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Uncategorized
Reducing Energy Usage – Did you Know?
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What is "Cleaning Naturally"?
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Cleaning the Green Way |
| Clean Brass – Use ingredients that have natural acid such as Tabasco sauce, vinegar, ketchup and/or tomatoes, lime or lemon juice, and milk to remove tarnish. The tarnish washes away if you polish the brass item with or soak it the listed sources. Blot the excess moisture with a clean cotton towel. |
| Moth Ball Substitute – wrap cedar chips, lavender flowers, rosemary, mint, or white peppercorns in a clean cotton cloth. Tie with a pretty ribbon and place in clothes closets or drawers. |
| Clean Silver – Home remedies suggest that plain ol’ white tooth paste will shine your silver. Rub in a dab with your finger or cotton cloth. Baking soda paste also works well on larger pieces with a damp sponge. In both cases, rinse with hot water and polish dry with a soft, clean cloth. For badly tarnished silver, leave the baking soda paste on the silver for an hour or so, before cleaning off with the help of the sponge and hot water.
Alternative Method: Boil 2 to 3 inches of water in a shallow pan with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and a sheet of aluminum foil. Totally submerge silver and boil for 2 to 3 more minutes. Wipe away tarnish. Repeat if necessary. (Do not use this method on antique silver knives. The blade will separate from the handle.) Alternative Method: Another alternative is to use nonabrasive toothpaste. |
| Sink & Tub Cleanser – As an alternative to using store-bought cleansers, make your own soft scrub. The "recipe" is simple: mix 1/4 cup baking soda with a few drops of dye-free liquid detergent. Use the scrub on a cotton cloth to clean the sink, tub or countertop. |
| Plant Spray – Wipe leaves with mild soap and water; rinse. |
| Baking Soda Oven Cleaner – Begin by sprinkling 1/4 inch baking sowing over the bottom of the oven. Spray water until the baking soda is damp. Keep it damp during the process (4 – 6 hours). Scoop out the baking soda and the grime. Rinse the oven to remove the residue. (do not use this method in self-cleaning or continuous-cleaning ovens)
Alternative Method: Clean spills as soon as the oven cools using steel wool and baking soda; for tough stains, add salt (do not use this method in self-cleaning or continuous-cleaning ovens). |
| Vinegar Window Cleaner – What is more natural than vinegar? Try this recipe: 2 C water + 1/4 C white distilled vinegar + 1/4 t clear liquid soap. It works best if you fill the spray bottle with water and vinegar then add the liquid soap. If you reverse the order, the soap bubbles when water is added. Spray on and use newspaper to wipe dry. |
| Rug Deodorizer – Deodorize dry carpets by sprinkling liberally with baking soda. Wait at least 15 minutes and vacuum. Repeat if necessary. |
| Fabric Softener – add a 1/2 C baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to each wash load. |
| All-Purpose Cleanser – 1/2 t washing soda + 2 t borax + 1/2 t clear liquid soap + 2 C hot water Mix well and pour in spray bottle. Spray cotton cloth and use to clean most surfaces. Use common sense when using the all-purpose cleanser. |
| Holiday Air Freshener – Simmer 2 sticks cinnamon + 5 or 6 whole cloves +8 C water Fills the house with the most wonderful, welcoming scent. Be sure to check the water level and replenish when necessary. |
| Clean Drains – To keep drains free of clogs try this simple step once a week. Pour 1 C baking soda down the drain followed by 2 C hot water. To eliminate odors in the drain pour 1/2 C vinegar.
Alternative Method: An ingredient free method is simply to use a plunger or plumber’s snake. |
| Sterilize Sponges – Drop sponge in boiling water. Leave for 3 – 5 minutes. If you have a dish washers, put them on the top basket and simply wash with the next load of dishes. |
| Toilet Bowl Cleaner – Use a toilet brush and baking soda or vinegar. (This will clean but not disinfect.) |
| Furniture Polish – To make your own natural furniture polish simply mix 1/2 t olive oil + 1/4 C vinegar. Kept in a glass jar, this polish may be stored indefinitely. To use dip a clean cotton cloth into the jar and apply to wooden surfaces. Buff clean.
Alternative Method: Mix 1 t of lemon juice in 1 pint of mineral or vegetable oil, and wipe furniture. |
| Ant Hotel – To eliminate unwanted ants (you know the insects, not your parent’s sisters) mix 1 C borax + 1 C sugar + 4 shallow glass jars with lids (baby food jars or something similar).
Mix the borax and sugar in a bowl. Into each jar put 1/4 of the mixture. Fill each jar with water, leaving a 1/2 – 1 inch space. Before screwing on the lids, hammer holes (6 is a good number) in them. Screw on the the lids and place the jars in areas where you have ants (but keep away from pets and children). This method will capture the worker ants but not the queen because she remains in the nest. |
| Stain Remover – Ivory soap works well for most stains. Wet the stain and rub Ivory soap in the stain. Rinse. Repeat as needed. |
| Flea & Tick Repellent – Put brewer’s yeast or garlic in your pet’s food; sprinkle fennel, rue, rosemary, or eucalyptus seeds or leaves around animal sleeping areas. |
What is "Natural Building"?
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Lighter colors for roofs absorb less heat, reducing cooling costs in warm climates. Select energy-star appliances. Energy-efficient windows, such as those with low-E glass coatings, gas filler between layers, and composite framing materials keep heat inside in the winter and outside in the summer. Use environmental friendly products like oriented strand board (OSB). OSB is a manufactured wood product that does not require large trees. Vinyl siding on exterior walls is a green alternative to wood. Vinyl siding is cheaper to install and requires little maintenance. Increase the amount and R-value of insulation as a cost effective way to save energy and help reduce heating and cooling bills. Sprayed insulation made of foam, cellulose or wool is an alternative to traditional glass fiber batting. Large south facing windows (passive solar) helps heat the home in the winter and allows for increased natural daylighting. Reduce the need for watering, fertilizers and herbicides by using native plants. This method is called xeriscaping. Tankless water heaters provide hot water on demand at a preset temperature rather than storing it, which reduces or eliminates standby losses. Insulate foundations just as if they were walls in the living space. Front-loading washers use about 40% less water and half the energy of conventional models. Recycled plastic lumber and wood composite materials reduce reliance on chemically treated lumber and durable hardwood for decks, porches, trim and fencing. Tree preservation reduces landscaping and future energy costs and helps provide winter wind breaks or summer shade. Additional landscaping improves the environment even more: One tree can filter 60 lbs. of pollutants from the air each year. |
Living Green in the Garden – W
| A Rainwater Catchment System: Rain Barrel Program in Vancouver Canada saves water. |
| Accept a new type of wastewater treatment system in your home: Advantages and disadvantages of collecting rainwater |
| Alternative construction methods to save water: Why use a pail of water to flush when a cup will do? |
| Annual water use of 8000 litres per full time employee: Utilizing the best state-of-the-art energy and water efficient measures available |
| Austins Zilker Park showcases rainwater harvesting: Dual flush toilets are ideal for buildings with a high daytime use |
| Beneficial reuse of reclaimed water: Canadian 12-page research report |
| Build a simple rain barrel: A power station’s dependence on potable water greatly reduced while assured of a reliable, continuous source. |
| Case studies on reducing facilities water usage: Rain barrels, the simplest rainwater collection devices, can save thousands of gallons of tap water each year, and save money and energy / (added 09/2005) |
| Centre for Science & Environment New Delhi: Large US companies initiate reuse and recycling |
| Cisterns to Collect Non-Potable Water for Domestic Use: The Indian journey of rainwater harvesting |
| Design tips for rooftop rainwater harvesting in Bangalore: At present, the two leading desalination technologies are thermal and membrane |
| Drinking Water Needs Of Farm Animals: Innovative efficient ways to capture vapor in German greenhouses & urban structures |
| Environmentally friendly cruise ships an oxymoron: Dairy and livestock farm water reuse practices |
| Global Recycling Network : Utilizing innovative fog collectors and effective rainfall collectors to make optimum use of natural atmospheric sources of water. |
| Harvesting Rainwater For Landscape Use: Simple systems use catchment areas such as roofs, sidewalks, and patios to direct rainwater runoff to vegetation. |
| Healthy House water & wastewater technologies: University of Arizona Cooperative Extension |
| Home Use Of Rainwater & Graywater: Innovative Canadian approaches to recycling water |
| Houses of the Future Excellence in sustainable design: Conserve, reuse and augment summarize Arizona’s strategy to meet new water needs. |
| Humanure Handbook Online : Water Reclamation & Management Scheme (WRAMS), Australia’s first large-scale urban water recycling system |
| Indoor gray water reuse: filled with information about composting human waste. |
| Initiative recyclage : Case studies, links and references for indoor gray water reuse. |
| Interconnecting water tanks function as dividers: / (added 09/2005) |
| Irrigation with recycled water in green houses: Ongoing research at Henties Bay Marine & Coastal Resources Research Centre also includes solar desalination. |
| King County Commission for Marketing Recyclable Materials : Surplus water and fertilizer do not accumulate in the soil less substrate, creating a runoff of up to 40%. A pump returns water and nutrients to the greenhouse. |
| Melbourne Water Autonomous House: dedicated to finding markets for recycled materials. |
| Much water conservation in the home iscommon sense: Rain catching pointers stress water efficiency and reuse |
| New York Cityscomprehensive Water Reuse Program: Grey water qualities & uses. Centre for Alternative Technology. |
| Pacific Northwest Collecting Rainwater: Lower Murray Water’s desire is to protect riverine environments in Australia |
| QUALORG: Do it yourself rain barrel construction. Resource listing. |
| Rain Barrel Guide: a quality procedure for biowaste management |
| Rainwater Catchement Systems Assoc: Desert House at Phoenix Botanical Garden |
| Rainwater Harvesting Calculator: Roof washers, filters and ultraviolet light sterilize rainwater at 10 gallons per minute. |
| Recycling Gray Water can stretch your water budget: Reuse the final rinse water in the initial wash water stage and consider reducing nozzle size |
| Retention grading allows rainwater to percolate naturally: WVU Extension Service, Center for Agricultural & Natural Resources Development |
| Reverse osmosis membrane filtration systems: These "Sunken Gardens" are capable of holding water in a flash flood |
| Runoff handling at feedlots: Untapped opportunities |
| Safe Use of Household Greywater: Helpful worksheets for manure and runoff collection from open lots systems |
| Saving water through better systems & technology: NMSU Guide for uses of treated and untreated grey water. |
| Sequential water reuse: Salt-tolerant forages may serve as needed link in water reuse system for agriculture. |
| Smart Water Fund: Farmers use ag drainage water from lettuce to irrigate the more salt-tolerant cotton crop and then used again on extremely salt-tolerant crops before the much-reduced volume of water is pumped into a comparatively small evaporation pond. |
| Space-saving secure and flexible rainwater storage: One innovative approach to reduce the area’s potable water demands |
| The Humanure Handbook Online : A primer of the basic principles of captured rainfall, with an emphasis on residential and small-scale commercial applications. |
| Thermal treatment of municipal solid waste: Untapped opportunities |
| Unique and creative approaches to environmental sustainability: Fog water technology help communities hours away from water get water. A Canadian and Nepalese partnership |
| Urban and rural household wastewater reuse: Cancer Research Center in Seattle wins 3 environmental awards for saving water & energy |
| Urban Water Infrastructure Assessment: Savings reflected in water resources and your water bill. |
| Water from waste: A least cost planning approach two case studies in Sydney, Australia. |
| Water Gets A Second Chance: Effluent waters from intensive rural industries are recycled in irrigation avoiding pollution and turning waste into wealth. |
| Water Recycling cleaning water the way nature does: Recycled pipes, valves and sprinkler heads are easily recognizable by their purple color |
| Water recycling in the paper industry: Explore an ecological wastewater recycling system in Chatham County, NC |
| Water Reuse Association: Environmental awareness reduces water usage |
| Water Reuse in Texas: A international organization dedicated to increasing the beneficial use of recycled water |
| What is a Low Impact Development?: Water reuse is a proven water management strategy for a growing population. |
Organic Gardening: Water Conservation / Saving
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Living Green in the Garden – W
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Business Conservation Initiatives: A water audit is an excellent place to start determining where excess water is being used |
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Clotheswasher Savings Calculator: Calculate your savings in common areas laundry rooms |
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Drop by Drop: A How-To Guide: Starting a Water Conservation Program |
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H2O Water Saver Home: California Urban Water Conservation Council Water Saver Home. Take a tour of water saving opportunities in your home. |
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Multi-Family Laundry Rooms Save Water: Help implement this cost-saving and resource-friendly water and energy conservation method |
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Pricing promotes efficiency and conservation: Market-based pricing of water use would enable consumers to prioritize their water use. |
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San Diego expands landscape conservation programs: Water savings continues with plans for the next five-to-ten years. |
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Toiletology 101 Care And Repair: For some time now a growing group of people have been trying and succeeding to make diesel fuel out of used cooking oil (waste vegetable oil, WVO) by themselves. There are many magnificent articles on this subject on the Internet that can teach you how to get started. |
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Waterwiser Drip Calculator: Measure and Estimate Water Wasted Due to Leaks |
Living Green Today. Step by Step to an Renewable-Energy Powered Home (assumes you are using an existing home)
What is Living Green?
Living Green – Building Natural & Green – Cleaning the Green Way
Passive Solar – Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle
Videos: Building Green Straw-bale Home Hydroponics
Living Green Today
Step by Step to an Renewable-Energy Powered Home
(assumes you are using an existing home)
Living Green, is basically making decisions considering the impact that decision would
have on the environment. Living Green is making choices that are good for the earth.
| 1. Conserve Energy – Most people can not afford to buy the additional PV & solar heating modules to run the average US home. There are many people who figure they are quite well off just by doing this step alone! |
| 1A. Insulate as much as you can afford – Put in double and triple pane windows. Insulate the roof, walls and maybe floor. Use light colored roofing to reduce your cooling expenses in hot climates. |
| 1B. Get energy efficient appliances, lighting, heating, and cooling – Remember heating and cooling are your major loads. Solar can replace heating (or even cooling) depending on your site (and INSULATION). Please see table below for various heating/cooling methods. Your refrigerator, unless new within the last 5 years, probably should be replaced with a new one. Check the renewable energy catalogs for the best efficiency ones. If you can’t afford a new one, consider mounting a couple of muffin fans to blow away the heat generated by the motor of the refrigerator. A 4 watt muffin fan, left on all the time to cool under the refrigerator, will save you electricity because it removes most of the heat that would normally rise up in to the cooling compartments. Washers, the best efficiency ones are the horizontal axis ones. Lighting, choose fluorescent, compact fluorescent, or LED.
Cooling/venting your attic reduces the load on your living space cooling system. Most people use 110vAC fans which use a lot of electricity. You can use solar, but that is very expensive. A turbine vent or ridge vent are less expensive, they don’t use electricity, don’t have a motor to burn out, and use natural convection currents to cool the attic. Some say ridge vents work better than turbine vents. However you need to make sure your input/soffit vents are not blocked, and that you have plenty of them. |
| 2. Examine your site – How many hours of sun per day does your site average? Is there any objects blocking the sun? The clearer the view of the sun’s path, the longer you’ll get usable energy out of your solar modules. |
| You can use a single or dual axis tracking mount to get more usable energy of you pv modules per day. A tracking mount points your pv’s directly towards the sun. The difference between a single and a dual axis tracking mount is that a single axis one has to be adjusted seasonally. The dual axis tracker automatically adjusts for seasonal variations. A dual axis tracking mount usually won’t increase your power output enough over a single axis tracking mount, for most places, to make the dual axis tracking mount worth it. A tracking mount is more expensive than a fixed mount, but may be more cost efficient than buying more pv modules. |
| Do you have a stream available? Hydro can give you surplus electricity if there is enough flow and head. How much flow is the stream?
How high is the stream (head/vertical fall)? Head times flow is your hydropower output. 500 Gallons per min. over a 3 foot drop, or 3 gallons per min. over a 500 foot drop give you the same power output. The higher the head, the lower the gallons per minute you need to make the same power. Micro-hydro equipment is what is generally sold in renewable energy businesses. Micro-hydro is usually high head (over 10ft), low flow (less than 120GPM). Please be considerate of the environment: Ensure that there is plenty of bypass water for the wildlife all year around. Be careful if there is any fish in the stream about damming the stream. |
| What is the average miles per hour of the wind at your site, per year?
The lowest startup wind speed for a wind generator I’ve seen is 7mph or 3.0m/s. At that speed not much electricity is generated, however having a hybrid solar/wind system generates electricity when the sun is out with the pv’s and when it is stormy with the wind generator. For best performance, mount the wind generator on a tower about 30 or more feet above any obstacles and for safety’s sake, put the tower at least two times the height away from any building, power line (on poles or towers), and property lines. There is roof mounts for the Air Modules, performance will not be as good as on it’s own tower due to turbulence from nearby obstacles. |
| 3. Add up your electrical load – You need to find the total watt-hours of the load’s you want to put on RE battery system or to compensate for the load usage in a battery less grid-tied RE system. By using the data plate on your appliances will give you a quick, but general idea of that appliance’s energy usage. A more accurate, easier, and more expensive way is to use a watt-hour meter. You can also use your electric bill, which gives you total watts used in kilowatts, or watts times one thousand. |
| Using the data plate, you might have to convert to watts. After you have converted to watts, or starting with watts, watts times the number of hours that appliance is on per week equals watt-hours per week. Then add up all the watt-hours per week of all the appliances you are going to use on RE. Divide that by seven to get avg. watt hours per day. |
| Using your electric bills, add up one year’s worth, then times one thousand, divided by 364, or 365 depending on the number of days that year to get avg. watts per day. |
| Take avg. watts/watt hours per day times 1.2 to get DC watts per day that you must generate. |
| Divide this by the avg. hours of sun per year or the avg. hours of sun for the worst month. This gives you how large your PV array must be. Dividing by the avg. hours of sun per year will undersize the system during the winter, and either needing a generator, or more grid usage. |
| Using different energy sources complicates the calculations a bit. |
| 4. How much money can you spend? – Due to a lack of money, people will only put part of their electrical load on an renewable energy system, then spend more later on when they can afford to buy more. The owner of Real Goods did this a long time ago! Nice thing about PV’s is that they have no moving parts and can last a long time (some even have warranties for 25 YEARS!) Note PV’s don’t produce as much in HOT climates, as they do in COOL climates. Buy NAME BRAND, DEEP CYCLE batteries for storage (if you decide for any storage at all). A battery bank however has to be bought all at once. You can’t mix old and new batteries because the new batteries will be brought down to the performance level of the old batteries. |
Living Green Links
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(Beer) uilding Energy Efficiency Research: is the Building Energy Efficiency Research project at the Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong. The objective of this research study is to formulate effective strategies for achieving energy efficient design in architecture and buildings. |
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Did She Really Just Ask That? Boston Green Tourism Director Dan Ruben Reveals the Secret of His Eco-Philosophy: What are some of the other practices that you do that are examples of living green? Dan Ruben: Well, a lot of it is. I get excited about making changes in … |
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Ecological Stewardship Workshop: report from the US Forest Service on sustainable forestry and forest ecosystems |
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Green Delaware: Green Delaware is a grassroots organization concerned with environmental and public health issues in Delaware and surrounding states. We advocate policies consistent with good health, preservation of biodiversity, and long-term sustainability. We believe that achieving these ends also requires progress towards human relationships based on peace, justice, and democratic forms of government. Located in Port Penn, Delaware |
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Handmade Organic Mosquito Repellent (HOMeR): The Thai lemon grass in our herb garden grows nearly two inches a day — and we found it keeps the mosquitoes away. We’ve also found that it’s an effective herbal anti-fungal medicine (lemongrass tea) and in Puerto Rico people use the fibrous stalks as a natural toothbrush! But how can its essence be extracted and preserved without losing its magic? We use a tincture we make with Chinese brandy. It works well — but can you find a better way? |
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Living Green, Saving Green!: Did you know you can save a lot of green by living green? … For example, you can save at least 50% on your organic vegetables by shopping at your local … |
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Making Smart (And Green) Choices When You Paint: (16 pages) Draws on experiences of Central and Eastern European countries to examine the Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) flexibility mechanisms created by the Kyoto Protocol and explores issues regarding their implementation. Elena Petkova and Kevin A. Baumert. |
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Red Jellyfish: Environmental directory with natural products, services and organizations. Links to recycled, organic, solar, cruelty-free, healthy, socially conscious, and environmentally friendly products |
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The Complete Idiots Guide to Saving the Environment: The choices you make each day matter a lot. This e-guide can simplify green living because it puts practical tools and resources at your fingertips that are designed with the busy person in mind. |
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Tower of tomorrow is an example of living green architecture: When Fortune invited my design firm, which specializes in sustainable architecture, to share our vision of a building of the future, we decided not to guess… |
Building a Strawbale House
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Building a Strawbale House |
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