The senate keeps forgetting to include important tax breaks for renewable energy projects. Last year, senate passed the Energy Act which raised the bar on miles per gallon, and other household efficiency issues. It seems that we’re still stuck with the idea that it’s okay to harm the environment… less. Industry proponents […]
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CNET reported on a paint under development by researchers at Rice University and City College of New York. The trick is an ancient remedy that my unlce used to swear by (and probably still does). It’s silver. Nanoparticles of silver, to be exact. The trick is to insert these tiny particles […]
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Popsci.com gives out invention awards every year. I stumbled across their selections from May and found a great product made from a coal by-product, fly ash. Once part of the problem, retired civil engineer Henry Liu turns fly ash into an effective solution, and he’s planning on releasing it this year!
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Al Gore and Anderson Cooper have brought plenty of attention to the Green Topic. Their dismal reports, along with plenty of environmental pioneers like Paul Hawkin, Ray Anderson, etc, have spurred a media frenzy on the need to save our planet. Time magazine recently reported on “51 Ways to Save the […]
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I just read an interesting article about New Urbanism, a movement against sprawling cities and our dependence on the automobile. The philosophy claims that we can retrofit our cities into denser neighborhoods where all of our needs, or most of them, can be within walking distance. This includes work, school, shopping, […]
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John Brown, founder of the Slow Home movement, is fighting to slow down the housing process. His enemy is the cookie cutter neighborhoods that focus on quantity and speed, not quality and sustainability. Think of it in terms of food. The Slow Food movement was agaisnt the Fast Food industry […]
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I just ran across an interesting monthly (so far) blog about green hacking. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Basically, green hacking is modifying ordinary household items into energy saving machines. This is at least a fun blog to read, and at best an exciting way to darken your shade […]
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Posted in Green Building Info. on Dec 5th, 2007
My last couple of posts have been less about building houses and more about other things like energy. Sorry for that. I’ll try and keep my postings specific to your own house plans. However, I need to indulge myself one last time to tell you about a clip of the big picture. […]
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Nanosolar is coming out with their new product PowerSheet. This paper thin sheet is a solar panel in disguise. The panels are basically printed on a sheet of aluminum foil in a process that is much like printing a newspaper. The result is a product that can be rapidly produced at greatly […]
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Straw Bale homes have been a hot topic lately. Their R-value is outstanding, and they are quite earth friendly given the rapidly renewable resources they use: namely straw and clay. I checked it out (google straw bale houses or house plans) and was pleased to find plenty of sites willing to share the […]
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