cost

A novel design cuts the cost of wind power

By Zarkon Group,03/12/2023

Spotted: The cost of onshore wind energy has fallen steadily over the last decade. However, wind installations have also steadily increased in size, and while bigger turbines generate more energy, they also make it more difficult to secure public approval and find financing, appropriate sites, and materials. Wind company AirLoom is taking a new approach to address these challenges.

Instead of huge blades on tall towers, AirLoom’s design consists of vertically oriented, 10-metre-long wings attached to a lightweight track. The blades intercept the wind, which propels them down the track, generating power. Supported by 25-metre-tall poles arranged in an oval, the track can range in length from metres to miles, depending on the desired scale.

A key advantage of the design is that it is quieter and lower profile than skyline-dominating turbines, which could help to reduce complaints about local disruption and ruined views. The system is also low-cost and modular, which means it can be deployed at different scales using a standard set of components.

AirLoom recently announced that it has secured $4 million (around €3.7 million) in seed funding. The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, which supports new clean technologies, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital and energy fund MCJ Collective. The money will help AirLoom scale up to the megawatt scale and full deployment.

Despite the difficult market for new wind energy projects, a number of innovations seek to make wind power more affordable. These include a low-cost, single-bladed floating turbine and small turbines for powering microgrids.

Written By: Lisa Magloff and Matthew Hempstead

Reducing the cost of electrolysers for green hydrogen

By Zarkon Group,17/09/2023

Spotted: Hydrogen is often touted as a green technology, but although it produces only water when consumed in a fuel cell, the hydrogen itself is generally produced using fossil fuels. Green hydrogen, or hydrogen produced using carbon-free electricity, is a path to decarbonising global hydrogen supplies, but it is generally too expensive today to be adopted at scale.

That may be about to change, however, with a new type of hydrogen electrolyser developed by Advanced Ionics. Ted Dillon, Advanced Ionics’ Interim Vice President of Marketing told Springwise that the company’s technology reduces the electricity required from around 51 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per kilogramme of hydrogen to just 35 kWh of electricity per kilogramme of hydrogen produced.

Importantly, the technology does not require any rare or expensive metals or ceramics, which are common in other electrolysers. The company’s Symbiotic Electrolysers use process or waste heat to generate steam for powering electrolysis. By tapping into excess heat that is already available in industrial settings, they are able to lower the amount of electricity used for the process.

Advanced Ionics has recently closed a $12.5 million (around €11.6 million) series A financing led by BP ventures, with additional investors including Clean Energy Ventures, GVP Climate, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Dillion confirmed that the funding will be used to, “expand our team, our facilities, and our work on demonstration projects with future customers.”

The drive to adopt hydrogen for use as a power provider has been picking up steam. Springwise has spotted this in a number of recent innovations in the archive, including technology that produces green hydrogen from bio-waste and a hydrogen-powered data centre.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Start with SIP Panels: Cost Savings, Efficiency, Health, Resilience

By Zarkon Group,19/08/2023

Healthy homes for a healthy planet

A building envelope is the armor that protects inhabitants, as well as interior finishes, furnishings and equipment. In the walls, roof, flooring, healthy materials are important to anyone suffering respiratory problems, like allergies and asthma. A well-designed home envelope is durable, healthy, insulating, and tightly sealed. Panelized construction homes are engineered to bring these qualities together.

In a well-sealed building, fresh air is provided through controlled ventilation systems, ensuring occupants breathe healthier, filtered air, and removing pollutants produced inside the home (dust, CO2, natural gas byproducts, etc.). Heating and cooling are maintained more efficiently and more comfortably, without leaking conditioned air through gaps in doors, walls, and ceilings. This means no drafts or ingress of polluted air, particularly during pollen or smoke advisories! SIPs have uniform insulation, which means there are no cavities where moisture might accumulate and promote mold, mildew, or rot.

Where you’re stopping air leaks you’re also blocking noise transmission pathways, leading to a quieter, and perhaps more private, living situation.

The components in insulated panels (including adhesives) meet some of the most stringent standards for indoor air quality, with low off-gassing. SIP panels have such low formaldehyde emission levels that they easily meet or are exempt from US Housing and Urban Development and California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards.

Avoiding cost and food waste in hospitality

By Zarkon Group,13/11/2022

Spotted: Every year, around 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, including approximately 40 per cent of all food at retail or consumer level in industrialised countries. This constitutes a huge amount of wasted resources and acts as a substantial contribution to global warming. To help reduce this mountain of food waste, startup No Spoilers has developed an innovative inventory control solution aimed at hospitality businesses.

The company’s multi-platform application provides tools that allow businesses to conduct fast and precise inventory control. The system centres around a Bluetooth-enabled scale that can be used with a mobile phone. Inventory control data is automatically uploaded to the cloud so it can be analysed on a computer or mobile device and using the data, managers can then easily schedule tasks for employees and control the company’s workflow on the platform.

The system is also packed with helpful features such as the ability to quickly identify products using a built-in barcode reader or measure partial inventory using No Spoilers’ Smart Scale – giving managers an accurate idea of exactly how much food and drink they have left. The software also offers inventory management features including inventory control, inventory optimisation, purchasing, pricing management, mobile access, and analytics and reporting.

Businesses can alter No Spoilers’ system to set the optimum periodic automatic replenishment (PAR) levels and automatically generate inventory orders, control suppliers with incoming inventory control, gather and analyse business data for informed decision-making, and identify and report losses due to wastage.

Reducing food waste not only helps save resources, but it also helps hospitality companies save money. Some other innovations helping reduce food waste include AI that can check the freshness of fruit and a startup that uses computer vision to help commercial kitchens manage food waste.

Written By Lisa Magloff

Conscious Hotels CEO Marco Lemmers says sustainability can’t cost extra

By Zarkon Group,10/11/2022

Only “hardcore sustainable” customers are currently willing to pay extra for eco-conscious hotels, according to Marco Lemmers, CEO of hospitality company Conscious Hotels.

Lemmers predicts that hotel guests will be prepared to pay more for sustainability in the future, but it will be “a few years from now”.

“I think people will be prepared to pay more for a sustainable solution,” he told Dezeen.

“We’re not there yet, because the hotel business is still quite price-sensitive. You have to be hardcore sustainable to want to pay €10 euros extra for a sustainable stay. But slowly it’s moving in that direction.”

Marco Lemmers, CEO of Conscious Hotels — Marco Lemmers is CEO of Conscious Hotels. Main image: the all-electric Westerpark venue is one of four Conscious Hotels in Amsterdam

Lemmers, who founded Conscious Hotels in 2009, spoke to Dezeen during The Lobby hospitality design conference in Copenhagen in August.

Conscious Hotels has four properties in Amsterdam. These hotels have eco-friendly policies in place for all of their operations, including interior fit-out, energy and water use, food and drink, and cleaning processes.

According to Lemmers, the company’s sustainability ethos has enabled it to build a loyal customer base.

“We’re the most sustainable option in Amsterdam, so we see a lot of returning guests” he said.

The brand’s mantra is “eco-sexy, big smiles”

However this alone is not enough to make the business thrive, Lemmers explained. Conscious Hotels aims to be competitive in terms of design and cost, so it can also attract non-eco-minded customers.

“The only way to make change is to seduce people,” he said.

“We have our sustainable planet promises but we also have to make it sexy. Sexy is about having beautiful places, beautiful food and drink, and beautiful people.”

Looking forward, Lemmers predicts that changes in legislation will soon give eco-minded hotels a competitive advantage over rivals.

He believes that hotel owners in Europe will soon be legally obligated to meet much stricter rules on the sustainability of their buildings and operations.

“We’ve already seen it happen in the Netherlands with offices and the same will happen with hotels,” he stated.

“Even if you don’t believe in sustainability, do a SWOT analysis in the next business planning cycle and see the threat.”

Conscious Hotel The Tire Station — The Tire Station of one of two Conscious Hotels with its own source of solar power

The CEO says that hotels lagging behind need to urgently rethink their approach, or risk playing catchup.

“There’s an opportunity now – if you have sustainability in order, you have a competitive advantage,” he said. “Pretty soon legislation will push you to go there anyway, and there’s usually not a lot to be gained by being one of the last movers.”

Conscious Hotels implements a number of guidelines in order to reduce its environmental impact.

All the materials used for hotel fit-out are either natural products with cradle-to-cradle certification, or they are recycled or second-hand.

Conscious Hotels bedroom — Interiors only use materials that are recycled, second-hand or certified cradle-to-cradle

Conscious Hotel Westerpark is 100 per cent electric-powered, with most of its energy supplied by the brand’s own windmill, while two of the other hotels generate energy from rooftop solar panels.

Restaurants serve organic food, with more than 50 per cent vegan or vegetarian dishes, and almost all produce is sourced from local suppliers.

Other initiatives include green walls, passive heating and cooling systems, organic cleaning products, water-saving showerheads and faucets, refillable toiletries and waste separation.

Conscious Hotels interior — All food and drink is sourced from local suppliers

While Lemmers acknowledges that some of these initiatives require time and investment, particularly for large hotel chains, he claims that others are easy to implement.

He believes that all hotels could easily take at least one step towards improving their sustainability credentials.

“Start with the operation; you can do it today,” he said. “Just procure stuff that’s local instead of having it come from the other side of the world.”

“FF & E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) comes slightly later, but you have to invest in that every seven years anyway, to maintain and renew.”

Conscious Hotels currently has 318 rooms across its four Amsterdam hotels, although the brand plans to increase this to 1,500 as part of a Europe-wide expansion.

Sealed – Energy Efficient Homes Without Cost or Hassle

By Zarkon Group,27/06/2022

Are you someone who wants to make your home more energy efficient but gets stressed about the thought of the time and money involved? Sealed offers home energy renovation packages that take care of the logistics and financing, so you don’t have to. They focus on helping homeowners achieve a stress-free energy upgrade that significantly cuts energy waste in the home. Based in New York, Sealed has extended its services to New Jersey, Connecticut, the Philadelphia Metro Area, and the Chicagoland Area of Illinois – with more to come. They prioritize ease, affordability, and comfort for homeowners through powerful energy upgrades, including heat pumps, whole-home weatherization with insulation, air sealing, and smart home tech, without sacrificing quality – while putting homeowners first.

The Sources of Renovation Stress

Have you ever spent all afternoon searching for a decent contractor? Or maybe you have made what feels like a million calls that end up with you waiting on hold or even leading to a dead end. Perhaps you have passed those stages but still find yourself confused and unsure. Unsure about how you might pay or what they’re even talking about. When looking for a decent contractor to help improve energy efficiency within your home, many stressors seem to come along with what should be a harmless task. Sealed helps ensure you don’t have to deal with that nightmare process and can get directly to the dream results.

Sealed Takes Care of it All

“We will take care of it all.” Sealed believes in helping people achieve healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient homes, and they are committed to making it an easy process. Sealed actively takes away the stress of everything from finding contractors up to figuring out a payment method. Sealed provides certified home performance contractors, project plans, and coordination of all of the work. “We manage the installation process from scheduling to completion.” Their method is efficient and affordable. After a day or two in your home, Sealed takes care of everything, including the upfront costs. The energy that you save will help pay for the project. “If you don’t save energy? We don’t get paid”.

The Sealed Process Step by Step

“At Sealed, we’ve designed a better process for upgrading homes. We prioritize ease, affordability, and accountability, without ever sacrificing quality”. The first step is to take the Sealed qualification quiz. It only takes a few minutes, and you will receive an immediate response as to whether or not you are a good fit for Sealed. The next step is to have an introductory call. On this call, there will be a conversation about the issues your home is experiencing and how they can best address them. This call is free, and there is no obligation to take the conversation further. After the introductory call, Sealed will conduct an energy profile analysis. This analysis entails a quick scan of the home’s energy strengths and weaknesses and past energy usage to understand better what upgrades your home needs. Once Sealed understands your house better, they will devise a project plan and timeline. Your home upgrade plan will include the project value and customized payment program. With Sealed’s payment plan, they can cover up to 100% of the project costs upfront. They’ll work with you to design your repayment terms to balance the low upfront costs with monthly charges that work for your budget. If you’re ready to move forward, you’ll sign your agreement. Next, your Sealed contractor will visit your home to verify that everything is properly scoped out. If any changes are needed, they will adjust the plan accordingly. Then, the installation process will begin. Based on the project plan and timeline, installation takes about one or two days.

Energy Efficiency with Accountability

Once the installation is complete, you will start receiving monthly bills. Sealed bases the repayment amount on actual energy savings from the renovations completed. If the home energy improvements don’t reduce your energy use, Sealed won’t get paid. So Sealed partners with the best home contractors and only suggests upgrades that will save you energy and money.

The Help We All Need

How does the existing housing stock reach zero emissions by 2050? It’s a big job, but Sealed is one of many startups that offers the opportunity for everyone with an existing home to get on the path to zero carbon. Given the federal government’s lack of action, the innovation of private companies, such as Sealed, powered by investor capital, is a great way to reach that goal. By offering the technical resources and financing that homeowners need, companies like Sealed may make it possible for almost all homeowners to get on the path to zero.

– By Anna Jennissen, Editorial and Events Intern with EEBA. Anna is pursuing a BA at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, majoring in Strategic Communications and Sustainability.

Special thanks to Sealed for editing and reviewing this article.

Double Stud Wall Simplified – Low Cost, High Performance

By Zarkon Group,23/05/2022

Simplify

The double-stud wall is a well-established method for creating a very economical, durable, and high R-value assembly in new construction – and is one reason it’s included as one of the basic 475 Smart Enclosure System assembly types. We know pushing standard code-minimum construction toward high performance is complicated. So we’re always looking for ways to simplify – to simultaneously reduce cost while optimizing efficiency and occupant comfort. Integrated with Pro Clima air sealing and moisture control components, the double-stud wall provides unmatched economic value, safety from moisture damage, and long-lasting performance.

Go Sheathingless

With Pro Clima component integration, we’re taking it one step further. Below we illustrate a sheathingless double-stud wall (that’s right: no structural sheathing) that provides the following characteristics:

Minimized material costs
Maximized moisture drying potential
Removal of formaldehyde, VOC’s and other toxic chemicals commonly found in SPF, rigid foams, OSB, and plywood
Easily adjustable wall thickness to meet your design R-value
Space between walls for continuous insulation
Utilization of dense-pack insulation (Gutex wood THERMOFIBER, cellulose, fiberglass, mineral wool, or Havelock Wool).
No special materials or connections needed for the framing components
Fits with the typical platform framing method

You can still frame your walls on the deck and raise them into place, but without all that sheathing they’ll be a lot lighter. With this system, you build a house out of 2x4s, fibrous insulation, SOLITEX MENTO Plus weather-resistive barrier outboard, INTELLO Plus smart vapor retarder inboard, and not much else.

The Framing

The wall consists of an inner load-bearing wall and an outer exterior finishing wall. The floor and roof loads are stacked on top of the inner wall studs. This method can allow the use 24″ o.c. advanced framing assembly if your floor and roof loads meet the design criteria. The inner wall is framed like any other stick-built wall, with the exception that the shear load is carried by 2x lumber nailed, or metal strapping mechanically fastened, diagonally, to the outside face of the inner stud wall – in the insulation cavity.

It’s important to note that each structure will have very different shear and uplift retention requirements due to variables in building height, the number of windows, local codes, shape of building, seismic requirements, etc. The outer wall is connected to the decks as outriggers, there to support the insulation and finished facade elements, and consequently, it requires minimal framing material and opening headers. In taller walls, it’s important to connect the inner and outer studs for additional strength as well as partition the bays every second bay – to make dense-packing of the double stud cavities easier to reach proper density and maintain quality control.

The Integrated Service Cavity

With this approach, the inner wall studs act as the service cavity without the need for additional strapping to support the interior finish – making it an integrated service cavity. This approach takes planning but allows for fewer steps and less material. An excellent example of this approach is demonstrated in our Project Spotlight: Vermont Integrated Architecture. Leicester, VT.

Two Air Barriers Too

To optimize the insulating value of the dense-pack insulation – airtight membranes are placed on both sides of the fibrous insulation, thereby preventing thermal bypass, as well as optimizing the drying reserves of this highly insulated wall. At the interior side is the INTELLO PLUS membrane, airtight with intelligent vapor control, making it vapor open in the summer to facilitate inward drying and vapor retarding in the winter to prevent vapor accumulation into the insulation. The INTELLO Plus is reinforced so that it substitutes for the typical mesh used in a dense-pack installation. At the exterior side is SOLITEX MENTO PLUS: airtight, waterproof, reinforced and vapor open, allowing for maximum drying potential to the outside without being restricted by an exterior sheathing, like plywood or OSB, which are Class II or low Class III vapor retarders.

Windows & Penetrations

The window is installed into a plywood box that ties together the inner and outer walls. We offer a wide selection of window air sealing tapes, but to keep it simple you need only TESCON PROFIL, or the even faster TESCON PROFECT, for the airtight connections at the interior and exterior of the window. (And don’t forget to pre-make your window corners!). At the sill heavy-duty self-sealing waterproofing is provided by EXTOSEAL ENCORS. There are multiple ways to create a thermal bridge free window installation – there are many variables depending on the window type and brand.

The most important thing is to make sure that the window is precisely connected to your interior and exterior airtight and moisture control layers. This will ensure that your installation will not have condensation due to air movement at this thermally weak intersection. Small air leakage at this connection will allow the interior winter humidity to enter the insulated cavity. Making an air-tight connection at all openings is the best way to prevent future structural damage.

Learn More

For more details and variations on this concept, download 475’s free CAD details and ebook for 475 Smart Enclosure Double-Stud Assemblies.

By 475 Building Supply

This guest blog was originally published on the 475 Building Supply blog.

The Double Stud Wall Simplified – Low Cost, High Performance

By Zarkon Group,17/05/2022

Simplify

Go Sheathingless

Minimized material costs
Maximized moisture drying potential
Removal of formaldehyde, VOC’s and other toxic chemicals commonly found in SPF, rigid foams, OSB, and plywood
Easily adjustable wall thickness to meet your design R-value
Space between walls for continuous insulation
Utilization of dense-pack insulation (Gutex wood THERMOFIBER, cellulose, fiberglass, mineral wool, or Havelock Wool).
No special materials or connections needed for the framing components
Fits with the typical platform framing method

The Framing

The Integrated Service Cavity

Two Air Barriers Too

Windows & Penetrations

Learn More

For more details and variations on this concept, download 475’s free CAD details and ebook for 475 Smart Enclosure Double-Stud Assemblies.

By 475 Building Supply

This guest blog was originally published on the 475 Building Supply blog.