Green Good World

Archive for December, 2009

Living Green is the way forward from here and it is imperative to involve and educate our children in all matters relating to the protection of our environment. Have you come across the phrase, “children learn by our actions, not by our words?”  This is an excellent guide to the way we need to involve our children because they emulate what they see.  If you want your children to grow up to be environmentally conscious and responsible adults, show them what that looks like.  Show them what it means to be eco-friendly. Make eco-parenting your priority.

10 ways to becoma great eco-parents:

#1  Buy organic when possible.  Discuss with your children why it is important to buy organic.  Make them part of the shopping process by having them find items on your grocery list.  Take them to the farmers’ market with your or join a CSA (community sustained agriculture) program and have them come with you when you visit the farm.  Share with your children your reasons for buying organic produce and then follow through with your actions.

#2  Recycle.  This seems to be such an insignificant thing to do, but it has a positive effect on the environment.  If your community waste management program offers a recycling program, then getting your children involved is easy.  Have them recycle paper, clean out plastic containers and help with the recycling system in your home.  If you don’t have the convenience of curbside recycling, it is a bit more of a process, but children can still get involved and it can become a family routine. 

#3  Walk, ride your bike and take public transportation when possible.  Demonstrate to your children the value of conserving resources by practising good eco-friendly habits.

#4  Teach them to appreciate nature by taking them on nature walks, visiting wildlife preservations and learning about animals and their habitats.

#5  Use reusable products whenever possible.  One very simple way to accomplish this is to use reusable shopping bags.  Children are great for helping you remember to bring them along when you head to the store!

#6  Grow a Garden.  Children of all ages love digging their hands in the dirt and growing things.  Let them choose what they want to grow, help them cultivate it and teach them about planting and growing their own fruits and vegetables.

#7  Travel.  Visiting other places helps children develop an appreciation and an awareness for the world outside their immediate surroundings.

#8  Use Natural Cleaners.  Cleaners contain a whole host of chemicals and fragrances that are harmful to our health and if you’re going to get your children involved in cleaning and caring for the home then they’re going to be exposed to those chemicals.  Opting for natural cleaners gets the job done while staying chemical free.

#9  Breastfeed infants.  Breastfeeding isn’t just better for a child’s health, it eliminates the need to manufacture and distribute formula.  And when your other children see you breastfeeding their sibling, they begin to develop an appreciation for its practicality.

#10  Buy used.  Clothing, furniture and even kitchen appliances can all be purchased used. This keeps them out of the landfills and it saves money and resources manufacturing and distributing these items.  And you save a bit of money too.

Being an eco-parent is really about adopting environmentally friendly practices that make sense for you and your family.  Your children will grow up knowing you thought it was important to conserve and, hopefully, they will embrace the same philosophy. Eco-parenting works!

Incidentally, if you do decide to buy an ebook from the links on this page, I will be paid a commission for your purchase.

Technorati Tags: eco-parenting, eco-parents, living green, natural cleaners, organic gardening, recycling

Solar box cookers are wonderful when it comes to harnessing the sun to cook food.  They run solely on the heat generated by the sun’s rays which makes them the ideal green cooking solution for the outdoors.  They are great for when you go hiking or camping because they pose no risk of inadvertently causing a forest fire and are also much lighter to carry in your backpack than other kinds of fuel.

How Solar Cookers Work

There are actually more than fifty different variations on the solar cooker theme although they usually fall into three basic types of design. 

These include:

• Concentrating sunlight.  In this type of device the sunlight is concentrated or focused by some type of reflective metal or a mirror.  The heat and energy from the sun then becomes concentrated and much more intense. 

• Converting light to heat.  In this type of design the solar cooker makes use of heat-absorbing elements, like the color black, to amplify the cooking process.  One example would be to coat the inside of the cooker with black paint or to use a black material to collect the sunlight and convert it into heat.  If you’ve ever worn a black shirt on a sunny day, you know how effective this is. 

• Finally, a third type of design traps heat by using a clear device, like a lid, to keep the heat inside and thus to use it to maximize cooking.

Of course, some designs take advantage of more than one of these solar cooking elements to really maximize the sun’s effects. 

A solar box cooker is one of the most basic types of solar cookers and can be made at home with few resources or technical skills.

Materials for Making a Solar Box Cooker

If you’re going to make a solar box cooker at home (and why not!) then you’ll need to collect a few things. 

These include:

* Two cardboard boxes.  One box should be larger than the other and ideally the bigger the better because it’s awfully difficult to make much in a children’s shoe box.  There should also be about ½ inch of space between the two boxes all the way around.

* One sheet of cardboard for the lid.  You’ll want it to be several inches larger than the top of your largest box.  So for example if your box is 10X10 you’d want your cardboard to be around 13×13.

* A roll of aluminum foil.

* Flat-black, non-toxic, spray paint or tempera paint. 

* White glue, non-toxic.

* An oven cooking bag or a sheet of glass. The oven bags are ideal because they’re inexpensive, durable, and easy to find.  They’re also designed to withstand 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

That’s it! That’s your supply list. 

Solar box cooking can be a fun way for your children to learn the amazing powers of the sun and to learn a bit about solar energy.  You can also take advantage of this wonderful device and cook outdoors when the weather permits.  You’ll save energy and have fun in the process.

Technorati Tags: solar box cooker, solar box cookers, solar box cooking, types of solar box cookers

I’m not talking about people who are against green living, but those who thinks they are leading a greener lifestyle.

I have been bothered by people who thinks consumption of green products is thus green living. Some people buy green products in additional to their normal needs. The key is to consume less!!

There was a great article on New York Times, but it’s subscription only right now. Treehuggers have their own report on this issue: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/buying_into_the.php

Do you know of any other common misconception about green living that you’d like to share with us?
More about recycling controversy, here’s clips from Penn & Teller:
pt.1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oloM_dSoW4
pt.2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40
pt.3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cnoj9MPpi54
Not all recycling is good. I really hope that people notice that REDUCE is the most important part of green living.

people get squirrely when they want to ‘make a difference’ and don’t know where to turn. as belladonna says, it’s not difficult, it’s simple. there is no measuring stick for how ‘green’ you must be save the one you use on yourself. for those who think they ARE living a greener lifestyle, if they’ve made positive changes, god bless ‘em. they ARE.

instead of fretting about which strategies you CANNOT use, act upon the ones you will. one preconception people have is that, "i can’t do it all myself, so i won’t do anything." this misses the whole point that what we all do helps. baby steps repeated endlessly by you and cumulatively by us have the same effect as one large corporate or governmental one- and are a heck of a lot easier to manage.

"i’m the only one doing this". not true, but if you need a mentor, find one. look up local members of the green party. find a ‘recycling buddy’ at work: most people exercise more regularly when they have someone to ‘push’ them, why not find a kindred to inspire you? the misconception that you’ll be looked upon as odd is old news. the chance that someone will strike up a conversation with you as you bring your own bag to the local grocer (i did say local, didn’t i?) is more than likely, and it’s a chance to share your ideals as well as stroke your ego. good deal, eh?

finally i agree that buying a surplus of ‘extra’ items because they’re earth-friendly is the wrong way to go about it. in fact, permaculture and many other green philosophies emphasize using LESS, not more. perhaps you could use this as a good opportunity to compare the ‘green vs. normal’ products, and let them know that there’s no dropoff in quality. maybe next time, they’ll remember your conversation and only toss the ‘green’ one in their bag. their canvas bag.

it doesn’t always go the way we’d like it to go. best not to alienate anyone: just support the good works that are being done. lemonade, not lemons. not always easy, peace.

Wind energy can provide electrical power to provide lighting right? What if you had gas power? Can wind energy provide gas power, for instance to heat up a hot water tank?

Can anybody recommend websites?
I didn’t mean converting wind power into gas. I meant using wind power as a substitute where gas is used, e.g. for heating a hot water tank. I appreciate all the replies.

Wind turbines make electricity not gas but electricity can heat up a water tank too.

1. What are the specs of the DC motor/other required to/capable of creating a Wind (or other source) Powered Generator that will run a standard home on its own (or 12,000-16,000 kWh per year)

2. What is the torque (in Newton-Metres or Foot-Pounds) required (to be generated by the wind/other) to move that shaft fast enough to generate enough power for that home.

3. What is the speed that that shaft will be spinning (in Hertz/RPM/other) because of that Torque in #2.

Bonus 4. What is the resistance of that motor/other, that is, how much inherent resitance does it have to turning the shaft. (Probably answered when 2 & 3 are answered?)

Anyone who answers all three questions will not only get the 10 points, but I will personally look through your previously answered questions and give you up to 10 thumbs up for any answers I don’t hate. Runners up will get a thumbs up, identical correct answers will get the 10 bonus thumbs up as well, all BS answers will get reported. GOOD LUCK!
Addendum to #2. Instead of Torque, Kinetic Energy would actually be better, but either one is fine.

It looks like you need help in converting electrical power requirements to mechanical power requirements. I’ll try to provide you with the knowledge to do that.

1. Because the wind is variable, the windmill will not be on all the time. There are a couple of options. You could oversize the windmill to generate excess power and store it in batteries. Or you could just use the power from the windmill when it is available and rely on the grid for the rest of the time. If the windmill generates more electricity than you are using, you can send the power to the grid. But the selling price is much lower than your buying price.

2. If you use 1000 kWh in a month like me, then the average power is 1000kWh / (31*24hours) = 1.344 kW. If your generator is 80% efficient, then you’ll need to supply 1.344/0.80 = 1.68kW worth of mechanical power on average.

Since power is torque times angular frequency, you can see that as the RPM increases, torque decreases. This presents a unique problem. If you put too much of a load on the generator, it will cause the windmill to stall. So, the faster the windmill turns, the less torque required for the same output power. There’s some math involved here. Mechanical power can be in horsepower or watts, and you can convert between the two.

I had to get out my old physics book. This will help you in determining the input mechanical power. One horsepower is equal to 746 watts. Rotational power (in Watts) is torque (in Newton meters) times the angular frequency in radians per second (one full rotation is 2pi radians).

Setting up a home windmill is not cheap. The payback time may be longer than you’re willing to invest in. You’ll need several things besides the windmill and generator. Battery storage is optional, but helpful. You’ll need an inverter to convert the power from the windmill to 60Hz 120V, and synchronize the frequency with the grid’s power.

Actually there are a couple of reasons: first, airplanes are designed in such a way that they have to be light and aerodynamic, when it comes to solar power it is a rather new technology that works from panels and batteries that store energy (which are heavy). This leads to our next issue: efficiency. Efficiency is measured by output based on input and loss (in this case energy). Most machines, engines and others are designed to maximize the efficiency and reduce loss of energy (heat in your car shows how it is not perfect as most of the energy goes to heat and that is why you need a cooling system).

Unfortunately, solar energy is very inefficient and the amount of energy required to fly a plane is too immense. In addition, solar energy is somewhat expensive; like all new and developing technologies, solar panels cost to install and maintain. One more issue I have heard of is the durability and the real need in the conditions that planes go through; they fly at high elevations where the weather is very cold and the panels have not been proven in such conditions.

On the other hand, I think you might be familiar with the NASA Helios airplane (http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/helios_fact.shtml). It has been found that solar panels cannot keep a plane in flight for very long. I believe what you might also look into is including solar panels on planes to power certain things like lights and TV’s, but as far as I know they have not been used.

Hope this helps,

Jose

Since solar power is free how would the big corporations make money off of you?

Big Oil has a huge amount of influence on the U.S. government, which is one of the reasons why there is so little R&D in renewables over here. And they’re in pretty tight with the auto manufacturers. Those are the three legs that keep each others’ profit margins standing up despite our best interests.

As for solar cars, the ‘analysis’ here is a bit off base. A solar powered car wouldn’t have a full solar panel on it — that’s just silly. But there are already small trickle feed solar panels to keep your (conventional) car battery topped up. That sort of thing could power the ignition, radio, etc. to reduce load.

The power for actual transportation comes from a battery you charge up at home (or work, anywhere you park would do) with a solar array. Or just plugging it in to a regional grid supplied by solar.

There are some extraordinary things happening with thin film technology that should allow us to cover just about any surface with photovoltaics. So the entire surface of the car could be covered with a durable PV film.

At least in areas that don’t salt in winter.

My house consumes 9.5kWH/day…how much does the whole conversion cost?i live in the philippines where it’s rainy from june-november, fair-weathered from november-february and extremely sunny from march-may…

these panels are for daylight not sunlight
a common misconception
i have just had one installed, and they are not cheap, i am in the uk so not much point in telling you the cost for here
look into it long and hard, and make sure you get the correct system for your home, think of future consumption, ie will you have a home full of teen agers in the future, or are you children grown already and about to leave? lifestyle is a big consideration

I was having a debate with my friend about ways to make the environment better and to have a better energy reliance than oil. One idea that was floated was to have every street lamp based on solar power (with backup electrical grid power in case it rains or something) anyway, here was the debate which we need your answers to: Is it better to have a solar panel on each street light OR Is it better to keep the street lights as they are and just install solar panel hubs around the city that feeds into the electrical grid?

Until compact onsite electrical storage becomes practical, it’s better to have centralized solar power stations feeding power to the electrical grid, because 1) the wiring to the lamps are already in place and/or are necessary anyway for times of no sun, and 2) greater efficiencies and easier maintenance is possible at large solar power installations than with thousands of small solar collectors. However, independent "off the grid" solar powered devices is the trend. For example, through fuel cell technology, compact solar energy storage may become possible and practical, in which case high efficiency street lamps may go off the grid, thereby reducing wiring needs.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here: http://homemadeenergyreviews.blogspot.com/

Should bottles and cans for recycling be washed, this seems wasteful? How often should noncollectable waste materials be driven to a recycling facility? Do low energy light bulbs encourage brighter homes and light wasting? Does exterior security lighting achieve anything for ordinary households? Isn’t it possible that in trying to do the right thing by recycling our waste and conserving our energy requirements, our carbon footprint might be larger than we imagine? Do you think every household should be made aware of the best code of practice in green living, and does such a thing exist?

For starters, don’t have kids. Can you think of anything else that would reduce your impact on our planet more than that?

Think about it – if you produce a child, you produce a human being’s entire lifetime of consumption and waste production. That is HUGE.