Polar Insulation Foam Panel Products

Separately regulating temperatures in different rooms within a single heating zone has long been difficult. Louvers on the radiators generally prove ineffective. Along with causing overheating, the inability to provide precise zone control can also waste a lot of energy—for example, where there are little-used rooms that can be closed off and don’t need to be kept as warm as occupied spaces. The specialty heating component supplier EnerJee, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, offers an elegant solution to this problem. Their No. 320 liquid-filled, thermostatically controlled, 3-way by-pass valve allows hot water to be shunted past a section of fin-tube baseboard radiator through a parallel section of pipe when less heat is called for.

The quick-response thermostat is nonelectric and requires no wiring. It features stepless temperature settings of 1 to 5—representing a range of 43°F (6°C) to 79°F (26°C)—and can be used with most new or existing fin-tube baseboard installations. The thermostatic valve has a list price of $60. Installation also involves plumbing in a section of

Concrete forms made of fabric? Is this for real? Yes, it is. And this innovation provides a great example of a product that not only has environmental advantages but also may perform better and cost less than the conventional product it replaces.

Looking a bit like an oversized computer tower, the Model 330 Capstone MicroTurbine™ is paving the way for cost-effective cogeneration in commercial and industrial buildings. While state-of-the-art power plants can achieve a conversion rate for source energy to electricity as high as 55%, most power plants achieve net efficiencies of only 30–35%. Cogeneration—also referred to as

combined heat and power or CHP—can dramatically boost the overall efficiency of energy production from fossil fuels by using the otherwise-wasted thermal energy. Until recently, cogeneration has been greatly restricted because the places we can use waste heat (buildings and industrial facilities) are usually quite far removed from where it is generated (at the power plant).

Ecowork by Studio eg

Just as common window screening keeps airborne pests out of buildings, Termi-Mesh keeps out subterranean termites. But that is where the analogy ends. If you are going to bury a screen underground, build walls on top of it, wrap it tightly around pipes, make it “chew-proof” to insects that are known to destroy cable jackets and light-gauge sheet metal, and keep all these attributes for at least 20 years, you need Termi-Mesh. It’s made of marine-grade 316 stainless steel in a screen with squares just under a millimeter, less than the cross-sectional dimension of the head of the smallest termites. Termi-Mesh is used to wrap the foundation perimeter and at any and all at-grade and below-grade penetrations of the foundation and the slab, if there is one. Stainless steel clamps are used to secure the flexible mesh to penetrations, and a special bonding cement is used to “parge” the mesh onto concrete surfaces.

In what is potentially one of the most far-reaching developments in light-frame construction in the last decade, Louisiana-Pacific, Osmose, and U.S. Borax have introduced the SmartGuard family of borate-treated wood products for home building. The products were rolled out on April 4 in response to the growing threat from termites throughout much of the U.S., especially Formosan termites (see Safer Pest Control: Management of Wood-Destroying Insects).

It has long been believed in the design profession that, for indoor settings, fluorescent lighting made the most sense for low ceilings—below about 15 or 20 feet (4.5 m to 6 m)—and high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting was the best choice for higher ceilings (high-bay applications). No longer. New developments with fluorescent lighting, especially high-output T-5 lamps and specially designed high-bay fluorescent fixtures, give fluorescents the upper hand almost without exception.

According to energy consultant Jim Rogers, P.E., of Chelmsford, Massachusetts (who co-authored the recent report “New High-Intensity Fluorescent Lights Outshine Their HID Competitors” for E Source, of Boulder, Colorado), there are now at least 14 fixture manufacturers producing high-bay fixtures for long twin-tube or straight-tube T-5 lamps. (The T-5 designation means that the lamps are 5⁄8” [16 mm] in diameter.) These fixtures pack a lot of these very bright lamps (typically four to eight) into a relatively small luminaire with high-efficiency reflectors that deliver almost all of the light output downward.

Matrix PAAC, LP (formerly Hebel Southeast), makers of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) block, have introduced the AAC-2.5LT. The AAC-2.5LT has the same dimensions as the standard 2.5, but is 23% less dense. Even though the block is light enough to reduce shipping costs on a full load, it is still suitable for structural use. Matrix PAAC suggests in the press release for the AAC-2.5LT that it “may require” the use of recommended AAC fasteners for installation, rather than drywall screws or nails, as sometimes used with the standard 2.5. Chuck Gerber, Marketing Manager of Matrix, indicated that wherever possible Matrix was encouraging the use of AAC fasteners with all their products, but that the lower density of the 2.5LT slightly increased the risk of pull-outs or other damage. The Matrix 2.5LT outperforms the standard AAC-2.5 in insulating values (R-11.5 [RSI-2] as opposed to R-9.65 [RSI-1.7] for an 8”-thick [20 cm] finished wall). The AAC-2.5LT now competes favorably with the similar YTONG® AC2 (Ytong’s standard block). Ytong’s technical binder indicates that a static R-value of 11.5 [RSI-2] has been calculated for the AC2, but elsewhere in promotional literature and on their Web site they persist with often misleading claims of R-20 [RSI-3.5] “effective R-value” ratings for the same block.

– RF

“Exciting transformers” might seem like an oxymoron, but Honeywell has one for you—the new dry-type, ultra-low-loss TranStar™. The iron or steel core in conventional transformers has been replaced in the TranStar by a highly efficient MetGlas® amorphous metal core.

The TranStar is currently the only dry-type transformer using amorphous metal technology. Because transformers are so widely used in commercial buildings, and used for such long hours, even small gains in efficiency result in significant electricity savings and commensurate environmental benefits. In a typical application, the Honeywell TranStar could save around $3,500 per year—at 7.5¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh)—over a standard transformer.