INT 322 SMB

What stood out first was how much lighting affects the energy a building uses. The slides explained that lighting creates one of the biggest heat loads in an interior, and that the mistake designers make most often is over-lighting a space. The less lighting used , the less air conditioning is needed. We also followed electricity from the utility company through overhead or underground lines and transformers to the building, and learned about cable types, electrical symbols, and energy management devices. The second part of the unit moved into lamps, which are all about matching the light to the space . We compared incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, HID, and LED lighting. Incandescent lamps are warm, dimmable, and inexpensive, but they give off more heat than light. Fluorescent lamps are energy efficient, but disposing of them puts mercury in landfills. HID lamps are used in parking garages, factories, and outdoor areas, and LEDs last a long time but still have concerns over color con...

What stood out first was how much of our energy still comes from fuels that run out. The slides showed that oil is used in about 99% of vehicles and makes up roughly 40% of the energy we use in the U.S., and that 42% of our electricity comes from coal while only about 13% comes from renewable sources. The second half of the unit moved into HVAC, which is all about human comfort. We compared heating systems like hydronic, forced air, electric radiant, and wood, and cooling systems like heat pumps, split systems, and through-wall units. What I hadn’t thought about before is how much of this lands on the interior designer. Ducts, registers, and returns have to be planned together with light fixtures, sprinkler heads, smoke detectors, and ceiling details, or the design intent never actually gets built. It made me realize that a mechanical system isn’t just something the engineers handle, it decides what a designer is allowed to do with a ceiling or a wall. For my research I picked ...

In the reading and PowerPoint, it was mentioned that interior designers don’t deal with roof framing, because that is a structural issue, but we still have to respond to the shape of the roof since it shapes the space inside. The ceiling finish is also part of our job. Cathedral ceilings were the ones I had not thought about in detail. They were popular in the 1970s and make a room feel spacious, but they make it harder to integrate lighting, to heat and cool the space properly, and to keep a sense of the human scale. Gypsum wall board is a directly applied ceiling and the most common finish in homes. Plaster was used before wall board and is applied in a three-coat system over lath. In historical buildings, plasters were used to make crown molding and ceiling medallions. Suspended acoustical panel ceilings were what I took away most for commercial design. They are the preferred commercial ceiling because they control noise and give access to ductwork, electrical wiring, and sprink...

  From the reading and powerpoint something I took away was how  soft surfaces and resilient flooring sections mostly taught me which questions to ask. Carpet is made of pile and backing, has excellent acoustical qualities, and can be wool or a synthetic like nylon or polyester, so the questions are whether there is a reclamation program to keep it out of landfills and whether it meets the Carpet and Rug Institute Green Label guidelines. Wood comes in strips, planks, or blocks, and the questions there are whether it comes from a sustainably managed source and whether the finish is low VOC. Vinyl is the one the slides flatly call not sustainable . For my flooring store, I visited the Home Depot. On the surface this might not seem like the first choice to go for most pe ople, but once I went, I was shocked to find a lot of different alternatives as well as a bigger than expected show room for their special-order carpet selection .   I started out with the hard surfac...