Billboard Power Plant

Our friends at Treehugger.com are always one step ahead in the eco news. Maybe they make it up, i dunno, but this story is from their site(but in my own words).

Here is a great way to advertise solar power, and an idea of how to power lights in the future. Its simple, yet I don't know why it isn't used more often. I've seen those construction signs that are solar powered (more often downtown London with the sinkhole signs), but I dunno why more billboards don't power themselves! i mean you've got an area higher than most buildings around and in most cases get 100% sunlight on good days. So lets see more of this!

Santa is going to die!

At a recent festive tree lighting in Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels used his speech before the lighting of the lights to bring a new global eco-threat: If we don't stop using normal light bulbs, Santa and his reindeer will die! He then proceeded to pass out energy efficient bulbs.
Apparently scaring kids into using the bulbs will stop the icecaps from melting and save Santa from drowning.
There is also a letter that Nickels wrote:

Firefly Night Table Light

Heres a cool idea. Its a night light made from LECD (Light-emitting ceramic device) technology that emits a soft green, glowing light. Perfect for those times when you need to get dressed in the dark without waking your partner, or for in a baby's room or as a bathroom/hallway light. It plugs into your standard wall outlet and only uses an estimated TWO CENTS per year!

Buy it online at greenfeet.com

The Price of an Appliance You Don't Use

I've seen lots of ideas on how to conserve energy, which saves you money. Everything from buying water-saving nozzles to windows that redirect heat.
What I am going to hopefully explain in this post is how much energy you can waste by just having things plugged in. Those little red lights that show that the appliance is on do burn energy. The most common villans of energy wasting are anything with an external energy pack, anything that uses a remote, or anything that has a running clock(vcr). But just how much is wasted though?

Its believed that most modern appliances use about 15 to 30 watts while not in use, just by being plugged in. This adds up to an extra $10-30 used throughout the life of an appliance. That's PER APPLIANCE.
According to the Canadian Government, it averages out to be about 5-10% of your monthly hydro bill. So if your monthly bill is, lets say, $100, that means you could be wasting $10 each month on unused appliances. It adds to up a good 2 meals out on the town each year!




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Greening Up Your House In London Ontario: Episode One

So this is the start of what i'm assuming will be a multiple part blog on my experiences trying to make my house more environmentally friendly. I'm going to look into everything from solar power for lighting and heat, to building my own garden watering reservoir. I'm mainly doing this in the London, Ontario area because I want to show the readers from this locale how to make your house more eco friendly from any possible local resources.
I just want to point out that any companies that I talk about have no idea i'm doing this right now so it is in no way an endorsement to them.

So the first course of action in making your home more green is to see what local sources there are.
Searching online, I found a renewable energy supplier in London called 'The R.E. Source Store'. They supply everything from solar panels to lightbulbs.
Hitting up the phone book I found "UL Lovett Inc" which specialise in 'Tubular Skylights', wind generators and some solar heaters.
There are also a slew of 'Environmental Consultants' which I have no idea what they do. I'll have to call one sometime and ask.

Going by this list I can see that finding eco friendly products may be hard in this area. Prices seem to be pretty high, which makes buying them tough for anyone not in the 6 figure-a-year bracket. I guess i'm going to have to research a bit more into where I can build my own energy savers on a small budget. I'm thinking that stores like Home Depot will be of use for some of the minor parts.


Next Episode: Creating a garden watering reservoir.

'Impossible' Battery Made Possible?

With the increasing desire for fuel efficient cars, companies have spent millions on trying to make a battery that keeps its charge longer than electric cars do now, which is about 60km after a night of charging.
But heres the good news. A company by the name of EEStor has claimed to have made a battery that could get you up to 500km on just 5 minutes of charging.
Using a 'secret ingrediant' which is sandwhiched between thousands of sheeets of metal, stored energy is quickly absorbed and discharged, which is ecactly what an electric car needs in terms of energy. You can see the full story here.