I was surprised recently to find out about an appliance manufacturer that I had never heard of—and to discover that its top-performing compact washer-and-dryer pair, along with identical products from another company new to the U.S., are the most energy efficient on the market.

Longtime manufacturer in Europe

Blomberg, as I found out when attending the ABX Expo in Boston in late 2016, is a German company that’s been manufacturing appliances since 1949 and washing machines since 1979. Acquired in 2002 by the Turkish company Arcelik A.S., Blomberg offers a full line of refrigerators, dishwashers, cooking appliances, and compact washers and dryers. It is one of Europe’s leading appliance manufacturers, with factories in Turkey, Romania, the Russian Federation, France, Italy, and Portugal, and it began selling appliances in the U.S. in 2014.

Round, unmilled timber might seem obsolete, but by using high-tech scanning and modeling, one company is bringing this form back into designers’ repertoires at a cost that can compete with steel. And we’re not just talking for a rustic log cabin aesthetic either: the company’s fast-growing portfolio of projects includes contemporary designs at a high-end bakery, an industrial commercial building, and an outdoor pavilion.

For centuries, milling and planing have been used to cut wood into standardized sizes, but that process also reduces the material’s strength. WholeTrees, a company out of Madison, Wisconsin, skips those steps, keeping trees intact for use in engineered structural systems.

Water scarcity has become one of our biggest environmental concerns. In the southwestern U.S. and California, there is now serious competition for water for agriculture, manufacturing, recreation, and basic human needs.

In response to the growing water shortage, California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) was updated in January 2017, further lowering the amount of water that can be used for residential faucets while maintaining its already low-flow standards for toilets, urinals, and showerheads. Making fixtures more water efficient is not always a simple fix, however. Higher water flows may be necessary for safety reasons—and even for some plumbing fixtures to function in larger buildings.

This year’s Greenbuild expo had a surprising number of interesting products, so many in fact that we couldn’t fit them all into our first Tour of Cool Products from Greenbuild 2016. Well, we have saved some of the best for last. This month we look at a new solar water heater, super-efficient photovoltaic panels, a new cellular glass insulation, and an innovative energy recovery system that might just change commercial HVAC.

AirFlow Panels

AirFlow Panels are building-integrated energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) that can be installed in curtain walls or rainscreens, and are one of the most innovative products I’ve seen at Greenbuild in years. The 3' x 5' x 10" panels install in the exterior wall, and manage energy and moisture while exchanging 200 cubic feet of air per minute. They also offer R-17 insulation for the entire panel, according to the manufacturer.

Back in 1985, when I started what is now BuildingGreen and was working for a construction company part-time (yes, I had to make a living), I remember installing a type of foil-faced foam insulation that was then being promoted as the highest-R-value insulation on the market. It was Koppers’ Exceltherm, which I think was advertised as providing R-8.2 per inch. It was a phenolic foam insulation material—foamed phenol formaldehyde. Adding this much insulation to the 175-year-old home we were restoring made a huge difference in improving comfort and reducing heating bills.

In early 1989, Koppers (which was also known as Beazer East, Inc.) sold its phenolic foam insulation business to Johns Manville Corporation, which manufactured phenolic foam roof insulation until 1992. By that time, problems with corrosion of metal in contact with the phenolic foam came to light, and Johns Manville and Beazer East were hit with a class-action lawsuit that ended production of the material.

The annual Greenbuild Expo is one of the best places to discover exciting product innovations and the 2016 convention in Los Angeles was no exception. We’re going to present in two parts the standouts that we saw. This article will cover water-saving products, drywall, weather barriers, and select wood products. Stay tuned next month when we’ll look at innovative energy recovery systems, photovoltaic panels, insulation, and more.

Water Savings

There were the usual wide selection of designer toilets, faucets, and showerheads at Greenbuild this year, but were there any true water-saving advances or new devices that could influence our habits? We found some, as well as graywater systems that may finally be ready for prime time.

Connect occupants with nature: great idea, but who asked for the toxic fallout?

Insect- and rot-resistant boardwalk sleepers, decking, and exterior structural members are commonly needed to provide low-impact access to the outdoors. But there’s really no perfect solution, especially given the need for products that are code-rated for ground contact. You end up choosing between wood treated with toxic metals and biocides on the one hand, or aesthetically and environmentally iffy plastics on the other (see The Great Eight: High-Impact Material Choices). But there may finally be a dark horse racing up to take their place.

As low-voltage LED lighting becomes the norm in our buildings, a power struggle has begun.

These LEDs—and much of our other commercial equipment—use direct current (DC), while our electricity grid supplies alternating current (AC—see The Death and Rebirth of DC Power). When you consider that onsite renewables also generate DC power, then the case for converting from AC to DC at a building scale rather than an appliance scale is compelling.

All the debate about whether open offices are a silver bullet or the absolute worst seems to be working its way towards a compromise: keep the open plan but incorporate quiet, private spaces for people to use when they need them. 

The open layout has some strong environmental plus sides: fewer walls mean simpler air handling systems, lighter material use, and less construction waste. Open plans also allow more daylight to reach the interior, which reduces lighting and cooling loads.

In the 1990s, carpet was king in commercial construction. But it wasn’t a benevolent dictator: back then, it came with outrageous indoor emissions, had no recycled content, and typically became trash after a couple years of wear. The carpet industry has spent the decades since then reinventing itself. But it looks like regime change is coming.

While Interface was preparing to declare its Mission Zero accomplished, a new player began elbowing its way into the flooring industry. Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) has been cannibalizing vinyl composition tile (VCT) and sheet vinyl for market share over the last few years. More recently, it’s been making swift inroads into carpet’s longtime dominance. In response, all the major carpet manufacturers (even the last holdout, Interface) are now rolling out their own LVT lines.