With the way things have been going it’s difficult to know whether we will be forced into becoming more self-sustainable or if we will form regional groups on our own and just instinctively begin taking matters into our own hands. In either event I still think it’s a good idea to start making the shift […] Read more…
“Building Green” is a two word phrase that has two parts to its \’ definition. It means to design and build a structure in such a way that the actual construction has minimal impact on the environment including the processing of the construction materials, the movement of the materials and the physical impact it has […] Read more…
A simple fact that seems overlooked is the room volumes when it comes to heating and cooling. When a house is being designed they look at square footage primarily – only to size the heating and cooling systems. With the bigger/more mentality that pervades the consumer market who really cares about […] Read more…
I was at a friends house the other night and the topic of LED lights and toxins came up. He showed me printout from Science Daily showing that LED lights are toxic. This came up because a CFL light he was using broke and needed to be cleaned up. I read the article and something […] Read more…
I was thinking the other day about appliance life and remembered a refrigerator that my parents used to have. When I was very young my family moved into a house that my parents had just built. It had most of the amenities that most people had – indoor bathrooms, stove, fridge, etc. Many years later […] Read more…
I have had this on my mind for may years now. Something about “reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose” just hadn’t gelled for me. Don’t get me wrong – I believe recycling is a great thing. It wasn’t until I took a cob building workshop with Ianto Evans of the Cob Cottage Company, that I began to […] Read more…
Imagine this, every home in the US with solar panels on the roof. Each one feeding power into the national power grid. Or, industrious individuals producing biodiesel out on their suburban or rural homesteads. How about wind generators on buildings in cities making power and sending it all into the grid. Historically energy has been […] Read more…
