simulation and consulting with other project team members to determine the potential energy savings of the building enclosure design options.
- Review of building enclosure performance for local building code and ASHRAE 90.1 compliance.
- Estimation of construction costs, a financial analysis, and estimation of energy savings payback periods.
- Preparation of a report documenting the predicted energy performance and the potential energy savings for each of the design options.
- Commissioning services during construction including field review, whole-building air-leakage testing and infrared thermography.
- Lifecycle costing and analysis of energy upgrade options including maintenance and renewals costs and considerations.
A member of the CaGBC A member of USGBC
Regarding Michael Aoki-Kramer, RDH Principal located in the Seattle office:
“You offered clear options for solutions that benefit us as individuals and the construction industry in the short run, the earth in the long run, and made it clear building science is just good common sense. “
Carol Volpe, organizer for Renton Technical College lecture series is entitled “Green, Greener, Greenest: Digging Beneath the Surface of Green . . . and Why It Matters to the Construction Industry”
