The tendency of air or gas in a shaft or other vertical space to rise when heated, creating a draft that draws in cooler air or gas from below

The circulation of fresh air through open windows, doors, or other openings on opposite sides of a room

The replacement of the volume of air contained within a room with an equivalent volume of fresh air within a given period of time

A louvered opening or motor-driven fan for replacing stagnant air with fresh air

A wind- or motor-driven fan for assisting the natural air flow through an attic space

An opening, as in a wall, serving as an outlet for air, smoke, fumes, or the like

To provide a room with fresh air to replace air that has been used or contaminated

The process of ventilating a space by the natural movement of air rather than by mechanical means

A method for improving the natural ventilation of buildings, consisting of a vertical shaft in which air heated by solar energy rises by convection, pulling in cooler air at the base of the chimney from underground or via heat-exchange tubes

The process of supplying fresh air to a building or removing stale air from it by mechanical means, as with fans

A system of mechanical ventilation in which fresh air is forced into the space to be ventilated from a chamber (plenum chamber) at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, so as to expel stale air

Equipment that incorporates one or more fans and duct systems to draw in a continuous supply of fresh air to the living areas of a house while exhausting an equal amount of stale air, providing controlled, uniform ventilation throughout the living areas of a house

A filtration device consisting of a mat of randomly arranged, typically fiberglass fibers, designed to trap pollutants and particles by forcing them to adhere to the filter fibers

Any of a number of hydrocarbon compounds, such as those produced in the manufacture of paints, solvents, adhesives, and refrigerants, having significant enough vapor pressure to be released as a gas into the environment at normal temperatures

A device that rotates an array of blades or vanes about an axis in order to produce a current of air

An odorless, cancer-causing, radioactive gas that results from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water

A fan for ventilating an interior space by drawing air from the interior and expelling it outside

A fan that receives air along its axis and discharges it radially

The phenomenon in which the incidence of light or other radiant energy upon the junction of two types of semi-conducting materials induces the generation of an electromotive force

A solid-state device that converts solar energy into electrical energy by means of the photovoltaic effect

A number of photovoltaic cells housed in a protective structure and electrically connected in series to obtain a certain voltage and in parallel to provide the desired amount of current

Multiple photovoltaic modules typically mounted on rooftops and electrically connected to generate and supply the required amount of electricity in commercial and residential buildings

A policy of some public utilities that promotes investment in renewable energy-generating technologies by allowing customers to offset their consumption over a billing period when they generate electricity in excess of their demand

The incorporation of photovoltaic technology into the roof, walls, or windows of a building as either a principal or ancillary source of electrical power, often replacing conventional building materials

A solid, usually crystalline substance, such as silicon (SI) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), having a conductivity between that of an insulator and that of most metals

A quantum of electromagnetic energy having zero mass and no electric charge

Power created and controlled by the damming of rivers

Power generated by a process utilizing the natural motion of the tides to fill reservoirs, which are then discharged through electricity-producing turbines

The burning of hydrogen or its use by fuel cells to combine electrochemically with oxygen to produce electricity and heat, emitting only water vapor in the process

Power generated by a turbine that converts the kinetic energy of wind flow into mechanical power that a generator can use to produce electricity

The thermal energy stored in the earth's oceans from the sun's heat and the mechanical energy of its tides and waves

The energy of sea waves harnessed and converted into electricity at either offshore or onshore locations

The earth's internal heat, used for direct heating and cooling in buildings or, in the form of hot water or steam pulled from deep geothermal reservoirs, for driving turbine generators to produce electricity

Any of the organic matter, such as plant materials and animal waste, that can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuels, and chemicals that would otherwise be made from fossil fuels

A combustible gas produced by the decay of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, composed primarily of methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide

A roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation, a growing medium, and sometimes a root layer and drainage system, installed over a waterproof membrane to lower building temperatures, reduce the heat island effect, lessen stormwater runoff, and absorb carbon dioxide from the air

A wall that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and, in some cases, soil or an inorganic growing medium

A green wall having the climbing vegetation rooted in the ground and growing up either directly on the wall or on specially designed supporting structures

A self-sufficient vertical garden attached to the exterior or interior wall of a building, consisting of a structural frame, layers of geotextile material, soil or other growing medium, an automatic irrigation system, and plant materials

Also called biowall, vertical garden

A building that utilizes a computerized network of sensors and other electronic devices to unify a variety of building automation task

Cladding designed to conserve and reduce the energy needed for heating, cooling, and lighting a building by integrating passive solar collection, solar shading, daylighting, thermal resistance, and natural ventilation into its assembly

A roof that uses shingles, tiles, or membranes containing energy-generating photovoltaic technologies or colored to reflect or absorb solar heat as required by the external environment and indoor conditions

A design approach that emphasizes efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and spatial resources

Building to provide healthy environments in a resource-efficient manner, using ecologically based principles

Descriptive of a material, product, or process not considered to be harmful to the environment

A method of lighting control that reduces energy consumption by using photosensors to detect daylighting levels and automatically adjusting the output level of electric lighting to create the desired or recommended level of illumination for a space

A method of lighting control that maintains the desired or recommended level of illumination for a space by modulating the output from electric lamps and fixtures in proportion to the amount of available daylight detected by light-level sensors

An automatic lighting control system that uses motion or occupancy sensors to turn lights on when human activity is detected and turn lights off when a space is vacated

Can replace wall-mounted light switches or can be mounted remotely, retaining the normal switching for use as override switches, which allows the lighting to be kept off even when the space is occupied

Any lighting system that allows users to control the level, intensity, and color balance of the light in a space or zone