Go Greener Tips

Posts Tagged ‘green’

A Dorky Engineering Student explains how a homebuilt wind turbine create usable Electrical Power

A Public Service Campaign of the American Advertising Federation 4th District.

I would like to impart a few tips about how to save a few bucks with your clothes dryer and at the same time conserve energy.

Lets look at how a clothes dryer works. It sucks in surrounding air and heats it up. It blows the heated air through a spinning drum, which your clothes are in, and forces air through a pipe to be vented. The process is really simple and there are factors that you cannot control but there is a lot which you can.

The air that your dryer is sucking in should be as dry as possible and while you have no control over the humidity don’t use your dryer when the humidity spikes. Usually during or directly after a rainfall. Often times the washer dryer combination’s are in a small area. If you’re using the washer at the same time then it raises the humidity of your laundry. Try to keep it ventilated so that the damp air can escape from you clothing.

Next you’re going to want to look at the clothes that you’re drying. If just pull them out of the washer and throw them into the dryer you’re making the dryer work a lot harder. The final rinse cycle tends to crumple your clothes into little balls. If you give each item a shake before you put it in the dryer it improves the airflow throughout the garment allowing it to dry faster. Another trick is to throw a clean dry towel in with each load. This will pull the moisture out of the clothing and since the towel is already dry whatever moisture it picks up will evaporate quickly.

Clean your lint trap after every load. This will allow the damp air to escape improving overall efficiency. Dryer lint is blamed for thousands of home fires yearly. If lint comes into contact with the heating element it can easily ignite. Also make sure that your screen doesn’t become clogged. Screens can be easily cleaned with toothbrush and warm water.

Finally check your dryer hose that attaches to the outside vent. The first thing is to make sure that it is firmly attached to your dryer and the outside vent so your not blowing damp air into back into your laundry area. Another major mistake that is often made it the hose itself is way to long. You can tell if you look behind your dryer and the vent hose is snaking around back there. When you purchase the hoses they usually come in lengths about six feet long but the connection from the dryer to the vent is often less than a foot. You should cut the hose to make the connection as direct as possible but make sure that you leave a little extra so it won’t come off if your dryer shifts a little. This will optimize the airflow out of your dryer and also eliminate a good place for lint to build up.

Ethanol fuel biomass is often classified as vegetable materials or plants which is used to make gas or sustaining energy source. More precisely this is a biological origin that is extracted from a living matter. Ethanol has derived its renewable energy from plants like the corn, switchgrasses, hemp, willow and sugar cane along with other vegetation that generates and also have sugars. A large number of plant life either contains sugar or has quite a few component inside of it that may be converted to sugar. This valuable sugar is necessary to produce ethanol which is carried out by fermentation, distillation together with dehydration. Non-renewable fuels don’t fall under this classification. They may not be polar solvents as is ethanol, as an alternative they’re hydrocarbons.

Breaking down cellulose from specific plant life like corn is a challenging procedure. Cellulose is made up of a unit of strands that have sugar along with these sugars should be extracted to be able to produce the sugars needed to produce ethanol. The procedure utilized is combining heat with pressure and a number of basic acidic ailments. A chemical must be used in order to break up one of several chains of glucose and connects to the freely end of the chain and operates its manner over the chain breaking down pieces of sugar (glucose). The closing step is to break up the sequence into two molecules and ferment it straight into ethanol. This is a very costly method to arrive at ethanol. Scientists have offered a way of biochimically engineering a bacteria that would definitely break up the substance necessary to make ethanol biomass.

Ethanol biomass is a debatable subject particularly in the process of biologically engineered bacterias and the fright of it escaping to the atmosphere. On the other hand, there was significant hot debate around the usage of ethanol within the united states. Controversy isn’t always a deterrent to continue whether or not it’s industrially or even scientifically. Most of us see controversy as nothing more than ideas and we all might need opinions to be able to better each of our ideas, alter the process of doing anything and most of all as a method to advance onward, to progress. After all bioethanol fuel is essential for the future of our planet.

Every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is thrown into landfills. While we are in no danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of time, space, and energy invested, as well as the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again. With that in mind, consider the reasons below for keeping your aluminum and steel cans out of the landfill by recycling them instead.

- Aluminum which has been recycled is used for new projects within a couple of months. On the other hand, it would take over 200 years for that same to break down naturally if were just thrown away.

- Recycling is not just about material savings, but also about energy consciousness. Every aluminum can which is recycled saves enough energy to run a tv for 3 hours.

- Metal cans can be recycled for cash at many places. Several states offer five cents per can recycled, and some recycling centers pay anywhere between fifty cents and two dollars per pound of cans recycled.

- Recycled steel and aluminum are no different in composition from ‘new’ aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are simply melted down and then forged into new products, which can then be recycled again when they are finished being used.

- On average, Americans recycle around 100,000 aluminum cans per minute. The majority of that figure is a result of certain communities working hard on special projects, and that is something that you should encourage those in your neighborhood to take up, as recycling can really help with bringing a community together.

- The 100,000,000 ‘new’ steel cans made on a daily basis contain 25% recycled materials. That is the equivalent of 25 million reclaimed cans vs. 75 million completely new cans. If people recycled more frequently, that number would soon become 50-50 and a great deal of energy and resources would be saved.

- The United States currently uses steel which is more than 65% recycled. This is a good start, but there is definitely room for improvement. Significant further progress would be made if more people were aware that they can recycle their steel cans.

- There are multiple can-crushing machines available, and you can even make a home-made one for free. Therefore, it is no excuse to say that recycling cans takes up too much space within your home.
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http://www.cancrusher.org.uk is a site offering information about recycling aluminum and steel cans.

Cruising companies have recently felt the persuasive powers of various governments, who have asked them to clean up their act and develop ships that are more sustainable and environmentally viable. The extent to which cruise ships damage the environment really entered the public’s consciousness a few years ago with a number of critical expert reports released to the media, and this is something cruise companies wish to put behind them. Couple this with the increased taxes that vessels are now receiving based on carbon emissions, and there is real motivations to innovate. Here are 3 of the latest ‘green’ cruising developments.

More Efficient Ships. The effect of ship design and construction on the environment was not top priority twenty years ago, but now ship builders are using clever materials and efficient designs. The materials are getting lighter so less energy is needed for propulsion, soft sails are often being included, and a company in Ireland have pioneered a biogas-powered engine, set to soon be used by Cunard Cruises. Hull design has also been dramatically resigned by the same Irish ship building company, allowing the energy usually lost when the boat impacts waves to be turned into forward propulsion instead.

Hybrid Engines. Automobiles that rely on both fuel combustion and battery power have been around for a little while now and have proved very popular. Now ship builders such as those making boats for Silversea Cruises are getting in on the action and making boats that couple the traditional diesel power with electrical power. When a ship comes into harbor it is connected to the shoreside power source and gets a quick charge up of its huge batteries

Sharing Cargo. A great idea being trialled by Oceania Cruises is ‘cargo sharing’. When a cruise ship has spare room onboard, they effectively rent it out to companies wishing to transport cargo to the destination on the ships path. The cruise company wins as they get money they would otherwise not have got, the cargo company does not have to charter its own boat, and energy is saved that reduces carbon emissions.

Cruising companies have recently felt the persuasive powers of various governments, who have asked them to clean up their act and develop ships that are more sustainable and environmentally viable. The extent to which cruise ships damage the environment really entered the public’s consciousness a few years ago with a number of critical expert reports released to the media, and this is something cruise companies wish to put behind them. Couple this with the increased taxes that vessels are now receiving based on carbon emissions, and there is real motivations to innovate. Here are 3 of the latest ‘green’ cruising developments.

More Efficient Ships. The effect of ship design and construction on the environment was not top priority twenty years ago, but now ship builders are using clever materials and efficient designs. The materials are getting lighter so less energy is needed for propulsion, soft sails are often being included, and a company in Ireland have pioneered a biogas-powered engine, set to soon be used by Cunard Cruises. Hull design has also been dramatically resigned by the same Irish ship building company, allowing the energy usually lost when the boat impacts waves to be turned into forward propulsion instead.

Hybrid Engines. Automobiles that rely on both fuel combustion and battery power have been around for a little while now and have proved very popular. Now ship builders such as those making boats for Silversea Cruises are getting in on the action and making boats that couple the traditional diesel power with electrical power. When a ship comes into harbor it is connected to the shoreside power source and gets a quick charge up of its huge batteries

Sharing Cargo. A great idea being trialled by Oceania Cruises is ‘cargo sharing’. When a cruise ship has spare room onboard, they effectively rent it out to companies wishing to transport cargo to the destination on the ships path. The cruise company wins as they get money they would otherwise not have got, the cargo company does not have to charter its own boat, and energy is saved that reduces carbon emissions.

As a result of the small amount of resources and our ever increasing needs many individuals and businesses are trying to go green. The Las Vegas strip is essentially leading the pack. Las Vegas Boulevard sits in the center of the desert. In normal years they only get four inches of rain per year, but they have been in a drought for several of those years.

They rely a great deal on scarce resources. Most of the city depends a lot on oil and natural gas to keep the city going. In July of this year the city sucked up 5,586 megawatts. These are huge numbers and the city of light can’t use non-renewable resources forever. The city itself has to rely on Lake Mead for its water. In October 1999 water at Hoover Dam was 1,213 feet deep but now it’s only 1,093 which means the water level has gone down by 120 feet.

This metropolitan sucks up huge numbers of energy and it can’t keep doing that. Thus the city has made some changes which will allow the city to keep going but support a sustainable model. The city is making efforts to go green slowly but surely.

Harrah’s Entertainment owns both Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas has already spent $60 million on conservation changes in the last six years. There have even been cooperative projects like a multi-resort laundry facility which has slashed water use by 30 percent in the face of the 40 percent increase in size and a cogeneration plant that can create enough electricity to power one of the hotels two towers.

They have also begun building new casinos that are kinder to the ecosystem. City Center, MGM Mirage’s 67-acre resort complex was developed green enough that they were awarded the LEED Gold Certified, the second highest qualification from from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) . The casino will reduce the use of electricity by using a cogeneration plant, glass and sunshades that let light in but reflect the heat and low-flow fixtures which reduce indoor water use. Plus the excess heat will be used to warm the resorts water supply.

Even though the new hotel is gigantic, the designers really challenged themselves. They decided to make a larger building that was environmentally friendly over a smaller building that was semi green. The designers pushed themselves on green designs and are pleased that they received a LEED award.

Las Vegas will still have the casinos, the shows, and the fluorescent lights. An oasis for visitors that want to let their hair down and have a great time. Everything will stay the same, because visitors still want Vegas to remain the same except for the natural resources that are being wasted in the city.. Going green is important in shielding the earth and it’s inspiring that Las Vegas is choosing to lead the pack.

About the Author Info
Diane Johnson graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah and enjoys writing about current events, politics, &LINK2%, online education, and the office. Her work gives her plenty of chances to educate others about continuing online education

Ok, so the original Bamboo PC was just a gimmick. The laptop launched at the Hanover computer fair last March, with a laminated bamboo casing around a pretty conventional computer won’t make a dent in the rising tide of plastics sold around the world.

But it was a little demonstration of what can be done, and, if proof of bamboo’s versatility were required, consider it proven.

Surely bamboo must be the only plant that is a source of building materials, clothing and food. One of Edison’s early light bulbs had a carbonised bamboo filament. Its strength, resilience and cheapness make it a widely used scaffolding material throughout Asia. Fibres from bamboo poles are extremely strong, it both tension and compression terms. It’s compressive strength works out around twice that of concrete, bamboo also has the same tensile strength to weight ratio as steel. And now there’s a bamboo laptop!

Bamboo will please anyone whose buying eco-friendly home furnishings. For a start, bamboo is an extremely sustainable material. Some species of bamboo grow at more than a metre every day. The locals that live close to these fantastic plants are able top cut down as much bamboo as they need while still having the same sized forest at the end of the year as they did at the beginning. As for the global warming question, because the bamboo is a plant, anything that’s been made from it contains a large proportion of atmospheric carbon. Any plastic equivalent has added to the atmosphere’s carbon level!

Another point is that because bamboo is a plant source, there are many variations between two plants, these variations make it a difficult material to use in a mass production process. This means that when buying a bamboo product, you can be quite sure that it’s been hand crafted. If you go to a reputable source you’ll also know that the craftsman got a fair wage for his or her work, and that no one was exploited by western buying power. The last thing is that you can be sure that your purchased product won’t have accumulated any air miles since it’s creation.

With eco credentials this strong, it’s a surprise bamboo built products are so beautiful. Picture a skilfully made bamboo box, lovingly lacquered with 15 layers of natural shellac. Stylish and all natural at the same time. I myself bought a fantastic, hand-crafted bamboo knife block and am seriously considering following suit with other bamboo bamboo knife block such as fruit bowls. Stylish and ethical. Win.