Formaldehyde Should Not Be In Our Houses, No Matter How Natural; Big Chem Says It Is
The industry rallies around an attack on Nick Kristof of the New York Times, but he’s right.
Monthly archives: October, 2012
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27
2012 - 1681
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27
2012 - 3681
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Homebox turns Shipping Container Housing On Its End
The real importance of the shipping container isn’t the fact that it is a box; it is that it is part of a larger system of handling and transport. One can move them anywhere with standardized equipment. Professor Han Slawik builds his Homeboxes out of wood, within the internationally recognized standards of an ISO shipping container. The Professor writes:
Worldwide are almost steel containers in use. But wear, repair and maintenance of steel materials are more costly (in term of purchasing costs, welding, etc.) than for wooden materials. Wooden constructions can be repaired cheaper and easier. Variation and adjustment to changing necessaries and conditions are easier and cheaper with wooden containers. Live in wooden homes is healthier and more comfortable as in a home made of
- October
- October
27
2012 - 1594
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Can You Build an All-American Home? It’s Hard and Expensive, and It’s All About the Details
People all over the United States were out of work; if she bought American-made products for the house, she could do her part. But how far could she take it? Was it possible to build a house entirely of products made in America?
Some things were easy. Lantz traveled to a quarry in Lueders, Tex., to find chocolate-brown limestone. The marble chips that made up her terrazzo came from Marble Falls. She found Heatlok Soy 200 foam insulation in Arlington and windows manufactured in Stafford. Other items required her to look further afield: Lantz bought shower drains from Iowa, a skylight made in South Carolina, hose valves made in Alabama, fences from California and baseboards from Georgia. She developed the skills of a private investigator.
- October
- October
27
2012 - 1892
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Water Heaters Should Be The Next Green Initiative
Our cars are starting to become more eco-friendly. Solar and wind energy are becoming major talking points in the broader moments of the Presidential election. There are even mobile apps that help us get a little bit greener.
But there are still parts of the home that need serious attention. We waste a lot of water with our traditional plumbing fixtures (toilets, showers, faucets, etc.). Inefficient AC systems can rob you of hard-earned money and drive up your energy use. So-called “phantom” electronicscan keep your energy running all day, every day.
But, while all of those are problems that should certainly be looked at and fixed, if possible, the biggest problem in our homes that we probably never think about is the hot water heater.
- October
- October
27
2012 - 3223
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4 Energy Sucking Electronic Devices You’ll Want to Keep Off or Unplugged
Living in a 1930’s building, it’s obvious the era of “plug in everything” is a very recent change in lifestyle. And although our modest one-bedroom apartment isn’t a big energy hog (modest refrigerator, window AC, gas heater, and LED/CFL bulbs throughout), there are always a few more ways to nip and tuck at the monthly energy bill… More Read More..
- October
- October
27
2012 - 2026
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An Affordable Prefabbed Passive House Line Is Launched
It used to be that a green home was an expensive home. Call it a combination of higher material costs and the need for a little more know-how than the kind that goes into your average tract home — the upshot was that building green was out of reach for a lot of the people. Slowly, though, that’s been changing, and one of the key factors in increasing the cost-effectiveness of green building has been prefabrication.
A number of different companies have been making a name for themselves with LEED-ready prefabs in recent years,
- October
- October
27
2012 - 1884
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Report raises questions about value of LEED certification
LAS VEGAS â?? The Palazzo Hotel and Casino boasts many features of Las Vegas excess â?? an indoor waterfall, a smoke-filled gaming area, seven decorative fountains, and guest suites with three TVs and power-controlled curtains.
Yet the 50-story complex achieved an unlikely and lucrative milestone after opening in 2008. A powerful private organization declared it an environmentally friendly “green” building, the world’s largest at the time.
The designation won its owner, Las Vegas Sands Corp., a $27 million tax break over 10 years because a Nevada law puts the private interest group â?? not the government â?? in charge of deciding which buildings are green enough for a taxpayer subsidy.
The U.S. Green Building Council, a building industry non-profit, credited the Palazzo for
- October
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27
2012 - 1763
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Four Insights from a Passive House Retreat
The same can be said for energy choices. An ultra-efficient home can be an expression of a non-financial value such as the desire to avoid using fossil fuels, consume less overall energy, or emit less CO2, according to Horowitz and Goldman. Similarly, the decision to use renewable energy could be driven not by payback but by a desire to advance the use of renewable energy.
Passive House Retreat obtained LEED Gold certification and the systems include a Mitsubishi ducted air-source heat pump (HSPF 10, SEER 15.5), Zehnder Comfoair HRV, and a GE GeoSpring heat pump water heater. The build includes a double-stud wall assembly with spray foam …
- October
- October
7
2012 - 1894
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Cool Product Introduced at The Passive House Conference, Blackbox IAQ
What does it do?
The BLACK BOX measures many properties of indoor air. Coupled with specialized computer algorithms developed at Equinox Built Environment Engineering, the air exchange rate and quality of the air can be assessed. Good indoor air quality is a balance of the rate that pollutants are released into one’s living space with the rate of air flow through the living space. Our assessment determines both the release rate of pollutants and the air exchange rate in the indoor living space.
- October
- October
7
2012 - 1404
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PlanetStove Delivers More Than Heat; Do You Part to Help Bring 1000 stoves
Hi, we’re Novotera. We’re embarking on this Indiegogo crowdsource fundraiser to distribute 1,000 of our new PlanetStove hybrid-biochar cooking stoves to remote villages in China, Thailand, and Indonesia during fall 2012.
Over 2 billion people cook indoors with inefficient wood fires causing deforestation, climate change and, according to the World Health Organization, more than 5000 premature-deaths a day due to smoke inhalation. After two years of working with Chinese villages to develop our stoves, we have finalized ……. Click Here to read the rest
- October
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7
2012 - 1713
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EWG’s 2012 Guide to Healthy Cleaning
Did you know that ingredient labels are not required on cleaning products? Good news for us, the Environmental Working Group recently released their 2012 Guide to Healthy Cleaning, in which they rated more than 2000 household cleaning products for non-toxicity and disclosure. More Read More..
- October
- October
7
2012 - 1233
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Alpen Windows to Focus on Passive House
Alpen has been operating continuously since 1981 and has consistently been the U.S. technology leader in energy-efficient windows. The company has announced that its operations and customer service staff will remain intact, as will the working relationship between Alpen and Serious Energy; it will also continue to manufacture its products in Colorado. Serious Energy retains …….
- October
- October
7
2012 - 1018
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Building Products Labelling Program Launches
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) has launched an ingredients-labelling program to help building products specifiers identify ecologically sound materials and products.
Each product accepted into the new Declare database receive a clear and informative “nutrition label” that includes its ingredients, source, and manufacturing locations. Participating products will be listed in the online database and can display the Declare label on packaging and marketing materials. The intial fee ……….
- October
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7
2012 - 1155
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A Building Code With Room for Innovation
Jeff Whitney, the head building inspector in Grand County, Utah came by the straw bale construction site in Moab where my wife and I are volunteering. He needed to inspect the flashing and some other details before we applied our first coat of plaster to the exposed bales.
Straw bale construction is not recognized in the Utah state building code, but because of Mr. Whitney, Grand County is the only place in Utah where it is explicitly allowed. In fact, the county’s straw bale construction provisions are right on his office’s home page.
“Other jurisdictions around the state used to say, “hell no, “ said Mr. Whitney, who wears a cowboy hat and white mustache, “But now they are starting to call us.” Click here to read further. We need to have more building officials willing to look “Outside the Box”.
- October
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