Owner: Neutral Existence Environmental Blog URL:http://www.neutralexistence.com/blog/ Join Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:05:27 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Green environmental blog stories covering alternative energy, energy efficiency and other pertinent environmental news stories. Site statistics:Click here
Photovoltaics (PV) in Buildings And Homes - An Overview 2008-09-03 17:19:42 A solar cell or a photovoltaic cell made of a semiconductor material, typically silicon, converts the sun’s radiation into usable electrical energy. Multiple cells are connected electrically to form a PV module. These modules provide versatility in terms of the energy output required for the intended application. This modular property of PV systems makes it a feasible power source for a small ca Read more:Buildings
, Homes
, Overview
Raising environmentally responsible kids starts with a solid personal commitment 2008-08-31 19:41:54 Let’s face it – many of the concepts surrounding environmental responsibility can be quite complicated, even for those of us who have some scientific know how. All of that heavy material, combined with legitimate and not so legitimate public debate on the validity of sustainability initiatives can confuse just about anyone – especially children.
Common sense tells us that to raise an envir Read more:Raising
Cool Weather Energy Basics 2008-08-26 22:27:41 In some parts of the country, it may seem like summer just arrived. But it’s back to school time, and before we know it, the winter chill will be upon us.
Now’s the time to start thinking about green ways to keep warm this winter. For most of us, it’s all about the basics - all of which we’ve heard before and probably have forgotten about
Basic #1
Insulation in man Read more:Basics
, Energy
Higher Education: Green 101 2008-08-22 17:37:35 Recent research by the Princeton Review suggests that parents and college-age students are more likely to pick a school based on its environmental record and initiatives than ever before. Media coverage of late shows that colleges and universities admit they are using the green phenomenon to attract students with sustainable buildings, academic programs and other offerings.
Yet just last y Read more:Education
, Green
, Higher
Green Gardening: Save Time, Money and the Environment 2008-08-13 15:01:53 (ARA) - Everyone wants a beautiful landscape but most people feel they lack the time and expertise to cultivate the results they want. With a few simple eco-friendly changes in your fall landscape care, you can get more beautiful results with a limited investment of time and effort.
Triple Your Benefits
Cut the grass, recycle fall leaves and improve the soil with a pass of the lawn mower. Read more:Environment
, Green
, Money
Green Vegetative Walls 2008-08-11 22:58:30 Green walls are a great choice for home owners and anyone that has a property that needs sprucing up or a degree of privacy. There is work involved with establishing a vegetative wall, but the end result is definitely worth it and this article will help you in building your own.
Planting a vegetative wall provides you and your home with many benefits that you can enjoy for years to Read more:Green
, Walls
Bisephenol A Free Baby Bottles 2008-08-08 04:09:37 Many of you have probably heard in the news about bisephenol a (BPA), which is a chemical that is released when certain plastic components react to liquids that are acidic, high in fat or heated. This has left parents concerned about the safety of the bottles they use to feed their babies.
Many studies conducted have shown is that BPA can potentially cause lifelong problems such as Read more:Bottles
Illuminating the Future of Kitchen Lighting: Energy Efficiency 2008-08-05 02:42:23 (ARA) - It doesn’t matter if you live in a home with a modern kitchen that has all the fancy upgrades, or one that just has a single overhead light in the center of the room. If you’re not using the latest generation of energy-efficient bulbs, it’s time for a lighting upgrade.
“Kitchen
lighting has made great strides in the past couple of years, not just from a design standpoint but wit Read more:Efficiency
, Energy
, Energy Efficiency
, Future
, Illuminating
, Lighting
New Solar Cell Material Has Theoretical Efficiency of Over 60% 2008-08-02 22:46:45 Conventional solar cells based on silicon semiconductors, can only absorb visible photons with a particular amount of energy, which is then transfered to the trapped electrons. Unfortunately, these conventional systems cannot use visible photons that contain more or less than a certain amount of energy, making then quite inefficient.
However some advances were made in 1997 by another Spanish sc Read more:Efficiency
, Solar
Install a Radiant Barrier 2008-07-29 04:20:00 A Radiant
barrier is a great way to fight the heat this summer. A one weekend installation can potentially save hundreds of dollars in under a year. By reflecting most of the sun’s heat back away from the home and not emitting the absorbed heat, a radiant barrier will drastically cut down on the work your AC must do to keep your home cool. This added efficiency translates into a lower utility co Read more:Barrier
Online Learning Reduces Environmental Impact of Offline School Facilities 2008-07-21 20:55:00 Online learning environments are definitely environmentally friendly, and for many good reasons. While traditional school facilities do enable face-to-face interaction between teachers and students, school facilities do impact the environment in a number of important ways.
First, consider the sheer amount of space that school campuses take up. School
campuses require years and years to build, an Read more:Facilities
, Learning
, Offline
Back to School, The Green Way 2008-07-17 16:04:00 With summer days passing too quickly for their children, many parents are anticipating the start of a new school year. Back to school time is a great opportunity to teach environmental values and responsibility to the younger set, as capitalist tradition compels parents to dive into a sea of consumer goods with their children by their sides.
Many parents will face the back-to-school season with Read more:Green
, School
Turn Up The AC 2008-07-05 22:12:00 In an effort to save some electricity try turning your AC up a few degrees. Just a couple of degrees and you will probably not even notice. Also, if you leave your home during the day, turn your AC up about 10-12 degrees for maximum savings. Just little things like this can make a big difference in not only your monthly utility cost, but the environment as well.
Be Independent From Oil & Coal 2008-07-04 23:29:00 Happy Independents Day! To go along with the Independence Day theme, I figured the best green tip for today is to suggest that we all strive to be independent of oil and coal. Of course this is easier said than done, but the more of our green tips that you follow and the more energy you save and the more efficient your lifestyle becomes, the more independent of coal and oil you become. There is an
Constructing a Better Environment 2008-07-02 14:08:00 The Los Angeles Times ran a story recently about illegal dumping in neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. It seems funds and manpower diverted from public works to fight crime in the city have lead to severe delays in picking up trash and refuse dumped in the streets, causing an increase in illegal dumping in some less fortunate neighborhoods.
The Times offers two reasons. One, a rat Read more:Environment
Use File Sharing Instead Of Shipping 2008-07-02 13:54:00 There are many times in business and our personal life where we print and mail document, drawings and images. This can be a waste of resources where you can just as easily send those files over the internet. While many smaller documents (under 2MB) can be emailed without any issues, larger files can sometimes give email clients a hard time. That is when services like Driveway.com, a free file shar Read more:Instead
, Sharing
, Shipping
Buy Energy Star Devices 2008-06-30 23:56:00 If you are in the market for any new device, from computers and TVs to refrigerators and washing machines, take a good hard look at investing in an Energy
Star rated product. Energy is a government program dedicated to rating products on their energy efficiency and if a produce bares the Energy Star logo, then that means it uses less electricity than its competitors. So, next time you are shopping Read more:Devices
Use Vinegar to Clean 2008-06-29 18:41:00 Recently I have been using vinegar to clean up a lot of stuff. From stains in a toilet bowl to whipping down the counter tops, vinegar has a wide range of uses and is much better for the environment than any chemical formula you find in a squirt bottle. Wanna have a green cloths wash… use vinegar and baking soda and your cloths will come out fresher than you have ever seen. Wanna dissolve mildew Read more:Clean
Use Electric Trimmers For Yard Work 2008-06-27 21:11:00 Instead of buying gas powered hedge trimmer, weed eater or edger, think about getting an electric one, or better yet, do it all by hand. Unfortunately, the gas powered small engines on these types of items do not have the proper pollution prevention catalytic converters that vehicles do and as a result they pollute ten time more than a car. So, if you must use a machine, get an electric one but it Read more:Electric
Home Depot Anounces CFL Recycling Program 2008-06-26 17:12:00 Tuesday, Home Depot
announced their new CFL recycling program, which puts them on the map as the single largest retailer and recyclers of the Mercury filled compact fluorescent lightbulbs. While many companies, governments and organizations have been pushing hard for the adoption of the CFLs, not many have addressed the issue of what happens to the bulbs when they die, except for telling people to Read more:Home Depot
, Program
, Recycling
Reuse As Much As Possible 2008-06-25 20:23:00 Reuse is a concept that is even older than recycling, yet very few individuals do it. So many of us get into the habit of just throwing stuff away without any thought of how that stuff could have been reused to serve another function. A few examples might be using the bottom of an empty milk jug to make a handy paint holder while painting your home; Or using an old electronic box as a planter to g Read more:Possible
, Reuse
A New Twister On Green Wind Energy 2008-06-25 15:48:00 There is no shortage of green energy generation ideas lately, and while some have very little merit and usefulness, others, like the brain child of engineer Louis Michaud, bring an very interesting twist. Michaud’s idea is to make and contain a twister to harvest its energy with wind turbines. At first glance, the idea seems doubtful at best, but upon further inspection, his concept is quite bri Read more:Energy
, Green
, Twister
Collect Rainwater For Irrigation 2008-06-24 14:02:00 A lot of water is used, especially in the summer, to water plants and lawns. A simple way of making use of rainwater, is by catching excess water runoff from your roof and using it to irrigate at a later time. By simply placing a barrel at the bottom of one of your roof drain leaders, you can store enough water to irrigate the lawn and your plants until the next rain. No roof drains, just put the Read more:Collect
Less Pollution = More Rain 2008-09-21 19:30:42 A recent study by Martin Wild and his colleagues, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have shown that solar radiation and rainfall have increased with the decrease in air pollution.
Martin explains that as air pollution drops over recent decades, due to new and more stringent emission standards, the solar radiation increases because more sunlight is able to penetrate the atm Read more:Pollution
Electricity is not the Enemy 2008-09-19 16:06:41 There’s nothing like an extended loss of power to illustrate just how much energy we consume.
Once Hurricane Ike finished with Texas, it wound its way up through the Midwest, and knocked my electricity out for close to three days. Living in the dark offered some interesting insight into the various reasons we use power – essential and frivolous – and a clearer view into just how difficult Read more:Enemy
Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels in Buildings And Homes - An Overview 2008-09-03 17:19:21 A solar cell or a photovoltaic cell made of a semiconductor material, typically silicon, converts the sun’s radiation into usable electrical energy. Multiple cells are connected electrically to form a PV module, otherwise known as a solar panel. These modules provide versatility in terms of the energy output required for the intended application. This modular property of PV systems makes it a fe Read more:Buildings
, Homes
, Overview
, Solar
Solar, Wind & Hybirds Finally Get Subsidies, But… At What Cost? 2008-10-04 17:39:28 In case you have not already heard, the 700 Billion dollar bail out passed both the house and the senate and president bush is set to sign it. Along with this 700 billion dollar bail out plan, was an additional 150 billion in tax breaks in a variety of different areas, some good, and some obviously taking care of some special interest.
With a vote of 263-171 the house passed the new version of t Read more:Finally
, Solar
, Subsidies
Insulate Water Tank and Lines 2008-09-26 20:47:27 A water tank insulation jacket costs under $30 and helps hold the heat inside, making your hot water heater more efficient. You can also add pre-cut pipe insulation or bubble insulated radiant barrier on exposed pipes going into your water heater and the hot water pipe coming out of your water heater - it is cheap and easy to install. If you’re starting with an uninsulated hot water tank, the en Read more:Lines
Passive Solar for an energy efficient dwelling 2008-09-25 00:22:18 Your home or office is subjected to various climatic conditions, be it local, regional and more generally global. All variations influence the design of your building in relation to the sun. Poor design of buildings in terms of utilizing solar energy causes buildings to overheat and cause discomfort. This is recognized in most building with ‘modern’ architecture where looks of the design Read more:efficient
, Passive
, Solar
Less Pollution = More Rain 2008-09-21 19:31:00 A recent study by Martin Wild and his colleagues, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have shown that solar radiation and rainfall have increased with the decrease in air pollution.
Martin explains that as air pollution drops over recent decades, due to new and more stringent emission standards, the solar radiation increases because more sunlight is able to penetrate the atm Read more:Pollution
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