Green Mechanical Contractor

EVEN MY TOILET PAPER IS GREEN

It’s gone too far, this green issue. green this, green that, even my clothing and my hat. But now it’s gone one step over the line too far and my green guilt trip finds me at the checkout line blushing red-green.

remember tang and how that was promoted to us by way of the 1959

nasa space program? “tang, the breakfast drink of astronauts.” and we drank ourselves silly. today’s astronauts are serious about recycling: on-board systems are collecting sweat, humidity from breathing and shower water, along with urine to provide the ultimate in recycled water. Kind of gives new meaning to having a mixed drink! What’s next, recycled poo? advice to astronauts – pack plenty of virgin foods in your carry-on bag.

“But, I’m saving trees,” I explained as onlookers giggled while checking me out in the checkout line.

“aren’t trees renewable? Cut ‘em down and grow new ones,” the gathering crowd admonished.

after several Boy scouts of america High adventure canoe trips in the northern woods of Maine, where we saw – firsthand – how well the recycling of forest acreage works, I can see their point. Why not make this product from rotating pine tree crops instead of Boreal forests?

oh, don’t get me wrong. I jumped in with both green feet long before I knew they were going to be called green. My first “green” boiler condensed – on occasion – but did not modulate. It loved my green and drained all of it from my wallet by way of continual breakdowns. out it went, and backwards I ventured to castiron noncondensing technology. That lasted for two years. Like a moth to a flame, my family (drafted involuntarily) ventured even farther into green technology by installing a modulating condensing boiler. That little beastie restored my faith in green by letting me keep lots of green instead of giving it to the utility company.

We’ve greened up our appliances, too, with energy star rating tags on each one purchased. The clothes washer alone reduced water consumption by 40 percent and spins so fast that the clothes are almost dry at the end of each cycle. The laundry queen in my home averages 312 loads per year; that kind of green adds up. the new washer is at a better height, too, which is much appreciated for older backs; and it’s whisper quiet, which is a nice side benefit. toilets, too, with Watersense compliant 1.28-gpf models that work as well as did our 1.6-gpf water closets that had replaced the 3.5-gpf water-wasters.

and just the other week, we installed a 98 percent efficiency tankless modulating condensing water heater. Looking back over the past five years, we’ve installed 99 percent efficiency tank-style water heaters, indirect water heaters connected to 95 percent efficiency modulating condensing boilers and, of

course, the ultimate in green, solar thermal water heaters. good solid green technologies with one just right for most budgets, especially now that there are nice fat federal tax credits.

HVaC is just as green. We’re installing air-source mini-split Inverter heat pumps with 28-seer and 14-HsPf, geothermal with slightly higher efficiency ratings and mod-con gas furnaces that top out at 98 percent efficiency.

Delving deeper into green, our industry has finally taken
notice to the passracitic (passive ignorance of parasitic
energy losses) consumption gobbled up by motors while
transferring comfort energy from the source to occupants.
This was an outflow of energy that was previously ignored.
eCM blowers and circulators with adaptive intelligence
drive their speed to sip only the energy required to meet
demand! My own hydronic radiant system could have served
as a poster child for being an energy hog with its thermal
bridge from our 95% efficiency mod-con to the radiant
floors: 13 circulators at 87W each pumping for 2,250 hours
each year added up to $297.92. My new variable-speed circu-
lators coupled with 10 low-wattage zone valves have reduced
that to just $49.50!

next year, our rates are predicted to go from 11 cents per k Wh to 20 cents. Here’s the reality check: starting at 20 cents per k Wh and projecting 20 years, with a 5 percent per year increase in electricity added in, my previous 13-circulator rig would have cost me $16,828.92. over that same 20-year span, my redesigned system will, instead, have saved me $13,852.98. That’s hard-earned green that I get to pocket! Do the math, and sales of these eCM circulators will be a snap.

When it was time for a new floor, we chose bamboo because of its renewable green classification. Besides that, it looks great. all manner of products now claim to be green, and green washing has become advertising sport that’s expanding faster than the universe, each claim exceeding the next in its outrageous zest to go-for-the-green! That’s the green that makes me sick because it’s diluting true green for purely selfish reasons.

I can certainly handle all of that. However, I’m standing in the checkout line with a 12-pack of recycled toilet tissue about which folks feel compelled to squeeze and comment. Help me, Mr. Whipple! toilet tissue that is, all kidding aside, as green (for now) as green gets. If every american were to purchase just one roll of recycled toilet paper, 400,000 trees would be spared the axe! gives a whole new meaning to being called a tree hugger.