Page 28 - Green Builder Magazine Jan-Feb 2018 Issue

A New Reality

Resilient

Product Showcase

New products and systems that address flooding and wind provide

ready-made solutions to design and engineering challenges.

BY GREEN BUILDER STAFF

Tabuchi Electric

CREDIT: GENEST/COMFORT BLOCK Solar + Storage

TILITY RULES IN MANY STATES dictate that solar
inverters automatically shut down and stop backfeeding
power to the grid. This has been a source of frustration to
U many solar owners system: in an outage, even on a sunny
day, they can’t use their systems. Tabuchi Electric, an innovative
Japanese company, has solved the issue with a smarter inverter that
redirects solar power to a small battery bank, essentially acting as
an emergency generator. We especially like
Comfort Block the fact that this solution precludes the need
for a combustion-powered backup generator,
NE OF THE MORE EXCITING product innovations at so it’s a “win-win” for sustainability. As this
Greenbuild in Boston this fall was this concrete block article is being written, the company is
wall system, designed by a couple of guys from Sanford, installing hundreds of units in Puerto Rico.
O Maine. The Comfort Block masonry system is unique in A Tabuchi Electric system will be displayed
several ways. First, it’s assembled using a high-tech adhesive, not in our Flex House project at the Consumer
traditional mortar. Second, it shields the rigid foam insulation inside Electronics Show (CES) in
dual layers of concrete. The finished walls are 16 inches thick, R-30. Las Vegas in January.
But what builders may like most is that the system can be finished
on the outside with a simple latex-based coating, with no drainage CREDIT: TABUCHI AMERICA
layer, no house wrap and no sheathing required. The same is true
on the interior. You can apply plaster directly to the face of the
concrete. Clever use of narrow chambers provides chase area for
electrical and supply-side piping.

26 GREEN BUILDER January/February 2018 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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