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Demand Drives Home Green Technology
Solatube Tubular technology is a dome that installs on the roof and uses reflective surfaces to guide daylight inside, even at a 90-degree angle, something a traditional skylight cannot do.
(AP)
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"It doesn't look as clunky," Mechielsen said.
Applications for residential use are expected to become available as early as next year, experts say.
Sometimes the most efficient energy reductions don't come through technological wizardry. As much as 25 percent of heating and cooling costs are the result of heat loss, as air moves in and out of a house through holes, improperly sealed windows and insufficient insulation.
"If you're looking at a home as a system you can start to address low-hanging fruit that aren't the sexy solar panels on the roof, but are things like tightening up the house," said David Johnston, co-author of "Green From The Ground Up."
One product increasingly used in residential building and renovation projects is closed cell polyurethane foam insulation, which is sprayed between walls or in the attic and expands to cover small cracks and other openings through which heat can escape.
Traditional insulation products can be inefficient or harmful to the environment. Other green options include insulation sprays made of denim or Cel-Pak, which is made of recycled newspapers.
"It's the first and most cost-effective thing (homeowners) can do," Johnston said. "Most people don't even know they can do that, they just want to put more pink stuff in the attic."
Another no-brainer is replacing incandescent light bulbs with more efficient options. LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, remain the latest in efficient lighting technology, but many experts continue to favor compact-fluorescent lights as a better alternative, saying the LEDs remain too expensive by comparison.
Another criticism is there aren't many options in terms of light fixtures that work with LEDs. Johnston said that's beginning to change and he expects prices on LEDs to fall dramatically as a result.
Another option for lighting is designed to bring in more natural light without having to go through the expense of building a full skylight.
Solatube International of Vista, Calif., offers a dome-shaped product that installs on the roof and uses reflectors to bend light up to 90 degrees into the house.
"It literally pushes light into an interior space," Beatty said. "It looks like you're looking outside at the sky."
