This made the front page on Care2, vote for it with all yer might!
When many people think about a “green” house, they picture a small hut made out of mud where people sit on dirt floors, desperately trying to not use any energy. But by doing some careful planning and designing, and paying about 10% more on construction costs, this family’s home uses 50% less water and a whopping 90% less electricity than a similar-sized “normal” home.Some of the things they did are:
capturing rainwater and snow melt to flush toilets or water the lawn
“recycling” heat from hot water to help the water heater
If you’re thinking about building a home in the near future, and you’d like to cut the water bill in half and the electricity bill by 90%, then here’s how. I plan on one day following some of the tips in the video to make my house as cheap (and eco-friendly) as possible, while maintaining that normal home look.
Earthships are houses made with discarded tires, bottles, and cans, put together with lots of dirt. Many of them are self-sufficient, creating their own energy, and capturing their own rain-water. Since they’re made from reused/free materials, and supply their own electricity, heating, and water, they help conserve natural resources while also saving chunks of money. I’m down for anything that helps the environment AND saves me some dinero.
But I digress. I now present to you, courtesy of Earthship.net, “Earthships 101″.
Amory Lovins, who won a MacArthur Genius grant back in 1993 (and an Eco-Hero Award just right now), has been living in a house he built since 1983. It looks like a very nice and comfy house, especially when you consider that, despite living 7,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains (where it gets pretty dang cold), he pays $0 a year on his heating. Not only that, but his house actually generates more electricity than he needs — so he sells the surplus energy to the power company for some extra cash. Here are three ways to cut your electric bill like crazy.
His secret (one of them) is that he designed his house to be very well insulated. His walls are 16 inches thick, and his large super-insulated windows (made with special glass that insulates as well as 14 normal panes of glass) mean that his house can retain heat quite well.
Passive and Active Solar Heating
Lovins’ house is heated in two main ways: both from sun-rays passing through his many windows, or by means of Amory’s solar panels, which supply his house with more energy than it even uses.
Energy-Efficient Appliances
Much of Lovins’ house is naturally lit by the sun. Besides that, motion-detector lights and energy-efficient bulbs help to cut down on electricity use. His fridge is thickly-insulated, which reduces its energy consumption by quite a lot. His dryer is solar powered, and looks like it uses no electricity at all (watch the video to see how).
Amory Lovins’ home took some extra thought to design and build. It also cost a little bit extra ($6,000). But by cutting his power bill to zero, the extra planning and money spent were easily worth it. If more and more contractors start building this way, you could kiss our “oil prices” and “energy crisis” problems good-bye.
This made the front page of Hugg! Do me a “solid” and vote for it, if you please.
There’s a new craze that’s sweeping the nation. Tiny houses. Many of them even smaller than this converted bus. Instead of living in a big, energy-consuming, resource-using McMansion, some people have chosen to live in small houses of about 100 square feet. It might sound crazy, but after looking at pictures and video of them, a tiny house doesn’t sound too bad.
Martin House-To-Go has finished their 2008 tiny house model, and they call it Fresh Start. At $29,900, it only costs as much as a nice car, but offers all the modern comforts of home. Their tiny house includes these following features:
11′ high ceilings!
solid bamboo floors!
no toxic, gas-emitting materials used in construction
Anyhoo, it’s worth taking a look at their galleries. Marvelous, they are.
Moving on, we find Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed. He’s been building (and living in) tiny homes since 1997. Most of his tiny houses are about 100 square feet. He claims that the reason he started living in small houses is because he hates sweeping and vacuuming big houses. Also, since they use less natural resources (both in construction and in upkeep). Without further ado, I present Jay Shafer’s guided tour of his tiny house:
One day I might have to take the plunge and live in a mini-house. They look cool, are cheap, and are environmentally responsible. What more could ye ask for?Thanks to Tiff for telling me about this here thing.
The Iraq War. Many issues of this war have already been discussed, but I ask you: what of the environmental impact of the war in Iraq? The Onion steps up to the plate and delivers a home-run with this spot-on news feature.
If you’ve been staying up late at night, contemplating making the switch from plastic bags to reusable cloth bags, but you don’t yet have a tote bag, well then you are in luck. For I present to you, three two different ways to get a free reusable tote bag.
Free Eco-Friendly Bag - for businesses/retailers only. They put your logo on the reusable cloth bag, so you can sell them to customers, or give them away to promote your green business.
Free Klean Kampsite Bag - heavy duty, reusable bags with Velcro seals and ties to keep them closed. Great for camping / RVing (to coin a word). Did not work in Firefox for me.
So now you have no excuse to not be using them reusable cloth bags. Go out and get some free ones, and, as Michael Jackson said, “Heal the world, make it a better place”.
BBC has an interesting article today about people’s impact on the world’s oceans. Give it a looksie.
One thing I wish they’d done differently is to say exactly what criteria they used for their ratings. Anyhoo, scientists figure this map will be useful for determining what areas of the ocean most desperately need help. These scientists are now in consideration for the prestigious Eco Hero award.
If you’ve been staying up late at night, contemplating making the switch from 