South Mountain Company

Martha’s Vineyard’s integrated design/build company

This blog provides up-to-date news of goings on at South Mountain Company and occasional musings from John Abrams (and others).

Marc Rosenbaum

BE 12 Meets TED Talks

Two weeks ago several of my SMCo colleagues and I spent two days at Building Energy 12, the annual conference of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA).  My involvement in NESEA goes back 30 years.  For me this annual meeting is truly a tribal gathering.

This year’s conference was particularly thrilling. The highlight for me was experiencing the emerging youth contingent which has brought great new vitality into the organization the past few years. It makes me feel like we have greater capacity than ever before. I feel this at NESEA, and at South Mountain too. I like us. I like who we are now. While we are more empowered as individuals than ever before, we are people who know, with conviction, that all of us are smarter than any of us.

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Is Zero Energy Possible?

Indeed it is!

Last year we completed an eight house cluster of permanently protected affordable housing designed to be “Net Zero Possible”, meaning that if you live carefully in these homes you may be able to produce as much total energy, on an annual basis, as you use.

After careful monitoring of the energy use in the eight houses and extensive data collection, our systems engineer extraordinaire—Marc Rosenbaum—has analyzed the data in depth.  We also ran a net zero energy contest and two households managed, during the first year, to make more total energy than they used (and others came close).  Zero energy can be a reality!  We hear many claims about energy use, energy savings, and net zero energy, but it is rare to see measured comparative data.

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Asparagus, Solar, & SMCo

The thing that intrigues me most, right now, is my semi-pathetic asparagus bed.  I’ve been wanting to plant asparagus for years, but until this spring I didn’t manage to get around to it.  I love the idea of a vegetable that you plant once and harvest for decades.  Are there others?  Well. . . sort of.  Rhubarb, but is that a vegetable or a fruit or just something else entirely?  Horseradish, but who eats much of that?  There may be others, but asparagus is the main one.  When I finally got  around to it, most of the crowns made plants, but it’s still a work in progress.

A few weeks ago I was wondering – at the same time that I was watching my colleagues, Phil and Jon, cover the roof of our house with solar electric panels – why I’m so psyched about the asparagus bed.

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For Better Or Worse

Several weeks ago my old friend Marc Rosenbaum arrived on Martha’s Vineyard.  He often arrives on Martha’s Vineyard.  For 20 years this distinguished, nationally recognized building performance engineer has been arriving here to consult with us – to help us make better buildings. For 30 years he has been responsible for some of the most advanced buildings in New England.

When he arrived here last Tuesday, it was different than most times. 

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Rosenbaum on Deep Energy

This is a post about a local event, so it may not mean much to those of you far away.

When it comes to houses, there’s plenty of talk these days about Zero Energy, Passive Houses, and even strange new terms like Deep Energy Retrofit.

It’s not just talk.  For old friend Marc Rosenbaum, of Energysmiths, it’s practice.  And it’s passion, too.  Marc has been working closely with us for the past 20 years.

Rosenbaum CCC Poster

Marc’s projects include three of the American Institute of Architects Top Ten Green Projects.. An experienced and enthusiastic teacher and speaker, he has trained thousands of professionals., including several trainings of Vineyard architects and builders.

Come to the Chilmark Community Center and hear where we’re headed with housing and how we might get there.  It’s free.