Perhaps because of a cooling housing market, new product introductions at this year’s International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla., were short on excitement. But green products had a strong showing. Valley Forge, Pa.-based CertainTeed Corp.’s (www.certainteed.com) new fiber-cement siding is now made with 30 percent recycled flyash, resulting in boards that are lighter and require less energy to produce.
Kohler’s (www.kohler.com) 1.28-gallons-per-flush Cimarron toilet, shown below, saves up to 3,200 gallons of water per year compared with standard models. It also meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense High Efficiency Toilet qualifications, making HET-owning consumers eligible for rebates of up to $175 from local utility companies.
Because energy-saving lighting is important, too, Sea Gull Lighting Products (www.seagulllighting.com) of Riverside, N.J., served up the Metropolis brushed-nickel pendant, which uses a self-ballasted pin-base 13-watt bulb and is Energy Star-compliant.
And Trane (www.trane.com) introduced the 93-percent-efficient XV90i variable-speed gas furnace, which has an integrated CleanEffects whole-house air-filtration system that removes up to 99 percent of airborne allergens.