photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I recently found myself at the bottom of an appliance hand-me-down chain, not a bad place to be when you’ve been running a washer/dryer set that’s older than the Colorado Rockies (the baseball team, but perhaps also the geologic feature; they may have faux wood-grain panels, but no obvious signs of glaciation.) Actually, we’re keeping the old dryer because it still works fine, the “new” one reportedly doesn’t do such a hot job, and we hardly use the dryer anyway. The washer sprang a leak a while back, though, so we’ll take the opportunity to snag a free replacement.

Regardless of our reasoning, I found myself in possession of an unwanted and functionally compromised washer/dryer set. Read more…

The Modern Hubby is quite the beer aficionado and is getting back into brewing his own beer, an old hobby of his. To feed his habit, he purchased a used kegerator (or beer fridge or beer dispenser, or whatever you want to call it) to store our small kegs of beer, which means we’re now powering both a full-sized fridge/freezer unit plus the equivalent of a mini fridge. Not particularly environmentally friendly considering refrigerators use more energy than just about any appliance outside HVACs and water heaters, but the things you do for love, right?

Still, obtaining the kegerator got me curious about how I might make my fridges less of an energy suck outside of buying newer more energy efficient units, which just isn’t in the budget right now. Not to mention, refrigerators are large, unwieldy things that represent a huge chunk of waste if they’re not able to be reused.

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Please welcome today’s guest poster, Allen Green.

Image: http://gadgetsin.com/portable-solar-charger-integrated-4-port-usb-hub-and-flashlight.htm

I’m a huge fan of technology. It doesn’t matter what type of technology; it’s the fact that brilliant people come up with faster, better and easier ways to improve our lives, especially when it involves green energy.

With so much buzz about going green, survival options and clean energy, I wanted to take a closer look at portable solar-powered gadgets. I was fascinated by what I found and it posed a question:

Can tiny, portable solar cells change your life?  Read more…

I know Allie just mentioned her own search for the right kind of car that suited her needs, that car being a station wagon. The Modern Hubby and I are in the middle of our own search for a vehicle to replace his 15-year-old Nissan Altima that is falling apart before our eyes and has gotten far too expensive and difficult to manage. Like Allie, we’ve decided to go the station wagon route as we also have two dogs that travel frequently with us and need the cargo space for our frequent trips to Home Depot but aren’t a fan of the lack of fuel efficiency when it comes to SUVs.

While we’re looking at some of the same cars Allie took a look at, we’ve also got the option of Toyota’s brand-new Prius V, which is basically a standard Prius with a station wagon-like cargo space on the back. And after fully investigating, we’ve discovered the Prius V is only slightly more expensive than the comparable gas options we’re looking at but with far better fuel economy, and the math works out so that we’d make back the difference in price in savings on gas in a couple of years.

But like any green-minded sensible consumer, I’ve set out to do my research on all the cars, and I am absolutely blown away by the amount of conflicting information that’s out there. Hybrids can be great! Hybrids aren’t worth it. Hybrids help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Hybrids have a negative environmental impact because of their batteries and production. So which is it?

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Sadly, I’ve come to the realization through extensive experiential research that unemployment makes for a very green lifestyle. No commute, I can wear the same clothes for days on end and if it’s yellow… yep, I can just go ahead and let it mellow. Of course, all this is true if you are lucky enough to work from home, but that dream has yet to come calling.

Still, I wasn’t complaining when I got a job recently after quite the lengthy period of, ahem, very green living. Unfortunately, my new job is a forty-five minute drive away in a different county, a trip that, while technically possible using public transportation, would probably require several bus changes on two different systems and miles of walking. I’d have to leave for work as soon is I get home from work.

So now I’ve joined the other stop-and-go weekday warriors, spewing my greenhouse gases and burning fuel by the tank-full. And I’m earning a paycheck, a deal I was more than happy to make. But what can I do to reduce my workday footprint now that I’ve left my little green income-free utopia? Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Jocelyn Anne.

We often overlook one of the biggest opportunities for going green, and that lies within our very own garage. The garage, sadly, often gets forgotten altogether. We store stuff in it, park the car in it, and then generally forget all about its existence.

As we look ahead to winter, I’d like to suggest a number of ways you can green up your garage. If you’ve no idea where to begin, here’s a simple list of items and ideas you can look over to see which changes you might be able to incorporate for yourself.  Read more…

Sometimes I think we’re moving toward a world where everything is run by either Google or Apple. That doesn’t sound so terrible to me, provided both companies remain ethical, but here’s something that doesn’t dispel that thought: Google is getting into the solar panel business.  Read more…

I live near the University of Tennessee, and like many college campuses, UT is one that’s very car-centric. Sure, lots of younger students live on campus in the dorms, but many others live a short drive away from school and don’t take advantage of our city’s public transit. It doesn’t help that Knoxville is nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, and attempting to bike those hills (and in the Southern heat and humidity, no less) often does not make for a fun outcome.

But like any great college campus, UT is doing its part to change the culture and integrate more green practices into everyday campus life. Currently the university is testing out a first-of-its-kind electric bike sharing program that I think has real potential to catch on. The program is somewhat similar to bike-rental programs in large cities, but instead of just renting a bike, a student uses their college ID to check out an electrically charged battery from an automated system that plugs into the bike. The bike works like a regular bike requiring the rider to pedal, but the electric charge kicks in to power a small motor when pedaling gets more difficult, say when you’re riding one of the massive hills on campus.

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Please welcome today’s guest poster, Jamison.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidg/2168751427/lightbox/

Let me tell you a very odd story from our friends in China. China was having a problem in their poor farmland areas. They were losing massive amounts of forests and decided they had to take some sort of corrective action. So they decided to reintroduce biodigester technology – the process of converting organic waste into renewable sources of energy — to the countryside. They built a design that cost about $450 and started installing them for farmers. A third of that cost was covered with government subsidies.

The farmers were expected to provide the labor (digging the hole for the system) for the project, but basically it’s a large underground tank, a bit larger than the average American septic tank. As waste from humans and livestock flows into the tank, it breaks down and produces methane, as all organic waste does, and these biodigesters make it possible to produce more than enough biogas to run their households without need of additional fuels.

The effects have been staggering — most farmers who have the systems have managed to move their incomes from below the poverty line to incomes two or three times above it. Women have been freed up from the painful task of hunting for firewood. The forests around the farming villages have started to replenish themselves. The farmers have the byproduct of the biogas, which is a very effective fertilizer that can then be used to help improve their plant growth to increase their yields.  Read more…

This past Tuesday, you may have heard that the US House of Representatives voted to uphold new standards for light bulb efficiency, set to be enacted next year. If by chance you didn’t, it’s probably because you’re too busy running around town stockpiling every last incandescent bulb you can find before the government sticks it’s nose in your business once again to tell you what you can and can’t buy. You’ll probably store them next to the lawn darts on a shelf above your extra barrels of DDT. Read more…