Green Home Info

Architect and MIT professor in practice Shelia Kennedy has developed a type of “solar textile” that can be used to create solar-powered curtains. These curtains would capture sunlight during the day and use it to help power the home.

Her company, Kennedy & Violich Architecture is using thin-film photovoltaic material. This is integrated into a fabric that moves like a curtain but does the job of a traditional glass-based solar panel. While not quite as efficient as traditional solar panels at this point, Kennedy predicts that efficiencies in thin-film technology will increase with further research and will soon be on par with glass-based panels.

Kennedy refers to her product as “soft power.” The curtains have rechargable batteries integrated into the hem that can be used to transfer power back to the home at night. She envisions that homes will soon be able to incorporate these curtains and other energy-generating technologies. Single homeowners or groups of neighbors will be able to work together to wean themselves off the grid and increase self-sufficiency.

One issue that many homeowners frequently struggle with is whether to replace an older refrigerator with a newer, more energy-efficient model. The issue could be looked at from two standpoints - what will save the most money, and what will be better for the environment.

The impact on the environment is the more difficult part to calculate - a newer refrigerator will most likely use less energy over its lifetime, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, manufacturing a new product requires a certain amount of energy, so each new refrigerator that is sold comes with its own embodied energy and environmental impact. While the trade-offs are probably best examined on a case-by-case basis, the impact of getting rid of an older refrigerator can be reduced by finding a place to recycle it instead of simply putting it in a landfill.

And of course, the old refrigerator will have no benefit to either the environment or your wallet if you simply keep it active in the garage or basement as a second refrigerator.

From a money and energy-saving standpoint, Home Energy Magazine Online has provided a calculator that will help you decide whether to buy a new refrigerator. It takes into account your electricity rate, the cost of the new refrigerator, and the efficiency of both your new and old refrigerators. It bases its recommendation on the cost savings over the expected lifetime of the refrigerator in your home.

Home Energy Magazine: Is Buying a New Refrigerator a Good Investment?

The newly-launched Planet Greennetwork is launching a new show called Greenovate, featuring green renovation projects that will not only add value to your property, but save energy and keep environmental impact in mind. From the website:

Saving over 40% on energy bills while also increasing property value by 25% sounds impossible, but Greenovate shows viewers just how to make this lofty dream a reality in their own households.

The show aims to prove that environmentally-friendly rennovations are not just good for the environment, but for your health and wallet as well.

The Perks of Greenovating (discovery.com)

Every Man Jack is a line of men’s grooming products launched in 2007 with sustainability in mind. They are the creation of Method’s former VP of Marketing, Rich Viola.

Based in San Francisco and carried by Target stores across the country, Every Man Jack sells shaving gel, shaving cream, body wash, face wash, and lotion. With a target price of $4.99 or less, the products follow a philosophy of natural, healthy ingredients, low price, and good packaging design (which carries over from Viola’s days at Method).

In addition to their minimalist packaging, EMJ strives to keep their products greener by steering clear of questionable ingredients found in other men’s grooming products, such as formaldehyde derivatives and animal products such as tallow.

CNN.com brings us a story of “the real estate equivalent of the hybrid Hummer”. At the Windemere on the Lake development in North Stamford, Connecticut, builders are trying to create a few dozen “eco-mansions” at an average scale of 8,000 square feet apiece.

As contradictory and hypocritical as this may seem, Windemere President Mark Hallet Robbins says they tried very hard to deliver a “very sustainable, environmentally conscious, and economical to operate home.” They are using geothermal heating and cooling, tight insulation, sustainably-harvested lumber, and LED and natural lighting. The home sites are built in clusters to preserve the woods.

However, there is a small but growing trend away from the “bigger is better” McMansion trend, one which its adherents say will be better in the long term for reducing the overall environmental footprint of homes. Inspired by Sarah Susanka’s book “The Not So Big House,” residents such as the Markieiczes of North Carolina are building smaller, more efficient homes, tailored to how they actually live. Sarah Susanka hopes that over time, people will see the wisdom of building smaller and living smarter.

Via CNN.com

The smart use of natural daylight can be very effective in reducing electrical use from lighting fixtures during the day. Traditionally windows and skylights have provided natural sunlight to the interiors of buildings, and more recently, solar transport “tubes” have gained in popularity.

A new breed of sunlight transport mechanisms can bring natural daylight to the most inaccessible, hard-to-reach areas of buildings, such as interior rooms and basements, using fiber optics and other innovative technologies.

• Parans Sunlight in a Cable - Parans’ revolutionary technology turns gloomy rooms into sun bathed areas.
  With high quality fiber optics, sunlight reaches 20m into buildings from the nearest roof or façade.
• Sunlight Direct’s Hybrid Solar Lighting (HSL) technology uses a solar concentrator to collect and distribute sunlight into the interior of a building via plastic optical fibers.
• Luceplan’s Zeno is a lightpipe fixture that can integrate other light sources into the design, like compact fluorescent bulbs, HID Metal-Halide and halogen lamps. This allows for an interfacing of “efficiencies, temperatures, colours and chromatic yields.”

Sunlight Direct and Luceplan.

UPDATE (5/22/2008): WE CAN NO LONGER RECOMMEND THESE BULBS. After about two months, over half of the LEDs have stopped working in all bulbs tested. Cyron has ignored emails requesting a refund or replacement.

In trying to make our home more energy-efficient, we have replaced most of our incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. The remaining challenge was to do something about the various track lighting fixtures around the house. Most of them use 4-5 20W MR16 halogen bulbs. At a total of 80-100 Watts on average, each of these fixtures can use a significant amount of electricity.

We found LED replacement lamps that fit a standard MR16 fixture on Amazon.com (link removed). There are several options available, but specifically, our criteria were:

• Warm white light
• Flood or wide-angle bulb (as opposed to a narrow “spot” beam)
• Approximately equivalent to a 20W halogen in light output

We decided on the following product:

• LED Light bulb, MR16 32LED 12V Warm White by Cyron (link removed)

Testing the Bulbs

We used two LED replacement lamps in this test, mixing them with two halogen bulbs in a 4-light IKEA track lighting fixture.

MR16 LED Lamp from Cyron

Closeup of the bulb, showing the 32 surface-mounted LEDs.

MR16 halogen and LED bulbs sharing the same IKEA fixture

The LED bulbs use only 1.5W each, yet are supposed to be approximately equivalent to a 15W halogen bulb. Our subjective observations confirmed this - the light was somewhat dimmer than the halogen bulb, but not significantly so. The color cast of the LED light was also very close to that of the halogen. The “warmness” of the LED seemed to be slightly more pale and yellow than the halogen bulb, but just slightly.

With the prices on MR16 LED replacement bulbs dropping rapidly, they are becoming very cost effective to use as your old halogen bulbs burn out. At 1.5W vs. 20W, they will pay for themselves in approximately one year. Add to this their expected longer life, and the case for LEDs becomes even stronger.

You can get the bulb here:

• LED Light bulb, MR16 32LED 12V Warm White by Cyron (link removed)

Looking for podcasts related to green home building, remodeling, eco-friendly home products, and energy savings? We have assembled a list of our favorites:

• HIZ (Home Improvement Zone) Current Energy Report
  Current Energy’s principal partner Joseph Harberg, General Manager Chad Vickers and David Yates from the Home Improvement Zone, discuss practical energy saving tips and explore new trends and technology. You can listen live to the Current Energy Report or the Home Improvement Zone, or subscribe to the CER podcast in any of these three formats:
• Mainstream Green (iTunes)
  Mainstream Green exposes the advancements happening in green building and living that are now accessible to everyone. Hosted by high-performance homebuilder Alex Pettit, Mainstream Green engages, informs and educates viewers about everything green, from the nitty-gritty of insulation to the big picture of master-planned communities.
• Living Green: Effortless Ecology for Everyday People (iTunes)
  Join your host, Meredith Medland, 3outcomes.com founder and NLP coach, in deep and intimate conversations with guests who share their emotional experiences of ecological awakening as well as the “pain points” that keep them moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle.

The United States switched to using 1.6 gpf toilets in the 1990s, greatly reducing water consumption compared to older models, which used 3.5 or more gallons per flush. There have been advances since then, more common in other parts of the world, such as 1.6 gpf / 0.8 gpf dual-flush offerings from Caroma and Toto, but none of them have seen mainstream adoption in the United States.

In a positive sign that more efficient water-saving products are finally becoming available to the mainstream consumer, Home Depot has started selling two new high-efficiency toilets (HET) at an affordable price point. Compliant with the EPA’s WaterSense program, these toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush.

To avoid the problems that plagued early 1.6 gpf toilets in the United States, the WaterSense specification places performance requirements as well as water usage requirements on these new models. To qualify for the WaterSense certification, a toilet must use no more than 1.28 gallons (4.8 liters) per flush and be able to remove 350 grams or more of solid waste.

Given household average usage, one of these new toilets can save 937 gallons per year versus a standard 1.6 gpf toilet, and 5,126 gallons per year versus a standard 3.5 gpf toilet.

Home Depot WaterSense Toilets:

• Glacier Bay 1.28 GPF HET AIO Elongated toilet White
  Model 331-725
  $99.00
• Pegasus Cottage Collection 1.28 GPF AIO HET Flapperless Elongated toilet white
  Model 840-565
  $149.00

Links:

• EPA WaterSense Specification (.PDF)
• HomeDepot.com

NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) completed a study of houseplants’ ability to scrub the air of pollutants and improve air quality in sealed indoor environments. The NASA Clean Air Study was commissioned to find ways to clean air in space stations, but the results are highly relevant to modern, tightly-sealed, energy-efficient homes as well.

They found that the plants listed below not only remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen and humidity to the air (as all plants do), but were particularly good at removing benzene, formaldehyde and/or trichloroethylene from the air. Also notable NASA’s recommendation to use 6-to 8-inch diameter containers for each plant, since the exposed soil surface area is also important in filtering indoor air; microorganisms in the soil are able to absorb toxins as well as the plant itself.

As homes become more tightly sealed and energy efficient, the problem of indoor household pollutants grows. Everything from household cleaners to carpet and treated wood can release toxic compounds into the indoor air we breathe daily. As these pollutants build up, they can reach dangerous levels and cause health problems for occupants, a condition known as “Sick Building Syndrome.”

The List of Air Filtering Plants:

• Bamboo palm or reed palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
• Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans ‘Massangeana’)
• Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
• English Ivy (Hedera helix)
• Gerbera Daisy or Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• Golden pothos or Devil’s ivy (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)
• Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn. Philodendron cordatum)
• Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis ‘Janet Craig’)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum ‘Mauna Loa’)
• Pot Mum or Florist’s Chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
• Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
• Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)
• Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn. Philodendron selloum)
• Snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Laurentii’)
• Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
• Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis ‘Warneckii’)
• Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)