Home Made Wind Turbine Want to build a wind turbine for your home? I have gathered several PDFs for those who want to build there own wind turbines and have links to them at the bottom of this post. They cover all types of wind turbines and issues that you may run in to such as wind speeds and noise. From reading these my self I have found that the Hi-VAWT takes all into consideration and is easy to replicate. In VENTURI horizontal axis Wind Turbines wind turbines the blades rotate and describe a circular surface. Light Clay-Straw & Solar Hal Brill and Allison Elliot’s light clay-straw home brings together passive solar design, active solar technologies, natural materials, and an efficient layout for an energy-saving, durable dwelling. Home Power (HP): Besides incorporating solar technologies, your home has some unique features. What served as your initial inspiration? Allison Elliot: The development process took several years. Key inspiration came from architect Michael Frerking’s house that was featured in a 2005 issue of Sunset magazine. We fell in love with the curved roof, and that really landed the design for us. The overall design is dominated by this curve, which evokes Anasazi cliff dwellings and our experiences in the canyons of Utah on raft trips. HP: Why did you decide to use clay-straw (or “light-clay”) as the wall infill material? Elliot: Through the years, we attended numerous sustainable building conferences, including the International Straw Builders Conference. Clay-straw seemed to be the middle ground.
How to Build Your Own Solar Panels in Only Two Hours and Have Free Electricity For the Rest of Your Life! by Rich M.,AskAPrepper Solar is inarguably the most commonly chosen form of alternative power. The one problem with solar is its cost: installing enough solar panels on your home to power everything can cost upwards of $30,000. Even so, solar is still the king for alternative power. While most people buy ready-made solar panels or even buy them from a solar contractor, this isn’t the most cost effective way of getting solar for your home. An Important Bit of Theory Before we try to build anything, we’d better understand what we need. , connected and mounted together, so that they produce a usable output. In order to ensure that there is enough electrical power to charge 12 volt batteries, it is necessary to produce at least 14 volts. Each solar cell produces 0.5 volts, regardless of its size. produce more watts of power, but they are still producing 0.5 volts. There are two different ways of connecting solar cells together, what is known as “in series” or “in parallel.” .” . . . .
Mobile home makeover: Before and after Looks like "Fixer Upper" Joanna Gaines may have some friendly competition when it comes to home makeovers. Amy Shock Amy's mobile home before the makeover. Gaszton Gal Los Angeles-based designer Amy Shock took a low-end $5,200 mobile home in Ojai, California, and turned it into a high-end dream house, complete with floor-to-ceiling walls of glass, a modern kitchen and a large, inviting deck. RELATED: Carmen Electra's new home is surprisingly traditional — until you step inside Amy's mobile home after the makeover. According to the LA Times, the 800-square-foot property took 12 months and about $175,000 to renovate. "The situation was attractive to me," she told TODAY of choosing to buy the mobile home. "The idea that I could purchase the opportunity for $5K was mind-numbing to me," she said. And resuscitate she did. A graduate of the Cornell University School of Architecture and residential designer, Shock conceived the idea for the update on her own.
Solar Grill Stores Latent Heat For 25 Hour Cook Time At 450 degrees Image credit: Derek Ham/Barbeque Lovers We've seen a DIY solar cooker built from old CDs, and we've seen plenty of commercially available solar ovens too. We've even seen one solar-powered grill. But we haven't seen many solar cooking options that can store heat for longer cooking times or hotter temperatures. Until now Derek Ham writes over at Barbeque Lovers about a solar-powered grill project he has been working on that uses latent heat storage to both extend cooking times, create hotter temperatures, and reduce the problem of intermittent sun. If successful, this grill could both alleviate the well-known environmental impact of traditional charcoal grilling, and also offer a cleaner, greener and more socially sustainable cooking option in the developing world: Of course this design is unlikely to excite the purists who are addicted to the taste of hickory. The students are currently conducting an online survey to gauge the grilling habits of potential customers. via: Treehugger
Eco Homes from the Earth: Cordwood Wouldn’t it be nice to own your own green dream home, made with recycled and natural materials and packed with custom features? Whether you’re an experienced builder or have never picked up a power tool in your life, you can build a natural eco-friendly home with user-friendly, low-cost materials like cob, cordwood, straw and the dirt and wood from your own land. These natural building techniques produce beautiful homes with a small ecological footprint and tons of personality. Cordwood (images via: daycreek, cordwood masonry) From far away, it looks like stone masonry – but get up close and you’ll see that cordwood buildings are actually made from wood stacked firewood-style, and mortar. Soft woods like cedar and pine are used because they are more stable, with less expansion and contraction. (images via: home-n-stead) by Steph / via WebEcoist
Green Building Elements | From brick and mortar shops to city planning, we cover sustainable trends in construction, renovation, and more. July 19th, 2015 by Stephen Hanley Add hemp fiber to lime and you get a lightweight building material that can be shaped like a cinder block. When fully cured, it floats in water. Buildings up to 10 stories tall have been built from hempcrete in Europe according to Philly.com. Hempcrete is made using the woody, balsa-like interior of the Cannabis sativa plant (the fiber for textiles comes from the outer portion of the stalk) combined with lime and water. Though it lacks the structural stability its name might suggest, hempcrete does provide natural insulation that is airtight yet breathable and flexible. Best of all, hempcrete is a sustainable building material because hemp can be grown and replenished relatively quickly. But first, society needs to unlearn 75 years of lies told about hemp by promoters of wood, paper and plastics products. In fact, hemp has no pharmacological connection to the its cousin, the marijuana plant. Photo credit: Tiny Hemp Houses About the Author
Free Interactive Design Tools for Solar Power Energy Systems Using Open Source Design to Address Climate Change A growing movement that combines open source design with sustainability is creating an exciting alternative to profit-driven, proprietary sustainability products. As we face urgent issues like climate change, the ability of open source communities to quickly and inexpensively create solutions makes increasing sense. One project that clearly recognizes this big opportunity for impact is POC21, an international innovation network whose participants create open-source, sustainability-related products like the 30$ Wind Turbine, Aker (open source urban gardening infrastructure), and Faircap (open source portable water filter). Shareable connected with Tincq to talk about the urgent need for open and distributed design and fabrication, why this movement provides an exciting alternative to traditional production methods, and the need to find a sexy term to describe open source, sustainable product design. 1. 2. 3. 4. I’ve heard this space referred to as the sustainability commons.