So this may be a bit of a diversion from photography, but it’s such a great find i had to share.  I’ve been really impressed with some of the products Costco has been bringing into the Vancouver store recently.  I tell my friends “before you ask me where it’s from,  fill in ‘Costco’ and if it fits, that’s your answer”   If I could change my Facebook status to ‘in a relationship with Costco’, that would also work.

So on my last weekly visit i came across this gem,  100% recycled paper that IS NOT bleached.

It’s almost too good to be true, made with renewable energy,  no trees cut,  no Chlorine bleach (one of the most caustic cycles in recycled paper) and 100% recycled.

The one negative would be that the paper is not as pure a white as the traditional office papers which are bleached and do come from trees,  but in this ‘green’ age, beige could be the new white!

I ran a test on the inkjet between the two papers and you might think the ink would blend more on a ’softer’ recycled mix, but the printed text actually looked slightly sharper on this paper… Wow!

For the month of November,  BC hydro is offering a $15 immediate rebate off LED bulbs at Home Depot in BC.  I was amazed to learn that changing out just the four – 60 watt overhead incandescent bulbs in my kitchen amounts to $456 in energy savings over the life of the bulbs.    Well so far, I’ve changed out about 35 bulbs of varying wattage reducing  1200 watts of energy usage… That is close to the equivalent of a space heater or or  hair dryer.

So according to the rated energy savings of these new LED’s over using incandescent bulbs,  that equates to appprox $2830 over the lifetime of the bulbs (rated between 25,000  and 30,000 hours ea.).  The cost of purchasing these lights so far has been $550.

Compact fluorescents contain mercury and produce ‘dirty electricity’ that can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome, which is characterized by muscle aches, weakness and fatigue, and may also may cause headaches, depression, aches and pains, dizziness, memory loss or confusion; and impaired sleep… this has been one of the main reasons i have switched back to incandescent (from fluorescent) and now to LED technology.

In the past I have used a combination of daylight, and cool fluorescents mixed with tungsten bulbs to get as close as possible to ‘daylight’ – 6500 kelvin’ light temperature in the makeup room and print media room.   You may be saying ‘you can get daylight fluorescents’, but they produce excessive UV and are missing noticeable parts of the spectrum.   I was very pleased to find a 40 watt Philips LED that produces 5000 kelvin which is a very acceptable color temperature for my makeup artist to work under*.    My digital camera is  balanced to 6500 kelvin as ‘daylight’ (•as is yours),  and my flash equipment is daylight balanced so it makes sense to create an environment for the makeup artist  that mimics daylight as close as possible.

Some additional advantages:

Instant ‘on’ light  •  Dimmable  •  Mercury and lead free  •  quiet (no hum) operation •  Emits virtually no heat and will not fade fabrics or furnishings  •  Color temperature stays consistent as you dim (tungsten goes noticeably orange)

While LED’s are still relatively expensive to make the jump, especially when the payback is over years,  you have to ask the questions about your health, overall carbon footprint, and practical uses to determine if they are right for you.

*refers to the the calibration of your digital camera – Daylight = 6500K,  not what you have it set on  i.e.  shade, cloudy, flash etc.

*Philips Lumileds’ patented conformal coating process addresses the issue of varying phosphor thickness, giving the white LEDs a more homogeneous white light – WO 2008104936

Studio 31 is popular as one of the quieter production spaces in Vancouver… I figured it was time to dive in head first and make it the number one sound stage.    This latest project was so daunting, I have been putting it off for years.  I had a faulty monoglass installation from 10 years ago that needed to be stripped out and resprayed.  The studio had to be emptied,  covered in poly and sprayed with fibreglass impregnated with glue and black paint.  You can only imagine how messy this endeavor was.  Not only is the sound quality improved, but this added R20 insulation to the new roof which now totals about R40… yet again reducing our carbon footprint.   Monoglass is also inert and guarantees a minimum of 37% recycled content which is good for the environment.The studio was completely enveloped with Poly

this was the first half of the process – pulling down the faulty insulation.

Although the spraying was messy, itchy, sticky and dripped black paint for a couple of days,  the sound quality of the shooting space is now perfect for my video rental clients.  This will be further perfected with the removal of the garage door and installation of  sound proof steel doors… more blogs to follow.

A total of 4.5″ was applied to the ceiling (over double the listed amount in the above chart)

Insulating the studio was and still is big on the mandate. . . phase two is energy consumption!  I”ve long been looking at Solar and Geothermal options, but  right now upgrading the equipment is a much more reasonable option.  I was quite suprised to learn that the old furnace (30 years old now) could be operating at an efficiency as low as 50%!!!!!

I decided to go with this Marvel of the furnace world. . . a Lennox!  Where my old furnace produced very hot exhaust,  this one makes water and a warm steam. . . i’m not kidding when i tell you its a most pleasant exhaust!  This baby is 98% efficient. .  almost twice as efficient as the old unit.

this is the other unit,  a Bosch BWH C 800 Tankless hot water heater.   Hot water is now by on demand and unlimited. The efficiency is 92% compared with a tank around 60%.   Another advantage was getting rid of the big water tank and creating more room, the downside with these units however is a 20 second warm up time  for hot water and temperature fluctuations based on load, but all in all i think the savings are a good trade off.  I’m considering a solar preheat for the water which would raise the efficiency even further.

One pet peeve i want to share is that there were no incentive programs for any of my upgrades.  I will probably never see the payoff by the time i sell the building other than the satisfaction of leaving less impact on the world.  If you purchase the same furnace as a homeowner you get approx $700 back from bc hydro and the gov’t., but none of this applies if you own a commercial building!  No wonder so many buildings are still poorly insulated and running on outdated equipment.

I’m pleased to announce that we have done our bit to reduce the studio’s CO2 footprint with a series of upgrades over the last year.  Its been a pretty hefty investment . . . approx $42000 so far with a few more changes to go.  The biggest project was stripping off 2 complete roofs . . . we filled over 2 – 20 yard containers taking off 33 years of obsolete roofing!

The Roof was upgraded with an additional 2.5″ of insulation giving us approximately  R18 in addition to the sprayed on ceiling insulation of R20.

It took about a week of scrapes, heavy lifting, and that wonderful smell of burning tar. . . with of course a couple major rainfalls ( it’s like washing your car), but it was worth it to finally  have an insulated watertight roof!

Its not too bad a view from the top. . . Now i just have to establish a garden with raspberries and vegetables

Thanx to John from Trimstyle roofing consultation for helping coordinate me and my friends in what would have been a gong show without him.  This is a special shot as all i ever see of him is behind a computer.