Last night I attended the latest meeting of volunteers looking to certify the Built Green Resource Center in town. The Energy & Atmosphere group met early to conduct measurements of the rooms and find more information about the electrical systems in place. Upon inspection we learned a few crucial pieces of information. Mainly, the windows put in during renovation are single-pane with a film placed over them and there is a huge skylight in the gallery. Also, heating and cooling are both run on electricity. I learned last night that this is seen as a negative, especially here in California. Utilities are worried about peak demand and frown upon relying solely on electricity. The PV panels on the roof help, but hopefully the current tenants maintain this educational center for a long time. Otherwise, the next building owner could decide to take them down, increasing the building's demand on the grid.

As many know, single-pane windows will contribute to massive heat loss and will ding us in the certification process. At the moment the Santa Barbara Contractors Association has no plans to replace them, especially considering they were just put in. I don't know the specifics of a step up to double or even triple pane, but I imagine the increase in efficiency to be enormous.