BuildingGreen — Sessions at Greenbuild
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We'll be at Greenbuild in force this year — I think it's more than a dozen of us — checking out your booths, staffing our own (come see us at #1728, almost smack-dab in the middle), going to
Getting ready for Greenbuild
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Here comes Greenbuild again. It keeps getting bigger. For instance, last year there were 480 exhibitors in the expo hall... this year, over 800.
I've got the expo hall on the brain. Like last year, I've been mapping which of the exhibitors do and don't have products listed in GreenSpec.
Solar Water Heating
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Brattleboro, Vermont is fortunate to have a long history with solar water heating. When I moved to the area in 1980, the company Solar Applications had been installing solar hot water systems for five years, and a spin-off company, Solar Alternatives, was manufacturing quality flat-plate solar collectors--many of which are still in use in the area. While Solar Alternatives closed down in the 1980s with falling energy prices and the end of solar tax credits, Solar Applications, has continued to install and service solar water heating systems for more than thirty years.
Foot Spa: Rhymes with "Chutzpah"
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The editors and researchers for GreenSpec get more submissions from manufacturers wanting to get their products listed than we can keep up with. As GreenSpec is a "best of the best" directory reserved for the top 10% or so of the most environmentally preferable products available to contribute to a sane built environment, we end up rejecting most of them for not meeting our high standards. Sometimes we get pitches for fine products, but they just don't represent the top of the heap.
Guerilla gardeners caught on tape
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Should we prosecute this type of illegal public improvement? Or participate in it? (The correct answer is the latter.) In this clip, ringleader Richard Reynolds incites rogue acts of civic delight:
BuildingGreen Bulletin: A Quiet Revolution — November EBN
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Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.
Read the current bulletinPassive solar heating
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BUILDING FOR A COLD CLIMATE ideally means protecting the North side of the house - this earth sheltered home does a good job of that. In the winter, North facing windows are a prime source of heat loss. That's why there are only a few small one's here. They do contribute to cross ventilation in the warmer months.
Following the first energy crisis in 1973 there was a rush to heat homes with the sun. It was a tinkerer's paradise, with all manner of solar heating systems migrating from garage workshops to commercialization. Patent offices were working overtime.
Big Wind Turbine Failures
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Watching a big wind turbine flying apart is spectacular. Even seeing still photos of the aftermath of a catastrophic failure, such as the one shown here, is pretty fascinating, in a train-wreck sort of way.
The picture was taken in Searsburg, Vermont, at the only industrial-scale wind farm in the state, which produces about 12 million kilowatts annually.