Posts by — mirkin23

ustralian paper The Melbourne Age has a big article featuring four individuals living off the grid in the Melbourne area and asking “What would you do if your water mains were shut off? Could you live with no electricity?”

After losing their home, this Kinglake family decided not to reconnect their phone, internet or television.

All it took was a single airborne ember. That was enough to spark the flame that destroyed the mud-brick Kinglake home of Daryl Taylor, his partner Lucy Filor, and their daughter, Maggie, on Black Saturday almost two years ago. Taylor fought the flames for 20 hours that day but the remains of their house are still uninhabitable – one of hundreds of homes in the Kinglake Ranges region that succumbed to the firestorm. (more…)

Do try this at home

From web-based displays that track energy usage in real time, to the downsizing of the American home, here are the key trends that will affect the way we build new homes in 2010.

1)      “Rightsizing” of homes. A larger home no longer translates into greater equity. Given that the forecast for home valuation remains conservative, that energy prices are expected to rise over time, and the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates mid-year, homeowners will likely feel more (more…)

The provision of off-grid charging services such as solar mobile phones or external solar chargers could bring mobile operators a market opportunity of $2.3 billion in emerging markets, according to research commissioned by the GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme.

His life is not like the movie Jan Schlichtmann was an environmental activist long before it was fashionable, but these days that gives him a problem with his garbage…. and with his children.

Schlichtmann is a leading Injury compensation lawyer, and his most famous case in the 1980s was the subject of the Hollywood movie – A Civil Action. He was played by John Travolta and (more…)

Maharishi Mahesh Yoga and The Beatles A new Maharishi University of Management’s building claims it will be greener that any structure of its kind. Solar panels and wind generators will produce the heat and electricity. Rainwater will be purified for drinking. And daylight will be the main light source for most of the building.

“It will be a building that teaches, and it will be a building that teaches more than any single building that I know of,” (more…)

Next UK eco minister?

The British Tory party has outflanked the governing Labor party by announcing the most radical green policies ever.

Tory green strategist Zac Goldsmith stayed in the background for the policy announcement today from party leader David Cameron

But the plans to encourage homeowners and businesses to generate their own energy will wow voters.

Increasing small-scale generation in homes, offices, schools and hospitals is key to the fight against climate change, Zac Goldsmith believes. A Tory government would spend up to �300m on this “green energy revolution,” Cameron pledged. (more…)

Running on empty?

In the excellent Penny Pincher’s Book seasoned savers John and Irma Mustoe share their innovative (and sometimes eccentric) tips:

1 Steam iron (or freeze) woollen clothes during winter to kill moth eggs. It’s the larvae, not the flying moths, that do the damage. And conkers make very good ‘mothballs’.

2 Extend the useful life of empty scent bottles or talcum boxes by putting them into drawers to perfume the contents.

3 Refrigerate candles for a few hours before using and they will burn more slowly, drip less, and give you better value for money.

4 Plant lettuce seeds. A 15g packet of seeds produces about 2,000 lettuces and costs about the same as a single lettuce in shops. (more…)

Retire early instead

For only $15, a busy shopper can pluck a wind-power card off the rack by the checkout counter at Whole Foods, good for 750 kilowatt-hours – the average amount of electricity sucked off the grid by an American family each month.

So, for about the cost of two tickets to a Friday-night flick, this environmentally savvy consumer has just become 100 percent wind-powered for the month, having the same effect as planting 13 trees or not driving 1,286 miles.

At least that’s what Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy, which markets the cards, claims.

Sound too good to be true? A growing number of skeptics think so. Critics argue that renewable-energy credits – the commodity that the cards actually represent – are just a way for people to absolve their environmental guilt by throwing money at it instead of making any meaningful changes to their lifestyles. (more…)