Why Are Windmills Always White?And why do they always have three blades?

By Brian Palmer
From: http://www.slate.com/
 
WindmillsThe federal government has green-lighted the nation's first offshore wind farm, to be built off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. Opponents claim that 130 white, three-bladed turbines will detract from the natural beauty of Nantucket Sound. Why do all modern windmills look the same?

So they're unobtrusive. A windmill's noise is directly proportional to the speed of its rotor tips. Two-bladed turbines have to spin faster than their three-bladed competitors to generate the same amount of energy. As a result, the whooshing sound they emit is somewhat louder. Two-bladed windmills would be a sensible choice for a remote, offshore wind farm like the one in Cape Cod, since they're just as efficient as the three-bladed models and cheaper to produce. But manufacturers—who cater to the densely populated and wind-power-oriented countries of Europe—have switched almost exclusively to producing the latter.

The placement of rotors relative to the tower is also a design controversy with acoustics implications. The downwind design, with the tower between the blades and the wind, is more structurally sound. (Think of a pinwheel: If you don't grip it tightly, it will tend to rotate into the downwind position.) The problem is that the tower creates a dead spot for airflow, which stresses the spinning rotors and generates a repetitive whop that can carry for miles. Right now, most manufacturers favor the upwind layout.

The white paint, which many localities require by ordinance, is also a matter of aesthetics. City planners seem to think white windmills are less of an eyesore. The white also reflects sunlight, which minimizes expansion and cracking of the gel coat that protects the fiberglass composite rotors. Not all windmills are white, though. Some Midwestern turbines are yellow to match the grain. (This doesn't work so well in the spring, when the crops are green.) German windmills are sometimes painted dark green at the bottom to blend into the forest. European rotors usually have a red stripe to make them visible to aircraft. Engineers once tried painting the rotors black to absorb sunlight and prevent icing, but it didn't seem to help much.

---

Hollow, tubular towers have vanquished the old girder design, because they discourage birds from landing on them. (Birds and windmills don't mix.) The tubes are also favored by construction crews, who can climb up a tower to repair it from the inside, protected from the elements.

The biggest design question for most engineers is rotor length. The energy a windmill generates is proportional to the area of the rotors' circular sweep, so energy increases proportionally to the square of the blade length. However, the volume of the rotor, which determines the cost, is proportional to the cube of the length, and increases faster than energy production. As we get better at materials engineering, the rotors will get longer. But at any given time the arms of a windmill will be built out to the length that maximizes energy return relative to the cost of production. The rotors on modern windmills are sometimes as much as 200 feet long. As such, transportation can also be a problem.

Explainer thanks Douglas E. Adams of the Purdue Energy Center, Scott Larwood of the University of the Pacific, James Manwell of the University of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Research Laboratory, and Jonathan Naughton of the University of Wyoming Wind Energy Research Center.

Do It Yourself: Building Your Own Bamboo Bike

by Jon Kalish

From: http://www.npr.org/

Joe Zorilla

At the Bamboo Bike Studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., cycling enthusiasts can assemble their own bikes from scratch. "Everyone who leaves the studio says, 'Wow, my bike is my favorite object now,' " says bike expert and engineer Marty Odlin.

Learn More:

Visit The 'Bamboo Bike Studio' Web Site

The Bamboo Bike Studio is run by three men in their late 20s who know a lot about bamboo and a lot about bicycles. On a cool autumn morning, two of them are out on a bamboo harvest — in a dense grove near New Brunswick, N.J.

Justin Aguinaldo and Sean Murray carry a small Japanese pull saw and a caliper to find bamboo stems that are 1 1/2 inches thick. When they find stems that are just right, they tap the bamboo to make sure it's not too soft: "If the bamboo's too watery, it's not as dense and it's not as strong," Aguinaldo explains.

Aguinaldo makes his living as a bicycle messenger. Sean Murray is a former schoolteacher whose voice mail greeting makes note of the fact that he is now living the dream of making bikes with his friends.

Murray says he finds bamboo patches by reading online gardening forums. He says a lot of people start growing bamboo as a decorative plant — but then it gets out of hand.

"There's a kind of urgency brought on by the protests of their neighbors," Murray says.

The two bamboo bike makers cut the green bamboo stems in 3-foot and 5-foot lengths and fill the trunk of their small sedan before heading back to their bike studio in Brooklyn.

Enlarge Courtesy Bamboo Bike Studio

The bike's joints — which are wrapped in a carbon fabric that soaks up epoxy — look like they're held together with black electrical tape.

'My Bike Is My Favorite Object Now'

Back at the bike studio, the bamboo's outer skin is treated with a torch, and the stems are baked in a homemade oven. The brown stems are then fastened into frames by connecting them with a sawdust and resin mixture. The joints are wrapped with a thin, ribbon-like carbon fabric that soaks up epoxy. After the epoxy dries, the bike's joints look like they've been wrapped with black electrical tape.

On a recent weekend, Sari Harris — a self-described "tinkerer" — spent close to $1,000 to make her own bamboo bike. For that fee, she got the bamboo frame and all of the components she needed to make a multi-gear or single-speed bike — and a bamboo bike expert to guide her through the assembly process.

Harris is an information architect who was overdue for a bike upgrade — she'd had her old bike for more than 20 years. Harris designs interfaces for mobile phone apps — but she admits she's a little less savvy with bike maintenance ("I can change a tire and that's it," she says.) Learning the mechanics and components of her bike really appealed to Harris, and she says she now plans to do her own tuneups.

Engineer Marty Odlin was supervising Harris' work. Odlin estimates that there are now close to 80 bamboo bikes on the road that were built in his Brooklyn studio.

"Everyone who leaves the studio says, 'Wow, my bike is my favorite object now.' " Odlin says. "They have such a connection to this thing that came together under their own hands. They may not come here to have that connection to their bicycle, but that's what they leave with."

Enlarge Jesse Huffman

Marty Odlin says people form a special bond with a bike they've built by hand. "They may not come here to have that connection to their bicycle, but that's what they leave with," he says.

'Something With More Enduring Value'

The Bamboo Bike Studio has drawn amateur bike builders from as far away as California and England. Alexis Mills, a bicycle messenger in Ottawa, and his 61-year-old mother, a doctor, came and made bikes.

Back in Canada, Mills quickly found that people who ride around on bamboo bikes get a lot of questions about their wheels.

"The ride itself is really smooth," Mills says. "It eats up a lot of the vibrations of the road. I wondered if it might be too flexible or too mushy, but it's not. It's really nice to ride."

Interest in bamboo bikes is growing. A company in Colorado says it will start shipping bamboo bikes in the spring that cost as much as $1,300. But Marty Odlin says the bamboo bike makers here in Brooklyn believe in doing things a different way.

"There is a concern that bamboo bikes become this fad," he explains. "And we could sell a whole bunch of them for a whole lot of money to a whole bunch of people very quickly and then nothing after that, right? It becomes a fad and dies out. We feel like we're building something with more enduring value than that."

The bikes themselves really last; Odlin and his two partners have all ridden thousands of miles on New York City streets on their bamboo frames. And whether it's a fad or not, the bamboo bike-making classes are filled until April.

The DIY fish supper: Future kitchen grows its own vegetables and seafood

By Sean Poulter

If you thought kitchen technology had reached its peak with the microwave oven, think again.

Future cooks will use an indoor biosphere which grows vegetables and fish ready to be prepared with absolute freshness.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but this sort of technology is already under development to help households take the pain out of going green.

Going swimmingly: The Biosphere Farm by Philips houses fish, root vegetables, grasses, herbs, plants and algae under a common roof

A study produced to help buyers at John Lewis plan for changing lifestyles details how technology can preserve the quality of life while dramatically cutting energy and water use.

It highlights advances already in development such as washing machines and dishwashers which clean with sound waves.

There will also be 'frugal fridges' which will suggest recipes based on what is inside and even compact and recycle food waste.

But perhaps most dramatic is the self-contained biosphere farm, created by Philips, to provide fish and fresh produce 52 weeks a year.

It will also deliver fresh hydrogen, which can be used to power a car, and run on food waste from the kitchen.

The plants produce oxygen, which is fed into the fish tank to keep the occupants happy.

The tank is kept clean by shrimps, which can also be eaten.

Elsewhere in the house, showers will filter waste water through a bed of reeds, allowing it to be reused to flush the lavatory or even make a cup of tea using, of course, a low-energy kettle.

Architects already use 3D printers to create the models they use in building design.

However, the technology will be applied to a machine which can use waste plastic to manufacture goods ranging from cups and spoons to a pair of trainers.

Last week, the energy regulator Ofgem warned that power tariffs might need to rise by 60 per cent by 2016 to fund a new generation of wind farms, nuclear and clean coal power stations.

Against this background, John Lewis and experts at the Future Laboratory, who are looking ahead to 2030, say there will be a fundamental shift in lifestyles and products to minimise energy use.

The head of product sourcing at the store, Sean Allam, said there would be a big move away from throwaway household gadgets with the store looking at ten-year guarantees on some items.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1219701/The-DIY-fish-supper-Future-kitchen-grows-vegetables-seafood.html#ixzz0TpzxhxL0

Scientists design plant filtration system that lets you drink your own SHOWER water

Eco-thinkers have come up with an amazing new way to create drinking water - by putting plants in the bottom of a shower.

Designers Jun Yasumoto, Vincent Vandenbrouk, Olivier Pigasse, and Alban Le Henry came up with the concept when looking for new ways to recycle precious H2O.

After you have washed in the special eco-shower the water passes down into a series of physical filters and is treated by plants such as reeds and rushes growing around your feet.

Enlarge

A new eco-shower concept would recycle water by filtering it using different plants

Yasumoto, 34, said: 'These plants have been proven to be able to remove the chemicals from your shampoo.

'Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the wastewater.

''With this project, we tried to combine the pleasure of taking a shower with the satisfaction of recycling water. We wanted the recycling process to actually interact with the use of shower.'

The waste water passes into a chamber below the shower floor where it goes through a maze of filters.

Included in the network is sand, reeds, rushes, a mesh filter, water hyacinths and lemnas, and finally a carbon filter.

Enlarge

Click enlarge to see how the design works

And the inventors - all graduates from French national design school Ecole Nationale Supirieure de Creation Industrielle - hope that the impact of their concept doesn't just alter the way we bathe.

'We thought that by conceiving this very intricate relation between the recycling of water and the user experience, we could get the users to also re-think the way they use water,' said Yasumoto.

After posting their seven-year-old design on the internet, the eggheads have been inundated with queries about where their shower can be bought.

'No prototype has been made as the project is just a concept for the moment, but it is interesting to see the positive feedback we are getting since we put these images online,' Yasumoto said.

'It has made us think we should keep on developing this idea and start thinking of ways to integrate it and bring it closer to reality.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1208895/Scientists-design-plant-filtration-lets-drink-SHOWER-water.html#ixzz0PK075QP1

German Scientist Cooks Up Idea for 'Waste-Free' Breweries

By Leslie Guevarra, July 10, 2009

A scientist pondering the growing problem of brewery waste in Europe has devised a way to tap into the power of beer:

He and his partners designed a system to recycle spent grains and wastewater to produce energy that can fuel the beermaking process.

Spent grains apparently have been piling up in the brewing capitals of Europe. Farmers, who for centuries have used the waste as cattle feed or fertilizer, have been producing less beef and contending with increasing restrictions on the amount of waste on they can have on their land.

Hops and Irish moss.

With the market dropping for the brewing waste, “we reached a situation in 2000 where breweries even had to pay to dispose of their spent grain," scientist Wolfgang Bengel told Eureka, Europe’s intergovernmental incubator for innovation and advanced technology. "Beer making is energy intensive -- you boil stuff, use hot water and steam and then use electric energy for cooling -- so if you recover more than 50 percent of your own energy costs from the spent grain that's a big saving."

Bengel, the technical director at German biomass company BMP Biomasse Projekt, drew on his experience in producing energy from rice and cane waste in China and Thailand.

Brewery tanks.

He also partnered up German firms INNOVAS, which specializes in biogas plants, and BISANZ, which brought engineering know-how, and the Slovakian company Adato, whose expertise is in boilers for waste heat and cogeneration plants.

Together they set up a test plant and devised a system that enables breweries to "treat their complete waste stream," turn it into energy and do so in a way that meets European environmental standards, said Eureka.

Dark beer in the light.

The enterprise is now looking for business from breweries that want to put the process to work at their sites and from other firms, such as waste management companies, that would front the costs of buying and installing the equipment and sell the energy back to a brewery.

Recycling brewery waste for power isn’t new: Anheuser-Busch has used its Bio-Energy Recovery Systems, which it calls BERS, for years to trap nutrients from wastewater and turn it into energy. The systems are used in nine of the company’s 12 U.S breweries and at its brewery in Wuhan, China, supplying up to 15 percent of sites’ fuel needs.


_{Several Tall Ones — Image by OwnMoment.
Hops and Irish Moss — Image CC licensed by theotherway.
Brewery Tanks — Image CC licensed by Maks D.
Dark Beer — Image by dlillo1.}

10 Droolworthy Eco Structures

The Dragonfly is a 128-floor vertical farm concept that will definitely get locavores drooling. Conceived by Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the building supports housing, offices, laboratories and and twenty-eight different agricultural fields. It completely sustains itself using solar-power, wind-power, and captured rain water.

Photo by Vincent Callebaut Architectures

This stackable skyscraper concept designed by Jorge Hernandez de la Garza is eco-Tetris for the ever-growing Mexico City. The Vertical Park has sky gardens, space for both public and private use, and it recycles all of its own water.

Photo by Arch Daily

Barbie can stop shaving her legs and run her pink corvette on biodiesel once she moves into the Modularean Eco House. It's a sturdy, sustainable, and meant to be used dollhouse. Designed by David Baker and built by woodworker Julianna Sassaman, the toy house is made from ecologically farmed bamboo and finished with a low-VOC soy resin. Bonus points: It was auctioned off for neighborhood restoration in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.

Photo by David Baker + Partners

Designed for the Hudson Yard area of Manhattan, the Dystopian Farm takes aim at both food and culture. Not only is the plant-cell inspired building a sustainable farm but it is intended to strengthen the relationships between producers and consumers too. The concept was conceived by Eric Vergne for eVolo's 2009 Skyscraper Competition.

Photo by Inhabitat

If we do someday face Waterworld or even worse, another movie starring Kevin Costner, Vincent Callebaut Architectures suggest we all migrate to the Lilypad. The concept is a floating "Ecopolis" that can accommodate up to 50,000 climate refugees.

Photo by Vincent Callebaut Architectures

The Helix Hotel, designed by Leeser Architecture, is a five-star hotel that partially floats on water. With 208 guest rooms and suites, the Helix layered with a material called "Grow" that has both solar and wind harnessing capabilities. Indoor waterfalls not only add to the atmosphere but also maintain the temperature.

Photo by EcoFriend

This Eco-Villa not only tucks away those fugly solar panels but it has an adjustable louver-wall system for capturing heat during the day and retaining warmth at night.

Photo by EcoFriend

The Cathedral of Christ the Light was designed by architect Craig Hartman and opened in Oakland, California back in September. The structure's concrete was made with slag and fly ash while louvers from sustainably harvested wood help regulate the light.

Photo by InteriorDesign.net

This Luxor-esque Pyramid Farm uses a heating and pressurization system to separate sewage into water and carbon which will fuel both the machinery and lighting. It would use only 10-percent of the water and 5-percent of the land needed by conventional farms.

Photo by The Vertical Farm Project

Project Frog brings the cool back to school. Bothered by how schools often look like prisons, the designers at Project Frog have designed zero-energy buildings that have No-VOC interiors which might make kids cut class just a little bit less.

Photo by Jetson Green

Rumor Mill: Is IKEA Entering the Eco-Friendly Car Market?

BY Ariel Schwartz

We already know that IKEA is debuting a line of solar-powered lights; could the Swedish giant actually enter the eco-friendly car market?

The Internet is abuzz about a mysterious yet official-looking French website that appeared today. The site touts the LEKO, an environmentally-friendly IKEA-branded concept car. A video on the LEKO site says that the car is a modular design that can act as either a coupe or convertible. The car apparently also has the full backing of the World Wildlife Fund France, though it's not clear if that means the WWF is contributing to the LEKO's development or just endorsing it.

There's a distinct possibility that the LEKO video and site are the viral warning shots for someone's April Fools' Day hoax. The LEKO is absent from the IKEA website, and most importantly, the car will be unveiled on April Fools' Day.

But hey, stranger things, right? April 1-7 is France's Sustainable Development Week, and IKEA already offers "kit homes" shipped in flatpacks to customers in Northern England and Scandinavia. I hope we can get a LEKO in Swedish blue and yellow.

We wonder, though, if a car made by IKEA might ship to customers in pieces to DIY like the images below.

The 10 Most Romantic Ecotourism Destinations

Dreaming of a romantic or exciting vacation adventure? Premier trips are going green with luxury eco-lodges, great wildlife viewing, renewable energy, carbon offsets and more.

read more | digg story

Colleges turn french fry oil into fuel

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 22, 2009

College students have begun making biodiesel fuel by converting used cooking oil from the dining hall (Newsday / David L. Pokress)

DAYTON, Ohio - Forgive the students at Sinclair Community College if they get the munchies when they pass the tractors that cut grass, blow leaves or sweep snow on campus: Oil that once cooked french fries and onion rings is being used to power the vehicles.

Students have begun making biodiesel fuel by converting used cooking oil from the dining hall. Biodiesel saves the school a little money on gasoline, gives the students lessons in engineering and chemistry, and removes oil from the waste stream.

"It ends up as a product that is more friendly to the environment. And we're teaching with it," said Woody Woodruff, director of facilities at the 65-acre campus.

Sinclair is among a growing number of colleges nationwide making their own biodiesel, an alternative fuel produced from renewable oilseed crops, such as canola or soybean, or from used vegetable oil and other fats. The concept is being driven by greater environmental awareness among students.

The State University of New York melted down a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair last summer to help power its vehicles. Biodiesel accounts for about 8 percent of the fuel used on campus.

Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., produces 50 to 150 gallons of biodiesel each week to power campus lawn mowers, a garbage truck and farm equipment. The school has more than doubled its capacity of biodiesel, growing from 20-gallon to 54-gallon batches, while biodiesel byproducts are being used in a composting research project at the school's organic farm and to make soap sold in the campus bookstore.

At the University of Kansas, biodiesel fuels lawn mowers, backhoes, front-end loaders and other construction equipment. It is also used as a solvent to clean parts and tools and to heat a motor-pool building.

When the school began making biodiesel in September 2007, two people were involved. Now there are 25.

Neil Steiner, an architectural engineering student, volunteered to work on the project last year and is now a paid lab employee.

"I'm really into green buildings, and it was the greenest thing I could get my hands on," said Steiner, 22, of Tulsa, Okla.

Most colleges make biodiesel by chemically converting used cooking oil from campus dining halls. The oil is transformed through a process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel.

When a question was posted in November on the online discussion board of The National Association of College & University Food Services asking what dining halls were doing with their fryer oil waste, the board was quickly flooded with responses. Schools said they were either using the oil to make biodiesel or selling it to companies for that purpose.

Estimated U.S. sales of biodiesel have jumped from 75 million gallons in 2005 to 700 million gallons last year.

Sinclair students turn out two batches of biodiesel a week. As of December, they had produced about 100 gallons. With the price of diesel fuel hovering around $2.50 a gallon and the cost of making biodiesel $1 a gallon, the students saved the school a modest $150.

"It's a gesture," said Bob Gilbert, head of Sinclair's center for energy education. "Our first goal is education."

Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, a statewide group that promotes the use of renewable fuels, said the interest in biofuels among college students should create a pipeline of talent and energy for commercial biodiesel production.

"They realize this is the wave of the future," Spofforth said. "There is going to be a tremendous need for educated people to move into these industries."

Steiner estimates he spends 20 hours a week on the University of Kansas biodiesel project, which he works on between classes. He hopes to use his experience after he graduates, perhaps as a consultant helping biodiesel companies obtain materials and funding.

"We make it, we test it and we distribute it to different places on campus," Steiner said. "We really get our hands on all of it. It really puts you in a practical situation."

Times Square Unveils A Dazzling LED New Year’s Ball

by Evelyn Lee

This New Year’s Eve Times Square in New York is set to debut a dazzling new LED-encrusted New Year’s ball! Composed of 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs, the 12-foot wide energy-efficient orb weighs in at 11,875 pounds, making it twice the size of any ball previously dropped overhead in Time Square. A marriage of tradition and new technology, the stunning new sphere will be ringing in the 100th anniversary of the New Year’s Eve ball.

Size certainly matters when designing an orb descending from the heavens high above the heads of those gathered in the cold of Times Square, but that’s not to say we still can’t cut back on the energy consumption. The new ball is 20 percent more efficient than last year’s, consuming roughly the same amount of energy needed to power two consumer ovens through a holiday feast.

All of the LEDs will combine to create more than 10 million different colors and billions of different patterns, making it a spectacular sight for onlookers in the streets and on TV. If you’re not within sight of Times Square or won’t have your eyes glued to the television on New Year’s, no worries - the new ball is slated to become a year-round addition to the lights of Times Square, with various different programs built-in to commemorate additional holidays and special events.

We’re hoping the dropping of the New Year’s Ball will bring forth another great year full of sustainable innovations. Stay tuned to Inhabitat to find out just what 2009 has in store.

+ Philips Luxeon

Via Cleantechnica

Related Posts

Hamster powers environmentally friendly paper shredder

A design consultant has constructed an environmentally friendly paper shredder powered by a hamster running on its wheel.

Several companies have expressed an interest in turning the working prototype into a fullscale production. Photo: SOLENT NEWS

The hamster has to run flat out for 45 minutes to shred one sheet of A4 paper.

The paper then falls on to the base of the hamster cage, providing fresh bedding for the furry pet.

Tom Ballhatchet, 29, developed the product using a friend's hamster for his masters degree in industrial design.

The London-based design consultant said: "I wanted to come up with a product that would capture people's imagination while addressing issues of topical concern such as climate change, recycling and identity fraud.

"The hamster shredder provides a solution to all of these things because it relies on the hamster to generate power, destroys confidential documents and turns paper into bedding.

"Owners can put their paper in the top before they go to bed and wake up to find the hamster has been on its wheel and shredded the paper in the process.

"The hamster just has to go about its normal life."

Several companies have expressed an interest in turning the working prototype into a fullscale production.

10 Must Have Green Gadgets for Your Home

by Luanne Bradley

In the mad dash to go green, grow green and glow green, some energetic gadget makers are marketing devices that are so darn friendly, we might as well ask them to move into our homes. Plug into these and see:

Philips Eco TV

A 42-inch, flat-panel LCD, this TV broadcasts power-saving features, such as a backlight dimmer the viewer controls for darker scenes. It also has a power-saving mode for capping peak light output. It retails for around $1,400 at Amazon and other electronics suppliers. (Shown above.)

Bamboo Laptop



How chic can a computer get? The green batteries in the Asus boast a 35 to 70% longer life. The bamboo exterior houses all the usual extras of a notebook. Check it out at Ecomoves.

The Studio Hybrid Eco-Friendly Small Desktop


Ideal for the little green home office that could, this engine has optional upgrades to include built-in Wi-Fi Blue Ray™ and a wireless keyboard and mouse. This PC is Dell's greenest and most powerful desktop to date, using 70 percent less energy while arriving 80 percent smaller than a typical desktop minitower. Beginning at $499, it's available in cool color options. It gets a 4.0 Energy Star rating with packing material made from 95 percent recyclable material.

Jonta LED Flashlight



Described as one of the best "human powered" flashlights, you can recharge this wind-up toy by cranking it to your heart's content. Keep one handy in your nightstand drawer, the kitchen cabinet, in your kid's room. Let it shine the new fashioned way. $49.99 at Green and More.

Solar Christmas Lights



If you are inclined to deck the halls and the roof, opt for these solar lights from Eco Geek Living, $39.97 for a set.

Spin-X Spindryer



This will cut down on drying time so much, it will make you dizzy. It costs $599.95 (plus shipping) but saves an estimaed $1,104 in three years. I believe it. The Spin-X can remove one quart of water from clothes taken out of your machine. The extracted water goes into a storage container. It also removes soap, detergents, perfumes and chemicals into the container. You can order one at Spin-X.

Helios Solar Grill



Invented by Sean McGreevy, this energy-efficient outdoor grill (great for that Thanksgiving turkey in Miami) has a coil inside that heats up like the hottest coal. The dish looks like it should be receiving your favorite show, Top Chef, but instead it collects the solar power while you cook away. Fire up your curiosity at Coolest Gadgets.

Eco Fan 800



No batteries, cords or chargers required for these blades of glory. The Eco Fan generates its own electricity using the heat of your wood burning stove. The thermo-electric module inside acts as the generator, letting you cut down on those insane power bills. $119 at Northline Express.

Barbar Ceramic ECO 8000 Blow Dryer


A hair greener than other styilng tools, the ceramic ECO Dryer is equipped with a low EMF heating output, negating radiation while keeping your locks soft and shiny. $109 at Beauty Choice.

Kill-A-Watt



It's the favorite gismo of Alter Eco's Darren Moore. This tool lets you test how much energy is being sucked out by your appliances, helping you to calculate and cut costs. $23.89 at Smart home.

Categories:storage, laundry, kitchen, home, gadgets, electronics, bamboo, appliance, accessory