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.