Today, as many of you know, is World Water Day. And we, like many of you, strive to help increase awareness of the ongoing need to protect and conserve water and other natural resources.
Are you aware that:
- Reducing your shower time by 5 minutes can save up to 20 gallons of water per shower?
- Washing dishes in a dishwasher instead of hand-washing them can save 16 gallons of water?
- A low-flow toilet can save 25 gallons of water/day?
- A dripping faucet can result in 20 gallons of lost water per day?
Thanks to our friends at The Nature Conservancy, who created this “Water Footprint of an American” infographic and shared the valuable water-saving tips!
Find much more info on The Nature Conservancy’s blog here.
This futuristic wall display and home energy conservation system reveals real-time usage and encourages the user to change their behavior by self-monitoring and comparing their own stats with those of their neighbors.
The Triad Energy concept device has easy-to-understand infographics so you can see at a glance how much energy you are using, how close you are to the targets you’ve set and how your usage compares with similar households nearby. It is also linked to a web-based analytics platform that lets you view a detailed history of your usage….
The system was developed by industrial design graduate Erica Pozzey from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), who is currently studying for a Masters of Applied Science (Research) in QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty. Through self-monitoring, Triad Energy encourages socially optimal behavioral change, as the user alters their actions to achieve desired goals by tracking their progress, reaching targets and comparing themselves to others.
![Exhibiting at this year’s CES, TriCascade showed off their smart home energy system. The system both tracks and manages domestic energy levels. In this set up, a central system communicates with each power outlet to understand energy usage, which in turn helps track which sockets are using power — including those vampire-like chargers.
The system allows different zones to be put in low-energy mode — say when the family goes to bed — and also offers the option to program energy supply to rooms for times in the future. The system can be accessed remotely using an iPhone app for residents away from home which is useful for people with weekend rental properties, or who travel often for business.
More: WiFi Enabled Power Outlets Will Reduce Home Energy Usage [CES 2012] @PSFK](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxwn6rCIjq1qzv12bo1_400.jpg)
Exhibiting at this year’s CES, TriCascade showed off their smart home energy system. The system both tracks and manages domestic energy levels. In this set up, a central system communicates with each power outlet to understand energy usage, which in turn helps track which sockets are using power — including those vampire-like chargers.
The system allows different zones to be put in low-energy mode — say when the family goes to bed — and also offers the option to program energy supply to rooms for times in the future. The system can be accessed remotely using an iPhone app for residents away from home which is useful for people with weekend rental properties, or who travel often for business.
More: WiFi Enabled Power Outlets Will Reduce Home Energy Usage [CES 2012] @PSFK
Future shirts and socks could clean themselves using just sunlight, chemists report — all you’ll have to do is drape them over the balcony and voila, clean laundry. A coating of titanium dioxide makes this possible.
(via Modified Cotton Cleans Itself When Exposed to Sunlight | Popular Science)
Filmmaker David Parker directed this short video, “Light,” to more viscerally express the energy wasted from electric lights unnecessarily left on. I think it’s a lovely and haunting piece.
Via mothernaturenetwork:
The Nest: A thermostat that’s eager to learn in order to help you save
From two Apple expats comes the Nest Learning Thermostat, a cleverly intuitive household thermostat that picks up on your daily schedule as well as your heating and cooling habits and programs itself accordingly.
This smart energy management device could help some consumers reduce energy consumption and save money.
I read a couple of items last week about Nest, and this information from the Los Angeles Times caught my eye:
The typical single family home in the U.S. racks up an annual energy bill of $2,200, with heating and cooling accounting for about half the energy consumed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Yet nearly 9 out of 10 homeowners rarely or never program the home thermostat.
Let’s hope that changes.
One of the most innovative products found on the Greenbuild Expo floor was the Reveeco EcoVéa recycling shower. This might be a hard sell for some but the concept is brilliant, allowing you to enjoy long showers without guilt. Possibly the world’s most intelligent shower, EcoVéa recycles water within your shower to push the limits of water conservation. For a ten minute shower, the EcoVéa can save up to 66% above your fixture efficiency savings.
EcoVéa consists of a 36″ x 36″ shower base which comes in a variety of finishes …. While showering, the EcoVéa cell analyzes whether water is dirty and should be discarded or water is clean and can be reused. If reused, it is treated through a filter and antibacterial treatment, mixed with a small quantity of new hot water to maintain a consistent temperature, and sent back to the shower head.
(via Smart EcoVéa Enables Guilt-Free Showers — Jetson Green)
New Ways to Use Less Energy at Home - WSJ.com
Wall Street Journal environmental writer Jim Carlton provides information about several green building features, including blown fiberglass insulation, heat pump water heaters, electronic monitoring, and concrete countertops.
See also: Various Unconsumption posts (here) on energy and water management.
Most things you plug into an outlet are designed to drain energy, but the Eliminata is the opposite: The little gizmo serves as a conscientious middleman between your appliance and the socket, killing the flow of electricity during downtime and preventing that “vampire drain” that adds up over the course of a year.
“Save water, save money. Using this device, the average household could save over $100 a year.” bookofjoe: 5-Minute Shower
The Modlet plugs into an existing wall outlet, and when an appliance is then plugged into it, it wirelessly monitors and manages the power consumption of that appliance. Since many appliances continually draw power, even if no one is around to use them, the modlet can help to eliminate that wasteful use of power by intelligently scheduling outlets to automatically shut off power to plugged-in appliances when they aren’t needed.
Green living advocate Danny Seo offers this repurposing idea:
Apply bubble wrap to windows to add thermal protection and help reduce heat loss during winter months. Danny’s brief tutorial includes spraying water onto window glass (the inside side!), then placing sheets of bubble wrap on top of it. (He says it sticks.)
Danny adds that the plastic layer “boosts the window’s efficiency by double because the air pockets in the bubble wrap insulate the windows and also allow the sun’s rays to still come through the window during the day to heat up the house.” (via Daily Danny » Bubble Wrap Upcycle)
