I wasn't able to attend the Pacific Coast Builders show this year in San Francisco. Did anybody see anything new and worth finding out more about?

Oregon-Born,

Look at my previous post in the Kitchen Appliances post in this section. Other than that, the other new thing I thought was great was blown-in wall fiberglas wall insulation by Johns Manville that didn't require mesh netting to be stapled up to the studs before blowing in the fiberglas. There is an adhesive binder in the blown fiberglas mix that dries very quickly with no VOC's (volatile organic compounds). This should make this product much more competitive with the standard cheapo fiberglas batt insulation and it is a much better insulating product.

One other GREAT item I saw there - was the new dual flush toilets being manufactured by the Sterling division of Kohler. These are very similar to the Caroma dual-flush toilets that hit the U.S. market from Australia about 3 years ago. Much better in some ways (especially the flush mechanism cartrige - very easy to maintain). 1.6 gallons per flush for solid waste, 0.8 gallons per flush for liquid waste. On average humans do the second one 4 times as often as the first one, so on average, these toilets use 40% less water than standard 1.6 gallon per flush code-mandated toilets with absolutey superior flushing performance (no clogs and no double-flushing). The MSRP is $271 each. I personally have installed the Caroma toilets in a 272-unit apartment complex and they work great, but I like the flush mechanism in the Sterling toilets much better. You might even be able to get a rebate from your local water utility for installing one of these.

That's the good stuff so far.

Christopher Vaughan
Mayfair Homes, Inc.

Thanks Chris, seems like the Australians are ahead of the U.S. in many efficient designs.