SOLAR AND WIND COST GENERATOR

This is a pretty sweet tool my buddy Sammy sent me. You put in your address and then you can choose wind or solar, draw the area of your yard or roof you'd like to use and it does cost and wattage estimates based on air currents, solar azimuths and what not. Pretty rad for those looking into adding solar or wind to their current home or building something new.

ROCIO ROMERO HOMES

So, I've been looking at these for about 2 years roughly, and she's right in my backyard. I really just need to go to her house when she has an open house in a few weeks. They look pretty awesome. She's taken the time to look at the economic and ecologic considerations as well as efficiency. So if you aren't digging the idea of updating your home, designing a home from scratch and figuring out what technologies to use or migrating to a more efficient but much smaller home, maybe you'll like these. They're prefabs, but not like any you'll see around.



EDIT** - Went and did a tour, man those things are flipping awesome. She is a genius.

RAINWATER HARVESTING

Now, this is touchy, especially considering how ridiculous California is. Before you start doing this, you need to check into the legality in your state, county and neighborhood. That's my disclaimer.

Rainwater harvesting varies for what you want to use it for. Some people harvest rainwater just to water their gardens, so they keep it in a separate barrel outside. Some people tie it into their home grid and use it for flushing toilets and washing cars. Some actually purify it and use it as their their main water source... though they're usually off-gridders.

Check out this link if you're interesting in learning about rainwater harvesting:
An Introduction to Rainwater Harvesting

And purifying rainwater:
Slow Sand Filter
How To Pedia: How to Filter Water With a Sand Filter

And, this might just be me, but once I'd filtered the water with a slow sand filter, I'd probably use something like a Berkey Water Filter (which we use at Zombie Con) which is then drinkable. Course, me being me, I would then completely over do it be putting that through a Brita Water Pitcher Filter.

WOOD BURNING STOVE

Been going over ways to heat the home without using electricity, or at least reduce the heating cost. Decided to go old school and check out wood burning stoves. I know this isn't some dramatic discovery, a lot of people have them, but I was surprised at how cheap they were and that most models are designed with a flat top for cooking (as long as you have cast iron pots and pans). Even cooler, some are designed to heat water and help you lower your water heating bill some like Outdoor Furnaces. There are a few companies that make them, I only linked to the one, but this link should help you understand more about them if you like the idea of heating your house and your water with a wood stove.

If you don't like going outside to reload the stove, they have indoor stoves and I think some have water heating accessories, but I don't know for a fact. Here's a couple others that I found that may be useful. I plan on checking out the tent stove for a tiny cabin, once I do, I'll update this one.

Tent Stoves
Deluxe Barrel Wood Stove Kit

HOME MADE SOLAR

I figured I better bring up the obvious stuff I've neglected for crazier things I was researching. You know you can make your own solar panels? Really inefficient, but maybe you can find a use for this. Since it's so inefficient, I'm not gonna talk about it, but you might be able to incorporate it into a light sensor for something.

Here's something I came across and I like it. It's a tutorial on How to Make a Solar Power Generator. You're talking a yacht panel and a deep cycle battery. There's a few other things that are real cheap to add and I would consider adding a some sort of charge controller. Great tutorial and he mentions some additional stuff to control amperage and change from DC to AC current and all that as well.

With a topped off battery, he claims it'll run things like radios, fans and low-wattage lights (LEDs) all night or 5 continuous hours at 115 volt AC, which is pretty impressive for one small panel and a deep cycle battery, and then it takes 3-5 hours to charge an empty battery. I'm curious about what 5 batteries and 3 large solar panels could accomplish... only one way to find out.

HUMAN POWERED ELECTRICITY

While looking up info on the Permanent Magnet Alternators, I thought about hamster wheels for dogs and people to generate power. Human powered electricity. I think the bike machine is my favorite idea, especially considering you could hook up a gearing system to it and really get that SOB moving. I haven't read of anyone that's geared one yet, but I have an extra bike that I might pull the tires off of and try this with. I mean, it's a workout and it generates energy.

I was joking about the dog wheel thing, but after thinking about it a little bit, it actually wouldn't be a bad idea if your dog likes to run. Like Huskies are bred to run their asses off and it's hard for a person to give them the proper amount of exercise... which could be said of most dogs. But, you create a wheel where they can run to their hearts content and you solve a few problems at once. They get exercise, you get some of their energy.

You could really do the same thing with a hamster wheel for a phone charger if you're nerdy enough.

VERTICLE WIND POWER

I was trying to find something that was more compact than your standard windmill/propeller type wind generator cause I'll be honest, I don't really like the propeller kinds of wind turbines. They're noisy and that bothers me. In looking, I came across the Savonius Wind Turbine. It's not very efficient, but it produces consistent torque and is self-starting which is pretty useful for things like grinding grain and what not. Their big benefit over the prop-driven wind turbines is stability in high winds.

Researching improvements in the Savonius models lead me to the Darrieus Wind Turbine, which incorporates the Savonius ideas and in many cases uses a separate Savonius Turbine to create the power to start a small motor that helps get the Darrieus rotating. While not self starting, it's more efficient at generating energy than the Savonius.

That lead me to the Vertical Air Wind Turbine (VAWT) that incorporates both Savonius & Darrieus designs and streamlined them to be quieter and more efficient.

I've seen another variation of this somewhere that uses curved surfaces, similar to those roof vents that uses the roof line as directional plane surface to direct more wind into the turbine. I wonder if you could use the rising heat to turn the item as well? Probably not unless it can get the turbine moving over 5 mph, cause I don't think it starts generating storable energy until that point.

They all use Permanent Magnet Alternators (additional link), which benefit from a Regulator of sorts as well as something that will cut the power generation so you don't overcharge your battery bank.

Hopefully you find this shiz useful.

MAGNET POWERED GENERATOR

Ok, I'm still working on this, but I'm sharing the idea in hopes someone gets an idea from it. I got the idea from watching two magnets push away from each other. I combined it with a copper coil turbine used for things like water or wind powered generators. This consists of a plate that separate groupings of copper coils. On the outside on both sides of the coil plate is plates that have several magnets. Typically this plate spins and is connected to some motion device like a propeller to capture the wind or water motion and use the magnetic field to generate an electrical current.

All I did (keep in mind, this is with only a few magnets right now, I want to make something bigger) was tilt the magnets 45 degrees and add two more plates on the opposite sides of the magnet plates. The magnets began pushing away from each other, but since it could only move in a circle... and each magnet it pushed toward pushed it again, it began spinning free of any sort of outside motion. In essence, you do this on the right scale and it will move forever and create constant energy. Well... at least until the magnets die.

It's just an idea right now, an since I'm using magnets from old hard drives, it's not super powerful, but so far on a small scale it's working. I want to make a nicer one (like, not from cardboard and soda straws) and take a few pictures. I'll post them when I do.

UPDATE:
I guess I wasn't the only one who thought this would work: A Magnet Powered Motor, Permanent Magnet Motor. But there is a problem, too much magnetism effects the brain in such a way that a person would begin to feel paranoid. So, the device can't be very big... or if it is, it has to be encased. Serious problem.

TINY HOMES

Tiny Homes is a growing trend in the states and there is plenty of material out there on them. I bring them up because they are more efficient, but also because it seems to me that it is more economical for college kids or people who move a lot.

If you have a kid going into college; or you are one, instead of living in the dorms and sharing all kinds of crap and dealing with loud roomies and neighbors, roomies going through your crap while you're not there, paying the bills for the place... what about building a tiny efficient home to live in while you're in college. They can plop down in RV parks, trailer parks (I know some people don't like the idea of living in an RV or trailer park because... well, I don't know exactly, it's got a stigma I guess and people are petty.) and some colleges have taken to the idea and seem to be ok with putting them on campus to show their support for 'green technology'.  You can use that sort of narrow-mindedness to your advantage financially. 

When you're done with school, you move your home to wherever your next job is and live in it while you get to know the area, get comfortable at your job... and then if you want to invest in a bigger home or move into an apartment, you now where the good and bad areas are. If you're a parent, you build it, when the kid's done with school, you can put use it as a guest house to keep visiting inlaws in or a separate office or music room, a gaming room... whatever. Plus, being an actual cabin instead of an RV, it goes up in value instead of down.

But, the real seller for me is that they are extremely efficient and cheap to own, so if you've been wanting to move off-grid or to a small town, your biggest expense will no longer be your house. If you can generate your own energy in an smaller more efficient home, then you don't need such high paying jobs to pay for the energy, there is a lot less cleaning and maintanence to do... and if you want to pack up an go, you take your home with you (if it's of the mobile variety). Everyone talks about being a slave to these energy costs, but we don't have to be.

Aside from tiny homes but in the same vein, are Cargo/Shipping Container Homes.
Tumbleweed Tiny Homes
Tiny House Blog
Tiny House Design
This Tiny House
Tiny Green Cabins
Tiny House Living
Shipping Container Homes
Shipping Container House Design

BAMBOO

The reason bamboo is potentially awesome is because of it's capability to grow fast. Like a few feet a day fast. If you cut it to the stub, in 6 months it'll be it's full growth again, so you can harvest every 3 years to keep from damaging the surrounding environment.

What? Yeah, I know. I thought the same thing. With that kind of turnaround, you can replenish your wood source quickly. I knew furniture could be made from bamboo, but flooring, cabinetry, fencing, decks, plywood, lumber? That's a new one on me. I don't know what the efficiency ratings on it is yet, still working on that, but it is incredibly strong... so that's gotta be worth something.

And, what's even cooler is if you're really a do-it-yourselfer, you can grow bamboo the bamboo on your own. Just make sure there are no panda bears around.

AIR CONDITIONING

I'm trying to avoid the idea that central air is the only solution to keeping your house cool in the summer. Air Conditioning in the summer takes up about 25% of your electricity costs... unless you're me, then it's 50% because I hate the humidity here (St. Louis area) and I hate the heat. For smaller homes, window units are pretty awesome. I use to have one in a small two room duplex I lived in and it was great. Per Efficient Home Cooling; it's a central air site, has some good recommendations on reducing your need for AC to start with.

1. Insulate and tighten your house
Improving insulation and air sealing prevents heat from entering your house. Your highest priority should be to check insulation levels and air leaks between your living space and the attic.

2. Get rid of inefficient appliances
Inefficient appliances give off a lot of heat. Especially consider replacing or discarding old or auxiliary refrigerators; replace incandescent light bulbs with fluorescents; and unplug electronic equipment when not in use.

3. Consider "cool" exterior finishes
When replacing your roof or painting your house, using light-colored or other "cool" roofing and siding products can reduce your peak cooling demand by 10-15%. There are a number of roofing products that can dramatically cut down on heat gain without blinding the neighbors. Start by looking for ENERGY STAR Reflective Roof Products.

4. Shade or improve windows
To keep high-angle summer sun out, consider horizontal trellises for your east and west-facing windows. Protect south-facing windows with deciduous trees or climbing foliage so you can take advantage of low-angle sun in the winter, when the leaves fall. New windows on those walls that get the most summer sun should have low-e glazings to block unwanted heat gain.

5. Cool with air movement and ventilation
Fan operation uses less energy than air conditioning and can be adequate for attaining desired comfort levels unless you live in a very humid climate.

• Ceiling fans. Ceiling fans cool by creating a low-level "wind chill effect throughout a room. As long as indoor humidity isn't stifling, they can be quite effective. Just remember that a fan cools people - it doesn't actually reduce room temperature - so turn it off when you leave the room. Look for ENERGY STAR rated ceiling fans.
• House fans. Unless you live in a very humid climate, installing a large fan in your top-floor ceiling is a very effective way of cooling your whole house down without central AC. These fans suck air through the house, inducing a strong draft in rooms where windows are open as it pulls cooler, outdoor air inside. Check with your local home improvement retailer about available products and installation."

Aside from the endless Energy Star plugs, I think the suggestions are all pretty good... although, I would opt for LED light bulbs instead of CFL. Use less energy and have no mercury in them. Unless you're getting the air purifying light bulbs, they are super white and creepy awesome. I also found this on the Microsoft Socialist Network:

• Open windows and use portable or ceiling fans instead of operating your air conditioner. Even mild air movement of 1 mph can make you feel three or four degrees cooler. Make sure your ceiling fan is turned for summer -- you should feel the air blown downward. If you live in a relatively dry climate, a bowl or tray of ice in front of a box fan can cool you as it evaporates.
• Use a fan with your window air conditioner to spread the cool air through your home.
• Without blocking air flow, shade your outside compressor. Change air filters monthly during the summer.
• Use a programmable thermostat with your air conditioner to adjust the setting at night or when no one is home.
• Don't place lamps or TVs near your air conditioning thermostat. The heat from these appliances will cause the air conditioner to run longer.
• Consider installing a whole house fan or evaporative cooler (a "swamp cooler") if appropriate for your coimate. Attics trap fierce amounts of heat; a well-placed and -sized whole-house fan pulls air through open windows on the bottom floors and exhausts it through the roof, lowering the inside tempreature and reducing energy use by as much as third compared with an air conditioner. Cost is between $200 and $400 if you install it yourself. An evaporative cooler pulls air over pads soaked in cold water and uses a quarter the energy of refrigerated air, but they're useful only in low-humidity areas. Cost is $200 to $600. (See "Keep cool without pricey AC.")
• Install white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the house. Close curtains on south- and west-facing windows during the day.
• Install awnings on south-facing windows. Because of the angle of the sun, trees, a trellis, or a fence will best shade west-fencing windows. Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows.
• Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units, but not block the airflow. A unit operating in the shade uses less electricity.
• Grown on trellises, vines such as ivy or grapevines can shade windows or the whole side of a house.
• Avoid landscaping with lots of unshaded rock, cement, or asphalt on the south or west sides. It increases the temperature around the house and radiates heat to the house after the sun has set.
• Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents; they produce the same light but use a fifth the energy and heat.
• Air-dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
• Use a microwave oven instead of a conventional electric range or oven.
• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and VCRs, into power strips, and turn power strips off when equipment is not in use.
• Lower the thermostat on your water heater; 115 degrees is comfortable for most uses.
• Take showers instead of baths to reduce hot water use.
• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
• Caulking and weatherstripping will keep cool air in during the summer.
• If you see holes or seperated joints in your ducts, hire a professional to repair them.
• Add insulation around air condition ducts when they are located in unconditioned spaces such as attics, crawl spaces, and garages; do the same for whole-house fans where they open to the exterior or to the attic.
• Check to see that your fireplace damper is tightly closed.
• A 10-year-old air conditioner, for example, is only half as efficient as a new one. A quick check of your air conditioner's efficiency can help you decide whether to call in a service professional. Use a household thermometer to measure the temperature of the discharge air from the register and the temperature of the return air at the return-air grill. (Keep the thermometer in place for five minutes to get a steady temperature.) The difference should be from 14 to 20 degrees, experts say. An air conditioner that's not cooling to those levels could be low on refrigerant or have leaks. A unit cooling more than 20 degrees could have a severe blockage.
• Using light shingles on a new roof can cut the amount of heat the house absorbs. Repainting in a light color, especially south- and west-facing exterior areas, helps as well.
• Upgraded insulation in the attic and double-panned windows all around, complete with tinting to reflect sunlight, are good ideas, too.

HYDRONIC RADIANT FLOORING

Everyone's heard of it, you get a tax credit right now for upgrading your home so there are ads all over the radio. Radiant flooring is considered by most to be the most efficient form of heating for a home because instead of running a furnace and piping hot air through the house constantly, it utilizes laws of nature to distribute the heat more effectively which drastically cuts down power/propane/gas bills. It's basically a series of pipes in the floor distributing heat. The heat rises, if it's in a concrete floor it heats up the concrete and becomes even more efficient since the concrete acts like a sponge and retains a lot of the heat to disperse more slowly.

Because it's not cycling air through the house, the air quality in your home is better and there are less allergens being cycled around between 60-90%. There are no air filters to replace, no air vents to worry about covering. Since it's not cycling air, you don't have to worry about drying out the air in the house with the heater in winter time either.

There are basically 3 kinds of radiant heating setups:

Air-heated radiant flooring. These aren't very cost efficient because air doesn't retain heat well so I'm not gonna talk about them. Just remember: Air-heated is garbage.

Electric radiant flooring. These are also not very economical with one exception, concrete floors. In which case, because of their mass, the concretes absorb the heat and distribute it for a longer period of time. If the power company in your area has time-of-use rates, this could be good as well. Overall though, with the cost of electricity going up and idiots in the government suggesting stupid ideas like Cap-and-Trade... doing anything based on electricity isn't something I would invest in... unless you like being raped by the government and the power company. I'd skip this one personally.

Hydronic radiant flooring. This is the most popular and most effective radiant flooring. It involves a series of pipes holding water put into the floor and cycled via a pump connected to a hot water heater. Water is more efficient at holding onto heat and since it heats the floor, your water piping (for toilets and sinks) are less likely to freeze with some clever planning (especially if you have a concrete floor). I've read about a few individuals who've cleverly combined their regular hot water heater and their radiant flooring hot water heater so they only have one large hot water heater doing it all and cut down their bills even further. It's so efficient that it's suppose to cut your heating bill in half (53.2%).

Costs range between $1000 - $22,000... depending on the size of the house.

Now combine that with geothermal to regulate the air tempt being piped into the main unit...

PANEL HOME CONSTRUCTION

Looking for an efficient way to build homes cheaply and quickly. My buddy Jeremy's dad introduced me to panel home construction. He has a 3000 sq ft house with a vaulted roof, his heating bill this winter is about $125 a month and he keeps it at about 75. To put that in perspective, I have a 1200 sq ft house, keep it at about 65 and my heating bill is also $125. My house is old too, really thick wood, not the compressed stuff, lots of really thick insulation... by comparison to most houses, mine is pretty efficient. So, to more than double the efficiency of my place is pretty insane.

In addition to being more efficient, the houses are more durable. If you've ever looked at hurricane or tornado and seen the framed houses blown to bits, there's always a few houses left standing. Typically, those are either concrete, brick or panel homes. Panel homes are suppose to be able to withstand 135 mph winds, I'm hesitant to believe that, but that's the rumor. I also heard one about a home from Louisiana that survived Hurricane Katrina and wasn't even wet inside. I'm not going to take that at face value, but if it's true, that's a pretty good sales point.

They also are a step in the tree-hugger direction in that they use 5 to 10% less wood to build, so all you hippies put on your best patchouli... as if everyone doesn't know what it smells like and what you're covering up, pause your Grateful Dead CD for a second and look it up.

The basics are 2 pieces of plywood 8 inches apart and filled with styrofoam that form the 'panel'. I know, I thought the same thing. Part of the effectiveness of the structure is that the roof is also covered with these panels, so the roof has the same efficiency rating as the walls. Consequently, they also use a fire proof styrofoam, so you have a safer house which leads to lower insurance costs.

Lastly, and this is the part that kills me, it took a crew of 4 guys 3 days to put up the house and roof. Now, you would still frame the interior walls the same way, have the concrete basement (if you have a basement) built the same way, so the time it takes to put those together is the same. They use to be cheaper, but once the government got wind of these starting to catch on, Unions intervened and had Congress find ways to raise the costs to build them to discourage people from deviating from the old way of building houses... ie - a 15 to 20 person Union owned crew that frames in a house with lots of smoke breaks, cheaper materials, longer labor times... gotta love politics. But even with that nonsense, you save 30-40% on labor costs.

So, in summary, they are built more quickly, they are more durable, they are safer and they are more efficient.

Eagle Panel Systems (there's a good PDF)
IB Panels (good video example of ease of use and ordering information)

INSULATED SIDING

What's great for your bills? Adding insulation. But your walls are only so thick, so where can you add more insulation? How about under your siding? Help to increase the efficiency of your home insulation, insulated siding can save you an extra 20% on your heating and cooling bills. This is based off your standard build frame home, I'm not sure what sort of impact it'd have on a concrete/masonry/panel structure, but regardless of your house type, even if it's 10% over the lifetime of the siding which ranges between 50-75 years. Understandably, you won't live in your home this long... if you do, I'm both envious and jealous... but if your average bill is $100-$200, you're saving $10-$20 a month, $1200-$2400 a year. Add that up in years and you're talking a lot of damn money.

http://chooseinsulatedsiding.com/