1. The Wonder Wash:  A small countertop sized washing machine that is hand cranked.  When I mentioned this to Katy she thought I was cracked, but when I explained what the specs are and talked to a few of our friends she was more convinced.  I will probably have to spend the $45.00 for it to convince her and myself, but I am willing to give this one a try since my water bill is even more outrageous than my electric bill.  This promises both electricity and water savings if it works as promised.
2. The Spin Dryer:  I am less committed to this particular product than I am the type of product.  The company is the same that makes the Wonder Wash, but I have heard quite a few things about their sucky customer service when it comes to this product.  There are a lot of complaints about it.  That said I am not above buying it and getting a square trade warranty and letting them deal with the company for me.  When this product works it apparently works great, and when it doesn’t well look up the reviews yourself and you will see.  That said there are a few companies that make this type of centrifugal dryer even if they are more expensive than this model.  They all make one common claim and one not disputed by pissed off customers.  They claim this is not only easier on your laundry but cuts drying time in half if you put them in the clothes dryer afterwards.  We hang laundry dry most of the year, but even then drying in half the time and forcing mineral laden water deposits out of the clothes rather than letting it dry in them seems like a benefit even then.
3. I want to finish converting all the lights to CFL bulbs and install two regular tube fluorescent lights in the garage.  I also won’t make the mistake of leaving them in the socket if we move like the last time.
4. Replace my old CRT monitors with LCD.  I will probably get at least one of these done, but I can’t guarantee both of them.  What I would really like to do is replace my two 19″ monitor set up with a large LCD TV and use those two monitors to replace the CRT Monitors.
5. Replace my TV with a large flat screen.  I use the TV primarily for movies since I watch most of the broadcast TV either online or through a computer with a tuner card.  At 36 inches I am not going to get rid of it, but it will get used a whole lot less.  Even if the price vs energy uses takes a while to equal out, a large LCD or Plasma screen will reduce how much I need to use the air conditioning during my summer movie watching.

Things I would like to do but likley won’t since I live in a rental.

• Change out the refrigerator.  Our refrigerator dates to the 1970’s and is as you might expect a horrid waste of energy.  It did however come with the house and despite the garage i really don’t have a place I put it if I get a new one.  I am also not going to give the landlord a new energy efficient model for free.  I might be able to get a $100 off one months rent for giving him a $1000 fridge.  Yes my fridge needs to be that big so I can also stop using my aging chest freezer another not yet inefficient appliance.
• As goes the fridge so goes the stove.  This is a much newer model only about a dozen years old, but it isn’t really efficient even when it was brand new.

Small Micro Hydro Electric Power Generator
By Juandy Liem

Hydro power depends on running water to turn the turbine and produce electricity. A small scale Hydro Power Generator is often called Micro Hydro Electric Generator. A Micro Hydro Plant usually produces electricity below 100kW.

Recent interest in Small Scale Hydro Plants as part of movements in producing more cleaner and greener energy has attracted many researches to study and develop many improvements in Micro Hydro Technology.

Micro Hydro Plants can produce useful amount of electricity even from just a small stream. For houses that has access to streams can consider to set up a Micro Hydro Plant to produce reliable electricity supply at lower cost than other renewable technology sources.

One main reason why many people turn to Hydro Electricity Plant is because it is a renewable energy, meaning it will not be depleted over time and it will consistently be replenished. It is also a clean energy source, as it does not emit any toxins. Other reason many turn to Micro Hydro Plants is because it’s relatively more cheaper than other green technologies in converting energy to electricity and can be used almost immediately when turned on to meet the demand for electricity.

How Does a Micro Hydro Plant Work?

This Water Powered Electricity Generator works by relying on Potential Energy that is contained in water that are stored in height. You may be wondering what is Potential Energy anyway? Well you can imagine it as gasoline in your car that is parked in your garage, it has a potential to move your car but your car is still parked in your garage, but once you start the engine the potential released into movements.

So, when the water falls down from height it converts the Potential Energy into Kinetic Energy. This Kinetic Energy will then turn the turbines. The internal mechanic in the turbine will then produce electricity for you.

For Small Hydro Plant (Micro Hydro Plant) it can converts about 60%-80% of Kinetic Energy into Electricity. If you’re really interested in creating your own Micro Hydro Electric Power you should read a book from a professional Author that’s been in the business for years…

To learn more about green living and Amazing Green Technologies and Gadgets that are available now, you can visit :

http://green-tech-gadgets.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Juandy_Liem
http://EzineArticles.com/?Small-Micro-Hydro-Electric-Power-Generator&id=1700895

Finished interior of a straw bale constructed home

I have spent a lot of time thinking about alternative housing options once we are able to move and keep finding myself overwhelmed then coming back to I am going to have to wait and see what I can do with the property itself.  I live in South East Ohio and likely will continue to do so at the very least no more than an hour or two away in Indiana or Kentucky.  This limits some of the rather cool options I have seen.  Some of the rather cool recycled shipping container housing seems to be far less green when you consider shipping the containers this far inland.  If I could find one that was already close by, they would make good storage or a workshop though.

Looking at available materials that I might successfully use include recycled lumber, straw bale construction, earth sheltered, cob, or even concrete.  Likely it will be a mixture of multiple materials since there is a likelihood I will be doing some of the work over time and some of it myself.  I would love to hear about your experiences with these materials, especially if you live in Ohio.

it is my plan to talk about each of these types of construction over the coming weeks and hope to keep hearing your input.  Thanks for this weeks financial assistance between this site and the others running these ad campaigns we ads have raised $61.00 dollars so far. You can continue to support our efforts by clicking on the pure play banner below. We make $0.95 cents for you filling out the quick entry consisting of entering an email address, pushing submit, choosing a password, checking the box you are over 18, then a pull-down menu giving the state you live in and pressing submit.  The final step is choosing a screen name.  This isn’t hard, just give them an email, give them a vague idea where you are, choose a screen name and press submit three times, nothing to buy and no newsletters to sign up for.  Do those few things and you too can help us on our way to finding a greener lifestyle.  I look forward to talking to you again in a few days.

Progress Towards Fixing the Truck

Progress Towards Fixing The Truck

$: 61.00 / 650.00 (9.38%)

As I said I want us to go green, but the transportation issue is the first obstacle we have to over come.  I have a very environmentally unfriendly truck in need of repair.  It is going to cost us nearly $650 dollars to get it fixed.  I would rather keep it off the road than fix it since the puts it burns oil almost as badly as it burns gas.  The question becomes how much to you want to keep it off the road?  By our estimate her unemployment check will run out about the first of February.  I need to have this truck fixed or be in something else by then.  You can help.  If you want to take this truck off the road, I either need enough money that I can fix it so she can find a job that will allow us to buy something different, cost $650.  An older, yet more fuel efficient car will take between $1500 and $2500, call it $2500 to be safe.  A newer fuel efficient and  likely more reliable car is going to run $6000.  A new small car will get an estimated 25/30 mpg range will run between $16,000 and $18,000.  The Honda Fit seems to be the best in this category.

When it comes right down to it I don’t care about how fancy it is, only that it runs well, gets decent gas mileage, and isn’t a huge offense against the environment.  I am not asking for donations, though i am set up to take them if you want to give them.  If you have an old car you were thinking of donating I would gladly accept that too.  We are just barely making it with my disability income, her unemployment, and what we can make blogging.  I can’t afford the repairs currently, but what I can do is make it as easy as possible for you to start helping us go green.

Tonight’s easy step in helping us go green is for you to enter to win a cruise.  All you need to do is submit your email on the first page and press the enter button.  Every time this is done we get $1.50 closer to out goal of green transportation.

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