Sustainable Design Update

Zombie Proof House? Is this worth more than net zero energy?

Seriously?!

I was just on the phone with my mortgage company. Rudy, the outstanding customer service rep, told me about people calling for appraisals on Zombie Proof Homes.

We are refinancing our net zero energy home and having a tough time getting the bank or the appraisers to accept the new approaches now approved by the Appraisal Institute to value sustainable properties.  Traditionally they’d rely only on comparable value of nearby homes.  Well . . . . there are roughly five true net zero retrofits in the country.  Where are the comps?

Sandia Labs and the Appraisal Institute now advocate that the better approach for renewable energy homes is the income capitalization approach.  Surely our elimination of utility bills for life plus the addition of a contract for approximately $20,000 in solar renewable energy credits over 20 years has value.  Considering that our home was consuming $2,800 per year prior to our energy retrofit and solar addition, over 25 years we have eliminated between $151,104.75 (assuming a drop in recent average energy inflation of 5.5%) to  $189,494.12 (assuming projected 7% energy inflation).

So somewhere between $0.00 and $210,000 ($190k + $20k for SRECs) is the amount someone would pay for the privilege of comfort, savings and energy security.

Do zombie proof houses provide the same risk to value ratio?  Maybe I should build a zombie proof net zero home.

Matt is honored as a 2012 Michigan Green Leader by the Detroit Free Press.  His home is the oldest in America to achieve net zero energy.  Come join the conversation on Matt’s fan page, Facebook page, Google+and Twitter

via Jetson Green; posted by Matt Grocoff

Switch Lighting, creator of the only LED that uses liquid cooling technology, is on the cusp of a breakout year in 2012. The Switch bulb creates the same warm color of an incandescent, yet it’s made with reclaimable or recyclable materials using the Cradle to Cradle methodology. Inside the bulb is a liquid thermal cooling solution that helps cool the LEDs from all sides, producing more light from less LEDs. In fact, a Switch bulb lasts about 25 times longer and uses 80% less energy than an incandescent.

Read the full story at Jetson Green

Come join the conversation on Matt’s fan page, Facebook page, Google+and Twitter or at www.MissionZeroHouse.com

via Jetson Green; posted by Matt Grocoff

In the very near future, expect to be able to control devices, appliances, and lights in your home with the help of Google. That’s the information coming out of Google’s developer conference, Google I/O, where Android@Home was first announced. With the right app, an Android-powered smart device, and an intelligent LED replacement bulb from Lighting Science Group, a savvy homeowner could geek out a home without much effort.

read more

Compleat coffee cup with sip lid

Designer Zeke Shore traces the first tearable vented plastic lid for coffee back to 1967 patent filed by Alan Frank of Philadelphia. Through the decades companies like Solo continually improved the design and the plastic lid became as much a part of American culture as french fries, apple pie and fried butter on a stick.

Today the plastic lid was killed, murdered actually , by a radical reinvention of the disposable coffee mug called Compleat.  I give this a design grade of A+.  Sustainability grade?  Well . . . I’m not sure the planet will notice.

Take-out beverage lids collected in the '90s and early '00s, photographed by sarcoptiform

Read Belinda Lanks article on the Compleat coffee cup Startup Radically Reinvents The Disposable Coffee Cup, Eliminating Plastic Lids

Learn more about the Rise of the Disposable Plastic Coffee Cup Lid in this great article

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Gear heads at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab have created better thermionic power cells by increasing the area of material exposed to heat.  Unlike photovoltaic cells that convert light to electricity, thermoinoc cells convert heat (or more accurately a temperature difference) to electricity.  The theoretical advantage “thermo cells have is that heat doesn’t travel in a straight line.  The surface area of a thermo cell can be increased like a fractal to very high surface areas and every square inch will add to the overall power.

Schematic View - Thermionic Cell - JPL

Shown here are what look like fibers that absorb heat – even though perpendicular to the heat source.  These  fibers still absorb heat and contribute to the efficiency of the material.

We are a long way off from having really efficient thermo-cells*  but remember NASA JPL did create some of the first solar cells and look at the solar market now.  Some day we may be purchasing furnaces / engines / wood stoves that make as much electricity as they do heat.

Q:  Where do we see thermo-cells today?

A:  They are used in coolers you plug into your car.  The very simple automobile beverage chiller uses a thermo-cell backwards.  You put in electricity and get a thermo-cell that is hot on one side (hopefully on the outside of the cooler) and one cool side.  I once plugged my thermo-cell cooler in with the polarity switched and had very warm vegetables when I got to our cabin….

Stay Tuned!

Photo:  NASA JPL – NASA Tech Briefs

by Matthew Grocoff, Esq. LEED

One exciting new entrant into the LED market is the Panasonic “Filament” LED.  It’s designed to look like a traditional filament light bulb but uses only a tiny, tiny fraction of the energy.  It won the 2011 Good Design Gold Award at this year’s Good Design Award show hosted by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.

It’s a traditional screw in bulb, uses only 4.4 watts (almost 80% less than it’s incandescent counterpart), and it has a soft, warm glow (for you lighting geeks . . . that’s a 2700 kelvin light temperature).

I think I’ll soon have to write an obituary for the CFL.  As my good friend Michael Klement says “CFL’s are the 8-track tape of the lighting world.”

Read my full story at Old House Web

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