Tips

Air Purification from Honeywell

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Image borrowed from www.filtration.com

Honeywell’s AirBRIGHT is a 24-V UV air purifier that installs within HVAC ductwork.  According to Honeywell, the system will remove potentially harmful viruses and bacteria from the air as well as eliminating odors from cooking and pets.

For germaphobes such as myself, this is just the ticket.  This is a whole house system that has a similar effect to the Arcalux HRMS disinfecting fluorescent fixture discussed in a previous post here.

The AirBRIGHT system can be installed in existing ductwork.  If this is something that interests you, we can put you in touch with qualified installers.

Remote Control Shades & Blinds

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Pella has introduced their new SmartSync technology that allows remote control access to raise and lower blinds.  This works with the integrated blinds and shades  in Pella’s Designer Series of windows and doors.

Not only does this let you adjust the shades without getting out of your chair, but it can be tied into your home or business automation system through web-enabled devices like computers and smart phones.

This is the first step to using your window shades to help control your environment.  For example, the west facing windows shades you opened in the morning to let light in might soon detect the movement of the sun and automatically close to reflect that excess heat in the summer or vice versa, open when the sun hits them in the winter to pick up that passive heat.  (Pretty cool even if it doesn’t qualify as Green That Saves Green.)  Likewise for security, if you normally close the blinds when you’re gone to keep out prying eyes, you’ll be able to check them and close them from your smartphone or work computer.  No more wondering if you remembered to close them before you left.

3D Printing for Construction

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Image borrowed from coopernundrums.com

It looks like some more Star Trek tech is coming to life.  Remember the replicators?  Apparently it could replicate anything, but Captain Picard was constantly wasting it in, “Tea.  Earl Grey.  Hot.”  It was mainly shown synthesizing food, though occasionally Geordi used it to replace a part.

Now 3D printers have come to life and according to a recent article in ENR, we’ll soon be seeing 3D printers set up on sites creating structures, layer by layer…  This may lead to some design changes.  3D printers prefer curves.

 

Image borrowed from enr.construction.com

The interesting tie here is that NASA is considering using them on the Moon and Mars.  The plan is to use them to build landing bases out of materials gathered from the surface.  I think we should let NASA figure it out first, but  the time is coming when you’ll call the construction company to come and “print” your new building.

Heated Granite Countertops

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Image borrowed from FeelsWarm

Granite countertops remain one of the coveted kitchen upgrades.  Unfortunately, along with the beautiful colors of natural stone comes the perception of cold.  The mass of the stone acts as a heat sink so even when the stone is at room temperature, it feels cold to the touch.  With our new emphasis on energy conservation, more and more people are using setback thermostats.  While the new high efficiency forced air furnaces bring the air temperature up fairly quickly, the thermal mass of the stone is affected much more slowly.

This has been a problem for years with tile floors and it has been addressed by installing electric or hydronic heating elements in the grout beneath the tile.  If you haven’t experienced this, you’ve missed out.  Stepping onto a cold bathroom floor in the morning can be a bit shocking.  Stepping onto a warm tile floor is wonderful.  If your feet are warm, the rest of you feels warm.

FeelsWarm undercounter installation

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Telkonet Thermostat

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Telkonet Thermostat Image borrowed from www.eregrinegroup.com

Check out the Telkonet thermostat.  I’ve previously written about the Nest thermostat and the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat.  Telkonet claims to take it another step further.  Not only is their thermostat programmable, accessible from the Internet and “smart”, but it can calculate roof comfort by aggregating data like time-of-day, solar load, brightness, humidity and occupancy patterns.  It’s Ecoinsight feature determines when a space is occupied or vacant and reverts to preset temperature limits.  Check it out at their site here.

The Ecoinsight thermostat is more for commercial applications than the other two.  While it has Internet connectivity, it may require special networking in order to access it.  This is more efficient where you have multiple installations.

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