The cost of living in New York City can be so exorbitantly high that many residents will wrack their brains trying to think of ways that they can reduce their expenses. In addition, many residents may wonder how they can decrease the size of their carbon footprint while saving money. One solution for both of these problems that many people around the world are turning to is rooftop solar panels. However, this solution can be a difficult one to implement for many New York City residents who live in buildings that they do not personally own.

If a resident does not own their roof, they may not be able to simply walk onto it and install their own panels. However, they can work with the building’s other residents to petition the owner or manager to add solar panels to the structure. This process has been made even easier by the recent research that has been conducted by the Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.

According to David Bragdon who is the director of that office, New York City could easily add thousands of megawatts of solar power. He also claims that the city has been working on making the permit process easier for residents and easing certain regulations to make adding panels more feasible for all sorts of structures.

His comments were made after the city paid $450,000 to the Lidar Company to perform a series of investigative flights over the city. During these flights, they took a number of pictures and collected a lot of data about the million plus buildings in the city to create a detailed map. The information that was collected shows details about the shapes, angles, and sizes of all of the rooftops in the city. Based on this map, over two-thirds of the roofs in this city are well suited to the addition of rooftop solar panels.

If panels were added to all of the roofs where they could possibly be added, they would generate enough power to create half of the city’s electricity needs during peak hours! The professionals who conducted these studies claim that they analyzed not only the rooftops themselves but also how the shading in each area would affect how well the panels would work if they were added.

When residents of New York City are interested in finding out about the specific nature of their building in regards to its potential for housing rooftop panels, they can visit an interactive version of the map that was created by the information collected by the Lidar Company. The map was paid for by the federal Department of Energy under their Solar America Cities Program and cost the city $210,000.

The map allows residents to view their building and analyze its potential to go solar. Interested residents can look at information about their offices, their homes, or even their friends’ homes.  When they enter their address, they can discover a lot of relevant information on how that address would respond to the implementation of solar collecting panels.

For instance, they will discover how much solar energy could be produced on that particular roof. The estimates are based upon how much light the roof receives, how large it is, its angle, and other factors. They can also find out information on government programs including tax breaks and financial incentives. If they are gathering information to present to the building’s owner or manager, they may also be interested in looking at the section of the interactive map that includes detailed data on how much the solar panels would cost to install and how many years it would take the buildings’ owners to get that initial cost back through energy savings.

People who are curious about the environment may enjoy exploring other features of the interactive map. For instance, they can look at how much carbon dioxide they could avoid if their building implemented panels. They can also look at how many trees it would take to absorb that same amount of carbon dioxide.

One reason that some building owners shy away from installing panels is the regulations that surround such additions. However, the U.S. Department of Energy has recently eased many of these regulations. They have pledged to send $12 million to various organizations to help make the regulations surrounding the installation of rooftop panels easier to navigate.

When people live in a city like New York, they may often feel like they have limited control over some of their circumstances. For instance, they cannot simply add rooftop solar panels to their high rise as easily as someone could add them to the top of their barn in Iowa. However, with accurate information gathered from trustworthy sources, such as the map referred to above, they can easily convince their building owner or homeowner’s association to add these structures.

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While working on a project, developers need to keep a close eye on ADA building requirements. Even those developers working on parking lots must keep these requirements in mind as they design their project. The ADA requirements for parking spaces deal with issues ranging from vertical clearance to the surface materials on the ground around the parking spots. These requirements address much more than where the spots are simply located.

The ADA building requirements are very specific about where the spots should be located as well as other issues. All of the accessible spots must be clearly marked with signs, including special signs noting van accessibility. These signs must not be blocked by a vehicle when it is in that spot. If the parking lot is for a business or other facility, the spots must be located as close to the entrance as possible. If the parking lot is not attached to a business, the spots must be located as close to the pedestrian exits as possible. Buildings with several entrances can have several parking spots for this purpose.

The spots themselves must be at least 96 inches wide. They should be adjacent to an aisle that leads to the facility’s entrance, and two parking spots cannot share the same aisle. Additionally, developers need to pay attention to the surface materials and slopes. The slopes cannot exceed two percent in any direction, and the surface materials must be ones that provide enough traction for people who have trouble walking and enough glide for those in wheelchairs. These aisles that run parallel must also be at least 60 inches wide and 20 feet long.

The vertical clearance of these areas must also meet certain requirements. For instance, the loading zones must be at least 114 inches high, and the route from the parking spot to the building’s entrance must also be that high. However, other spaces only need to provide a vertical clearance of 98 inches.

Meeting the ADA building requirements is an essential part of creating a project that meets all of the codes that are required by the law. However, it can be difficult to ascertain which requirements each project needs to meet to be compliant. The professionals at Burnham can help to guide your project through this process.

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Many homeowners are showing an increased interest in residential solar energy systems. However, most homeowners are still not sure how effective these systems can be. In particular, they are not sure about whether or not these systems are effective in cloudy climates.

There are two factors that affect how much energy a solar system can produce: the amount of sunlight and the amount of open roof space. Essentially, when a system has ample amounts of open roof space and ample amounts of sunlight, it can produce more energy. However, that does not mean that residential solar energy systems are ineffective in cloudy climates.

A sunny place like Los Angeles, California sees an average of five and a half hours of sunlight per day. In contrast, a cloudy place like Hamburg, Germany sees only two and a half hours of sunlight per day, on average. That difference has a direct impact on the amount of solar energy that can be produced. In general, a one-kilowatt system can create about 1,600 kilowatt hours (kWh) every year in a place with a lot of sunlight. The same system can only create about 750 kWh in a place that is particularly cloudy.

However, most residential systems are larger than one kilowatt. The average residential system is anywhere from three to ten kilowatts. Thus, in a cloudy city, you would be able to create anywhere from 2,250 to 7,500 kilowatt hours per year. That is the equivalent of 187.5 to 625 kilowatt hours per month.

This is less than half of the energy that you would get in a sunny climate. However, it is still worthwhile. The average American household uses about 920 kilowatt hours per month. Thus, even in a cloudy climate, you could create anywhere from a fifth to two thirds of your monthly energy needs. Of course, if you use less energy than average, you may be able to offset your entire bill.

Whether you live in a sunny climate or a dreary one, residential solar energy systems have the potential to offer you a lot of value. However, each home is different, and to ascertain if your needs would be met by a system, you should speak with a consultant from Burnham Nationwide. They will be able to provide you with an in depth analysis about the cost of installing a system and how it could potentially offset your current energy usage.

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As leaders in the field of progressive thought, it is no wonder that many colleges and universities are striving to incorporate LEED sustainability efforts into their campus buildings and dormitories. Taking this step allows an academic institution to improve their energy efficiency, conserve their resources, and enhance the environmental quality of their buildings. When a project manager who is working with buildings at a higher institution decides to pursue LEED certification, they have several avenues that they may work within.

When working on new construction or major renovations, they may apply for LEED-NC. That kind of project on a college campus can, of course, apply for and receive credits within the five LEED categories: Sustainable Site, Water Usage, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality. However, most project managers will discover that they will also be able to also achieve a lot within LEED’s sixth category: Innovation and Design. This category allows the project manager to explore environmental categories like education and community enhancement. These categories can be uniquely dealt with on a college campus.

LEED certification can also be invaluable when applied to existing buildings. The LEED-EB certification is ideal for dormitories. This certification helps buildings become better stewards of the environment, but it also helps them become healthier places for their occupants. This is especially relevant when considering older structures like dorms that were built decades or even a century ago. Because students live in and spend much of their time in these buildings, campus directors should look closely at how they can be improved.

However, making a campus more sustainable does not just lie in the realm of changing individual buildings. In fact, a lot of LEED credits can be earned by implementing new campus-wide efforts. College and universities can apply sustainability efforts to the entire life cycle of their campus. They can draft plans that address everything from the campus’s master development plans to the campus’s operations and maintenance.

The goal for any university or college should not be to create one new LEED certified building or to make one old building greener. Ultimately, their goal should be to institutionalize the LEED sustainability efforts and reduce the campus’s carbon footprint overall.

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Residential solar energy systems rely on ample amounts of sunlight to create power for a home. However, as indicated in previous posts on this website, these panels can still be extremely beneficial, even in areas that do not receive as much sunlight as other areas. Winter weather conditions are another factor that many people worry about when they are thinking about the potential efficacy of installing solar panels.

All solar panels create power based on the light that they collect, rather than the heat that surrounds them. However, the shorter days and less sunlight in the winter mean that most panels create less power in the winter than in the summer. In addition, snow can collect on the panels, which will prevent them from getting the sunlight that they need, but when the snow melts or as soon as it is brushed off the panels, they will resume their normal functioning.

Ideally, most panels will work regardless of outside temperatures. However, the temperatures do have a certain degree of effect on the panels. Hotter temperatures can even have an effect on the output of the panels. For instance, a study done in the UK indicated that as temperature increased from 30 to 42 degrees Celsius (86 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit) that the power output created by the panels dropped slightly from 749 mW to 730 mW. Cold temperatures, ironically, do not have the same effect on panels. Because cold temps can have a slight effect on panels, some scientists are looking at ways that the panels can be changed for better cold weather functioning. For instance, the panels that are attached to the International Space Station have two faces. These allow them to work more efficiently in colder temps than their one-sided counterparts.

However, consumers do not need to worry about how cold temperatures impact the power output of the panels. Rather, they should consider how the cold temperatures in their areas may impact the solar panels themselves. Very low temperatures carry a risk that the charge controller or the inverter can be damaged. To ensure that residential solar energy systems can handle all of the possible temperatures and weather conditions in your particular area, you may wish to speak with a Burnham consultant who can guide you toward the right research that you need to make the best decision for your home energy needs.

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