Building Products TrendsMay/June 2008

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Product Innovation
Small Wonders
Nanotechnology holds big promise for building products.

Working with materials 100,000 times thinner than paper, companies can place molecules and atoms exactly where they want them during the manufacturing process to make products that perform in new ways. One treatment uses microscopic bits of silver to make products resist mold and mildew. Another uses microscopic bits of metal to make materials scratch resistant.
It sounds like science fiction, but this fairly new science, called nanotechnology, allows materials to be manipulated at an incredibly small scale. How small? Nanotechnology measures materials in nanometers—a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers in diameter.
The building industry has an array of applications for nanotechnology. One product NanoDynamics is developing is an additive that can double or triple the strength of portland cement, allowing products such as roofing tiles to become both lighter and stronger.
Hanover uses nanotechnology to make pavers that, in tests, resisted the equivalent of 15 to 20 years of acid rain with little or no visible damage, says the maker. Industrial Nanotech's Nansulate HomeProtect mold-resistant insulating coating is so thin that it adheres to walls like paint. Users reported 20 percent to 40 percent energy savings, the company says.
LEDs and solar cells are two emerging energy-saving technologies that also will benefit from nanotechnology, which can reduce the size of some solar cells and organic LEDs so much that they can be printed in rolls, like ink on paper.
However, nanotechnology does have a drawback: the looming question about its safety. Due to their unique size and composition, nanomaterials could pose risks to humans and other organisms, some experts say. No one knows if particles can be absorbed through the skin or inhaled into the lungs, or how nanomaterials react with the environment. Currently, there are no testing standards for products. For these reasons, some groups have called for a complete halt of nanotechnology until the products' safety can be fully assessed.
"There is a whole new line of chemicals and a whole new world of science," says Ian Illuminato, health and environment campaigner for the environmental group Friends of the Earth. "A lot of nanoparticles might have root in known chemicals, but at nanometer scale, they have shown properties that are out of whack with their counterparts."
But nothing seems to be slowing the excitement over how nanotechnology makes the seemingly impossible possible, and it looks like this tiny science has a gigantic future.—Victoria Markovitz

This article originally appeared in Custom Home magazine.

Overheard

"We turn on the tap and assume we are going to get clean water. That is an assumption that has become less and less certain."
—Former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, during her keynote address at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show last month. She told attendees that the biggest environmental issue facing the world is safe and adequate drinking water and that 1.2 billion people worldwide lack it, including some Americans.

Tech Spotlight

Energy-Saving LEDs in a Familiar Format

Though compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are the current media darlings of the green movement, LED (light-emitting diode) lamps are coming on strong as a comparably efficient, long-lasting alternative, but without the mercury and subsequent disposal issues. LEDs haven't hit the mass residential mainstream due to inherent challenges with color, heat, and consumer familiarity, but the benefits are driving intense product development.
One promising launch is a line of Edison-based LED lamps from Lighting Science Group. The lamps fit into traditional recessed cans and other sockets, and come in cool white as well as warm white and in narrow- and wide-beam distributions. Aluminum fins, die-cast in a patented design, dissipate heat from the rear of the bulbs.
The company says the lamps are more efficient than incandescents, halogens, and CFLs; their life-span is eight to 25 times longer than halogens and incandescents and more than six times longer than CFLs. The 6-watt R20 (shown), for example, outputs an estimated 325 lumens in warm white or 400 lumens in cool white. The company compares this to a 12-watt CFL that outputs 450 lumens; a 50-watt incandescent with 410 lumens; and a 46-watt halogen with 498 lumens. The R20 LED lamp will last for 50,000 hours compared to 2,000, 6,000, and 8,000 hours for the incandescent, halogen, and CFL, respectively.
Life-span will be a key selling point for consumers, because the lamps carry a hefty price tag of $30 to $115, a range the company expects will fall over time and volume. The lamps will be available through the company's Web site, www.lsgc.com, as well as through electrical distributors and service companies.–Katy Tomasulo

What's New In:

Toilets

A public men's room is unlikely inspiration for the well-appointed master bath in a high-end home, but its sterile-white
porcelain centerpiece—the wall-mounted urinal—is among the toniest touches in today's luxury loo.
It's not that the single-function staple is a bathroom beauty. But it uses only half the water per flush of even a low-flow toilet, and saving water in the washroom is a quality that sells. Some don't use any water at all.
That upscale home's urinal is likely to sit beside a bidet—a lidless seat with water jets for cleaning one's unmentionables—or a tricked-out toilet complete with a heated seat and built-in washlet that functions much like a bidet. It might also include an air freshener, a lid with a motion sensor that opens and closes on its own, a warm-air dryer, and an automatic flush—or at least a choice of barely a flush for liquids and something sturdier for the rest.
Don't be surprised when well-off or foreign-born buyers ask for the newly popular niceties, which have been standard in European and Japanese bathrooms for years.
Up next: Continued growing acceptance for the ultra-low-flow toilet in new, flow-enhancing shapes, inspired not by public restrooms but by the EPA, which introduced a WaterSense label last year to reward manufacturers whose high-performance toilets use at least 20 percent less water than standard 1.6-gpf toilets.—Sharon O'Malley

Product Briefs

Beginning last month, all new-home starts by Atlanta-based production builder Beazer Homes feature standards for improved air quality and water and energy conservation at no cost to the home buyer. The products in Beazer's eSMART Homes include Honeywell FocusPro programmable thermostats, GE Energy Star-rated dishwashers, GE compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), MERV-8 filters, low-VOC carpets and paints, and Moen low-flow faucets and showerheads. Upgrades for eSMART homes—including higher SEER HVAC systems, media filters, radiant barriers, tankless water heaters, and Energy Star-rated refrigerators and washers—also are available and will vary from market to market.—Robb Crocker

The EPA has issued a new "Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program" rule, set to take effect April 2010, that requires contractors working in houses, child-care facilities, and schools built before 1978 to follow lead-safe work practices. The new rule also will implement training and certification for those workers.—K.T.