One of my plumbers is telling me I need to run a one inch copper pipe for both hot and cold supply lines as risers up the house. Then they would have half inch pipes coming off to each fixture. A one inch pipe creates a huge waste of water and heat. But they claim […]
Pulled directly from Brownstoner forum: I attended a seminar at National Grid’s offices yesterday that detailed some of the rebates and incentives currently being offered. Of particular interest (to me anyway) is the oil-to-natural gas conversion boiler being given for $699 up to 245,000 BTUs. A steam boiler of this size normally costs about $2,700
NY Boiler and Heater Rebates Read More »
Here is something from Bau-Biologie that is interesting: Microwave Radiation – Cell phones, Wi-Fi Are they safe? As fast as possible, our society is becoming more and more technologically oriented. Homes, schools, offices, entire communities are making decisions to go wireless. Cell phones are proliferating at an alarming rate. These devices were never pre-market tested
Cell Phone Control Read More »
I went by a house renovation the other day. They were doing all sorts of fancy stuff – especially a super high end radiant floor heating installation. And then they were putting in 3 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation for the exterior walls. From the perspective of a green brownstone builder that’s like ordering a really
Insulating a Brooklyn green brownstone Read More »
From another blog. Hmmm… interesting. In the last 5 years a significant portion of the arab nations have been putting in large electrified rail networks: Iran has connected all its main cities, and built promissory links to the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Syria is developing new lines, Libya is opening lines, the southern
a sign of the times? Read More »
Here is an example of the newest recessed LED lighting. There are two shown, one with a wider width than the other. By Juno. It is not cheap, coming in at around $225 US per light. They have heat sinks to keep them cool and each unit has the transformer built in. Why they put
LED recessed lighting Read More »
If you saw a house without the sheet rock you would be very surprised how many electric wires there are snaking all over the place. As in the world now, our house is a huge electromagnetic jungle with electromagnetic fields both big and small crisscrossing our bodies from many directions. Why Electrical Wiring Needed? As a
Electrical Wiring and EMF Read More »
I found this great survey on toilets. Veritec, a testing company, tested 700 toilets for flush power, water savings, bowl size, flapper size etc. Now this might not excite most people but when you are looking for the most water efficient toilet that also actually flushes everything down this study is amazing. 13th-edition-full-toilet-veritec-report It shows
Green Toilet Survey Shows Not All Toilets Are Created Equal Read More »
The magic of thermal heating is amazing. on one side you can use thermal mass to heat and on the other you can use the lack of thermal mass to also heat. Combine of Thermal Mass And you can even combine the two. For example you could have a low mass sun room, with just
Using Thermal Mass to Heat Houses Read More »
Here is an image of the proposed plumbing setup for the green show house in Brooklyn. Chester Birchwood from New York Solar Systems is installing it. It has three interesting components. These apply to hot water only since we are really managing the amount of energy we added to the hot water. The cold water
Hot Water Home Run, Return and Mixing Read More »
