Environmental Pros and Cons of uPVC Windows

In the UK and Ireland they are known as uPVC windows; in the USA and Canada they are known as vinyl windows or rigid vinyl windows. Both appellations refer to windows whose frames are made from unplasticized polyvinyl chloride. It is a strong plastic. The windows normally have double glazing and are the industry standard in North America, the UK and Ireland because of the superior insulation they provide. But are uPVC windows really environmentally friendly?

Pros of uPVC windows

There are several advantages of using uPVC windows as opposed to other types of windows such as wooden frame windows or aluminum windows.

1) uPVC, rigid vinyl or vinyl windows greatly improve the insulation in a room. In the summer they prevent a room heating up and in the winter they trap heat in a room. This is due mostly to the layer of air between the two panes of glass in double glazing. A small insulation benefit is also found in the plastic which is a poor conductor and tends not to transfer much heat or cold between inside and out.

2) Wooden frame windows need yearly maintenance. The wind and rain damages the wood. Too much humidity and the wood swells and too little and the wood cracks. The paint peels also and needs touching up. In contrast uPVC is impervious to any type of weather. They are virtually maintenance free for their lifespan of 25 years. Aluminum tarnishes but doesn’t rust. The problem with aluminum frames is that the metal provides very little insulation. They also tend to bend out of shape easily.

3) Wooden frame windows obviously involve chopping down trees to make. They could thus be considered to be non-environmentally friendly.

4) uPVC windows usually come with sophisticated locking systems that provide much better security for a home than wooden or aluminum frame windows.

5) Finally, uPVC windows come nowadays in all colors and specifications to fit the look of any home.

Cons of uPVC windows

1) The main problem with uPVC windows is the production and disposal of uPVC. Factories that make uPVC products emit dioxins that have been connected to serious illnesses such as cancer for the people living near these factories. uPVC has been traditionally very hard to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way. They usually end up in land fill sites where they slowly leech chemicals into the soil.

2) uPVC is a petro-chemical product. This means that uPVC production is reliant on gasoline supplies. In other words, uPVC is not a sustainable resource.

3) uPVC windows could give off toxic fumes in the event of a fire.

These are the major objections with uPVC windows. These are serious objections that have led to some municipalities in Germany and elsewhere in Europe banning uPVC from the construction of new public buildings.

The argument has slightly moved in favor of uPVC windows thanks to advances in technology. The Japanese have developed the Vinyloop system and the Europeans have invented a similar Texiloop system to safely recycle unwanted uPVC. These are closed systems that reduce the uPVC to materials that can be disposed of without harming the environment.

The German company Veka has gone one step better. They have built a factory in Thuringia in Eastern Germany that can recycle uPVC products and use the recycled material to make new uPVC windows. They now sell uPVC windows with a promise to collect them at the end of their lifespan for recycling. This is a major breakthrough and is just another example of how Germany leads the world in many ways when it comes to environmental issues.

Guide to Mold

Mold is a green interior design issue

Mold is a problem that affects the indoor air quality of a home and so mold falls within the remit of green interior design. There is a lot that can be done in terms of the design of an interior as well as the maintenance of an interior to stop mold forming. This post is a guide on how to stop mold forming in your home and how to deal with mold once it has formed in an environmentally friendly way.

Health problems caused by mold

Mold is caused by spores in the air. It is impossible to eradicate spores from the air. Mold needs moisture and oxygen to form. Once mold is growing on a natural material such as paper, wood, insulation or carpet it poses a health risk to inhabitants. It can trigger attacks of allergic rhinitis; it can cause respiratory problems; and it can cause asthma attacks.

Dealing with the root cause of mold

The main cause of mold is a leaky water source. Either a pipe is burst or leaking or a wall is letting in the damp. Before you can effectively deal with mold you have to deal with the water problem in a home.

The green way to clean mold

To get rid of mold you have to clean it with water and a detergent. Normal detergents contain chemicals that pollute. Choose an earth friendly detergent or alternatively use vinegar or bamboo vinegar. Both these liquids are acidic and are capable of killing mold.

If mold is growing on a hard surface such as flooring it is possible to clean it off. If the mold is growing on an absorbent surface such as a curtain, ceiling tile or wall paper it is necessary to replace the mold affected material as the mold will grow back no matter how many times you wash it off.

Precautions to stop mold forming in the home

To prevent mold forming in a home you should take the following precautions:

1) Make sure the home is properly ventilated. Either open the windows regularly or use the fan on your programmable thermostat to move the air around the house.

2) Use extractor fans in places where lots of moisture is generated in a home. These areas are normally the kitchen and bathroom.

3) Keep an eye on humidity levels in the home. Ideally the humidity should be between 30% and 60%. To reduce humidity levels you can give a room a blast of cold air from an air-con unit. You can also place bamboo charcoal around the home to absorb excess humidity from the air. If you live in an area with a hot and humid summer than it is recommended that you install a programmable thermostat that can deal with de-humidification. Two good models for this are the Honeywell RTH8321 VisionPro 8000 that uses the air-con unit to control humidity and the Honeywell Prestige HD that can control a separate de-humidifier unit.

4) Bamboo is naturally anti-fungal and so is highly resistant to mold forming. Using bamboo blinds instead of curtains and bamboo flooring instead of carpet are both good precautions for preventing mold forming in the home.

If you follow these guidelines you shouldn’t have a problem with mold. Whatever you do don’t let mold spread through your house. It will affect your health and severely reduce the worth of your home.

Showers, Baths, Faucets, Toilets – How to Reduce Water Consumption

There is no doubt that people both in the developed world and the developing world who have a home tend to be very inefficient in their water use. They may think it is no problem because it seems to rain all the time anyway. This is not looking at the bigger picture.

The Bigger picture

Only 2% of the water in the world is fresh water, and of that 2% about half is locked up in glaciers and polar caps. It is expensive and resources draining to desalinate water.

1 in 8 people in the world have no access to safe drinking water. As a result water born disease claims millions of lives a year, especially the lives of children.

Countries around the world have areas that are suffering unprecedented droughts. Over 60% of available fresh water is used on irrigation; much of it is irrigation for non-food crops such as coffee and cotton.

1 pint of beer takes 130 pints of water to produce. This is called the embedded water value of a product. Outrageously, a liter bottle of water has an embedded water value of over 1 liter. So many of the consumer items we take for granted require huge water inputs to make.

How much water do you need?

The WHO calculates that a person needs 13 gallons of water a day for drinking, cooking, washing and sanitation. It is a figure that is put into shocking contrast with the average American who uses 150 gallons a day at home.

Water Solutions

There are many ways to reduce water consumption at home. This post will just look at the water used by toilets, showers, baths and faucets. These 4 uses of water make up about 35% of an entire home’s water consumption – and none of this water is drunk!

Toilets

Nowadays you can buy toilets with various flush settings. Different waste in the toilet needs different volumes of flushing. However, the embedded water value of buying a new toilet means that the world will not see any net benefit from you using a low flush toilet for several years. To make a positive impact now simply put a rubber brick in your toilet cistern to reduce flush volumes. You could fill a PET bottle with a few pebbles and fill with water and put in the cistern to do the same job. Care must be taken that the brick or PET bottle does not interfere with the flushing mechanism.

With toilets it is important to remember that it is not a garbage disposal unit or an ashtray. Flushing trash and cigarette butts down the toilet are very bad for the environment and a waste of water.

Baths

The average bath uses 40 gallons of water. That is enough water for 1 person for 3 days! Baths are a luxury and should be regarded as such. The media is too full of images of women luxuriating in a bath. There is nothing wrong with beautiful skin but do you want it at the cost of a bad conscience? If a bath is a ‘must’ for you then why not practice some grey water recycling and using the used bath water for flushing the toilet or washing the car? Sharing baths and using less water in the bath are also obvious compromise strategies.

Showers

The average shower uses 5 gallons of water per minute (GPM). An 8 minute shower uses as much water as a bath. There are a number of simple things you can do to use less water for showering.

• Turn the water off while you are soaping your body and then turn the water back on to rinse off.

• Put lagging around the water pipes so that the water in the shower warms up quicker.

• Install a low flow shower. The typical low flow shower reduces GPM from 5 to 2.5 or even less. This is achieved by holes in the shower wand that draw in air and mix it with the water. The aerated water from a low flow shower system can have a beneficial spa effect on the body. No spray strength is lost with a good low flow shower.

And finally, as with bath water there is the possibility of installing a grey water recycling system to re-use the shower water in a constructive way.

Faucets

As with showers, normal faucets have an unnecessary high gallon per minute flow rate. People are also often in the habit of running faucets for too long or just plain wasting water. Improving faucet habits will make a big difference.

• Check all faucets for leaks. A leaky faucet can use 20 gallons of water a day.

• Install faucet aerators. These work on the same principle as low flow showers – namely, they mix air with water to reduce GPM flows. You can buy faucet aerators that use as little as 0.5 gallons a minute.

• Don’t leave the water running while you brush your teeth. Fill a glass and use this water to rinse your mouth and clean the tooth brush.

• Don’t leave the faucet running when you wash dishes. Fill up a bowl and use this water to rinse dishes, cups, cutlery etc.; after you can use the water in the garden.

Conclusion

It is worth your time looking at ways to reduce water consumption in the home. Water conservation in the home is vital. It reduces bills and helps to ensure future generations have a decent standard of living. One area that must be tackled is toilets, baths, showers and faucets. The future demands it; as do the 1 in 8 who are not fortunate enough to have a home with clean running water.