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Green Product Directories

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An important tool in the effort to build greener buildings and live greener lives is the selection of products that were made using environmentally friendly processes and are used in environmentally friendly ways.

They are energy or water efficient; they use healthy, non-toxic materials; they are made from recycled or renewable sources; they make current products you use more efficient or more durable; and they are recyclable or biodegradable, among many other things.

The directories below will help you sort through the claims and find the products that best meet your needs.

  • ENERGY STAR: Products in more than 50 categories are eligible for the ENERGY STAR. They use less energy, save money, and help protect the environment. ENERGY STAR is a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
  • Good To Be Green: Good To Be Green is a directory of green building products, sustainable building materials and green building service providers. Products must: be made out of recycled materials; ensure a low environmental impact during the construction, operation and/or demolition of the building; conserve natural resources like energy, wood and water; and improve air quality.
  • Green2Green: Green2Green.org features comprehensive information regarding green building products, materials and practices. The site offers side-by-side comparisons of products using a variety of environmental, technical and economic criteria.
  • Green Building Pages: Green Building Pages is an online sustainable design and decision-making tool for building industry professionals and environmentally and socially responsible consumers.
  • The Green Guide: National Geographic's Green Guide offers staff-written reviews of a host of products, ranging from appliances, home furnishings and home improvement products to personal care and pet supplies.
  • GreenSpec Directory: The online GreenSpec® Directory lists product descriptions for over 2,100 environmentally preferable products. Products are chosen to be listed by BuildingGreen editors. They do not charge for listings or sell ads.
  • Low Impact Living: Find environmentally friendly products and services in dozens of categories.
  • Oikos: Oikos is a World Wide Web site devoted to serving professionals whose work promotes sustainable design and construction.
  • PlugGREEN: PlugGREEN.com allows green businesses to create their own business profile, allowing them to network directly with other green businesses and green-minded consumers. In addition, PlugGREEN.com provides an organized and efficient way for consumers to find local green businesses and products in their area.
SOURCE: USGBC

Green Retrofit Checklist

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Find more details about these retrofit suggestions at USGBC Checklist for Green Retrofits:

Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs


Program your thermostat


Plug air leaks


Tune up your heating and cooling (HVAC) system


Choose ENERGY STAR® appliances


Reduce water use


Switch to green power


Explore solar


Use low-VOC products


Plant trees to provide shade and wind protection for your house


Use native plantings


How Your House WorksHow Your House Works:
A visual guide to understanding and maintaining your home, by Charlie Wing


Before my parents allowed me to drive, they suggested I learn how to change a tire and check the oil. And learn to read the dashboard widgets!

The same might apply to a house.  The head(s) of every apartment and house might need to know the basics.  How the plumbing can be shut off in case of a flooded room.  How the thermostat works.  How the bathroom stool works.

And in the throes of learning how to take care of these minor emergencies, it just might happen that you learn how to make minor repairs that will save you many "retail" level repair bills, and give you the satisfaction of truly being the king or queen of your domain.

This book is a good start in the right direction.  It gives clear  visual diagrams to help you see beyond the obvious skins of modern magic.

"Recycled water is a new energy source," said Grant Davis, assistant general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency. "Water and wastewater that you'd normally have to treat and dispose of will become the source for heating and cooling."

The project has gained steam in the past few months as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and some of the biggest names in the wine business have signed on; in March, county supervisors approved $1 million for a feasibility study. The flurry of interest comes as more cities and businesses take a hard look at their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and national labs expand their research to include not just military security, but water, energy and economic security.

Sonoma officials will meet with lawmakers in Washington about allocating money for this project and establishing a fund, similar to the Community Development Block Grant Program, to pay for similar projects all over the United States. In addition to federal money, Sonoma is considering revenue bonds and creating a special assessment district.

They estimate savings of 90 percent on natural gas and about 50 percent on electricity for heating and cooling. The environmental benefits are hard to quantify - but the county is working on it. Under the wastewater recycling plan, 55- to 60-degree water would be pumped from the treatment plant to the business park through underground pipes into a pump inside each building. Once in the pump, a refrigeration device transfers heat to or from the wastewater. A compressor converts that heat energy into warm or cold air that can be pushed through about 3 million square feet of office space at the business park, replacing the traditional heating and air conditioning systems.

In this "open" system, the water could also be used to irrigate landscaping, or, with a secondary set of pipes, flush toilets. Otherwise, the chilly or hot water - between about 40 degrees and 150 degrees - would pass through underground pipes to two adjacent reservoirs.

The wastewater recovery system could work particularly well for small or midsize cities or suburbs where the energy needed to pump water to low-slung buildings is much less than for skyscrapers.


Why?

"We all know California will have severe droughts in the next 20 to 40 years and that will affect water supply," said Gary Geernaert, director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Los Alamos National Lab. "This will help us make educated guesses about what the pressures will be on the public and private infrastructure and help build that into the design."


SOURCE: April 2008  SFGATE.com



The use of indoor ceiling fans can reduce prices on your energy costs up to 40% in the summer and 10% in the winter, using only as much as energy as a 100 watt light bulb.

During the summer ceiling fans create a "cooling effect" by lowering temperatures as much as 7 degrees. In the winter ceiling fans can recirculate heat and move heated air from the unused "top of the room" ceiling area to the living zone where people need that warmth.

Ceiling Fans can be used not only in the living and working rooms in a home or office but also in kitchens and bathrooms where dampness may be an issue.  Circulation of air is important to dry areas so that mold isn't nurtured.

Outdoor ceiling fans can provide gazebo, patio and veranda comfort, and overhead lighting at the same time.  These low-energy use fans can provide cooling summer breezes to reduce both the temperature of outdoor living space, but the feeling of heat as cool air aids body moisture evaporation, with its natural cooling effect.

Ceiling fans come in many sizes and designs including:  casual, contemporary, eclectic, modern, transitional and simple Southern traditional. 

Ceiling fan light kits and accessories also come with ENERGY STAR® ratings -- so be sure to look for this energy saving benefit!   The ceiling fan market has matured with a wide variety of upgrades in design and efficiency -- including remote control units  instead of pullcords!  Ceiling fans can be coordinated with downrods, light kits, ceiling fan remotes, mounting hardware, and a variety of accessories.

Remote control ceiling fans can be helpful for people with limited mobility or for high ceilings such as stairwells.  Many remote controls can be used with multiple ceiling fan installations, and they can be used to control the sound level during conversation, the speed and direction of the blades to manage the flow of air in the room or building. 

Ceiling fans can be used in place of air conditioning -- and save  significant  amounts of electricity and  greenhouse gas emissions, as a result.  Stay cool -- and cool the earth!


The building industry is increasingly focused on making its buildings greener, which includes using healthier, less polluting and more resource-efficient practices.

Quality of the air and environment inside buildings is based on pollutant concentrations and conditions that can affect the health, comfort and performance of occupants -- including temperature, relative humidity, light, sound and other factors. Good IEQ is an essential component of any building, especially a green building.

Creating a better indoor environment can help building owners, managers, occupants, architects and builders to minimize or eliminate the negative health effects, liability, bad publicity, and costly renovations and repairs often associated with IEQ problems.

Improving IEQ involves designing, constructing, commissioning, operating, and maintaining buildings in ways that reduce pollution sources and remove indoor pollutants while ensuring that fresh air is continually supplied and properly circulated.

EPA’s Indoor Environments program promotes the use of integrated, whole building approaches to protect occupant health while saving energy and money. The program focuses on major building types including offices and institutional buildings, schools, homes, as well as major cross-cutting indoor air quality issues like mold and moisture. EPA offers resources from informational pamphlets to interactive CD-ROMs on how everyone from builders to homeowners can improve their indoor environment.

Call EPA's Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Information Clearinghouse at 1-800-438-4318. Or visit EPA's list of free publications at epa.gov/iaq/pubs

EPA Green Indoor Environments

Flat or panel air filters with a MERV of 1 to 4 are commonly used in residential furnaces and air conditioners. Such filters are used to protect the HVAC equipment from the buildup of unwanted materials on the surfaces such as fan motors and heating or cooling coils, and not for direct indoor air quality reasons.

Pleated or extended surface filters Medium efficiency filters with a MERV of 5 to 13 are reasonably efficient at removing small to large airborne particles.

Filters with a MERV between 7 and 13 are likely to be nearly as effective as true HEPA filters at controlling most airborne indoor particles. Medium efficiency air filters are generally less expensive than HEPA filters, and allow quieter HVAC fan operation and higher airflow rates than HEPA filters since they have less airflow resistance.

Higher efficiency filters with a MERV of 14 to 16, sometimes misidentified as HEPA filters, are similar in appearance to true HEPA filters, which have MERV values of 17 to 20. True HEPA filters are normally not installed in residential HVAC systems; installation of a HEPA filter in an existing HVAC system would probably require professional modification of the system.

RESOURCE:  EPA Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home

Pollutant Destruction

Some air cleaners use ultraviolet (UV) light technology intended to destroy pollutants in indoor air. These air cleaners are called ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) cleaners and photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) cleaners. Ozone generators that are sold as air cleaners intentionally produce ozone gas, a lung irritant, to destroy pollutants.
 

  • UVGI cleaners use ultraviolet radiation from UV lamps that may destroy biological pollutants such as viruses, bacteria, allergens, and molds that are airborne or growing on HVAC surfaces (e.g., found on cooling coils, drain pans, or ductwork). If used, they should be applied with, but not as a replacement for, filtration systems.
  • PCO cleaners use a UV lamp along with a substance, called a catalyst, that reacts with the light. They are intended to destroy gaseous pollutants by converting them into harmless products, but are not designed to remove particulate pollutants.
  • Ozone generators use UV light or an electrical discharge to intentionally produce ozone. Ozone is a lung irritant that can cause adverse health effects. At concentrations that do not exceed public health standards, ozone has little effect in removing most indoor air contaminants. Thus, ozone generators are not always safe and effective in controlling indoor air pollutants.

    Consumers should instead use methods proven to be both safe and effective to reduce pollutant concentrations, which include eliminating or controlling pollutant sources and increasing outdoor air ventilation.

    Visit www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html for more information on ozone generators sold as air cleaners.

Indoor air pollution is among the top five environmental health risks.

Usually the best way to address this risk is to control or eliminate the sources of pollutants, and to ventilate a home with clean outdoor air. The ventilation method may, however, be limited by weather conditions or undesirable levels of contaminants contained in outdoor air. If these measures are insufficient, an air cleaning device may be useful.

Some air cleaning devices are designed to be installed in the ductwork of a building’s central heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system to clean the air in the whole house.

Portable room air cleaners can be used to clean the air in a single room or specific areas, but they are not intended for whole-house filtration.

Pollutants that can affect air quality in a home fall into the following categories:

  • Particulate matter includes dust, smoke, pollen, animal dander, tobacco smoke, particles generated from combustion appliances such as cooking stoves, and particles associated with tiny organisms such as dust mites, molds, bacteria, and viruses.
  • Gaseous pollutants come from combustion processes. Sources include gas cooking stoves, vehicle exhaust, and tobacco smoke. They also come from building materials, furnishings, and the use of products such as adhesives, paints, varnishes, cleaning products, and pesticides.

RESOURCE: EPA's Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home This document describes performance characteristics associated with several types of air cleaners sold to consumers for home use. It does not discuss the effectiveness of air cleaners installed in the HVAC systems of large buildings, such as apartments, offices, schools, or public buildings.


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