TWO IDEAS MORE

Very few days left to finish this competition, but I couldn´t help but showing you two Ideas that will complement A+HOUSE. One is called “Saving foot” and the other “Smartglass”. They are really two existing technologies, that I have found really interesting in order to apply in a house to save energy without losing confort.

 “Saving foot”.

Some entries in this competition have been related to save water when using sinks and basins. It has to be said that saving water is also saving energy when we are using hot water.

Please find this figures (approx. % of water wasted at home when...)

- Washing hands and face:                   50%

- Shaving:                                            70%

- Brushing teeth:                                  50%

- Washing the dishes:                           40%

All this water is lost because people do not close the tap, all the time that water is not being really used. It happens because normally because people have their hands occupied with dishes, soap, scourer, razor, towel, etc.

But, their feet are free. Then the solution is to use already existing “pedal sinks”. This is a kind of tap that works by steping over one or two pedals. Then people only step over the pedal when water is needed, and due to the fact that this is an active action, people will free the pedal naturally when they do not need water to be running. We just have to adapt this technology to home sinks and basin taps.

Tons of water will be saved and therefore, tons of CO₂. And it is so simple...

“Smartglass”

 Recently it has been published in the frontpage of Nature magazine, a window that has been recently developed, with amazing properties, that can be applied at home in order to easily save a lot of energy.

 Just read what it is written by the Nature Magazine.

“The panels of the window shown on the cover represent the three limiting optical states of a new smart coating: full transparency, selectively near-infrared (NIR) blocking, and darkened against both visible and NIR light transmission. Glass windows let in light and keep out extreme heat and cold, but with the advance of the field of electrochromism — the reversible change of optical transmittance in response to electrochemical charge and discharge — they could do much more. Delia Milliron and co-workers have made a step towards producing windows that can greatly reduce lighting and heating costs with the demonstration of a composite film composed of tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals embedded in a niobium oxide glass matrix. By varying an applied voltage over a 2.5-volt range the charged nanocrystals selectively block NIR light, while the glass strongly modulates visible light owing to its reconstructed bonding near the nanocrystal–glass interface. Practical ‘smart windows’ and other devices are still some way off, but this solution-processed nanocrystal-in-glass approach is modular and permits extensive tuning of structure and composition, and so provides a solid platform for further refinement.”

This is the kind of development that would make us step forward in energy saving at home. Hopefully, this technology will be commercialize soon and A+HOUSE, will be there to include it in its homes.