7Feb

Net-Zero-Energy Home Unveiled in Las Vegas

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
Net-Zero-Energy Home Unveiled in Las Vegas

Email, RSS Follow

By

A number of energy-efficient homes and communities are currently in the process of being tested, but a Los Angeles-based company is going one small step farther. KB Home presented its first net-zero-energy home in an event in Las Vegas, and it’s not just experimental. The home, called the ZeroHouse 2.0, is available to consumers (in certain areas, including Vegas).

ZeroHouse 2.0 is the natural extension of KB Home’s standard building practices, which all comply with the EPA Energy Star Standards. The company claims that the ZeroHouse 2.0 can eliminate the electric bill altogether; in the ridiculously hot weather of Nevada, that’s quite a feat.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
9Dec

New Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Record Obtained by Heliatek

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
New Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Record Obtained by Heliatek

Email, RSS Follow

A new efficiency record for organic photovoltaic cells has been reached by Heliatek, for the third time in a row. The German company created a cheap solar cell that can convert up to 9.8 percent of the incoming light into electricity.

Heliatek’s new solar cell is made from oligomers, and differs from polymer and dye-sensitized solar cells because the cells can be produced at low temperatures and uses the least amount of non-toxic materials.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
2Dec

What’s Next: Green products powered by self generated energy

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments

Email, RSS Follow

As we know it

While the greatest drive of the eco-conscious generation is to use renewable sources of power, attempts are being made to replace every possible gadget run by non-renewable sources with green products that curb environmental pollution and reduce over brimming of the landfills. Berlin based eco-conscious engineer, Benjamin Beck has made a noteworthy move in this direction. He has developed a green battery pack that is run by solar energy as well as kinetic energy. All you need to do is to place the charged out battery pack in sun for a certain period of time on sunny days and the battery will juice up within no time. But in cloudy days it draws the charge from your movements, thereby converting kinetic energy into electrical energy and gets charged up again. It has been named by the designer as Scaraby Energy Backpack. This functional green gadget is portable and convenient to use.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
29Nov

What’s Next: Self-powered green homes

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
What's Next Self-powered green homes

Email, RSS Follow

As we know it

At a time when the world is looking for effective alternatives to replace the production of electricity from conventional sources, the concept of a self-powered house is slowly becoming popular as architects try to develop designs for a sustainable future. One can say that the future is safe as long as such endeavors continue to get more attention .These houses are mostly powered by renewable sources like the sunlight and the wind. The architects have used materials that have least negative impact on the environment. Not only this, they are unique designs that can provide both luxury and comfort to the users.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
11Nov

Five futuristic rescue systems that are green too

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
Five futuristic rescue systems that are green too

Email, RSS Follow

Rescue systems include all essential tools, equipment, machinery and anything that helps emergency personnel such as police, fire fighters, coast guards, military, etc. in emergency situations. These tools, that are included in the rescue system, are used as a part of safety measures in risky, emergency situations or for rescuing people who are in danger. No wonder that the best equipment of the latest technology are used for this purpose. But now that an effort to go-green is being made in every area and every invention, even rescue systems are being modeled in the same lines for future use. Here is a list of five such futuristic rescue systems that would help the environment gain its balance again:

(more…)

Share

Tags:
14Sep

Take Your Next Vacation in a Floating Off-Grid SolarHome

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments

Email, RSS Follow

UK-based Kingsley Architects have put a new spin on traveling the country in a mobile home. Rather than loading up a gas-guzzling Winabago, the firm has designed an eco houseboat that can safely transport you through the waterways in style. The SolarHome can be used to turn your road trips into sea trips – or you can just dock it trailer park style.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
14Sep

SOLAR DECATHLON: Team Massachusetts Takes a Passive Approach with their 4D Home

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
SOLAR DECATHLON Team Massachusetts Takes a Passive Approach with their 4D Home

Email, RSS Follow

The 2011 Solar Decathlon’s Team Massachusetts evokes the East coast sublime with their New England style 4D home. Using passive strategies and solar technology, the single story house is efficient, affordable, and adaptable to a family’s changing needs. Comprised of students from both the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the team focused not only on using renewable energy, but also minimizing energy consumption by integrating passive technology.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
16Aug

Solar-powered homes remain a distant dream for many in the US

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
Solar-powered homes remain a distant dream for many in the US

Email, RSS Follow

It seems like the ultimate in green technology for an emissions-savvy citizen of the 21st century: solar panels on your roof, providing carbon dioxide-free electricity whenever the sun is shining. But as huge utility-scale solar and wind projects continue to make news and the economy continues to struggle, the state of the residential solar sector in the United States remains decidedly mixed.

From the first quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter, installations of U.S. residential solar systems rose from 62 megawatts to 74 megawatts (enough to power about 15,000 homes), and the Solar Energy Industries Association reports that the first quarter of 2011 saw similar gains over the same period in 2010. Considering that the total installed solar capacity in the U.S. — residential, commercial, and industrial-scale of all types included — still hasn’t cracked 3,000 megawatts (enough to power roughly 600,000 homes), this feels like progress.

Yet if you look at residential solar’s share of the total U.S. solar market, the picture is less bright. In 2009, 36 percent of all installed solar systems were on homes; this dropped to 30 percent in 2010, and some experts think that will continue to fall.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
23Jul

Why installing solar power looks increasingly attractive for homeowners

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
Why installing solar power looks increasingly attractive for homeowners

Email, RSS Follow

Are you a homeowner with some spare cash? A 20%-25% collapse in the price of rooftop solar power units in recent months has turned the government’s feed-in tariff scheme into one of the most lucrative financial propositions for households with the right sort of property.

The scheme was introduced in April 2010, when the Labour government introduced generous feed-in tariffs to encourage households to install solar photovoltaic systems. Back then, anyone spending, say, £13,000 up front to fit a 2.5kWp system to their home was paid 41.3p per kilowatt hour (kWh) generated – enough to earn them a typical annual income of £900 a year in payments, on top of a £140-a-year saving in reduced electricity bills.

(more…)

Share

Tags:
15Jul

Infographic: Nuclear Power vs. Energy Efficient Homes

Categories: Green Technology & Efficient Solutions
No comments
Infographic Nuclear Power vs. Energy Efficient Homes

Email, RSS Follow

by Peter Troast

Our friends at Energy Savvy continue to be great visual communicators of the benefits of energy efficiency. Yesterday we stumbled across this great infographic that provides a powerful visual demonstration of the economics, as well as the job-creating potential, of residential energy efficiency vs. building nuclear power plants.

In short: For less than half the cost of replacing just 1 nuclear power plant, we could retrofit 1.6 million homes for energy efficiency and reduce the need for the same amount of energy the plant would produce. Doing so would also create 90 times more jobs than replacing the power plant.

(more…)

Share

Tags: