New fuel research in Japan

Posted by Andrew T → February 05, 2011 at 10:10 PM under Alternative Energy Home Living Tips

Butanol can be made greener by the research of a Japanese institute, who developed an energy-saving biobutanol with a density of at least 80 percent. They derived their biobutanol from a 1 percent concentrated butanol and used a zeolitic separation membrane.

Being derived from biomass sources, biobutanol’s overall carbon emissions are zero, since the carbon dioxide it emits when burned is reabsorbed by the next biofuel crops. Unlike ethanol, which has a relatively smaller energy density (27 MJ/kg), biobutanol has 34 MJ/kg and has the same cost per calorific value. Moreover, biobutanol is easier to store and the tanks don’t have to have special designs. It doesn’t mix with water, like ethanol, which is a plus.

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Save money and the environment!

Posted by Gary H → February 04, 2011 at 6:03 PM under Alternative Energy Environment

Here are some great ideas to help you save money and help the environment at the same time.

Energy costs – financial and environmental

Using electricity to create heat is always an energy intensive exercise; so clothes dryers do tend to be electricity hogs. According to the California Energy Commission, the average clothes dryer will cost around $1,500 to operate over its life span.

Environmentally speaking, the energy consumed by a clothes dryer can be anywhere from 1800 to 5000 watts per hour, or 1.8 to 5KwHr. Given that 1.5 pounds of carbon emissions per kilowatt hour are generated in the production of electricity by a coal fired power station (give or take a bit), over a year this comes to a considerable amount.

Benefits of line drying

The benefits of a solar clothes dryer, aka a clothes line are many; here’s just a few:

– Initial outlay is cheaper than a clothes dryer
– No ongoing energy costs
– No greenhouse gas emissions from usage
– The sun helps to kill bacteria
– A fresh smell for your clothes without the use of chemicals

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Clothesline controversy

Posted by John T → February 03, 2011 at 5:21 PM under Alternative Energy

I read this with interest…

A variety of interests are involved in the controversy about clothes lines, including: frugal living, global warming, individual rights, the economy, private property, class, aesthetics, health, energy, national security and nostalgia.

When mechanical dryers were first introduced, only well-to-do families could afford them and they became associated with affluence. However, now that most people can afford a mechanical dryer, clothes lines have become associated with a “home-town” character in neighborhoods because they are indicative of a low-crime area. (Clothes lines are used less frequently in high-crime areas because of the risk of clothes being stolen.) Also, environmental concerns and higher energy prices have created a new generation of clothes line advocates. Still, the old association with poverty persists in some people’s minds.

Those against the use of clothes lines include:

some associated with oil and coal companies
some associated with electric and gas utilities
some associated with peddling idealized life styles
mechanical clothes dryer manufacturers and retailers
some associated with appliance repair shops
people who find clothes lines aesthetically displeasing
older people who still associate mechanical dryers with wealth

Those in favor of using clothes lines include:

people who believe that clothesline use will reduce reliance on foreign energy for national security reasons
people who believe that clothesline use will reduce global warming
people who believe that clothes blowing in the breeze are aesthetically pleasant
older people who are nostalgic for times when everyone used clothes lines
people who associate them with low-crime areas
people who prefer to use clothes lines for personal reasons (save money, get exercise, no static cling, etc.)

The controversy surrounding the use of clothes lines has prompted many governments to pass “right-to-dry” laws allowing their use.^[1] According to Ian Urbina, a reporter for The New York Times, “the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities” are forbidden from using outdoor clothes lines.

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Drying laundry indoors

Posted by Gary H → February 02, 2011 at 4:26 PM under Alternative Energy Clotheslines and Laundry Home Living Tips

This may be useful during the colder months:

Laundry may be dried indoors rather than outdoors for a variety of reasons including:

inclement weather
physical disability
lack of space for a line
legal restrictions
to raise the humidity level indoors
to lower the air temperature indoors
convenience
to preserve privacy

Several types of devices are available for indoor drying. A drying rack or clotheshorse can help save space in an apartment or clothes lines can be strung in the basement during the winter. Small loads can simply be draped over furniture or a shower curtain pole. The drying time indoors will typically be longer than outdoor drying because of the lack of direct solar radiation and the convective assistance of the wind.

The evaporation of the moisture from the clothes will cool the indoor air and increase the humidity level, which may or may not be desirable. In cold, dry weather, moderate increases in humidity makes most people feel more comfortable. In warm weather, increased humidity makes most people feel even hotter. Increased humidity can also increase growth of fungi, which can cause health problems.

To read more go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothes_line

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QUEENSLAND FLOOD AFTERMATH

Posted by Stephen P → January 31, 2011 at 6:55 PM under Environment News and Events

QUEENSLAND FLOOD AFTERMATH

Although the flood waters have receded in the Australian city of Brisbane there is still a huge amount of clean up work to do. The army of volunteers who have been working tirelessly since the flooding have a mountain of work to do before order is restored to the suburbs of Queensland’s capital city.

To learn more go to:

http://magsx2.wordpress.com/

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Electric cars

Posted by Gary H → January 30, 2011 at 6:44 PM under Alternative Energy Environment

Here is an interesting article about electric cars…

electric cars

A transition to electric cars isn’t just a matter of the cars, but also of the infrastructure that goes with them, including public charging stations. The Electric Power Research Institute and the Tennessee Valley Authority plan to cut the ribbon on Tuesday on a prototype of a new kind of charging station, one that uses solar cells and batteries. But they do not work together in quite the way the public might expect.

The initial installation has six parking stalls, one of them extra wide for handicapped drivers, with carport roofs covered with solar panels. There are three refrigerator-size battery packs in a building that is heated and air-conditioned.
Read more on: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/if-you-build-it-will-they-charge/

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Fire Safety this Winter

Posted by Gary H → January 29, 2011 at 6:37 PM under Home Living Tips

Here are some really useful safety hints for your home this Winter:

Fireplaces

Make sure that chimneys are properly cleaned – to ensure this, have them inspected at the beginning of each cold season.
Use a protective fireplace screen to protect people and animals from getting too close to the fire/heat source.
Do not use flammable liquids in the fireplace.
Do not burn paper in the fireplace – lit pieces of paper can float out of chimneys and land on neighboring buildings. Only use dry wood – not wood/boughs from live-cut trees as these lit particles can also float out of the chimney.
Do not burn wrapping paper in the fireplace — toxic smoke is released when it is burned.
Make sure the fire is completely out before you go to sleep.
Never close the damper when there are hot ashes in the fireplace.

For more safety tips go to:

http://www.hacla.org/en/cms/4435/

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Colder Winters

Posted by Toby J → January 28, 2011 at 6:21 PM under Environment

I read this interesting article about the recent cold snaps in the USA and Europe;

For two winters running, an Arctic chill has descended on Europe, burying that continent in snow and ice. Last year in the United States, historic blizzards afflicted the mid-Atlantic region. This winter the Deep South has endured unusual snowstorms and severe cold, and a frigid Northeast is bracing for what could shape into another major snowstorm this week.

Pamplona

Yet while people in Atlanta learn to shovel snow, the weather 2,000 miles to the north has been freakishly warm the past two winters. Throughout northeastern Canada and Greenland, temperatures in December ran as much as 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Bays and lakes have been slow to freeze; ice fishing, hunting and trade routes have been disrupted.

To learn more go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/science/earth/25cold.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

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Recycling

Posted by Gary H → January 27, 2011 at 6:11 PM under Alternative Energy Environment

This is a great use for materials which would otherwise go to land fill.
recycled house

The Big Dig House, a recycled house – was designed by SsD Architects, located in Lexington, and Massachusetts. This house constructed using industrial waste with steel and concrete rejects, which are throw-outs of elevated part of dismantle I-93 highway.It is 600,000 lbs throw outs are used to construct Boston’s Big Dig House. This recycled house features great room, kitchen, home office, 3 bedrooms, and 3 baths. This prototype house was built to demonstrate how infrastructural refuse can be salvaged and reused.

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Wind farms in South Korea

Posted by John K. → January 26, 2011 at 6:06 PM under Alternative Energy Environment

South Korea plans huge off-shore wind farm

Wind energy currently meets a mere 1.5% of global electricity generation. However, scientists foresee a lot of potential in this alternative energy source. Asian countries are also trying to embrace clean and green energy. South Korea is going for an ambitious off-shore wind farm amounting to $8.3 billion. This project will be executed at the western coast of the Korean peninsula taking a time period of ten years.

To read whole story go to:

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/south-korea-off-shore-wind-farm/

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