Weatherization Department
The Friday Report Friday, March 27,1997
FromWright Energy's
Weatherization Network Since 1984
970-349-0551 fax
970-349-0923 voice
MichaelR@WrightEnergy.com
WebSite
http://WrightEnergy.com
Now includes Onsite order form.
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Natural Air Cleaners
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From the LA Times
To: The Boss
From: Workers Everywhere
Re: Clutter
Remember the memo you sent out recently, the one asking for our desks to be cleared of family photos, globe balls and miniature rodent collections? We can live without all that stuff, but when it comes to our heart-leaf philodendrons, our Kimberely queen ferns and our dwarf date palms, "Back off, Buddy!"
These and other leafy life forms--from weeping figs to peace lilies--help remove toxic vapors from the air while producing oxygen, adding moisture and filtering toxins in our offices so we can be happy little workers.
It's a scientific fact according to "How to Grow Fresh Air: 50
Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office" (Penguin Books) by Dr. B.C. Wolverton, a scientist and NASA researcher who says that the use of houseplants will be the technology of choice for improving air quality in the 21st century.
Horticulture has come to the rescue in this new guidebook, complete with more than 100 photographs, descriptions on how to grow and care for plants
and an overall rating for the removal of chemical vapors, ease of growth, resistance to insect infestation and transpiration rate. Here are a few examples:
* Areca Palm (with the highest rating of 8.5) "is consistently rated among the best houseplants for removing all indoor air toxins tested. It also has the unique ability to move salt accumulations to selected branches. Its high marks in all rated categories make the areca one of the top 'eco-friendly' houseplants."
* Lady Palm (also 8.5) "is one of the easiest houseplants to care for and is highly resistant to attack by most plant insects. It is also one of the best plants for improving indoor air quality."
* Bamboo Palm (8.4) "pumps much needed moisture into the indoor atmosphere, especially during winter months when heating systems dry the air.This palm is also one of the top-rated plants tested for the removal of benzene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde."
* Boston Fern (7.5) "is the best [of the plants tested] for removing air pollutants, especially formaldehyde, and for adding humidity to the indoor environment."
* Snake Plant (6.3) "is almost indestructible. The snake plant differs from most houseplants in that it produces oxygen and removes carbon dioxide at night."
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Major Retrofit
Needed.
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Condensed From The LATimes.
MOSCOW--Like giant white serpents, two huge pipes emerge from the ground and wind their way 500 yards down Raskovoi Lane, taking over the sidewalk, arching high above side streets and gliding past balconies and
windows. This monstrosity is hated by its neighbors, but it is an essential element of Russian life: The pipes are the tip of a vast subterranean network that delivers heavily subsidized heat to every home in Moscow for just a few dollars a month.
They also are a monument to waste, inefficiency and centralization that illustrates how far the New Russia must travel to build a market-based economy. At a time when government agencies cannot even pay wages and pensions, the Moscow heating system annually consumes as much natural gas as all of France, officials say.
"All our salaries and pensions are burning up in the stoves of municipal heating stations," First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov complained shortly before he was named to his post last week by President Boris N. Yeltsin.
In Russia, central heating means something different than in the West: Here, homes, stores and offices do not have their own furnaces. Instead, Moscow's 10 million people are warmed by immense government heating plants that pump steam to radiators in every apartment, workplace and school.
Individual thermostats are virtually nonexistent. The government turns on the heat at the end of October and keeps it on until early May. The level of indoor heat is set for all of Moscow by a few anonymous administrators.
The temperatures are capricious, leaving some residents to shiver while others swelter. When Muscovites get too hot, they simply open their windows
to let the heat escape even in midwinter, giving little thought to energyconservation.
__________________________A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job. Zig Ziglar ~
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