Posts by — Elena

Prius – dirty, rotten fibbers

A clampdown on fake and exaggerated “green” claims has been launched by Britain’s Advertising watchdog after complaints about unsubstantiated environmental boasts by some of the world’s best-known companies.

Toyota has been “exaggerating” the environmental benefits of the Prius, the hybrid car much loved by celebrities around the world who have been given freebies, The complaint centred around the advert’s claim that the Prius “emits up to one tonne less CO2 per year” than equivalent family cars with a diesel engine. The ASA said it did not consider that Toyota’s evidence demonstrated that it emitted one tonne less than equivalent vehicles with diesel engines. (more…)

Early sketch of MIT’s Solar 7

Members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solar Decathlon team head out for Washington, D.C. next week taking with them a house they designed and built from scratch. Dubbed “Solar 7,” it’s a home of the future: self-sufficient, powered purely by the sun, and MIT’s entry in an international competition for the most efficient – and livable – solar house.

The team hits the road Oct. 1, heading to the National Mall for the solar decathlon. There, in the shadow of the Capitol Building, Solar 7 will be judged against 19 other solar homes not only for architectural and engineering excellence, but also comfort, marketability, and energy efficiency.

But before it gets to compete, the team must finish building the house. (more…)

Hammer: Lenin loved him

Russia and two former Soviet republics are host to four of the world’s top 10 most polluted places, according to a new report from the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group.

Three of the four Soviet sites are around chemical factories formerly owned by Armand Hammer, the American billionaire who struck a deal with Lenin allowing him to exploit the Russian economy in return for channeling funds to Russian agents in the West, as well as into the Kremlin itself.

The history of the relationship between Hammer and the Russian State symbolises the corruption and nepotism in Russia’s current power elite, a pattern for the whole of the 20th century and into the 21st. There seems little any of us can do to persuade Russia to clean up its polluted areas. (more…)

Get to the source

BusinessWeek has reported on the hidden problems with solar energy and concluded that power consumption should be as close as possible to the point of production:
Even the most advanced photovoltaic solar panels convert just 20% of the available sunlight to electricity. The resulting direct current [DC] then must undergo conversion to alternating current [AC], losing another 20%. If that AC goes on to light an incandescent bulb, which is only 5% efficient, you end up using a fraction of 1% of the original sunlight as room light. [Even switching to compact florescent bulbs, which are 15% efficient, makes little difference in overall energy efficiency.] But if you were to simply leave sunlight as light — via proper skylights, window orientation, and louvers — nearly 80% of the light ends up as illumination. (more…)

Wicks: Carbon? No comment.

The British Energy Secretary Malcolm Wicks was just interviewed on The World at One, BBC Radio 4, where he failed to deny this morning’s reports that the UK government has privately accepted it will not achieve its carbon emission reduction targets. It is planning to slash its targeted carbon reduction, according to a leaked document, and civil servants have now focused on advising the government how to finagle this change of policy with the public and with the European Union where the targets were agreed.

Wicks said “I am not going to comment on a leaked document in August…” as if that would somehow dismiss the problem. Martha Kearney gave him two opportunities to deny the reports but he failed to do so. (more…)

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…)

getting there

If you commute to work in a city, then the scooters in our online store could be help take part of your life off-grid.

The scooters have engines ranging from 100W to a gob-smacking 750W, can take you from 8mph to over 20mph for up to 30miles! They are perfect for the everyday commute, and for errands that are too far to walk but not far enough to take a car.

There are several varieties in our store, something to fit every budget – here’s just one example, (more…)

They want your grease

After a successful trial in the Netherlands, hamburger chain McDonalds will power all its UK delivery trucks with cooking oil by the year end. The 155 trucks will run on biodiesel made entirely from used oil collected from the burger bars.

The UK trucks will initially use a blend of 85 per cent biodiesel and 15 per cent rapeseed oil. The move is further evidence of the long-lasting effect of the anti-McDonalds campaign a decade ago. Many of the leaders of that group are now living off-grid in Steward Wood, Devon. (more…)

Surf the web like this!

Not long ago, we brought you a story on how to get a telephone line to your off-grid palace in multiple ways (Ssstay connected). Now a California company has introduced a product that will help you get internet access, and through it the possibility of an IP-phone, powered by solar power!

What the Meraki network has put together is new, but the individual bits that make it up are not. The solar powered wifi box sells for around 100 dollars but it is also something your could do yourself with some of the products in our online store and a visit to your computer hardware store. (more…)