Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a great day, enjoy the food, and share some memories with family and friends. If you’re door busting, now’s the time to leap frog the inefficient stuff and buy things that are useful, durable, and resource efficient. I’ve received notice in my email of some interesting Thanksgiving/Black Friday deals, so I’ll share the links in case you’re browsing online shops.
This seems to be a busy week for LED bulb announcements. We’ve already seen a 20-watt, clear globe, filament-style bulb and a 40-watt A19 bulb that takes the shape of a standard frosted incandescent. And now, LEDO has a series of three LED bulbs — Bulled Classic, Bulled Modular, Bulled Star — that provide the 60-watt equivalent, which is on par with the typical incandescent, but these bulbs use only 11 watts.
Several months ago, I shared news of unique, green birth chart art by StarArc. That company now has some new prints based on each customer’s primary astrological sun sign symbol as well as their moon and rising sign symbols. Although I can’t shed much light on astrology, I can say the prints are made using a museum quality giclée printing process that utilizes environmentally friendly canvas, inks, and stretcher bars. They come with a modern look, 35 color schemes, eight sizes, and pricing from $49.
Toshiba recently announced a new A19 LED lamp that is shaped more like an incandescent than some of the other LED bulbs we’ve seen so far, excluding perhaps Panasonic’s LED with a filament appearance. The new bulb is dimmable, available in 2700K and 4000K colors, outputs 450 lumens, and contains no lead or mercury. The 40-watt replacement uses 8.4 watts and reaches full brightness instantly.
I received an email about a “new” product that I thought I’d pass along. Tell me what you think about this far-infrared heating panel that can applied to a wall or ceiling and run through an electrical outlet. Made by Prestyl, the panel incorporates a “reliable French thin-film technology that has been used in aircraft, ships, trains, homes and public buildings overseas for nearly 16 years,” according to a company release.
I recently read about an impressive, three-unit residential building in Portland, Maine through an article by Seth Koenig in the Bangor Daily News. After a little digging, I learned the project is spearheaded by Paul Ledman and Colleen Myers, as owners and developers, Mike White of Island Carpentry, the general contractor, and Kaplan Thompson Architects, the architectural firm. Ledman wanted a future-forward building and ended up with something that doesn’t use fossil fuels.
