Monthly Archives: April 2012

Living green in an Earthship: The Sustainable Housing Solution

Posted on by

Earthship, the real “Living Green” House

An Earthship is an important instrument in our quest for a living green environment. But what are they? And will they pay off?

What is an Earthship and how are they constructed?

An Earthship is a cutting-edge ‘ living green’ building, constructed from waste and earth. Car tires and other recycled materials are used as construction material, together with rammed earth. Each tire has firmly packed earth pounded into them. Once the tires are packed, they are very difficult to move and form a dense wall. The walls are load-bearing and provide thermal mass which is an important factor for the energy house holding. Thermal mass stores heat and releases it slowly. This keeps indoor temperature constant while outside temperatures fluctuate. Once the walls are ready, they are quite often plastered with natural adobe.

The Earthship

An Earthship make use of our planets’ natural energy sources for their energy needs. They are as living green and self-supporting as possible, harvesting their own water and using plants as a kind of septic tank-system for their sewage. As a private energy plant wind, the sun and running water are used to meet their needs. So the Carbon Footprint of an Earthship is almost down to zero! Really living green!

Earthships are suitable for all kinds of weather, regardless of the season. For their water-needs they catch rainwater. If it is windy, they generate power and if it is sunny they capture heat and electricity. And the best part of it: it is all for free! Apart from using all resources surrounding them they employ extensive energy efficiency and water conservation measures, maximizing the amount of rainwater and renewable energy.

Who invented the Earthship?

The first Earthship is believed to be built by Michael Reynolds, an American architect from New Mexico. The name Earthship was coined by his wife as the house is self-sustaining, requiring no outside source of water nor electricity. The house sort of sails around, hence the name Earthship.

What are the benefits of building your own Earthship?

Because of the way they are built, Earthships provide a large amount of thermal mass. This keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Most homes of this type have been built in the southwest of the United States although I did visit a house under construction in Bancroft, Ontario. I don’t recall if the owners were going to insulate the outside at all, but it may not be a bad idea for northern climates.

The homes are designed to take advantage of natural resources. The homes are typically built in rectangular form and orientated to take advantage of passive solar radiation. Rainwater is also stored in cisterns and gray water is recycled.

It is fairly easy to build your own Earthships. There is obviously quite a bit of labor involved but if time is not a factor, a house of this type could be built with just a couple of workers. Be aware that you need some elementary skills, like carpentry, plumbing and electricity knowledge

Not only are used car tires easy to get, some places will pay you to take them away! As there are lots of cars, there are plenty of used tires, too! And besides the use of tires, also glass or plastic bottles and aluminum cans are used .

Are there any disadvantages of building an Earthship?

Like with any other alternative house building types, you might have a problem reselling a house that is different from standard architectural designs. In most cases, the people who like a living green lifestyle and build alternative homes are usually building them for a lifetime. But plans can change and when you need to sell, it may take longer to find a buyer.

As with all alternative building methods, you might run into some problems with local building codes. The walls are the biggest hurdle. The rest of the house is built using conventional building methods, but getting approval for the rammed tires might be a problem.

Earthships are a very new concept in living green building design, so you might experience difficulties with financing the house.

Build one

Based on the above information and considered you are interested in a living green lifestyle, an Earthship will be a very reliable and absolute environment-friendly investment. So it’s not only a financially interesting move, saving you lots of money on your energy costs. They will also, as the Carbon Footprint is reduced to almost zero, become an important part of your Living Green Lifestyle. So build one….

This article about living green in an earthship was written by Victor.


Twitt

Climate Change & Green Energy

Posted on by

Climate change & the urgence using Green Energy!

climate change

The predictions of the OESO on climate change in their Environmental Outlook for 2050 are rather somber. If we do not drastically and immediately change our habits and start using green energy, we will use in forty years time 80% more energy. The overall temperature of our globe will rise, and water kept in the earth will diminish. Unless we undertake action -now- we will inhabit a planet with concentrated Co2 emissions that will automatically raise average temperatures with 5 to 6 %.

The majority of energy that we use on a daily basis for our homes and cars, comes from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coals. As is well known, burning fossil fuels produces CO2, carbon dioxide, which is one of the most significant greenhouse gases causing the climate change.

In approximately the last 40 years, temperatures of our globe have increased. By closely following climate change records of those years, we have learned that the globe has warmed circa 0.75°C in the last century. This might not sound very dramatic, but it definitely is! If the temperature continues to rise like this, the environmental and sociological effects are no less than devastating.

Climate change and the weather

More frequent and extreme weather is one of the effects of climate change. When rainfall is heavy, rivers burst their banks more frequently, and so-called flash floods will become common. Since rain records began in 1766, the amount of winter rainfall in for instance England and Wales has risen. Over the last 45 years there is evidence that there have been more extreme rainfall events. The year 2009 had the most serious flooding in the United Kingdom for 270 years. If we do not undertake any action, flooding will really become a widespread issue.
At the same time climate change also hits the summers. They are getting drier & hotter. In 2003 a heat wave killed thousands of people across European countries. Widespread water shortages and drought will become a major threat. Overall, it’s clear that the cost to society, the environment, our health and the economy will be enormous. Luckily, there is something we can all do about the climate change.

The most obvious solution to stop the climate change is to switch to green energy on a large scale. Using green energy does not impact the environment if only we are using solar energy and the second-generation bio-fuels made of plant rests rather than edible plants. A widespread use of green energy has the most profound impact on the reduction of the gashouse effects and the reduction of carbon dioxide emission.
At the same time we should seriously diminish burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. As we know, this produces carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases causing climate change.

Using less energy, living the livin’ green lifestyle, will help fight climate change, as well as saving you money. A few simple measurements our governments and we as individuals can implement:

• Make our households more energy-efficient
• Ban incandescent bulbs in favor of energy-saving light bulbs
• Introduce an additional tax on energy use for businesses
• Increase prices of fossil fuels
• Lower VAT on green energy devices.

If you are interested in some good tips of saving energy and help stop the climate change, please feel free to subscribe to our newsletter (no strings attached!). Get these saving energy tips for free straight away. See at the right of the page.

Want to read more about climate change? Also check this website

This article about climate change is written by Liesbeth.


Twitt

LED lighting, does it pay off?

Posted on by

LED lighting, already a good alternative for old-fashioned light bulbs?

To answer that question it is important to understand how LED lighting works. The name LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and it is a semi-conductor that emits light when electricity runs through. A LED consists  of an anode, a diode and a LED chip, placed inside a reflector.
LED lighting
How LED lighting works

The whole LED is covered with transparent or colored plastic. This plastic is a lens which focuses the light.  Inside the LED there is a lens that bundles the light beam. LEDs are available in many colors, including RGB (red, green, blue). So with combining different colored LEDs in one unit, you can cover the complete color spectrum.

Although manufacturers claim that these kind of lamps have a lifecycle of at least 10 years, this is a little beside the truth… The intensity of a high-quality LED is reduced by almost 50% after approximately 50.000 burning hours. So instead of mentioning the life-cycle in years it is better to count the burning hours. Nevertheless, 50.000 hours is a long time, almost 6 years if you let the lamp burn 24/7…

What is the light output of LED lighting compared to other kind of lamps?

The amount of energy emission a lamp delivers is described in “Lumen”.

The good, old-fashioned light-bulb emits approximately 18 lumen per Watt.

Halogen spots almost 20 lumen;

White LED’s more than 50;

A CFL about 60;

Fluorescent tubes over 75 and

Natrium lamps (streetlights) more than 150.

You see that LED lighting gives more light with the same amount of Watts than a light-bulb or a halogen spot.LED lighting is not only used for standard purposes, but is also used when accent or decorative lighting is needed. Besides that, Led-lighting is often used in signaling applications.

Why is LED lightning still not used as workplace lighting on a large scale?

That’s because fluorescent tubes are still cheaper and more energy friendly. Also LED displays light is much colder compared to the standard tube color (830). And finally LED displays dazzle more because of the focused light. Until now there are almost no luminaires that diffuse the LED lighting without reducing the light output.

But, in private homes fluorescent tubes are rarely used. So replacing your old-fashioned bulbs or halogen lamps in your house by LED lighting will save you a lot of money. Even now purchase prices of LED lights are rather high, compared to traditional bulbs. But as they last a lot longer, in the end you save more money on your energy bill that the cost of the lamp. And the expectation is that prices of LED lighting will decrease rapidly the coming years.

By the way, LED lighting helps to reduce your carbon footprint…

Want to read more about climate change?

This article about LED lighting is written by Victor

 


Twitt

Carbon Footprint: what is yours?

Posted on by

Carbon footprint: We hear a lot about it!

At Livin’ Green we are very conscious of our carbon footprint and are making almost daily adjustments in order to reduce our impact on the environment. However, I wonder whether it is sufficiently known what this precisely means. If we need to reduce our carbon footprint it would be nice to know what it is..! Therefore a brief explanation.

We are affecting our environment in many different ways: we drive, fly and warm our houses. Even the type of food we are eating can make a difference. Now, your carbon footprint is no more than one figure that provides you with a quick notion of your impact on the change in carbon emissions you make. Our carbon footprint is not at all difficult to measure, to compare and to understand.
When people are talking about carbon emissions & about the carbon footprint they are referring to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. As you may have learned at school, carbon dioxide is released when you burn fuels that are carbon-based. Almost all fossil fuels that we use are carbon-based, including:

• petrol and diesel in cars.
• jet fuel that is used in planes.
• coal, gas and oil in our homes.

CO2, carbon dioxide, is a so-called greenhouse gas, and too much of it inevitably is leading to a climate change, which is also rather well known as ‘global warming’. Other green house gases, like methane for instance, equally contribute to a climate change. Countries see these as part of their carbon emissions, but an individual usually only counts his or her emissions of CO2. Your carbon footprint is the amount of CO2, that enters the atmosphere because of the electricity and fuel you use. It is measured in tonnes of CO2. If you want to know your own carbon footprint, this depends mostly on the following factors: how often you use an aeroplane, how much (and also what type of) energy you use for heating, how you travel and also what appliances you use.
Once you know your carbon footprint, it helps to understand what impact you have on the environment – and, of course, to find alternative ways to reduce that impact. You can look for good alternatives in the green energy sector. There are so many great solar chargers around, or solar panels, or ground water heaters. These appliances can go hand in hand with reducing fossil fuel use. By making our houses and cars more energy efficient we could make big reductions in our carbon footprint.

carbon footprint

To reduce your carbon footprint why not think of:

• insulating your home (expensive, but a good longer-term investment!)
• buying energy-efficient appliances or solar chargers
• plugging your electronics in power-strips
• or perhaps cycling / walking / using public transport
• taking vacation closer to where you live.

At Livin’ Green we recommend reducing your carbon footprint by saving on energy on the one hand, and switching to green energy on the other. In due course, you should be completely reliable on green energy sources, which is the best way forward!

Another suggestion how you could improve reducing your carbon footprint is reading this article on squidoo.

This article about carbon footprint is written by Liesbeth.

Twitt