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Here's more information about the upcoming Sustainable Tompkins Master Class:

Our final Sustainable Tompkins master class for the semester is on a topic of interest to all -- understanding the interplay of the various systems that make up our homes and offices, and how to manage those systems for energy savings and greater comfort and productivity.

Building Performance and Energy Efficiency: The Starting Point for Greening Your Building
Speaker: Greg Thomas, President, Performance Systems Contracting

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
7:00-9:00 pm
Conference Room, Tompkins County Human Services Building
320 W. State St., Ithaca

SYNOPSIS: By combining the principles of building science and performance testing we get “Building Performance”, the process of measuring, understanding and taking control of the air movement, heat transfer, moisture transport and energy use in buildings. Improving building performance typically provides you with a wide range of benefits, including energy efficiency, improved indoor air quality, longer lasting building materials, and improvements to comfort and worker productivity.

The class will explain how basic principles of physics (for example, “hot air rises”) when applied to residential and commercial buildings can help us understand and solve a wide range of performance problems in buildings. This “building as a system” session will examine the interactions between the various systems in buildings and show why performance testing and building analysis are the place to start before making improvements.

The session will look at a number of common examples of building performance failures. The session will also review the potential of a range of new technologies for saving energy in both retrofit and new construction as well as their relative environmental impacts. The session will also introduce the EPA’s Energy Star Label for commercial buildings as a tool for tracking and improving energy use. Be sure to bring your questions for a lively question and answer session.

OUR SPEAKER: Greg Thomas is the founder and president of Performance Systems Contracting Inc. (PSC), a nationally-recognized, Ithaca-based contracting company that provides quality, state-of-the-art installation services for customers throughout Central New York. PSC is an EPA Energy Star Partner and an accredited home performance contractor and renewable energy systems installer. Performance Systems helps residential and business owners establish and maintain environmentally responsible, high performance buildings and energy systems that are healthy, comfortable, durable, and energy efficient. Greg is also a member of the Sustainable Tompkins Coordinating Council.