In an area of Ngatimoti, four neighbours who share green values in their lifestyles are about to open their properties to the public.

Labor of love: The Laufkotters’ home in Ngatimoti was constructed from 80 percent straw and 20 percent clay over a two-year period.

Sixteen years ago, Peter and Mechthild Laufkotter decided their seaside Motueka home was limiting their self-sufficiency, so they made a move that many people dream of.

The couple now live on a 25-hectare block in tranquil Ngatimoti, 20 kilometres from Motueka, with a charming light earth house that overlooks vegetable gardens, fruit trees and surrounding bush and forest.

There they take pleasure in the delights of eating home-grown produce, preserving it for storage in their cellar and for use throughout the year. On their path to greater self-sufficiency they’ve learned many new skills, and enjoy being independent.

“If you live in harmony with the land, it’s something that is deeply satisfying. You put your energy into all the food that you eat. It has a different value than just the nutrition,” says Mrs Laufkotter, a trained dietician who now works as a teacher aide at Ngatimoti School and as a yoga teacher.

The Laufkotters’ property is one of four organic Ngatimoti properties that will feature in the Green Lifestyles tour on Sunday, March 14.

Organised by the Motueka branch of the Green Party, its aim is to show how simple green concepts have been applied to create beautiful homes, gardens and lifestyles for the four host families, and how an eco-friendly life works for those looking for inspiration.

Motueka Greens treasurer Heather Spence says as well as the Laufkotter’s property, the tour will go to a commercial organic plum and apple orchard, a home-based flax-growing and craft business, and a home that features an outdoor bathroom and woodlots.

She says people on the tour – the first of its type held by Motueka Greens in part as a fund-raising event – will be able to talk to the hosts about such things as sustainable house design, different building materials and techniques, and how to achieve things like productive organic gardens, solar power, composting toilets and smart water use.

The tour is structured so people walk a 3km route in groups from one property to the next through fields, woodlots, orchards and gardens.

The Laufkotters, who have three grown sons, moved to the region from Germany in 1981 and lived for 14 years by the sea in Motueka. When they bought their Ngatimoti property about 16 years ago, they bought it with a friend to reduce the mortgage, but later bought his share.

The couple opted for a three-bedroom light earth house, which is of timber construction with walls made from a mixture of 80 percent straw and 20 percent clay. Lighter than mud-brick homes, the house, which is built on a hillside, also has great insulation, says Mr Laufkotter, who works from home as a sign writer.

They built the house over two years, and in a further bid to save money “and not end up with a huge mortgage”, they collected windows, doors and other features for the house during the years in advance of building. They managed to secure a whole house lot from Christchurch, with other parts coming from Nelson.

“We designed the house around what we had,” Mrs Laufkotter says.

The home features solar water heating and a composting toilet, which separates solids from liquids. The liquid gets fed to the citrus trees, which, like the nitrogen it contains, and the solids, are also spread around fruit trees.

They said they wanted a composting toilet because they don’t have a huge supply of water on the land.

“With every flush [from a conventional toilet], we might not have much to drink by the end of February,” Mr Laufkotter laughs. Over the years, they’ve established large organic vegetable gardens fed with lots of rich compost and organic manure, fruit and nut orchards and a 50-tree olive grove, and have regenerated bare paddocks by planting hundreds of native trees. They also keep some chickens and 14 Scottish highland cattle.

The cattle are kept mainly to control the pest plant old man’s beard on the property, but the Laufkotters also occasionally kill them for food to keep the numbers manageable. As the Laufkotters are not big meat eaters, one animal supplies them with meat for a year.

Their increasing self-sufficiency means they’re always trying new things and learning new skills. Mr Laufkotter learned butchering and makes his own salami and dried meats, which are stored in the cellar along with homemade juices, wines, beer and other preserves.

Hops that Mr Laufkotter found growing wild in the Graham Valley line the entrance to the cellar, which provides a cool sanctuary in the heat of summer.

“Every season is different and there’s always new things to be learned,” he says.

“Coming from Germany, chutneys didn’t exist. We have learned that [how to make them]. We make them here and never have to buy them,” Mrs Laufkotter says.

“We’ve got everything we need here and we never go hungry at all,” Mr Laufkotter adds.

“I don’t have to spend eight hours in my workshop. I don’t have to chase the jobs.”

He also makes his own bread, which led him to last year grow a 20-square-meter patch of barley for a trial, because he wanted to know how to grow grains. The birds loved the experiment.

“I made about 2kg out of 20sqm. If I wanted to support my bread making with my own grain, I’d have to grow a paddock of it.”

Mrs Laufkotter, who makes her own herb teas, says being as self-sufficient as possible takes effort.

“People will come here and say `this is beautiful’, but wouldn’t really have a clue about what it means to sustain something like that.

“I try to be in the garden every day for at least an hour. There are some days on the weekends I would spend the whole day [outside on the property].

“Most evenings in summer, I’d be in the garden until it’s dark.

“When you’ve got a lot like this, that creates a huge workload, but if you know it’s for yourself, you don’t mind.”

One of the nicest aspects of where they live is that their neighbors share their green philosophy, they say.

In fact, once a year, the neighbors get together to maintain White Rock, a special area of quartz at the top of the Laufkotters’ property.

“The best thing about it is you never have an argument about things like spraying,” Mr Laufkotter says.

“They’re all on the same wavelength.”

Source: stuff.co.nz

Cityscapes of glass-clad buildings gleaming in the sun make Anna Dyson think about wasted energy. Dyson heads the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, or CASE, a research consortium that wants to turn office windows into multifaceted solar power generators.

Image by William Conway/Progress Photography.

Researchers at the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology are testing a new “diamond” technology that would be installed on glazing to generate power.

Their “integrated concentrating dynamic solar facade” consists of grids of clear pyramids that help focus the sun’s rays to generate energy. It would essentially make buildings look as if they were draped in giant jeweled curtains.

Image by Kevin Rivoli, AP.

RPI research assistants pose for a portrait with the Helioptix window units installed at the Syracuse Centre of Excellence in Environmental & Energy Systems building.

A prototype gets a real-world tryout after the opening this week of an eco-friendly research building in Syracuse. Researchers at CASE — a collaborative research group involving Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and the international architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — call it a step toward exploiting the huge but largely untapped “green” resource of building exteriors.

“The reason we’re interested in windows is because they have the largest surface areas, typically, in buildings, especially in tall, urban buildings,” said Dyson, a professor of architecture at RPI. “We have a lot of vertical surface area to work with to really generate a lot of power.”

Image by Kevin Rivoli / AP.

RPI research assistants perform maintenance on the Helioptix window units installed in Syracuse, N.Y.

In contrast to typical flat solar panels, CASE’s system is designed to do several things.

Each clear pyramid, with facets less than a foot square, has a lens to focus sunlight onto a tiny solar cell. The concentrated cells are designed to be more efficient in generating energy than traditional cells. And the pyramid modules rotate to track the sun. Pumped water keeps the solar cells cool to maximize efficiency. The cooling water also “captures” that waste heat for other uses, such as hot water or radiant heat for the building.

The pattern of pyramids also would deflect and diffuse the sun’s rays, meaning office workers with eastern exposures could work in natural light all morning instead of drawing the blinds against the glare. Windows will still provide a view, albeit one obstructed a bit where the patterns of pyramids are placed.

The technology behind concentrating the sun’s energy through a lens is not new, nor is the concept of placing solar cells on the side of a building. But the integration of all these ideas to perform multiple tasks is novel.

Dyson notes that a building’s biggest energy suckers are usually cooling, heating and lighting. This system would tackle all three, whether it’s extracting maximum solar power in New York City or deflecting and diffusing sunlight in Phoenix. Jason Vollen, an RPI architecture professor at CASE, said their integrated system squeezes every bit of usability out of the system.

The system has already been tested on an RPI rooftop. Now, a prototype has been built into the facade of the Syracuse headquarters of the Center of Excellence in Environmental & Energy Systems, a public-private research partnership devoted to sustainability research.

The prototype, one of many green features of the state-of-the-art building, is an 8-by-8-foot panel and will become fully operational soon. A second, portable prototype will be generating energy earlier.

Syracuse, where the winters can be long, snowy and gray, might not seem the best place to try out a new system to generate solar power, but Vollen said it will be a good test in “less than optimal solar climates.”

Vollen believes the system can catch on in the fast-growing market for “green building” and energy efficiency systems. He said the system would be especially suitable for older buildings undergoing retrofits, which is expected to be a growth market.

The solar system is included in construction documents for a high-profile construction project being planned for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, according to Jonathan Maille, a director of HeliOptix, which is licensed to market the system.

Dyson did not provide a price, though the complex system will cost more than planting some photovoltaic cells on the roof. But she claims the payback time is sooner.

Still, one veteran solar energy consultant not involved in the project said that while he likes the concept, users should be ready for the potential for costs down the road. Peter Talmage, now a professor of renewable energy at Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts, said whatever the limits of traditional solar panels, they require only minimal maintenance needs.

He noted that this system is far more complicated.

“You have to throw in a good chunk for operation and maintenance costs,” Talmage said.

Source: dcnonl.com

Image by www.why-yachts.com

The problem with everyone’s favorite desert island fantasy is that peaceful, unspoiled beaches never stay undiscovered for very long, with even the most secluded of spots becoming overrun by others with Robinson Crusoe aspirations. Cue the collaboration between Monaco ship-builders Wally and luxury-brand Hermes for the £90 million Wally Hermes Yacht.

Image by www.why-yachts.com

A three-level, 58 x 38 meter yacht, the boat houses twelve guests and twenty crew in a spacious and, as you’d expect from Hermes, supremely stylish interior. But it’s the 30-meter ‘beach’, which offers panoramic views of your chosen destination, that explains the Why’s bottom-heavy shape and sets it apart from your average super yacht. The extra-long stern has been designed not only to replicate a stretch of private beach in shape, but to physically calm the water behind the boat, protecting guests from any annoying waves.

Image by www.why-yachts.com

An inbuilt helicopter pad enables a quick departure if the yacht’s optimum 12 knot speed doesn’t suffice. With a 25 meter swimming pool in the bow, however, along with a library, music room, cinema and spa, you’d be forgiven for wondering why they’d bothered at all with an escape route. Then again, that’s what the captain of The Titanic thought. www.why-yachts.com

Image by www.why-yachts.com

Article by Guy Pewsey.

As part of its green energy resources, this yacht uses thermophotovoltaic panels to power its heating and airconditioning requirements. The “WHY” Yacht also uses wind generators, latest generation batteries and other green energy systems.

On 60 Minutes tonight a brand new energy company unveiled what is believed to be a potentially revolutionary energy technology called Bloom Boxes.

Based on fuel-cell technologies, Stahl unveiled the formerly secret company Bloom Energy stating that “the idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.”

Bloom Energy says this:

The Bloom Energy Fuel Cell Boxes are the device of the future being made to help provide a clean energy source. Bloom Energy Fuel Cell Boxes are going to be debuted in two days according to their website.

With the clean energy global initiative being one of the most focused on in the world, these boxes are able to run clean and inexpensively. Major companies are involved in the experimental testing including Google and Ebay.

The Bloom Box is a device that can power approximately 100 houses.

According to a press release, the box was developed by NASA scientists and can be used in different ranges of temperatures which makes the way it can be used more expansive.

Several competitors are also trying to develop similar devices in Silicon Valley but Bloom Energy is about to reveal the first in two days.

This is secretive fuel cell company Bloom Energy’s big week. Tonight 60 Minutes aired an exclusive look inside the Bloom Box, and on Wednesday the company is officially launching, after operating for 8 years and having reportedly raised around $400 million from investors like Kleiner Perkins.

Watch the video clips, embedded below, to see what the Bloom Box actually looks like — kind of like an industrial-sized refrigerator, that sucks up oxygen on one side and fuel (natural gas, biomass, solar energy, etc) on the other. 60 Minute’s reporter Lesley Stahl takes a look at the “secret sauce” behind the Bloom Box, and reports that Bloom bakes sand and cuts it into little squares that are turned into a ceramic, which are then coated with green and black “inks.” Using a special process Bloom creates these ceramic discs and stacks them together interspersed with metal plates of “a cheap metal alloy.” The bigger the stack the more power the Bloom Box will create.

Stahl dug up some interesting tidbits beyond being the first reporter to get a glimpse of the device. Like the fact that Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar originally came up with the idea for the Bloom Box after developing a device for NASA that would be able to create oxygen on Mars. After NASA ditched their Mars mission, Sridhar had the idea to reverse the oxygen-creating Mars box and use oxygen as the input instead.

Stahl also reports that a Google data center has been using 4 Bloom Boxes for the past 18 months. Google was Bloom’s first customer and while Google’s Bloom boxes use natural gas, they use “about half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant,” reports Stahl.

Additional sources: mediaite.com

Most heating systems consist of two stages – one that generates the heat and a second that delivers it (ie: a furnace burns oil to generate heat and a fan or circulating pump distributes that heat where it’s needed.)

Image by solarwall.com.

With solar heating systems the sun generates the heat – for free!

© Image by greentown.ca.

To see animation on how solar wall technology provides fresh air and FREE heat, click HERE.

Solar air heating systems use solar radiation to heat a particular room, using solar panels.
There are many ways to use solar heating of air, and one can also build a home with the help of online sources.

© Image from daviddarling.info.

Check out the video below on home-made solar air heaters.

This is a type of solar thermal system, where air is heated in a collector from the sun’s radiation and transferred directly to the inner space or a storage medium, such as a can of rocks. Solar panels are used for the operation of such systems.

Solar panels heat the air which is then transported to a particular room. The basic components of this system include solar panels, solar collectors, a system of ducts and diffusers. The heated air can operate with or without a fan. Without the fan the air is distributed through the action of a natural ventilation system.

In agriculture, food products sometimes needs to be kept in warm places, especially during the monsoons. Solar air heating works well here. You can increase the temperature of the room so that it is properly heated. In this way the products may be safe and will not have spoiled due to moisture.

Solar air heating works much the same way as a factory solar hot water.
The heater is placed outside the room so it can capture the sunlight. It generally consists of solar panels, but people use a variety of solar collectors. Some use aluminum beverage cans and black paint. These are then placed on a suitable frame. The panels or holes in the cans should be connected so that the air travels through them. As cold air moves across the outside room via the cans, it is heated. Thus, hot air enters the destination room, causing the temperature to rise. In this way a solar air heater is a very economical way to heat a room. Instead of using heating devices that are expensive and require a lot of electricity, this method of passive temperature control is certainly an effective solution.

So, how do you build a Solar Space Heater? For complete illustrated instructions click HERE.

Additional sources: handyman-source.com

Thinking about putting together your own disaster preparedness kits? Check out this cool new solar gadget from Eton!

Animation below is showcasing the capabilities of Etón’s Solarlink FR360 Self-Powered Digital AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and USB Cell Phone Charger.

Eton developed a new line of American Red Cross disaster preparedness solar gadgets.
Each one of these products includes American Red Cross disaster preparedness tips!
Red Cross Solar Radios Tune in all 7 NOAA weather radio channels and feature an ”Alert” function to keep you abreast of significant weather changes. They pick up AM and FM broadcasts; telescoping antenna receives FM and NOAA reception and an internal antenna receives AM reception.
Tuning knob and digital display offer smooth dialing to zero in on finicky signals; a full-range monophonic front speaker delivers clear sound reproduction.

Internal rechargeable NiMH battery pack stores power generated from solar panel, hand crank or AC power source with optional adapter.

The Solar Decathlon, run by the US Department of Energy (and sponsored in part by Popular Mechanics) is held every 2 years on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The competition in 2009 saw some surprising entries and innovative solutions to passive design and solar technology. A selection of 20 college teams competed in the fields of architecture and engineering to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar powered home. Winners of the competition gain international recognition for their designs.

© Image by Stefano Paltera/US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon.

© Image by asla.org.

Hard-hatted Department of Energy inspectors roamed the Solar Decathalon job sites with check lists, stopping during PM’s stay to ask the workers, “Your PV situation under control? Any code violations I should know about?” The Hokies, like many on the Mall the first day, were still scrambling to get their house rebuilt in a matter of hours after shipping it to DC from Blacksburg, Virginia.

The team had already completed the heart of the system—a responsive pair of sliding panels designed to maximize the house’s efficiency in changing weather conditions. Faculty advisor Bob Schubert walked PM through the five layers that compose the system, which sandwiches each of the rectangular house’s longer north and south sides. On the exterior, a sliding Zahner zinc panel with machine-cut openings provides partial shade against the sun. Next, a layer of diffuse LEDs shines through the zinc screen, giving the house a glowing appearance in twilight. Both of these exterior panels can be set to slide in and out with the weather automatically. The house picks its settings via sensors embedded in its concrete floor. Behind the LED wall, a manually opened sliding door from Fleetwood separates indoors from out; riding in the track next to that is a robust sliding mesh screen. Inside the doors near the galley kitchen, a metallic curtain with a sun-reflecting coating automatically slides over the windows to reflect hot summer sunshine, or it retracts to allow solar heat gain during sunny winter days.

© Image by Harry Sawyers.

Most impressive about Virginia Tech’s plot on the mall, besides the sliding panel spectacle, was the extensive landscaping the school had done to dress up the site. Rookstool said that the team’s 2002 entry contained “about four potted juniper plants out front,” with little other embellishment. It’s quite a bit more elaborate this time around. “We didn’t want it to be a house sitting in the middle of nothing,” Rookstool said. “Otherwise, it just becomes a box.”

As students shoveled truckloads of gravel between plantings, fifth-year architecture student Travis Rookstool supervised a volunteer making a connection in the house’s passive grey water filtration system. Like its neighbors, Team California, Virginia Tech routes the water draining from the home’s kitchen sink and shower into the garden, where plants purify the waste water for use as irrigation elsewhere in the watery “yard.”

Nearby, a 1,000-gallon tank simulates a geothermal system Virginia Tech designed and built into the house, but was unable to implement due to drilling constraints on the Mall.

Maximum photovoltaic production under optimum conditions: 9-kW per hour.

Original source by Harry Sawyers.
From popularmechanics.com.

IF you have driven along Barnes Creek Road recently you may have noticed a bizarre contraption resembling an airplane – you are not the only one.

The wind turbine sits on top of a set of solar lights at the road works near the Forgan Bridge Replacement project, helping decipher changes in lighting.

According to a Main Roads spokesperson, yesterday the temporary solar street lighting was installed along Barnes Creek Road and at the Kooyong intersection as part of the Forgan Bridge Replacement and Duplication Project.

“These solar lights are being used on a temporary basis during construction works, due to a host of different lighting requirements when speed restrictions and changed traffic conditions are in place,” the spokesperson said.

“However, they do not meet height and illumination requirements for permanent use, as per Australian Standards for road lighting. Permanent street lighting will be installed in the centre medians in the later part of this year.”

The solar light at the Kooyong intersection is supplemented by a wind generator as a secondary energy source for charging the battery, the spokesperson said.

“This helps to ensure this intersection is lit at all times.”

The Forgan Bridge Replacement project is the largest bridge and road construction project in Mackay Australia.

Work commenced on the $148 million project in May 2008 and once completed, the new four-lane Forgan Bridge will reduce congestion on the busy commuter route while improving safety and network efficiency.

Traffic is expected to be traveling on the new bridge in April this year, weather permitting.

© Image by Shandong Jingchuang Solar Technology Co.,LTD.
Solar Street Lights similar to this one were installed temporary along Barnes Creek Road and at the Kooyong intersection as part of the Forgan Bridge Replacement and Duplication Project.

Article by Fallon Hudson.
From dailymercury.com.au.

I want to tell about my first solar light purchase.
I got a “Color Birds String Solar Light” set right before this past holiday season. I am very impressed!!! Let me say, these bird lights are as bright as other electric sets I used to decorate my yard this Christmas. Also I am from CA. So, this last storm when it was raining a lot and cloudy for about a week, the lights still had enough charge to light up at night! Also light is kept inside of each of the bird figurines thus it makes it brighter…

Global air traffic over a 24-hour period during northern hemisphere summer. See how global air traffic follows the cycle of the sun. Simulation over 24 hours.