Inventors Digest: The Green House Effect

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Source: inventorsdigest.com,

Charles Szoradi is changing the world one house at a time. As an architect and leading authority on eco-friendly, smart-home design, he believes innovation is one of the keys to Earth’s salvation.

He’s a chip off the block. His father, who escaped Hungary when Soviet tanks rolled in during the 1956 uprising, was a “green” architect before the term entered the lexicon.

Szoradi may have roots in the Old World. But his life’s mission is decidedly new school. The Philadelphia-area designer has spent the past two decades developing expertise in building and remodeling self-sustaining, high-performance, energy-efficient houses. And he celebrates those who do the same.

His Web site, www.GreenandSave.com, features a rotating cast of about a half-dozen inventors who are adding to the catalog of planet-smart materials and technologies.

“There’s so much innovation going on in this whole medium, it’s crazy not to stay ahead of it,” he says, the words spilling like LEGO bricks from a box. The presence of inventors on his site “was a catalyst from the very beginning,” he quickly adds. “To have people up-to-date on what’s available – that’s what’s exciting about this whole movement.”

Inventor products on his site include:
• The solar powered flashlight/radio, available in stores.
• The pear light. It’s a series of hand- held lights hanging from a steel tree. Each pear contains 10 ultra-bright white LEDs, an autonomous charging circuit and rare-earth magnets that allow them to be “picked” and remain fully illuminated for more than an hour.
• The reusable water bottle with a filter built into the cap. It’s designed to reduce cost, as well as the scourge of discarded plastic water bottles littering the landscape.

Szoradi is among those who see the surging smart-home frontier offering entrepreneurial opportunities similar to those of the 20-year information technology boom.

Americans spent some $306 billion last year on professional home remodeling, according to the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies and the U.S. Census Bureau. Increasingly, those remodels are taking advantage of new and green materials and techniques.

Home builders, college dormitories and even the Army are getting in on the green act.

Last year’s Modern Marvels Invent Now grand prize winner was the inventor of environmentally friendly building materials. Michael Sykes of Wake Forest, N.C., earned top honors with his Enertia Building System. It replaces conventional house-wall construction with simple screwed-into-place panels that store solar energy. The result: a house of renewable material that heats and cools itself with free, natural clean energy.

Szoradi, who has a patent on an interlocking construction panel system he invented in the ’90s, says the market is wide open.

“For an inventor, it’s like when someone just invented the light bulb,” he says. “Now you have to build a whole bunch of different lamps. There’s plenty of room for innovation.” Szoradi’s House

Over the past few years, Szoradi and his wife, Cynthia, transformed their own 1950s house in Pennsylvania into a smart-home showcase. He added a two-story wing to the former humble ranch house and plowed more than 50 green design elements into the restored dwelling – a home that saves money and the planet.

“The idea is not to build from scratch,” he says. “Most of us don’t have the resources.”

He blends idealistic zeal for saving Momma Earth with an accountant’s eye on the bottom line.

“It’s not about the polar bears,” he says. “It’s about next month’s utility bills.”

In resurrecting his own house as a model for smart-home sustainability, he says he wanted to use everything he could think of.

That includes radiant floor heating. The system carries solar-heated water from the roof to a super-sized insulated basement tank and then uses flexible plastic tubing that runs serpentine beneath the tile floors. That toasts rooms instead of heated air blowing in from vents.

It’s an efficient and cost-effective way to heat a home. Szoradi also designed a companion rooftop solar photovoltaic panel system to power the pumps and fuel the electrical demand for the rest of the house.

Other green elements include bamboo and cork floors. Wooden planks lining some rooms were re-used from the original house.

$$$ Down the Drain

At first look, the cost required to save money might be deceptive. It could lead to a feeling of “why do it?” from inventors and homeowners alike.

“People,” Szoradi acknowledges, “think with their wallet.”

But he lists the benefits. Installing energy-efficient replacement light fixtures can cost $180, with annual savings totaling only $40. But wait. The savings over 10 years equals $400.

Installing a solar attic fan looks expensive at $500 a pop, with an annual savings of just $200. Why do it?

Because over 10 years, that $200 becomes $2,000, and you also have extended the life of your roof.

Excess moisture trapped in your attic can increase rust, bacteria and mold. That impacts the environment and respiratory health. Proper attic ventilation also reduces the energy used by your air-conditioning system. We’re talking thousands, not hundreds, of dollars over time. And you just might live longer – cleaner air is healthier.

“We don’t need a lot of stuff,” Szoradi says. “We need a few good things.”

One thing Szoradi speaks candidly about is not usually spoken of at all in polite society: the toilet. In this case, a dual-flush toilet. It uses less water for liquids and more for solids.

“Up to 20,000 gallons of water a year can be saved by a family with four or five kids,” Szoradi says. He cites the drought in the Southeast as a reason for urgency in getting a handle on wasteful flushes.

“We got a little behind Japan and Europe because we have so much in this country,” he says. Those countries already employ the use of the dual flusher and other utility-saving technologies such as on-demand hot water heaters.

Green Dorms

Green-home techniques are also finding their ways into communal living quarters.

Architect Frank Harmon designed the Smart Home at Duke University in Durham, N.C. The student dorm, with corporate backing from Home Depot, opened in January.

Harmon used “the chimney effect,” a technique employed for centuries in the Middle East. When windows on the bottom and top floors are open, warm air rises and exits while the cooler air is circulated, thus creating passive thermal cooling on hot days.

College students across the country are requesting eco-friendly dormitories. Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., used recycled modular steel in its dorms. Many other campuses are using cross-ventilation, solar power and storm-water recycling.

(The U.S. military also is going green. McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix in central New Jersey are installing eco-friendly, air-source heat pump heating and cooling systems in 2,000 housing units. The Acadia systems cut heating and cooling costs by as much as 70 percent, according to Bangor, Maine-based maker Hallowell International. The system won an innovation award last year at the Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Expo.)

Energy Star-certified appliances such as refrigerators, washer/dryers and microwave ovens dot Duke’s green dorm. In handicap-accessible bathrooms, showers use hot water generated from the solar panel system on the roof.

David Clough, Georgia home builder and outgoing president of the Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association, nearly rhapsodizes when it comes to Energy Star, a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment by promoting superior energy-efficient appliances.

Clough builds green homes and non-green homes. He estimates a green home costs about $5,000 more than a standard home. But the payoff down the road is worth it.

For example, programmable thermostats offer savings, comfort and convenience. A programmable thermostat costs $85-$125 and can save $100-$300 per household per year on heating and cooling costs.

When asked why he replaced his own heating system with a more eco-friendly model and why he is a green home builder when green homes are more intensive and expensive to build, Clough hesitates a moment.

“I believe,” Clough says, “it’s the right thing to do.”

View full article by Alison Jacques.

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