Washington, D.C. (April 1, 2010) — New efficiency standards released late yesterday by the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) will deliver huge energy savings nationwide by making each of the millions of new water heaters installed more energy efficient, according to a coalition of energy efficiency, consumer and environmental organizations.

In addition, for the very largest home water heaters, the new efficiency standards will for the first time require advanced technologies — heat pumps for electrically-powered products and condensing technology for gas products — paving the way for even bigger future savings.

“From washing hands to hot showers to clean dishes, we all rely on water heaters for our daily needs,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). “These new standards will deliver big national energy savings, reduce consumer energy bills and cut pollution.”

According to DOE, for most product sizes sold, the new standards can be met with modest changes, such as adding more insulation to today’s conventional tank-style water heaters. For the most common size electric water heater (50 gallons), the standards will save 4 percent while for the most common size gas water heater (40 gallons), the new standards will save 3 percent. These per unit savings add up to big national impacts since more than nine million home water heaters are sold every year and water heating accounts for some 12 percent of the typical home’s energy use.

However, for the biggest products — those with over 55 gallons in storage capacity, which is about 9 percent and 4 percent of the electric and gas water heater markets respectively — the new standards can only be met with heat pump and condensing technology. Heat pump electric water heaters save at least 50 percent and gas condensing water heaters save about 25 percent relative to today’s conventional storage water heaters.

“In the long run, a shift to electric heat pump and condensing gas water heaters is absolutely essential if we are to make deep cuts in household energy use and costs,” said Jeffrey Harris, vice president, national programs, of the Alliance to Save Energy. “DOE deserves tremendous credit for kick-starting this transition with its new standards.”

The new standards will save 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years or about enough energy to meet the total needs of about 13 million typical U.S. households for one year. Over the same period, consumers would save about $8.7 billion and carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 154 million metric tons (an amount equal to the typical annual emissions of 30 million cars).

Based on DOE analyses, ACEEE estimates that a transition to electric heat pump and condensing gas products in all sizes and applications that make sense would save about 10 quads of energy and reduce CO2 emissions by about 0.5 billion metric tons.

Last year, President Obama committed to accelerate DOE’s work to update many outmoded standards. These new standards are the latest in a series of more than 20 that must be completed during the current presidential term.

“Just a year into President Obama’s administration, DOE has made remarkable progress to update appliance standards,” said Appliance Standards Awareness Project Executive Director Andrew deLaski. “DOE’s new standards prove again that the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we save.”

Condensing and heat pump technologies are common in space heating but have only a toehold so far in the water heater market. More than 40 percent of U.S. furnace sales are of condensing products, and about 8 percent of U.S homes are warmed with heat pumps. Several major water heater companies have brought these technologies to the water heater market and other major manufacturers are working to develop and introduce competing products.

“The Obama administration has demonstrated again its strong commitment to an energy efficient future with these standards. These standards are a big step toward improving the efficiency of U.S. homes,” said Earthjustice associate attorney Tim Ballo. “We are encouraged to see the Obama administration make the right choice and give energy efficiency the boost that it deserves. We hope this decision signals the administration’s future choices on energy efficiency standards, which have the ability to put money back in the American people’s pockets, spur innovation, create jobs, and lift our economy, while at the same time reducing harmful air pollution from power plants.”

A broad coalition of consumer, energy efficiency and environmental groups as well as utilities, state officials and more than 17,000 individuals wrote DOE urging adoption of the standards announced today.

Today’s final rule also updates minimum standards for less common products such as tankless water heaters (also known as instantaneous water heaters), pool heaters and direct heating equipment, a type of space heater.

LINK TO DOE RULE: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/residential/heating_products_fr.html

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The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection. ACEEE was involved in the legislation establishing federal efficiency standards, and has been active in all rulemakings since then. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, contact ACEEE, 529 14th Street N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20045 or visit www.aceee.org.

The Appliance Standards Awareness Project is dedicated to increasing awareness of and support for cost-effective appliance and equipment efficiency standards. Founded in 1999, ASAP is led by a steering committee that includes representatives from energy efficiency organizations, the environmental community, consumer groups, utilities, and state government. See standardsASAP.org .

The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, the economy and national security. www.ase.org

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. Earthjustice brings about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations and communities. More information on Earthjustice is available at its Web site: www.earthjustice.org

PISCATAWAY, N.J. March 16, 2010 – American Standard Brands is taking a stand for global safe drinking water and basic sanitation for all, by standing up 12 high-efficiency toilets outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 in a Guinness World Record attempt to create the World’s Longest Toilet Queue.

The event is part of two days of activities to support World Water Day (March 22), with toilet queues being set up in Europe and Asia, as well as North America, to draw attention to WASH, an acronym for water, sanitation and hygiene. Lack of access to fresh clean water, the world’s largest environmental health crisis, kills 4,500 children every day.

The World’s Longest Toilet Queue is one of many happenings taking place in Washington, DC next Monday and Tuesday, bringing together thousands of campaigners from around the world to identify ways to achieve the United Nations’ 2015 Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the proportion of people who lack safe drinking water and basic sanitation by the year 2015.

On March 22, a series of high-level roundtables entitled “Paths Forward for the Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Sector,” hosted by the Global Water Futures Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, are being held. Their goal — to generate strategies on how to improve the outcome of WASH programs and increase participation of U.S. based public and private sectors in global WASH initiatives. Jim McHale, American Standard Brands vice president, operations and engineering, is an invited participant in the roundtable discussion “Making our Investments Count,” contributing ideas to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of WASH programs. McHale and other American Standard Brands executives will also attend an invitation-only event at the National Geographic Society, expected to feature U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where the spotlight will be on the expanding commitments of the U.S. government, corporations and non-profit organizations towards worldwide WASH proposals.

“Lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene is a serious global issue,” said McHale, “Nearly 1 billion people around the world still lack access to clean drinking water, and more than 2.5 billion people lack even basic sanitation.

“In our country, we are fortunate that trained plumbers protect our health and safety, a fact American Standard celebrated in the1930s with our iconic advertising campaign, The Plumber Protects the Health of Our Nation,” McHale continued.

World Water Day participation is the latest in a series of initiatives by American Standard Brands to raise awareness of practical water conservation solutions through award-winning product innovations and increased consumer choice. In February, American Standard Brands announced a $1 million, two-year partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest conservation organization, in support of its mission in the area of global freshwater conservation.

Organizations supporting World Water Day include Action Against Hunger, Africare, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, InterAction, Global Water Challenge, H2O for Life, ONE, Millennium Water Alliance, NRDC, PATH, PSI, P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, U.S. Coalition for Child Survival, Water Advocates, WaterAid, Water For People, and Water.org.
“If you are in Washington D.C. next Tuesday, get in line with us,” said Jeannette Long, general manager of e-commerce and marketing initiatives for American Standard Brands. “We’ll be giving away chances to win prizes when the line starts building at 1:00 pm right through the media event at 1:30 pm.” The World’s Longest Toilet Queue, which is open to any supporters and passersby, will take place in the park alongside Constitution Avenue between Union Station and the U.S. Capitol.

ABOUT AMERICAN STANDARD BRANDS
American Standard Brands is a leading North American manufacturer of a wide range of high-quality kitchen and bath products, including faucets, fixtures, furniture, vitreous china fixtures, cast iron sinks, whirlpool tubs and other related products. The company currently serves both the residential and commercial markets; employs more than 6,000 people in the United States, Canada and Mexico; and markets products under the American Standard®, Crane®, Eljer®, Porcher®, Jado® and Fiat® brands. American Standard Brands is an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners with a minority interest held by Bain Capital Partners, Inc.

“The durability and long life-span of many man-made products provide long-term savings for homeowners,” says Mark Clement, co-host of MyFixItUpLife radio show. “I’ve used synthetic slate roofing tiles that are so realistic-looking that people standing right next to the house don’t believe it’s not real slate.

“There are DaVinci EcoBlend ‘green roofing tiles’ guaranteed for 50 years that have been rated by the Cool Roof Rating Council to reflect sunlight and heat away from the home. Research shows that this type of roof will save homeowners between seven and 15 percent annually on total cooling costs because the roof is actually helping reduce the temperature fluctuations inside the home. That’s a green product that saves green.”

On his home, Clement chose to match synthetic roofing tiles with energy-efficient vinyl windows from Simonton Windows. The low-maintenance ENERGY STAR qualified windows have fusion welded vinyl frames that serve as a strong insulator. According to the Vinyl Institute, vinyl products have no negative impact on indoor air quality and they’re often specified in green certified homes. The realistic-looking roofing tiles and attractive windows also add both beauty and comfort to the home.

“A synthetic product, like an installed Solar Block acrylic block window, is constructed to reduce the amount of ultraviolet rays that penetrate into your home,” says Clement. “In turn, that reduces your overall energy bills. Any homeowner eager to save money while looking to purchase environmentally-friendly products can do so by exploring the synthetic options available in the marketplace.”

According to Clement, who serves as the tool and how-to expert for HGTVPro.com, synthetic products are made to outlast many natural products. “The Fypon urethane door surrounds and PVC trimboards I’ve installed on the exterior of homes years ago look as good today as when I put them up,” says Clement. “The pieces don’t rot, twist, warp or absorb water. The end result is that, once installed, you save on long-term maintenance and have trim pieces that will outlast the majority of real wood products.”

For additional information on synthetic products for the home, visit www.myfixituplife.com.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (February 1, 2010) – American Standard Brands, a leading manufacturer of bath and kitchen plumbing products in North America, announced today its commitment of $1 million over a two-year period to The Nature Conservancy to increase awareness of how consumers can conserve water every day and to provide support of the Conservancy’s mission of protecting the Earth’s most vital natural resource – our drinking water.

“As the world’s largest conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy is committed to changing the way water is used and managed to ensure a sustainable supply for people while ensuring ecological health. We couldn’t be more pleased by the support of such a venerable brand as American Standard, a company which shares our passion and dedication to protecting the environment,” said Brian Richter, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Global Freshwater Program.

“At American Standard, our goal is to educate consumers that conservation can and does begin at home. By developing water efficient, low-consumption toilets, faucets and showerheads that actually work, we are providing consumers with real choice in creating responsible bathrooms without sacrifice in style or performance,” said Don Devine, American Standard president and chief executive officer. “Our objective is to reduce overall water consumption by more than 18 billion gallons not just this year, but every year thereafter, through the installation of water efficient American Standard toilets, showers and faucets. This will save consumers money on water, reduce water treatment volumes and costs, and reduce the strain on our environment.”

American Standard’s two-year agreement/partnership and support of the Conservancy’s mission in the area of global freshwater conservation is intended to bring attention to an issue of mounting global concern while providing solutions through award-winning product innovations and increased selection that puts the opportunity to make a difference squarely in the hands of consumers.

“The Nature Conservancy has a 50-year track record of achieving results in the area of conservation. We can’t think of a more esteemed partner or more vital endeavor to put our support behind,” commented Mr. Devine.

ABOUT AMERICAN STANDARD BRANDS
American Standard Brands is a leading North American manufacturer of a wide range of high-quality kitchen and bath products, including faucets, fixtures, furniture, vitreous china fixtures, cast iron sinks, whirlpool tubs and other related products. The company currently serves both the residential and commercial markets; employs more than 6,000 people in the United States, Canada and Mexico; and markets products under the American Standard®, Crane®, Eljer®, Porcher®, Jado®, and Fiat® brands. American Standard Brands is an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners with a minority interest held by Bain Capital Partners, Inc.

ABOUT THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide.

(San Francisco, January 28, 2010) — Action For Nature, a San-Francisco-based non-profit, is now taking applications for the 2010 International Young Eco-Hero Awards, which honor youth ages 8 to 16 for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental advocacy, environmental health, research and protection of the natural world.

Award recipients will receive up to $500 cash, an award certificate, and other forms of recognition. The application deadline is February 28, 2010.

Action For Nature’s mission is to encourage young people to take personal action to nurture and protect a healthy environment on which all life depends. Now in its eighth year of the International Young Eco-Hero Awards, the organization has honored 90 young people from 13 countries and 24 states in America.

Previous award winners have continued to receive other prestigious leadership, environmental and science awards, such as the Brower Youth and Intel Science awards. They’ve also taken part in local, national and international media interviews.

Alec Loorz, a 2008 award winner, has continued to educate youth and adults about global warming and has spoken to more than 20,000 people. Alec, who is now 15, is the youngest member of Al Gore’s speaking panel, and was recently asked to assist with a presentation before the U.S. Senate.

Former award winner Otana Jakpor, 16, researched air purifiers and ozone emissions and successfully advocated for change in California. Her findings resulted in the first-ever state regulation of ozone-generators. She has since been honored by the Environmental Protection Agency and has become an official spokesperson for the American Lung Association. She has also had her work published by several science journals.

For more information about the International Young Eco-Hero Awards, as well as to view the guidelines and application forms, visit www.actionfornature.org.

Guidelines and applications are available at:

http://www.actionfornature.org/eco-hero/ecoheroawards.html

According to Dave Spitler, assistant park manager, he was searching for a better way to heat buildings other than using wood-burning stoves. “There was a big cost factor in man hours to have staff members cut and split wood for the stoves,” says Spitler. “The Clean Burn furnace that we’ve installed is an economical and ecological solution for Five Rivers MetroParks.”

Used oil storage tanks now collect hundreds of gallons of recycled motor oil from the park’s 99 fleet vehicles, 98 small motorized vehicles (including Gators and lawn mowers), as well as community contributions. After being refined, the oil is pushed through a filter and pre-heated. Then the oil is injected into the Clean Burn furnace and burned at 1,800 degrees. The high temperatures create low emissions (less than one percent allowable by EPA standards) and generate enough heat to warm the park’s 2,400-square-foot facility.

Prior to obtaining the Clean Burn system, the park hired contractors to haul away and dispose of used oil. That costly process had the potential for environmental damage through spills and used more fossil fuels for transporting the waste oil. The furnace saves labor hours from the cutting of timber and provides an environmental, on-site system for recycling used motor oil.

“I’ve sent oil recycle barrels to all MetroParks facilities to collect their used oil,” says Spitler. “Each park saves money since they no longer have to pay anyone to properly dispose of the oil. We bring the full barrels to the central furnace area and replace them with empty barrels. This is a sensible solution that would be viable for other parks nationwide to adapt in order to save money and close the loop on recycling efforts.”

There are 80,000 Clean Burn functional furnaces and boilers located throughout the world that burn millions of gallons of used-oil each year on-site, at the point of generation. This volume of used-oil would otherwise be transported on highway systems and pose a considerable risk to spills and/or contamination to the environment.

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Clean Burn is an ENERGY STAR® partner. The company holds numerous industry certifications and works with the U.S. government, the Environmental Protection Agency and various associations to help coordinate the establishment of standards and regulations related to heat recovery and recycling efforts involving used motor oils. For more information on Clean Burn, visit www.cleanburn.com or call 1-800-331-0183.

LEOLA, PA – The new book, “Bringing It Back Around” provides step-by-step guidance for schools and communities to launch their own recycling center. The story of the student-run Purdy Recycling Center at Purdy High School in Missouri focuses on how students created a thriving, profitable recycling business to fund scholarships and club activities.

Available for $30 each (postage included) at the club website of spanish.purdy.k12.mo.us, the 63-page full-color book was written by teacher Gerry Wass, who serves as coordinator of the project. “We wanted to share our story and inspire other schools and communities to develop similar recycling projects across the country,” says Wass, a world languages instructor at Purdy High School. “In just under four years these students have made this into a profitable endeavor raising more than $6,000 while satisfying a community need.”

According to Wass, a limited number of free copies of the book will be available to the first individuals contacting him through the website.

Clean Burn®, a corporate sponsor of the book project, has a Clean Burn furnace in the Purdy Recycling Center. The furnace recycles used motor oil to generate heat for the stand-alone facility.

“Once you have a source of used oil, the most environmentally-sound way of disposing of it is to burn it to heat a building in the winter,” says Wass. “The Clean Burn furnace hangs from the ceiling, out of the way of other recycling efforts, and has allowed us to collect used oil filters from industrial clients like auto dealerships and auto repair garages.

“Once crushed, a 55-gallon container of used filters generates between eight and ten gallons of used motor oil — even if they’ve been drained. We add this to the other used motor oils we collect from our school bus fleet and other sources. The Clean Burn furnace transforms the used motor oil into free heat for our facility.”

Traditionally used in locations that generate large amounts of used motor oil — such as tractor trailer and heavy equipment facilities — this is one of the first times a Clean Burn unit has been used in a “home grown” recycling center project.

For additional details on the Purdy Recycling Project, visit Spanish.purdy.k12.mo.us.

There are 80,000 Clean Burn functional furnaces and boilers located throughout the world that burn millions of gallons of used-oil each year on-site, at the point of generation. This volume of used-oil would otherwise be transported on highway systems and pose a considerable risk to spills and/or contamination to the environment.

Clean Burn is an ENERGY STAR® partner. The company holds numerous industry certifications and works with the U.S. government, the Environmental Protection Agency and various associations to help coordinate the establishment of standards and regulations related to heat recovery and recycling efforts involving used motor oils. For more information on Clean Burn, visit www.cleanburn.com or call 1-800-331-0183.

Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions about how to identify Chinese Drywall. Chinese drywall has been in the media quite a bit lately because of houses that are completely unliveable.

How To Identify Chinese Drywall

The first sign of Chinese Drywall is the smell of rotten eggs. If you think you’re house has Chinese Drywall then there are some ways you can try to confirm it’s presense. The easiest way is to get into the attic and move the insulation out of the way and look for a “Made In China” stamp like the photo above or a sticker on it that says Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT).

How To Fix Chinese Drywall

Currently the only way to fix Chinese Drywall is to completely remove it from the house. Obviously this is an extremely expensive solution and one that most home owners are not likely to afford. There are several large class action suites going on that may bring relief to the unfortunate home owner’s that are stuck with Chinese Drywall.

Geothermal HVAC

The other day I attended a seminar on renewable energy systems for residential and commercial buildings. One of the topics that interested me the most was Geothermal Heating and Cooling. Geothermal heating and cooling is a system that relies on the earth as a heat source and heat sink using heat pumps.

Geothermal Energy

You might ask yourself where does all this “free” energy come from? The answer is actually quite simple. The energy from the sun that hits the planet every day is absorbed into water vapor, dust, clouds and the ground. Almost 50% (46%) of the suns energy that hits the planet is absorbed and stored in the ground (crust of the earth). That’s an amazing amount of energy that’s stored in the ground just like a giant battery.

Geothermal heating and cooling just takes advantage of the stored energy in the ground and harnesses it to reduce our need for fossil fuels. By using a heat pump and some type of ground contact interface we can actually capture some of that stored energy in the ground to heat and cool our homes.

Geo Exchange System

The basic concept here is to think of the ground as our on personal power plant. In the summer time we want to capture the cool temperatures of the ground and “dump” our hot home temperatures into the ground. Basically we’re exchanging cool for hot. In the winter time we want to extract the warmer temperatures of the ground for the cooler temperatures in our homes. Again we’re going to be exchanging energy.

In order to make this exchange we need to connect our homes to the ground. This is accomplished in a variety of ways including open and closed loop systems. The systems can be created with deep wells or shallow trenches. In either case we’re trying to make contact time with the grounds constant 50 degree temperature.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps have been around for years and the technology is fairly straight forward. Heat pumps are very similar to air conditioners in the fact that they use a refrigerant, a compressor and a condensor to transfer heat (energy) from one medium (air or water) to another. Heat pumps are great because they can work in either direction so it’s easy to use them for both heating and cooling. Check out the following two diagrams for heating and cooling.

Depending on where you live and the type of ground you have there are different ground loops. You might end up with and open loop well system where you pump out water back to the heat pump and they return the water to the same well. You could have a closed loop well system where the refrigerant travels in a closed loop between the well and heat pump. Or you could have a closed loop system that uses shallow trenches (8 ft deep).

Over the coming months I’ll be writing more about these geothermal heating and cooling systems. In the mean time check out the Energy Star site for more information. One of the nice things about Geothermal heating and cooling are some of the Stimulus Home Improvement Tax Credits.

Recommended Books On Geothermal Heating and Cooling

Check out thise geothermal books:

• Geothermal Energy: An Alternative Resource for the 21st Century
• Geothermal Heat Pumps: A Guide for Planning and Installing