Green Payback

By now most of you have figured, that I am somewhat passionate about lighting design, green technologies, induction, LED and in general spending money wisely for renovations.

When I look especially at Green, I understand people need to see a return on their investment for the higher initial price, especially now. If you search the three plus years of posts, you will read plenty of examples.

Here are a few more examples of how you can save money in your office or home.

Water

We now have our own camelbak water containers and have eliminated bottled water throughout the company. Payback to the environment is immediate as 104 people have stopped throwing away water cups on a daily basis. Payback to the company by eliminating cups and bottled water totals over $20,000.

Light

We are in midst of converting the showroom to all LED and compact fluorescent inside and outside. Ongoing savings $60-70,000 (at least)..Then again, we have 3500 lights on display.

Galley Green

We will be featuring respected local designers, builders and projects, which may help you in designing your own space....This is a good one.

If you had a galley kitchen 20 years ago, you were either forced to spend a ton of dough on a professional fridge or relegated to buy regular-depth non-matching products.

Most of us have standard refrigerators, but in a galley, this is an issue of space. You have to walk around the fridge to access the rest of your kitchen (if you have an old galley, your refrigerator is in the back right corner).

As Melissa Hammond of Hammond Design (plug intended and deserved) shows us:

• Refrigerator is shallow, so there is plenty of room

• Bosch matching suite...buying one brand homogenizes the handles, so all units look identical

But wait there is more on the lighting side

• The undercounter lights are LED, so they use about 5 watts each and have a 20 year life

• The overhead is color rendering CFLs, so the total kitchen has an equivalent of less than 30 total watts

• On the right a pass through was designed to allow natural lighting during the day and allow for easy serving to the eating area

• Cabinets are locally sourced....Thus finalizing a Green kitchen

Kitchen is affordable and state of the art efficient.

That's how its done.....nice work.

Climate Change

Pat tells me its Blog Action Day. Climate change is this years topic. The Yale Blog was inspired by a Canadien who said we could all clean up our world one corner at a time. Green was the most popular topic of the day with the Inconvenient Truth and other byproducts of an overheated world.

As I have spent 3 years researching and 2.5 blogging, we can effectively lower our power consumption and affect climate change at the same time. It really isn't hard, and yes you will pay more initially, but you will have an almost immediate payback.

Change a world, change a bulb:



In a previous post, I showed a whopping $100 savings per month by using LED bulbs. You probably are not going to spend that kind of dough, so buy compact fluorescents. 60% more efficiency, 10 times the life and 2/3 less heat than an incandescent. Buy it at 2700 degree Kelvins, so the light will be similar to an incandescent.

They don't make them like they used to....thank heavens.



Your 20 year old refrigerator in the basement is costing you $200-250 per year to operate. Your old top load washer has 50% less capacity and is costing between $100-150 a year more to operate than a front loader....These things aren't antiques and have increasing value.

Its simple. Conserve, but use better technology. We use less power, less electricity, less resources...better climate.

The ROI of Green

People will not buy Green products unless there is an immediate return on investment...especially now. Ironically, that was the topic of last nights presentation. LED, compact fluorescent, refrigerators, laundry and induction are covered.

The Future is in November

We have been posting about LED(light emitting diodes) for almost a year. LED is the greenest lighting available and is 7 to 10 times more efficient than incandescent. The bulb itself will last 30 times longer than an incandescent.

Because it is a new technology, LED has been scarce and expensive. One company, CREE, seems to be way ahead in color rendering and their chips seem to be in high demand.

Over the past year, more consumer products are becoming available. Tech Lighting, the best track and pendant manufacturer, will have LED pendants and track available in November...

A sample:

The Green Kitchen....Final

Lets return to this new Green Kitchen. First, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the construction lagging on for 484 days. Actually the duration for us was less than 6 weeks. For review this kitchen is totally sustainable from the bamboo floors and pendants to the marble.

Have a look(again)...This time look at the lighting in particular



Now guess how many watts...I threw in my whole lighting presentation from Innovation 08 for no extra charge. The actual Green Part is only the first few slides



Total wattage is 240 watts....Incandescent equivalent is 1342.

Remember:

Bulb replacement: Incandescent 7 months, fluorescent 7 years, LED 20 years.

Heat output: Incandescent 300 degrees, Fluorescent 100 degrees, LED zero heat.

Eco Yale

Part of being a truly Green company is eliminating toxic cleaners and cleaning solutions. We have effectively accomplished this as well as buying more recycled paper, cups etc.

The one problem is stainless cleaner. Stainless is tough to keep looking clean. Traditional cleaners cannot maintain stainless without streaking, but stainless cleaners tend to have a lab full of chemicals.

After much research, we found a totally Green stainless cleaner...now known as Yale Eco Clean. It is actually 40 wipes and prevents staining and corrosion.