[JayHMorrison]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5930839/

[Jack]

From the article: Sargent is showing his 3,800-square-foot house, with a $950,000 asking price, during an annual parade of homes sponsored by Dallas builders

I don't believe I'll be buying one this week!

[Concerned]

How much energy does it take to make $950,000

[BabyPeanut]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/li ... -headlines

New ways to save on energy and water -- and reduce noise from your neighbors

By Ken Sheinkopf
The Orlando Sentinel
Posted January 28 2005

Most of the time, I write about research and other activities to save energy in homes. While doing some home remodeling recently, I spent more time than usual in building-supply stores, and I have become more aware of today's new products.

Recently, I also read about three new products that demonstrate advances in home technology. Each appears to offer significant potential for energy savings and improved home comfort.

Water heating is a major home energy user. A new zero energy home community in Southern California (73 energy-efficient homes ranging in price from $600,000 to $750,000) has Rinnai Tankless water heaters in each home. Depending on your family's water usage, a tankless system can be a great way to save energy. This heater doesn't hold any water, but it attaches to the plumbing system and heats water running through the unit's heat exchanger. It takes just a few seconds to heat water when you turn on the faucet, and shutting the tap shuts the unit off, eliminating standby losses.

Check into this type of system for your home, and compare it with alternatives. This is a good option in homes where hot water usage points are separated by long distances, or in homes where two separate hot water storage tanks would otherwise be needed.

Another product called SYNLawn is an artificial lawn product available from landscapers and distributors around the country. The synthetic lawn turf simulates common lawn grasses but does not require the maintenance, watering and chemicals needed for natural grass.

Finally, Soundstop Fiberboard is installed along with drywall in walls to reduce sound and in ceilings to deaden footsteps. The fiberboard sheets made largely from organic material including recovered wood or sugarcane fibers. If you've lived in an apartment or condominium where your neighbors' conversations sounded as if they were taking place in your home, you can appreciate how this material can become an important building component. It may not save energy directly, but it adds to the comfort level that is enhanced by other strategies that are energy-efficient.

Ken Sheinkopf is associate director of the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa, a research institute of the University of Central Florida. For more information, visit the center's Web site at fsec.ucf.edu. The Orlando Sentinel is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

Well semi-new anyway.

[BabyPeanut]

Can these things really deliver 140F (60C) water?

http://www.foreverhotwater.com/

[smallpoxgirl]

Can these things really deliver 140F (60C) water?

http://www.foreverhotwater.com/

Yeah. Probably some where around there. Friend of mine had one. Really sweet. Never ran out of hot water. The output was hot enough that you had to mix it with cold or it would scald you. And used significantly less energy than a tank heater.

[spiritoflennon]

Combi boilers have existed for years. I have one in my house and it works fine. Still uses gas though....
Best way is a solar heater or Jean Pain composting method.

[smallpoxgirl]

Best way is a solar heater or Jean Pain composting method.

Certainly that's true. The tankless heaters are still fossil fuel dependent.

Once you've seen the tankless heaters, though, you just have to scratch your head and wonder what Americans are thinking sometimes. The tankless heaters are superior in every way to a tank type heater. It's almost like somebody was looking for ways to waste energy.

Could you talk about the Jean Pain method? I'm not familiar with that one.

[chris-h]

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_lib ... _pain.html

He accompanies me to about 50 metres from the front door and shows me the object of the world's attention -- a home-made power plant that supplies 100 per cent of the Pains' energy needs. What I see is a mound, three metres high and six across, made of tiny pieces of brushwood.


This vegetable cocktail, Pain explains, made of tree limbs and pulverized underbrush, is a compost, much like the pile of decaying organic matter that people build in their gardens, using food scraps and leaves. Buried inside the 50-ton compost, he says, is a steel tank with a capacity of four cubic metres. It is three-fourths full of the same compost, which has first been steeped in water for two months. The tank is hermetically sealed, but is connected by tubing to 24-truck-tyre inner tubes, banked nearby in piles. The tubes serve as a reservoir for the methane gas produced as the compost ferments.

"Once the gas is distilled, washed through small stones in water -- and compressed," Pain explains, "we use it to cook our food, produce our electricity and fuel our truck." He says that it takes about 90 days to produce 500 cubic metres of gas -- enough to keep Ida's two ovens and a three-burner stove going for a year. Leading to a room behind the house, he shows me the methane-fuelled internal combustion engine that turns a generator, producing 100 watts every hour. This charges an accumulator battery, which stores the current, providing all the Pains need to light their five-room house.

[smallpoxgirl]

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/methane_pain.html

WOW!

That is so cool!

[Ludi]

Another product called SYNLawn is an artificial lawn product available from landscapers and distributors around the country. The synthetic lawn turf simulates common lawn grasses but does not require the maintenance, watering and chemicals needed for natural grass.

How frikkin retarded is that? Lawn areas should be used to grow edible plants.

[MarkR]

What a lot of fuss about the water heater.

On-demand water heaters have been used for years in Europe, particularly the UK, usually as part of a 'Combi' boiler which can also provide central heating.

Indeed, the model described only just scrapes though the upcoming new energy efficiency laws that the UK is currently implementing. The Rinnai heater gets an efficiency of about 88% - a 'B' grade on the UK scale - the minimum allowable. A number of condensing combi boilers for the UK market are now available with 'A' grade efficiencies (91% and higher).

However, perhaps are more important method of saving energy, would be to limit the amount of hot water used. I was a bit concerned to see the Rinnai site make references to '90 gallon' bathtubs'. I knew Americans were big, but that's almost twice the size of a UK bathtub. 40 imp gallons (48 US gallons) is typical for a 'full-size' bathtub.

Encouraging the use of showers would do far more than simply installing high efficiency heaters. Indeed, replacing conventional low-pressure high flow showers with high-pressure aerating shower heads, can reduce the amount of water needed for showering by a further 50%.

[BabyPeanut]

Another product called SYNLawn is an artificial lawn product available from landscapers and distributors around the country. The synthetic lawn turf simulates common lawn grasses but does not require the maintenance, watering and chemicals needed for natural grass.

How frikkin retarded is that? Lawn areas should be used to grow edible plants.

What if you live in a place with no rain? Will you eat cactus?

[Pops]

True Mark, perfect example of Jevon's Paradox.

[BabyPeanut]

However, perhaps are more important method of saving energy, would be to limit the amount of hot water used. I was a bit concerned to see the Rinnai site make references to '90 gallon' bathtubs'. I knew Americans were big, but that's almost twice the size of a UK bathtub. 40 imp gallons (48 US gallons) is typical for a 'full-size' bathtub.

http://www.canadianinteriors.com/archiv ... jfpt04.htm

The 90-gallon stainless steel Cerine bathtub, with built-in sloped back integral seat is far roomier and more comfortable than a standard tub.

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/americh_kyoto.html

Kyoto -- 68" x 68" x 22" deep - Gelcoat - 120 Gallon Capacity

http://www.discounthomemall.com/sku52180.html

Neo-Metro Soho-Bath Soaking Tub 150 Gallon - Satin Finish - 8973

[BabyPeanut]

He accompanies me to about 50 metres from the front door and shows me the object of the world's attention -- a home-made power plant that supplies 100 per cent of the Pains' energy needs.

Lies. 100% of their energy needs would include the energy that was used to construct the tank itself.

[smallpoxgirl]

What if you live in a place with no rain? Will you eat cactus?

One word. Tequila

[MonteQuest]

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/methane_pain.html

WOW!

That is so cool!

I encourage everyone to read as much as they can about biogas. India and China use it extensively. This is the kind of decentralized energy production that will provide sustainable energy at the local level and require very little complex technology or machinery. This is most definitely a power up with a powerdown approach.

[spiritoflennon]

You don't necessarily have to use the Jean Pain method for biogas, you can just use the heat generated in the compost heap to heat your water. Coincidentally as global warming picks up it's going to become more and more important to clear brushwood from our forests to stop them burning, the Jean Pain method is one of the most innovative uses for small scraps of wood that I've encountered. Most composting experts would tell you not to put wood on a heap. It just goes to show that you should listen to everyone but believe nothing except what you have tried with your own hands or seen with your own eyes.