The Guide To Efficient Living
LED Lamps With Warm White Illumination: Koncept Z-Bar ($165) and i-Tower ($195) Pablo Designs LIM L Floor ($350) Cree XLamp XR-E Warm White LED Lantern ($25) The color temperature of light is measured in degrees Kelvin. Lower-temperature white LEDs (around 2,000-4,000 K) are warm (yellowish white) like incandescent bulbs. White LEDs with higher color temperatures… [Continue Reading]
Manual juicers are handy to have in the kitchen — they don’t require electricity and are relatively inexpensive. They can juice a surprisingly large variety of fruits and vegetables. Best of all, they are usually easier to clean than their electric counterparts. Many people use manual juicers to squeeze wheatgrass into a nutritious drink. Most… [Continue Reading]
Ever since we saw Michael Phelps with his headphones at the Olympics not only have we asked the question, “What’s on Michael Phelps’ iPod?”, but more importantly, “How can we too enjoy music in and around the water?”. With science continuing to advance in developing underwater headphones, water lovers can now bring their tunes with… [Continue Reading]
A variety of pharmaceuticals have been found to be present in rivers and tap water in the U.S. The drugs include painkillers, tranquilizers, anti-depressants, antibiotics, birth control pills, estrogen replacement therapies, chemotherapy agents, anti-seizure medications and many others. The pharmaceuticals are found in treated sewage effluents, surface waters, soil, and tap water, though at very… [Continue Reading]
Composting toilets can be a practical solution even for large businesses. We recently visited the Philip Merrill Environment Center, which is the headquarters for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It has a Platinum rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council. After taking a tour of their offices (about… [Continue Reading]
The AmbientLED from Philips is the latest LED light designed to replace the 60 watt bulbs in people’s homes. Unlike older LEDs I tested, this light is definitely up to that job. It gives off 800 lumens of warm light, while running on 12 watts. It’s the first LED light to earn an ENERGY STAR… [Continue Reading]
In Fukuoka City in Japan, they have an amazing building called “ACROS Fukuoka” with two very distinct sides: one side looks like a conventional office building with glass walls, but on the other side there is a huge terraced roof that merges with a park. The garden terraces, which reach up to about 60 meters… [Continue Reading]
Foster + Partners have just been granted preliminary permission to start construction on this volcano-shaped superstructure in Moscow, which will be dubbed “Crystal Island”. In terms of efficiency monolithic buildings like this seem unnecessary, but the proposed dimensions are amazing: it will be 1,500 foot tall with 26,909,776 foot squared of floor space, that’s enough… [Continue Reading]
Wired Magazine has teamed up with LivingHomes to create an efficient green house called the WIRED LivingHome. LivingHomes is already known for designing cutting-edge, modern green homes. The 4057 square foot house will have a 4 kilowatt solar power system and be outfitted with efficient appliances. Green building materials will be used throughout. It will… [Continue Reading]
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