Parans: fiber-optic solar lighting

Saw a blurb in dwell magazine about Parans lighting. It uses a solar collector on the outside of the building which conveys the sunlight through fiber-optic cables to various fixtures. Some of the fixtures also include fluorescents to provide lighting when there’s no sun, and vary according to the amount of natural light available.

I like the idea of using natural light, both for health reasons and to reduce energy costs. I’ve seen daylight fixtures that use mirrors such as Solatube before, but the cabling thing looks interesting and more flexible.

Anyone have experience with daylight fixtures of any sort?

Energy rebate programs

I received a notice in this month’s bill from my gas company about rebates for insulation, HE gas furnaces, tankless water heaters, HE washing machines, etc. and am wondering how this works for a new build. Would you really get a bunch of money back simply for putting new insulation in, or is it only for replacing old stuff? Well, the PDF application form has a spot for checking if it’s a new build or existing building, so it must be for new builds, too. Seems there’s quite a few rebates for my state, but many of them are for the west side. Hmmm. Here’s another page from my power company.

I know much of this will change in a few years, but I want to get an idea of what is available.

Geothermal heat pump info

Found this site from a poster at Green Building Talk. I’m beginning to understand some of the geothermal options. For some reason I thought you could only use geothermal to run through radiant heat flooring but you can actually use it just like a regular air-to-air heat pump…so it’s basically just sourcing the energy from a different place but using ductwork inside your house that blows air around, just like a gas furnace would (and seems gas could be the backup source). This makes a lot more sense to me. Hmmm. 

Tankless hot water heaters and a couple new forums…

I read this post about tankless hot water heaters on houseblogs.net this afternoon. We have natural gas in this house (which I’ve never had before) and was hoping to avoid it in the new build as I’ve heard it can be associated with problems for asthmatics, but it seems the gas heaters are better than electric. Rinnai tankless heaters were recommended and we do have a nearby supplier/installer for them, according to the Rinnai website. They do not make electric ones. My hairdresser from this post has put in a tankless heater and plans to put little ones by the individual hairwashing stations. Two friends recently installed them heaters and love them, so we’re getting a lot of good feedback. I’m going to check with them whether they’re gas or electric.

Also found this forum called Green Building Talk, which I joined. Right now the amount of information is making my head spin…

Natural Home Magazine forums

I’ve read Natural Home Magazine for years and it is a continuing inspiration for me while I “dream green.” Recently they added forums. I am looking forward to connecting with like-minded folks and hopefully some people who have BTDT!

Low-flow Toilets

My parents installed these dual-flush Toto toilets several months ago. I remember the old-school low-flow toilets that you had to flush a million times just to get toilet paper down, but technology certainly has improved since those useless ones. They are on a well and septic system and, so anything that saves water is great for them, plus apparently the bowls are very smooth so they’re hard to stain, and the outside of the toilet has no nooks and crannies to get yucky, so overall they’re easy to clean. I like the dual-flush feature, the larger flush really makes a big difference and I’ve never had to double-flush either option (I did once, just to compare if the “#2″ really was any bigger of a flush. The toilet flushes so fast – like public restroom ones – that it’s hard to tell how long the flush is or how much water it uses).

Looks like Caroma toilets are another good option.