David Roper discusses an electric car at the Green Living and Energy Expo at the Roanoke Civic Center.

The show

Activities

• 69 exhibits of energy-efficient products, environmental organizations and government agencies
• Demonstrations
• Children’s craft area
• Speakers

Schedule

• 10:30 a.m.: Biofuels
• 11:30 a.m.: Climate change
• 12:30 a.m.: Living green
• 1:30 p.m.: Roanoke’s response to global warming
• 2:30 p.m.: A film on coal-generated electricity: “Kilowatt Ours.”

Representing a plumbing, appliance and lighting company, Barry Palifka suggested Friday to passing homeowners they should dump their conventional water heaters and install tankless units that make hot water on demand -- reportedly as much as anyone would want.

Palifka peddled the advantages of evolving water-heating technology during the Green Living and Energy Expo on Friday in Roanoke. Before him was a Japanese-made continuous water heater that mounts on an inside or outside wall.

"I've sold 5,000 in this area," the Radford-based safety coordinator for Ferguson Enterprises said.

The region's annual exposition of energy-efficient products and services for homes, businesses and institutional buildings drew homeowners, students and others to a large hall equipped for demonstrations, speeches and conversation that bordered on sales pitches. Visitors saw such innovations as an electric car, the latest in building insulation and windows.

One of the event's major themes is that living and doing business on less energy is not only possible but cost effective.

Kevin and Kayla Long of Salem, a young couple with a baby, attended with typical homeowner concerns about leaky windows and shortfalls in insulation. In addition, "I got a furnace that's as old as the house," Kevin Long said.

Long, an industrial controls engineer, said he is open to paying more for a new one if it saves money in the long run.

Not that long ago, energy efficiency was on the fringe of the public consciousness, said Pamela Vosburgh, project coordinator for the Virginia Sustainable Building Network, which has a state contract to promote green building techniques. But energy prices have risen along with concerns about the world's energy security, triggering a new energy consciousness, she said.

That was evident Friday as 69 exhibitors showed up to meet the public, compared with 13 when the expo was launched in 2000 by the Floyd-based Association of Energy Conservation Professionals.

"I've seen a huge shift in the last two years in consumers interested in [the question of] 'What can I do?' " Vosburgh said.

Palifka recommends a continuous water heater that does away with the old approach of heating and reheating a tank of water. Rather than an upright tank with heating elements below, this unit features a gas-fed heat exchanger that reportedly can heat 5 or more gallons of water by 60 degrees in a minute. It's a gray box about the size of a suitcase.

At $800 to $1,300 for a Japanese-made Rinnai unit, plus a few hundred dollars for installation, the gas-stingy technology is costlier than a conventional model. But the federal government will waive $300 in income taxes for the buyer the following year, bringing costs in line with conventional technology, Palifka said.

Incentives such as tax breaks for energy-efficient appliances will speed the public's adoption of the new technology, said Robert Schubert, a professor in Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies, who was touring booths.

Schubert thinks Western Virginia is probably ahead of the curve on environmental building practices, energy efficiency and related concepts. He noted that Roanoke hosted a nationwide sustainable-home design contest.

In a first for Virginia, the city last summer cut the real estate taxes for high energy efficiency, new or renovated construction that cuts energy consumption by 30 percent. "It's really these types of things that are going to get people to commit," Schubert said.

And then there's the cool factor, which was evident in such items as a display of plants that can be planted as roofing. The plants are sedums, which are valued for their ability to retain water during a downpour so it doesn't all run into the storm drain system. The plants thrive, quiet the structure and absorb less heat than conventional roofing, said Leigh Anne Weitzenfeld, whose residential garden design company is The Distinctive Landscape.

Ellen and Bob Rummel of Blacksburg attended Friday to glean ideas for a home they would like to build on Bent Mountain. Their interests included geothermal heating and cooling and solar power, topics well-covered by the exhibitor lineup. "We're trying to see how we can be most efficient with our money," Ellen Rummel said. "It's just a nice opportunity to have all the businesses together."

Patrick Wilson is familiar with the savvy homeowner who is looking to benefit from green technology. He is the operations manager for the Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative at James Madison University. He said a number of attendees asked him for the price of a wind turbine for home electrical generation. The answer: $15,000 to $50,000, he said.

Analysts have measured potentially valuable levels of wind on ridge tops in the western part of the state, he said.