Healthy purchasing in Oregon, why unfixable windows are a waste of money, when driving was a war crime, and more. Can we bring back the days when car pooling was patriotic?Photo Credit: American Legion

Did you miss the live webcast? Get it here for free—and take a quiz for continuing education credits too. Guinea pigs everywhere want to know: do you know as much about toxic chemicals as a building professional should?
The new Declare "nutrition label" and database will streamline the ardous task of finding Living Building Challenge-compliant products.
Wood smoke is still a guilty pleasure in the northern U.S. and Canada. But newer wood stove technologies produce less smoke—and less guilt. This gravity-fed pellet stove from Wiseway produces few emissions and uses no electricity.Photo Credit: Wiseway Pellet Stoves

Introducing the Resilient Design Institute: a new nonprofit organization that has been created in Brattleboro.
Watch the plants! There are limits to their growth, and ours. Also: data center showdown, cargo bikes, and satellite photos of economic injustice.

This simple system for recovering heat from wastewater makes a lot of sense—especially for families and commercial buildings that produce a lot of hot water.

by Alex Wilson

Over the past few weeks I’ve written about various strategies to produce hot water efficiently. We’ve seen that tankless water heaters are more efficient than storage water heaters (though are not without their drawbacks), and we’ve learned that heat-pump water heaters produce two to three times as much heat per unit of electricity consumed as electric water heaters that rely on electric resistance heat.

Sustainability might not come naturally to us, but maybe we’ll get past that if we can teach our children well. Minecraft helps kids in Kenya show how real places could be transformed.Photo Credit: FyreUK
New federal regulations beginning in mid-April 2015 will require that larger electric water heaters be heat-pump models. It’s time to pay attention to this option.
Public facilities don’t have to be ugly, we can now hear air pollution, and the sports industry is going for the gold with green initiatives.
A relatively new type of water heater combines features of both tankless and storage water heaters. A.O. Smith's NEXT Hybrid water heater.Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: A.O. Smith

 

Phobia or fatigue? When it comes to toxic chemicals, we all have our own way of coping with information overload. A free webcast helps you sort it all out.

Droughts are cracking foundations and cars are blocking crosswalks. Meanwhile, Martin Holladay debunks “greenest home on earth” claims. Sam Martin's "SkyCycle" concept would elevate bike lanes to new heights in London.Photo Credit: SkyCycle screen capture

NYC made history this week by releasing a huge dataset of actual building performance—including some blank spots for buildings that didn't comply with the law. NYC is making history, but other cities are soon to follow.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

While they have higher efficiency, for most applications tankless water heaters don’t make sense.

by Alex Wilson

There are two primary types of water heaters: storage and tankless. In this column I’ll try to explain the differences between these two approaches and offer some guidance on choosing between them. (There are also “hybrid” water heaters with features of both that I’ll cover in a future blog post.)