Monthly Archives: November 2014

//November

Quebec Couple Builds a Home Using Four Shipping Containers

Photos via www.cbc.ca

Kirk Finken and Natalie Fraser of Luskville, Quebec recently finished building a home out of recycled shipping containers. They are both very environment conscious, and after learning how affordable used shipping containers are, and just how beautiful shipping container houses can be, they set to work. In addition to using the repurposed shipping containers, they also used other salvaged and repurposed materials to build their home wherever they could.
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By |November 8th, 2014|Container Design|2 Comments
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ENERGY STAR Makes a Difference in Local Communities

When we think about energy efficiency, we often think about choosing an energy efficient light bulb, appliance or television and getting savings on monthly utility bills while reducing our carbon footprint. This fall, the U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program showed that energy efficiency – combined with community service, can make an even more substantial impact in communities and on the environment.
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By |November 7th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Shipping Container Homes That Are Not Actually Made From Shipping Containers

Shipping container architecture might be all the rage right now, but there are some who maintain that using these transportation units to build homes out of might not be the best idea. The fact that the steel containers are repurposed in this way is very sustainable, since they would otherwise continue to pile up in ports across the world. But the environmental benefits perhaps don’t go far beyond that.
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By |November 6th, 2014|Container Design|2 Comments
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Breakthrough News for Improving Concentrated Solar Power Plants

The efficiency of photovoltaic or concentrated solar power (CSP) plants depends on how much light can be captured and turned into electricity or heat. A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have made a breakthrough in this area by developing a nanoparticle material that could allow CSP plants to absorb and convert more than 90 percent of the captured sunlight into heat.
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By |November 5th, 2014|Green Tech|2 Comments
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Prefabricated Happy Cheap House

The so/called Happy Cheap House is a prototype for low-cost prefab homes and it was designed by Swedish architect Tommy Carlsson. The home is clad in corrugated iron and boasts of an innovative shape, which makes it both unique as well as more functional than a traditional home. The Happy Cheap House measures 110-square-metres and its design is focused on optimizing the internal space. This is a two-story home, with the ground floor consisting of an open plan living room, dining room and kitchen. The first floor, on the other hand, consists of two bedrooms and a lounge.
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By |November 4th, 2014|Prefab|1 Comment
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Car Tires Recycled into More Efficient Anodes for Batteries

Discarded rubber tires may soon find a new use. A team of researchers from the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have come up with a method of harvesting the carbon black from them, which can then be used to create anodes for lithium-ion batteries that provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by solar panels and wind turbines. According to the researchers, the new batteries will perform even better than the ones we use today.

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By |November 2nd, 2014|Green Tech|2 Comments
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