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Healthy HVAC Equals Healthy Indoor Air Quality

2019-08-30T15:48:00.000-04:00

By Shelly Morrison

Isn't your work productivity affected by temperature, lighting, air quality or any other environmental conditions? The answer is, it is. Not only it has a real impact on your indoor activities, but it also affects your health optimally. HVAC systems provide ventilation and maintain pressure relationships between spaces of both domestic and commercial environments promoting safe and sound health of an individual. Regarding this, your heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equals balance your home or office atmosphere by filtering the warm or cold air as needed.

Failing to check HVAC systems regularly can be costly.

There are many all-in-all air conditioning companies which you should call their professionals for your HVAC repair in San Antonio. They will do a survey initially to inspect if any dust, pollen, dirt or debris circulating your surroundings and also check the building to find any leaks, mold spore is affecting the system. Other than these, especially asthma patients or people who have allergy problems can face severe health disorders if the vehicular environment comfort is not ensured. You must keep in check your HVAC technology annually or twice a year to make sure about indoor air quality.

When In A Year You Should Check Your HVAC?

Before your city hits the cold weather which approaches the San Antonio, Texas in the fall usually, call local HVAC contractors based in San Antonio who are trusted for heating, cooling and air conditioning services and can regulate your environment through working on following factors:

Factors That Contribute to Healthy HVAC System Performance

• Temperature control,

• Oxygen replenishment,

• Removal of moisture,

• Locating odors, smoke, heat, dust,

• Finding airborne bacteria, carbon dioxide, and other gases.

To guarantee HVAC efficiency, there are multiple maintenance factors which contribute to healthy HVAC performance but in this time, master only these three factors and make your system runs properly.

1. System Size

System size plays an essential role in healthy HVAC performance. First, consider your home size and ask yourself if your system is too large or small for your home. In the case of too large, the system will waste its excessive power in starting up which can result in short cycling. Secondly, if the system is too short, it can also screw up your home or office HVAC conditions by not handling the load. The air conditioner or heater will take massive time to reach the thermostat's threshold. Both of the cases will end up wasting energy if the right size system is not installed.

Contact HVAC professionals who can tell if you got poor system sizes and further diagnose whether or not your system fits the load requirement of your home.

2. Preventive Maintenance

Keep up regularly with preventive maintenance schedule to ensure if HVAC performance is doing well or whether it has the likelihood of failing. It is carried out when the equipment is working so that the professionals can then and there detect the downtime and improve on performance worthwhile. That's why you should have a preventive maintenance schedule similarly like a part of your health routine. Just like your body needs a regular health checkup by the doctor, your HVAC system also needs to get check its performance few times a year. Natural airing (ventilation) includes both the exchange of air to the outside as well as circulation of air within the building. It is one of the most important factors for maintaining acceptable indoor air quality in buildings as well in homes.

Regular maintenance checkup involves testing the system's components and efficiency and fixing any problems encountered during the testing.

3. Indoor Air Quality

Air Quality Monitor

When a system is not cycled off, it leads to poor indoor air quality which makes your HVAC unit to perform even worse making it less energy efficient and consuming more power. Monitor your indoor air quality on a regular basis as it's the best way to promote healthy lifestyle for your family also making your HVAC system more efficient.

You can also work it out a little by cleaning your indoor air handling units and outdoor compressors and removing the blockage. Check ducts for leaks, clean filters and more. This is a basic you can do to cause your system no-damage. If you fail at these checks, get mentally prepared for costly repairs.

There's another thing you can do which involves cleaning out the inside of your furnace. It will also help you with reducing your electric bills. If you're short of time and a workaholic, feel free to call experts who inspect the heat exchanger to verify there is no carbon monoxide leaking into your home or workplace.

At the end of the day, we advise you to tackle primary factors on your own and for the complex situations, you can call professionals for help to maintain your HVAC performance in a healthy way giving you more comfortable home and office with indoor quality environment.

For more details feel free to contact us: https://www.beyerboys.com/residential/

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Healthy-HVAC-Equals-Healthy-Indoor-Air-Quality&id=10098276] Healthy HVAC Equals Healthy Indoor Air Quality

The Battle for the Future of Farming: What you Need to Know

2018-11-27T16:48:00.000-05:00

The future of farming is ours to decide. Raggedstone/Shutterstock.com

By Michel Pimbert, Coventry University and Colin Anderson, Coventry University.

It is widely agreed that today’s global agriculture system is a social and environmental failure. Business as usual is no longer an option: biodiversity loss and nitrogen pollution are exceeding planetary limits, and catastrophic risks of climate change demand immediate action.

Most concede that there is an urgent need to radically transform our food systems. But the proposed innovations for more sustainable food systems are drastically different. Which we choose will have long-lasting effects on human society and the planet.

Suggested innovations in food systems can be broadly understood as either seeking to conform with – or to transform – the status quo.

Kletr/Shutterstock.com.

A technological future

Some want to keep the agriculture industry as close to existing practices as possible. This is true of the increasing number of corporate and financial actors who seek to solve the food crisis by developing new technologies. These technologies are envisaged as being part of what is being called the “fourth industrial revolution” (4IR). The “answer” here is thought to lie in a fusion of technologies that blurs the lines between physical, digital and biological domains.

For example, the World Economic Forum is currently supporting agricultural transitions in 21 countries through its “New Vision for Agriculture” initiative. This initiative supports “innovation ecosystems” to re-engineer food systems based on “12 transforming technologies”. In this imagined future, next generation biotechnologies will re-engineer plants and animals. Precision farming will optimise use of water and pesticides. Global food systems will rely on smart robots, blockchain and the internet of things to manufacture synthetic foods for personalised nutrition.

Like previous green revolution technologies in agriculture, this effort is designed by and for powerful agricultural giants. These technological innovations reinforce the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a small number of corporations. Indeed, the latter have a growing monopoly control over the “12 transforming technologies” protected by patents.

Growing multiple crops at once. Katarzyna Mazurowska/Shutterstock.com

Most notably, the spread of these technologies will expand the technosphere at the expense of the biosphere. Flying robots will pollinate crops instead of living bees. Automated machines will replace farmers’ work on soil preparation, seeding, weeding, fertility, pest control and harvesting of crops.

These hi-tech innovations radically depart from most farming practices. They are moving us towards an increasingly people-less food system. Yet they show a remarkable continuity with the logic of capitalist accumulation – hence their staying power despite their significant risks.

The spread of automated, de-localised and digitalised production and commercialisation of food is part of the “financialisation” of the global food system. Financial markets play an increasing role in controlling food systems from a distance. This generates huge social and human risks. For example, the significant growth in the sale and purchase of financial products linked to food commodities was one of the determining factors in the 2008 world food crisis.

An organic coffee plantation in Ecuador. Dr Morley Read/Shutterstock.com

Another option

But there is an alternative to this future. Agroecology involves the application of ecological principles for the design and management of sustainable agroecosystems. Our research on agroecology focuses on how it can contribute to food sovereignty, which emphasises the democratisation of food systems. Agroecology’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals is now recognised.

In contrast to the technological vision described above, agroecological innovations promote circular systems that involve recycling, reuse and combining resources to reduce dependency on external inputs, in particular fossil fuels. They mimic natural cycles and the functional diversity of natural ecosystems.

We could be seeing an extension of the megafarms we know today. Igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com

At broader scales, agroecology involves circular systems that combine food and energy production with water and waste management. Pollution is minimised and synergies achieved by carefully clustering industries into functional wholes. The re-localisation of production and consumption within territories enhances local economic regeneration and sustainability.

Agroecological innovations in transitions to sustainable food systems are being driven largely from the bottom up by civil society, social movements and allied researchers. In this context, priorities for innovations are ones that increase citizen control for food sovereignty and decentralise power. This is in direct contrast to the monopoly control enabled by 4IR technologies.

Who needs humans? Kung_tom/Shutterstock.com

Farming systems are designed in a way that is based on beneficial interactions between plants, animals and environments. Trees and shrubs might be planted amongst or around crops, say. Or two or more crops might be grown in proximity. Agroecology reduces the dependence of food producers on expensive external inputs, distant commodity markets and patented technologies. This is achieved by relying on appropriate biodiversity to ward off pests and increase farm yields.

At broader scales, agroecology involves circular systems that combine food and energy production with water and waste management. Pollution is minimised and synergies achieved by carefully clustering industries into functional wholes. The re-localisation of production and consumption within territories enhances local economic regeneration and sustainability.

Agroecological innovations in transitions to sustainable food systems are being driven largely from the bottom up by civil society, social movements and allied researchers. In this context, priorities for innovations are ones that increase citizen control for food sovereignty and decentralise power. This is in direct contrast to the monopoly control enabled by 4IR technologies.

A democratic debate

Government, civil society and private sector representatives will soon meet in Rome at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to discuss the future of farming. Who controls the global governance of innovation will be a hotly debated topic.

But given these highly contested views on innovations for food and agriculture, it is vital that everyone is able to exercise their right to have a say on the future of their food supply. Deliberative and inclusive processes such as citizens’ juries, peoples’ assemblies and community-led participatory processes are urgently needed to decide priorities for food and agricultural innovations. This is all the more important in today’s context of rapid global change and uncertainty.

So. Do you want to live in a world in which artificial food is produced by intelligent robots and corporations that put profits before people? Or one where agroecological innovations ensure we can nourish ourselves and our communities in a fair, ecologically regenerative, and culturally rich way?

Michel Pimbert, Professor and Director, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University and Colin Anderson, Senior Research Fellow, Coventry University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Off Grid Water System - What Are Your Options?

2018-11-25T13:46:00.001-05:00

By Buck Jones

Living off grid comes with its own advantages. You, for instance, will be living in very natural, unpolluted areas, whether you buy a house off grid or you choose to buy bare land to develop your homestead on. However, most aspiring homesteaders fear the water issue that comes with off grid living. If you have been relying on city water that was never disappointed you, then you most definitely are more likely to fear having to deal with no access to water once you make the move.

Cistern for harvesting rainwater. Wikipedia

But fortunately there are still options you can choose from when
it comes to off grid water system. A good water system will not only serve your water needs on the property, but also work very well during disasters as far as water goes. There is really nothing as good as being prepared for a bad day and this is what your off grid system should be all about. So what really are your options to have enough water even when living off grid?

Rain Catchment System

The good thing about rain barrel systems is that you do not have to pay for the water. All you have to do is get barrels and create a system right from your roof and you will have enough water to sustain your needs on your property. If you live in areas that can get quite cold thus risking frozen barrels, find a way that you can keep them in better temperatures to avoid such issues. You can build root cellars for them or bury them to counter the effects of very cold months. It is also worth considering a water purifying system for your rainwater so you can drink it with no worries at all. With a good rain catchment system, you only need medium rainfall to fill up your barrels and have enough to cater to your needs.

Well Water System

Digging up a well on your off grid property is a very viable long term water solution. If your land lies low on the water table, then digging the well will be very easy, but if not, then you may need to find an expert who can advise on which point is best for the well so you do not end up digging and missing water. Once the well is all dug up, you can then consider installing a hand pump to pull water up. A hand pump saves you lots of effort and time, especially with wells that are deep, but you can also look for other options for the well you find more suitable.

Cistern Water System

Cisterns make very good water options for an off grid property. One fill can serve your water needs for months and you can fill them up by pumping from the river, your well, rain water or getting a delivery. With this water option, you can choose above ground system or a below ground system. An above ground system gives you the option of carrying to the point of filling and then bringing it back, whereas cisterns below ground work amazing in cold climates because they are protected from freezing and are usually larger in capacity.

When looking for an off grid water system, it is important to consider your water needs on the property and also the climate so you can choose a system that serves all your needs effectively. I have been training for survival with these Survival Tools for over 10 years and I am amazed that so many ignore them.

For great tips visit my Survival Blog http://www.survivaldynasty.com/blog.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Off-Grid-Water-System---What-Are-Your-Options?&id=9876523

Exploring the Green Infrastructure Workforce

2018-10-29T20:15:00.001-04:00

Image via the Stormwater Guidance Retrofit Manual courtesy of Philadelphia Water

Urbanization has altered the natural landscape and affected the hydrologic cycle. Where the natural hydrologic cycle maintains a balance of water circulation through evaporation, precipitation and groundwater recharge, and absorption and transpiration by plants, urbanization has resulted in an altered hydrologic cycle through construction of impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads, and parking lots.

The water has nowhere to go except into a city's seemingly endless configuration sewer pipes, systems which are becoming increasingly overburdened and thus prone to overflows and outfalls of polluted runoff into watersheds, such as rivers, lakes and creeks during heavy rains.

In urban areas with combined sewer systems, such as Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, the impact is can be particularly troublesome because the discharges, known as CSOs or combined sewer overflows, often contain untreated sewage.

Green stormwater infrastructure is an incremental, ecologically centered, low impact development approach to mitigate these outfalls by reducing the amount of runoff that goes to the sewer system and by utilizing the water as a resource, via rain gardens, tree trenches, permeable paving, rain barrels, green roofs and more.

Because of its incremental approach, the implementation cost for cities is often much less than heavily engineered concrete gray infrastructure efforts. It may not be the sole solution, but it offers a plethora of benefits measured in more ways than just pollution prevention. Benefits such as awakening the urban ecosystem through tree planting and stream restoration, bringing together local communities over health and environment issues, and spawning a thriving new "green collar" workforce that offers opportunity to urban areas left buried in the ruins of the industrial age.

The NatureWORKS report by Jobs For the Future, jff.org, for example, contends that "in urban green infrastructure, there is an opportunity for entry-level jobs with the possibility for advancement. It is a win-win for cities to invest in sustainability and achieve both a healthier, greener community and a job development program."

Other efforts, such as with the Great Urban Parks Campaign, the National Recreation and Parks Association and the American Planning Association are also working to demonstrate the benefits of green infrastructure in urban communities. Their video below states that "using parks for green infrastructure is a creative and cost-effective alternative to gray infrastructure that allows nature to filter pollutants from rain water, reduce storm water issues and give communities access to more green space."

The NatureWORKS report is available for download in PDF at the following link: https://jfforg-prod-prime.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/NatureWORKS-Issue-Brief-032317_v3.pdf

6 Ways to Save Energy During Spring

2017-04-09T16:01:00.002-04:00

The weather is getting warmer; it's time to pull out the grill, call the pool cleaner back, and get those gardening tools out of the basement. It's spring! But spring also means it's time to look at how you can save the most energy and the most money.

Many Ways to Save

A lot of people can tolerate cold weather better than hot weather, which means, as the weather gets warmer and warmer, it will become increasingly difficult to fight the impulse to turn on the air conditioning and leave it on for hours. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help keep your home cool without running up your energy bill.

Take it easy on the thermostat:

Set the temperature as high as you can while still being comfortable. The smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower your bill will be. Keep the house warmer than usual when you are away, cool when you get home. Set "Away" and "Home" temperatures easily with a programmable thermostat.

Image: Wikipedia

Keep in mind: Your house will not cool any faster if you set the thermostat to a colder temperature than usual. In fact, this will likely result in unnecessary expense and excessive strain on the cooling system.

Make the most out of your windows:

Prevent heat from getting in through the windows by installing window coverings such as blinds (interior and/or exterior), awnings, high-reflective films, draperies, shades, insulated panels, and shutters. If you live in an area where it cools off at night, turn of your air conditioning and open your windows while you sleep. When you wake up, shut the windows and blinds to keep the cool air in, unless there's still a cool breeze. You can still get some good cool air into the house in the early morning before the sun starts hitting your house/yard.

Turn on those ceiling fans:

By using your ceiling fans in combination with air conditioning, you can actually set the thermostat four degrees higher but remember that fans cool people, not rooms. If you leave a room, turn off the fan. Turn on your bathroom fan when taking a shower or bath to remove the humidity and heat.

Drop the water temperature:

Your water heater uses 18 percent of your home's energy-use. Turn the temperature down to 120 degrees F.

Minimize appliance-use and artificial lighting:

Using the oven on hot days will make the house warmer and subsequently more difficult to cool. Stick to the stove, microwave, or grill outside. Minimize using a computer or TV, running the dishwasher, or using hot devices like hair dryers. Install efficient lighting that doesn't release much heat.

Seal leaks to keep the hot air out:

Seal cracks to keep warm out from leaking into the house. Add weatherstripping or caulk to seal leaky windows and doors.

Better for the Environment, Better for You

Ultimately, anything we can do to save energy and conserve natural resources will benefit all of us, both directly in terms of personal cost-savings and indirectly in preserving our world for the future. At Vosh, we are committed to doing our part for the greater good, which is why our car washers use less than three gallons of water for each wash. Additionally, we offer waterless car washes.

To learn more about us or to download the Vosh on-demand car was app, visit our website at [http://vosh.me/]http://vosh.me/.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?6-Ways-to-Save-Energy-During-Spring&id=9676317] 6 Ways to Save Energy During Spring.

Sensor Testing for Green Infrastructure Performance

2017-01-14T08:07:00.001-05:00

Green infrastructure roadway swale

The term green infrastructure is used to describe a variety of landscape features or ecology related best management practices (BMPs) implemented to reduce the adverse effects of stormwater by diverting the water to rain gardens or similar systems for slow absorption by soils and plants or storage for later use.

But as green infrastructure is more widely adopted, detailed performance monitoring of a vast array of small projects (in contrast to a single larger ones with grey concrete infrastructure) is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of community-wide programs.

In Chicago they've launched a widespread initiative to test these kinds of low impact developments (LIDs) that have been implemented by the city, monitoring them with sensors to select the best solutions. Read more about this comprehensive effort in a recent report from Forester Network and Stormwater Magazine:

"As with many other cities that have combined sanitary and storm sewer systems, Chicago has a combined sewer overflow problem, with an average of more than 60 overflows a year. And,as many other cities are doing, it’s turning to green infrastructure to help solve the problem—infiltrating as much water as possible to keep runoff out of the now-undersized and overburdened sewer system during storms..." More

http://foresternetwork.com/daily/water/stormwater/the-future-looks-smaller

Household Consumption Significant Driver of Climate, Other Environmental Impacts

2016-03-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

Environmental Footprint: The world’s workshop - China - surpassed the United States as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on Earth in 2007. But if you consider that nearly all of the products that China produces, from iPhones to tee-shirts, are exported to the rest of the world, the picture looks very different.

“If you look at China’s per capita consumption-based (environmental) footprint, it is small,” says Diana Ivanova, a PhD candidate at Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Industrial Ecology Programme. “They produce a lot of products but they export them. It’s different if you put the responsibility for those impacts on the consumer, as opposed to the producer.”

Household consumption biggest threat to planet.

That’s exactly what Ivanova and her colleagues did when they looked at the environmental impact from a consumer perspective in 43 different countries and 5 rest-of-the-world regions. Their analysis, recently published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, showed that consumers are responsible for more than 60 per cent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 80 per cent of the world’s water use.

“We all like to put the blame on someone else, the government, or businesses,” Ivanova says. “But between 60-80 per cent of the impacts on the planet come from household consumption. If we change our consumption habits, this would have a drastic effect on our environmental footprint as well.”

The analysis allowed Ivanova and her colleagues to see that consumers are directly responsible for 20 per cent of all carbon impacts, which result from when people drive their cars and heat their homes.
But even more surprising is that four-fifths of the impacts that can be attributed to consumers are not direct impacts, like the fuel we burn when we drive our cars, but are what are called secondary impacts, or the environmental effects from actually producing the goods and products that we buy.

A good example of this, Ivanova says, is water use.

Cows, not showers.

When you think about cutting your individual water use, you might think about using your dishwasher very efficiently, or taking shorter showers.

Those aren’t bad ideas on their own, but if you look deeper, like the NTNU researchers did, you’ll find that much of the water use on the planet is gulped up by producing the things that you buy.

Consider beef. Producing beef requires lots of water because cows eat grains that need water to grow. But because cows are relatively inefficient in converting grains into the meat that we eat, it takes on average about 15,415 litres of water to produce one kilo of beef.

Dairy products require similarly large amounts of water to produce.

When a group of Dutch researchers looked at the difference in producing a litre of soy milk with soybeans grown in Belgium compared to producing a litre of cow’s milk, they found it took 297 liters of water to make the soy milk (with 62 per cent of that from actually growing the soybeans) versus a global average of 1050 liters of water to produce a liter of cow’s milk.

Processed foods, like that frozen pizza you bought for dinner last night, are also disproportionately high in water consumption, Ivanova said. Making processed foods requires energy, materials and water to grow the raw materials, ship them to the processor, produce the processed food items and then package the final product.

This is particularly bad news when it comes to chocolate, which is one of the most water-intensive products we can buy. It takes a shocking 17,000 liters to produce a kilo of chocolate.

Richer countries, larger impacts

The researchers also looked at environmental impacts on a per-capita, country-by-country basis.

Renewable energy for home use key factor.

While the information is sometimes surprising—Luxembourg has a per capita carbon footprint that is nearly the same as the United States—it mostly follows a predictable pattern. The richer a country is, the more its inhabitants consume. The more an individual consumes, the bigger that person’s impact on the planet.

But the differences between individual countries are extremely high, Ivanova said.

“The countries with the highest consumption have about a 5.5 times higher environmental impact as the world average,” she said.

The United States is the overall worst performer when it comes to per capita greenhouse gas emissions, with a per capita carbon footprint of 18.6 tonnes CO₂ equivalent, the unit used by researchers to express the sum of the impacts of different greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulphur hexafluoride.

The US was followed closely by Luxembourg, with 18.5 tons CO₂ equivalent, and Australia, with 17.7 tons CO₂ equivalent. For comparison, China’s per capita carbon footprint was just 1.8 tons CO₂ equivalent. Norway, at 10.3 tons CO₂ equivalent per capita, was three times the global average of 3.4 tons CO₂ equivalent per capita.

The results for individual countries also reflect the effects of the electricity mix, or the fuel source that countries rely on for electric power. The prevalence of nuclear or hydroelectric power in countries such as Sweden, France, Japan and Norway means that these countries have lower carbon footprints than countries with similar incomes but with more fossil fuels in their energy mix.

For this reason, Ivanova says, a significant portion of household impacts from Sweden and France come from imports (65 and 51 per cent respectively), because the products that are imported are mostly produced with fossil fuels.

An enormous database allows comparisons.

The researchers relied on an extremely large and detailed database that NTNU developed in partnership with colleagues from the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Denmark called EXIOBASE.

The database describes the world economy for 43 countries, five rest-of-the-world regions and 200 product sectors, which allows researchers to ask questions about how different products or countries affect the environment.

Environmental impact for countries based on household consumption.

They were also able to ask how an average consumer in each of the countries or regions affects the environment as measured by greenhouse gas emissions (tons CO₂ equivalent), water use (in cubic meters), land use (in 1000 square meters) and material use (in tons).

The 43 countries represent 89 per cent of the global gross domestic product and between 80-90 per cent of the trade flow in Europe, as measured by value.

No surprises: take the bus, eat vegetarian or vegan

The advantage of identifying the effects of individual consumer choices on the different environmental measures is that it pinpoints where consumers in different countries can cut back on their impacts.

“Households have a relatively large degree of control over their consumption, but they often lack accurate and actionable information on how to improve their own environmental performance,” the researchers wrote in the journal article reporting their results.

Eventually, the goal is to be able to use this information to guide policy, Ivanova said. The effort is a part of the GLAMURS project, an EU-funded effort designed to promote greener lifestyles and environmentally responsible consumption in Europe.

In the meantime, two easy ways to cut your environmental impact are to stop eating meat, and cut back on your purchases, she said.

Currently, EU consumers spend 13% of their total household budget on manufactured products. If the average EU consumer switches away from spending money on these manufactured products to paying for services instead, this would cut close to 12 per cent of the EU’s current household carbon footprint, Ivanova said.

“Any activity where we have a choice of buying a product or using a service, the service will have much less impact,” she said.

Source: Gemini

An Explanation of the IICRC Water Damage Classification Used in Flood Restoration

2016-02-14T16:10:00.000-05:00

A flooded area and building just off Snoqualmie-Fall City Road below Snoqualmie Falls. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) is one of the largest non-government organizations in the United States that sets standards for people in the field of flood restoration. Among its many contributions to the fields of inspection and cleaning, the IICRC has created a Water Damage Classification (WDC) system, to better assist the treatment of damage in buildings or homes that have been overexposed to water. In the event that your home is damaged and needs to undergo flood restoration, it is important that you understand the WDC, as doing so will allow you to be aware of the potential threats to your property.

The WDC is broken down into four classes, each one determined by the volume of water present in a designated area. These grades go from 1 to 4, with 4 having the most severe consequences in regards to property deterioration and potential health threats.

Class 1: Limited Intrusion

A minimal amount of liquid has been introduced into the area. The area might also have a high potential for evaporation, with little extenuating damage to furniture, walls, carpet, and carpet cushions. For some Class 1 situations, it might be possible to dry out the area with fans.

Class 2: Some spread

This grade indicates that some moisture has spread beyond a single spot in the room. It might have risen into the walls, where it can be absorbed into the insulation or structural materials, such as timber, concrete, or particleboard. It might also have been absorbed into the padding beneath the carpet or flooring. These areas have the potential to grow mold or other growths if left unchecked.

Class 3: Invasive Liquid

In this grade, most surfaces in the area, including walls, ceilings, flooring, and furniture, have been soaked with moisture. Lines or marks on the walls indicating moisture can be found more than 2 feet above the floor. Damage like this is often caused by burst plumbing in a second-floor room leaking into the ceiling or through the walls. In cases like this, it is sometimes necessary to remove some of the building materials, as the extensive damage will render them irreparable. Special drying and dehumidification equipment will be required to return some remaining stuffs to their pre-damage state.

Class 4: Inaccessible Material

In some cases, flooding to the area is so severe that items not normally exposed or accessible are saturated with liquid. This makes it extremely difficult or impossible for traditional flood restoration techniques to save these materials. Special drying and dehumidification equipment, as well as more advanced techniques, can sometimes be used to dry components in crawl-spaces, under oil-based paint, behind cabinets, etc. It is also sometimes the case that these materials are not salvageable.

In addition to assessing the severity of damage in a location, an inspector must also determine the quality of the liquid permeating the area. "Clean Water" is much easier to address than a situation with "Black Water," or water that can contain potentially life-threatening organisms. The presence of Black Water might affect your space's grading.

After an inspector has assessed the nature of the damage to your property and belongings, he or she will work with a team of certified IICRC-certified technicians to begin bringing your home back to its original state. They will use everything from old-fashioned scrubbing to microbial remediation to rid the space of moisture and any potentially threatening organisms. The IICRC's WDC grading will help make this an easier process, should your home ever need flood restoration.

For more information on certified flood restoration, go to http://www.servprojacksonlacey.com/storm-flooding-restoration.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Andrew_Stratton/83489

Rain barrels, green roofs, permeable pavement: better ways to help manage urban stormwater runoff and reduce waste

2016-02-08T10:43:00.001-05:00

As meteorologists monitor the El Nino condition currently gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean, Californians look with hope to the much-needed rain and snow it could yield. But if we're going to make the most of the precipitation, we need to put a LID on it.

Large bioswayle integrates stormwater runoff treatment with planting feature for neighborhood. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LIDs, or low-impact development technologies, mimic pre-urban stream functions. Examples are green roofs that absorb and evapotranspire rainfall; rainwater tanks attached to homes and other buildings; and permeable pavement for roads, driveways and parking lots. Rainwater could even be used in the home for toilet flushing and laundry.

These are just some of the strategies suggested by an international group of experts who recently collaborated on a review article in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Stanley Grant, senior author of the paper and professor of civil & environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, brought together academics from three UC campuses (UCI, UCLA and UC San Diego) and Australia's University of Melbourne; water managers from Orange County Public Works; and engineers from consulting firm Michael Baker International to examine how urban population centers could better meet water supply needs while protecting natural stream ecosystems.

"This team offers a key example of the significant role that University of California scientists can play in finding innovative solutions for major state problems," said co-author Lisa Levin, a Distinguished Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "With drought so pervasive, California cannot afford to waste its precious stormwater; nor can it afford to send contaminants into the ocean. The options addressed in this article tackle both of these issues."

Managing stormwater runoff in urban environments is a challenge for engineers and water officials. During pre-industrial times, rainwater gradually seeped into the ground and, from there, into rivers, lakes and oceans. Humans, however, have replaced forests and grasslands with a lot of impermeable surfaces that send runoff in a torrent directly to the closest waterways. "The massive volumes and pollutants associated with stormwater runoff are a deadly one-two punch for streams and lead to a condition known as 'urban stream syndrome,'" said Asal Askarizadeh, lead author and UCI graduate student in civil & environmental engineering.

Symptoms include erosion, flooding and rising stream temperatures; an imbalance in nutrients, carbon and oxygen in the water; and an increase in unwanted sediments, chemical pollutants and human pathogens.

The antidote, Askarizadeh said, is to harvest and reuse as much of the stormwater runoff as possible and allow a portion to infiltrate into the ground to support streams and groundwater.

"Using LIDs to create this kind of localized, widely distributed approach to stormwater management will require individuals and public agencies to be open to significant change," said co-author David Feldman, professor and chair of UCI's Department of Planning, Policy & Design. "We expect the government to manage our water supply completely, and in some places, it's even illegal to harvest rainwater locally. Laws and habits are going to have to change if we are to adapt to new climate and urban realities."

One of the significant changes the authors argue for is a movement toward distributed infrastructure (rainwater tanks and green roofs) as a complement to the centralized infrastructure (aqueducts, water treatment plants and, more recently, desalination plants) cities have long relied on. "The reason is that in order to protect receiving waters and streams, we need to capture the runoff as close to where it's generated -- for example, your home -- as possible," said co-author Brett Sanders, professor and chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UCI.

"The question then becomes: What do you do with the stormwater once you've captured it?" said co-author Megan Rippy, a UCI postdoctoral researcher in civil & environmental engineering. "Our work provides a blueprint for estimating how much of the captured water should be infiltrated into the ground and how much should be harvested for any purpose that keeps it out of the stream, such as for nonpotable purposes in the home. The ratio of those two volumes depends on local climate and what the landscape looked like in pre-industrial times."

"The bottom line is that these solutions are good for the environment and good for people too; they just require changing habits," Grant said. "For example, over 2 million people in Australia use rainwater from their roofs to flush toilets -- and that makes good sense. Using drinking water to flush toilets is literally washing our future down the drain."

With funding from a National Science Foundation PIRE grant, he and his colleagues were able to spend time in southeastern Australia studying how people there have dealt with their historic drought. "They have had a positive experience implementing LID technologies to manage scarce water resources, and in doing so, they've provided a good example of how universities can work with governments and private-sector entities to come up with solutions to water challenges," Grant said. "And the best part is that after emerging from one of the longest droughts in Australia's history, Melbourne has been voted year after year as the most livable city in the world. We could definitely use some of their magic."

Source: University of Californa - Irvine.

PVC Pipeline for Life Brings Clean Water to Rural Areas

2016-01-30T01:08:00.001-05:00

PVC Pipe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanks to partnerships between Save the Children, Water Engineers for the Americas, the Vinyl Institute, and the American Chemistry Council’s Chlorine Chemistry Division, more than 6,000 people across 3 remote villages in Honduras now have access to clean running water for the first time in their lives. Called “PVC Pipeline for Life,” this project has spanned a decade and involved the installation of 3,200 linear meters of PVC pipe (via a donation from the Vinyl Institute), bringing a lifesaving water purification and distribution system to a community in need.

None of this would be possible, however, without PVC pipe. “This is a great example of what PVC pipe can do,” said Susan Wade of the Vinyl Institute. “It is a major material used in clean water delivery, and the fact that it’s durable but also easy to install…this was the perfect material for this situation.”

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Wade continues, “I remember asking the water engineers, of all the available piping materials, why do you choose PVC? And they said, in Honduras, the soil is so acidic that you need something that can withstand that once it’s buried into the ground. This is a perfect application for PVC.”

Because PVC pipe is durable enough to withstand the Honduran soil, it is also relatively resistant to leaks and pipe corrosion. Corrosion can decrease flow in a pipe’s system imposing extra demands to pump water. Plus, plastic pipe manufacturing is resource efficient, typically consuming less energy than alternative materials. So the choice of PVC for this special pipeline project is expected to allow thousands of people gain access to clean water… in an energy-efficient way! Kudos to all those involved for bringing a lifesaving necessity to those in need through the PVC Pipeline for Life!

Source: GreenBuildingsolutions.org

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Making Your Own Electricity With Solar Powered Windows

2015-08-28T16:13:00.000-04:00

Solar powered windows that generate electricity without spoiling the view? That’s the stuff of science fiction, right? Not anymore. Two groups of researchers — one in the US and another in Italy — have created functioning prototypes for solar powered windows that look clear but harvest electricity from the sunlight passing through them.

First, the Bellingham Herald reports that a team of 8 students at Western Washington University have won a $75.000 grant from the EPA to develop their “Smart Solar Window,” a unit that looks clear but turns ultraviolet light into electricity. That power can reduce a building’s heating and cooling costs up to 30 percent by automatically opening and closing windows to aid cooling and ventilation. The system can be operated remotely from a phone, computer or ventilation system.

Solar powered home. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The team — composed of graduate and undergraduate students from the departments of chemistry, engineering, design, and business and economics — has been working on the window for the past year. Student project leader James Kintzele says their window required the combined strengths of an interdisciplinary team.

“Western Washington University has such a hands-on approach in their undergraduate programs,” he says. “If I’d been in an electrical engineering program in a different college in junior year, I wouldn’t have had the foresight or capacity to do this.”

“We’re so excited about the solar window and confident about its future,” Kintzele says “It’s not a matter of if this technology is used, but a matter of when. There are certain obstacles for expansion right now, but I feel strongly this could be in buildings a year from now, given the proper funding and a motivated team.”

Second, researchers at the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics of Los Alamos and the Department of Materials Science of the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy have developed a non-toxic coating of quantum dots. The coating forms a luminescent solar concentrator that converts any window into a daytime power source. reports Physics.org.

“In these devices, a fraction of light transmitted through the window is absorbed by nanosized particles dispersed in a glass window, re-emitted at the infrared wavelength invisible to the human eye, and wave-guided to a solar cell at the edge of the window,” said Victor Klimov, lead researcher on the project at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Using this design, a nearly transparent window becomes an electrical generator, one that can power your room’s air conditioner on a hot day or a heater on a cold one.”

“Furthermore,” Klimov noted, “the quantum dots provide a uniform coverage of the solar spectrum, thus adding only a neutral tint to a window without introducing any distortion to perceived colors. In addition, their near-infrared emission is invisible to a human eye, but at the same time is ideally suited for most common solar cells based on silicon.”

Sergio Brovelli, the lead researcher on the Italian team, says “Quantum dot solar window technology now becomes a reality that can be transferred to the industry in the short to medium term, allowing us to convert not only rooftops, but the whole body of urban buildings, including windows, into solar energy generators. This is especially important in densely populated urban area where the rooftop surfaces are too small for collecting all the energy required for the building operations.”

Bovelli’s team calculates that replacing all 775,000 square feet of windows in a skyscraper like One World Trade Center in New York City with quantum dot units would generate enough electricity to power 350 apartments. “Add to these remarkable figures, the energy that would be saved by the reduced need for air conditioning thanks to the filtering effect….. and you have a potentially game-changing technology towards “net-zero” energy cities,” Brovelli said.

Both groups hope to bring their amazing windows to market within the next year. Combined with new high efficiency construction techniques, they could help make the buildings of the future even more environmentally friendly and self-sustaining.

Article Source: Green Building Elements

What Is The Best Way To Dispose Of Old, Unwanted Paint?

2015-07-05T18:00:00.001-04:00

From our partners at EarthTalk...

Dear EarthTalk: What is the best way to recycle my old and/or unwanted paint, primer and stains? --Kim Beeler, Lake Oswego, OR

Has one of the many popular shows on HGTV inspired you to renovate your own home? If so, you’re not alone! Home renovations have been on the rise the last few years in the U.S. and Canada, which can mean lots of leftover paint. Extra paint can last for years when properly sealed and stored away from extreme heat and cold, and if unneeded, can be donated to organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Keep America Beautiful. But if paint can no longer be used, what are some safe, environmentally-responsible ways to dispose of it?

Paint wastes causes pollution when disposed of improperly.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 10 percent of the house paint purchased in the United States each year—about 65 to 69 million gallons—is discarded. Leftover and unusable paint wastes causes pollution when disposed of improperly, the EPA warns. Before you can decide how to dispose of old paint, you'll need to determine what kind of paint it is. There are two types of paint: oil-based and latex; and regulations on disposal of each type of paint vary by location.

In some areas, latex paint can be thrown out with the trash as long as it is completely dried. Keep in mind that some household waste haulers may not pick up latex paint even if it is completely dried, so always check with your local waste disposal service provider on rules and regulations applicable to your area.

Oil-based paints, as well as paint thinners and other paint solvents, are considered hazardous household waste (HHW) and are typically disposed of at HHW facilities. While many communities across the country will hold annual or semi-annual HHW collection days to make paint disposal easy for local residents, the new non-profit PaintCare is allowing residents of California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oregon, Minnesota and Vermont to have convenient disposal of house paint, primers, stains, sealers and clear coatings year-round. There is no charge for dropping off paint at a PaintCare drop-off site, and Paintcare’s site locator (available on their website and app) allows residents of applicable states to quickly find their closest drop-off location. PaintCare locations can be found at select Sherwin-Williams, True Value, Ace Hardware and other retailers.

EPA Waste for proper disposal. Photo: Wikipedia

“Retailer support of the PaintCare program is not only good business practice, but also an extension of good customer service,” says Scott Cassel, Chief Executive Officer of the Product Stewardship Institute, Inc., a nonprofit that in partnership with the paint industry, led the national dialogue that laid the foundation for the PaintCare program. “By providing paint drop-off locations, retailers not only encourage more foot traffic, but they also offer an important kind of community service that addresses both environmental protection and convenience.”

PaintCare manages the leftover paint it receives according to a policy of “highest, best use.” Their goal is to recycle as much as possible. Most of the oil-based paint is taken to a cement plant where it is blended into a fuel and burned to recover the energy value. Latex paint that is not rusty, molding or spoiled is sent to recycling companies and reprocessed into new paint. Some paint that the non-profit receives is nearly new and in excellent condition, and is given away at swap shops or to charitable organizations. Paintcare plans to expand its locations into Colorado in July of 2015, Maine in August of 2015 and the District of Columbia in January of 2016.

CONTACTS: EPA Paints & Coatings Program, www.epa.gov/sectors/sectorinfo/sectorprofiles/paint.html; Paintcare, www.paintcare.org.

EarthTalk® is produced by Doug Moss & Roddy Scheer and is a registered trademark of Earth Action Network Inc. View past columns at: www.earthtalk.org. Or e-mail us your question: earthtalk@emagazine.com.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic home cuts energy bill 60% with over 2,000 LEDs

2015-06-10T09:46:00.000-04:00

Dining and dormitory area, Taliesin West (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic estates are being retrofitted with ultra efficient LEDs as part of an overall effort to reduce energy use, while keeping the design sense of the properties close to Wright’s vision.

After an energy audit of the property, caretakers learned that they could offset the utility costs by 51 percent by providing more energy efficient lighting.

The designers followed three main tenants when refurbishing Frank Lloyd Wright's two homes, Taliesin and Taliesin West in Wisconsin and Arizona, respectively. The first was to maintain the warm, incandescent feel, even when removing the incandescent bulbs and replacing them with LEDs. The second was to reduce energy usage, as they are aiming to produce net-zero houses that create more energy than they use. And the third was to reduce maintenance and operating costs by installing lights that wouldn't need to be changed as much.

After examining LEDs from a number of companies, the ones from OSRAM Sylvania were selected because they most fit the bill for what was needed. These super efficient lights are expected to offset utility costs by 51% between both buildings and 60% at Taliesin West alone.

Frank Lloyd Wright is widely revered as one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, designing over 1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed. He was highly interested in creating harmony between humanity and the environment, pioneering a philosophy he called organic architecture. Transforming his homes into net-zero works of art is a testament to his ideals.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Source: Minds.

Keep In The Warmth, Keep Out Unhealthy Insulation

2015-02-20T17:58:00.001-05:00

From our friends at EarthTalk® and E-Magazine.

Dear EarthTalk: The cold winter we’re having here in the Northeast has convinced me to finally beef up my home’s insulation, but I’ve heard that spray foam can off-gas noxious chemicals and pollute the indoor environment. Are there safer options? -- Rose Donahue, Framingham, MA

Making your home more energy efficient is certainly good for the planet and will cut your heating/cooling bills, but you’re right to worry about chemical off-gassing. According to the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG), most common spray polyurethane foam insulation contains methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, a synthetic chemical that has been linked to asthma, lung damage and even death.

Soyfoam Insulation. Image: Demilec

“Because of the chemical’s risks, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set the maximum legal limit for MDI exposure among workers who handle it and related chemicals at 0.02 parts per million in workplace air,” reports EWG. “However, independent contractors and the general public, including homeowners who take on DIY insulation projects, may not be aware of these federal regulations or the risks associated with MDI exposure.”

In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it was studying whether to regulate, restrict or even ban MDI in consumer products. (MDI is also used in a variety of adhesives and coatings like Gorilla Glue.) “Four years later, the agency has yet to take real action to protect ordinary people who go to their local hardware store and pick up a product that contains MDI,” adds EWG.

There is hope from the West, though, as the state of California has made finding safer alternatives to MDI a priority in its Safer Consumer Products program, which requires manufacturers to look for greener, healthier alternatives. Time will tell if this new initiative in California will move manufacturers there and elsewhere away from MDI. Meanwhile, EWG wants the federal government to step up on the issue and restrict or ban MDI insulation across the country.

Homeowners willing to spend a little extra do have some safer alternatives to polyurethane spray foam at their disposal. Soybean-based spray foam doesn’t rely on MDI or any other synthetic chemicals but has a similar R-value (measuring the strength of the insulation in blocking air) as conventional spray foam. Leading soy-foam manufacturers include Biobased and Demilec. Castor oil-based Icynene is another chemical-free spray foam alternative great for green-minded home renovators.

Cotton denim batting—typically made from recycled scraps from denim factories—is another healthy alternative, but can’t be sprayed in and costs almost twice as much in material costs as spray foam. Sheep’s wool insulation is another effective choice, but also can’t be sprayed in and costs significantly more than foam. These and other greener insulation options are available at mainstream and specialty home improvement stores, and also online via vendors including Green Depot, Green Home Solutions and Green Building Supply.

CONTACTS: Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; Biobased, biobased.rhinolinings.com; Demilec, www.demilecusa.com; Icynene, www.icynene.com; Green Depot, www.greendepot.com; Green Home Solutions, www.ghsproducts.com; Green Building Supply, www.greenbuildingsupply.com.

Simple Soil Mixture Reverses Toxic Stormwater Effects

2015-01-31T19:43:00.001-05:00

Study's implications point to benefits of utilizing green stormwater infrastructure to mitigate water pollution in urban and outlying areas.

Runoff at stormwater drain. Wikipedia

PUYALLUP, Wash.—A simple column of common soil can reverse the toxic effects of urban runoff that otherwise quickly kills young coho salmon and their insect prey, according to new research by Washington State University, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The affordable and remarkably effective treatment offers new promise for controlling toxic pollutants that collect on paved surfaces and wash off as stormwater into rivers, streams and the ocean. Polluted stormwater has been identified as a risk factor for many threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead and has caused die-offs of coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

The research builds on increasingly common building practices that promote natural infiltration of stormwater into the ground. It indicates that a “bioretention” system that first filters runoff through a basic soil mixture removes toxics lethal to aquatic life. Such systems are increasingly found in Washington State’s Puget Sound area as people build “rain gardens” that trap runoff before it gets to a creek or stream.

The research published in the journal Chemosphere examined the toxic effects of runoff collected from a major Seattle highway during storms. The untreated runoff killed all juvenile salmon exposed to it within 12 hours. But all fish survived in runoff filtered through the soil column of sand, compost and bark. The soil filtration also prevented reproductive damage to tiny insects salmon eat.

“This is a simple approach that can make a big difference in the quality of water flowing into our rivers and streams,” said Jenifer McIntyre, postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University and lead author of the new research. “In this case, the salmon and their prey are telling us how clean is clean enough.”

Researchers collected runoff from a four-lane Seattle overpass during six storms and transported it to Washington State University’s Research and Extension Center in Puyallup, south of Seattle, where the experimental soil treatment columns were set up. The 12 bioretention columns were 42 inches high and contained 60 percent sand, 15 percent compost, 15 percent shredded bark and 10 percent water treatment residuals, with half also planted with a common sedge.

Impervious surfaces and surface runoff (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Untreated runoff regularly killed aquatic insects such as mayflies but filtering the runoff through soil columns, with or without plants, “conferred complete protection against the lethal toxicity of stormwater runoff,” the scientists wrote. The polluted stormwater also quickly killed coho salmon, but all fish survived exposure to the same runoff after treatment.

“The positive effects on survival are really striking,” said Nat Scholz, manager of the Ecotoxicology Program at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center and a coauthor of the research. “This is an encouraging lesson for people working to reduce stormwater impacts to salmon habitats.”

Chemical analyses showed the bioretention treatment reduced toxic metals by 30 to 99 percent, reduced polyaromatic hydrocarbons that are byproducts of fossil fuels to levels at or below detection and reduced organic matter by more than 40 percent.

The scientists suggested that further research examine different soil mixes and the reliability of bioretention treatment over time. Additional studies could also examine whether soil filtration protects salmon from more subtle forms of toxicity, including effects on early development, the endocrine system and susceptibility to disease.

The new study is part of a longer-term research effort to develop inexpensive and effective clean water technologies. The work was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 10), NOAA’s Coastal Storms Program and the Russell Family Foundation.

Source: WSU News Washington State University.

Green Buildings Save Small Businesses Big Money

2015-01-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

Cherokee Mixed-Use Lofts, West Hollywood, CA (Wikipedia).

Mike Schoenecker, vice president at Winkelman Building Corp, says green buildings, defined as those that reduce their impact on the environment by being more energy efficient and using fewer natural resources while reducing waste and pollution, save money for business owners three ways.

Increased Efficiency Means Lower Energy Bills

Green buildings cost about 2% more initially, but will save building owners about 30% on their energy bills for heating, cooling and water usage every year for the life of the building. That can add up to a lot of money, which can be used to pay for the initial costs of going green. Once those costs are recaptured, the savings will add to the building owner’s bottom line for the entire useful life of the building.

Government Incentives Can Put More Money In Building Owner’s Pockets

The United States government offers rebates, tax credits, and other incentives for businesses who commit to building green and installing sustainable forms of energy like solar, wind, and geothermal technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains a public database called DSIRE that is organized by state and lists all of that state’s current incentives and programs.State and local incentives may also be available, so check with your accountant or state resource sites, as well.

Long Term Cost Savings

Benefits from using green energy technology like solar and geothermal technology and solar are magnified when a building owner opts for green materials such as energy efficient windows and roofing materials. Those materials also provide an economic advantage because they cost less to maintain and repair. For example, bamboo is a sustainable alternative to hardwoods for floors and interior trim that offers superior durability without sacrificing style
.
Making a $4 per square foot investment in green now will yield savings of $58 per square foot over a twenty year period. By using recycled glass, drywall, and steel, the savings could be even greater and the benefit to the environment enhanced. There are other economic benefits to building green, too. A green building will command a higher price when sold. More importantly, a businesses that shows it cares for the environment will appeal to clients and customers who are looking to do business with responsible companies. Put it all together and going green makes for smart business in more way than just saving money.

Content source: Green Building Elements

Holiday Lighting Tips To Keep You In The Green

2014-12-09T15:43:00.000-05:00

(Image: Wikipedia)

‘Tis the season to make spirits bright with holiday lights- but that doesn’t mean you have to go broke paying high energy bills this winter! While decorating the tree, house, or garland, a whole section of lights can go dark – along with holiday spirits, and light outages can be frustrating and time-consuming to repair.

To help reduce the frustration of decorating, the LightKeeper Pros have produced a list of holiday lighting tips- which we’ve reproduced, below. Plus check out these great ways to winterize your home and maximize energy savings via Green Living Ideas.

Holiday Lighting Tips

Measure: To estimate the number of lights needed for your tree, plan on an average of 100 lights per every foot of tree height.

LED vs. Incandescent: LED lights are more expensive than incandescent, but typically last longer. Due to their low voltage, more sets of LED lights can be strung together end-to-end than traditional sets. Be sure to use lights that have the label of an independent testing laboratory such as Underwriters Laboratory (UL).

Inspect: Before stringing lights check for broken bulbs and sockets, frayed cords, burned out lights and loose connections. Replace and repair any damaged light sets. For sets with bulb outages, use a light tester to find and fix the problem in seconds.

Connect: Connect no more than three strands of mini string sets and a maximum of 50 bulbs for screw-in bulbs. Read the manufacturer’s instructions for the safe number of LED strands to connect. Use no more than three light sets on any one extension cord.

Indoor vs. Outdoor: Some lights are only for indoor or outdoor use. Outside lights are exposed to water, so they should be rated for outdoor use. Wrap connections with electrical tape when two or more light strands are being used. Outdoor lights should be plugged into circuits protected by ground-fault-interrupters (GFCIs).

Live and Artificial Trees: To string lights on an evergreen tree, begin at the top of the tree and wind the strands through its center, widening with the tree’s shape. For deciduous trees, work your way up. Wrap lights around the base of its trunk, moving upward in a spiral formation. If you use an artificial tree, choose one that is tested and labeled as fire resistant. Artificial trees with built-in electrical systems should have the UL label.

Replace and Repair Lights: To get the most out of your light sets, do occasional visual checks for any bulbs that are no longer working. Replace those bulbs as soon as possible. If a light set stops working or a section goes dark, use a light string tester to find and solve the issue in seconds.

For those who need more help or have a specific question, Ulta-Lit Technologies, maker of the LightKeeper Pro and LED Keeper testers, has set up a hotline for your pressing holiday lighting questions that’s available 7 days a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas at 888-858-2548.

Source: Green Building Elements. Original article by Dawn Killough.

Missing Ingredient in Energy-efficient Buildings: People

2014-12-05T10:35:00.002-05:00

Building 1. Credit: Washington State University

More than one-third of new commercial building space includes energy-saving features, but without training or an operator’s manual many occupants are in the dark about how to use them.

Julia Day recently published a paper in Building and Environment that for the first time shows that occupants who had effective training in using the features of their high-performance buildings were more satisfied with their work environments. Day did the work as a doctoral student at Washington State University; she is now an assistant professor at Kansas State University.

Closed blinds open research path

She was a WSU graduate student in interior design when she walked into an office supposedly designed for energy efficiency and noticed that the blinds were all closed and numerous lights were turned on. The building had been designed to use daylighting strategies to save energy from electric lighting.

After inquiring, Day learned that cabinetry and systems furniture throughout the building blocked nearly half of the occupants from access to the blind controls. Only a few determined folks would climb on or under their desks to operate the blinds.

“People couldn’t turn off their lights, and that was the whole point of implementing daylighting in the first place,” she said. “The whole experience started me on my path.”

Ventilation indicators mistaken for fire-alarm lights

Working with David Gunderson, professor in the WSU School of Design and Construction, Day looked at more than 50 high-performance buildings across the U.S. She gathered data, including their architectural and engineering plans, and did interviews and surveys of building occupants.

She examined how people were being trained in the buildings and whether their training was effective. Sometimes, she learned, the features were simply mentioned in a meeting or a quick email was sent to everyone, and people did not truly understand how their actions could affect the building’s overall energy use.

One LEED gold building had lights throughout to indicate the best times of day to open and close windows to take advantage of natural ventilation. A green light indicated it was time to open windows.

“I asked 15 people if they knew what the light meant, and they all thought it was part of the fire alarm system,’’ she said. “There’s a gap, and people do not really understand these buildings.’’

Efficient commercial space expanding

According to CBRE Research, the amount of commercial space that is certified as high-performance in energy efficiency through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star or U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED has grown from 5.6 percent of commercial space in 2005 to 39.3 percent at the end of 2013.

Yet in many cases, the corporate culture of energy use in buildings hasn’t caught up. While at home our mothers nagged us to turn off the lights when we left a room or to shut the door because “you don’t live in a barn,” office culture has often ignored and even discouraged common-sense energy saving.

Educating for an energy-focused culture

Day found that making the best use of a highly efficient building means carefully creating a culture focused on conservation. In buildings with an energy-focused culture, workers were engaged, participated and were satisfied with their building environment.

“If they received good training, they were more satisfied and happier with their work environment,’’ she said.

She is working to develop an energy lab and would like to develop occupant training programs to take advantage of high-performance buildings.

“With stricter energy codes, the expectations are that buildings will be more energy efficient and sustainable,’’ she said. “But we have to get out of the mindset where we are not actively engaged in our environments. That shift takes a lot of education, and there is a huge gap right now.”

Source: Washington State University. Original article by Tina Hilding.

Greywater Reuse at Home

2014-11-22T09:20:00.001-05:00

From our media partners at Earth Talk and E-Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I know that some large buildings filter some of their wastewater to irrigate exterior landscaping. Is there an affordable way to do this at home? -- Bill P., Salem, OR

Now that solar panels are so commonplace on rooftops across the country, reusing so-called greywater—that is, the waste water from sinks, showers, tubs and washing machines—for landscape irrigation may be the next frontier in the greening of the American home, especially if you live in an arid region where water use is restricted. In fact, reusing your graywater may be the only way to keep your lawn and garden healthy without taking more than your fair share of the community’s precious freshwater reserves.

Credit: Jeremy Levine, courtesy Flickr

"Using water from sinks, showers and washing machines to irrigate plants is a way to increase the productivity of sustainable backyard ecosystems that produce food, clean water and shelter wildlife,” reports Greywater Action, a California-based non-profit dedicated to educating and empowering people to use water sustainably. According to the group, a typical U.S. single family home can reduce water use by as much as 30 percent by installing some kind of greywater reclamation system while simultaneously reducing pollution into nearby water bodies by filtering out contaminants locally. Capturing and reusing greywater can also be part of the battle against climate change, given that you’ll be helping grow plants that sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide while reducing demand on a regional wastewater treatment facility that’s likely powered by fossil fuels.

The simplest way to get into home greywater reuse is to install a “laundry-to-landscape” system that sends washing machine wastewater outside via a diversion tank and hose that can be moved around to irrigate specific sections of the yard. Equipment costs for such a set-up max out at $200, but labor and expertise may tack on another few hundred dollars. Handy homeowners can do much of the work in setting up such systems themselves, though those without much home repair or plumbing experience might at least consult a professional. Greywater Action suggests one way to reduce costs is by digging trenches for diversion pipes and mulch basins yourself -- or enlist friends who want to support the effort and learn about residential greywater reuse in the process.

A more comprehensive system can draw wastewater from sinks, showers and tubs, too—and then filter and distribute it to backyard landscaping via a drip irrigation network. Getting such a system professionally installed can run upwards of $5,000.

Either way, once the greywater diversion system is in place, you’ll need to be careful about what goes down the drain, given how it might affect the plants and soils right outside. “In any greywater system, it is essential to put nothing toxic down the drain — no bleach, no dye, no bath salts, no cleanser, no shampoo with unpronounceable ingredients, and no products containing boron, which is toxic to plants,” adds Greywater Action.

For more information on installing a greywater reuse system yourself, check out the resources section of Greywater Action’s website, where you’ll find diagrams, written instructions and even videos to make the job go smoother. Those more inclined to hire a professional can browse through listings of qualified installers across the country. And if you want to see how it’s done first-hand, sign up to attend one of Greywater Action’s one-day workshops on how to install a greywater catchment and diversion system in a residential setting.

CONTACT: Greywater Action, www.greywateraction.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com

Cradle to Cradle Provides Material Health Certification for Building Materials

2014-11-05T12:23:00.001-05:00

(Smart House. Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has announced it will offer a Material Health Certificate, a tool for manufacturers across industries to communicate their work toward chemically optimized products. The Material Health Certificate marks the first time the Institute has offered reporting of its comprehensive methodology in only one category.

Established in 2006, the multi-attribute Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Product Standard has been widely recognized for its depth, rigor, third-party auditing, and ease of reporting via the certification label. Cradle to Cradle Certified products are assessed in five categories: Material Health, Material Reutilization, Renewable Energy, Water Stewardship, Social Fairness. Now, companies have the option to pursue only the Material Health assessment.

"The high standards are the same, but focusing solely on Material Health allows manufacturers to step on the Cradle to Cradle Certified path more readily and encourages more transparency in their products," said Bridgett Luther, President at the Institute. "We heard from manufacturers across industries that wanted a depth of understanding in what's in their product, and how safe those ingredients are for humans and the environment. We answered the call to fill this market need with a well established, rigorous methodology that requires continuous improvement. It's time to take an aggressive approach to making our products safer for human and environmental health."

The requirements for the Material Health Certificate are identical to those of the Material Health of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard Version 3.0 which is governed by the Institute's Certification Standards Board. The standard requirements for Continuous Improvement and Optimization and Site Visit of the Production Facility must also be met. Accredited assessment bodies that have been trained and audited by the Institute will conduct the assessment; and the Institute will administer the certificates. Once granted, the certificate will be valid for two years and listed on the Institute's new Material Health Certificate Registry.

Industry groups, nonprofits, governments and companies of all sizes and industry are prioritizing the identification and elimination of chemicals of concern, driving manufacturers to know more about the chemicals in their products and supply chains; be more transparent about the chemicals in their products; avoid chemicals of high concern and shift to inherently safer chemicals; and commit to continuous improvement toward greener chemistry in their products. The Material Health Certificate guides them through this process and offers an easy reference for specifiers to understand where the product is on the path to being safe for humans and the environment.

Several companies are pursing the new certificate, including Owens Corning and ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas. Owens Corning, a leading global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass-fiber reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems, is in the process of pursuing the Material Health Certificate on three product lines while having already earned Cradle to Cradle certification on a product line.

"We are thrilled to be one of the first companies to pursue the Material Health Certificate. Safe ingredient chemistry is in such critical demand in the building movement right now, and the certificate will help us communicate our efforts toward safe and healthy products," said Gale Tedhams, Director of Product and Supply Chain Sustainability at Owens Corning. "Our sustainability strategy is multi-faceted as evident in the products we make and the way they are made, and no program is truer to our mission than that of the Cradle to Cradle Certified products methodology. While we are starting with Material Health Certificates on these product lines, we are committed to pursuing full Cradle to Cradle certification in the coming year."

As ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas worked to achieve complete environmental and material transparency, the leading industrial and engineering company determined it was not able to provide clear direction for improving its product through existing programs.

"We identified what chemicals were in our product as red-listed by comparing multiple lists but didn't exactly know how they were harmful or what the next step was to minimize or eliminate the problematic foes," said Brad Nemeth, VP of Sustainability at ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas. "Working with a toxicologist and accredited material health assessor helped target the ingredients of concern from human and environmental perspective throughout the manufacturing, use and end-of-use scenarios, plus gave us direction for next steps on how we can substitute ingredients at the supply chain level. The material assessment provides a logic-based methodology to fund research and development projects, placing us on a path for continuous materiality improvement, and the certificate helps us illustrate to customers we have worked with experts in assessing and improving our product."

The Institute will offer an enhanced reporting format to the Material Health Certificate that will include the achievement level (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum); an Avoiding Chemicals of Concern Summary based on the various levels; a summary of the assessment results, and additional elements, such as the number of materials assessed and percentage assessed by weight.

Healthy buildings are at the forefront of conversation this week at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo where the Institute's leadership is joined on various panel discussions with a multitude of experts; but the Material Health Certificate offering extends past the built environment and into all industries, including fashion, personal care products, electronics, consumer goods, and more.

For more information on the new Material Health Certificate, please visit C2CCertified.org/material_health_certificate.

About Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to turn the making of things into a positive force for people, the economy, and the planet. They steward the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Program, which is a system for assessing and constantly improving products based upon five categories: material health, material reuse, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social fairness. The Institute is headquartered in San Francisco, California with satellite offices in Amsterdam, NL, Venlo, NL and Raleigh, NC.

SOURCE Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and PR Newswire

New Thermal Bridging Guide Provides Solutions for Energy Efficient Homes

2014-08-12T02:59:00.004-04:00

Solar Umbrella002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Morrison Hershfield announced last week that the book Building Envelope Thermal Bridging Guide – Analysis, Applications, and Insights is now public and can be downloaded. The guide aims to overcome obstacles confronting the industry with respect to mitigating thermal bridging to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

According to the guide, “thermal bridging is caused by highly conductive elements that penetrate the thermal insulation and/or misaligned planes of thermal insulation. These paths allow heat flow to bypass the insulating layer, and reduce the effectiveness of the insulation.”

The Guide was developed by engineering firm Morrison Hershfield in collaboration with co-sponsors and industry partners. Co-sponsors include BC Hydro Power Smart, Canadian Wood Council, Fortis BC, FPInnovations and Homeowner Protection Office (a branch of BC Housing). Industry partners helped extend the scope of the guide to include many additional details.

The principle goal of these collaborating organizations is to promote energy-efficiency in buildings by increasing awareness of the impact of and methods to mitigate thermal bridging. To meet these goals, the Guide addresses a number of obstacles currently confronting our industry by:

Cataloging the thermal performance of common building envelope assemblies and interface details.
Providing data driven guidance that will make it easier for the industry to comprehensively consider thermal bridging in building codes and bylaws, design and whole building energy simulations.
Examining the costs associated with improving the thermal performance of opaque building envelope assemblies and interface details, and forecasting the energy impact for several building types and climates.
Evaluating the cost effectiveness of improving the building envelope through more thermally efficient assemblies, interface details and varying insulation levels.

The Guide, which is broken into three main sections for ease of use, contains helpful information for technical committees for energy standards, regulators, utilities, architects, mechanical designers, building envelope consultants, energy modellers, developers, manufacturers and trade organizations.

The Building Envelope Thermal Analysis (BETA) Guide outlines how to effectively account for thermal bridging and is backed up by an extensive catalog of thermal performance data. This information is essential for practitioners evaluating building envelope thermal performance.
Researchers and regulators will be interested in the sections focused on market transformation, which includes an evaluation of cost effectiveness and energy savings in common large building types.

Original article: Green Building Elements with materials from: PR Newswire.
Image: BC Hydro

Green Roofs: Cost-Effective Means of Preventing Sewer System Overflows

2014-06-14T10:27:00.000-04:00

Image Credit: Columbia University

Green roofs are a cost-effective means of preventing sewage system overflows, according to new research from Columbia University.

The ability to stop overflows of course stems from the fact that green roofs retain water and thus prevent said water from simply flowing into the sewers.

As an example, the green roof on top of the Con Edison building in Long Island City, Queens (investigated by the researchers) — home to around 21,000 plants — retains roughly 30% of the rainwater (on a quarter acre) that falls on it. That’s a pretty significant amount of water.

The press release from Columbia University provides more:

If New York City’s 1 billion square feet of roofs were transformed into green roofs, it would be possible to keep more than 10 billion gallons of water a year out of the city sewer system, according to the study led by Stuart Gaffin, research scientist at Columbia’s Center for Climate Systems Research.

New York City, like other older urban centers, has a combined sewer system that carries storm water and wastewater. The system often reaches capacity during rains and must discharge a mix of storm water and sewage into New York Harbor, the Hudson River, the East River and other waterways.

The Con Edison Green Roof was built (and research on it began) back in 2008. An adjoining “white roof” was also constructed.

Previous to these new findings, the researchers had already determined that the green and white roofs were quite effective at reducing energy costs and, also, urban air temperatures.

“The information we are collecting from Con Edison’s roofs is invaluable in helping us determine the costs and benefits of green infrastructure projects,” Gaffin stated. “Without solid data from experiments like this, it is impossible for us to know which projects are the best options for protecting the environment.”

When you take into account the cost of building and maintaining a green roof, the cost of capturing rainwater works out to about 2 cents a year to capture each gallon of water.

We’ve also reported previously that green roofs and solar panels are a great fit. Green roofs help to keep the solar panels cooler, which boosts their efficiency. For more on that, see one or all of these three stories:

Green Roofs Pave the Way to Cheap Solar Power

Green Roofs & Solar Panels: The Future of Renewable Energy?

Green Roofs Boost Solar Panel Performance

In related news, a similar “simple” solution to the management of high urban temperatures was recently put forward as a solution in Australia — white roads. While the concept of using white roads to reflect light and thereby reduce temperatures is certainly nothing new, it hasn’t yet been applied on a truly large scale, something that the Cool Change Cities Project is setting out to do.

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

This article was written by James Ayre via Clean Technica.

Green Home Building: Made in America

2014-05-23T14:54:00.000-04:00

Postmodern Solaris Green Home (Photo credit: Photo Dean)

People throughout the U.S. have set their sights on becoming more environmentally friendly -- especially when it comes to their homes.

Data from a recent Green Builder Media study confirms this trend with nearly 85 percent of respondents showing a positive association with the term "green" and wanting to be known for having a green life.

Whether they know it or not, when specifying U.S.-made green products, builders and homeowners are doing more than just helping the environment, they are also stimulating the economy.

One company that follows this trend of supporting green, U.S. homes is Green Builder Media. For example, its VISION House Series (www.greenbuildermag.com/vision-house) showcases homes built around the country that highlight the latest in green design, building techniques and products, and the advantages each can provide.

"Sustainability doesn't have to equal sacrifice," says Ron Jones, president of Green Builder Media and internationally renowned sustainability expert. "You don't have to give up beauty or quality when you choose a green product -- there is a wide variety of smart, sustainable and cost-effective products made in the United States that are easy for homebuilders and owners to access."

Dwell City Modern Tours Brooklyn (Photo credit: Inhabitat)

Green Builder Media is dedicated to spreading the word about sustainable living and green building to building professionals and consumers throughout North America. At center stage are two companies that are leading the way in green building materials that are made in America:

* Boral Roofing is the nation's largest manufacturer of sustainable, durable and affordable clay and concrete tile roofing systems, and the only provider of clay roof tile that is Cradle to Cradle certified. The products use recycled content and are Energy Star rated.

* Armstrong Flooring has over a century-long history of recycling, sustainable harvesting and environmental stewardship. The company's new line of genuine scraped hardwood, called American Scrape, is made in the U.S. A portion of the sales generated from American Scrape is donated to Homes for our Troops, a non-partisan organization that builds specially adapted homes for injured veterans.

To learn more, visit www.greenbuildermedia.com. The above article was made available from materials provided by NewsUSA.

K-Cups and the Environment

2014-03-25T19:32:00.000-04:00

Dear EarthTalk: What is the environmental impact of those “K-Cups” everyone seems to be using nowadays to make coffee at both home and office?

-- Chris B., Stamford, CT

K-Cups—those little one-serving coffee containers that allow people to brew one cup at a time in a specially designed Keurig brewing machine—are all the rage these days. Each K-Cup is made up of a plastic outer container with one cup’s worth of ground coffee and a small filter inside, capped off with a foil lid. They go into Keurig brewing machines which pierce the bottom of the K-Cup with a nozzle that then forces hot water through the coffee grounds and filter, and then out into the drinker’s cup. K-Cups and the Keurig brewers are convenient and require little to no clean-up while producing gourmet quality coffee for a fraction of the price that a retail coffee shop would charge.

Credit: Aaron Paxson, courtesy Flickr

Environmentalists’ beef with the Keurig system is in the single-use, non-recyclable nature of the packaging, given the implications for our waste stream. The individual parts of a K-Cup (plastic, paper and foil) could theoretically be recycled on their own, but the combination is too small and messy for recycling facilities to be able to sort. So our only choice is to throw the whole K-Cup pack, lock stock and barrel, into the garbage. Each pound of coffee consumed sends 50 K-Cups to the landfill. And with upwards of 17 million U.S. households and offices possessing Keurig brewers these days, billions of K-Cups are already ending up in landfills every year.

Keurig Green Mountain, the company behind the K-Cup revolution, is on the case about the bad environmental reputation it is developing over the issue. As a first step, it launched its Grounds to Grow On program in 2011 whereby office customers can purchase K-Cup recovery bins and fill them up with spent K-Cups. When the boxes are full, they are shipped to Keurig’s disposal partner, which turns the used coffee grounds into compost and sends the rest out to be incinerated in a “waste-to-energy” power plant. Critics point out, though, that waste-to-energy is hardly green given the airborne pollutants released from incinerator smokestacks and the fact that, in the words of Julie Craves of the Coffee & Conservation blog, recycling is the enemy of the never-ending stream of garbage needed to feed waste-to-energy facilities.

In 2012, Keurig Green Mountain, realizing it still had a lot of work to do on sustainability matters, undertook a lifecycle assessment across its product lines—and set ambitious sustainability targets to achieve by 2020. Chief among them is to make all K-Cups 100 percent recyclable. Other goals include ensuring responsible sourcing for all its primary agricultural and manufactured products, reducing life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of its brewed beverages by 25 percent compared to the 2012 baseline, and achieving zero waste-to-landfills its manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Those who love the Keurig system but are ready to forego the environmental guilt sooner than 2020 do have some options. Julie Craves reports that used K-Cups can actually be refilled with ground coffee and reused. An easier option might be buying a reusable K-Cup—most of them are made out of plastic with a stainless steel mesh filter. Still the best choice for the environment, however, might be getting the old traditional coffee pot out of storage and brewing up several cups at once—just like the old days.

CONTACTS: Keurig Green Mountain, www.keuriggreenmountain.com; Coffee & Conservation Blog, www.coffeehabitat.com.

Rain Barrels: Small Investment, Big Benefits

2014-02-27T12:45:00.000-05:00

Rain barrel on Philadelphia sidewalk

Winter seems to be lingering quite a bit this year, yet soon enough we'll be seeing a change to spring showers and sprouting gardens. With that in mind, it's a great time to be thinking about rain barrels - their importance in helping manage stormwater and how they can help you save on your water bill.

First, a bit on stormwater.

As communities expand with development, they become increasingly built up with impermeable surfaces such as big parking lots at big box stores. The result is that rain has few places to go; it hits the hard surfaces and just runs right off into our streams. In urban areas, stormwater management has become a critical issue because of the adverse impact from combined sewer overflows on a watershed and a city's clean drinking water. A rain barrel helps limit this because it holds that first bit of rain coming off the roof or your driveway and prevents it from running into sewers and streams and causing overflow pollution and erosion from high flows of water.

In addition to helping the environment, rain barrels enable you to harvest rainwater for use with watering plants, lawns, mopping floors, or washing cars. You don't want to use rainwater from runoff to drink or to water edibles in the garden - it may contain unknown contaminants. But there are a plethora of other uses. Likewise, as you conserve water, you'll also benefit from saving on your water bill. And in Philadelphia, the water department has gone as far as to provide free rain barrels and workshops to city-dwellers.

See the short video below from the EPA to learn more about the great dollar and environmental benefits of rain barrels - a simple and effective investment to conserve water, save money, and help the environment.

For more information about rain barrels, go to http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/rainbarrel.html. And check out Home Science on Facebook for more articles about home energy and environment: www.facebook.com/energysmarts.