Most of the current green building measures focus on energy saving items like creating a tight envelope, using the recommended amount of wall and attic insulation, using salvaged and sustainable construction materials, and outfitting with Energy Star appliances. But is there more to it? Sure there is.

Consider Water Conservation

Lately there has been a great deal of concern over the availability of clean, potable water. It’s always an issue in third-world developing countries, but there’s the occasional fluster in the Western US over water rights. Other parts of the country have their own woes during droughts when water rationing takes effect. No car washing, no lawn watering, no vegetable garden action, etc.

Now the folks that make water delivery in the home both possible and attractive are getting into the green business.

John Fitzgerald, who is the Director of Marketing of the Chicago Faucet Company, puts it this way, “We regard sustainability as an opportunity to travel down new roads with our customers. Sustainability and social responsibility are closely interrelated and are important subjects for Chicago Faucets in thinking and acting in research and development and in production.”

Of course, we’ve had it up to here with low flow this and low flow that. It works well when shower heads have flow restricters installed, but toilets don’t make the grade unless they are properly designed or have some kind of turbo accelerator to take care of business.

In any event, look for your plumber to become a more caring, sensitive, politically correct person.

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Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to run!

Although there will be better times coming, this is the best time yet to build an energy efficient home. Well, from a green building practices standpoint anyhow, it not from a getting a construction loan standpoint. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.

Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are becoming more common in home building. It’s not only easy on the utility bills once the home is completed, it’s really an economical way to do the building.

SIPs are basically panel sandwiches made of OSB for the bread and rigid foam plastic insulation for the meat and cheese; plus pickles, if you wish.

So the panels are pre-engineered by an architect using using home design software and put together. They are assembled at the job site. This cuts down on the labor for construction (time), and waste to be hauled off to the land fill (scrap). The later is one of the tenets of green building practices accepted by LEED.

Now I must admit, if I was building a new home right now, I would go with ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms). But then again, I live here in hurricane land. That’s one of the drawbacks. Things like the possibility of hurricanes are the trade off for living somewhere where I can be involved in long distance running all year long without dressing like Jerimiah the mountain man.

So if you have a new house on the horizon, do yourself a favor and plan to lower your air conditioning and heating utility bills before they even hook up the meter. This advice is free!

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m always learning things. As a writer, I research. As a home improvement/remodeling freelance writer, I still learn things. Why? Three reasons, and plumbing with PEX flexible pipe is a prime example of the first one.

1. My strong background is carpentry, 80% commercial and 20% residential. So, the only exposure I’ve had in plumbing in general is what I’ve repaired in my own home, contract handyman work, and what I’ve observed on the job site.
2. The second reason I learn things through research is where I live. As an example, I live two miles from the bay (kayak fishing, yeah!) and at about one foot over sea level. Not much basement waterproofing to be done here! But I know it now, having eyeballed all I could and interviewed the owner of a basement waterproofing company.
3. The industry is always changing. New processes, new materials, and new green building innovations, such as residential power generation with a wind turbine.

But Let’s Talk about PEX

This stuff is incredible! It’s flexible (think easy installation), it won’t corrode like galvanized pipe, and the PEX connectors are easy to work with. Two of the three common connectors don’t require a plumbing license to work with.

And I know all you DIYers call a licensed plumber to make repairs on your home!

The background on the tubing material is very interesting. The idea was to formulate something that would configure the polymer chains in polyethelyne so that it wouldn’t go soft as the temperature rises. Expansion and contraction became less of a problem.

Sooo, I haven’t worked with PEX yet but I will the next time I have any repairs to make.

Bamboo is a Green, Sustainable Building Material

Bamboo is fast becoming one of the hottest green flooring materials. Why green? There are at least two reasons. First and foremost, it’s sustainable.

If you’ve ever had any in your backyard, you know how hard it is to contain. Even worse if you don’t want it, but it’s an under-the-fence gift from a neighbor!

Yes, I know there are non-spreading varieties. But the point is, compare the renew rate to hardwood. The second green building aspect of bamboo is that it’s a natural product.

Carpet usually has a lot of synthetics in it, and that means petrochemicals and gas-off issues. Formaldehyde may also be an ingredient. Yuck.

There’s a variety of choices for installing bamboo flooring. It requires a dry floor and a membrane or layer of felt. Other than that, it can be nailed, glued, or installed like floating laminate floors. There’s something for whatever kind of subfloor you have!

The Energy Star Label

I made a change on the site the other day. As the body of articles continues to grow, I’ve been stumbling over some articles that “kind of” fit into the electric article category, and “kind of” don’t.

The solution? I rolled out another category called Green Building & Energy Efficiency. I think about that energy thing every time I get my monthly electricity bill. Granted, it’s not as bad as some folks, but it makes me cringe anyway.

Even though prices at the gas pump have been dropping, the peak that they hit over the summer serves as a wake-up call if you ask me. Don’t be fooled; they will rise again. Speaking of pumping gas, here’s some tips:

• Buy gas early in the morning when the temperature is cooler. Gasoline is a volatile hydrocarbon. It’s also subject to the laws of physics. When it’s cool, it contracts. There’s more to a compact gallon, at least as far as the pump is concerned.
• Don’t buy gas when or soon after that big tanker truck is filling the underground tanks. There is always some junk in those tanks and filling them up stirs it up. You don’t need to put it in your tank.

Speaking of energy efficiency, I posted an article on spray foam insulation from soy beans. No, I’m not jesting you. It comes in both open-cell and closed-cell forms and it’s very efficient. What will they think of next?