THE ECO KETTLE

It is estimated that, on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed every time we use our kettles. With a 3kW kettle that’s the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs. And standard kettles are often highly inefficient – a stove-top kettle, for instance, requires energy

to heat the handle and shell in addition to the water. But British designer Brian Hartley’s Eco Kettle solves these problems at a stroke. You fill it up, and then use the measuring button to release the exact amount of water you require – from a single cup to a full jug – into a separate chamber for boiling. It is also insulated to keep the water hot. The result is an energy saving of up to 30 per cent.

www.ecokettle.com

GREEN ROOFS

Cities may be losing their green spaces to development, but all is not lost. Look up to the roofs of buildings, especially office blocks, and there, where once there was dead space, you could now find a “sky garden” (Barclays’ HQ in Canary Wharf, London, has one). They could be used as community spaces, chill-out areas for hassled workers, or even to grow food. But there are other advantages for the bottom line, too: they reduce run-off in periods of heavy rain, and they cut back on the heat that gets trapped in built-up areas, thus reducing the need for air conditioning. They could even improve air quality in congested cities.

www.greenroofs.com

FRICTIONLESS WIND TURBINES

The problem with wind turbines? Often, it’s just not windy enough to get them turning. It’s not really the lack of wind that is the problem, but the friction in the turbines themselves. Chinese scientists may have cracked this problem with the first “magnetic levitation” (or MagLev) wind turbines, which replace ball-bearings with the technology used in advanced monorails, making a frictionless turbine that can generate electricity from winds as low as 1.5m per second. They’re ideal for low wind areas, such as mountain regions and small islands. The MagLev wind turbines could also use the airflow caused by passing cars to generate roadside lighting.

SOLAR-POWERED CELLPHONES

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, an alliance of 50 technology research organisations, is looking at how to integrate solar cells into mobile phones, allowing them to be powered continuously on just two hours of sunlight a day. The big manufacturers are interested, as the more software that’s packed into mobiles, the bigger batteries they need.

www.fraunhofer.de

ICE ENERGY

Air conditioning can be a huge drain on electricity supplies. Enter Ice Energy’s Ice Bear, which integrates with a standard AC unit. The water in the Ice Bear is frozen overnight when temperatures are lower and electricity, in many countries, is cheaper, and the ice then cools the AC unit’s refridgerant during the day. This results in a 30 per cent saving in energy use. An AC unit should last 15 years, by which time the Ice Bear will have paid for itself several times.

www.ice-energy.com

GREENER AIRCRAFT

Conventional airliners are heavy, thirsty, noisy and polluting, despite aeronautical designers’ best efforts. But in the future we may be travelling in a flying wing or batwing (in which the entire fuselage becomes the means of lift) – an idea first suggested by Frederick Handley Page in 1961. Made of plastic and with areas of the surface punctured with tiny holes to reduce drag, the wings would be much lighter and so more fuel efficient, and the engines would be mounted on top to deflect noise away from the ground. And they would be flown differently, too: in formation perhaps, which would reduce fuel consumption, and at different altitudes to prevent the formation of polluting condensation trails. The result could bring aircraft emissions below today’s levels by 2025, despite an expected doubling in the amount of passenger air traffic. Both Boeing and Airbus are already working on flying-wing projects.

DESIGNER CARAFES

It’s ironic that in our bid to become healthier by drinking more water, our conviction that only bottled water will do is causing increasingly precious plastics to be thrown away (oil being an essential component in plastic’s manufacture). Fashion designer Pierre Cardin may have the solution. He has just distributed 30,000 of his Eau de Paris designer carafes for free in a bid to convince Parisians that the local tap water is just as healthy. The idea is that many people buy bottled water in response to marketing, so getting them to drink tap water requires a similar strategy. It’s a simple idea that, if it spread around the world, could keep millions of plastic bottles out of landfills.

THE SUPER-POWERED ELECTRIC CAR

Electric cars: they’re rather slow, aren’t they? They whir a bit and then run out of juice on the motorway? Not Tesla Motors’ first car. This will be a clutchless, Lotus-inspired roadster capable of going from 0 to 60mph in just four seconds, with a top speed of 130mph. That’s electricity with attitude. And it does the equivalent of 135mpg. The real benefit? This car (named after the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla) will generate one-third the CO₂ and one-tenth the pollution of hybrid cars – and, as Richard notes, as electricity supplies get cleaner, so will the car. It can drive for a respectable 250 miles before its lithium-ion battery needs recharging and will be available for delivery from autumn of next year. Tesla Motors is new in terms of its business model as well as engineering; it’s backed by the founders of eBay, Google and PayPal. www.teslamotors.com

THE POWERISER

If ever you thought people wobbling around on in-line skates looked silly, you’ll be tickled pink by the Poweriser. Essentially, these are springy stilts that strap on to your calves and, once you’ve got the hang of the correct rocking motion, allow you to leap forward around five metres with a single bound, leap vertically about two metres, and generally upset the animals. With practice, this mode of transport is just as green as skates, but faster. And a few stunts (of the kind used in The Lion King stage production) will impress the doubters: there is already a “scene” developing around the device in Germany, where the idea was first developed. “This one is a bit out there,” admits Richard, “but as far as alternative transportation goes, this has got to be the coolest.”

www.powerisers.de

SOLAR-POWERED LEDs

Picture a world in which the kids have to stop reading because the sun has set. Or where you have to burn dangerous, dirty and expensive kerosene to see what you’re doing. The Indian government hopes to remedy this sutuation, which affects 112,000 rural villages across the country, over the next decade. The solution is a combination of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar power. The former are more efficient than lightbulbs – the power required to light one conventional 100w bulb can now light an entire village – and the latter allows electricity to be stored in batteries and provides lighting where there is no grid supply. Both LEDs and solar panels can also take the rough and tumble of village life: having few moving parts, they are very durable. “People in the West often take electricity for granted, but in some places just being able to see once the sun is gone is a big deal, ” says Richard.

Hope you enjoyed Tuesday’s GREEN Inventions! Again, don’t forget to take a look at the original article here.

Signing off for now!,
Kate
Chandler Building & Development
(408)730-5626
kate@chandlerbuilding.net

What do you want to see on our blog?

Feel free to drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here with your thoughts/requests for future blog topics. Want to see tutorials or maybe some commentaries on current events? Let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige. Keep me posted on your ideas!

Signing off for now!,
Kate
Chandler Building & Development
(408)730-5626
kate@chandlerbuilding.net

Chicago's City Hall

Whether you’re remodeling or not, roofing is a topic most homeowners just can’t shake. Older roofs leak, crack, and need replacing or sometimes an all-out makeover. But what if you had the chance to renovate or even rebuild your home?

Would you consider installing a living roof?

First off, let’s define the term “living roof” for those of you who are unfamiliar with it. NARI’s textbook Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time defines them as “protected-membrane roofs with soil and plantings (as well as insulation) installed above the membrane.” In English, what you end up with is, essentially, a garden on top of your home. Most living roofs are built on flat or only slightly inclined surfaces to avoid the possibility of landslides and confrontations with the homeowners association. What would the neighbors say if they suddenly had a garden falling into their lot?

Aside from being a fantastic picnic spot (providing you’re not afraid of heights), green roofs have a variety of meaningful benefits that attract builders, homeowners, and remodelers the world over. Consider the eco-friendly benefits of this style…

California Academy of Sciences

According to Mark Wickstead of CNN, “…green roofs are not just aesthetic. They have important environmental benefits: they absorb storm water, reduce noise pollution, absorb heat (thus lessening the urban heat-island effect) and add an extra layer of insulation to buildings.”

Now, let’s look at a few examples of how living roofs are making their mark on some major cities.

Exhibit A) California Academy of Sciences

These days the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA reports that their new eco friendly building has over 1,700 plants covering their new living roof. It was built primarily for its ability to improve air quality and insulation, but there are other added perks, too. For example, their living roof is incredibly low maintenance which means no more wasted days spent scorching in the California sun re-shingling or re-roofing. Whew!

Chicago's City Hall

Exhibit B) Chicago’s City Hall

Chicago’s City Hall is a metropolitan Eden which plays hosts to a plethora of wildlife, even supporting a honeybee population that regularly provides beekeepers with fresh honey. What a perk! Otherwise, it helps reduce trapped urban heat and pollution from the city environment, also improving air quality.

People don’t always look to their roofs as a possible way to reduce their footprint, but in this case living roofs are a great opportunity to take advantage of nature’s intrinsic benefits. Let’s recap. Green roofs provide:

1. Improved, cleaner air quality
2. Reduced stress on drainage systems during rainy seasons and storms
3. Reduction of trapped heat and urban pollution (including the noisy kind)
4. Extra insulation
5. Less need for maintenance
6. Honey (providing your roof is large enough)

Trust me, living roofs aren’t just for hobbit holes or Vikings anymore. No, even the most cosmopolitan and urban cities have adopted green roofing. Just google the term along with any major city and see what kind of results show up (try Chicago, New York, and San Francisco). As green builders, Chandler Building knows all about green roofing and building methods so don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email if you want some more information.

Signing off for now!,

Kate
Chandler Building & Development
(408)730-5626
kate@chandlerbuilding.net

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Resources:
Wikipedia – Living Roofs
CNN – Green Roofs
California Academy of Sciences
Chicago Wilderness Magazine

So what does our new membership actually mean? Well, we’ve been implementing green building practices and providing quality service for years, and our new membership serves as further proof of that. According to NARI, certified individuals are viewed as:

• Better trained and skilled
• More reliable and professional
• Ethical
• More knowledgeable, with up-to-date information on the latest tools, techniques and materials
• Quality-oriented with a sense of pride in their work

To find out more about NARI, please visit their website. We are proud to be affiliated with this fine organization and look forward to our continued collaboration! To our friends at NARI: see you at November’s Silicon Valley Chapter meeting! We’ll leave you today with a bit of NARI history…
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NARI’s roots go back to 1935 when President Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act established the beginnings of NERSICA (The North East Roofing, Siding and Insulation Contractors Association).

In 1956 President Eisenhower established Operation Home Improvement, a nationwide effort emphasizing the rehabilitation of existing housing rather than new construction. The National Home Improvement Council (N.H.I.C) emerged from this effort.

By the mid-1960s, NERSICA no longer reflected the membership of the growing industry and its name was changed to the National Remodelers Association (NRA).

In 1983, the National Remodelers Association and the National Home Improvement Council joined to establish the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). Today, NARI has 58 chapters nationwide and has enjoyed a sizaeble growth period during the past decade. In 2000, NARI moved its national headquarters from Alexandria, Virginia, to Des Plaines, Illinois, and as the Voice of the Remodeling Industry^TM, continues to prosper.

NARI’s Core Purpose is to advance and promote the remodeling industry’s professionalism, product and vital public purpose.

Source: http://www.nari.org/about/history
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Signing off for now!,
Kate
Chandler Building & Development
(408)730-5626
kate@chandlerbuilding.net

In other news, we’ve now joined the twitter community with our own account focused on green building and living. If you haven’t checked it out, please do!

That’s all for now. We’ll check back soon with more information!