The reactor at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vermont.
Plastics — chemical compounds which are compressed under heat into desired shapes, and thereafter are not subject to corrosion — are increasingly in use. Some are made of coal-tar products, some of milk; and one... utilizes the Chinese soy bean. This useful plant, is, next to rice, the staff of life in the Celestial republic; like beans, peas, and other "legume" plants, it contains the proteins, or nitrogen compounds, for which we eat meat.
> A $250/cord of firewood burned in an EPA-compliant wood stove (70% efficient) provides just $16.23 per million Btu of delivered heat.

While energy prices have dropped from their record highs a few months ago, many area residents are still wondering how they'll pay for heat this winter. The most common fuel in northern New England, heating oil, is still priced at over $4.00 per gallon.

Today the Department of Energy's Building Technologies Program launched the Zero Energy Buildings Database with an offering of three Zero Energy Buildings (ZEBs) and one near-ZEB. A lot of work has been put into defining ZEBs and you can learn about the different types at the Net ZEB page.

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Maverick NYC mechanical systems designer Henry Gifford has long been a critic of LEED, arguing that it encourages the wrong things, and doesn't go far enough to ensure that certified buildings really save energy or provide good air quality. I have great respect for Gifford and the work he does to design and commission low-energy buildings with great ventilation on very tight budgets. Unlike too many practicing engineers, he knows exactly how much energy his buildings are using.

I was down in Orlando last week — land of asphalt, ChemLawns, and Mickey Mouse. As is typical in that part of the world, it was too hot outside and too cold inside. In one of the mammoth Disney hotels, I was participating for two days in the Tenth Anniversary Annual Meeting of an organization called FLASH. FLASH is the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes — it used to be the Florida Alliance for Safe Homes, which explains the "L."
Rigid boardstock insulation.

In this final installment about insulation we'll take a look at the family of rigid boardstock materials. Unlike fiberous or spray-foam insulation that is installed in wall or ceiling cavities between the studs, rafters, or joists, boardstock insulation is applied either on the interior or exterior surface, spanning across the framing.

"Water shortages are expected to become more and more common in the coming decades. A 2003 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that 36 states are likely to experience water shortages by 2013."
A wind turbine ad on the New York Times homepage! Sure, Web ads are relatively cheap, but it still looks like a sign that alternative energy is hitting the big time.
As a key component in polycarbonate plastics such as those used for reusable water bottles, baby bottles, canned-food liners, and some building materials, bisphenol-A (BPA) has become the new chemical to fear.
Installing Air Krete foam insulation.
Talk about appropriate technology. They cooperate with nature on all levels — the design, the materials, the function... and gorgeous to look at besides. How would we build something like this today? This is very sexy stuff, even if it's all about pigeon poop.