nancy_pnwzone8(OR zone 8) ps here are some links if you're interested. Wolverton Environmental Services http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/ Plant Air Purifier http://www.plantairpurifier.com/ Andrea http://www.andreaair.com/ Inside Urban Green - What did Bill Really Say? http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2009/11/my-entry-1.html Phytophilter Technologies http://www.phytofilter.com/ Plants are the Strangest People - Indoor Plants as Air Purifiers http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2008/04/indoor-plants-as-air-purifiers.html Kamal Meattle: How to grow fresh air http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA (i would be remiss for posting this link without providing more info. in this TED talk, it sounds like they just added some plants to a big office building, like you would see in a typical cubicle farm, and - shebang - the air was cleaned. what he doesn't show is that they have a full on indoor grow op with high intensity lighting and full hydroponic plumbing. the grow rooms are tied into the building's HVAC. there was another video that showed the set up but i can't find it now.) I would add these links: 1. Wikipedia Houseplants together with the medium in which they are grown can reduce components of indoor air pollution, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOC) such as benzene, toluene, and xylene. Plants remove CO2 and release oxygen and water, although the quantitative impact for house plants is small. Most of the effect is attributed to the growing medium alone, but even this effect has finite limits associated with the type and quantity of medium and the flow of air through the medium.[25] The effect of house plants on VOC concentrations was investigated in one study, done in a static chamber, by NASA for possible use in space colonies.[26] The results showed that the removal of the challenge chemicals was roughly equivalent to that provided by the ventilation that occurred in a very energy efficient dwelling with a very low ventilation rate, an air exchange rate of about 1/10 per hour. Therefore, air leakage in most homes, and in non-residential buildings too, will generally remove the chemicals faster than the researchers reported for the plants tested by NASA. The most effective household plants reportedly included aloe vera, English ivy, and Boston fern for removing chemicals and biological compounds. Plants also appear to reduce airborne microbes, molds, and increase humidity.[27] However, the increased humidity can itself lead to increased levels of mold and even VOCs.[28] When CO2 concentrations are elevated indoors relative to outdoor concentrations, it is only an indicator that ventilation is inadequate to remove metabolic products associated with human occupancy. Plants require CO2 to grow and release oxygen when they consume CO2. A study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology considered uptake rates of ketones and aldehydes by the peace lily (Spathiphyllum clevelandii) and golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum.) Akira Tani and C. Nicholas Hewitt found "Longer-term fumigation results revealed that the total uptake amounts were 30−100 times as much as the amounts dissolved in the leaf, suggesting that volatile organic carbons are metabolized in the leaf and/or translocated through the petiole."[29] It is worth noting the researchers sealed the plants in Teflon bags. "No VOC loss was detected from the bag when the plants were absent. However, when the plants were in the bag, the levels of aldehydes and ketones both decreased slowly but continuously, indicating removal by the plants".[30] Studies done in sealed bags do not faithfully reproduce the conditions in the indoor environments of interest. Dynamic conditions with outdoor air ventilation and the processes related to the surfaces of the building itself and its contents as well as the occupants need to be studied. While results do indicate house plants may be effective at removing some VOCs from air supplies, a review of studies between 1989 and 2006 on the performance of houseplants as air cleaners, presented at the Healthy Buildings 2009 conference in Syracuse, NY, concluded "...indoor plants have little, if any, benefit for removing indoor air of VOC in residential and commercial buildings."[31] Since high humidity is associated with increased mold growth, allergic responses, and respiratory responses, the presence of additional moisture from houseplants may not be desirable in all indoor settings.[32] sourse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_air_quality#Effect_of_indoor_plants 2.Critical Review: How Well Do House Plants Perform as Indoor Air Cleaners? Dingle et al. (2000) reported on a field study of three portable office buildings in Perth, Australia to test removal of formaldehyde by plants. Five plants (five species) were added to each room every two days to a maximum of 20 plants (at 2.44 plants per m2) after nine days. Two adjacent portable office buildings were used as controls with no plants. The mean formaldehyde concentrations were about 850 ppb, except with 20 plants. The authors state that the results show “no change in formaldehyde concentrations with the addition of 5 or 10 plants in the rooms and only an 11% reduction in formaldehyde concentrations with 20 plants in the room.” They did not indicate that this reduction was statistically significant.... With this caveat firmly in mind, it is hardly surprising that the HBI study failed to find any effect on pollutant removal by plants, despite a reasonably strong study design in terms of using controls. The study by Dingle et al. found only an 11% reduction in formaldehyde with the highest loading of plants (20 plants in a room or a loading of 2.44 plants per m2), which is not feasible in the real world and is probably not statistically significant. ... Sourse: http://www.buildingecology.com/articles/critical-review-how-well-do-house-plants-perform-as-indoor-air-cleaners/ I think people overestimate the ability of plants to clean the air. That's why EPA don't write about plants as cleaner at all: Epa wrote about Mechanical air filters, Electronic air cleaners, Gas-phase air filters, UVGI cleaners , PCO cleaners, Ozone generators , Portable air cleaners but EPA don't write about plants as cleaner at all.Sourse: http://www.epa.gov/iedweb00/pubs/residair.html If you use plants as cleaner You need to test air inside your house or flats. You need to use complex devices to test air otherwise you may find that you don't have any benefit from plants at all. And this is only placebo. You can spend your time for nothing. Only complex devices to test air inside your houses or flats can help you. Please don't trust so much NASA or Wolverton. Be critical. To read Critical Reviews too. Сheck the air in your homes with complex devices.

Low-e coatings don't reflect much of the visible spectrum, so if the product was only heat mirror w/o low-e, the VLT would only be a few % more - nearly insignificant. Sound deadening occurs because as sound waves pass through the dissimilar materials glass, air, HM, air, glass, each medium vibrates with a different frequency which diminishes transmission. Argon gas is also effective at noise reduction in IGU's and the thicker the IGU, the better the sound reduction. A single piece of 1/4" plate glass has a STC (sound transmission class) rating of 31. 1" conventional IGU's are rated at about 34 and the same product with heat mirror is rated at 36, so I would rate the difference as fairly insignificant & not too important as a consideration. Though I cannot quote exact numbers without looking it up, I can say that I believe argon gas makes a considerable difference in noise reduction. Without fail, when we install argon filled windows in a noise-rich environment, the home owner invariably comments on how much quieter the home is. Part of the reduction is the superior sealing of the brand of window we sell, but even when we replace wood windows that already have IGU's in them, the difference is significant. Al

Thank you for considering Signature. I work for the company and we'd be thrilled to have you visit us and see how we build our cabinetry and show you all the ways our products are green. We'd be happy to show you through our facility where you can see how we build our cabinetry and we can also spend time in the display area and answer any questions you might have... and yes our shelves are plywood! Just give us a call and we'd be happy to accomodate you anyway we can! 717-738-4884 You can also check out a special 'invitation only' website www.signaturecab.com/considersignature

Thanks Scott, this was a good article, and good comments followed it. I was saved (as were my DH, his dad, and our three dogs) by a CO alarm. My sis-in-law had Dad-care duty that evening, and my DH and I must have been out. Sis-in-law must have gotten cold, and turned on the furnace. Seemed reasonable to her, I imagine. What she didn't know is that we were nursing a 29 year-old furnace, waiting for our previous house to sell so we could replace the furnace. I would never have turned on the heat until I had the furnace inspected, and Dad had a space heater in his room (and we had a heated mattress pad). We did not hear the furnace come on while awake, and did not notice it was turned on. At 3 in the morning, DH heard the CO alarm and went to see what it was. I heard him, and woke. I grabbed the phone and we gathered up Dad into his wheelchair with some blankets around him and got out. I called 911 from the front porch, then went in for our dogs. I was just putting them in the car when the FD arrived. They measured the CO as very dangerous in the basement, but we were able to return to the house and sleep after the house aired out for a while. They condemned the furnace. We had a new one in a couple of days. I also want to remind folks of some dangers they may not be aware of. Non-stick pans, when heated past a certain temperature, release toxic fumes. Unfortunately, some people learn this when their pet birds die. The saying "canary in a coal mine" exists for a reason. A bird will be affected by no-odor gas and will die while the air is still good enough for the miners to make an escape. I won't have non-stick items in my house. I could not understand why the George Foreman grill and other pans for cooking at high heat are made of non-stick. It makes no sense to me. My next concern is not really associated with indoor air quality, but does involve cooking. When microwaving, please do not use unapproved plastic containers. The plasticizers - petrochemicals that keep plastics from being brittle - mimic hormones in our bodies. They are called "endocrine disruptors" for that reason. Some believe that they cause problems when our bodies react to them as if they were our own hormones. I have glass dishes and lids for storage and reheating of food. I also use waxed paper instead of plastic wrap in the microwave. I am quite sensitive to the products of combustion. They set off my asthma. So nothing is burning in my house. I never understand why having a lit fire is so important in camping or having a gathering outside. There is a whole lot of life I don't get to participate in because lit wood, charcoal and gas fires are involved. I can feel the sucky moisture of gas fires in my lungs. I cannot tolerate a gas stove, even burning natural gas. Thanksgiving was always at my house, since I cannot go to a house where a gas oven is cooking the turkey.