Page 26 - Green Builder's Resilient Housing Design Guide 2018

Resilient Design

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 many solar owners system: in an outage, even on
U 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.
Comfort Block We especially like the fact that this solution
precludes the need for a combustion-
NE OF THE MORE EXCITING product innovations powered backup generator, so it’s a “win-
at Greenbuild in Boston this fall was this concrete win” for sustainability. As this article is being
block wall system, designed by a couple of guys from written, the company is installing hundreds
Sanford, Maine. The Comfort Block masonry system of units in Puerto Rico. A Tabuchi Electric
O is unique in several ways. First, it’s assembled using system will be displayed in our Flex House
a high-tech adhesive, not traditional mortar. Second, it shields the project at the Consumer
rigid foam insulation inside dual layers of concrete. The finished Electronics Show (CES) in
walls are 16 inches thick, R-30. But what builders may like most Las Vegas in January.
is that the system can be finished on the outside with a simple CREDIT: TABUCHI AMERICA
latex-based coating, with no drainage 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.

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