Today’s LA Times article makes a number of good points about what our air conditioned culture means:
In America, we never want anyone to see us sweat. Read more on the impact: Air conditioning and its impact on American life and culture – latimes.com.
H2Option Dual Flush Toilet
The key to conservation for most people is not making it feel like conservation.
Another key is, as always, saving money. People will generally conserve when it saves money and doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.
Problem is: if the low-cost solution really doesn’t work and product performance suffers, so does conservation.
One of our clients makes dual flush toilets, which are really good: you literally press 1 for 1 and press 2 to flush, well, number 2. These toilets can can reduce water usage by up to 67 percent. Unfortunately, there are now so-called dual flush retrofit kits that promise to turn your existing potty into a dual flush model.
One big problem: changing the amount of water going into a toilet bowl doesn’t change how the water behaves in the bowl in terms of how it powers out waste and water (or worse, doesn’t).
At that point, users are not going to be terribly enthused about additional conservation measures. Which ultimately hurts good new technology like dual flush toilets, some of which have received top independent ratings for their ability to flush solids cleanly and completely.
When I was sorting my disposables during a recent visit to the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Ca., I stopped short. I was used to sorting paper and plastic, maybe even compost, but LANDFILL? That’s a choice I’ve never seen. In place of the word TRASH, some enterprising environmentalist decided to tell it like it is: If you put it here, it’s going to the LANDFILL, and it’s all on you.
Who wants to live off the grid in a solar powered home in Northern Wisconsin? No one we know.
But Michael Sperry’s wife, Judy agreed to go along with his “environmental experiment as long as our family wouldn’t be uncomfortable.” Radiant heating is among the solutions that keep the family warm.
Appliances, consumer electronics, comfort systems…all had to have maximum efficiency. A unique circulating pump in the radiant heating system keeps operating costs low and comfort high, even in Northern Wisconsin at this time of year.
Read more at Contractor Magazine: Off-grid, solar home doesn’t scrimp on comfort.
The story originated from Green Earth PR agency, O’Reilly/DePalma, from an interview of the homeowner conducted by principal John O’Reilly. Two O’Reilly/DePalma clients are featured in this exclusive: feature, Grundfos and Uponor, which provide the PEX tubing.
Consultants with the Green Earth PR Network are helping American Standard Brands on its mission to help metropolitan Atlanta find solutions to its water woes.
The company is retrofitting 20 homes in two neighborhoods with the latest in high-efficiency plumbing fixtures to measure both water savings and user satisfaction. Read more about American Standard and the Georgia Water Efficiency test.
Tommy Linstroth, head of sustainable initiatives for Savannah-based developer Melaver, Inc. and founder of RehydrateUS.org is assisting American Standard to compile before-and-after usage data and educate the broader community on water conservation issues.
Follow along with key learnings from the water efficiency test on the RehydrateUS.org blog.
Maybe it’s better called the “billion gallon challenge” — but whatever name you give it, it’s an initiative I’m proud to be helping to launch at Greenbuild 2009 in Phoenix. And, I learned something I didn’t yet know in the process — I love it when my clients teach me something new!
RehydrateUS is an initiative created by Tommy Linstroth, sustainability guru over at Melaver, Inc. Tommy heads up the firm’s sustainability consulting and oversees all of their own LEED project development and management, so he’s pretty savvy about what we need to do as a nation to conserve water. And because he is so amazed that the solution could be so simple, he’s created this challenge: switch out your outdated, low efficiency TOILETS, SHOWERHEADS and FAUCET AERATORS. That’s it. If everybody did it, we’d save 1 billion gallons of water EVERY DAY.
Oh, and what did I learn from Tommy? Turns out it takes about 1 kilowatt hour of energy to use 1 gallon of water — so if we save 1 billion gallons of water, we’re also going to save about 1 billion kilowatt hours of energy … I think that’s where the BOLDly simple comes in.
Get yourself over to www.rehydrateus.com and calculate your potential water savings and then sign up and pledge to get ‘er done.
The Science of Radiant – Feature Article – Reeves Journal.
Radiant cooling is a topic of interest to commercial building owners, because there are many situations where radiant systems can deliver significant cost savings over time.
The newly rebuilt LEED Platinum California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco is just such an example. Reeves Journal recently ran a story on the radiant solution that bylined by my business partner, John O’Reilly.
Situated in Golden Gate Park, the main exhibit area is a “bare-box, high-ceiling space with well-shaded glass exterior walls,” according to Paul Switenki, the project engineer for the museum remodel, from the San Francisco office of engineering and design firm, Arup.
Instead of intallating a forced air heating and cooling system, O’Brien Mechanical, Inc. of San Francisco installed PEX tubing in the floor of the museum. Low-horsepower pumps circulate water through the floor.
This keeps the heating (or cooling) near the floor—where museum visitors and personnel are situated—not blowing around near the ceiling, as with a conventional forced-air system.
Switenki said San Francisco’s mild climate makes it ideal for radiant heating and cooling systems.
The Science of Radiant – Article Rotation – Reeves Journal.
The newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences is a paragon of efficient, sustainable design. Nestled within San Francisco’s lush Golden Gate Park and featuring an undulating 2.5-acre “living roof” planted with vegetation native to the region, the 410,000-square-foot natural history museum earned a LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council—making it the largest public facility to garner the certification.
Interesting article, written by a friend of the Green Earth PR Network, includes interesting information on using radiant for both heating and cooling.
