Archive for June 2009

Jun
30

Web Site Story

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Nora DePalma

Hilarious…good info on how some of the social sites work, all set to the tunes from West Side Story.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
Jun
19

Longley Supply and American Standard Display Systems - A Revenue Boosting Showroom Remodel

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Nora DePalma

Longley Supply and American Standard Display Systems - American Standard - Spotlight.

Successful showrooms drive sales with a dependable selection of popular products and fashion-forward features in an environment appealing to both professional trades and retail customers.

American Standard’s flexible, style-savvy display systems are designed to create the optimum in guest experience and business results, as evidenced in the 30 percent post-remodel sales increase experienced by Longley Supply of New Bern, N.C.  Read the story and view the photo gallery.

Jun
18

Photo Gallery:Peter Shankman Addresses PRSA GA Meeting

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Nora DePalma


Click on screen to visit O’Reilly/DePalma Photo Gallery.

Great GA PRSA meeting today with the Help A Reporter Out (HARO) founder Peter Shankman as our guest speaker.

Noting that social media is based on rules “you’ve already heard from your mother,” Shankman had this advice:

1. Transparency. Be Honest.

2. Relevancy. Find out what and how your prospects and customers want to hear from you.

3. Brevity.  The average attention span is 2.7 seconds, or roughly the length of one 140-character Tweet.

4.  “You can’t make something viral.  You can only make something good.”

If you’re in PR and you don’t know HARO, you should.  It matches thousands of journalists looking for sources with all of us who subscribe.

Jun
10

Stay Clean While Going Green: H2Option is First Dual Flush Toilet with Jetted Bowl Cleansing

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Nora DePalma

h2optionbty

H2Option, a new flushing innovation from American Standard is the first truly siphonic dual flush toilet, with strong push and pull action created by forceful but quiet jetted action under the rim. Using as little as 1.0 gallon of water on the low setting, H2Option scours the sides of the bowl to remove every last trace of paper and waste.   Download press release and high-rez images.

Jun
7

Sustainable Building Authority Walks the Walk With PEX Tubing, Solar Water Heater

Posted on June 7, 2009 by John OReilly

“Do what we say and what we do!” might well be the mantra for the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. When CCAT decided to remodel its live-in demonstration home and educational center for technology and resource conservation, the change was drastic, cutting-edge and yes, green, too

The one-story home, called the Buck House, was likely built in the 1920s and in recent years displaced by the HSU Behavioral and Social Sciences Building. In the spirit of sustainability, the house was lifted from its site and “recycled” by moving it down the road to a new foundation that will also be used as a room for lectures and training.

CCAT, an authority on sustainable building for more than 30 years, knew that the move provided the perfect opportunity to add new, green amenities to the home. Early on, the CCAT committee decided to use radiant in-floor heating and took the essential first step of having PEX (crosslinked polyethylene) tubing installed in the newly poured basement slab. This tubing, manufactured by Uponor Inc., would eventually carry warm water from a yet-to-be-determined heating source to warm the slab and the people and environs above.

Once the tubing was in place, CCAT decided to call in contractor Stephen Bohner and his wife Amy, who co-own Alchemy Construction Incorporated, also of Arcata. Bohner (left, pronounced BAW-ner) is a Certified Green Building Professional, a member of the Radiant Panel Association (RPA), and a recently nominated RPA All-Star. Committed to green building practices, Alchemy Construction received Humboldt County’s Waste Reduction Award for 2007.

Shortly after his initial meeting with CCAT, Bohner visited the manufacturing operations of Heat Transfer Products (HTP) in East Freetown, Massachusetts. There he learned about the company’s Phoenix Solar water heater, which combines domestic hot-water storage (from a solar collector panel) with a 97%-efficient, gas-fired backup – all in one unit. The sealed-combustion, direct-vent Phoenix Solar delivers both high-efficiency space heating and domestic hot water, using state-of-the-art condensing boiler technology and a modulating, load-matching gas burner.

No Cold Showers: To date, the three student-residents, having never run out of hot water, are very happy with the new system. “Although I told the committee that they could expect to see a savings in their energy costs, I didn’t claim they’d never run out of hot water. But I knew they wouldn’t – especially with a 119-gallon tank. There have been no complaints.”

Read the entire case study and see more images.

Jun
6

Search Results toilet « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Nora DePalma

Search Results toilet « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?.

Jun
1

Architect Homeowner Chooses 95%-Efficient Condensing Boiler for Victorian Rehab

Posted on June 1, 2009 by John OReilly

Unlike many homeowners who purchase historical homes, professional architect Frank Shirley knew exactly what he was getting into when he bought his 4,000-square-foot Victorian home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For starters, it had an inefficient boiler that was over 80 years old and generating more cost than heat.  To make matters worse, the boiler was encased in asbestos, which made replacing it even trickier. The entire three-story home – including a finished attic – was set up as a single heating zone.

Taking Steps Towards Green

Shirley wanted to make the first and second floors into separate zones, but his budget at that time wouldn’t allow it. “We plumbed the basement to create the opportunity for additional zones at a later date.”

With an eye on future expansion and renovation, Shirley replaced the old boiler with a far more efficient model that was compact enough to fit in the middle of the basement. Measuring only 26 inches H x 17.5 inches W x 12.75 inches D, the compact Munchkin “is so much smaller than the old unit and therefore easier to locate,” says Shirley. “Instead of venting it up three floors and through the roof, the installer tapped through the side wall of a small, unused room in the front of the basement, where it is nearly invisible.”

Frank Shirley is an expert on older homes. He is the author of New Rooms for Old Houses: Beautiful Additions for the Traditional Home published under the imprimatur of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Frank Shirley Architects received the 2008 Best of Boston® Home Award for historic renovations, and Shirley himself won the 2007 Traditional Building Design Challenge competition among architects nationwide.

Read more of the story and see more images.

National Kitchen and Bath Association Public Relations Society of America: Georgia Green Earth PR Network