It’s incredibly fortunate that experiencing the delights of an eco-holiday can also save you on bills and other travel expenses which is perhaps the best promotion possible of going on such an environmentally friendly vacation. For a full range of destinations and services, be sure to visit Holiday Hypermarket and to sample the diverse range of experiences available.
Austin-based Firefly LED has recently announced its latest offering, a one of a kind Smart LED that could pretty much light up your home for the next 40 years! Capable of pulling down your electricity costs for lighting by nearly 90%, if you do replace every bulb in your home with one of these that is, the Firefly Smart LED requires you to simply replace a tiny LED inside the lightbulb itself whenever required. Sporting a large heat-sink that surrounds the entire unit, the Smart LED has its temperature reduced by nearly 32%. Priced at about $35, these bulbs might be more expensive than your regular light bulb. They do make for a sound investment however, helping you knock off those digits on your electricity bill.
Windmills are fascinating pieces of technology indeed, using the energy of the wind to generate energy. After setting up one of these to power up a washing machine during the Second World War, Vollis Simpson took his fancy for windmills back home in North Carolina where he kept himself busy with his hobby, building windmills of different shapes and sizes. At the age of 93, Simpson is now selling 30 windmills right out of his own personal collection. These will be used to build the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina. A one-of-a-kind theme-park that’ll give visitors a glimpse at Simpson’s craze for these extraordinary energy generators, the place will swing its doors open in November 2013.
Fashion does not necessarily been an energy-sucking extravaganza. At the recent Spring 2013 Paris Fashion Week, Chanel chief Karl Lagerfeld had his runway lined with mini-wind turbines. These took the crowds at the Grand Palais in Paris by surprise, with this one-of-a-kind runway design clearly putting its point across. “It’s all about volume and lightness because [they usually] don’t go together,” Lagerfeld said. And that’s not where the designers affinity for the greener good stops. The clothes being displayed also sport grid-like beadwork while the transparent Perspex hat brims are reminiscent of the spinning motion of wind-turbine propellers, further proving the designers love for alternative energy.
Incandescent lighting solutions have lost favor today most of the world turning to energy-efficient lighting solutions like LEDs. Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA has also taken a solemn oath to completely phase out the sale of incandescent bulbs, settling for only LEDs instead. The company will sell only LEDs by 2016, and has distributed LED bulbs to all of its 130,000 employees worldwide. A move like this could prove beneficial not just to the company but also the community, the electricity and the environment as a whole.
LED lighting solutions are known to work longer than incandescent bulbs. Also, these produce a similar amount of light and consume 90% less energy, making LEDs a perfect way to light up homes.
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Environment lovers and tree huggers are in for a treat with Amazon.com’s subsidiary Quidsi pulling the veil off its newest green online destination. Called Vine.com, the website has on sale organic food and household items made of natural or sustainable products. Built to cater to a niche-yet-surprisingly-large market, Vine.com however will carry no Amazon labeling, and will require users to register with the website. Complete with its own loyalty program and a full-fledged transaction platform, this website will soon turn into a one-stop destination for nearly every green and environment-friendly food and household product you could pick off a store shelf.
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The San Diego Zoo will now make use of clean and green energy to the fullest, teaming up with Smart City San Diego to install a full-fledged solar photovoltaic canopy that in turn will juice EVs in the parking lot. A venture put forth in collaboration with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), City of San Diego, GE, UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego, Smart City San Diego will use 10 solar canopies producing 90 kilowatts (kW) of electricity hooked up to five EV charging stations. The juice collected by the solar canopy will be used to offset the electricity used by the EVs to charge with the canopy itself spreading over enough space to cover 50 cars. An initiative bound to give the San Diego Zoo an additional punch of green, we applaud the effort being put into making San Diego an eco-friendly place to live in.
Energy-efficient architecture today has scaled new heights, and the world is quickly realizing the need for sustainable ways to live. The 2022 FIFA World Cup might seem ages away, though hosts Qatar has already began drawing up green plans for the same. Recently, we spotted this beautiful twinkling architectural marvel that will soon show up in this Arab state, designed by Vedran Pedišić (SANGRAD) and Erick Velasco Farerra (AVP-arhitekti) and planned by Danijel Koletić of Apriori Communications. Called the Crystal Ball-Light of the Future, this shimmering orb-shaped structure will pack a sports museum and a shopping center and is reminiscent of a giant crystal-ball, using top-of-the-line technology to stay energy-efficient and eco-friendly. Resting on a vertical axis and spinning on a spiral path, the crystal ball makes slow revolutions around the center. Gracious, magnificent and terrifically beautiful, the structure is also energy efficient and will be yet another jewel in Qatar’s crown.
Wind-energy turbines might’ve proved a boon to city grids, powering up homes with green and renewable energy. However, the pleasantness of the situation doesn’t extend to our feathered friends, who often run into these huge fan-like machines and are killed. Jerry Lynch, president of Sigma Design Co. along with 89-year-old World War II veteran Raymond Green, has come up with an innovative technique to keep birds away from wind turbines and reduce deaths. As per statistics, nearly 400,000 flying creatures are killed annually, and the Catching Wind Power Compressed Air Enclosed Wind Turbine could very well help decrease those numbers substantially. Using no external blades, this concept uses inner-compression cone technology that essentially squeezes incoming air, in turn increasing power output and reducing sound! An innovative solution that not only helps protect our flying wildlife but also increases energy generation, the Catching Wind Power concept is bound to catch on quickly.
India was termed as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2009, and in a desperate attempt to reduce its carbon footprint, this quickly developing country has now began promoting the use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Spending nearly $4.13 billion on an ambitious project with which the Indian government hopes to bring at least 6 million green vehicles on road by 2020, 5 million of which are expected to be two-wheelers, the country has now realized the need for eco-friendly modes of transport and a need to decrease reliance on fossil fuels. Fuel prices in India have been soaring over the past decades and using energy efficient plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles could indeed prove to be a better way to travel if all goes as planned.