Now, Solmetric Corporation has digitalized this process with its SunEye—a sophisticated, easy-to-use tool for measuring solar shading and calculating monthly and annual solar access. The SunEye includes a built-in digital camera with a fisheye lens. A user holds the SunEye or mounts it on a tripod, keeping it level using a built-in bubble-level and orienting it to the south using the built-in compass, then clicks to take a photo. The heart of the system is a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ processor that captures and computes the digital image data.

A straightforward interface allows the user to calculate the percentage of solar access, graphically showing the obstructions by time of day and month, and to simulate removal of the solar obstructions by erasing those areas on the digital image—to show the effect of cutting down a tree, for example. Digital files can be processed in the field or uploaded to a Windows computer (Macintosh interface not yet available) for review and printing.

When cars crawl through traditional parking garages, they burn gas and spew fumes that have to be exhausted. Effectively exhausting the fumes requires high-power fans running continuously. If the garage isn’t perfectly isolated from the occupied spaces above, or if mechanical equipment and ductwork is leaky, those fumes can pollute the indoor air.

The company claims to have over 90 successful installations, mostly in Europe, and more recently in New York City. It plans to roll out availability nationwide during 2007 and 2008. Not everyone will agree that replacing parking attendants with a machine is good for society, but if AutoMotion helps improve both indoor and outdoor air quality in cities while saving energy and supporting urban infill developments, it may be worth considering.

With the durability and moisture-resistance advantages of cement and a carbon footprint closer to that of gypsum, Green E-Board panels are an intriguing new option for tile backerboard, wallboard, and potentially even exterior sheathing. The panels are manufactured from magnesium oxide (MgO) cement (also known as oxychloride cement), which is produced at much lower temperatures than portland cement, thus requiring less energy. The panels are imported from China, where the use of MgO cement is common, but the importer is exploring the potential for a domestic production facility.

In addition to MgO, which makes up about 40% of the product, Green E-Board contains magnesium chloride, aluminum sulfate, calcium carbonate (chalk), sawdust, a surface mesh made of fiberglass on one side, and a non-woven polymer scrim on the other. MgO is either mined as magnesite or extracted from seawater or brine. The 3⁄8” or 1⁄2” (9 mm or 12 mm) panels are much stronger than gypsum wallboard and highly moisture resistant. In fact, it was after cleaning up tons of moldy gypsum mush after hurricane damage in 2002 that Florida developer David Ederer began pursuing alternative wallboard materials and came across panels made from MgO. He considered using a panel developed by George Swanson in Austin, Texas, but was concerned that the product development hadn’t matured to a point where it could provide consistent quality. He then brought MgO cement technology to the attention of Rodrigo Vera of Southern Cross Building Products in Boynton Beach, Florida, who arranged to have it manufactured in China.

Vol. 15, No. 7.) LSG’s line of LED lighting products (see table below) incorporates the company’s proprietary Optimized Digital Lighting (ODL) technology. The R30 lamp, according to the company, is the first fully dimming (down to 15%) LED lamp with light output high enough to be practical for general illumination.

LSG chairman and CEO Ron Lusk said his company is developing a full suite of products to replace incandescent lamps without requiring fixture retrofits. Beyond that, he has his sights set on replacing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). “We’re clearly heading to the elimination of both incandescent and fluorescent [lamps],” he told

In conventional CFLs, a

hot cathode made of tungsten wire coated with barium carbonate emits electrons, which pass through mercury vapor and generate ultraviolet light. It doesn’t take much energy to release these electrons, according to Steve Johnson, Ph.D., former head of the Lighting Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory (LBNL) and currently a guest scientist there, but the lamp takes a minute or two to reach full brightness, and the cathode wears out after about 8,000 to 10,000 hours of use.

“It is a breakthrough,” said DeVenzio, “something that people have been looking to or thinking about for some years, at least as long as treated wood has been questioned by critics.” One of the oldest wood preservatives, creosote, is organic but oilborne, not waterborne, and is carcinogenic. Biocides like those in Wolmanized L3 have more recently been used as wood preservatives, particularly in New Zealand, but with key differences. Those formulations, often called light organic solvent preservatives (LOSPs), have been solventborne, causing use exposure concerns. They have also not been very durable and have been favored in applications such as millwork, where the wood is painted and benefits from the treatment’s dimensional stability (see

EBN

Timbron’s recycled content has been certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) as 75% post-consumer and 15% pre-consumer. Since its inception, Timbron has partnered with industrial facilities that produce large supplies of waste polystyrene—most of which is packaging, qualifying as “post-consumer” because the businesses that supply it are the intended end-users. Timbron provides the businesses with a densifier to compact the waste and transports the material to its California facility. In addition to expanded polystyrene (EPS), the company collects general-purpose polystyrene (GPPS, the clear plastic used in CD cases) and high-impact polystyrene (HIPs, a ubiquitous material used for everything from radio knobs to clear-plastic drinking cups).

The company, which has recycled more than 40 million pounds (18 million kg) of waste plastic since 2000, plans on recycling 12 million pounds (5.4 million kg) of polystyrene this year. It is currently exploring ways to incorporate household-generated EPS waste.  “We try to walk our talk,” Timbron’s environmental stewardship representative, Heather Gadonniex, told

The LightLouver units look a bit like shiny dampers, but the louvers themselves are fixed, not operable. The units are not designed to go into windows that provide a view, because the louvers would block that view. Instead, they are installed, like lightshelves, on daylight glazing high on a wall. The units pivot inward so that the glass and the louvers can be cleaned, but the finish on the louvers is delicate and oils from skin would attract dirt, so they should be handled only with cotton gloves. The company is working on a new product—insulated glazing units with integrated LightLouvers—in which the delicate reflective surfaces would be protected from dust and damage.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” said Bowie Neumayer, Cardinal’s national sales and marketing manager, touting a solar heat gain coefficient as low as many tinted low-e glazings while the visible light transmittance is nearly as high as the company’s widely used LoE

2 product (see table below). These values are similar to those of several new commercial glazing products, such as PPG’s Solarban® 70XL and Viracon’s Solarscreen™ VRE-67.

As a fabric wallcovering that is cost-competitive with high-end vinyl wallcoverings, 180 Walls could be especially effective in cooling climates like Florida’s. In those climates hot, humid outside air can condense and become trapped against the back of impervious wallcoverings like vinyl that are cooled by indoor air conditioning. With a perm rating of 25 (1,400 ng/Pa·sec·m2), 180 Walls allows enough moisture to pass through to minimize the risk of mold growth. The addition of zinc pyrithione to the adhesive backing further discourages mold. Both this antimicrobial aid and Milliken’s proprietary StainSmart® finish on the fabric were screened for environmental and toxicity concerns and found safe enough for 180 Walls to be rated Silver in McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s Cradle-to-Cradle program. As further evidence of the product’s sustainability, all 180 Walls fabrics are manufactured at Milliken’s ISO 14001-certified facilities.

The water-based emulsion polymer adhesive on the back of 180 Walls is guaranteed for at least five years, and the company claims it will hold much longer when installed properly on primed drywall. This integral adhesive makes it feasible to install the product in occupied spaces with minimal disruption. It can also be easily removed for repair or replacement without damaging the fabric or leaving a residue on the wall surface. “What I love about it is that there is not much mess, and minimal tools are required,” reported Robert Ross of Wallcoverings Limited in Greenville, South Carolina. Milliken’s claim to 180 Walls’ minimal indoor emissions is supported by a third-party certification under the stringent Greenguard Children and Schools standard (see