3 Common Energy Efficient Window Treatments

Energy-efficient window treatments can help provide effective insulation that maximize or minimize heat gain as needed.  In this post we’ll discuss 3 common energy efficient window treatments, including: awnings, shades and draperies.

Image Source: Flickr

Awnings
Window awnings can reduce solar heat gain in the summer by up to 65% on south-facing windows and 77% on west-facing windows. You can use an awning to shade one window or have an awning custom-made to shade the entire side of your house.
Awnings require ventilation to keep hot air from becoming trapped around the window. Grommets (eyelets) or other openings along the tops and sides of an awning can provide ventilation. The awning may also open to the sides or top to vent hot air. Source: Energy

Shades
The DOE considers window shades the simplest and most effective way to save energy with window treatments. Proper installment is key. Mounting shades as close to the glass as possible and right up against the adjacent wall creates a tight seal that minimizes both heat gain and loss. Shades with dual layers of fabric — a light color on one side and a darker color on the other— add more functionality. Try reversing the shades based on the season; the light color will reflect heat in summer, while the dark color will absorb heat during winter. Source: Houzz

Draperies
Like shades and shutters, draperies are only efficient when they’re closed. However, if they’re used in conjunction with another window covering, such as a honeycomb shade or a wood blind, you can let sun in during daylight hours and effectively shut out colder air at night. When fully closed, the R-values of thermally lined drapes range from R-3 to R-5, depending on the type of fabric and the thickness of the lining and interlining.
To maximize energy efficiency, Korby recommends floor-to-ceiling drapes that fold back against the wall. This allows the drapes to seal off the window, preventing drafts and loss of heat through convection. Source: HouseLogic

 

Contact:
Universal Blinds
601 – 1550 W. 10th Ave
Vancouver, V6J 1Z9
Canada
Phone: (604) 559-1988

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Micro Post; This months quote

"If you study carelessly or haphazardly, your Poomsae* and techniques will never come to life"
-Gichin Funakoshi 1943

(*He obviously said "Kata" where I have put "Poomsae" in the quote)

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Before The Evening Rain

Before the clouds, wind & rain moved in… it was another beautiful sunrise morning.

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Megan’s Tumbler Twosome

As part of the last pottery class, I like to challenge my students to a pottery exchange. So this session everyone had to bring in a mug they had made in class. We then did a fun trading-stealing White Elephant sort of game… and everyone left with another person’s mug. I came home with a twosome of tumblers by Megan… complete with some crocheted little cozies!!!

Good luck Megan as you move on to Colorado…
and continue your pottery adventure in the Rockies!

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Sugar Coma

Not only did we have plenty of food & ice cream at tonight’s potluck… but then Katie brought in possibly THE BEST DESSERT EVER!!! Like we didn’t have enough sugar already?! So check these out… seven of my favorite words all strung together into one huge layered & yummy morsel…

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE PEANUT BUTTER S’MORES BARS.

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A Sweet Finish

Tonight was the last night of our Spring session of pottery classes. My class celebrated with a fun Mug Exchange, tons of food and an ice cream social complete with my homemade hot fudge sauce! They all used their newly traded mugs for their sundaes… and we also got a “sweet” visit from Susan in the Metals Department.

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3 Ways to Burglar Proof Windows

Taking steps to burglar proof your windows can put your mind at ease as you keep your family, home and valuables safe. Here are 3 ways to burglar proof your windows:

Image Source: Flickr.com

Window Bars
Iron bars on your windows make your home very burglar resistant – even if a thief smashes through the glass, they cannot squeeze through the bars to burgle your home. Many people are resistant to the idea of window bars however, since they feel that bars make a house more like a prison than a home.
However, if this option appeals to you, be aware that some companies specialize in decorative window bars that are absolutely beautiful and can be customized to suit your home’s design. Source:  SafeSoundFamily

Reinforce Windows
Besides your doors, windows are another important point of entry to secure. If you live in a high-crime area, consider placing iron bars on your windows to make them burglar-resistant.
If your windows are old, they might be easier to break, or break into. If you’re getting new windows, consider tempered glass, which is more durable than traditional glass.
You can also make windows more secure with:

• Security film
• Roller shutters
• Security screens Source:  AlarmRelay

Purchase a Security System with Motion Sensors
All homes should have some form of security system, whether it’s a basic camera installation or a fully monitored smart system. Evaluate the needs for your area and choose a system you’re comfortable with. Some of the basics to consider include an alarm, motion sensors for the doors and windows, and carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. Source:  Safewise

For more tips and ideas, contact us here today!

Contact:
Mr. Locksmith
555 W. Hastings St
L21A
Vancouver BC V6B 4N4
(604) 259-2953

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3 Things to Consider When Choosing a Security System

There are a number of factors to consider before choosing a security system, including: type of property, price and system controls.

Image Source: Flickr

Below are 3 things to consider when choosing a security system:

Type of Property
If you’re a renter, you should probably choose a wireless system that you can install yourself so you own the equipment and can easily move it from one location to the next. Life Shield, for example, has a package specifically tailored to renters.
If you’re a homeowner, you can install pretty much any security system you want, depending on your needs and budget. However, because you own your home, you might want to look into a landline system with a cell uplink backup, covering all eventualities and delivering total protection. Source: SafeWise

Price
The price of the security system runs hand-in-hand with the quality received. The pricing structure should actually be broken down into three separate components – the upfront cost, installation cost, and any ongoing fees. Source: DiscountSecurityCameras

System Controls
Your ability to access and control your system is vital to choosing the right one for your home. Traditional security systems use a simple keypad to enable and disable the alarm, but with today’s technology, you can now have access from your laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Source: CSPAlarms

Knowing your security needs and goals is the first step to ensure safety. If you want more information about home security systems, please give us a call or contact us here.

 

Contact:
Automotive Locksmiths

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Oregon has adopted a plan for biking and walking

Cover of the new plan.

Oregon has a new statewide plan for bicycling and walking

A two-year planning process culminated at a meeting of the Oregon Transportation Commission on May 19th when commissioners voted to adopt the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (PDF).

The 80-page plan is one of four modal plans that set policy and strategy for the Oregon Department of Transportation. The old plan was adopted in 1995 and it was only a staff-level document. Now the plan is on the same internal level within ODOT as the state’s plans for rail, highway, and freight. “This raises the prominence and importance of biking and walking travel options with other modes and topics,” read a statement from ODOT last week. “Requiring explicit consideration and integration of biking and walking needs into transportation decisions across Oregon.”

Just how “explicit” the plan is has been a major point of contention.

In February we reported on how many regional advocates, leaders, and even ODOT’s own staff thought the plan needed stronger words in order to be effective.

“The plan needs to be precise and explicit regarding the statutory and regulatory basis for statewide bicycle and pedestrian policy,” wrote ODOT’s Region 1 Planning Manager Jon Makler in a letter last December with comments on a draft of the plan.

How the Bike/Ped Plan sits relative to existing ODOT plans.

A list of the plan’s performance measures.

The adopted plan has made many changes to its policy language — moving from passive statements to more direct ones. In the Equity section for example, it used to read, “Seek opportunities to Integrate equity criteria into decision making,” and now it reads, “Integrate equity criteria…”. A small but important difference.

Another example of how the plan improved thanks to feedback is in Policy 3.3. An earlier draft of the plan cited a state statute (ORS 366.125) that says anything that reduces “vehicle-carrying capacity for freight trucks” must be discussed and approved before going forward. Former Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee member AJ Zelada said the inclusion of that statute was proof the plan had “no teeth“. Thankfully ODOT listened and the final plan has removed all references to ORS 366.125.

ODOT didn’t do everything advocates asked for. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance and other groups wanted specific corridors and streets to be named in the plan (similar to how ODOT has outlined specific trucking corridors in the Oregon Freight Plan). ODOT says they’ll define the network in a separate process.

But overall the BTA is pleased with how it turned out. Their Advocacy Director Gerik Kransky — who had called draft versions “absurd” and “offensive” — had a much softer tone about it today. “ODOT did a good job incorporating public feedback on their draft plan,” he wrote in an email to BikePortland. “I’m most excited about their commitment to implementation, which appears to contain some of what we were asking for while the plan was being developed.”

Kransky says he’s happy with the direction ODOT is going, especially after the announcement of several new hires in the active transportation division.

But as with all plans and proclamations, the proof will be in pudding. Will it actually lead to real changes?

ODOT also says they’re currently working on an Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Implementation Work Program that will have more details on deliverables from the plan in the short, mid, and long-term.

“Several of the policies will immediately guide decision-making,” said ODOT’s Transportation Planning Unit Manager Amanda Pietz, “We will be taking the hard work people put into this plan and putting it into practice.”

Only time will tell.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Registering Your Golf Cart

Separation anxiety: Here’s why Portland isn’t building protected bikeways (yet)

Cross-section of one approach to protected bike
lanes on NE 47th Avenue.
(Image: City of Portland)

After almost 10 years of talking about building networks of physically separated bike lanes on busy streets, Portland seems more or less ready to move.

Theoretically, that is.

Various small projects are already in motion. A downtown network is funded and ready to start public planning. The next mayor won election making protected lanes part of his platform, especially for east Portland. Voters just ponied up enough money to start the work. This week, city staff were in Seattle talking nuts and bolts with peers there.

All of which means that a city memo about the various obstacles to protected bike lanes is revealing reading.

The 75-page “technical memo” by Portland Bicycle Planning Coordinator Roger Geller and colleagues, posted to the city’s website this spring, is at once a trove of good ideas — almost all of it consists of diagrams showing how to fit buffered and protected bike lanes on streets of various widths and uses — and a tally of the hoops Portland requires a comfortable bike lane to jump through.

For example, there’s the 26 feet of open space requested by the Fire Bureau on any street adjacent to a building of at least three stories. That’s enough room for a 10-foot-wide fire truck with an eight-foot outrigger on each side, needed to provide stability for a ladder.

Could one or both of the outriggers straddle a curb or other obstacle that separates bike and auto traffic? Maybe. But it can’t straddle a parked car, which has prevented parking-protected bike lanes on narrow streets like Stark and Oak downtown.

Barriers to protection

Some of the issues cited in the PBOT memo:

• Fire truck access
• Stormwater/runoff requirements
• Auto parking space buffer zone
• Truck and bus turning radius requirements

Download the memo here

Another obstacle: stormwater. Rain that runs off city streets warms rivers and kills habitats there, so the federal and state governments require cities to add drainage swales and other features to reduce runoff on “projects that develop or redevelop over 500 square feet of impervious surface.” That gets expensive fast.

But as Geller’s memo notes, the city’s storm bureau cuts slack for walking projects like new curb extensions — it waives the requirement for better storm drainage in part because the city doesn’t want to create an “undue burden” on a walking project.

There’s no such waiver practice for biking projects, the memo says.

Another issue: the “step out” area the city generally provides next to a new parking space, for people who move from a parked car to a mobility device such as a wheelchair. As the memo notes, federal standards don’t actually require those extra three feet next to every parking space, only next to spaces set aside for people with disabilities. But Portland’s preference is to provide it on all on-street spaces, potentially reducing the space available for a curb-separated bikeway.

There are many other issues embedded in the diagrams, like turning radiuses for trucks, lane widths for buses and adequate separation between biking and walking traffic.

The memo is a useful reminder of how unfamiliar these designs remain for most city employees — and also of the fact that meaningful changes to Portland’s streets will require a sense of purpose not only within the city’s transportation bureau but the other bureaus, too. That means that ultimately, it’s up to the elected city council to decide if these new designs are worthwhile — and if they are, to tell the public’s employees that they need to take the time to work these issues out.

— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org

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The Monday Roundup: Dutch distractions, China’s bus boondoggle & more

Gotta check.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Good morning! Starting today it’s summer vacation season on BikePortland, with first me and then Jonathan taking a little time to decoil. So expect slightly slower posting than usual for the next month or so — though you’ll usually be able to count on at least two posts almost every weekday.

(If you’ve been yearning for a chance to put together a guest post, this means it’s a golden opportunity. Get in touch!)

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Western Bikeworks. Check out their big 5-year anniversary sale going on now through June 5th.

Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Distracted biking: Even the Dutch are considering a mobile-phone ban.

Straddle bus: The thing about China’s new bus that drives over congestion is that you could achieve basically the same thing with a dedicated bus lane, says Canaan Merchant.

Sleeping driver: A camera caught a man dozing behind the wheel of an “autopiloted” Tesla Model S.

The enemy is us: “If there is a war on cars in Seattle, it’s a civil war,” writes Tom Fuculoro in a rebuttal to a Seattle Times editorial writer. “Your enemy is basic geometry.”

Transit retrench: The American Public Transit Association, in the midst of a leadership change, should dump its alliance with “asphalt salesmen” and join with “biking and walking advocacy groups,” argues TransitCenter.

Transportation equity: The U.S. Department of Transportation has a comprehensive whitepaper about biking, walking and justice.

Caltrans reborn: Under Gov. Jerry Brown, California’s DOT is pledging “no new highways” and pushing for transportation reform instead.

Illegalizing NYC: 40 percent of the buildings in Manhattan would be illegal to build today: they’re too tall, too dense or too commercial in their use.

Too tall? Portland has lost its way by keeping skyscrapers legal, a local development pro argues.

Opportunity projects: A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters would have the federal transportation department measure whether a given transportation project helps or harms “multimodal connections to economic opportunities.”

Autonomous cars: Following Google’s recent words of caution, Vox lists five reasons they might be 30 years away.

Davis guru: After 29 years running the bike program at the country’s bike-friendliest university, David Takemoto-Weerts is taking his extensive opinions about bike racks and going home.

Sidewalk assault: After a police officer stopped 19-year-old Jordan Lloyd for biking on a California sidewalk but refused to say what he’d done wrong, things escalated quickly.

“Garden bridge”: London is having a big argument over whether to build a tree-lined pedestrian bridge across the Thames.

Prepaid transit: A German program that bundles discount transit passes into university fees cut driving by 18 percent and saved most students money.

If you come across a noteworthy bicycle story, send it in via email, Tweet @bikeportland, or whatever else and we’ll consider adding it to next Monday’s roundup.

— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org

Our work is supported by subscribers. Please become one today.

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Make The Most of Your Summer

I don't know about you but the past couple of months have been just crazy with all the end-of-school activities.  On the blog we've been busy as well and if you've missed any of our posts you can find them here.

  No matter what you have planned for the summer I am sure you are all in need of a little change of pace.  

If you are a little apprehensive about what  you're going to do with your kids on all those summer days with "nothing" to do, then I've got some tips for making the most of your time with them over the next two months!

Read more »

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