The stimulus plan approved by Congress in February offers tax credits for making your home more energy efficient. Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit group gives some tips on how this could be done. With the $1,500 allocated for tax credit for energy-efficiency upgrades like new insulation and windows homes can be greener. This covers four types of upgrades. The first batch is home-shell improvements like insulation, windows and sealing. These are designed to make the home tighter and close up leaks. The next batch is home heating, ventilating and air-conditioning, or HVAC. This includes efficient air-conditioners and furnaces. A third batch is renewable energy technology like geothermal heat pumps, solar water heating, small wind generators and photovoltaic systems. The last batch is hybrid and diesel cars.
If you have the money, the sense of design and the heart to save the world, you can work wonders. As is proven by artist Katherine Harvey who created a huge 21 foot tall, 15 foot wide chandelier installed at the Santiago Calatrava’s Galleria in Toronto. She made this by transforming plastic recyclable containers into a massive chandelier. It doesn’t look very pretty but this wasn’t apparently made to look pretty but to send out a message on the horrors and the evil of plastic consumption.
Retro is in and so is eco-friendly products and alternatives. Finnish designer Pekka Salokannel has come up with a great concept. It is a solar-powered Gram Speakers which is patterned in the old gramophone record player style that gives such a nostalgic feel. It will be charged up by three layers of solar panels and the batteries will help play music long beyond sunset. The volume can be changed with the touch of a finger.
Every Drop Counts Water Meter is a device that will meter your water usage plus detect running, dripping & leaky pipes, without burning your pockets! The meter clamps onto the pipe and does not interfere with the water-flow system. It has an easy and cost effective installation coupled with inexpensive components, making the meter a viable device. The system automatically relays all the relevant data to the detachable display. Info displayed includes how much water you use and where are you using it, and the tap water temperature. It is based on cost allocation technology that has proven to save between 20 and 30 percent of heating consumption where applied, combined with a known method for detecting water leakages this new concept for water metering has a host of advantages over traditional water meters.
Since its that time of the year when most of you are eager to pack your bags and go globe-trotting, Nokia has come up with a green service exclusively for eco-travelers. The Nokia Green Explorer is designed by Nokia Beta Labs to ensure green assistance like sharing information about green shops, restaurants, hotels, and services. Such a platform will help to reduce carbon footprints of globe-trotters who intend to see their planet but without harming it. Users can also contribute their own eco-spots to the database for the benefit of other service users. By signing up to the site you can share eco tips and photos, ask questions, add and rank comments and tips for a more enhanced and meaningful travel experience. It also offers different options to select the most sustainable way to get to your destination based on mode of transport, cost, time to destination, and CO2 emissions.
Movie theatres are a huge mob grabber… and so some wise guys in the US realized. An 18,000 square foot array of rooftop solar cells gives Livermore Cinemas more solar electrical capacity than any other movie theater in the US it seems. The cells are rated at 132 kilowatts and in a year will generate about 190,000 kilowatt hours of electrical energy. The cost of setting up the system, by Novato-based SPG Solar, is less than the return to the company after energy savings, rebates and incentives are accounted for.
Seagate launched the Barracuda LP (Low Power) hard drive. The disks have up to 2Tband rotation speed from 7,200RPM to 5,900RPM. This and other optimizations will help cut the active power use by as much as half versus regular drives. The company also claims that the LP series uses about 25 percent less power than competing hard drives. The storage is meant both for home and work uses. It is claimed to be useful for energy-efficient PCs or home storage servers, where drive speed isn’t as important, or in workplace servers that depend less on frequent disk access.
Haven’t we all watched those alien looking creations and structures where people of the future live in where the atmosphere and air is human controlled since the outside world has succumbed to global warming? Well now San Francisco-based designer Joanna Borek-Clement has envisioned a network of interconnected towers shaped like a neuron called the Sky-Terra skyscrapers It provides a whole new city layer – one covered in public parks, amphitheaters, fields, and public pools and bathhouses and all much above the already sky-kissing skyscrapers. This was an entry in the 2009 eVolo Skyscraper competition and city of cosideration was Tokyo. Sky-Terra towers consist of a narrow base with a deep and strong foundation. The towers rise up to 1,600 ft and expand out until they reach the flat top plaza layer.
When you pay taxes to the government, it is essential to understand for which purpose that amount is used. Residents of Fairview, Texas will be glad to know that their tax money has been utilized to illuminate the Parkway in an uber-green manner. The authorities partnered with Sunovia Energy Technologies and completed Phase I of the Fairview Parkway roadway installation. Touted to be the best LED lighting job, it has not only met but exceeded all the national roadway lightning illumination standards. It is estimated that each LED light fixture will reduce carbon emissions by 1,000 pounds per year in comparison to a typical HID (high-intensity discharge) fixture. That amounts to a reduction of more than six tons per fixture during its lifetime. Moreover, Fairview, Texas taxpayers will enjoy more than $250,000 in energy savings and maintenance costs during the lifetime of these fixtures.
It looks like Hitachi’s eco-friendly appliance are actually not eco-friendly and the company has been lying about it all this while. Many of Hitachi’s fridges that were claimed to be the most advanced Eco wise by reducing CO2 emissions up to 48% during the production process weren’t. Both the “Eiyo Ikiiki Shinku Chirudo V” and “Big & Slim 60” series, nine fridges in total, claimed to have been built with recycled material were in fact built with standard materials and only three were built with 50% recycled material. To top it up, Hitachi has reported that they will not be refunding any of the customers who have bought their eco-friendly appliances. Now that is some guts.
