Can the new breed of energy-saving fluorescents hold their own against incandescents? Popular Mechanics ran seven bulbs through their optical course to find out.
The compact fluorescent light bulb revolution nearly occurred back in the early 1990s. When CFLs first hit the market in force, consumers bought them in large numbers — but they hated them. [...]
The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Waterless Urinals - How do they work?
I am fascinated by waterless urinals. The very notion that a ammonia and nitrogen filled bodily fluid can be disposed of by a device using no flushing or running water is truly amazing to me. After doing a little reading into the science behind the products I am now even more impressed at the simple [...]
WattStopper
“(WattStopper / Legrand)… makes buildings and homes more efficient through lighting controls.”
WattStopper / Legrand is a company based in Santa Clara, California, that designs and markets lighting control systems for both commercial and residential applications. Their website cites their convictions about “the importance of providing energy efficient, convenient, and accessible controls for the work environment.”
The [...]
DuctSox
DuctSox is an innovative product designed as an easily installed, cost effective and attractive alternative to metal ductwork. The ducts are constructed of fabric shaped into shapes including cylindrical tubes, half-rounds or quarter panels. The DuctSox is used to distribute and diffuse heated, cooled, refrigerated and make-up air into a space. A variety of product [...]
Clivus Multrum Composting Toilets
Recently, I had the good fortune to take a tour of the sustainable design holy site that is the Philip Joseph Merrill Center in Annapolis MD. It is a great example of the successful implementation of sustainable design and besides it is on a strikingly beautiful piece of land on the edge of the Chesapeake [...]
E.U. Eco-label
Established in 1992, the European Union Eco-label “Flower” is a unique certification scheme aimed to help European consumers distinguish greener, more environmentally friendly, products and services.
Over the past ten years, the “Flower” has become a European-wide symbol for products, providing simple and accurate guidance to consumers.
All products bearing the “Flower” have been checked by [...]
How Pond Scum Could Lead to Eco-Friendly Fabric and Paint
Going green is fashionable, but dyeing our clothes has remained a decidedly eco-unfriendly practice. Now, British scientists have developed a way to grow harmless algae to add color to fabric and paint. The algae, called diatoms, are single-celled organisms that are unique because they pack iridescent shells. The hard silica shells act like crystals — [...]
Apricus Solar - Solar Hot Water
Apricus Solar is a Australian-Chinese joint venture company which designs, manufactures, and exports high quality thermal solar collectors, heat dissipation units, and related components. Their equipment was widely used by teams at the 2007 Solar Decathlon competition (9 houses used Apricus equipment) and they were one of the Top 10 Green Building Products of 2007.
The [...]
New Recycled Porcelain Tiles From Italy
They’re beautiful, green, inexpensive and… Italian. What more could a tile consumer want?
The manufacturer, Floor Gres, uses waste from its manufacturing processes for 70% of the material in its Ecotech line. Items previously sent to the dump or to the sewage plant, such as quality-control rejected tiles, scraps, waste water and sludge, are [...]
Big Ass Fans
I must confess. I hate the name. But I really like the product so I will give some attention to a company that has been marketing aggressively and grown exponentially since it started in 1999. Somewhere along the way it shed its original name of HVLS (High Volume Low Speed) Fan Company and took up the [...]
Aerogel
Aerogel, mentioned several times this week during the Solar Decathlon, is a thermal insulator that is also lightweight and strong (as can be seen in the above photo). Aerogel is basically a foam comprised of super-porous silicon that is 99% air! Aerogel’s ability to trap such a large quantity of air within its pores means [...]
Micro Wind Turbines by AV Inc.
AV Inc. has a new micro wind turbine design, named Architectural Wind, that is marketed for use in architectural applications in areas where large mast mounted turbines are not acceptable, in cities for instance.
“AV developed a small, modular wind turbine system designed for installation on buildings in urban and suburban areas. By eliminating the support tower, reducing [...]
_dutchtub
“Don’t forget your bathing suits!” is the greeting on the _dutchtub website.
The _dutchtub is a novel hot tub that uses a wood burning stove to heat the water in lieu of electricity. The system works by using a large super insulated tub (shown above), a wood burning stove, and a water source. The manufacturer claims [...]
Patterned Fences by Demakersvan
The product of the month (July 2007) from Architectural Record is Lace Fence. The fencing is designed by Dutch architecture firm Demakersvan and fabricated in India by IDFence in Bangalore. The idea stemmed from designer Joep Verhoeven’s travels where he noticed patterned fence-mending techniques and wondered how those ideas could be brought to a larger [...]
Graphic Concrete
Graphic Concrete is a Helsinki, Finland, based company that "offers a new way to produce a patterned concrete surface." The graphics are applied using a retarder applied to the surface of a membrane that is applied to the face of the concrete during forming/hardening. Here are the fascinating details about how this product is produced:
Graphic [...]