Zonda - Resource Library

When planning and designing homes, architects should know that more than 12.6 million U.S. households rely on propane for their primary energy needs. Propane has many advantages such as offering heat for water, outdoor spaces, and inside the home. In addition, propane provides clean fuel for comforting fireplaces, cooking food, and drying clothing.

Propane can be stored above ground or in underground propane tanks, an option many builders are choosing in order to fuel homes off the natural gas mains. This course will cover important considerations when planning for propane use in residential construction.

Zero net energy (ZNE) construction represents a vast opportunity for builders and contractors. So what is a zero net energy home? In the simplest terms, a ZNE home produces as much energy as it uses, most commonly using efficient construction methods. Achieving ZNE performance involves a whole-building design approach to consider all of a home's systems — the building envelope, mechanical systems, and lighting and appliances — in an integrated way.

This e-book collects our most valuable resources on ZNE projects to help you define what ZNE means for you and examine factors such as energy prices, net metering policies, solar resources, incentives, and budget. You’ll see that getting to zero doesn’t mean giving up desirable and high-performance gas systems.

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. Thermal bridging has been recognized as a significant factor in building envelope heat loss and yet traditional construction practices have not effectively addressed many of the causes. Building Better with Thermal Breaks will identify areas most susceptible to thermal bridging and offer solutions that will minimize those heat loss conditions. Designing structural thermal breaks into buildings will improve the comfort, safety, durability, and reduce the environmental impact.

Home tech is a wild card. Countless gadgets hit the market every year but don't last. Beyond the basics, the best technologies are those that solve real problems. Two of today’s big challenges are how to accommodate home-based work and how to keep the home's occupants healthy.

Since arriving in our homes, smart technology has put welcome conveniences at our fingertips. With a growing demand for energy in homes, it is increasingly clear that living spaces need to be not only smart but also sustainable.

Sustainability is a growing concern for home buyers - and builders can take advantage of this by designing new homes that make sustainable living accessible for their customers.

It makes sense that sealing your windows and doors saves energy, but have you ever wondered by how much? A life cycle assessment was conducted for a polyurethane sealant on a residential structure in Pittsburgh, PA. This course will explain types of sealants and how they are used on a residential structure, how life cycles are assessed, the methodology of this study, as well as results and conclusions.

Nothing is driving greater change in the home building industry than energy efficiency, but prior to 2015 the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) didn’t address mechanical equipment such as furnaces and water heaters. The 2015 IECC now includes a new compliance path called the Energy Rating Index allowing builders more choices in how to meet the energy code. This course will take a closer look at how high efficiency propane equipment such as furnaces and water heaters provide flexibility in meeting 2015 IECC standards and help reduce a home’s HERS Index, in addition to helping projects gain points in above-code programs such as LEED and the National Green Building Standard.

Today, more than half of us live in cities, and by 2050, this proportion is expected to increase to 67%. As urbanization becomes a global trend, the struggle to efficiently and sustainably grow our cities will only intensify. More people need more buildings, more energy, and more infrastructure, and this puts increased pressure on resources and the environment.

The challenges we face can seem daunting, but the good news is that raw material suppliers, building material manufacturers, architects, and engineers are creating innovative solutions that can help the building industry rise to meet these challenges in order to build the sustainable and resilient cities of the future.

This course will explore what the future of urbanization could look like through the lens of energy reduction, power supply, and efficient construction. We will examine innovative materials and technologies that will help cities, and their citizens, thrive as we make our way through the 21st century.

”Affordability restrictions are set to expire on more than 250,000 multifamily units across the country” and “unsubsidized affordable rental housing continues to decline,” notes the U.S. Department of Energy. These facts, in addition to stagnant salaries and rising rental prices, has made affordable multifamily housing an area of concern for developers, architects, designers, communities, and potential residents alike.

This course seeks to provide specifiers with strategies to design sustainable, affordable multifamily housing by understanding code basics, leveraging zoning laws, and considering material durability. A case study examining the potential of affordable multifamily housing projects to become Living Building Challenge certified will also be examined.

This course will introduce the six United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are specifically related to architecture and design, and will examine technologies and practices that the chemical industry is implementing to support these initiatives. We will explore the SDGs through the lens of several case studies that seek to improve energy efficiency, long term durability, and air quality through design.