Building Systems Scavenger Hunt

1. Building Systems Scavenger Hunt Monica Rodriguez IND 5615 | Fall 2011

2. Assignment 1 • Three components of a building envelope • Three building layers • Energy Star® rated item • UL listed item • Porous pavement • Plenum • Service core • Different metabolic rates • Accessible doorway • UV and IR radiation • BONUS • Photovoltaic panel • LEED GA, LEED AP, or LEED AP + documentation.

3. building envelope Location: Miami-Dade College, Koffeehouse. The building envelope is defined in the book as the point at which the inside comes in contact with the outside. Here is where materials, energy, and living things pass in and out. This picture points out the door and the windows to the Koffehouse.

4. building envelope (continued) Location: Miami- Dade College, Koffeehouse. Besides doors and windows, a building envelope also includes walls, and floors as shown in this picture.

5. building layers Location: Miami-Dade College, parking garage. Multistory buildings are layered in order to show the relation that each level has to the ground. In this photo I am standing in ground level, where the main access to the building is located. Here, there is maximum exposure to surface activities and sounds. Higher is up is the near-surface layer and the sky layer which is the highest.

6. building layers (continued) Location: Miami-Dade College, Koffeehouse area. This photo shows an example of a subsurface layer and its relationship to the surface layer. Subsurface layers are isolated by enclosure; they are located below the surface or ground level.

7. building layers (continued 2) Location: Miami-Dade College, parking garage top floor. The sky layer is the highest layer in a building. It is too high to be easily accessible by stairs. The sky layer is separated from the surface layer by its height and it features greater views and privacy as well as greater exposure to natural elements like the wind and sun.

8. building layers (continued 3) Location: Miami-Dade College, parking garage. In this photo, I am standing in the near-surface layer. This layer is accessible by stairs and features and more privacy and better views that below.

9. energy Star® Location: My home. Product: printer. The energy star label was created to help consumers to rapidly identify energy efficient products. Examples of energy star® products include appliances and lighting.

10. energy star® (continued) Location: My home. Product: printer. Close-up of the printer with the energy star® label.

11. energy star® (continued 2) Location: Home Depot, Kendall Drive. Product: refrigerator. This is an example of another energy star® product.

12. UL-listed product Location: parking garage. Item: UL-listed light bulb. UL, or Underwriters Laboratories, is an agency that tests different products, systems, and materials in order to determine their relationship to life, fire and casualty hazards.

13. UL-listed product (continued) Location: parking garage. Item: UL-listed light bulb. This is a close-up of the light bulb with its UL label.

14. porous pavement Location. My home. I am pointing at the porous pavement located in my backyard. Porous pavement has a water-permeable surface. Made without fine filler materials, its resulting void spaces allow for the infiltration of water.

15. plenum Location: Miami-Dade College, supplies closet. We usually don’t see it, but between one level and the next there is a plenum space. Plenum is an enclosed portion of a building that designed to allowed the movement of air, forming part of an air distribution systems. Like this example, in some cases the plenum is exposed.

16. service core Location: Miami-Dade College, building M A service core is the grouping of mechanical, plumbing and electrical chases, which carry wires and pipes vertically from one floor to the next. These are usually located and run through the elevator shaft.

17. service core (continued 2) Location: Miami-Dade College, building M. This is a closer look at the entrance to this building’s service core. There is an opening for ventilation and a door for its access. Access to the service core is restricted to the public.

18. metabolic rates Location: outside of Our Lady of Lourdes church. Me and my dad are posing in this photo as two examples of different metabolic rates. Our metabolic rate is the rate at which our body burns calories. The book states that metabolic rate varies with health, age and sex which is why me and my dad are a good example of this.

19. accessible doorway Location: Miami-Dade College, building 4. The term accessible refers to handicapped accessibility as required by ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) codes. This picture shows signage with a wheelchair logo that indicates that this bathroom is accessible. The second label reads “activate switch to operate” which means that there is a switch that allows for the door to be opened automatically.

20. ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) source Location: Tanning salon at London Square Plaza. Stand-up Tanning bed. Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of a visible light, but longer than x-rays. Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light. Tanning beds are a source of UV and IR radiation.

21. UV and IR source (continued) Location: Friend’s house. Lakes of the Meadow. A more obvious source of UV and IR rays is the sun, which is the source of almost all of our energy resources.

22. bonus#1: photovoltaic panel. Location: Friend’s house. Twin Lakes gated community. Photovoltaic technology converts solar energy directly into electricity at a site. PV collectors provide energy for heating water or for electrical power.

23. bonus#2 LEED AP documentation Location: Friend’s House, Lakes of the Meadow. LEED AP BD+ C certified. Business card.

24. bonus#2 (continued) Location: Friend’s house, Lakes of the Meadow. My friend is the receptionist at HADP Architecture INC. One of the employees is Carla Gomez who is LEED AP BD+C certified. This is her business card.