We have to share this just because it's fun. The Home and Garden Television network, HGTV, is sponsoring a Green Home Giveaway now through May 9, 2008. Built in Tradition Hilton Head, SC, the home is designed to be eco-friendly and efficient inside and out. It has solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and lots of other great features worth a look, while you're dreaming. They include a Yukon Hybrid to make it sweeter. Hope a Carolina family wins it!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Home, Green Home
We have to share this just because it's fun. The Home and Garden Television network, HGTV, is sponsoring a Green Home Giveaway now through May 9, 2008. Built in Tradition Hilton Head, SC, the home is designed to be eco-friendly and efficient inside and out. It has solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and lots of other great features worth a look, while you're dreaming. They include a Yukon Hybrid to make it sweeter. Hope a Carolina family wins it!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Solar Cooking
Beautiful day, time to get outside. Wait! Before you fire up the charcoal grill, try letting the sun cook for you. This solar cooker, CooKit, is a good starter model. Surprisingly simple, it is convenient, affordable and effective. And you can build it yourself. Materials you will need: Cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, and preferably a kid to assist you. Plans for the CooKit are free at Foldable Solar Panel Cooker. Or you can order it already made.Ready to cook? You will need a dark, covered pot and a plastic bag (or oven cooking bag). And food - maybe soup or beans - the sort of thing you would put in a crock pot. Set the pot, in its bag, in the bottom of the cooker, to catch all the sun's rays. In a few hours of sunshine, you can make a tasty meal, cooked at gentle temperatures that preserve nutrients. Prepare your dish early in the day and then relax.
After a great meal, fold your portable CooKit for storage. It will be about the size of a large notebook. Easy to take along on a camping trip, handy for cooking and even for pasteurizing water.
There are many plans at The Solar Cooking Archive, even for a cob oven, like the photo at left. Here are recipes and cooking tips; recipes for solar ovens can usually be adapted for the Cookit. Solar cooking is extremely flexible. With a little effort and experimentation, you can build or buy an appropriate solar cooker and enjoy free and delicious cooking.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Fresh Local Foods
Spring is here, and it's time to get fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables at the farmers' market! Produce grown in your own area is fresher, so it tastes better. When you buy it at a farmer's market, it's in season, probably picked within the last day or two, so it still contains vital nutrients. And buying food grown locally supports farm families in your community.
The Buy Appalachian Local Food Guide promotes fresh foods from the mountains of Western North Carolina, "Thousands of miles fresher!" Green leafy products are available now, as in the picture at left. Almost three dozen local farmers present tailgate markets in the area.
Markets like these provide a direct connection between the farmer and the customer, as well as fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Other large North Carolina farmers' markets are shown at NC Farm Fresh Markets, by name of market and by county. South Carolina manages three large regional farmers' markets, in Columbia, Greenville, and Florence.
You can sometimes find fresh food on your way home, at a roadside market. The SC Roadside Market Directory lists many of them. NC Farms includes roadside markets and also farms where you can 'Pick Your Own.' That's as fresh as you can get!
The Buy Appalachian Local Food Guide promotes fresh foods from the mountains of Western North Carolina, "Thousands of miles fresher!" Green leafy products are available now, as in the picture at left. Almost three dozen local farmers present tailgate markets in the area.Markets like these provide a direct connection between the farmer and the customer, as well as fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Other large North Carolina farmers' markets are shown at NC Farm Fresh Markets, by name of market and by county. South Carolina manages three large regional farmers' markets, in Columbia, Greenville, and Florence.
You can sometimes find fresh food on your way home, at a roadside market. The SC Roadside Market Directory lists many of them. NC Farms includes roadside markets and also farms where you can 'Pick Your Own.' That's as fresh as you can get!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
An Hour's Savings
It was still light, but too cool and wet to enjoy being outside watching the night fall. So we played musical instruments and backgammon by candlelight on Saturday, March 29, 2008. Together with millions of people around the world, we turned out our lights for one hour—Earth Hour—from 8 to 9 p.m. While the lights were out, the Earth Hour group encouraged people to replace their energy-wasting light bulbs with new, energy-saving ones, and think about saving energy at home, in their neighborhood and city, and at their workplace.
Some speculated that the action would not make a noticeable effect. However, in Earth Hour Chicago, the city and Northern Illinois reduced their electricity consumption by 7 percent (or 818 megawatt hours)! That's equal to eliminating 1.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions; saving 72,000 gallons of gasoline; planting 158 acres of trees; or taking more than 1 million cars off the road for an hour (courtesy of ComEd). That's amazing; and really encouraging, that this small effort can make such an impact.
The big cities of New York, San Francisco, and more were also participants. The lights went out in Georgia, including 400 buildings in Atlanta that participated (the photos at left were taken before and during Earth Hour). Valdosta also participated in a big way, saving 4 percent of their usage, and they plan to make it 10 percent next year! We will join in this effort for next year also (let's make the Carolinas stand out on their map). But the next step is to reduce our energy usage every day—to make Earth Hour the beginning, not the end—and to help others find ways to join in.
Some speculated that the action would not make a noticeable effect. However, in Earth Hour Chicago, the city and Northern Illinois reduced their electricity consumption by 7 percent (or 818 megawatt hours)! That's equal to eliminating 1.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions; saving 72,000 gallons of gasoline; planting 158 acres of trees; or taking more than 1 million cars off the road for an hour (courtesy of ComEd). That's amazing; and really encouraging, that this small effort can make such an impact.
The big cities of New York, San Francisco, and more were also participants. The lights went out in Georgia, including 400 buildings in Atlanta that participated (the photos at left were taken before and during Earth Hour). Valdosta also participated in a big way, saving 4 percent of their usage, and they plan to make it 10 percent next year! We will join in this effort for next year also (let's make the Carolinas stand out on their map). But the next step is to reduce our energy usage every day—to make Earth Hour the beginning, not the end—and to help others find ways to join in.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Litter Skimmer
A “trash trap” created to clean up local waterways uses a cost-efficient and kid-friendly technique. Called a Litter Skimmer, it floats on the water's surface and filters out trash being carried downstream. It's made of recycled materials: milk gallons, plastic fencing, rope, and zip ties. Some of the items that may have polluted waterways and filled landfills are made into tools that clean them instead. In 2005, volunteers in eastern Tennessee collected 1,500 bags of trash caught by the skimmers, according to the The Izaak Walton League of America, which encourages local community groups to identify litter trash spots and install a skimmer.
Charlotte homeschooling parent Julie Shrader brought this interesting project from her family in Maryland. Their Friends of Sligo Creek clean the trash from the water, and land surrounding the waterway, and have installed litter skimmers there. Her family and other homeschoolers installed this pilot project in a creek in Union County. The creek is cleaned by pulling the skimmer back to one bank and retrieving items caught in it. Now the weather is warmer, the kids are ready to jump in the creek and measure the results of their efforts.
They want interested people to join them this month to wade in the creek and help bag the litter, and dispose of it properly. They will study, weigh and document the litter, to record the results of the skimmer's effectiveness. If you'd like to join in, contact Julie Shrader at (704) 366-4859, or jvshrader@bellsouth.net.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Clean and Green
Charlotte Clean and Green April 18-21 is a community-wide event designed to inspire, educate, and help you practice living more greenin your everyday life.
April 18, 19, and 21
Main Campus, Central Piedmont Community College.
EXHIBITS - Friday, Saturday and Monday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
See hybrid cars and bus, solar displays. And don’t miss the Hands-On Green Friday - USGBC
Saturday – EDUCATION FESTIVAL
Classes, presentations, lunch, live music (3 bands)
Classes are organized in 4 Tracks, each offering sessions for novices to professionals, kid stuff, too. Free but you must register.
Monday - 7:30 pm - Free screening of movie, KILOWATT OURS
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
New CFL Look
It's the easiest thing we can do at home, to save money and help save the planet. The next time a light bulb burns out, replace it with an energy-efficient CFL bulb.
A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) costs a bit more than a conventional bulb, between $2 and $4 in Carolina stores. But you will save money over the long run. On average, replacing a single conventional bulb with a CFL will save $30 in electricity over the life of the bulb.
Today's CFL is small enough to use in table lamps, ceiling-mounted fixtures and ceiling fans. CFLs are available in a variety of u-shaped and circular styles, as well as spirals, many of them designed to look identical to standard bulbs, and work in more fixtures than before. You can even get them for dimmers or three-way bulbs. All CFLs are best in settings where the light is not turned off and on often.
Look for a chart like this in your store, to help you choose the best CFL for a specific fixture. And check the bulb packaging for the exchange rate. For example, you could replace a 40W incandescent bulb with a 9W CFL to get the same amount of light.
CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury within the glass tubing, about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. Older thermometers contained about 100 times as much. No mercury is released when the bulb is intact or in use. Always screw and unscrew the bulb by its base, not by the glass. The Environmental Protection Agency provides clean-up guidelines, in case a CFL bulb breaks in your home.
Used CFL bulbs should be recycled or disposed of properly. Find your closest recycling or disposal facility at these NC locations or SC locations. To dispose of a used or broken CFL bulb in your regular garbage collection, seal it in 2 plastic bags and put it into the trash container.
You won't have to replace them very often. CFLs last at least 3 years, many up to 9 years. If every home replaced one standard light bulb with a CFL, we would save more than $600 million per year in energy costs. That's a lot of savings!
A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) costs a bit more than a conventional bulb, between $2 and $4 in Carolina stores. But you will save money over the long run. On average, replacing a single conventional bulb with a CFL will save $30 in electricity over the life of the bulb.
Today's CFL is small enough to use in table lamps, ceiling-mounted fixtures and ceiling fans. CFLs are available in a variety of u-shaped and circular styles, as well as spirals, many of them designed to look identical to standard bulbs, and work in more fixtures than before. You can even get them for dimmers or three-way bulbs. All CFLs are best in settings where the light is not turned off and on often.
Look for a chart like this in your store, to help you choose the best CFL for a specific fixture. And check the bulb packaging for the exchange rate. For example, you could replace a 40W incandescent bulb with a 9W CFL to get the same amount of light.CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury within the glass tubing, about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. Older thermometers contained about 100 times as much. No mercury is released when the bulb is intact or in use. Always screw and unscrew the bulb by its base, not by the glass. The Environmental Protection Agency provides clean-up guidelines, in case a CFL bulb breaks in your home.
Used CFL bulbs should be recycled or disposed of properly. Find your closest recycling or disposal facility at these NC locations or SC locations. To dispose of a used or broken CFL bulb in your regular garbage collection, seal it in 2 plastic bags and put it into the trash container.
You won't have to replace them very often. CFLs last at least 3 years, many up to 9 years. If every home replaced one standard light bulb with a CFL, we would save more than $600 million per year in energy costs. That's a lot of savings!
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