Green Builder Media editor-in-chief Matt Power presents highlights from the annual Top 50 Sustainable Products list, explaining the selection criteria and focusing on the recycled-content and low-carbon innovations moving the green product market.
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Mike Collignon: It is National Rebuilding Month, and if you find yourself rebuilding anything, then you might want to utilize some of the award winning products you're about to discover. Wait, did someone say awards y. Yes. Yes I did, because Matt Power is here to unveil some of the annual top 50 sustainable, Sustainable products of the year from Greeneville to media.
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Mike Collignon: And he's especially going to focus on which innovations are helping in the CO2 reduction battle. And he's also going to give us a look at how the market for these green products is shifting. Now, in case you don't know him. Well, shame on you. Matt Power is the editor in chief of Greenville. The media, largely because of Matt that Green Builder magazine has been named Best Residential Trade Magazine eight consecutive years from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
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Mike Collignon: Matt has an award winning nearly three decade career reporting on innovation and sustainability in housing. He has a long history of asking hard questions and adding depth and context as he unfolds complex issues. Now helping us bestow these honors are today's webinar sponsors. First, we have gelled when and Jill Glen is a leading global manufacturer of windows, interior and exterior doors and wall systems gelled when delivers a differentiated customer experience, providing construction professionals with durable, energy efficient products and labor saving services that help them maximize productivity and create beautiful spaces for all to enjoy.
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Mike Collignon: The Gerald Win team is driven by innovation and committed to creating safe, sustainable environments for customers, associates and local communities. Trex is the world's largest manufacturer and leading brand of wood alternative decking and railing, and markets a comprehensive portfolio of high performance outdoor living products, consistently ranked as one of the industry's most sustainable brands. Trex was the first company to combine the durability of recycled plastic with the natural beauty of reclaimed wood in a composite decking product, and continues to lead the way in applying this proprietary technology to a wide variety of outdoor applications for low maintenance, luxurious outdoor living.
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Mike Collignon: And Westlake Royal Building Products is the North American leader in the innovation, design and production of a broad and diverse range of exterior and interior building products, including siding and accessories, trim and moldings, roofing, stone windows and outdoor living. For more than 50 years, Westlake Royal Building Products is manufactured high quality, low maintenance products to meet the specifications and needs of building professionals, homeowners, architects, engineers and distributors while providing stunning curb appeal with an unmatched array of colors, styles and accessories.
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Mike Collignon: For more information, please visit. Lake Royal. Building products now you're welcome to submit questions for our guest. Simply use the questions box on the right side of your screen. I'll review those questions and pose them to Matt during the Q&A time. Set aside after his presentation. And now the presenter of all Green Building Media lists, Matt Power.
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Matt Power: Hi everybody. I'm coming to you today from Florida. My permanent residence is up in Maine, but down here for a short visit and then heading back in a few days. So I'm experiencing the early summer heat and thinking about resilience and all the the hot climate topics down here. I wanted to start out by talking a little bit about a question that I get a lot about these green builders sustainable products is, you know, how do we pick them?
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Matt Power: What are they really just at the whim of the editors because they are editor selections. And I hope as we go through the presentation today, you'll see that we do actually put a lot of thought into which products should be selected based on current trends and on current environmental issues and problems, and we're really looking for products that solve problems or or products that are not greenwashing, but are actually sort of raising the bar and part of the solution of treading more lightly on the planet.
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Matt Power: And, you know, rolling back some of our excessive, you know, CO2 pollution, etc.. So that means said, here's some of the criteria that you that I'm going to be looking at as we go through my list of products. And I actually, I haven't just just FYI, have not include all 50. I think we're, we're up around 48 or 47.
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Matt Power: There were just a few that were, you know, they weren't what I'd call extreme green. They're certainly deserving of the award. But we just sort of. I was afraid we'd run out of time. So if you want the full list, you can always go to our website. And, you know, look at the digital magazine has the complete list of all the products that one.
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Matt Power: So if you look at my list here, there's a lot of different ways to say this, but we're really looking at resource consumption, right. So part of the embodied energy of any product is in the manufacture of it. Right. So it's the transportation of raw materials. It's the manufacture of those materials. But typically the largest part of many products of their footprint is what they call their ecological footprint happens after they land in someone's house.
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Matt Power: Right. So for its how that product uses energy. So like for a heating system, it might take a fairly large amount of energy to create the metal and the plastics and all of the materials to build a heat pump. But it's the, you know, 30 years that it's used in the house where that really counts in terms of that's probably about 90% of the impacts of that device.
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Matt Power: That's why it really matters how efficient a device is, because you're really trying to cut back on that end use. It's it's harder to cut back on the manufacturing side, although I would add that many of the manufacturers of these products you're going to see today are already taking steps to in their factories to get down to what we call net zero waste and net zero energy.
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Matt Power: So the way there that is by recycling, you know, all the scrap materials in their plants, many of them are actually installing their own renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind power, and using that to power the actual plant operation. So, you know, there is some some positive movement on the manufacturing side, but there is no there's no sort of free lunch product.
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Matt Power: I mean, all products consume some resources unless they're, you know, made with 100% renewable material and 100% renewable energy. It's very hard to make the claim that you aren't, you know, using some resources and thereby creating some pollution, so that that would be the sort of the Holy Grail is to get to the point where we could have a, a full circular economy of materials that were fully recycled, and some of these products are working their way up there, and they're certainly head and shoulders above their competitors.
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Matt Power: And I just put them through in at the end. This is where it says recyclable does not mean recycled. You see this term all the time. And this is probably one of the biggest greenwashing terms is like on anything made out of metal, they'll say this is fully recyclable. Well, as I'm going to get into in this presentation a little bit, there's not a lot of recycling going on.
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Matt Power: And in fact, the amount of material being recycled globally is shrinking, which is kind of distressing. So when something says recyclable, my line is that's not good enough. Recycled is different. Recycled is a much higher bar. So you know, let's let's hold manufacturers responsible and, you know, pass that on to them. A few years ago I created this pyramid.
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Matt Power: This is I called it the Green Building Pyramid. And it's actually been replicated and picked up by many, many like home builders use it and a lot of other publications. So just I'm not going to spend much time on it. I just want to explain what it is. So essentially I broke down, you know, what are the really big, important things about trying to build a energy efficient home?
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Matt Power: And if you start at the bottom, this is the stuff that has the biggest impact. But it's, you know, the lowest hanging fruit, like where you build it, what direction it faces and how big the house is. Unfortunately, a lot of homeowners tend to start at the top, right? So when people think about building green, they go, I'm going to get some solar panels and put some, you know, put some wind power on my house.
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Matt Power: Then I'll have a green house. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're big fans of renewable energy, but unless you do the stuff in the bottom layers of the pyramid, putting that solar may not have the impact that you hope or want. You know, if you've got a house that's real leaky and you put a bunch of heat pumps in it, they're still going to be working too hard to heat or cool that house, because you didn't do the due diligence part of the pyramid on the bottom.
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Matt Power: So this will be this presentation, by the way, will be available as a PDF. So if you want to look this over more closely later, or if you're building or you're thinking about remodeling, I suggest you look at the pyramid first and sort of check off the list and make sure that, you know, you've checked your your shell insulation and have you sealed all the openings.
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Matt Power: You know, even before you get to, you know, the little stuff like LED, LED lighting is not going to make a great deal of difference if your house is leaking like crazy. So work your way up the pyramid and I think you'll be happier with the end result. I also wanted to talk a little. Just just give an example of how products can actually solve problems.
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Matt Power: So this is just a weird one. For some reason I, I this had had this on in one of my folders. The statistic about you know, it sort of sums up American consumption. So this is how many rolls of toilet paper are used per person per year. And I think when I brought this up, I was Airbnb being out my place, and I couldn't figure out how my guests would use 11 or 12 rolls of toilet paper in three days.
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Matt Power: It just it just blew my mind. So I and then I went, oh, well, in the United States, there's an expectation of the use of a huge amount of toilet paper. Well, let me connect some dots for you. This article just came out in March. There was some research that, you know, how we keep hearing about PFAS in sludge.
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Matt Power: Well, in the state of Maine especially, they've had a large number of farms shut down. People are suing for, you know, various cancers related to for that they believe they caught while working on the farms. Turns out that what the farms have in common is that the sewage was used as a fertilizer on these farms. Now, what this research does, it says that the PFAS that are in that sewage are probably coming from toilet paper, which, you know, in the USA seems to have the largest PFA problem.
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Matt Power: We have the largest use of toilet paper, but there are product solutions for this. This is a simple problem that can can be solved by the right product. And that is a bidet. Now you're going to laugh because, you know, Americans, Americans have never embraced, you know, Europe. They use them all over the world except in the US.
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Matt Power: But it's the reason I bring it up is this is just one example. If you know, every American household adopted bidet use instead of using vast amounts of toilet paper, we might have no PFAS in our sewage anymore. So that's kind of an extreme example. But I wanted to show you. So this is how we think around here.
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Matt Power: We we say, what's the problem? But what's really the root cause of this problem? And is there a product or a system that might be an easy course correction. All right. So to continue on, before we get to the listing of some of the 50 and talk about them a little bit, when is the product green. The ultra simple way to say this is it reduces our need for energy, water resources and health care.
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Matt Power: And I threw in parts and labor to that's that's sort of a nowadays it's hard to get parts and it's hard to get labor. So if you want if we want a lot of eco friendly houses built, we need to make sure that we keep the parts and labor affordable. Alternately. And these are sort of the headings I'm going to use in this presentation, when it enhances or speeds these key factors, you don't need to we don't need to go through those because we're going to go head by head in the article on these seven points.
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Matt Power: So what I did, I divided up the products a little differently than we did in the magazine and the magazine. We just broke them into categories, you know, appliances, lighting, etc. but I think this is in a way is more relevant because we're talking about what does this particular product do that raises the bar in terms of sustainability.
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Matt Power: All right. So let's start with number one energy conservation. Heat pumps and air conditioning and heating technology have come great strides over like the last say 5 to 7 years. I think they're sort of capping out because they've done so much tweaking at this point. One of the things that happened was with with products such as these is they went from single speed technology to variable speed compressors, so that not only made them a lot more quiet, it changed how they use energy.
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Matt Power: So they're sort of like they use that just that trickle of energy that they need to supply the demand in the home for the heating or cooling that's necessary there as, as they become more efficient there. I've also noticed, like with this LG unit, it's more capable of running multiple units, which is a really nice feature. If you've ever installed a heat pump or you have one in your house, you probably have noticed that in the area where the head of the heat pump is installed, it's nice and air conditioned or cool in there, but then in the the next room over, you need to sort of move the heat or the cooling manually with
00:14:21:25 - 00:14:40:22
Matt Power: like a fan or something to get it into the other room. This way you can have three heads on one compressor, so you don't have to have all that outdoor space in order to be able to hook up a very efficient heat pump system. This also goes up to see your 21. So they're getting more efficient, meaning they use energy more efficiently.
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Matt Power: Now there's there's different measures of that. There's there's measures that are specifically for cooling and there's measures for heating. So one of the things I'll talk a little bit about in a minute is why that matters and what you should look for. This is a Mitsubishi electric train unit. Another big change in these in the especially the better known brands like these, they can handle colder climates.
00:15:09:08 - 00:15:32:15
Matt Power: Right. So they so they've tweaked the performance of these. It used to be that once you got down to about six degrees Fahrenheit they became super inefficient. This one goes down to can go down to -13°F. And that's that's also sort of one of the myths that's that at the time wasn't a myth. Right. That heat pumps were not efficient in cold weather or cold climates.
00:15:32:16 - 00:15:54:00
Matt Power: That is is no longer true except in the very extremes. You know, places where you have, you know, average temperatures, you know, maybe, maybe far north Minnesota or something, where you're getting down into the -25 range on the regular during the winter. Down at the bottom of my little blurb, you see the HSP, that's that's a measure of its heating efficiency.
00:15:54:01 - 00:16:19:22
Matt Power: Now, one reason heating efficiency is important is that there are energy rebates out there, some of which hinge upon that HSP score, not the Seer score. So you could have a very high Seer score like 23 Seer, but you might not qualify. For example, in Maine, I think the the minimum heating score is about 12 to get the extra rebate.
00:16:19:22 - 00:16:44:19
Matt Power: So I actually installed a smaller heat pump last not knowing this last year, and my heating efficiency was not high enough, so I missed out on a big rebate. So something to look at is that these units heat heat efficiency efficiently as well as cool efficiently. Notice now you're not seeing can you see the very far right, where it says 2022.
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Matt Power: You'll notice that the lines cross up there so that this is the first time really other than like a brief moment maybe in like 2020, where heat pumps outsold gas furnaces. So the same thing happened with solar a few years ago, where solar PV efficiency became more efficient than creating the same energy with gas. So this is it's sort of a tipping point for these electric heat pumps.
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Matt Power: Now, you can't really make the argument that, well, gas is just so much cheaper. Gas is just, you know, so much more efficient. The heat pumps are not only getting more efficient than gas, but they're, you know, the prices are dropping on them. So there's really no reason to have pushback against heat pumps right now.
00:17:35:17 - 00:17:55:14
Matt Power: This is a company called aerosol. And I bring this up because this is one of those bottom of the pyramid products. So this is another winner in our in our products. This products been around for a while, but they have been tweaking it and making it even better. So what they do is they come into your house and they sort of suck this sticky stuff.
00:17:55:14 - 00:18:23:16
Matt Power: It's an acrylic based, water based lobbyist compound, and it goes and it finds every tiny little gap inside your walls. Now it's the it's a little better to use in new construction because, you know, it does stick to everything. And so that doesn't it is not such a big deal in new construction where you got everything roughed in in a retrofit, like you have an existing house that's real leaky, and you've done the insulation and you can't seem to seal it up.
00:18:23:17 - 00:18:40:10
Matt Power: It's a great product, but it's going to it's probably going to cost a little more, take a little more time because you're going to have to cover everything to protect it, right, with plastic. So that this acrylic sticky acrylic doesn't get on, you know, your walls and your furniture and stuff. I mean, the end result I think you'd be very happy with.
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Matt Power: I've seen a lot of demos of this and stuff. It really does get you about as close to net zero as you can get if you didn't build that way in the first place, right?
00:18:53:23 - 00:19:24:10
Matt Power: So this GE profile laundry caught my eye. I was at the builder show a couple months ago because this is a washer and dryer. But the big thing about it is it cuts down on your time. If you're, you know, when you do a load laundry, it cuts down the whole process by like an hour. So one of the sort of the new things with appliance makers, especially clothes washers and dishwasher makers, is to try to create short cycle products.
00:19:24:11 - 00:19:46:23
Matt Power: The reason is because these products have gotten so good in terms of their efficiency that that's that's really the only place left to go. So really the race is on to create the shortest possible cycle as a time saver and an energy and water saver. So that's how they can improve efficiency is with these short cycle units I believe this one it was as well.
00:19:46:23 - 00:20:18:01
Matt Power: And the stuff, you know works like a heat pump that also has come come a long ways. I know some of the early models, people had problems with it, clog up and other things. I feel like this is this has matured, this technology, and I'd feel pretty comfortable, you know, recommending a washer dryer, the Green Pro Terra, if you don't already know about this, this is this should actually be, you know, in the middle of your pyramid of improvements to either a new house or an existing one.
00:20:18:01 - 00:20:40:16
Matt Power: For an existing house, this is literally a no brainer. I installed two of them myself last year. It's probably the easiest gigantic leap forward in energy conservation you can do if you're a homeowner or, you know, prosumer and you're capable of this stuff, this model, this particular model and pro terrorism. So so this is a hybrid heat pump.
00:20:40:16 - 00:21:02:17
Matt Power: So it has a heat pump on the top and a like electric resistance system in the bottom part and a tank on the bottom. Now it will run on straight electric resistance to but it's much much less efficient. So the one caveat I would say is think about where you're going to put it, because it's going to pull some moisture out of the air, not a huge amount.
00:21:02:18 - 00:21:20:25
Matt Power: Like if you think you're going to put this in a wet cellar and it's going to dry it out, that's not going to happen. It doesn't it does not create that much condensation. I know because I've tried it. It will take some waster out of the air though. So if you're putting it in a closet in a living space, be aware that your air is going to dry out in there.
00:21:20:25 - 00:21:46:00
Matt Power: And it does make you know, the fan does make a little bit of noise. I wouldn't call it noisy. It's a little louder than a refrigerator. And the only other caveat I'd say is when you are hooking them up. Some of them have a auto off feature, so if you it's it's a leak detector. So if you splash any water on this leak detector accidentally, all of a sudden your your installation does not go forward.
00:21:46:00 - 00:22:07:21
Matt Power: So I had to I accidentally did this and had to call the company. And it turns out in the manual there is a code that you can push in and it takes a little reading, but it will reset the unit. But I just advise keep it super dry when you're hooking it up, and I feel pretty comfortable. If you're the least bit handy, you could hook one of these up.
00:22:07:21 - 00:22:28:21
Matt Power: You just got to essentially attach the old pipes to it. Assuming you have an electric resistance model and plug it in. It's it's a 120 grounded plug, as you can see. And then there is one thing that's not shown here though. You have to put a condensation pipe to run the water that's going to be produced by the heat pump into some kind of a drain.
00:22:28:21 - 00:22:48:18
Matt Power: So make sure that you consider that as part of your hookup. And that's where you might need a little bit of help. This this is just an example of the kind of savings you can see. And this is fairly I can attest that this is fairly typical. You know, I have 160 gallon unit and I think it's about the numbers are about like this.
00:22:48:18 - 00:23:12:03
Matt Power: So you're literally paying one fourth the cost for your water heating to when the moment you turn this unit on, you start paying one fourth what you were paying the previous year. Most states have some kind of a rebate or some kind of a, you know, you can also get a federal tax credit on these, I believe. And the new, what do they call it?
00:23:12:05 - 00:23:41:24
Matt Power: The the new bill that was passed last year. Energy efficiency has some energy efficiency measures. The federal bill. And I think that you may even get some better tax credits going forward. I saw this product. This is a gable mount solar attic fan. I saw this at the building show. And I've actually been looking for one, because on houses in the South, especially if you've ever noticed, there's sort of a roar when you walk by them.
00:23:41:24 - 00:24:02:25
Matt Power: And if you look up, you'll see they have these enormous gable vents. Some of them are, you know, 350 500W. They're huge fans up in these gable events because the roofs, the interior of those attics gets so hot. Well, this is just a simple, easy way to replace one of those with. And it comes with its own solar panel, but it's also grid tied.
00:24:02:26 - 00:24:35:28
Matt Power: So it's fairly quiet. You plug it in, it runs on solar all day long, and then it kicks over to to grid tied power at night. So nice feature. I think that's probably fairly accurate. You could probably say 30% on AC cost if you don't, if you're not, and most people are already venting their attics. So what you're going to be more likely to save is on your electric cost, frankly, because running, you know, 350 watt old fan up there, that's a lot of that's that's many, many, many LED light bulbs at seven watts each.
00:24:36:00 - 00:25:01:29
Matt Power: So I recommend that one. This this product was one of the technology award winners at the builder show. So the one the. So what that is. It's a heat pump that doesn't have an external condenser. So you just have a hole in the wall and you plug this thing through and plug it in and you're done. I mean, it's a little more complicated than that, but but it doesn't involve the outdoor condenser unit.
00:25:01:29 - 00:25:26:24
Matt Power: And that's a big, big deal. This one. I'm actually not sure if it's commercially available yet, but on my next slide I will go into that. So the transition has begun. Okay. So air conditioners you may have looked around, you know, your local box store and seen like these Madea units and these sort of U-shaped units that go in your window.
00:25:26:29 - 00:25:51:27
Matt Power: Well these things are becoming are going like crazy. I mean, the market is exploding for these and for good reason, because they are, you know, 30 to 40% more efficient than the old air conditioners. Also, I have a couple of them and they're super quiet because the the compressor hangs outside the window and they work great. So but there is some confusion.
00:25:51:29 - 00:26:19:01
Matt Power: They're not actually the ones that are available now are not actually heat pumps. Okay. Let's see. Maybe maybe I didn't put that slide okay. So I'm just going to explain what I mean. So heat pumps and generally when you say something is a heat pump it means that it can cool and heat okay. So when you see one of these units and it says additional it also will heat.
00:26:19:03 - 00:26:50:16
Matt Power: What typically that means is it's a it's an air conditioner. It's a it's it can it can use the compressor cycle one way it can cool. But then when you want heating it's actually using electric resistance like the old fashioned space heaters. So it's a very it becomes very inefficient as a heater. However the new ones that are coming out, I think probably next year, and I've been pitched by a couple of people who have prototypes already, are going to do both heating and cooling, and that is going to be a huge game changer.
00:26:50:16 - 00:27:13:08
Matt Power: And I'm not sure how it's going to affect, you know, the heat pump installation business, because when you can just go to the store by one of these units and have a real heat pump in your window, how many people will opt to do that versus doing, you know, a full install of a of a higher, maybe a higher capacity or a more traditional, if you can call it that heat pump system.
00:27:13:08 - 00:27:39:09
Matt Power: But I think it's cool because, you know, air conditioners have been a problem for a long time. They're, you know, they're energy inefficient. They tend to be treated like throwaway devices. They're generally not be refilled with the the compressor fluid, etc., so most of them end up in the landfill. So I think it's a good thing and it's going to push the heat pump electrification in general.
00:27:39:11 - 00:28:05:21
Matt Power: All right. So this this ties in with the transition from gas to electric. So when we can heat with electric like with heat pumps that's a good thing. Anytime we can move from gas to electric is great. Now this net zero water place I saw at the show as well. So this fire is actually not fire. What what it does is it's not producing any heat, but it shoots a mist up into the air inside the device.
00:28:05:21 - 00:28:23:29
Matt Power: And then some LED lights flash very cleverly on it. Now it has, you know, some of the units have heating capabilities, but the one that I liked was this one that's essentially wall jewelry. And you can put it in the center of your room like one of those cool, you know, custom custom house centerpieces where you can see through both sides.
00:28:23:29 - 00:28:49:12
Matt Power: And anyway, they're they're great way to have that ambiance that people love of fireplaces, but with almost, you know, extremely minimal energy costs because you're just running, you know, LED light and a mister. It's almost like running a, you know, a little, little humidifier and melody lights, this barbecue grill. Oh, sorry, I don't have the I don't have the brand name.
00:28:49:12 - 00:29:11:19
Matt Power: But you know what? I'll I'll add it into this and and send the PDF back to back to to Mary. So when you download the PDF from her you'll have the right brand on this. This caught my eye because it's an electric grill. I mean it looks a lot like a gas grill. I don't know, I don't believe that the refrigerator is integral to it, but they've they've come a long way with these electric curls.
00:29:11:19 - 00:29:35:11
Matt Power: Now, one of the problems with, with the electric is, I mean, with the grills in general is barbecuing is dirty and toxic. I mean, there's been a bunch of studies about it, but there's an incredible amount of pollution created in neighborhoods by, you know, charcoal grills and, and gas grills as well. So gas grills, you know, we're all using those little propane tanks.
00:29:35:12 - 00:29:56:20
Matt Power: Those are, again, perpetuating the use of fossil fuels when when we don't really need to be, especially when. And part of the sort of thought behind this conversion to electric is that eventually all electric will be renewable. Now, I know the pushback on it is, well, a lot of electric from the grid is from coal fired plants. And there's truth to that.
00:29:56:25 - 00:30:22:23
Matt Power: At the moment. We are, you know, still using dirty fuels to create clean electricity. So but I see that as a relatively rapid phase out. I mean, the way things are going and the pressure to do things about do something about climate change, I think you'll see an increasing portfolio of of renewables. This is an electric compact wheel loader from Volvo.
00:30:22:23 - 00:30:46:26
Matt Power: So if you've ever been around a construction site, you know how that diesel stinks. And you know it's a messy and noisy machine. This one's actually quite quiet. Runs for several hours on one charge. I mean, think about it. You could have a little a solar PV array, set up a portable one on a construction site, plug it into this vehicle and charge it up when it's not in use.
00:30:46:26 - 00:31:08:09
Matt Power: So that's a that's a pretty good advancement. The Schneider Electric panel you know we do a lot of stuff with them. This is a if you haven't seen this this is helps meet the new California's Title 24 requirements. It's a smart panel. So what it does is it allows you to do all kinds of stuff. You can tie in your solar array with it.
00:31:08:09 - 00:31:31:16
Matt Power: You can tie in battery system. You can get readings on, you know, which circuits are using power, at what time of day you can program it. So it only uses power for large appliances at peak times. So it's a super flexible way to save energy in a whole bunch of ways. And it solves for builders and stuff. It solves some code issues.
00:31:31:18 - 00:31:52:00
Matt Power: I really like it. I mean, if I was building new, I think it'd be really smart to put one of these. The idea is to put something that's that's, upgradable. This is already sort of ahead of the curve, but it's not going to be left in the dust as all the codes and the rules and the electrification change.
00:31:52:02 - 00:32:12:17
Matt Power: This is a okay. So if you're not familiar, I'm not I'm everybody's heard I think about induction cooktops. Induction cooktops are great. I have one that I use I don't use to cook on gas. What the big reason to switch to electric cooking is efficiency. So if you look at a gas top, it's got about a 32% efficiency.
00:32:12:23 - 00:32:36:03
Matt Power: And how it uses energy coil 75 and inductions 90 I did I wrote an article recently suggesting that if you have an old electric coil stove, though, you don't have to run out right now and get an induction top, hoping you're going to save a bunch of money and, you know, sort of do the right thing because your coil tops operating at 75% efficiency, it's already electric.
00:32:36:03 - 00:32:56:12
Matt Power: It should last a few years. The big reason to switch to induction is to get off of gas. And the reality is that in a lot of places, at least with new construction, that may be the only choices to get is to go to some kind of electric. However, you know, there's a lot of states. They turn this into a political issue, right?
00:32:56:12 - 00:33:19:04
Matt Power: You heard sort of a lot of nonsense about, oh, they're going to come take your guests. So. Well, to my knowledge, no jurisdiction has suggested confiscating or, you know, outlawing gas stoves. All all they're saying is when you build new or when you upgrade to a new appliance, that you can't get a gas stove anymore, you got to go with some kind of electric model.
00:33:19:07 - 00:33:51:12
Matt Power: If you look at these green, the green states here, these are all states that pass these politically motivated, you know, preemptions to oppose gas stove bans, which, you know, sort of I thought it was it was more just sort of a political game stirring, and I did I couldn't resist throwing in a, a map here of the Confederacy down below it because, you know, I'm kind of a history buff, and I when I saw this green map, I went, wow, that kind of looks like the old Confederacy.
00:33:51:12 - 00:34:16:11
Matt Power: And just I thought it was funny that they that they almost lined up with the against the gas stoves. It was a kind of a silly connection. Now let's let's move on to other reasons that we gave these products awards reducing extraction and disruption. So this was when I when I let off, I talked a little bit about how recycling is actually going backwards.
00:34:16:13 - 00:34:43:05
Matt Power: So, you know, when you hear about even metals being recycling that and part of it, things kind of get screwed up during the pandemic. You know, things, some things that were going forward started going backward. So this report, the circularity gap, found that the that share of minerals feeding that is reused declined in two years from an already paltry 9.1% to 8.6.
00:34:43:05 - 00:34:58:16
Matt Power: So, you know, when people say things are recycled. In fact, I got a big argument with a friend of mine who lives up in Nova Scotia because he's he's hardcore about recycling. And I said, I think I threw something in the trash one day. And I said, you know, it's never going to make it to the recycling anyway.
00:34:58:16 - 00:35:24:03
Matt Power: So what do you mean? He says, that's he says, you can't do that. And I said, well, this is what I, this is what I told him. I said, 5% of plastic waste is recycled. And that doesn't mean I'm not advocating that you don't recycle. But it is a bit disheartening. And I think that this is, you know, when people say, well, I recycle and that's the green thing they do, that's like literally like almost doing nothing.
00:35:24:05 - 00:35:54:13
Matt Power: When you actually look at what percent of stuff actually ends up back in products. The reason I brought this up is because these products that are using recycled, I think, deserve a huge pat on the back because they are in the vast majority of manufacturers. China has also they, they they were doing much better than us. They've actually stopped recycling plastic too, which is unfortunate because there's, you know, so many people there in such a vast industry.
00:35:54:19 - 00:36:24:11
Matt Power: They part of it is the trade wars, and they don't want our piles of plastic trashing where we're sort of shuffling it off to them to get them to recycle it. Now they don't want it anymore. So this is all sort of bad news about, you know, plastic products and, and in a way, it can actually create a problem in some of the material pipelines for these manufacturers who are trying to get recycled product, because you've got to be able to, you know, have a company that will do the shredding and prepping and get the product to you.
00:36:24:13 - 00:36:51:29
Matt Power: This one, this this is on a related note, this is gelled when has just come out with some composite windows. I don't know if they've got any recycled content in this, but they are building sort of more resilient windows. They've upgraded the glazing which means they're there higher higher energy efficiency level. And so what they're doing is they're blending wood fiber with what they call synthetic polymers.
00:36:51:29 - 00:37:15:02
Matt Power: Now, I try to went through all their literature and did not see what the synthetic polymers that's a form of plastic like polyethylene for example is a synthetic polymer. But they are Green Guard Gold and Energy Star certified. So the cool thing about this, they're stronger than like a vinyl window there. So they're two times as strong as rigid meaning you know they're not going to shake rattle.
00:37:15:03 - 00:37:37:06
Matt Power: They're there. They have better wind resistance. The glazing are 38% more efficient. And another thing, for those of you who are style conscious, they were a little smaller profile like a narrower profile, and they're embedded with the color, meaning you don't have to paint them. That color is permanent. So it's it's put right into the extrusion process. And you'll notice it's a dark color.
00:37:37:06 - 00:38:03:05
Matt Power: One of the big drawbacks with vinyl windows over the years has been that if you put dark colors in in vinyl, there's a risk, especially on southern facing or high heat areas, that you could get some damage or warping or, you know, over time you could get some brittleness, even with, you know, you've inhibitors, you still you want to kind of avoid dark, dark colors as this is a cool when these nails.
00:38:03:05 - 00:38:27:13
Matt Power: Now I tried to figure out whether these whether you would really want to use these nail. I think they're very specialized but they're wooden nails. I just thought because they made this effort. So they're made out of beach and they actually created an adapted pneumatic nail gun for these. And I think there's there for very specific applications. They said, you know, vertical wood cladding, you know, exteriors on houses.
00:38:27:13 - 00:38:54:05
Matt Power: So there are things that are not subject to a high amount of uplift, like hurricane uplift. What I would like to see, which I could not find any testing stats on it, I'd like to see, you know, what's the resistance of these? Like how much holding power do they have and what happens over time? Like, you know, with with metal nails, for example, they actually for a while they actually get stronger like galvanized nails because of the, the way they interact with the wood and the rusting process.
00:38:54:07 - 00:39:20:15
Matt Power: You know, up to a certain point, a lot of fasteners actually get stronger. But I'd want to know over time what would be the outcome. This Euclid stuff is, again another recycled product this can be added to. So essentially it's a way to get rid of a lot of plastic waste and at the same time add some fiber strength to certain kinds of concrete for certain applications.
00:39:20:15 - 00:39:48:12
Matt Power: So it's not a green concrete per se. You're not you're not replacing the Portland cement, but you're adding this Euclid fiber strands, which is sort of, you know, ground up recycled bottles that turned into a fiber to create strength and concrete for special applications. Trex. You know, I have to say, you know, I've been in this industry for 30 plus years and treks has been at the front the whole way.
00:39:48:12 - 00:40:15:06
Matt Power: And they are, you know, they've been they've been including a large amount of recycled content all the way through. And they continue to do so. And their products, you know, they have stayed their products have lived along with them. The fact that they are still around, I think speaks volumes to the to the technology, because, you know, there were other brands of composite decking that went out of business.
00:40:15:06 - 00:40:41:07
Matt Power: There was one I actually had installed a product called Correct Deck a few years back and went back. After a few years, it started to get black mold spots on it. You know, Trex solve those problems early on and has created a product that has, has lasted and continues to be the leader. In fact, if you look at this is our brand survey came out in the same issue as the sustainable products.
00:40:41:07 - 00:41:09:12
Matt Power: And these are what professionals think are the greenest brands, you know, in all the different categories. So in decking you see, that they are right at the top. So they don't even have any of those. See the red numbers there. That means they got like, you know, internet trolls saying awful things about them. You'll notice Trex manages manage to slip through that gantlet because, you know, frankly, the product's good.
00:41:09:12 - 00:41:36:29
Matt Power: And what are you going to say? You know, there's there's in my experience, I haven't heard a lot of negative things about them. So so that's speaks a lot. And the fact that using all this recycling content. Enough said. That's a great product. Highly recommend. Now timber Tex, this is this advanced PVC decking. I included this in one of our it's one of our award winners because they have a 60% recycled content.
00:41:36:29 - 00:42:05:07
Matt Power: So these are this is PVC. Now I often sort of push back on, you know polyvinyl chloride based plastics. There's sort of the, the the cheapest plastics in a lot of ways. They're the thing that, you know, vinyl windows are made out of. They haven't got the same kind of strength characteristics. And they have a high coefficient of elasticity, which means they stretch and they, you know, in heat they change, they can change shape, that kind of thing.
00:42:05:07 - 00:42:25:01
Matt Power: But these but, but the fact that they have managed to invest recycled content into this product puts them head and shoulders above the other PVC decking manufacturers. So I think that deserved a call out, because one of the problems we have is we have vast amounts of PVC, PVC that is that no one knows what to do with it.
00:42:25:01 - 00:42:55:29
Matt Power: And I believe they were using even able to use vinyl siding in their mix. And vinyl siding is one of the great challenges because it's it's not worth the manufacturers time to, they say to recycle it because it's it's cheap to manufacture virgin PVC so that the timber tech is using recycled vinyl siding is great. Cesar Cesar Stone, who has done quite a few products, countertop and surfacing products with recycled content, has a new one.
00:42:56:05 - 00:43:21:23
Matt Power: This one is called White Light. It's got 40% recycled content. They use a lot of, you know, different stuff. And you know there quartz based most of their stuff. You know, a good, you know, relatively high end but nice, long lasting product. Now Beco is a brand if you haven't heard of them. They're actually, I think the home companies based in Turkey, but they're the first are maybe the second most popular brand of appliances in Europe.
00:43:21:26 - 00:43:45:13
Matt Power: And they came over here, I think, 4 or 5 years ago and were sort of an unknown. And now you I see them everywhere. I mean, they had big presence at the building show. You see them at appliance stores. They mostly what I've seen so far is the small like 24 inch models of things. But they're they take risks, which I, you know, honestly, I think is going to win them some loyalty, especially from the millennial market.
00:43:45:14 - 00:44:09:09
Matt Power: The fact that they they try to do stuff that's above and beyond on the sustainability front, like this unit has a tub that's 60% recycled from plastic water bottles. Now that that catches the attention of, you know, I have a daughter who's a millennial and I know that's kind of thing. If she's sitting side by side with two appliances that she's going to pick this one because the manufacturer made an effort.
00:44:09:09 - 00:44:39:14
Matt Power: So, you know, kudos to them. Here's another product porcelain tile flooring. It's you know, it's it's just a tile flooring, but it's sourced within a 500 mile radius for 95% of the raw materials. So, you know, they're not they're not shipping stuff on diesel powered ships over from, you know, some someplace in a, you know, you know, Bulgaria or something where they've sourced their raw materials.
00:44:39:14 - 00:45:17:01
Matt Power: So again, these are the kind of things that that that's a green decision. Right? That's a sustainability decision. So I think it deserves a it deserves some support. Tan timber I met the the owner of this company at the show The Builders Show. So this is what they call thermally modified timber. So the cool thing about this stuff, it's been around for a while and there's several companies that do what they do is they heat a lumber up to a certain temperature and it bakes sort of the into it and it bakes out the moisture, etc. and it's supposedly adds a great deal of durability and longevity to it.
00:45:17:01 - 00:45:44:11
Matt Power: So you can use something like, you know, Aspen or, you know, even pine, which is a, you know, fairly fast growing, less expensive, less endangered, you know, woods, and you can get the same kind of performance that you might out of a hardwood from the Amazon rainforest. So the idea is you're you're fewer exotic hardwoods being shipped over from endangered areas and a lot less chemical preservative.
00:45:44:13 - 00:46:11:26
Matt Power: So I think, again, this is a great technology. Now the only question is what is the embodied footprint. Because there's there's a heat element involved. Now I know the owner was talking about possibly having renewable power. I don't think they're quite there yet, but they're adding some renewable power to provide the heating. So at that point you could get almost a, you know, a net zero plant operation of producing this lumber.
00:46:11:26 - 00:46:44:10
Matt Power: So it'd have a much lower footprint than a lot of different traditional methods for long lasting lumber. This is unified steel, stone coated roofing I believe it's metal roofing. This is from West Lake. It's one of our sponsors. This you know, one of the things that we run into around the country is people want roofs to look like the traditional roofs in their neighborhood or the traditional asphalt roofs they grew up with, etc. so sometimes we have to bow the need to that or to the to the homeowner association.
00:46:44:10 - 00:47:07:07
Matt Power: And this is a great way to do it, right. You you're getting a super resilient metal roof product that can handle a 2.5in piece of hail, and it can handle the high heat, which is a greater and greater problem every year, does not it has less transfer to the living space of that heat. So it's got a lot of great resilience features.
00:47:07:07 - 00:47:35:09
Matt Power: So so in this durability space. This is a great product. This company also makes other things like I believe they make manufactured stone veneers and other very durable resilient products. That's Westlake hail by the way is becoming a much bigger deal. And in Tornado Alley, which by the way, has moved 2 or 300 miles to the east. Now, I just saw a special about it yesterday.
00:47:35:09 - 00:48:01:27
Matt Power: Because of climate shifts, the big the tornadoes are getting bigger. They're moving east and they're you're hitting states that aren't used to getting slammed. But the same thing is true with hail. Hail is getting worse. It's getting more common. It's moving to different geographic areas. And, you know, even insurers are starting to be hesitant. You'll notice that there's riders now if they weren't there already.
00:48:02:03 - 00:48:18:10
Matt Power: Keep an eye out for riders for hail, because the auto insurers are aware that hail is now a bigger risk and that the premiums are going to be going up and up. So having a roof that can withstand hail. Great idea.
00:48:18:12 - 00:48:45:02
Matt Power: Now here's a product that I've been following for a few years now. It's this magnesium oxide. You know, it's a it's a stable, inert product and kind of waiting to see what manufacturers used it for. Well, Huber came up with an underlayment. So they're using it specifically for multifamily, this exa core, because it allows them to meet these fire assemblies that are required in multi-family buildings.
00:48:45:02 - 00:49:10:26
Matt Power: So normally you have like a separate crew come in and they do this wet gypsum installation. And it's a whole separate operation in between the floors of a multifamily building. This allows you to just bam, put down your core and you're done. So the framing and the same contractors who are doing the framing and, you know, the building, the the actual shell can do this and save labor and a big step.
00:49:10:26 - 00:49:35:11
Matt Power: And it's a stable, inert material which, you know, you're not going to have problems with its insect resistant or insect proof high impact resistance. Same thing with these this Max Terra. Now these are designed for external structural sheathing. So I was curious and I said, well what I want to use this sort of cementitious looking stuff on a building or wouldn't it, wouldn't it crack.
00:49:35:11 - 00:49:55:03
Matt Power: And you know, we've seen those, those cement boards that, that sort of we're not sure if you, you know, you smash one with a hammer and it kind of crumbles. So I did some research on MgO and there's actually quite a lot of stuff out there. So if you look at this table, this was a comparison of MgO board with other materials.
00:49:55:03 - 00:50:20:05
Matt Power: And so the stuff that's highlighted in gray is better okay. So in a lot of categories. So it's heavier meaning it's going to you know heat and cool more slowly. You know generally more mass is considered better if you look at for example, at plywood, the one it's resistant to moisture, mold and past resistance are high, thermal resistance is high.
00:50:20:05 - 00:50:44:25
Matt Power: And especially one of the things that they're really selling it on for both the multifamily and these external ones is it has a high acoustic resistance, which means if you're in a noisy area or you want to deaden sound between units in a multifamily, it's a good product and you don't have to also install a bunch of drywall, you know, gypsum, you know, to achieve the same acoustic resistance.
00:50:45:02 - 00:51:09:27
Matt Power: It's got a lot, actually, a lot of tensile strength, a lot more even than I expect expected. So essentially it's a it's a very tough, strong sheathing product. It seems like it's, it's it's got some good stats there. It's probably a really reasonable replacement for things, traditional things like plywood and OSB.
00:51:10:00 - 00:51:33:08
Matt Power: You'll also hear a lot of or if you haven't heard already, if you're in the loop on this, people are talking about magnesium oxide as a green cement. Well, I did a bunch of digging on this too. And actually I kind of ultimately I walked away going, the eco impact verdict is still out because you can find studies that say that it is a, you know, it's got a lower CO2 intensity than Portland cement.
00:51:33:08 - 00:52:01:08
Matt Power: But then you'll also find studies that say that when you take into account other aspects of the production of it, that it is got a higher greenhouse gas emission than traditional Portland cement. So I guess what I'd say is there's no agreement among among the science research community yet, whether it's a good green cement option. So I wouldn't I'm not going to recommend it as a green cement option.
00:52:01:08 - 00:52:26:25
Matt Power: I think more we we need to hear more and we need a clearer picture of what's going on in the health and quality of life category. I threw in a lot of different things this fan tech, eco touch I like because, you know, the sensors have been out for a while. You know, you've heard of like the aware sensor and Foo bot and some of these other ones that detect certain things in your house.
00:52:26:27 - 00:52:53:03
Matt Power: This one is tied in with your some, some of your ventilation, your fan tech. So I like the fact of tying connecting the dots between a device that recognizes when there are toxins in the air and then activates things automatically. Now, I haven't tested this out. I don't know how. I know some other companies have tried this. Nobody seems to have quite nailed this yet.
00:52:53:04 - 00:53:09:17
Matt Power: Like there's a lot of experimentation. I sort of feel like this is still a white space. One of the odd things in the right up, though, it says this detects the cooking orders odors of various compounds during large family gatherings. And I thought that was funny because I thought, why does it have to be a large family gathering?
00:53:09:17 - 00:53:37:21
Matt Power: And what does that have to do with anything? So that's a mystery to me why? They they singled out large family gatherings, but apparently they thought that was relevant. This poly way is a pretty green coating actually made with May way, which is a byproduct of cheese making. I have not tested this. Honestly, I'd like to actually get some of it and try it out on a, you know, a test space and, you know, put some wear and tear on it.
00:53:37:22 - 00:53:53:24
Matt Power: They say you can put down the, the coats like 3 or 4 coats in a day. Dries quickly. I'd like to know how hard it is. And, and you know how well you could expect it to hold up. It's very promising what it's made of. But, you know, like you, I'm sure you're going well. Am I going to put that down on my floor?
00:53:53:27 - 00:54:11:21
Matt Power: The reason people get, you know, pre baked flooring is because they want that super hard and fast sheen. So I'll keep you posted on this. But I thought it deserved a nod. And it definitely deserves a tryout. So maybe if you do try it out write to me and tell me. Tell me what you think.
00:54:11:23 - 00:54:34:22
Matt Power: Panasonic's widget. Here's another one that these are plug and play. They go in your outlet space and they can they sense and communicate. So it's a it's sort of a Wi-Fi web in your house of these little modules. And they're pretty cool because they can tie into any of Panasonic's like bath bands and ventilation systems, and they will automatically activate things.
00:54:34:22 - 00:54:56:24
Matt Power: You can control it from your smartphone. So you can, you know, if if you're a landlord, put these in your your tenants unit and you know it will automatically when they when they fill the bathroom up with huge amounts of humidity and are about to set off all the smoke detectors, it can automatically activate and you can control it from your phone and set and forget at certain criteria.
00:54:56:25 - 00:55:18:15
Matt Power: This Armstrong strata clean. I thought it was kind of cool because it's just a dedicated air cleaner. Just it just plugs into your ceiling. So, you know, if you were looking for an easy way to get a pretty efficient Merv 13 is getting up there. I mean, that's about the as that's about as close as I've seen. Like I haven't seen anybody get up to really like a Merv 16.
00:55:18:16 - 00:55:38:16
Matt Power: Like if you buy a fairly high end HVAC, you know, whole house filtration system about as high as it will go as Merv 13. Now, you're not quite at the size where you're going to filter out, you know, corona coronavirus, but you're getting close. So you'll get just about everything else. I don't know if that's very on. Merv 13 will catch virions.
00:55:38:16 - 00:56:02:04
Matt Power: You might need a Hepa or a Merv like 16 for that. But you're certainly going to get, you know, most particles, you're going to get all of the stuff that creates dust in your house, or maybe allergies, pollen, that sort of thing. It's going to make the air feel a lot cleaner. I really like automatic range hoods. And Braun just came out with this.
00:56:02:07 - 00:56:25:25
Matt Power: It's called the Elite Custom Range Hood. Again, you can set this thing up. It's got infrared sensing to turn on or off. And I asked the guy who was at the show, I said, could you actually, as a landlord, could you set this so that the it would, it couldn't be overridden. So if you have a, you know, if you have a tenant and you want tenants to use this thing because the problem is people don't use range hoods.
00:56:25:25 - 00:56:48:09
Matt Power: So I like a range hood that automatically comes on. And you know the range. The pollution from cooking is a greatly underestimated toxin in our indoor air. Whether or not you are using a gas range is something I've talked about. My writings is, you know, a lot of people think that that gas ranges are the only problem. No, it's what you're it's what you're cooking is creating toxic smoke as well.
00:56:48:09 - 00:57:06:10
Matt Power: And then the gas range just adds a few more noxious elements. So you really need to ventilate. And it can't be a recirculating. It needs to be one like this that vents all the way to the outdoors. And of course you need some makeup air. So you want to you want to figure that in. And, you know, the simplest way is to crack a window.
00:57:06:10 - 00:57:30:27
Matt Power: But again, is that really what you want? You want cold air blowing through your window, or do you want to put a dedicated fresh air intake somewhere else, like on the other side of the room? Anyway, good product. So I few years, a couple of years ago I wrote an article about who uses kitchen range hoods. Turns out that only about 8% of the time do people use their range hood.
00:57:30:29 - 00:58:00:01
Matt Power: This is a the reasons for using. Basically, things have to get really bad before people start using it. So it has to like the kitchen has to be filled with smoke or or is this grease splattering everywhere? Most of the time they won't touch him. I know that's true of my family. Matter what I say, you know, my my extended family, they will never touch arrangement unless I'm in there because they know that I'm some kind of crazy person who thinks that we shouldn't be breathing, you know, smoke from cooking.
00:58:00:03 - 00:58:28:00
Matt Power: But that's why I have an automatic one is great control and home management. So there's a lot of products coming out that help you. It's not just about, oh, I want control of my house. It's I want control over my house in a way that helps me save money. Right. And save energy and water. So like this Mo and smart smart sprinkler controller, they estimate, you know, this very rough estimate that you could save 15,000 gallons on a typical home irrigation system.
00:58:28:01 - 00:58:50:26
Matt Power: I think that's probably on people that I know that have, you know, large scale irrigation. They're always on at the wrong time or or they have to manually turn them off and manually turn them on. This takes over some of the management with a sensor system. So instead of overwatering soils and killing your grass or killing your gardens, it'll actually get you.
00:58:50:27 - 00:59:12:20
Matt Power: That's another thing. It helps you have a greener thumb. So I think that's that's a good thing to this savant power system. This is sort of a little bit like the the Schneider, but I think maybe not as full featured as the Schneider Electric panel. It's a sort of plug and play system where these smart switches can you can control an entire circuit.
00:59:12:24 - 00:59:34:28
Matt Power: It does have to go through a what they call a director. It's got this hub thing at the top. So you have to plug back from the panel to this director and also into the into like if you can control a battery, you can control a solar similar to with Snyder Electric. Looking at this moment though, I leafed through the installation PDF.
00:59:34:28 - 01:00:07:11
Matt Power: I think it's a it's not a prosumer plug and play system. It's a pretty sophisticated install, from what I could tell, and maybe a little more complex than just put, you know, I like the Schneider system because you can just plug the panel in. Although this definitely deserves a nod. As you know, moving in the right direction of control over circuits so that you can, for example, schedule your EV charging in states that have and in utilities that have peak power levels, you can have the charging all happen in a certain time of day.
01:00:07:11 - 01:00:27:26
Matt Power: And a lot of, you know, the sky's the limit on sort of shifting power usage around this smart thermostat connects to sensors to Linux. It has geofencing, which a lot of them have now it has a one touch away mode, which I like. But the big thing is sensors, right? So it's it's it's detecting different areas around your home.
01:00:27:26 - 01:00:58:18
Matt Power: And instead of you having to walk into different rooms, you tell it in advance. What do you want this room to be like? Do you want the heat to come on when someone walks in there? Well, how long after someone walks out? Do you want it to go off? And it's it's pretty easy interface too. I feel like, you know, the, the sort of mildly effective homeowner could program this him or herself, this HVAC, this is sort of a more little more secure one this Adu Pro IoT Internet of Things interface.
01:00:58:18 - 01:01:23:20
Matt Power: So if any of you have installed different brands like I have of products like appliance, like HVAC systems, like I've got two different brands of splits, for example. The problem is now I got to pull up multiple apps to try to control them. This sort of helps you control different things, either through the app, or it translates so that different devices can communicate with each other.
01:01:23:20 - 01:01:42:23
Matt Power: So it has the when it says it has the HVAC protocols from all the brands. If you have a house that has multiple different components from different companies, this might be the tool you've been looking for to simplify that control. I wanted to mention sensors. Now on the right here, sensors are sort of sort of like AI.
01:01:42:24 - 01:02:02:04
Matt Power: They're suddenly upon us, right? I mean, A's been been emerging for a long time, but all of a sudden it's all over the news. I think sensors are another big thing that's that's actually there quietly hitting. So if you look down this list, there's so many things now that have sensors in them that you don't even think about, right?
01:02:02:05 - 01:02:31:20
Matt Power: I mean, you know, about the obvious ones. But for example, avoiding injuries is kind of an obscure one, like how would you avoid injuries? Let me let me give you an example of how sensors might be used. That. So opener has a leak detector called Finn. And say you have some older parents who are you know, you put them in an Adu in your backyard, but they're, you know, like like a lot of our parents, they don't want to be bothered.
01:02:31:21 - 01:02:59:00
Matt Power: They don't want you to worry about them or they don't want to be surveilled. Right. They don't want cameras or anything to keep track of them, even if they're frail. And we're concerned, what if they fall? What if we don't know? Well, this is an example of sensors. So Finn senses the water in your house. It's it has basically an algorithm that can detect every, every device in the house, including your irrigation, your toilets.
01:02:59:00 - 01:03:32:26
Matt Power: And it can identify which toilets or which toilets leaking. So you're you can also set it up to give you an alert. Right. The app. If, for example, the toilet hasn't been flushed in nine hours, normally you know that you know your parents use the toilet, you know, five times a day. This is a it's a passive way that you can create a quality of life potentially for people to, you know, who are like an assisted living situations by using sensors in a noninvasive way that would alert you that there might be a problem.
01:03:32:26 - 01:03:52:02
Matt Power: So I just I throw that out as something you might not have thought about. Different ways and sensors can be used for, I say, for evil, too. Let's not let's not say everybody's going to use them for good. I mean, I have been reading about, you know, people, you know, putting various devices on their girlfriend, their ex-girlfriend's car tracking devices.
01:03:52:02 - 01:04:25:18
Matt Power: And, you know, you can imagine sensors being misused in other ways, too. So I think we've got to go into it with eyes wide open and always try to aim for the good and but be aware of the bad renewable energy and storage, you know, near and dear to our heart. You know we all love solar. And you know, I keep waiting for sort of that tipping point with, with batteries where, you know, it's really going to it's going to make sense for us to move from the grid tied system so that everybody, you know, has batteries and that we have a we have a clean battery technology.
01:04:25:19 - 01:04:54:23
Matt Power: I mean, lithium ion is is what Genco uses. And it's it's probably the one of the most efficient. And it does have a, you know, an ion. It's a combination. So it's a, you know, not not a full on lithium battery. So it's probably a little more sustainable. The hybrid inverter is key. So hybrid inverter means it'll it'll invert for battery usage.
01:04:54:25 - 01:05:17:04
Matt Power: And typically that means that it'll also kick over when you lose power. So it'll run the house from the battery as well. The key is whether it has an automatic transfer switch. But anyway Genco is a good company. We do a lot of stuff with them. This this 400 watt cell, that's one of the highest, powered panels out there.
01:05:17:04 - 01:05:37:04
Matt Power: And, you know, they have a big operation in Florida now, too. So they've made a lot of, you know, inroads into the American market, too. So good company, good products. Here's the thing where I think there might be some hope for, you know, we're hoping to get to some greener, cleaner batteries. And there's there's been some progress on that.
01:05:37:06 - 01:06:00:07
Matt Power: One of the things that's going to push toward that is across the country, net billing is replacing net metering. That means instead of your if you have a solar array on your house, instead of giving you a one for one credit for your energy that you produce, they're now paying you. But they're paying you a little bit less than what you pay per kilowatt, if that makes sense.
01:06:00:07 - 01:06:25:22
Matt Power: So you're actually a one way to put it is you're losing a little bit of money. So how do you compensate for that? One way to do it is to get a battery and save your own power. Right. And then you're using then you use that power at your house. So it makes home battery storage more economical. And the more states adopt this net billing scenario, the more more batteries are going to get appealing.
01:06:25:22 - 01:06:53:16
Matt Power: So if you look at this map, the purple states are the ones that are furthest along this track. So their state mandated compensation other than net metering. So they pay you something but usually less than the going rate, the blue ones. You know, again, like Texas, it's kind of literally a wild, wild west. But you probably want to on the side of caution there.
01:06:53:18 - 01:07:14:21
Matt Power: The green ones are transitioning to composition compensation. Other than that metering again the your bills, you're going to make less with your solar in those states generally you're not they're not going to they're not going to change. If they pay you money, they're not going to pay you the full utility rate per kilowatt for the electricity that you're producing.
01:07:14:24 - 01:07:32:05
Matt Power: This is an example. So NB energy, you know, we do a lot of stuff with them and they're they're trying to figure out their solar grid relationship with homeowners. Now this is a little bit. I know this looks a little bit technical, but if you look at what little arrow is on the left says electric consumption all kilowatts.
01:07:32:12 - 01:07:57:07
Matt Power: So they charge, you know, $0.13 a kilowatt. Now down below if you have excess energy credits. Right. So you produce powers first. You use it on your house, then you can do what they call an which is you bank it as a credit. Or you can do these different tiers where they pay you money. Right. So they just mothballed one, two and three.
01:07:57:07 - 01:08:19:22
Matt Power: So now you're down to tier four of what you can do. So it's $0.10. So they will pay you in cash $0.10 a kilowatt hours. So so it's that that credit rate if you look up on the right is 75% of the retail electricity right now. There might be reasons to do that. Right. You might go, well, it's just extra energy.
01:08:19:22 - 01:08:47:09
Matt Power: I don't really need the other energy. So you could have a larger array and you could actually make some cash back from it. So it's not like there's no reason for it. But I do think it's going to push people who want to get the maximum bang for their buck toward eventually having a battery solution. If you're not into collecting money from your array, but you're instead really into getting the most efficiency, you may may shift to batteries.
01:08:47:11 - 01:09:11:08
Matt Power: Solar edge home load controller this this is just an add on to the solar edge. They have apps and it's actually a pretty good app. And they they're probably one of the best known solar control systems. This allows you to control big stuff and, you know, ratchet down your energy usage. So by controlling it directly I like this news.
01:09:11:09 - 01:09:48:25
Matt Power: Certainty. Solstice shingles, solar roofing. It solves Nimby problems. And you know, in a lot of homes at least would like to have control over what your solar looks like. Now that is is shifting somewhat. If you look at these blue states down below here, these have states have passed solar access laws. So now in these states when if your home says, oh no, you can't put solar, you may have legal recourse in that state because there's a state level law that says, no, an AOA can't tell you, you can't have solar.
01:09:48:25 - 01:10:10:20
Matt Power: So this that's kind of a positive new development. I mean, honestly, I'm not a big fan of hos. I think, you know, they have their uses. But for the most part, I just as personal opinion, I feel they do more harm than good. But, you know, we're if you bought a house in there and you or you love the house that's in this neighborhood, sometimes you're stuck with them and you got to work with them.
01:10:10:22 - 01:10:30:27
Matt Power: This is, you know, there's a lot of different tech coming out. This one, we included this, let's see if this company. Oh, actually, I have this. I guess I didn't make it in here. I had a I have a battery that was one of our hot 50 is a a ion air battery. Oh four it is its form energy down at the bottom.
01:10:30:27 - 01:10:55:11
Matt Power: Sorry, I didn't see it. So Form Energy's name of the company and they're working on a rechargeable ion to air battery. And I don't can't say I understand the technology but basically they're using rust. So the battery breeds in oxygen, converts it to rust. And then the rust is converted back to iron. I mean, sounds bizarre, but apparently they're able to create a lot of energy with this process.
01:10:55:11 - 01:11:13:20
Matt Power: And they've got a big operation. So it's considered by sort of the money people as one of the best options for a greener, cleaner, cheap battery down the pike. Now, I'm a big fan of salt based batteries. There was a company called aqui en in Massachusetts that that I think is still around, but does not do the salt based batteries.
01:11:13:20 - 01:11:31:24
Matt Power: And I'm hoping somebody will find this sort of holy grail method for salt based batteries soon, because I think there's been a lot of research on it and it's promising. They're just not they're not as efficient as they need to be. So far. Lithium, we have big problems with lithium. And not only is it, you know, it's we're running.
01:11:31:26 - 01:11:49:25
Matt Power: The reason we're running out is because of EVs. So nobody knew the EV market was going to grow so fast for electric vehicles. That's why there's this huge demand. And, you know, there's going to be a lot of political battles. I know in the state of Maine, they're trying to they found a lithium, you know, up north in Maine, they found some lithium in a mine.
01:11:49:25 - 01:12:13:19
Matt Power: And there's going to be a huge environmental struggle as they try to open up a mind because it's a dirty extraction. I mean, it's it's costly. You know, it's lucrative for the mine, the company owning the mine, but not always great for the communities around it. So I'm hoping that what will happen is, will naturally find other sources and will phase out lithium over time.
01:12:13:22 - 01:12:44:25
Matt Power: I wanted to call out for waste and water management. The the folks at E1 who make these this grinder pump. It might not seem like a, you know, obvious green product, but what this does is it moves sewage great distances up, like up hills or wherever you want it and gets it into the proper treatment facility. So, you know, if you think I'm too far away, it cost a fortune to put in, you know, a line to get to the sewer or I'm at the bottom of a hill.
01:12:44:26 - 01:13:11:18
Matt Power: This is a great way to get, you know, septic effluent out of waterways. And if you look at what's happening down the south, especially, I mean, our waterways, our algae blooms and everything else the water is getting, you know, impregnated with so much junk down here. And a lot of it comes from private septic systems. This is a great way to move the the sewer effluent to where it can be treated properly.
01:13:11:18 - 01:13:37:28
Matt Power: Even if you live in sort of a rural county, you can put it into small diameter pipes and move it along. So cool technology. This is a new thing from opener called the Aqua Port. It's kind of cool. What it does is you say you've got a like a multi-family building and you've got A22 different systems. One supplies the domestic hot water like, you know, for your showers and dishwasher and stuff, and the other supplies, the heating baseboard.
01:13:37:29 - 01:14:00:13
Matt Power: What this does is taps into the heating boiler like they typically those might be on a separate boilers, taps into that same boiler to provide your domestic hot water. So again, you, you get rid of a whole bunch of potentially a whole bunch of extra piping. You've got one system instead of two. It cuts your energy cost. Bye bye.
01:14:00:14 - 01:14:20:23
Matt Power: I think what they say up to 35%. So again, I love technology like this that steps into an existing infrastructure and just makes it and goes, hey, what about this idea? And like why didn't we think of this before and and offers a product solution like this. So really cool idea, cool product. Nice one. I'm going to stop there.
01:14:20:23 - 01:14:33:26
Matt Power: I think I blather non enough, I hope everybody gets something out of it and I'm open for some questions. So take it away Mike, and I'm happy to answer your questions from anybody. Thanks.
01:14:33:28 - 01:15:01:06
Mike Collignon: All right. Thank you Matt. And I'm going to put that in the chat box for everybody to see as well as they can hear us asking for questions. We do have one from Susie. Yeah. She was asking about insulation and air sealing. She was wondering if you can address the current status of makeup air to help maintain healthy indoor air quality with the tighter homes that we're seen.
01:15:01:08 - 01:15:22:09
Matt Power: Yeah. Makeup air one of honestly one of the drawbacks in in US construction there's hardly ever been discussions about makeup air. And I think it's key because what we do is we put in all these great, you know, fans and and systems that only go one way. Right. Like bath fans. And we have these these air change requirements.
01:15:22:09 - 01:15:48:29
Matt Power: But you're right that air has to come from somewhere. Now I've, I have like in my own, you know, renovations. I've put in passive vents which are not you know, they, they're, they're not balancing the air. Now, my understanding is that there's some products like E.R. ERV is out there now, like, I think the Panasonic 200, which is their their new ERP product, has a balanced balancing built into it.
01:15:48:29 - 01:16:19:09
Matt Power: So the newer energy recovery ventilators and heat recovery ventilators, I believe, will add to the supply of fresh air that is necessary. So even if you turn on the range hood in the kitchen, if it senses a pressure drop, I believe it will compensate. So it's a great question. And honestly, it's something that when your HVAC installer is putting in something or your kitchen install is putting in a range hood, ask them where that where that fresh air is coming from.
01:16:19:15 - 01:16:40:11
Matt Power: What I've had to do. For example, I used to put in wood stoves. I don't use them anymore, but I always added my own fresh air intake. I actually had a boiler installed recently and I had to cajole the installers in to put it was in the basement of a multifamily, and I had to cajole the installers and they weren't going to put in a fresh air.
01:16:40:11 - 01:16:58:17
Matt Power: And I said, oh no, it'll be fine. It'll just pull the air from the basement. But the problem is there were other boiler units down there and other combustion, you know, appliances. And what's it going to do? It's going to Backdraft out of there. So they looked at the manual and lo and behold, in the manual there was a place to attach a fresh air intake.
01:16:58:18 - 01:17:07:18
Matt Power: And I think if you ask the question, you can get them to do it, but it's not going to happen automatically unless they're a really great company.
01:17:07:20 - 01:17:30:05
Mike Collignon: You know, I had a question for you to the the breathable battery as I was thinking about it seems really intriguing. Do you get the sense that that's maybe design more for cars than residences, given the airflow that is inherent with the moving of an automobile?
01:17:30:08 - 01:17:47:14
Matt Power: I you know, I looked at their like over their website and materials and stuff, and they have, you know, they got a big staff and a big operation. So it looks like they're well funded. So I think honestly, they haven't narrowed themselves into that yet. I think that at this point they're going, you know, what could we do with this?
01:17:47:14 - 01:18:07:27
Matt Power: That seems to be the stage that they're at. And you know, they know I mean, the battery, whoever solves the battery technology thing, I mean, it's like inventing the post-it, you know, it's going to be I mean, the instant billionaire who who solves that battery problem because, you know, it's one of the it's probably the biggest elephant in the room of our energy future.
01:18:07:28 - 01:18:16:15
Matt Power: So yeah, I don't I don't I wouldn't say there's strictly focus on from what I could tell. It's they're open at this point to what those batteries used for.
01:18:16:17 - 01:18:29:24
Mike Collignon: Gotcha. It makes sense to not limit your market. I would just, you know, as you described, I thought, oh, that would make sense from the airflow standpoint, but didn't know what its appetite was for air, so to speak.
01:18:30:00 - 01:18:32:07
Matt Power: Yeah, I'm not sure.
01:18:32:09 - 01:18:42:01
Mike Collignon: All right. Well, I don't see any other questions Matt. So we're going to go ahead and wrap up for today. But thank you very much for sharing all this with us. We really do appreciate it.
01:18:42:03 - 01:18:57:00
Matt Power: Thank you all for for attending and taking time out of your busy, stressful days. And if you want a copy of the of the presentation, I guess Mary, would they would they just send to Mary or just email her?
01:18:57:01 - 01:19:03:04
Mike Collignon: And yeah, there's probably be a link in the post webinar email that goes out to all the registrants.
01:19:03:05 - 01:19:07:02
Matt Power: So got it. Okay. Got it. Great. Well thank you.
01:19:07:05 - 01:19:30:27
Mike Collignon: Yeah. No no problem. Matt. And also thank you to gel Duane Trex and Westlake Royal Building Products for their generous sponsorship of this of this webinar. You know, I love you to be able to join us in two weeks. You say what is in two weeks? Well, it's the Sustainability Symposium 2023. It's scheduled for April 19th and 20 from 12 to 3 p.m. Eastern Time.
01:19:30:27 - 01:19:55:13
Mike Collignon: And it's the annual event not to be missed. It's a great lineup of speakers that collectively will elevate the national dialog about intelligent solutions for a sustainable future. Now for more information and register, simply go to Green Builder Media and Look for Sustainability Symposium 2023, in that horizontal menu near the top of the page. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy and take care of everyone.
01:19:55:14 - 01:19:56:06
Mike Collignon: So long.