Green Building Expo

We checked out a green building expo “Built Green Conference 2010″  http://www.builtgreenconference.com/1/home.html today to see what is going on.  It was offered by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.  The cost to get in was $15.00 per person, so for the fiancée and I $30 plus $5 to park for the 1/2 hour it took to walk the whole expo.  The expo was geared towards builders, but open to the public for a few hours in the afternoon.  My personal opinion is that if these companies and associations want to get people to attend these type of things, free is a really good way to start.  I think there may have been 5 or 6 people at this thing that were paid visitors, not a very high traffic turnout.  If I had a booth at this show and paid what was probably a pretty steep expo fee, I would be a little upset and not looking at coming back in the future.  Just my thoughts on this subject of expos.

As for the actual exhibitors, there was a good mix of companies.  I think one of the most interesting things at the expo for me was a group called the Stewardship Partners  www.stewardshippartners.org and their affiliation with Salmon Safe http://www.salmonsafe.org/ This group does a pretty intensive certification of farms, properties, golf courses, etc. From what I can see, they look like  a good group to support.  There were many other exhibitors selling things such as building panel systems, windows, other “green” things.  I will probably get in touch with the only solar company that was at this show, Northwest Mechanical Inc. www.nwmechanical.com, to have them come out and quote a solar system.  Not sure if it will be PV or hot water, but I think it is time to take the next step.  There were also a couple there that may or may not be so green, but you can look at the list on the website and decide for yourself.

I think it is great that these things “Green Expos” have shown up and are becoming more common.

Sustainable Carpet for an Office

Sustainable carpet is the next topic.  I am going to make an office at my fiancée’s house, to do this, we have decided to remodel a room.  The existing carpet is white and isn’t really practical for rolling chairs.  We decided to go with carpet from www.flor.com for a couple of reasons.  The main reason is the carpet is a sustainable product.  The company uses recycled materials to produce the carpet and they will take the carpet back at the end of its life.  The tiles 19.7″ by 19.7″ are available in lots of different colors and patterns.  They will supply samples at $5.00 per three samples.  What I really liked about these tiles are they are not that typical cheap home center carpet tile.  The backing is a heavy rubber material and they give “dots” to fasten the tiles together (basically a piece of tape).  The installation looks easy, so I went ahead and ordered samples, which we received today.  My fiancée liked the pewter color and we went with a pattern.  I’ll post more when we get the real thing.

The other thing I am going to look for now is a FSC (Forest Stewardship Council http://www.fsc.org/) certified particle board to raise the floor height a little to match the existing entry way floor. I have emailed a local place to see if they have something that I can buy retail.  Finally, we are going to paint and replace blinds in this room.  More updates to come as the project moves forward.

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Now, back to the lighting.  We installed the remote control LED bulb (PAR 30) from LED Homeplace above the kitchen sink.  The light is very similar to daylight (even though it was listed as soft white).  Here are the photos of this.  Note that the light that is put out is very similar to daylight, so when we have the bulb on during a cloudy day, it just doesn’t seem to be as cloudy near the sink.

Remote control light bulb

My remote control light bulb arrived today.  A Par 30 bulb with a small infrared remote control included, all for about $70.  I put the bulb in a can light to see what it looked like, the light is pretty good.  Still a little harsh, but better than I was expecting.  This bulb is from LED homeplace http://www.ledhomeplace.com/led-par-lights.html . The remote has different percentages of dimming available, plus it can turn the light on and off, even cause it to flash.  The dimming function is very good.  There is no buzz or noise during dimming.  I am going to find somewhere to install the bulb and try it out in an area that gets high use.  I’ll update you when I figure that out.  Some photos below.

Company with good customer service

My replacement bulb arrived today, I am happy with the new bulb.  I tried it out in my girlfriends dining room light(not my girlfriend anymore as she is now my fiancee).  We replaced a 13 watt cfl bulb with the bulb from priorityled which I had sent back to them due to the kelvin rating.  The company promptly replaced the bulb with a new one, actually sent it by DHL.  I still think the color or light we are getting out of this bulb is a little off, so we switched back to the CFL.  I am going to try and find a place to use this bulb, I am thinking of using it in a lamp with a colored glass shade.  13 to 7 watts is not much of a change, but a little is good.  I will update you when I find something.

An interesting thing I found on the internet, actually my fiancee found it:

http://www.seesmartled.com/parlight.asp

I think a lot of the LED lights are more in the 3000K range and often I have been seeing 2700 to 3200K as the bulb rating.