Products come to market and they succeed, or not, depending on a variety of factors. The important thing is that we roll up our sleeves and try something. Albert Einstein once said: “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” The products Warren McLaren has selected here, whether the absolute best in their field or not, are products that follow that important trait of different thinking.
SolaMate
Come up with an idea that runs hot and cold and you just might score a swag of awards (HIA GreenSmart Product of the Year 2009; ABC New Inventors Winner and People’s Choice; and Next Big Thing Finalist). The SolaMate is said to be able to reduce a home heating bill by over 50 per cent. Mounted on a house roof and looking like a thin, flat solar panel for heating hot water, it instead heats air trapped within a plastic honeycomb plastic extrusion. Unable to escape due to the triple glazed construction, the warmed air is fed into the house via ceiling vents. In summer the SolaMate works during the cooler evening and night to suck out any hot indoor air the house absorbed throughout the day, replacing it with fresh, ambient air without the need to open windows.
Geo Bricks
Eighty per cent of brick production’s energy load can be found in the drying and firing process when baked at temperatures around 1,000°C. The Geo Brick, however, can save up to 90 per cent of the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, largely because it is air-dried. This amounts to 4 tonnes to 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions saved per average house lot. The company also plants eight trees for every tonne of greenhouse gases emitted during production. This allows Geo Brick to claim the title of ‘Australia’s first commercially produced carbon neutral brick’. The product debuted in 2009, but will hit the streets in 2010 when it presses the button on its 10,000-a-day brick press to churn out bricks which meet Australian Standards. The secret lies in the 4 per cent to 12 per cent eco-cement binder, which emits 30 per cent less carbon dioxide during the manufacture than conventional cements.
Dyesol
Another Australian innovation that hopefully, and finally, is on the verge of commercialisation. In 2009 Dyesol technology won the ACT Chief Minister’s 2009 Export Award. Pilot production has also been scheduled to commence in 2009 from a plant in North Wales, UK, operated by the world’s fifth largest steel producer, Corus. Dyesol, as the name suggests, is solar electricity dye technology that mimics photosynthesis by way of a layer of nanoparticulate titania pigmented dye that can be applied to glass, plastic and metal. Corus is obviously banking on the technology delivering a revolution in steel sheet building products, such as roofing. Dyesol believe its technology uses less energy to produce, whilst achieving higher levels of electricity output in both normal and low light conditions, compared to traditional solar panels. Once integrated into glass panels or metal sheets the electricity generation is directly incorporated into buildings, without the need for additional materials and fixtures.
Good Wood Guide
In the days of yore, the Good Wood Guide was a fact-filled, printed publication. Moving with the times it has been updated on several occasions to arrive at its 2009 rendition. Now it’s an online guide for builders, designers, architects and DIY enthusiasts on where to find FSC certified and eco timber. Researched by Greenpeace Australia, the information contained within is designed to curtail the estimated $400 million worth of illegal timber products imported into the country annually. Greenpeace believe “illegal logging is a major driver of deforestation, responsible for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and significant biodiversity loss.” The Guide launch was supported by timber industry heavyweights such as Bunnings, IKEA and Fantastic Furniture. While the site is packed with background information and case studies, a search function also allows specifiers to search sustainable timber for furniture, joinery, flooring, mouldings, windows and even veneers.
Dyson Air Multiplier
James Dyson, of bagless vacuum cleaner fame, set his engineers to work on a new fan — one without fan blades. The Air Multiplier is a ring of about 300 mm poised above an enclosed impellor of nine asymmetrically-aligned perforated fins. The impellor draws in air and pushes it out through the circumference of the ring, which has a recessed profile like that of a miniature aircraft wing. As air passes out over this profile, micro turbulence is created, drawing in the surrounding air. According to Dyson, this effect allows the Air Multiplier to expel 15 times the air it originally drew in. It can circulate around 450 litres of air per second, with an energy consumption of just 40 watts, over 60 times less energy guzzling than a typical air-conditioner.
Aerogel insulation
Aerogels are the lowest-density solid material known to man after their development was reported in 1931. Colloquially referred to as ‘frozen smoke’, Aerogels are also one of the most efficient solid forms of insulation available, being composed of about 90 per cent air. It also has the ability to return to its original shape after being squished by 50 psi of pressure. Being generally very expensive to produce, Aerogels have not been not readily found in commercial applications. However, the 'Beyond Today’ development near Victor Harbour, SA, described as Australia’s greenest display village, employed a 10 mm Aerogel 'spaceloft' blanket to reduce thermal bridging from concrete slabs. Researchers at SA’s Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies suggest Aerogels have twice the insulating performance of polystyrene. Additionally, it takes up seven times less shipping space than the equivalent mineral wool insulation — a significant saving in transport carbon emissions.
LED lighting
This year Philips released its Master LEDLamp range, which includes LED bulbs equivalent to 40W and 50W incandescents. Lemnis Lighting also unveiled its 6W (equal to 60W incandescent or 11W CFL) Pharox bulb, although finding them for sale in Australia is a challenge. This is odd, given we were the first country to phase out common incandescent bulbs. Local supplier Spectrum Lighting does, however, have available an 8W bayonet and screw mount LED bulb. LED technology is more accessible for councils and businesses looking to transition to LED street lighting. It is claimed that such illumination can be as much as 50 per cent brighter than current street lighting, yet reduce energy consumption by up to 80 per cent. This year, Electron Flow became the Australian distributors of the Spanish Joilet LED street lights and MBRM can provide LED area lighting that will last over 70,000 hours. Meanwhile Greenbridge offers solar powered LED street lighting packages.
Inflatable windows
Although not commercially available just yet, we’re including Mike Palin’s Inflatable Window because it is a prototype that shows the out-of-the-box thinking that leads to innovative products. According to Palin, who works as the supervisor at the Window Energy Rating Scheme (WERS) for the Australian Window Association, data from the Australian Building Codes Board suggests that 8 per cent of average building shells are windows which contribute to 87 per cent of heat loss and 48 per cent of heat gain. To fix this a more thermally efficient uPVC window frame is secured to existing window profiles with an inflatable rubber tube. The inflatable aspect provides a complete air seal and a sizing variation of 100 mm. The secondary polycarbonate glazing is secured to this frame with magnetic tape. The total unit for a standard window is said to weigh less than 5 kgs, yet afford a 68 per cent improvement on a building’s heating and cooling energy use, as calculated by WERS. The product was also an entry in the 2009 Australian Design Award-James Dyson Award.
