Germination!

February 3, 2011

Gardening is one of the most popular eco-friendly home activities that people already do. It can be very enjoyable, gives you a little fresh air and sunshine, and best of all, you get delicious local food!
Here, in the Midwest of the United States, we just got pounded by (yet another) snowstorm.  It’s the middle of [...]

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Solar Panel Road Trip!

November 14, 2010

Yesterday, my friend Tim and I drove 6 hours (8 hours for me) to pick up a load of FREE solar hot water panels.
This really started some time back. About two years ago, I was visiting my cousin and her family. They have an old farmhouse, which had solar hot water panels on it from [...]

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Why Transition?

October 24, 2010

Many people have never heard of the Transition Movement. Lots of folks aren’t familiar with the term Peak Oil, either. The above video sums it all up very well.

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Laundry and Toilet together are half water use

May 28, 2010

Today, I got an e-mail update from YES! Magazine. The theme of the current issue is on water use and conservation.
Articles point out how much more water countries of the industrial world use, compared to the developing world.
What really struck me was a graphic pie chart that showed the uses of water.

Notice that the amount [...]

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Solar Water is snug as a bug.

April 6, 2010

Yesterday, I installed coiled-up copper pipe inside the steel water tank, and rigged it up to the solar hot water panel. After that, I got it insulated. Not perfect, but fairly good, still knowing I need to be able to get inside the tank some more.
Yesterday afternoon, the weather clouded up around 3:30, and then [...]

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Copper Coil installed in Solar Tank

April 5, 2010
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Tank vs Plasma Cutter.

April 5, 2010

Yesterday, in the match-up of the year. We pitted a steel water tank against a plasma cutter! Guess who won?
I did, as I can now continue working on my DIY Solar Hot Water system. On my system, I need a way to transfer heat from the antifreeze in the solar panel to my home water [...]

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A marshland in my Laundry!

April 2, 2010

Today, I more or less finished off my greywater upgrade by adding the sandfilter and marsh plants in the utility tub.
Peep the video:

Marsh Plants for Laundry Greywater

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Greywater Improvements

April 2, 2010

For sometime, I have been using laundry water to flush the toilet.
Seriously.
My wastewater bill comes to about 4.5 cents per gallon, and toilets can use up to half the water in a house. Also, think about all that goes into getting water so pure that you can drink it, yet we flush our human waste [...]

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Solar experimenting gets 55 Gallon upgrade

March 23, 2010

Today, my solar hot water experimentation got a 55 gallon upgrade. I know a guy who works for a company that uses plenty of 55 gallon drums, and he had a few from work. I zipped over to his house on my lunch hour in the Electro-Metro and tossed the barrel into the hatchback. (There [...]

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