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“Green” Getting Back to Where We Once Belonged

01/21/2012 in Around the Home, How To, Old Ways, Saving Energy, Thoughts, What Matters Most by Evelyn | No comments

Isn’t it interesting that going “Green” and doing things in an environmentally friendly way are all the rage? I wonder… how many of the Green Movement proponents know that it wasn’t all that long ago that we did do things that some aren’t so willing to do any longer.

A couple of years ago my landline phone rang and it was a well-known phone company trying to talk me into getting a cell phone, something I don’t care to own for many really good reasons. Feeling exasperated because I wasn’t buying into her reasons why they are so great, she said, “well, what if you’re out and your car breaks down!? Or, what if someone calls and you’re not home to get their call?”

I replied calmly and said, “I’d do the same thing I grew up doing. I’d wait for help once or twice in my lifetime when my car breaks down. As for people calling me when I’m not home, they’ll leave a message and I’ll return the call when I get home. In the meantime, I’m not buying another thing that lasts for 6 months to a year that ends up in the garbage.”

With fear in her voice she said, “Oh, I could never live like that, it’s too scary!”

I replied, “It seems scary because billions of dollars get spent every year convincing us of all the reasons we need to be scared. When we don’t buy into it we find the world is a far less scary place, not to mention a Greener place.”

It seems to me that there are many fear-based marketing tactics these days, everything from: germs, a missed call, bad guys all over the place who will get us, and things you can add to this list…

Things like;

Hanging washed laundry on a clothes line to dry; rather than using a dryer that uses a whopping 240 volts of electricity!

Kids walking or riding a bike or bus to school; rather than a caravan of parents lined up in front of schools twice a day.

Using cloth napkins; rather than buying paper napkins.

Using rags or old kitchen towels for dusting; rather than paper towels or the latest dusting gadget.

Using a kitchen sponge to clean up spills; rather than paper towels.

Walking to the store; rather than driving a 300 horse powered machine.

Planting a backyard garden for fresh veggies and fruits; rather than buying them from the super market after the produce has traveled 3,000 miles.  Continue reading ““Green” Getting Back to Where We Once Belonged” »

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

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All-Clad Cookshare Cookware Donation Program – Offer almost over

01/11/2012 in Cooking, Food, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

All-Clad LogoAll-Clad Metalcrafters, of Canonsburg, PA, believes in environmental responsibility and givingback to the community. That’s why they have created Cookshare, a recycling program that rewards you for donating your old cookware to charity. As a gift for your donation they will send you a copy of the “Ad Hoc at Home’ cook book by acclaimed chef Thomas Keller (a $50 value). Just follow the following three steps:

  1. Purchase All-Clads’ new d5 Stainless Steel cookware totaling $500 or more in one purchase.
  2. Donate any amount of your old cookware to the charity of your choice.
  3. Send All-Clad a copy of your d5 Stainless Steel proof of purchase, a copy of the receipt for your charitable donation and the Cookshare redemption form found online at any of Williams-Sonoma All-Clad d5 product pages such as All-Clad d5 Stainless-Steel French Skillets.

I just came across this offer, which started in 2009, and it ends Jan 31, 2012. so, if you want to take advantage of this offer you will need to hurry.

I have used cheap aluminum, expensive aluminum, teflon coated, uncoated, cast iron cookware from many different manufacturers. I have fallen in love with cast iron cookware from Staub and stainless steel cookware from All-Clad. The feel great, look great and work great. If you want to upgrade to one of the best cookware companies on the market this could well be the time, but hurry as time is running out!

All-Clad uses several layers of steel and aluminum (or copper in their copper lines) to better distribute heat and make cooking more efficient by needing lower temperatures when cooking. All thumbs up on this for me!

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

What it should mean to build it green.

05/27/2011 in Fun Stuff, Intelligent Designing, Landscaping, Natural Building, Saving Energy, Simple Skills, Tools by Curt Siters | No comments

“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 on its’ environment.

It also means to design and build a structure in such a way that it minimally impacts the environment during use, whether it is used for housing or as a commercial structure, including light, heat and water as well as the immediate and downstream environs.

A few years ago I was reading the September issue of “New Life Journal“ (the print edition) and inside they have a section called “Green Home Resource Guide.” It highlights various so-called green technology and has an interview with someone working in the green building industry.

In this issue they talked with Maggie Leslie of the WNCGBC (Western North Carolina Green Building Council about their “Healthy Built Home” (HBH) Certification and what it means to be green. The WNCGBC says the HBH is a guideline as well as a certification.

I wholeheartedly agree that a rating system is a good idea but I differ with the way the WNCGBC has done it. A lot of the stuff they promote – such as insulation wrapping the entire unit – isn’t really all that green. It may be energy efficient but not that green.

This got me to thinking: what exactly would it take for a building to be truly green? Just from the article my gears started turning and some ideas started to crop up. This article is to start a dialog trying to pin down what it is to be building green and ways to determine how green your home is.

I’ll get the ball rolling.

Ideally, a 100% green home would…

  1. use only materials found on site, or nearby, that requires no man-hours or fuel to be useable in the structure (does not need cut or shaped, etc.).
  2. use only materials provided by nature (no plastic, styrofoam, fiberglass, etc).
  3. maintain a comfortable living temperature all year round without the use of any heating or cooling source.
  4. have enough sunlight penetration during daylight hours to do 90% of whatever you want to do without the additional use of energy to produce light. I say 90% because there are times (dependent upon what you are doing) when you will need a little extra light.
  5. provide its’ own water without tapping into municipal mains or wells drilled into the water table.
  6. minimize the impact its’ design has on the environment by providing at least as much new ground surface as it uses for its’ footprint.
  7. use no power tools during construction.
  8. requires no maintenance

Whereas, a 100% (with 0 being halfway) non-green home would…

  1. use only materials brought great distances and/or require many man hours and a lot of fuel to prepare them to be useable in the structure.
  2. use nothing but man made materials or extensive use of manmade chemicals in the manufacturing process.
  3. require extensive heating and cooling systems.
  4. be sealed so that no light can penetrate to the interior requiring extensive use of artificial light.
  5. tap into the water table or municipal water supply.
  6. not take into consideration the environmental impact its’ footprint has on the environment.
  7. make use of heavy and specialized tools and equipment during construction.
  8. require constant work to keep it in useable condition.
A 0% green home would use one half green building techniques and materials and one half non-green building techniques and materials. The two essentially balance each other so the net effect is zero.

Granted these are two extremes with the first being perfectly green and the latter, well, the absolutely worst case scenario. What would you add or subtract to the above lists? How would you calculate how green some aspect (such as a heat source or water catchment) of building green is? Would you add it to the non-green method or subtract it from the green method?

For example: for every 5 miles something has to go from source to the building site you subtract .1%, so, something that has to move 100 miles would subtract 2% for a total of 98% green. (100 / 5 * 0.1) NOTE: 5 miles is about a half hour of unobstructed, unburdened walking. It also gives an area of almost 25 square miles to search for stuff.

Now it’s your turn.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Renewable Energy and The Mouse That Roars Beats The Lazy Giant

05/25/2011 in Intelligent Designing, Our Mountains, Saving Energy, Things that Suck by Curt Siters | No comments

According to the US Department of Energy:

Wind energy today accounts for only 1 percent of the nation’s electricity. A May report from the Energy Department concluded wind energy could generate 20 percent by 2030, with offshore sources accounting for nearly 20 percent of that.

According to the Danish Wind Industry Association:

The Danish energy plan, Energi21, from 1996 set up a target for 4,000 MW offshore wind power in 2030. These 4,000 MW are expected to produce 13.5 TWh per year equivalent to 40% of the Danish electricity consumption.

Why is it that a country so small can best a country like the U.S.? They have a smaller population? Their GNP is smaller as well. How can they muster the determination, not to mention the money, to reduce their dependance upon outside sources for energy? While the United States (meaning the government and certain special interests) plays this game with its citizens?

George Bush said things like “the Kyoto Protocol doesn’t go far enough” so he doesn’t sign on. He says that third world countries, including China and India must must go first. Is this how to lead a country and be a beacon to the world?

If we had followed President Jimmy Carters’ lead back in the 1970′s and invested in solar and wind we would be completely free of relying on unstable countries to supply our energy needs. (See my post – 1 Trillion Dollars)

With all the infrastructure we have and all the industry we have why can’t we be doing better than we currently are? If I had my guess it is because the oil and coal industries have invested so much in our political system that our political system would have a hard time operating without it.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Forget ANWR Forget Global Warming Forget the Environment

05/15/2011 in Saving Energy, Things that Suck, Thoughts, What Matters Most by Curt Siters | No comments

For this article it doesn’t matter if you believe in Global Warming or if you are for or against drilling off the coast or in ANWR (Alaskan National Wlidlife Refuge) or if you think we are harming the environment. What does matter is that you take a good long look at where we as a species are headed.

Face the fact that we live on a spec of celestial dust withlimited surface area and limited volume. Within that there are thousands of objects – plants, animals, rocks and other combinations of the elements. Since the surface area and volume are limited everything on this speck we call Earth is limited.

If you can argue against those facts, by all means post a comment.

Now, if everything is limited, we can only use a natural resource for a finite time before it is gone (without replenishment.) It becomes consumed.

“Consume: to destroy or expend by use; use up. – “

There comes a point where half of it is gone. If demand increases while supply decrease the will be a crisis, especially if nothing is done until the resource is exhausted. China is consuming natural resources at an increasing rate. As is India. America isn’t slowing down. Developing nations are starting to desire it.

We have come to that point (maybe not quite or maybe just past it) with respect to oil. There is a lot of arguing going on about this between the “tree huggers” and the “stay the course crew.” I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter which side you are on – OIL IS GOING TO RUN OUT! When it does the world is going to fall into the second Dark Age because we have become addicted to one thing and one thing only.

It doesn’t matter which side of the argument you are on – there has to be a paradigm shift. We will need solutions, and fast, if we want to keep living even close to the level we are now.

President Bush has said that the free market works, keep government out of business. I say, OK, let’s do it, with one caveat remove all the tax breaks, take away all current subsidies and plough it into truly renewable resources (and I don’t mean ethanol made from food crops or require decimation of a forest to grow.) If all those businesses that receive subsidies are true businesses they don’t need them because they are viable. If they aren’t economically viable they will go the way of the dinosaur and the dodo.

Let the market decide!

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Nuclear Power, Earthquakes and Our Energy Consumption

03/11/2011 in How To, News, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy, Things that Suck, Thoughts, What Matters Most by Evelyn | No comments

This really sucks… devastating news about what occurred in Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused extremely destructive tsunami waves in northeastern Japan. Leaving thousands of people confirmed dead, injured or missing, and millions more affected by lack of electricity, water and transportation… one can only imagine what’s going to happen with those nuclear reactors.

Slightly a month before I was born; December 2, 1957, in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, the first full scale nuclear power plant went into service.

I didn’t know a thing about nuclear power until March 28, 1979 when Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania had a major nuclear accident. Since then I have questioned ‘why’ are we building these things??? Continue reading “Nuclear Power, Earthquakes and Our Energy Consumption” »

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Follow Me on Pinterest

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Spring 2011

03/09/2011 in Food, Gardening, Saving Energy, Tools by Curt Siters | No comments

Canada Geese at dawnEven though we are having a bit of a cold snap right now, Spring is here.

A few weeks ago the frogs emerged and started croaking and mating. The crocus have made their way back into the world of sunshine. As have the daffodils.

This morning I heard the call of Canada Geese as they are making their way back north to their mating grounds.

So I guess this means it is really time to get started on preparing for the new season – starting our seeds, preparing the garden, planting, making sure our tools are in working order, etc.

Living off the grid entails some compromises – like conserving energy. As such we don’t have a lot of light available at night to work on things in doors, so we have to optimize our daylight hours to make sure we get stuff finished up from the previous year and maintenance done that needs to be done. However, now with the longer days we can handily finish what we couldn’t get done in preparation for this year.

Looking forward to it.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Intelligent Designing: Room Volume and Heating Spaces

01/11/2011 in Intelligent Designing, Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

Karl Bodmer watercolor of Sioux tipisA 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 how much volume a room has.

It should have a lot to do with it.

I was thinking about this the other night as an exercise and created a spreadsheet to run the numbers. You can download the Room Volume Calculations for Heating and Cooling spreadsheet and see for yourself. If you don’t have Microsoft Excel you can download Open Office for free and that will open it.

Here is what I came up with in order of least volume to most volume with the same rough square footage (about 201.1 sq.ft.): Continue reading “Intelligent Designing: Room Volume and Heating Spaces” »

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Lighting with LED bulbs and toxins

01/10/2011 in Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

LED Light BulbI 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 struck me as being peculiar. When I got home I looked it up on the internet and it hit me. There was something at the bottom of the article that makes me pause…

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California – Irvine.

Editorial adaptations. This means the article was changed in some way to reflect some desired result by the editorial staff. Exactly what I cannot say.

After following the links and reading the article again here is what I found…

  • The original research is referencing high output LED’s only – like those used in traffic lights
  • The chemical amount of toxins is very low per kilogram – on the order of .4%
  • LED’s weigh on the order of milligrams – if that much – so we are talking in the order of nanograms per LED
  • The toxins are locked into the physical structure of the LED and are not released if the LED bulb should break

So, yes, LED’s contain elements that are toxic. However, even if you were to eat an LED chances are very likely that you would not get sick because it is so small and the body does not know how to digest them.

I do know this tho’…

I sat here writing this with an LED bulb that draws .9 watts – a great source for task lighting.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Intelligent Designing: Kitchens and Refrigerators

01/09/2011 in Food, Intelligent Designing, Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

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 mom & dad bought a new fridge and moved the old one into the laundry room in the basement where it had a fairly constant temperature.

About ten years ago my father passed on and mother lived in the house for a few years until she remarried and moved to North Carolina. A few years after that she sold the house. That old fridge was still going strong after 40 years.

My fathers parents had an old fridge (built in the 1940′s) in their basement and it was still working 50 years later!

This got me to thinking about house design and doing it smartly.

Houses today, and retro-fits of old ones are piling more heat generating devices into the kitchen – larger fridges, 6 to 8 burner stoves, dual ovens, massive lighting systems and so forth.

The way a fridge, and freezer, work is to remove heat from the inside to the outside. Using the laws of thermodynamics we can see that it is harder for the fridge to move lower temperature energy into a space with higher temperature energy.  The fridge will run more using more energy. Place that fridge into a space at or close to the inside temperature and it will have to work less to maintain the internal temperature.

The same principle applies to the insulation but in the reverse way. When it is warm outside the fridge, the warm energy will want to transfer to the inside of the unit. The higher the temperature the more that heat will want to get inside. The lower the outside temperature the less the outside temp will want to get inside.

These two things greatly affect how much energy the fridge will use.

To do it smartly, you should have a well insulated pantry where you store dry goods and canned goods (cooler temps will help them last longer as well) on the north side of the house (or south side if you are in the Southern Hemisphere). You should place your fridge and freezer into this pantry to reduce the electrical load and save you money – whether you are off the grid or not. Or if possible have a root cellar with a section just for the fridge and freezer.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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