Green Living

EcoDrain – Make your cold water warm to heat your hot water less.

Quite some time ago I posted about the ReTherm drain water heat recovery system. It is a very cool system that uses the hot water going down your drain to heat the cold water going into your water heater. Doing so reduces the amount of heat needed to heat your hot water. Giving you a theoretical 30% reduction in heating costs.

Now a new product has come online called the EcoDrain. I have to say that I like the looks of the EcoDrain better. Also, from what I see, it appears that the EcoDrain heats the cold water going directly to your shower and it does not first send it to your water heater. By doing this they see a potential energy savings of 40%. A little more savings and a tidier mechanical makeup makes this a very cool product in my book.

So how does it work?

The EcoDrain™ is a small, easy-to-install device with no moving parts. The key to saving you money is the heat-exchange channels.

These flattened, sealed channels were developed to maximize the surface area of the heat transfer space and to create optimum flow turbulence in the outgoing waste water and incoming fresh water. The EcoDrain™ is installed directly in the shower drain line and features a double wall of separation between fresh and waste water to eliminate the possibility of mixing, plus an interior non-stick coating to prevent soap, hair or debris collecting inside.

Source: EcoDrain

Insurance is getting greener everyday.

It has been some time since I last posted on the availability of insurance for green homes and insurance that would allow you to rebuild green. Since that time there have been some great developments in this area. Read more

Watch the video and then visit eattheview.org

The other day I posted a story on urban condos where I urged you to consider the alternatives, which included suburban farms and gardens. Today I stumbled upon a video very much worth watching over at Groovy Green, thanks to Alltop.

The video presents the journey of one man as he converts the lawn in front of his home into a garden and then he presents his call to action for the White House to do the same. If you like what he has to say then visit eattheview.org and sign the petition.

Source: Groovy Green via Alltop

Where WILL your water come from?

Coming soon to theaters around the country is FLOW: For the Love OF Water.

FLOW: For Love Of Water, a new film by Irena Salina, highlights the local intimacies of an emerging global catastrophe: African plumbers reconnect shantytown water pipes under cover of darkness to ensure a community’s survival; a Californian scientist forces awareness of shockingly toxic public water sources; a ‘Big Water’ CEO argues privatization is the wave of the future; a “Water Guru” in India sparks new community water initiatives in hundreds of villages; a Canadian author uncovers the corporate profiteering that drives global water business.

I know that it seems that we have more and more to worry about everyday. So much so that we just want to stop worrying and move on. That said, we have to move in the right direction. Worry less, but do more to impact the future. Stop worrying, but use less, consume less and spend more time with friends and family and less trying to buy things that we can’t afford. We can get where we need to go without too much worry and with smart living.

FLOW is an important documentary about water consumption and a resource that is owned by the few and really, should it be owned by anyone?

Win the plans to your Green Dream Home at FreeGreen.com

We all have dreams of what our dream home would be like, many want it to be a green dream home. The problem is getting it designed and then built and finding the mony to do it all. Well, the folks over at FreeGreen could be bringing that dream one step closer to being a reality with their latest contest.

By visiting the FreeGreen website and entering the FreeGreen Challenge you could win the custom plans to the green home of your dreams. The FGC is a contest (starting today and ending on September 30th) that any FreeGreen user planning to build a home in the United States can enter. The winner will receive a Free Custom House Design from FreeGreen, valued at $25,000!! Just head to the homepage, click on the Custom Design Contest button, login, and fill out the contest form.

Over at Active Rain where I am a member ECO-All-Stars~ GREEN Resources, Trends & Friends I had fun taking part in a challenge back in December where we offered up what our green dream home would be if money were no object? Well, you can do the same thing and make it a reality! So head over to FreeGreen and enter the contest. Then, while you are there check out the site.

Urban Condos Rising. Are they a good thing?

This Comment on a post about lazy localvores at Grist really made me think today.

“The history of 20th century United States is that of the combines grabbing land that had been originally given to citizens during the 18th. The Powers-That-Be sought to remove the independent pioneers and make them dependent wards of the state…that effort is alive in the efforts of Big City types like Mayor Nichels who want to herd everyone into cattle car sized condos and tax them to death for light rail. We need to re-agrarianize the American family — falling real estate will help.”

I don’t agree completely but is the rush to build Urban Condominiums a good thing? Read more

Most concise shipping container (ISBU) resource yet.

Shipping container ISBU homes are gaining in popularity every day. It is probably because it is a sturdy, viable, cheap mode of construction along with using an existing resource that is piled high in ports and rail cities around the world. It is also the keyword used most that brings folks to my site and the reason for many phone calls from people looking for more information.

Today I found what is probably the best resource for more information that I have seen yet.

Read more

More information on Geos Neighborhood

When I first posted about Geos Neighborhood I promised to update you all when I was able to find more information and today Preston over at Jetson Green managed to gather several renderings for his post on the neighborhood.  Jump over and take a look.  It looks great!

Source:  Jetson Green

Move over CFL’s, here come the LED’s!

Just as we get rolling with decent ways to recycle our old CFL bulbs LED’s start moving into the market en masse. I find this news from Grist, via The New York Times, to be very exciting and while LED’s are way out of my price range for now, I know that they will soon be available in bulk at your neighborhood Costco. That is just the way it is with new technology.

One word of advice, don’t just throw out perfectly good CFL’s to replace them with LED bulbs. Please use them to the end and then recycle them properly. Part of being green is being wise and being wise is not throwing out something that still works.

Source: Grist via The New York Times

Recycle your CFL’s without leaving the house.

There is a lot of concern about Compact Fluorescent Lights and the mercury they contain and while recycling programs exist with some retailers, there still aren’t many options for folks who don’t live near these retailers. Leaving many with the desire to do the right thing and reduce their consumption of electricity, but concerned they aren’t doing the right thing with the pollution that CFL’s create. It is a bit of a catch-22. Now there is another way for those people to safely recycle their bulbs. Read more

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