Pump Sunlight Indoors for Powerful Daylighting

What if you could light your entire building using no electricity, or artificial lights – but just the natural light from the sun? Conventional sky-lights do this well in certain types of single-story spaces, but are not very adaptable, powerful, and often have problems with excessive solar heat gain and heat loss. Enter the Sundolier, a powerful sunlight transport system that’s like putting a solar robot on your roof to pump sunlight indoors! The manufacturer claims a single Sundolier unit can provide enough light to illuminate a 1000-2500 sq. ft. area without any other sources.

Daylighting has taken an important role in green building, with benefits ranging from lowered energy bills to happier occupants. Many architects have struggled with making daylighting effective without the cost of glare and heat gain. The Sundolier daylighting system is a new way to gain the benefits of natural light without the drawbacks.

They do this by using an active two-axis tracking mount with a couple of reflectors that look like a big banana peel. The concentrated light is then reflected down a two foot tube and distributed using a “sun chandelier”. They are offering a few chandelier models now with more designs on the way. A roof penetration of only 3.3 sq. ft. is an industry best for the lumens output. Lighting levels at full sun are stated to be 40-50 foot candles at table top with minimal heat gain in a 1000 sq. ft. room. Here is a great video of an installation at a public library.

Now that we got the stats taken care of let’s talk about why natural light is such a hot topic in the land of green building. Studies have shown that retail sales go up, productivity increases, and school grades improve thanks to natural indoor light. But the biggest gain is in the occupants’ health. Link your lighting to a photo sensor and you save a healthy amount of energy as well. An even greater energy reduction is realized because air conditioning is reduced or eliminated by keeping those heat-producing artificial lights off.

LED Lights: Think Beyond the Bulb

Light Emitting Diodes Are the Future

While the recently approved energy bill -- which included the federal phase out plans – appropriately positions age old filament bulbs as a way of the past and compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) as the way to the future, the reality is that in 10 or so years the eventual lighting technology winner will be light emitting diode (LEDs) solutions.

Since their introduction in the early 1960s, LEDs have evolved from simple indicator lights and alphanumeric displays to an exciting new source for general lighting. LEDs differ radically from traditional light sources in that there are no glass bulbs or filaments to break, or electrodes to decay. Instead, LEDs are solid state light sources – basically, a chemical chip embedded in a plastic capsule. When the chip is energized by applying a voltage, it emits visible light, the color depending on the chip's chemical composition. The light can then be focused, routed, or scattered using lenses, waveguides or diffusers.

Due to the tremendous pace of technical developments, LED efficacy now rivals or surpasses that of standard incandescent lamps as well as the newly minted CFLs. For example, white LEDs are now producing more than 20 lumens per watt, compared to 8 - 15 lumens per watt for incandescent lamps. White LEDs are actually blue LEDs with a phosphor coating, which converts a portion of the blue light to yellow – the combination resulting in white light.

OSRAM SYLVANIA (OSI), the lighting division of engineering conglomerate Siemens AG, is integrating LEDs in a number of unique modular systems, including flexible and linear modules, marker lights, and powerful "effect" modules with focusing lenses. Flexible and linear LED modules can provide uniform backlighting for signs and contour lighting for architecture, while occupying a fraction of the space – and consuming a fraction of the energy – required by traditional light sources. Similarly, low-profile marker lights can highlight steps or edges, guiding or alerting users to hazards in areas like auditoriums, stairways and subway platforms. Effect lights combine an array of ten LEDs with individual lenses in a single compact module, focusing the combined light output into an intense and narrow beam, which can provide colorful accent lighting for architectural features.

Given the current pace of development, even general room lighting with LEDs is not a distant consideration. Indeed, the unique characteristics of LEDs invite designers, consumers and organizations alike to "think beyond the bulb," and ponder a more seamless integration of lighting and building materials.

Obama tightens efficiency rules for home water heaters

President Obama's push to increase energy efficiency is extending to home water heaters. The Department of Energy is requiring new ones meet stricter standards that could increase initial costs but reduce utility bills.

The Department of Energy is requiring that water heaters, beginning in 2015, meet stricter energy efficiency standards. Here's a General Electric one that carries the government's Energy Star label.

DOE, which has increased efficiency standards for more than 20 products such as washing machines in the last year, announced Thursday that large electric water heaters (55 gallons or more) will need to use 47% less energy and large gas ones, 30% less. Smaller units won't need to reduce energy use as much.

"You don't have to go out and replace your water heater," says DOE spokeswoman Jen Stutsman. The rules simply require that new conventional water heaters, beginning in 2015, be more efficient.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said energy efficient appliances save families money, reduce pollution and "enhance our energy security for decades to come."

Environmentalists pushed for the new rules, which are stricter than ones DOE proposed late last year.

"These standards will not only boost the total national energy savings, but help create a bigger market for advanced water heater technologies that will eventually make every shower cheaper and more sustainable," Lane Burt of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement.

DOE is also increasing efficiency standards, beginning in 2013, for pool heaters and direct heating equipment, such as gas fireplaces. These products, along with water heaters, account for 18% of home energy use.

Over three decades, DOE says the new rules will save a total of $10 billion and prevent up to 164 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions -- the equivalent of taking 46 million cars off the road for one year.

DOE estimates that the installed cost of a typical gas storage water heater (now $1,079) will increased $120 but will be offset by savings of $143 in average lifetime operating costs.

The department says it' also stepping up its enforcement of efficiency standards. On Monday, for example, it ordered that AeroSys, Inc. stop distributing an air conditioner and heat pump that independent testing showed were consuming more energy than allowed.