Sylvania was kind enough to give us a selection of their new Super Saver halogen bulbs, for first-hand testing.

We switched the CFL bulbs in a couple of lamps and lighting fixtures, replacing them with equal wattage halogen bulbs.  The results: the halogen bulbs gave off a much brighter, warmer and happy-feeling light than their CFL counterparts.  The CFL bulbs do save more energy – the SuperSaver bulbs are 33% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, while CFLs are roughly 75% more efficient.  The Sylvania bulbs come in traditional shapes – no squiggly pigtails – and come in a wide variety of standard watts.  Other features – they’re fully dimable, instant-on and, unlike CFLs, contain no mercury.

With incandescent bulbs about to be phased out, consumers will be compelled to find energy-saving alternatives to light their homes, and — if light quality trumps energy and cost savings in your home – these new halogen bulbs provide a warm and ready solution.   Available at Menard’s, selected BJ’s and online at Sylvania’s website.

related : For CFL Haters…

French designer Benjamin Charles created his small-footprint living concept, Leav, as a prefab outdoor housing structure targeting the camping/hotel industry.

A solar thermal panel, integrated to the canvas roof, supplies hot water to the kitchen and bathroom.  To provide this tiny home more stand-alone freedom, dry toilets are situated at the back of the tent.  As Benjamin states in the description of the design, “Leave your daily lives to live under a leaf.”  Very nice indeed.

related: cool prefabs

Ah, the rich, beautiful rewards of reclaimed timber – these impressive looking benches were carved from salvaged, or fallen, logs of old growth cedar.  The folks at Urban Green and their online Landscape Architect Store feature these slab benches along with a wide array of other landscaping materials and products.

The Vancouver-based landscaping design firm makes visually stunning use of found (permitted harvesting) timber and drift wood.

Ever had a few too many and stumbled up the stairs of your home only to find yourself staring at your neighbor’s identical front door?  Could happen to anybody, right?  With identical, cookie-cutter McMansions proliferating like mosquitoes in a pup tent it’s no wonder America is becoming the land of conformity and home of the bland – another unfortunate reality, many of those big, boxy McMansions are poorly constructed, energy sucking enemies of the environment.   No style and no substance.

Well who would have thought that a modular home might provide an eco-friendly solution to suburbia’s lack of identity, New World Home and Hearst Magazines announced today a partnership for the Country Living Collection of historically inspired “country” modular homes that feature USGBC LEED® certification.

Moving forward by looking back – New World Home – a developer of sustainable housing, has created a line of new green modular homes that are a convergence of historically inspired design, next generation green products and practices and a highly efficient manufacturing process. New World’s  New Old Green Modular, or NOGM, home platform will now feature The Country Living Collection, a series of home designs that will offer homeowners classic, American style in a high performance home that exceeds the building industry’s most stringent green standards.  Goodbye big box.

“The Country Living Green Modular Home Collection offers a range of historically inspired designs that reflect the comfortable, warm and inviting style found in the pages of the magazine. Interior and exterior details hand-selected by the editors of Country Living include signature elements such as open floor plans, porches, fireplaces and oversized windows.”

The homes in the Country Living Green Modular Home Collection range from 1,100 to 2,300 square feet with an average price of $150-$200 per square foot ($165,000-$460,000) excluding land and site costs. Every home can be customized on demand and typically move-in ready, less than 100 days from the start of production.

“New World Home utilizes a proprietary whole-systems design approach to building science that integrates state-of-the-art products and practices from around the world. As a result, homeowners will reduce overall energy consumption by more than 50%, save thousands of gallons of water per year and enjoy superior indoor air quality over an average code-built house,” says Tyler Schmetterer, co-founder of New World Home.

New World Home is currently producing a Country Living Design Center, the first of the collection, in the New York tri-state area scheduled to open in summer 2010.

source: new world home

It’s always great to see reclaimed materials reborn, or upcycled, into into something practical and well-designed like this great looking bench from Tel Aviv-based, Ubica Studio.  The pine beams are locked together with reclaimed Ipea deck beams fitted into a groove in the pine beam’s underside.

If you’re selling everything in the home — why not sell the home itself?  Swedish furniture giant Ikea will be introducing its “BoKlok” line of prefabricated houses in the German state of Hesse, with the promise that unlike most of its home furnishings, there will be no assembly required.

Ikea has partnered with building firm Skanska and will develop several different models which will be constructed by German firm Bien-Zenker. The first set of nine row houses will be sold in the Wiesbaden suburb of Auringen on April 17th.

“No customer will have to put their home together themselves with an Allen key,” Bien-Zinker head Philipp Mühlbauer joked.

Later in April, another 30 Ikea row houses and apartments will go on the market in Offenbach, with owners able to move in before year’s end, according to Mühlbauer.  The energy-efficient prefab houses, which sell for between €180,000 and €250,000 (approx. $246K – $340k US), are expected to be allotted by drawing, due to high demand.

“We want to make the process as relaxed as possible for our customers,” Ikea spokesperson Sabine Nold said, adding that further locations include Nuremberg and Hofheim-Langenhain in the Taunus region near Frankfurt.

The BoKlok, or “build clever,” group operates independently, but uses IKEA stores for sales presentations. The company plans to buy plots of land and erect the homes with standard floor plans in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Great Britain.

Models include 84 or 102-square-metre living spaces, in addition to family homes with two, three, or four bedrooms.

source: thelocal.de

Tired of mundane rectangular living?  Think outside the box and live in the round via a portable, prefab shelter dome from Pacific Domes.  They’ve been making these designer geodesic domes for years; the sturdy structures have proven to be impervious to high winds, heavy snows and even the occasional earthquake. Offered in a variety of sizes and customizations.

Want to expand your home, add an in-yard office or small cabin, but light on cash? Add usable, stylish space to your home with one of these small footprint sustainable structures from San Francisco’s Modern Cabana.  These tiny buildings feature:  optimized framing, FSC-certified lumber and siding, bamboo flooring, recycled denim insulation and a waste-reducing manufacturing process.

Most of these prefabricated base units are single room, without bathroom. You can customize the larger models to include a bathroom as well as room dividers.  Those with building experience and a few friends can probably put up one of these in a few days.

It’s recommended that you mount the structure on cement piers.  And the roof, as shipped, is not suitable for supporting heavy snow loads.  Sizes range from 10′ x 12′ to 12′ x 25′ and basic kits prices range from $500 for a dog house, to $31,000 for the largest model (you customize doors, windows, etc. and accessorize from there).  Installation and shipping are extra.

San Francisco’s CleverHomes has created this little one bedroom prefab for those in search of a low maintenance weekend cabin or a guest house for any estranged relatives who might drop in.  The 480 square foot interior design features one bedroom, one bath as well as living, dining and kitchen areas.

The flat roof is great for solar panels, or a green roof or garden.  Siding can be:  reclaimed wood, concrete, metal or stucco.  The Mini also features a 70 square foot deck and bi-fold door.

The CHMini is just one of the many CleverHomes’ designs which typically cost between $200 and $300 per sqare foot depending on the buyer’s choice of finishes, extras and configuration.  CleverHomes estimates that their energy efficient building envelope will save 50% or more on energy costs over a traditional stick-built home.

These stools are made from reclaimed remnants of the old growth pine forests that once covered the Northeastern US.  Many of the old growth trees could be hundreds of years old.  Their salvaged, richly grained remains were once used as beams, joists and support columns in many of the older buildings around NYC.

These handmade reminders of the ancient forest clear-cut to build America are created in custom sizes and finishes in Uhuru’s Brooklyn facility.