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Thermal Bridges, Passive Houses in the UK, and Spray Foam

March 24, 2009 in energy efficiency, green building, materials by nils | Add your comment

On the fence

Chain link fence (get it?) - (image by James Jordan, CC 2.0 licensed)

As I’ve been surfing green building sites and articles over the last week, I ran across these interesting items. I hope you find them useful.

Thermal bridging occurs wherever assembly components with low R-values relative to surrounding materials span from the inside to the outside of a building assembly.

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High Tech Innovations Vs. Low Tech

February 5, 2009 in green building, materials by nils | Add your comment

Bamboo thicket

Bamboo - Fast Growing CO2 Sequestration (Image by Joi, CC 2.0 licensed)

I read Technology Review for the latest innovations and breakthroughs in fuel cell technology, transparent solar cells, exotic new batteries and things like that. But there are tons of much lower tech innovations happening all the time. I happened to meet a guy the other night who’s working on a new startup related to building construction.

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Green Shopping For DIYers

January 20, 2009 in green building, materials by nils | 2 comments

Main Street #6 (Superior Appliances)

Are They Energy Star Certified? (Image by kevindooley, CC 2.0 licensed)

In the national consciousness “green is the new black.” But what if you want to do a little work around the house – paint the kitchen, retrofit with some compact fluorescent lights, build some shelves? How much of a challenge is getting materials and advice for a green DIY or remodeling project? My friend Rich Wingerter decided to find out a few weeks ago, and went on a little shopping trip. He recounts his experience with Green Shopping on his blog The Greens.

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AskNature.org – A New Biomimicry Resource and Social Networking Site

November 24, 2008 in integrative design, materials by nils | 2 comments

Spider silk has desirable technical properties that manmade materials cannot replicate yet

Spider silk has desirable technical properties that manmade materials cannot replicate yet

I just visited AskNature.org, [url corrected] a new resource and social site for people interested in understanding how nature has solved various design problems – such as energy conservation, water collection, and energy generation – and how we can use those solutions as inspiration for our own technology.

AskNature is a bio-inspiration website where innovators can learn from nature’s solutions, biologists can find a whole new audience for their research, students can be inspired through science, and collaborators from different disciplines can work together to create innovative, sustainable, bio-inspired designs.

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A Note From The Fuel Cell Research Front

October 29, 2008 in biofuels, energy generation, energy storage, materials by nils | Add your comment

Methanol fuel cell.

Methanol fuel cell. Image via Wikipedia

I plan to do an in-depth post or series on fuel cells soon, because there is so much breakthrough work going on in this research area. Fuel cells are interesting on so many fronts – for example, they’re probably the best way to use the hydrogen generated by Daniel Nocera’s new hydrogen splitting method, announced in mid-August. And just since August, researchers have announced big improvements or cost reductions in every component of the fuel cell – membrane, catalyst, and electrodes.

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Carbon Fiber May Not Be Necessary

August 21, 2008 in materials, transportation by nils | Add your comment

Inlay with nacre tesserae; Bagdad pavilion; th...Image via Wikipedia

Looked at one way, carbon fiber composites are just our simplistic human analog of natural nano-featured composites like those that make up mussel and abalone shells. Mollusks use a “digital” process for creating their shells – a digital process controlled by a computer running DNA as its code. What if we could make composites like those little molluscs – stronger and more resilient than some random fibers jammed into some plastic?

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