Hybrid Living

And by spiffy I mean not an eye-sore. Personally I don’t much care if my recycling bins look great or not – but that’s what happens when you have an outside recycling bin area. If you do need to have a home recycling center inside, say in your kitchen or garage, you may want something that looks a little nice than typical plastic bins. While a set of awesome looking bins will cost more than plastic bins, the benefit is that you won’t hide them away and thus will become a much better recycling advocate.
Following are some recycling bins that [...]

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Stylish home recycling bins

If you get the newspaper delivered to your home, you may want to reconsider. If you truly read that sucker cover to cover DAILY, or at least mostly read it, then it’s a better deal for the planet and your footprint due to the energy it takes to manufacture, ship out, and even recycle the paper.

If you find that you don’t have the time to read the paper or you only read the Sunday ed. why not cancel the daily paper and switch to weekend only. You’ll save resources, money, and time.Another option is to subscribe online. Most newspapers offer [...]

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Uses for Recycled Newspaper

Regular mopping is a big waste of water because of the constant dirt you’re slinging into the bucket (chagning out the water). It’s also not very efficient because you simply can’t keep a bucket of mop water hot enough to be a super efficient cleaner. With this in mind, folks tend to add chemical cleaners to their bucket of mop water.
In many cases a greener option (beyond a typical mop) is a steam cleaning mop which will get super hot and does save water. However, there are pros and cons.
Pros of steam cleaning mops:

Use less water than traditional mops.
Very [...]

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Steam Mops Save Water & Cut Chemical Use

We’ve seen Toshiba’s SCiB (super-charge ion batteries) before at last summer’s Consumer Electronics Show, where they were providing the power storage for a battery-assisted bike. SCiB batteries are useful for a wide range of functions, from electric bicycles and hybrid and electric vehicles, to industrial equipment and renewable energy storage. Toshiba has now opened a US-based technical support center to aid in developing the SCiB, particularly for vehicles, grid storage, and wind and solar power applications.

The SCiB has characteristics that make it very appealing. It performs like an ultracapacitor with rapid charge times, reaching 90% charge in about 5 minutes. It is good for thousands of cycles without extensive capacity loss, and it has a life span of 10 years or more. And, of potentially particular interest for vehicle manufacturers, it is able to perform even at low temperatures down to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit).

The SCiB batteries are based on lithium chemistry, as are many other batteries currently in use. However, according to Toshiba, in addition to the other beneficial features the SCiB offers, they also have an internal structure which helps prevent short circuits and avoid “thermal runaway” even if they do develop a short circuit.

Link: Toshiba

via: NA Windpower

The state of New York has opened up its electrical grid allowing further net-metering with the passage of a bill in the state legislature following a “Net Metering Summit” in the state last year. Among other provisions, the new regulations cap interconnect fees for small facilities under 25 kW, and allow non-residential wind- and solar-power projects to participate in net-metering arrangements.

The new law also helps move New York closer to its ’45 by 15′ goal which targets the State meeting 45 percent of its electricity needs by 2015 through increased energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Net-metering provisions in state laws are one of the fastest ways to speed the adoption of residential and small-scale renewable power production from wind, solar, and other renewable sources. A statement from Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, noted that “Net metering propels us into the 21st century and moves NY forward as our electric meter moves backwards.”

via: NA Windpower

images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moe/ / CC BY 2.0 and Martin Bodman / CC BY-SA 2.0

Previously we’ve looked at how the new toaster ovens of today can save you energy. However, I didn’t go into specifics about how to buy one. If you’ve been wanting a toaster oven you should consider the following before you buy.

Brick Oven Classic from Cuisinart shown above
Toasters come in many flavors: Toaster ovens can save energy but technically toaster ovens fall into many categories such as your basic pop-up toast-making toaster, smaller sized toaster ovens that fit larger pieces of bread or other foods including leftovers, and gigantic toaster ovens that can actually broil fish or chicken, bake a pizza [...]

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Choose the right toaster oven

A bathroom may be one of the smallest rooms of a home, but make no mistake – it’s a vital one. Whether you’re building a new home or renovating an existing one, integrating efficient components into a bathroom will add convenience and improve functionality, and also minimize the environmental impact of energy and water [...]

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Green your toilet: Older toilets are considered a major water waster. In recent years toilets have become more water efficient, but if you have an older (not remodeled) home you may want to consider a toilet upgrade. The EPA notes that a good WaterSense labeled toilet can save you $90 per year in reduced water utility bills and $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet. Also, you may even be able to score a tax credit or rebate for your new toilet which of course allows you to save even more.

Green your cleaning: Most conventional bathroom cleaners are anything but [...]

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4 Ways to Green Your Bathroom

It’s easy to find plenty of plastic dishes, toys, and boring conventional cotton sleeping spaces for your pets but traditional pet items aren’t eco-friendly and thus don’t make much sense in a green home. If you’re going to green your space you may as well green your pet’s space too. Here are some options…
Doca Pet offers pet food bowls that are beautiful as well as sustainable. These sets are very functional, lovely to look at and made with pet-safe stainless steel and comes with rubber non-skid bumpers for less mess.
Organic Bumper Bed – The Organic Bumper Bed is made with [...]

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Eco-friendly Pet Gear

Mobile phones are actually a pretty easy item to green up; good thing since so many folks have them. Here are some tips.

Literally get a greener phone. Eco-friendly cells aren’t totally common (yet) but you do have some options like the Sony Ericsson Green Heart line (shown above) for example. See more green cell phone choices.
Consider ditching the land line. Why use energy to run a land line and have a phone that requires energy and materials to make if it’s unnecessary? Can you live with just a cell phone? Probably – I have for over four years and nothing [...]

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Green your cell phone