Thinking Energy

News

December 26, 2008

December 25, 2008

December 24, 2008

  • 8 Plans for Action on Climate Change and Renewable Energy

    OK, maybe it’s time to get serious about global warming. A growing number of people are calling for immediate action, including plans to create more green jobs and install more renewable energy.

    - 13 days
    source: (Renewable Energy)
  • Unbelievably Slick Green Cabin Kits

    CornerHouse

    Copeland Casati, founder of Green Modern Kits and Green Cottage Kits, just sent over a link to her newly launched website for Green Cabin Kits.  They have two designs that are customizable: CornerHouse (top 3 renderings) and The Dogtrot Mod (bottom 3 renderings).  They're quite slick, aren't they?  CornerHouse is an expandable design that's versatile enough for urban infill or some rural location in the middle of nowhere.  You choose.  The Dogtrot Mod is also expandable but a little different.  It features an open court in the middle to ventilate and separate the living spaces.  Both kits were designed to accomodate rainwater collection and solar power generation.

    CornerHouse

    CornerHouse

    The cabins are built with SIPs and steel and can be customized in an endless manner to suit the needs of a future cabin owner.  So, if you're thinking about getting a Green Cabin Kit, and I know I am, Copeland estimates that a kit will run you roughly $100 psf, more or less (see FAQs for more details). 

    The Dogtrot Mod

    The Dogtrot Mod

    The Dogtrot Mod

    Rendering credits: Green Cabin Kits.

    - 14 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • Unbelievably Slick Green Cabin Kits

    CornerHouse

    Copeland Casati, founder of Green Modern Kits and Green Cottage Kits, just sent over a link to her newly launched website for Green Cabin Kits.  They have two designs that are customizable: CornerHouse (top 3 renderings) and The Dogtrot Mod (bottom 3 renderings).  They're quite slick, aren't they?  CornerHouse is an expandable design that's versatile enough for urban infill or some rural location in the middle of nowhere.  You choose.  The Dogtrot Mod is also expandable but a little different.  It features an open court in the middle to ventilate and separate the living spaces.  Both kits were designed to accomodate rainwater collection and solar power generation.

    CornerHouse

    CornerHouse

    The cabins are built with SIPs and steel and can be customized in an endless manner to suit the needs of a future cabin owner.  So, if you're thinking about getting a Green Cabin Kit, and I know I am, Copeland estimates that a kit will run you roughly $100 psf, more or less (see FAQs for more details). 

    The Dogtrot Mod

    The Dogtrot Mod

    The Dogtrot Mod

    Rendering credits: Green Cabin Kits.

    - 14 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • Wind turbine for supermarket approved

    A wind turbine proposal in the car park of a supermarket in Coventry has received planning approval.

    - 14 days
    source: (Renewables)
  • UK renewable investment attractiveness up

    The UK has become more attractive place for investment in renewable energy, according to the latest report by auditors Ernst & Young.

    - 14 days
    source: (Renewables)

December 23, 2008

  • Noble Home Affordable, Green Home Kits

    Noblehome

    The founders of Noble Home, based in West Somerville, Massachusetts, saw first-hand the manner with which homes were being constructed in the United States  -- big, cheap, toxic, and out of the price range of many families.  So, they set out to create a new way.  Their home kits are versatile, easy to put together, sustainable, affordable, and healthy.  They offer elements such as greenhouses, root cellars, water collection, solar, wind, and even human-powered energy! 

    Construction Diagram

    They are also working on a solar heating system which uses the earth as a thermal mass.  This is how they explain the system: "The roof system will collect enough summertime heat to be ducted into the ground around and underneath the house.  During the winter months, this heat will radiate back inside while the house also collects winter passive solar heat."  This is known as Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) and was first used in the early 1980's.  Noble Home is even looking for customers willing to try out this system with material costs paid by them: where do I sign up? 

    Noble Home does not use any materials that off gas.  The designs mostly include locally grown woods, compressed straw panels, and aluminum doors and windows.  They also offer natural interior finishes as an alternative to painting or staining.

    Nobel estimates that their finished homes will have cost between $100-$150/square foot depending on how much of the work you do yourself.  They suggest that the average custom-designed home costs about $200/square foot today; the majority of these homes are not energy efficient and are filled with toxic materials, making Noble a very attractive option for a green and healthy home.

    Noble's homes are available in one and two-story.  In this article are photos from Jennifer Morgan's two-story Noble Home project on Cape Cod.  It looks like a beautiful home.  To learn more about Nobel Home, visit their website.

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Photo credits: Noble Home.

    - 14 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • Noble Home Provides Affordable, Green, Versatile House Kits

    Noblehome

    The founders of Noble Home, based in West Somerville, Massachusetts, saw first-hand the manner with which homes were being constructed in the United States  -- big, cheap, toxic, and out of the price range of many families.  So, they set out to create a new way.  Their home kits are versatile, easy to put together, sustainable, affordable, and healthy.  They offer elements such as greenhouses, root cellars, water collection, solar, wind, and even human-powered energy! 

    Construction Diagram

    They are also working on a solar heating system which uses the earth as a thermal mass.  This is how they explain the system: "The roof system will collect enough summertime heat to be ducted into the ground around and underneath the house.  During the winter months, this heat will radiate back inside while the house also collects winter passive solar heat."  This is known as Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) and was first used in the early 1980's.  Noble Home is even looking for customers willing to try out this system with material costs paid by them: where do I sign up? 

    Noble Home does not use any materials that off gas.  The designs mostly include locally grown woods, compressed straw panels, and aluminum doors and windows.  They also offer natural interior finishes as an alternative to painting or staining.

    Nobel estimates that their finished homes will have cost between $100-$150/square foot depending on how much of the work you do yourself.  They suggest that the average custom-designed home costs about $200/square foot today; the majority of these homes are not energy efficient and are filled with toxic materials, making Noble a very attractive option for a green and healthy home.

    Noble's homes are available in one and two-story.  In this article are photos from Jennifer Morgan's two-story Noble Home project on Cape Cod.  It looks like a beautiful home.  To learn more about Nobel Home, visit their website.

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Noble Home Green Home Kits

    Photo credits: Noble Home.

    - 14 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • MAX Update No. 20: The Most Real Green Car at the EG

    The EG was a hoot and I'm so glad I went. 

    EG stands for Entertainment Gathering, as far as I can tell — I was in way over my head. It featured the most eclectic group of presenters I've ever seen in one bunch. My personal favorite speaker was Teller, of Penn & Teller, who spoke of how knowing how something is done does not lessen one's appreciation of the act, even if the act is magic on stage.

    Many other presentations were inspiring: One laptop per child? Good idea. Digital motion control in the arts? I'll use those lessons to make MAX's next body. Peter Diamondis of the X Prize Foundation? Heck yeah, but he'd already inspired me. International goofy dancing? The world's not such a bad place, is it? But Teller renewed my dedication to open sourcing the MAX project. If there's anything about MAX I'm not telling you, it's not because it's a trade secret, it's because I haven't figured it out yet.

    MAX at EG
    PHOTO BY JACK McCORNACK

    MAX was well-received, partly because (as a commenter predicted in MAX Update No. 19: A Roof Over Our Heads) it was the only Auto X Prizer that got there on its own steam. The Physics Lab of Lake Havasu folks brought their “Green Giant” SUV, but they brought it on a trailer. ZAP brought a scale model of their much-anticipated Alias trike, which they maybe brought in a hatbox. Both companies have loftier goals than Kinetic Vehicles, and if the cars were being judged by projected performance, MAX would have been the loser. Instead, I was giving rides during the breaks and MAX was getting bonus points for being real.

    During my talk, I described my design philosophy as minimalist, and got a good laugh with my definition: A pessimist says the glass is half empty. An optimist says the glass is half full.  A minimalist says “We're using about twice as much glass as we need here.”

    The trip down to California was good fun. I used about 8 gallons from MAX's 9 gallon diesel tank and a gallon from its veggie oil tank to go the 600 miles from Grants Pass, Ore., to Monterey, Calif., via Los Banos, Calif. The conference was fabulous fun. The trip home, not so fun. I'll bet you can guess why ...?

    - 14 days
    source: (Energy Matters)
  • Tough climate goals may be easier than feared
    Tough targets for avoiding dangerous global warming may be easier to achieve than widely believed. The report, by scientists in the Netherlands and Germany, indicated that initial investments needed to be high to have any impact in slowing Temperature rises. Beyond a Certain threshold, however, extra spending would have clear returns on warming. "It gets easier once the world gets going," told Reuters Michiel Schaeffer, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He is lead author of the study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The study focused on setting a ceiling for temperature rises, rather than on stabilizing concentrations of greenhouse gases. "This viewpoint is more relevant for real-life climate impacts," Schaeffer said. - 15 days
    source: (Energy & Enviro Finland News)
  • The $30,000 Recycled Cabin Manifesto

    14cabin

    Starting earlier this month, the NY Times began publishing the blog of Lou Ureneck, chairman of the Journalism Department at Boston University.  The blog was given a name we've seen before, From the Ground Up, and will document Lou's journey building a cabin in some picturesque scenery of western Maine.  Take a gander at what he's written so far and it may conjure up thoughts of Henry David Thoreau's own cabin near Walden Pond.  That's a purposeful analogy, though, because Lou channeled a bit of Henry while pushing the envelope of frugality with this interesting endeavor.  All in, the $30,000 cabin and $32,000 swath of property promises to be quite the retreat. 

    That said, if someone mentions they're building a second home, the typical environmentalist will most certainly pounce.  It's a common, knee-jerk reaction, but tell me you don't find some truth in Lou's statement:

    Building a cabin, I’m finding, can be a lever into a middle-aged man’s rural fantasies. Second homes are an American obsession, partly — maybe mainly — because of the chance they give us to live a second life, one that may be truer to our real selves than the first that we live out of necessity.

    A place to get away and enjoy nature.  Maybe even respect nature and realize how important the environment actually is.  Maybe even get back to nature because our first homes don't really do the job.  Lou tells us why he's building a cabin, and we can't blame him either.  He seems to be going at it the right way, that's for sure.  Says Lou:

    With the extravagant vacation-home market in collapse, I’m happy to offer my simple and inexpensive cabin as a manifesto for the times. Let it declare the old New England adage, "Waste not, want not."

    It'll be roughly 640 square feet in size and made of a good portion of recycled and salvaged materials.  And like Mr. Thoreau, Lou will be doing most of the work himself, that is, with the help of his brother and family.  There's just something about two, fifty-year-old brothers working to build a $30,000 cabin out of existing materials that's hard not to follow.  Don't you agree?

    [+] Blog: From the Ground Up [NY Times]
    [+] Intro: Building a home for another life [NY Times]

    Nytimescabin_2

    Image credits: NY Times.

    - 15 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • The $30,000 Recycled Cabin Manifesto

    14cabin

    Starting earlier this month, the NY Times began publishing the blog of Lou Ureneck, chairman of the Journalism Department at Boston University.  The blog was given a name we've seen before, From the Ground Up, and will document Lou's journey building a cabin in some picturesque scenery of western Maine.  Take a gander at what he's written so far and it may conjure up thoughts of Henry David Thoreau's own cabin near Walden Pond.  That's a purposeful analogy, though, because Lou channeled a bit of Henry while pushing the envelope of frugality with this interesting endeavor.  All in, the $30,000 cabin and $32,000 swath of property promises to be quite the retreat. 

    That said, if someone mentions they're building a second home, the typical environmentalist will most certainly pounce.  It's a common, knee-jerk reaction, but tell me you don't find some truth in Lou's statement:

    Building a cabin, I’m finding, can be a lever into a middle-aged man’s rural fantasies. Second homes are an American obsession, partly — maybe mainly — because of the chance they give us to live a second life, one that may be truer to our real selves than the first that we live out of necessity.

    A place to get away and enjoy nature.  Maybe even respect nature and realize how important the environment actually is.  Maybe even get back to nature because our first homes don't really do the job.  Lou tells us why he's building a cabin, and we can't blame him either.  He seems to be going at it the right way, that's for sure.  Says Lou:

    With the extravagant vacation-home market in collapse, I’m happy to offer my simple and inexpensive cabin as a manifesto for the times. Let it declare the old New England adage, "Waste not, want not."

    It'll be roughly 640 square feet in size and made of a good portion of recycled and salvaged materials.  And like Mr. Thoreau, Lou will be doing most of the work himself, that is, with the help of his brother and family.  There's just something about two, fifty-year-old brothers working to build a $30,000 cabin out of existing materials that's hard not to follow.  Don't you agree?

    [+] Blog: From the Ground Up [NY Times]
    [+] Intro: Building a home for another life [NY Times]

    Nytimescabin_2

    Image credits: NY Times.

    - 15 days
    source: (Jetson Green)
  • Students waiting for wind turbine permission

    Students at a Nottingham school have secured the construction of a wind turbine to generate electricity and act as an educational resource.

    - 15 days
    source: (Renewables)
  • Tidal project generates record electricity

    Record breaking electricity generation from a tidal stream project has been achieved.

    - 15 days
    source: (Renewables)
  • New renewable sources classified

    New forms of renewable energy have been recognised under recent EU agreements.

    - 15 days
    source: (Renewables)