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

March 26, 2009 in Green Homes, Green Living with 1 Comment

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.

3-25-09-ecodrain

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.

how-it-works-illustration

Source: EcoDrain

Green retrofits make a 100+ year old home green.

February 18, 2009 in 9th and 9th Community Blog, Blog, Green Homes, Green Living with 0 Comments

The ecohome owned by Gil Schalom and Penney Poyzer and located in Nottingham, UK is an excellent example of everything that is right about turning existing home green. Granted there is a great need for new green homes and urban infill, but ultimately the greenest thing you can do is make an existing home green and avoid the disruption of more land and the use of new materials.

So what makes this home so special. Well, everything they have done over the last 10 years or so has taken this home from a leaky, drafty space to a tight, ecofriendly abode.

From Treehugger:

Penney and her partner Gil Schalom have been hard at work for over ten years converting their home into what they hope will prove a model for other retrofits. Along the way they’ve cut their gas bills to just UK£20 a year (US$30), and their modelled domestic CO2 emissions from 19 tonnes to just half a tonne.

Below, you can see a rendering of the home with the full list of updates.

housesec

  1. Flat-plate solar collectors for heating water
  2.  Roof insulation 300/400mm thick, made  of shredded surplus newspapers
  3. Roof lights with insulating (low emmissivity) glass

  4. Natural plasters - clay and lime based

  5. Super-insulated hot water tank100mm

  6. Ozone friendly drylining to front face  to maintain exterior brick appearance 
  7. 150mm exterior wall insulation with rendered finish

  8. Space saving bath and thermostatic shower 
  9. controls can save water Heat recovering fans limit ventilation heat loss
  10. Draught lobby in porch
  11. Environmetally friendly paints
  12. Energy efficient appliances
  13. Triple- and double-glazed timber windows treated with natural fungicides and stains
  14. Second hand, natural and reclaimed furnitur
  15. Stripped floorboard
  16. Copper rainwater goods with filter for rain harvestin
  17. 160mm natural floor insulatio
  18. Rainwater storage for use in WCs, washingmachine and outside ta
  19. Low-flush WC
  20. Non PVC waste pipe
  21. Composting chamber for solid waste from WC
  22. Separator lets liquids drain off and solids into composting chambe
  23. Decking from English green Oak provides longevity without toxic pressure treatmen
  24. Organic land management utilising the principles of permaculture. Growing our own food saves on packaging and transpor

Source: Treehugger and ecohome

The sun shines brightly and the wind blows on the stimulus package.

February 13, 2009 in Green Homes, Green Living, Green Utah Homes with 0 Comments

There is a silver lining to every cloud and from the reports I have been reading, the stimulus package is a big dark cloud. So where is the silver lining? Well, let’s look at the green lining as laid out in this Cnet article.

Overall, there is $50 billion for energy programs, much of it focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and efficiency, according to a conference report released by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office (click for PDF) and an Associated Press analysis. Provisions include:

  • $5 billion to weatherize homes of up to 1 million low-income people.
  • $11 billion toward smart-grid technologies to run the power grid more efficiently.
  • $13.9 billion in loans to subsidize renewable-energy projects and transmission.
  • $6.3 billion in state energy-efficient and clean-energy grants.
  • $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient.

There is $2 billion for advanced battery manufacturing and over $2 billion for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, according to a Wall Street Journal comparison of the House and Senate versions.

The bill has $400 million in spending to create the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) “to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry,” according to Pelosi’s office.

In transportation, there is $8.4 billion for mass transit and $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways.

When it comes to you and I as consumers and homeowners, there is even more good news:

For us there is even more incentive to invest in renewable energy and a tax credit of up to $7500 for energy efficient vehicles.

The $2,000 cap for the 30% solar hot water credit has been lifted and the $4,000 cap has been lifted for wind energy investment.

And, very exciting news is out there if you are renovating an existing home:

To retrofit existing homes to be more efficient, the bill extends and expands tax credits for purchase “such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation,” according to the committee report. The House and Senate versions extended these credits to 2010 and increased the level to 30 percent with a cap of $1,500 on combined purchases, according to Environment and Energy Daily (subscription required

So see, Whether you are Republican or Democrat and have hope or no hope at all, you can’t help but see this silver green lining.

Insurance is getting greener everyday.

August 7, 2008 in Green Homes, Green Living with 0 Comments

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. Continue Reading…

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

July 31, 2008 in Green Homes, Green Living with 0 Comments

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.

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