Posts from — July 2007

Quincy — warm homes

Whisper it quietly lest the folks in Iceland get to hear, but the people of Quincy Illinois have taken to describing themselves as “The Geothermal Capital of the World”. A geothermal home looks like any other from the outside–it’s what’s on the inside that makes it unique. A geothermal system heats and cools the house by transferring heat from the soil to the house in the winter, and from the house to the soil in the summer.

In Iceland, where 27% of all energy is geothermal, it meets the heating and hot water requirements for around 87% of the nation’s housing. Quincy is really exceptional to beat those numbers. (more…)

Cooking without gas

This article looks at the principles of outdoor stove cooking to help choose the right outdoor stove for your needs. Later articles will identify our recommended best stoves, cookers, and other outdoor gear.

The main thing you want from an outdoor stove is heat – fast and safe.

Chopping down trees wherever you happen to be is no longer possible if you are worried about the countryside you are in, or even the owners’ rights. The forests around more popular camp sites have been stripped of wood. (plus remember that green wood does not burn as well a seasoned). So packing your own “fire” has definite advantages. (more…)

Changing with the times.

Ohio’s Amish, with their horse-drawn buggies, plain clothing and austere lifestyle, have embraced solar power, says Green Energy Ohio, a Columbus grass-roots organization that is pushing renewable energy. Ohio’s Amish country is the heart of a green-power sales boom and proof that solar power works in not-always-sunny northern Ohio.

The most common Amish home use of solar power is for recharging battery-powered floor lamps, which are on wheels and roll from room to room. Solar power may also be used in Amish houses to run sewing machines, sweepers and washing machines. (more…)

with his clipboard

Dr. Stephen Leatherman, aka Dr. Beach, has studied beach erosion for 40 years and completed two national surveys of the American coast. He is the head of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University. For the past two deades he has been meticulously surveying the best beaches in America, giving them scores acroess 40 criteria from the softness of the sand to the slope of the dunes. The full listing is at the end of this article. (more…)

Use a local installer

After years of fits and starts, solar power is shedding its reputation as technology for hippies. With energy costs at record levels, and oil at a 12 month high, the economics of solar power have never looked brighter. The cost of installing solar panels has quietly fallen by half over the past 15 years, cutting the cost of a system that can power a typical home to about $30,000 for a state of the art version or half that for a basic but 100% reliable version. (more…)

By Brendan Montague

Live Earth London

THE CAMPAIGN against climate change meets the world of celebrity today when Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Razorlight take the stage in London for Live Earth. New York gets the newly-reformed Police, Bon Jovi, KT Tunstall and the Smashing Pumpkins, and five other cities around the globe are hosting major concerts.
But Off-Grid can reveal how British environmentalists who began the move for a climate change concert were forced into the margins and their attempts to reduce carbon emissions replaced with a series of hopeless gimmicks.
They claim Live Earth became a huge PR-driven machine with multi-national companies who have disputable green credentials – like Smart cars, Pepsi and Philips – jumping on the green bandwagon. (more…)

David and Cameron

The star of Trippin and the author of the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook – it’s a green dream and it will have the UK Tory leader David Cameron in a green spin.

Cameron Diaz and new boyfriend David de Rothschild are an item according to the London Daily Mail, which describes the 28 year old environmentalist as “the millionaire heir to the Rothschild banking fortune.” (more…)

Gore us to death

The Live Earth concerts will dominate global TV viewing saturday evening, and act as the springboard, say it ain’t so, for Al Gore’s Presidential campaign relaunch.

On July 5th at 1:30PM EST, Simran Sethi will be moderating questions on global warming for Gore. People all over the world are invited to submit questions to Al through the MSN Live Earth site where the former VP will then deliver some “simple tips” for a greener planet.

Here are three questions he will not be answering: (more…)

Ramsey – Idiot

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home (second edition) by Dan Ramsey with David Hughes

What is it?

One of the latest in the popular Idiot’s Guide series (published by Penguin Group) helps readers understand the basics of solar power and other renewable energy sources, determine if solar power is an option for them, and investigate what’s involved with installing various on- and off-grid systems.

How’s it work?

Organized in easy-to-understand chapters, the book discusses: Advantages and disadvantages along with costs and benefits of solar power. (more…)