Green/Sustainable Building - Recent Threads

10 "Droolworthy" Eco-buildings

snorth — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:03:49 GMT

I think my favorite is the "Lilypad". For the "Dragonfly", I don't see how it would have near enough surface area to collect rainwater to sustain itself.

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/06/10-droolworthy-eco-buildings.php?page=1

How might Obama's stimulus package affect you?

natescape — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:11:27 GMT

Good article about how Obama's package might help you. I'd most certainly be interested in the "go green and lower your mortgage rate" thing.

Will Obama's Economic Stimulus Package Help You Go Green?

President-Elect Obama’s inauguration is only 13 days away, and it’s clear that economic stimulus will be at the very top of his agenda. We’re keeping our collective fingers crossed that Congress doesn’t get in the way, for urgent action was needed months ago. While details are still few and far between, it’s becoming clear that the package will be split between direct stimulus (i.e., government spending) and tax relief, and that there will be a green thread throughout. Much of this money will be used to promote spending by funding infrastructure projects at the federal, state and local levels, everything from building new roads to insulating government buildings.

It’s also clear that some of that money will trickle down to normal folks like you and me. Additional tax relief for individuals and families is in the works. We certainly could use the extra money in our pockets, but what’s truly exciting are the hints that the Obama Administration might use some of the stimulus funding to jump-start the green economy, provide mortgage relief in return for green upgrades, invest in residential green technologies, or perhaps all at the same time. Details are still scarce (at least as of late afternoon January 6th), but some of the more interesting proposals include the following:

Mortgage relief tied to energy conservation. Architecture 2030 is a prominent nonprofit group focused on fighting climate change by changing the way buildings are designed and built. Their proposal at face value is pretty simple: reward homeowners for investing in and achieving significant energy savings by reducing their mortgage interest rates. If you have an existing home, you’d be rewarded for cutting your energy use by 30% vs the latest code with an interest rate of 4.5%; go all the way to carbon neutrality and your rate would drop to 2%. Architecture 2030 estimates that this program, combined with a similar incentive program for commercial buildings, could lead to as many as 8.5 million new jobs over a two-year period. Sounds pretty aggressive, but major media outlets such as Business Week suggest this plan could be gaining traction in Washington.

Home retrofits and smart metering. Lisa Margonelli, an Irvine Fellow at the New America Foundation, recently recommended a number of components that should be part of the stimulus package in an article published in The Nation. She recommends that the government fund a mass home weatherization program for families with incomes less than $75,000. An investment of $3,000 per home could cut energy use by 20%, the equivalent of an ongoing $400 stimulus check. Pretty steep? Maybe, but Ms. Margonelli points out it’s equivalent to the $3,150 tax credit iniitially offered to Prius buyers regardless of income bracket. And we know that most of the folks driving those early Priuses weren’t in the lower brackets!

Ms. Margonelli also proposes an extensive upgrade of the electrical grid. Of course the utilities are lobbying furiously for multi-billion subsidies of new transmission lines and power plants, but she proposes that the Administration also look at each individual house by installing “smart” electricity meters on individual homes. Pilot studies have shown that a $100 meter and the visibility into power usage it promotes can lead homeowners to cut electricity consumption by 10% - 40%. In addition to giving us better tools to cut our own energy usage (and save money), this would also create thousands of installation jobs.

More details about exactly what will / will not be proposed should come out any day now - we’ll keep you posted. (FYI, if you’re interested in seeing who’s speaking to the Obama team, check out this website and select “Energy and Environment” from the drop-down list. Definitely a major improvement over the Cheney years!)

In the mean time, though, the government’s already handing out money in 2009 for a variety of green upgrades via tax incentives in the LAST stimulus package. Upgrade your furnace or boiler and receive $150, or bring your old home’s insulation and sealing up to modern code and receive $500. Our friends at Green Building Elements have put together a reasonable list of the highlights.

LED lighting revolution coming?

natescape — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:14:19 GMT

Might CFL lightbulbs be a thing of the past in the not-too-near future? Article here.

On the Brink of an LED Revolution - Report

SustainableBusiness.com News

A "revolution" in the way we illuminate our world is imminent, according to a paper published this week by two professors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Innovations in photonics and solid state lighting will lead to trillions of dollars in cost savings, along with a massive reduction in the amount of energy required to light homes and businesses around the globe, the researchers forecast.

A new generation of lighting devices based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will supplant the common light bulb in coming years, the paper suggests. In addition to the environmental and cost benefits of LEDs, the technology is expected to enable a wide range of advances in areas as diverse as healthcare, transportation systems, digital displays, and computer networking.

"What the transistor meant to the development of electronics, the LED means to the field of photonics. This core device has the potential to revolutionize how we use light," wrote co-authors E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim.

Schubert is the Wellfleet Senior Constellation Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer, and heads the university's National Science Foundation-funded Smart Lighting Center. Kim is a research assistant professor of electrical, computer and systems engineering. The paper, titled "Transcending the replacement paradigm of solid-state lighting," will be published in the Dec. 22, 2008 issue of Optics Express.

Researchers are able to control every aspect of light generated by LEDs, allowing the light sources to be tweaked and optimized for nearly any situation, Schubert and Kim said. In general LEDs will require 20 times less power than today's conventional light bulbs, and five times less power than "green" compact fluorescent bulbs.

If all of the world's light bulbs were replaced with LEDs for a period of 10 years, Schubert and Kim estimate the following benefits would be realized:

Total energy consumption would be reduced by 1,929.84 joules
Electrical energy consumption would be reduced by terawatt hours
Financial savings of $1.83 trillion
Carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 10.68 gigatons
Crude oil consumption would be reduced by 962 million barrels
The number of required global power plants would be reduced by 280

With all of the promise and potential of LEDs, Schubert and Kim said it is important not to pigeonhole or dismiss smart lighting technology as a mere replacement for conventional light bulbs. The paper is a call to arms for scientists and engineers, and stresses that advances in photonics will position solid state lighting as a catalyst for unexpected, currently unimaginable technological advances.

"LEDs have the potential to tremendously reduce pollution, save energy, save financial resources, and add new and unprecedented functionalities to photonic devices. These factors make photonics what could be termed a benevolent tsunami, an irresistible wave, a solution to many global challenges currently faced by humanity and will be facing even more in the years to come," the researchers wrote.

Possible smart lighting applications include rapid biological cell identification, interactive roadways, boosting plant growth, and better supporting human circadian rhythms to reduce an individual's dependency on sleep-inducing drugs or reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

In October, Rensselaer announced its new Smart Lighting Research Center, in partnership with Boston University and the University of New Mexico, and funded by an $18.5 million, five-year award from the NSF Generation Three Engineering Research Center Program.

Website: http://smartlighting.rpi.edu

Home heating and cooling with vegetable oil

natescape — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:04:20 GMT

Nifty, if we can get it to really work. Story here.

A carbon-neutral way to power your home

A super-efficient system that has the potential to power, heat and cool homes across the UK is being developed at Newcastle University.

It works by burning vegetable oil to power a generator and provide electricity for the home. The waste heat from this process is then used to provide heating and hot water and is also converted to cool a fridge.

At each step, the waste heat that is produced from engine gases and cooling is used elsewhere to recover the maximum amount of energy from the system. In addition to this, the plant producing the fuel absorbs carbon whilst growing — resulting in near zero overall carbon emissions.

Using these three forms of energy for home use is known as micro-trigeneration and this new design will take the concept of combined heat and power to the next level.

Led by experts at the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research at Newcastle University and drawing on expertise from across the UK and China, the design also includes a unique energy storage system.

This allows home owners to store the extra electrical energy during 'off-peak' times — for example during the night — and efficiently releases it when it is needed most.

Project leader Professor Tony Roskilly, of Newcastle University, explained: "The supply of electricity, heating and cooling can be optimized by this one, efficient and sustainable system.

"The combination of the generator and energy storage provides new ways to respond to changing energy demand in the home."

One of the potential oils to be used in the system comes from the seeds of the Croton Megalocarpus plant which grows in East Africa.

Croton Megalocarpus oil brings with it the advantage of being able to grow on land that is not suitable for traditional farming or food production — providing a fuel without sacrificing land for food crops.

Drawing on the modelling expertise of scientists at Ulster University, the team will build a full-scale prototype of the system.

The energy storage system, being developed with Leeds University, will supply electricity and cooling - helping to ensure that the correct form of energy is available at the right time and that the engine operates at its optimum efficiency.

Newcastle University's Dr Yaodong Wang, said that this form of energy system for the home would be highly efficient.

"In the past, a significant barrier to the take-up of domestic scale micro-trigeneration systems has been the availability of the right energy at the right time," he explained.

"A household has varying energy demands depending on the time of day and the time of year.

"By integrating new energy storage technology with the micro-trigeneration system we have the potential to overcome this barrier and make an impact on future domestic energy supply."

Do not call list, junk mail, & spam opt outs

ebztz — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:28:22 GMT

Here are a list of some opt-outs:

Telemarketing:

Do Not Call Registry

Credit card offers:

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/

Mail:

www.dmachoice.org

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

E-mail:

www.dmachoice.org/EMPS

I've used a few of these and know they work. Junk mail and credit card offers slowed to a trickle. This saves a LOT of paper and energy.

More info

Green printing

ebztz — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:18:32 GMT

Saving money today, trees tomorrow

GreenPrint eliminates wasteful pages in any printout automatically, saving you time and money, and maybe more importantly, saving trees, reducing greenhouse gasses, and decreasing waste.

GreenPrint's patent-pending technology does this by analyzing each page of every document sent to the printer and looking for typical waste characteristics (like that last page with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or legal jargon).

GreenPrint also incorporates an easy to use PDF writer, a fantastic print preview called GreenView, and a reporting feature which keeps track of the number of pages and the amount of money you have saved.

Our product line includes two options for home users: Greenprint World, our free version of the software, and GreenPrint Home Premium. For companies of any size, GreenPrint's Enterprise Edition provides insight into waste reduction through a company wide printing overview, as well as tracking the number of trees saved and the CO2 reduction. It also provides an easy way to reuse paper that has already been printed on one side before recycling it.

Having a meaningful impact on the environment has never been so easy. To learn more about GreenPrint, click here. or watch a demo of GreenPrint

Chicago's Green Alley Initiative

ebztz — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:11:54 GMT

Chicago forges ahead with Green Alley initiative

CHICAGO: If this were any other city, perhaps it would not matter what kind of roadway was underfoot in the back alleys around town. But with nearly 2,000 miles of small service streets bisecting blocks from the North Side to the South Side, Chicago is the alley capital of America. In its alleys, city officials say, it has the paved equivalent of five midsize airports.

Part of the landscape since the city began, the alleys, mostly home to garbage cans and garages, make for cleaner and less congested main streets. But Chicago's distinction is not without disadvantages: Imagine having a duplicate set of streets, in miniature, to maintain that are prone to flooding and to dumping runoff into a strained sewer system.

What is an old, alley-laden city to do? Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with environmentally sustainable road-building materials under its Green Alley initiative, something experts say is among the most ambitious public street makeover plans in the United States. In a larger sense, the city is rethinking the way it paves things.

In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.

Some of that water may even end up back in Lake Michigan, from which Chicago takes a billion gallons a year.

"The question is, if you've got to resurface an alley anyway, can you make it do more for you?" said Janet Attarian, the project's director.

The new pavements are also designed to reflect heat from the sun instead of absorbing it, helping the city stay cool on hot days. They also stay warmer on cold days. The green alleys are given new kinds of lighting that conserve energy and reduce glare, city officials said, and are made with recycled materials.

The city will have completed 46 green alleys by the end of the year, and it has deemed the models so attractive that now every alley it refurbishes will be a green alley. "It is now business as usual," Attarian said.

But all these improvements come with a cost, and some people around Chicago have begun to wonder if a city that hardly recycles its trash and has a hard time keeping its trains and buses running should be spending money on fancy alleys.

Judy King, putting all her household refuse into one bag on Tuesday and tossing it into a bin in a green alley, said: "How do you decide where your priorities are? It's a hard one. I'm bothered that there isn't more recycling."

The city has begun having serious talks about a comprehensive recycling program to replace the uneven guidelines now in place. But beyond recycling, it has a vast array of "green initiatives" that put it at the forefront of environmentally conscious cities.

This month, the city started two programs with financing from the Clinton Foundation that are intended to help owners of homes and businesses to modernize old, leaky buildings to reduce energy consumption.

The city also has an expedited permitting process for builders who use green techniques. Its garbage trucks and street sweepers have emission-control devices. In recent years, it has installed rooftop gardens to collect rainwater, planted a half-million new trees and created more than 200 acres, or 80 hectares, of parks and open spaces intended to clean the air and add bits of beauty.

As for the alleys, the city says the cost of construction is offset by what it would have paid for maintenance and sewer improvements for the old ones.

The new alleys will require maintenance, too, so their pores do not get clogged, but, Attarian said, "I think they're pretty price-competitive."

The city pays about $45 a cubic yard, or $60 a cubic meter, for permeable concrete, with the price per cubic yard about $100 less than it was a year ago when concrete plants were just revving up production of the new material. Beyond that, there is the added expense of the stone filtration layer beneath the concrete.

Attarian said ordinary concrete costs $50 or more a cubic yard. The products look pretty much the same.

With its history of heavy industry and bare-knuckled reputation, Chicago may not seem like the most likely city to exhibit environmental friendliness.

But Mayor Richard Daley has said that he wants to make Chicago a green model for the country. A few years ago, he was derided as a tree-hugger; now, other mayors are copying him. "Global warming is not a question," Daley said in a recent news release. "How we deal with it is."

Martin Pedersen, the executive editor of Metropolis, a magazine about urban living, said, "Recycling programs are all well and good, but the things that really move public policy and the industry are things like taxes and the building code."

Pedersen said Daley had "made adjustments to both to encourage green building, and that's a big deal."

In the past several years, Chicago also has built 90 miles, or 145 kilometers, of landscaped medians and refurbished more than 100 miles of streetscapes.

Michael David Martin, an associate professor and associate chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University, specializes in the study of alleys and neighborhoods. Martin praised what he called "more thoughtful alley design."

"The alley is not only functional," he said, "but an educational green landscape that is helping a city experiment with design and different ways to handle water."

Source

New home heating innovation

ATBio — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:30:52 GMT

It seems to me that for nations like the UK, moderately cold and with inefficient old housing stock, of low density, there is a huge need for some kind of 'bolt on' technology to improve efficiency.

What we were thinking for our family home was to install insulation on the outside, around the parts of the house where we need to keep most heat in.

Someone objected that it would be better to put this insulation on the inside. I then thought about what difference it would make and came to an astounding realisation. With a two-brick thickness of outer wall, and several tons worth on the side of our living room alone, the placement of EXTERIOR insulation would act to turn the brick work into a superior heat storage device, load-levelling between day and night temperatures.

With sufficient insulation, one could make a substantial improvement in efficiency simply by using morning sunshine when it streams in to warm the brickwork from the inside. Then I started to conceive of how this priciple could be enhanced in new builds to eliminate damp and further improve the effect by circulating interior air through a cavity in the bricks and either back into the room or back outside. A simple glass cover where sun falls directly onto a wall could preheat air before circulating it through the brickwork, turning the outside wall into a collector.

As for the insulation, I envisage that the panels would be made with layers of silvered paper inside a planar vacuum panel of severeal centimeters width. This would be stacked and partly overlapping to reduce heat gain. The vacuum could be easily maintained by putting tire like valves on them so that you can pump out the air. Tubeless tires that use pressure and contact with a side wall to insulate them show in principle how easy it is to seal containers, and the use of metal and compression pins (low thermal conduction) to hold the surfaces apart would result in the potential for low cost vacuum panels.

Solar Hot Water system now installed

Mike Briggs — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:02:24 GMT

So we finally finished installing our new solar hot water heater. Well, sort of. Right now the heat exchange loop is just filled with water (we checked for leaks, but I figure I'll just leave water in there for a few days). We'll need to put a propylene glycol solution in there shortly as the night-time weather is getting cold.

I must say - DAMN that system generates a lot of heat.

Green Building standards being created

natescape — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:56:48 GMT

Green Building Standards Under Construction

The world's leading certification system for sustainable architecture is set to undergo its most sweeping changes in 2009. The proposed revisions encourage designs that would reduce a building's impact on global climate change.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, commonly known as LEED, has become the standard for green building design since the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nongovernmental organization, crafted the rating system eight years ago. Architecture that voluntarily improves energy efficiency, water conservation, and indoor air quality has surged in popularity in the past two years, especially in Europe and major U.S. cities.

According to USGBC's August statistics, more than 2,400 commercial and residential buildings worldwide are LEED certified, and nearly 14,000 are under way. The green building movement has the potential to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, about 40 percent of all energy is used to heat, light, and cool residential and commercial buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

Minimum LEED certification, however, does not necessarily guarantee environmental improvements. Developers who purchase environmentally related products off a LEED-supplied checklist may produce a LEED-certified building, but the building's future impact on energy and resource use is unknown. The proposed revisions are the beginning of a transition toward buildings that earn their green marks based on performance rather than eco-marketing.

The current LEED system allocates a maximum of 69 points for various environmental quality improvements. A building that receives 26 points is certified, and more points are necessary to receive the higher rankings of silver, gold, and platinum. While costly improvements such as solar panels are likely to boost a building's rankings, all categories are given equal weight, making some improvements less effective than others.

"LEED has been frequently criticized for not having a solid rationale for allocating credits," said Jerry Yudelson, a Tucson-based architect who teaches LEED-certification workshops. "The classic example is you get one point for putting in bicycle lockers and showers and one point for saving 7 percent of energy. Are those equivalent benefits?"

The new model emphasizes designs that the USGBC considers most beneficial for today's global environment. Improvements that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and burn fewer fossil fuels account for 34 of the 100 points. While a building requires only 40 points to receive certification, factors including access to transportation and energy efficiency can no longer be avoided, said Scot Horst, chair of the LEED steering committee. "We are saying climate change is the most important thing, so we put the most points to credits that deal with climate change," said Horst, president of the architecture consultancy 7Group. "If you want to get certified, you have to focus on those areas."

The new criteria place greater focus on the environmental impact of a building's entire life cycle. Contributions to eutrophication - the creation of oxygen-free dead zones in polluted water bodies - and "ecotoxicity" are now emphasized. Eventually, the USGBC envisions a system that assesses lifecycle impacts by measuring a building's pollutants, rather than being based solely on the attributes of building materials.

The 2009 LEED standards also plan to include more mandatory designs - most notably water efficiency. Building requirements, however, are not the same in all climates, and the stricter rules may further complicate efforts to streamline the process. Green developers in arid regions, for instance, struggle to balance air ventilation with energy conservation: if more hot air enters a building, more air conditioning is demanded.

To compensate for regional differences, the proposed standards grant local chapters "bonus points" that can be allocated toward design issues that would aid certification in that area. "This is the best way possible to give responsibility to chapters - they're the ones who know the local issues - without jeopardizing the consistency of LEED overall," Horst said.

But several architects still consider the system lacking. "There is a tension between having a national system... and yet still allowing a lot of regional differences," said Yudelson, who chairs the USGBC's annual conference committee. "[A solution] is for LEED 2012... We're not ready to make that big of a leap."

Regardless of the policy changes, some critics say a system like LEED does not do enough to improve the world's environmental woes. Architect Jonathan Ochshorn, an associate professor at Cornell University, said LEED-certified buildings are anecdotal examples of improvements that ultimately serve a corporation's profit, not the environment. "LEED in general is a way for institutions and corporations to collect points from a public relations standpoint," Ochshorn said. "The world isn't getting any better because of LEED."

The number of green buildings constructed remains relatively small - about 2 percent, according to a 2006 Green Building SmartMarket Report - due to higher building costs and the often stressful complexity of the certification system. To simplify the process, independent certifiers [PDF] have been hired to handle the growing number of certification requests. The costs are also beginning to fall as energy prices climb and green designs become mainstream.

"The changes in LEED are definite improvements, I think everyone is behind them, but we also need to improve the system," Yudelson said. "We need results, not just a certification on a building."

Article here.

Greenhouse

Mike Briggs — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:55:58 GMT

I'm planning on building a "lean-to" style greenhouse attached to the south side of our garage, to hopefully allow us to grow vegetables year-round. Anyone every done this?

I'm thinking of using some insulated fiberglass panels, which have a solar transmission of 84% and U-factor of 0.48 (R-value of just over 2), which would then likely require insulated window quilts to be pulled down at night. I'd put black-painted water tubes at the back wall to absorb sunlight during the day, and radiate heat at night. I'd put the walls on a poured cement foundation that would go below the frost line, and make a floor with 1" of rigid foam insulation so the ground won't freeze - then put on a tile floor, and the plants would go in raised planting beds.

How's that sound?

Oh - I'm also plannig on putting sliding glass doors at the east and west ends, to allow good ventilation in the summer to keep it from overheating.

Solar HOt water system recommendations?

Mike Briggs — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:52:56 GMT

I'm planning on (finally) putting a solar hot water system on our house soon (within the next month hopefully), and am looking for any recommendations of particular brands anyone might have.

The way I'd like to do it is to use our boiler as backup heat, so we will need/want a dual coil tank (solar hot water system connected to the bottom, providing most of the heating, with the boiler having an upper heat exchanger for when the SHW system isn't sufficient), with our current one-coil HW tank in-line *before* the dual coil tank. I'd like to have a thermostatically controlled valve to shift the flow of the glycol solution (oh - need closed loop, due to being in NH) from the dual coil tank to the single coil tank once the dual coil tank is up to 140F (boiler's set temp will be 120 F).

When hot water is drawn from the system, it will pull from the top of the dual coil tank, with the tank being replenished (at the bottom) from water pulled from the top of the single coil tank (which gets its water from the public water supply). SO, the single coil tank would essentially allow a larger total capacity of stored hot water, but without needing a massive tank (which the boiler would primarily need to keep heated in winter).

Make sense?

Evacuated tubes seem appealing vs. flat plate collectors, but also likely more expensive. Anyway - any recommendations?

Home Depot to recycle CFLs!

natescape — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:18:40 GMT

Big news, IMO (PDF).

THE HOME DEPOT LAUNCHES NATIONAL CFL BULB RECYCLING INITIATIVE
Also Implementing In Store Energy Conservation Program

ATLANTA, June 24, 2008 – The Home Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today expanded its long-term commitment to the environment and sustainability by launching a national in-store, consumer compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb recycling program at all 1,973 The Home Depot locations. This free service is the first such offering made so widely available by a retailer in the United States and offers customers additional options for making environmentally conscious decisions from purchase to disposal. The Home Depot Canada launched a CFL recycling program in November, 2007.

At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

In addition to the CFL recycling program, The Home Depot has also launched an in store energy conservation program to switch Light Fixture Showrooms in U.S. stores from incandescent bulbs to CFLs by Fall 2008 and save $16 million annually in energy costs.

The CFL recycling program is an extension of The Home Depot’s Eco Options program. Eco Options, launched in April 2007, is a classification that allows customers to easily identify products that have less of an impact on the environment.

“The CFL recycling program is another example of how The Home Depot is empowering customers to help make a difference in their own homes, and have less of an impact on the environment,” said Ron Jarvis, senior vice president, Environmental Innovation. “With more than 75 percent of households located within 10 miles of a Home Depot store, this program is the first national solution to providing Americans with a convenient way to recycle CFLs.”

Switching from traditional light bulbs to CFLs is an easy change consumers can make to reduce energy use at home. According to the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program, if every American switched out one incandescent bulb to a CFL, it would prevent more than 600 million in annual energy costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 800,000 cars. As the largest retailer of light bulbs in the country, The Home Depot sold over 75 million CFL’s in 2007, which saved Americans approximately $4.8 billion in energy costs and 51.8 billon pounds in CO2 greenhouse gases over the life of the bulbs.

ther environmental initiatives The Home Depot has implemented since the launch of Eco Options in April 2007 include:
• Store recycling program in the U.S. of shrink wrap and mixed plastics, which will result in 50 million pounds of waste diverted from landfills each year.
• Internal recycling initiative at corporate headquarters that is projected to increase the amount of recycled materials from 30 percent to at least 65 percent.
• Renewed commitment to use transportation partners registered in SmartWay program and ensuring The Home Depot distribution facilities and stores further promote emission reduction.

For more information on the CFL Recycling Program or Eco Options, please visit www.homedepot.com/ecooptions.

SolarDuct™ PV/T - Solar Air Heating and Electricity

froggy — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:01:14 GMT

Here is the link.

Can someone explain to me why PV/T systems arnt the norm?

Solar hot water, or geothermal heating/cooling

Mike Briggs — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:58:28 GMT

We are continuing the process of renovating and improving the efficiency of our home. We have a Buderus oil boiler for heating and hot water, which we run mostly on biodiesel (haven't been able to keep up with homebrewing though, so I am buying what I can).

I am working on improving the insulation envelope of our home, which should help things some, but cooling in the summe and heating in the winter remain important issues. I've been planning for a while to put in a solar hot water system (once our roof is redone in a few weeks), but I've started thinking more about geothermal heating and cooling options, to put in somewhat of a central air system for cooling (and using the geothermal heat with the forced hot water system already in the house). With geothermal cooling, you can use the waste heat to heat domestic hot water.

That has lead me to ponder, if we only make one investment (based on funds, etc.), which would be more worthwhile - solar hot water, or a geothermal heating and cooling system? (the cooling would replace two window air conditioners, which can't keep up with cooling loads anyway). If we put in a geothermal system though, I'm not sure what I could do with our nearly new Buderus boiler.....

If putting in a solar hot water system, we would probably put in two "Mr. Slim" split ductless air conditioners for cooling - better than window air conditioners, but nowhere near the efficiency of a geothrmal system. We would stick with the Buderus for home heating, and backup domestic hot water.

I don't know yet what the costs will work out to (I expect a solar hot water system would run around $4-5,000), but am working on the assumption that a SHW plus two Mr. Slim split ductless ACs would be on part with a geothermal system - and if that is the case, which route makes more sense. Of course, the ideal option would be geothermal plus SHW, but that would start getting pricey.

A potential factor in geothermal's favor would be that we wouln't need the Buderus anymore, and may be able to sell it - but I doubt we would get close to what we paid for it ~1.5 years ago.

Talk about a green building

natescape — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:29:54 GMT

But how much energy will go into making it? Link here.

Stunning Solar Building Will Generate More Power Than It Needs

The Masdar Headquarters building will produce more power than it needs (an energy positive building). In fact, the solar roof (one of the largest in the world) will be constructed first, and it will power the construction of the rest of the building. The video link on this page has a great view of the sun-infused interior.

The 1.4 million square foot building was designed by Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill.

It will serve as the centerpiece of Masdar City, which will end up being about a $22 billion development in Abu Dhabi (the capital of United Arab Emirates).

Masdar Headquarters will have the lowest energy consumption per square foot, it will feature the largest photovoltaic system and the largest solar thermal driven cooling and dehumidification system. The building will also have integrated wind turbines. It will consume about 70% less water than a typical mixed-use building of its size.

Construction of Masdar City commenced with a formal ground-breaking ceremony on February 9, 2008. The City will be constructed over seven phases and is due to be completed by 2016. Masdar’s headquarters is part of phase one and will be completed by the end of 2010.

The design competition for Masdar’s headquarters was managed by the Louis Berger Group and began with a field of 159 participants, which was narrowed down to 15 architecture and design firms. The criteria for selection of the 15 included building functionality, water and wastewater efficiency, indoor environmental quality, zero carbon emission, carbon footprint reduction and firm experience. Four global leaders in sustainable architecture and design were then chosen to submit final proposal.

Fence and pool discussion

natescape — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:12:32 GMT

Hi all. So I'd like to fence in my back yard so my dog can run around and so we can eventually install a pool (we're teachers and have the summer off and would spend a lot of time in it). Our back yard is about 100' across by 135' deep (half-acre lot). What's the most environmentally friendly and practical fencing materials? Composite fencing seems interesting... recycled materials, long-lasting, etc.

Ideally, we'd get something that's reasonably priced, decent on the environment, and long-lasting.

As for a pool, any word on ways to minimize the impact of a pool? I've heard the term "sweet-water" pool, but can't really find much about it. Ideally, I'd like to minimize the chemical and energy use in the pool. A solar heater is a must, and we'd take out a few trees to give it full sun (we have probably 50 trees on our property). I plan on getting a wood-burning stove sometime in the near future, so the tree would be chopped and used for heat.

Low-energy Greenhouse Scheme

ebztz — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:20:38 GMT

BBC Media - "Low-energy Greenhouse Scheme."

Environmental campaigners are hoping new technologies will help lower energy use in farming.

First steps for home efficiency

natescape — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:47:40 GMT

So what are some good first steps folks should take to improve their home's energy efficiency? Compact florescent bulbs would have to be quite high on the "easy to do, quick ROI" step. I've also noticed a real difference in my heating bills and general "warm feeling" since I replaced my siding (with extra insulation underneath) and windows.

Annual solar buildings open house - 10/6

Chemical Bill — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:47:26 GMT

Anybody going to tour local solar houses? In my area there's a round ICF house that was half done last year. I can't wait to see it now that it's finished.

National:

http://www.ases.org/tour/

Northeast:

http://nesea.org/buildings/openhouse/