Let’s face it, many of the recommendations to lower your carbon footprint or otherwise lessen your impact on the environment are hard or expensive or uncomfortable– and some are all three. But there are also many that are easy, pleasant — and save you bunches of money as well.

Of these, the top of the list is certainly to stop drinking bottled water. Plastic bottles take an enormous amount of energy and oil to produce, are rarely recycled, and may leave residues in drinking water– with unknown health effects. Transporting the water also adds tons of carbon to the atmosphere. To top it all off, much of the bottled water sold is nothing but tap water to begin with. The water on tap in the US is almost without exception completely safe to drink. For added certainty you can put a filter on your faucet or buy a filtering pitcher.

Other easy, pleasant, and cheap tips to make your life greener:

• Exchange incandescent bulbs for compact florescent bulbs. They cost a little more (ask for them for Christmas!) but save you up to 50% on your electric bill.

• Instead of buying sparkling water (in plastic bottles), buy a home seltzer water charger! You can also buy flavoring– or use your own recipe– and make your own flavored sodas this way. You’ll save lots of money this way, not to mention keeping all those bottles out of the landfills.

• Saving on heating can be hard if you want to stay comfortable. One easy way to do it, however, is to keep the thermostat down low at night when you go to bed and during the day when you are at work. If you have trouble remembering to do this, investing in a programmable thermostat which will do it for you automatically can pay for itself many times over. This has the advantage that it can be set to turn itself on before you get up in the morning or home at night, so that your house is always at a comfortable temperature when you want it to be.

• If you don’t already have a low-flow toilet that uses less water to flush you can make your regular toilet more water-efficient — and planet friendly — by adding a 1- gallon jug filled with sand or gravel to the tank. You won’t notice the difference in the bathroom– but you will on your water bill!

• Don’t buy dry-clean only clothes! Most methods of dry-cleaning use cancer-causing chemicals. Some may remain on your clothes, but more leach into the ground water when the chemicals are disposed of. If you already have dry-clean only clothes that you love, consider finding a dry-cleaner that uses non-toxic cleaning methods. Or simply hand wash the clothes yourself with a gentle cleaner. Most ‘dry-clean only’ respond well to gentle hand washing.

• Use a washable mug for your morning coffee. If that means forgoing Starbucks, all the better! Making your own coffee at home instead of buying it at a coffee house can save you hundreds of dollars a month!

• When you’re making that morning coffee, use a reusable coffee filter. You’ll save the cost of paper filters– and also more than a few trees.

• Use rechargeable batteries. You’ll save the cost of 30 or more regular batteries for each rechargeable battery you buy– and also keep a fair amount of toxic materials out of landfills.

• Buy a solar charger for your rechargeable batteries. You’ll save on both the cost of batteries and on your electric bill.

• Wrap gifts the old-fashioned way– in fabric, tied with real ribbon. Your pretty wrapping can then be made into something else — which may last far longer than the gift it was wrapping! If the person who received the gift doesn’t like to sew, collect the fabric and ribbon afterward and give it to someone who does.

• Clean the coils on the back of your refrigerator. Dusty coils can increase energy use by up to 30%.

• Donate, don’t dump! Instead of putting something out for trash pickup, give it to someone who needs it. If it’s not in good enough shape for Goodwill or another charity, check on-line with your local free-cycle group. People in these groups are often willing to take things that may need some refurbishing.

• Don’t leave the water running while you’re brushing your teeth. Turn it on briefly to wet the toothbrush and then again to clean it when you’re done.

• Read your newspaper on line. You’ll save both the subscription cost and the lives of several trees. If you can’t do without your morning paper in paper form, at least make sure you recycle it!

• Turn off and unplug your computer equipment when you’re not using it. Better yet, get a laptop to use as your regular computer. Laptops are designed to save money and run on batteries– which can be recharged with a solar charger for even more savings.

* Visit Green Christmas Gifts or The Green Home Store for products discussed on this page.

By Henry Allpas

Believe it or not, there are many alternatives to flush toilets. For anyone doing research on the topic there is a plethora of information on the internet detailing alternatives to flush toilets, septic systems, and sewer hookup. The main reasons people would do this sort of research is to either save a few dollars or help preserve our environment, or both. Here is a list of flush toilet alternatives that you can do some further research on.

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by Charles Koty, A.I.A.
Source: Sustainable Living Articles

The popular word today is GREEN, meaning protecting our environment, enhancing our ecology, conserving our energy and, also, fighting global warming, pollution and waste.

Utilizing the solar system, instead of fuel, for space heating is part of GREEN. And that’s where solar homes come in.

The Traditional Way: Active Solar Homes
Early on, architects learned to harness the sun to heat our homes and minimize our dependence on imported oil. South-facing solar panels on the roof, with circulating water, can produce free domestic hot water. This system is still popular and is cost-effective.

Multiple such panels, with anti-freeze liquid instead of water, and with elaborate pumps and insulated storage tanks have been used for space heating. This system is called “active solar,” due to the hardware involved in the system, and it is not cost-effective.

Another upcoming system, born out of the space age, is “photovoltaic.” Photovoltaic roof panels use sun power to run the house’s entire electrical system. This option is clean, efficient and almost care-free, but very costly to install. However, it does have future potentials as costs come down.

The Practical Way: Passive Solar Homes

“Passive solar” is an old concept with a new shine. Energy-saving passive solar does away with costly panels and mechanical devices and taps directly into the sun’s energy and house orientation to heat the home. The advancement of technology and available materials has further enhanced the system.

So what’s in a passive solar home? A typical one has the major rooms facing south, or nearly-south. The house is constructed with thick insulation in walls and ceilings to keep the house warm in winter and cool in summer. Window and door glazing is double-paned for better insulation (in colder climates, triple-glazing is recommended). A wood-burning stove is selected over a fireplace to optimize heat efficiency.

Most windows and glass doors are on the south side for solar gain. Roof overhangs shade the house from high summer sun. Strategically placed clerestory windows create air circulation by convection for summer cooling.
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The nice thing about making your life a little greener is you can start just about anywhere, from huge changes to tiny ones:
For instance, if you want a greener career, here are a couple of books to give you a boost:

Or maybe you want to know where to invest your money for the best for both you and the planet. Then one of these books might be for you:

Maybe you have a house and want to make it greener. Here are some books to guide you:

Don’t have a house and want to build one? There are some great books to show you how:

Maybe you just want to clean your house for the holidays without adding anything toxic to the family circle. Here are some books to explain how to green clean your home:

Don’t want to read a book? Then just add one of these to your cleaning supplies:

Keep checking back here for tips on how to make 2009 a little greener for you and your family!

Want to give a renewable gift this Christmas? Check out these low cost possibilities from the Green Life Store:

The cheapest options are usually books– or for an even greener gift, e-books!

Here are a few books from the Green Home Store:

by Jenny Antelli
Source: Sustainable Living Articles

One essential part of any wind project’s development is the wind power feasibility study. This study undertakes a thorough analysis of a variety of factors to determine how viable a wind project will be and how much power can be produced. A feasibility study is used to keep the various stakeholders on the same page about a project in the early development stage of a wind project. Further, should a project be deemed unviable, the feasibility study will have saved stakeholders a great deal of time and money. The feasibility study, therefore, serves as a keystone for the wind energy development project.

To get an accurate read on a wind project’s potential, the feasibility study must first include analysis of wind speeds and air density. Wind power output is a cubic function of wind speed and air density, so gaining these data for an area is crucial to understanding the area’s wind power potential. A feasibility study must also carefully consider transmission and interconnection availability. Dearth of transmission lines for new energy projects is one of the wind industry’s biggest setbacks. For a wind project to be successful, the study must show that a wind project has good chances of being connected to the grid and being able to transmit power to areas of high need such as metropolitan centers.

In addition to gaining an idea of transmission and interconnection possibilities, getting a feel for land control possibilities is another central facet of any feasibility study. For any registered plot of land, the owner holds one set of wind rights. He/she cannot agree to put a turbine from one company on one part of this land and another turbine from another company on another part. If land has already been tied up by another wind developer, a new wind project will likely need to refocus its development area on a different location or meet its end.
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Wind power has long been a source of renewable energy, as evidenced by the many windmills of centuries past. The flow of air is used to run wind turbines, some of which can produce up to 5 megawatts of power. The most common wind turbines for renewable energy used commercially produce between 1.5 and 3 megawatts. The renewable energy that a wind turbine gives off is derived by the cube of the speed of the wind. As the speed of the wind increases the power that the turbine puts out increases almost exponentially. In places where wind is strong and nearly continual such as at high altitudes and offshore are the best places to locate wind farms.

Wind is the fastest growing source of power through any of the renewable energy resources and technologies. In the past ten years, the maximum capacity of wind power installed the world over went from a 1992 high of 2500 megawatts to a high of 40,000 in 2003 and continued to grow each year after that by another 30 percent.

This shows no signs of abating. Due to wind being an intermittent energy resource most wind turbines in the European Union only produce an average of one fourth of the power they are actually capable of. Under favourable wind conditions, however, some reach 35 percent or more. In winter the EU realizes a higher load factor. What this means is that wind as a renewable energy in Europe typically has a capacity for 5 megawatts maximum per turbine but regularly produces 1.7 megawatts.

The long term potential for wind as a reliable renewable energy resource throughout the global is probably about five times what it currently produces and forty times what is currently demanded of it. Large pieces of land that are not now being used for wind turbines could easily do so, especially in high wind areas. The offshore areas, where wind is nearly twice as fast and dependable as that of inshore land masses could be increased substantially as renewable wind energy sources.

The strength of the wind near the surface of the earth varies considerably and scientists cannot assure that the earth would have continuous renewable wind energy there unless it was combined with other sources of energy or stored in some way. Some suggest that 1000 megawatts of the capacity for conventional wind gathering could be counted on to produce 333 megawatts of power that is continuous.

This could change as our technology evolves, but most experts suggest using wind in the context of a renewable energy system that has an expansive capacity for reserving the energy. Examples of these would be hydro power, desalination plants, reserve loads and the mitigation of the economic impact of variability of resources.

Not only is wind power a renewable energy, but like other renewable energies it gives off no harmful greenhouse gases while being operated – no methane, no carbon dioxide. The one negative of wind power is that bats and birds get caught up in the turbines and get killed. Wind turbines should, therefore, be built where this impact would be least felt.

Source: Sustainable Living Articles

A generation ago, a small band of appropriate technology enthusiasts bought and retrofitted an old Victorian in the Berkeley Flats area of Berkeley, California. Featuring a bottle wall to take advantage of passive solar energy, a composting toilet, and carefully designed systems which used each ‘waste’ product as a nutrient for another food source, the house was capable of producing all the food and energy needs for a family of four. This book explains all the systems in full, and although the house has long since returned to the ranks of the ordinary, costly and pollution producing family home the book (now also long out of print) is still one of the best guides for those looking for a better, healthier and cheaper way of life.

The Integral Urban House: Self-Reliant Living in the City

The solar panels most familiar to most people are made up of arrays of commercial solar cells or wafers formed of a thin layer of a material such as cadmium telluride or amorphous silicon sprayed or electroplated onto a base such as glass or ceramics. This is the technology most commercial solar kits use. These kinds of solar cells are relatively expensive and not terribly efficient, but that may be changing: Israeli scientists at the University of Tel Aviv claim to have discovered a new method of creating solar cells that will result in costs of less than 1/100th what they have been. According to an article in the EE Times Europe,

The reactive element in the researchers’ patent pending device is genetically engineered proteins using photosynthesis for production of electrical energy.

The scientists applied genetic engineering and nanotechnology for the construction of a hybrid nano — bio, solid state device. According to the researchers, although using photosynthesis for photovoltaic application is not new, their specific technique is the first to enable the production of useful photosynthesis-based photovoltaic cells.

. . .

The researchers suggest existing silicon based photovoltaic cells offer low average energy conversion efficiency of 12-14 percent, while their system is capable of efficiencies of about 25 percent. They based their photovoltaic device on genetically engineered dry proteins photosystem I (PS I), encapsulated in solid state substrate bottom metal and a top transparent electrode.

Another method of lowering the cost and increasing the output of solar cells is to use a fresnel lens as a solar concentrator. Here is a video showing a cheap and efficient homemade fresnel lens concentrator:
Solar Breakthrough

A good video from Easy Home Solar Power