This issue has a heavy focus on products, inspired by a rather grueling three-day traverse of the NAHB Builder’s Show this past January in Dallas. Some of the products reviewed are items that caught our attention at this massive show—some 11⁄2 acres of exhibit space. Others, such as the Waterless Urinal® (see Big Savings from Waterless Urinal... Read more

After seeing the torchiere review in your November issue (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 10), I confess to cringing slightly when I saw the problems you had with the torchiere [from Energy Federation Inc.]. You were shipped one of the first production units, before we had even assembled some demo units for our lobby.

by the Rocky Mountain Institute, produced by CREST. Version 1.0, November 1997, Windows™ and Macintosh™ compatible. Available for $7 plus $3 shipping and handling from: Rocky Mountain Institute, 1739 Snowmass Creek Road, Snowmass, CO 81654-9199; 970/927-3851, 970/927-4178 (fax), www.rmi.org.

Green Development:... Read more

We saw several new developments with

horizontal-axis clothes washers at the NAHB Builders Show in Dallas this January. Maytag displayed its Neptune stacking washer, which actually won’t be available until mid-year. Linda Eggers told

EBN that the company is having trouble keeping up with the tremendous demand for their non-... Read more

The first load-bearing straw-bale home in the State of Washington is now offered as the prize of an essay contest by Michael and Spring Thomas of the IronStraw Group. The home, which has been monitored by Habitat for Humanity International for their research on affordable, straw-bale houses, consists of two structures situated on a seven-acre... Read more

Through highly effective network marketing, Alpine Industries has created an army of poorly informed distributors, some of whom show up at various green building shows around the country displaying their so-called air-purification machines. These machines reputedly remove indoor pollutants by generating ions and ozone. In 1995 the Federal Trade... Read more

Soy-based adhesives are here. Adhesives made from soybean oil have been approved by the Western Wood Products Association for use in finger-jointing operations at the Willamina Lumber Company in Willamina, Oregon. In the Willamina finger-jointing process, hydrolyzed soy protein is applied to one side of the joint and conventional phenol... Read more

Vol. 6, No. 10), we reported that K&M Bamboo Products, Inc. refused to provide details about their products. We have since received this communication from them, with documentation indicating that their products are indeed similar to most of the others in performance.Like the... Read more

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The first load-bearing straw-bale home in the State of Washington is now offered as the prize of an essay contest by Michael and Spring Thomas of the IronStraw Group. The home, which has been monitored by Habitat for Humanity International for their research on affordable, straw-bale houses, consists of two structures situated on a seven-acre... Read more

This house may not win any architectural design awards—its boxy, utilitarian design echoes the Yankee values personified by its designer—but the “Hanover House” is indeed ground-breaking. Designed for a middle-aged couple without children by mechanical engineer Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., of Meriden, New Hampshire, this residence has about the lowest... Read more

Long used in computer rooms, access floors are now finding their way into office buildings and other commercial space, where they can dramatically reduce renovation costs while saving energy and improving indoor air quality—especially when providing an underfloor plenum for conditioned air distribution.... Read more

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a recent

New York Times poll found that a majority of Americans believe that measures to alleviate climate change will actually help the economy and save money. This is in marked contrast to the message being delivered “by polluting energy industries and their puppets in... Read more

Thank you for recognizing the GFX drain water heat recovery system in “Recovering Heat from Wastewater” (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 8). As stated in your article, this exciting new product has the potential to improve the hot water delivery performance of domestic water heaters while reducing costs and energy use. This potential has been confirmed... Read more

The design firm Conger Fuller Architects of Aspen, Colorado has taken a unique approach to addressing resource consumption of its residential building projects. At the end of 1997 the company donated enough money to the Oregon Forest Resources Trust to replenish 6.5 acres of trees—the amount they calculated were used to build the houses they... Read more

Louisiana-Pacific Corp. has sold its Fiberbond gypsum panel product to USG, and has put a number of other divisions, including Nature Guard Roofing Shakes, on the auction block. These sales are part of a large-scale restructuring initiative intended to focus the company more strongly on building products with a national market, according to... Read more

The widely used plasticizer DEHP (di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) might be causing asthma, according to a recent study by Norwegian and Danish scientists published in the September 1997 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives. DEHP is used extensively as a plasticizer in PVC building products. Vinyl sheet flooring, for example, contains... Read more