Post your ideas for an environmentally friendly house. :-)

[R00k]

My girlfriend was reading Cooking Light (a mag she subscribes to), and every so often they run a series of houses that have eco-friendly design features. A lot of them are just pompous fluff (a dog pillow made from feathers and cloth left from some nomadic tribe somewhere, lol - useful), but there are also quite a few pieces of it that are smart - like windows that are designed to reflect heat from the sun and can be changed to absorb it in the winter.

When she told me about it, I started thinking of different things you could add to your house to make it environmentally friendly, or self-sustainable.

I thought of having a rainwater cistern connected to your gutter system that you could use for your bath-, toilet- and dishwater.

Got a little silly and thought up a dishwashing machine, whose water pump and washing tower were powered by a connected exercise bike - not only energy-independent, but it would force you to exercise too, unless you washed the dishes by hand.

Anyway, I thought it would be cool to see what kind of things people could come up with. There aren't any limits, make it as elaborate as you like, as long as it's possible to use in a normal-sized home without having tons of land.

What could you think of to help make a home more efficient and/or eco-friendly?

[phantasmagoria]

I thought of having a rainwater cistern connected to your gutter system that you could use for your bath-, toilet- and dishwater.

It would be full of leaves and shit. My parents and many other people in the countryside have a water butt connected to their gutters and use the water collected for things like washing their hands or watering plants etc.

Personally, when I'm rich enough, I'm going to have a personalised windmill and a gas generator as backup and completely disconnect myself from the national grid.

I've also been looking into vegetable oil powered vehicles or LPG, especially after the rise in fuel costs.

[Tsakali]

when you're rich is right, cause generators with today's gas prices will surely put a dent in your pocket.

[R00k]

I thought of having a rainwater cistern connected to your gutter system that you could use for your bath-, toilet- and dishwater.

It would be full of leaves and shit. My parents and many other people in the countryside have a water butt connected to their gutters and use the water collected for things like washing their hands or watering plants etc.

Personally, when I'm rich enough, I'm going to have a personalised windmill and a gas generator as backup and completely disconnect myself from the national grid.

I've also been looking into vegetable oil powered vehicles or LPG, especially after the rise in fuel costs.

You can work around leaves and debris by designing it right. I got the idea when I was in the Virgin Islands - they get all their wash water from cisterns, so they celebrate when it rains.

I have a friend who built a lab and can make his own bio-diesel from leftover vegetable oil out of restaurant deep-fryers. He drove his Mercedes on bio-diesel until the transmission went out on it, now he just rides his motorcycle. I'm sure he'll start doing it again when he gets another diesel. The process if fairly simple except for measuring the pH of the oil you get, and making sure you get the right amount of lye, ethanol and chemicals for the batch you have.

[Tsakali]

most enviromentaly friendly ideas cost lots of money, but an obvious one would be to construct the entire roof by solar panels, but unfortunately they can be easily damaged in an area wich is proned to bad weather such as hail etc., plus if you leave in a notoriusly cloudy climate it'll be pointless to some extend.


also obviously a water filtration system which will allow you to recycle your used water from things like showering to dish and cloth washers etc, but at this point I don't know what's more cost effective: not recycling and using new water or the energy it'll take for the filtration system...

also, device a system in which heat generated by everyday activity inside the house from things like cooking etc can be somehow utilized.

[Tsakali]

construct the floor of a room from material that will take the pressure of ones footsteps and store it as electrical energy, think of something that has a slight "give" which would effectively make the floor cushie(sp?) in effect the slight up down movement which is created by your footstep will store energy...think of the floor as a collection of modular pieces which can be easily covered by carpeting...again we're talking about a serious investment

[Maiden]

http://www.earthship.org

gonna build one someday

[shadd_]

I thought of having a rainwater cistern connected to your gutter system that you could use for your bath-, toilet- and dishwater.

It would be full of leaves and shit. My parents and many other people in the countryside have a water butt connected to their gutters and use the water collected for things like washing their hands or watering plants etc.

Personally, when I'm rich enough, I'm going to have a personalised windmill and a gas generator as backup and completely disconnect myself from the national grid.

I've also been looking into vegetable oil powered vehicles or LPG, especially after the rise in fuel costs.

You can work around leaves and debris by designing it right. I got the idea when I was in the Virgin Islands - they get all their wash water from cisterns, so they celebrate when it rains.

I have a friend who built a lab and can make his own bio-diesel from leftover vegetable oil out of restaurant deep-fryers. He drove his Mercedes on bio-diesel until the transmission went out on it, now he just rides his motorcycle. I'm sure he'll start doing it again when he gets another diesel. The process if fairly simple except for measuring the pH of the oil you get, and making sure you get the right amount of lye, ethanol and chemicals for the batch you have.

i've heard the bio-diesel(veg oil)vehicles smell like french fries. imagine a whole freeway burning bio-diesel.

[Tsakali]

drive throughs would thrive

[R00k]

construct the floor of a room from material that will take the pressure of ones footsteps and store it as electrical energy, think of something that has a slight "give" which would effectively make the floor cushie(sp?) in effect the slight up down movement which is created by your footstep will store energy...think of the floor as a collection of modular pieces which can be easily covered by carpeting...again we're talking about a serious investment

Wow, that's an awesome idea. :icon32:

[R00k]

i've heard the bio-diesel(veg oil)vehicles smell like french fries. imagine a whole freeway burning bio-diesel.

Nah, that's not true. There is a very slight smell that's KINDA like vegetable oil, but it's not noticeable unless you're standing by the car trying to smell it.

But it probably would be noticeable if you had a highway full of bio-diesel cars driving on it. Still, I think it smells a lot better than gasoline exhaust.

[losCHUNK]

a house which has built in guns and whos only purpose is to lay in wait for an unsuspecting scaghead and then BAM BAM BAM

robocop be put to shame

[shadd_]

i've heard the bio-diesel(veg oil)vehicles smell like french fries. imagine a whole freeway burning bio-diesel.

Nah, that's not true. There is a very slight smell that's KINDA like vegetable oil, but it's not noticeable unless you're standing by the car trying to smell it.

But it probably would be noticeable if you had a highway full of bio-diesel cars driving on it. Still, I think it smells a lot better than gasoline exhaust.

:icon25:

[shiznit]

There are ton of ideas but the problem is implementing them, sometimes the outcome can use more power then before and therefore becomes useless.

As simple one would be some type of a device in the backyard that could make natural gas from leftovers & table scraps.

Solar panels in the backyard and roof, a small windmill in the backyard.

Maybe swings that can generate power?

[[xeno]Julios]

...but an obvious one would be to construct the entire roof by solar panels, but unfortunately they can be easily damaged in an area wich is proned to bad weather such as hail etc., plus if you leave in a notoriusly cloudy climate it'll be pointless to some extend.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... astic.html

Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.

[[xeno]Julios]

nice thread

this probably already exists in some form, but i was talking with a housemate a couple nights ago, and she was saying how she likes the fact that our house (which is over 100 yrs old) is draughty, because it recycles air.

Houses that are well insulated may run the risk of having staler air.

So was just thinking that some sort of air recycling system that runs in a sustainable manner would be cool

[[xeno]Julios]

ok here are a couple silly ideas:

*a jack off recharger: connects a device to your wrist that stores energy everytime you masturbate. On ceiling you have a sign that says: "everytime you masturbate you save 25 cents on energy"

*toilet that takes natural gas emissions from anus and pipes it to gas stove.

[R00k]

Hehe. I'd be off the city grid until I was 50! :icon32:

I was thinking it would be cool to have a workout room. All the exercise machines would work on the resistance required to make electrical current. You could have a benchpress bar built out of the wall. The arms would go behind the wall, where there would be coils that powered everytime you lift - and when you need to add weight, you could just up the energy you get out of it.
You could also make treadmills, bikes and other weight machines that worked the same way.

That swingset idea sounds pretty cool too. You could make a swingset, a merry-go-round, a see-saw, all kinds of playground toys that could make energy.

I read an article a while back (might have been here) where an African village renovated a merry-go-round the kids used, and made it to pump water from the ground. It prevented them from walking the long distance they were used to for getting usable water.

[Geebs]

*a jack off recharger: connects a device to your wrist that stores energy everytime you masturbate. On ceiling you have a sign that says: "everytime you masturbate you save 25 cents on energy"

I was always sure those self-winding watches were invented by a compulsive wanker

[Tsakali]

ok here are a couple silly ideas:

*a jack off recharger: connects a device to your wrist that stores energy everytime you masturbate. On ceiling you have a sign that says: "everytime you masturbate you save 25 cents on energy"

*toilet that takes natural gas emissions from anus and pipes it to gas stove.

sold!

[Transient]

I plan to get a few consumer-sized windmills (2?) and line my roof with solar panels for energy.

most enviromentaly friendly ideas cost lots of money, but an obvious one would be to construct the entire roof by solar panels, but unfortunately they can be easily damaged in an area wich is proned to bad weather such as hail etc., plus if you leave in a notoriusly cloudy climate it'll be pointless to some extend.

Wouldn't a layer of plexiglass solve that problem?

[Tsakali]

not sure, sounds like their efficiency would drop

[shiznit]

*a jack off recharger: connects a device to your wrist that stores energy everytime you masturbate. On ceiling you have a sign that says: "everytime you masturbate you save 25 cents on energy"

I was always sure those self-winding watches were invented by a compulsive wanker

nice sig.

[Guest]

...but an obvious one would be to construct the entire roof by solar panels, but unfortunately they can be easily damaged in an area wich is proned to bad weather such as hail etc., plus if you leave in a notoriusly cloudy climate it'll be pointless to some extend.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... astic.html

Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.

http://www.axcessnews.com/technology_011505b.shtml
Great Invention and I think that nanotechnology will be the next greatest of Invention since Internet.
Great thread BTW ROOk.
Pete

[shadd_]

nice thread

this probably already exists in some form, but i was talking with a housemate a couple nights ago, and she was saying how she likes the fact that our house (which is over 100 yrs old) is draughty, because it recycles air.

Houses that are well insulated may run the risk of having staler air.

So was just thinking that some sort of air recycling system that runs in a sustainable manner would be cool

all high efficiency houses have an air exchange system in place just for that purpose. really drafty houses though get too dry in the winter with the furnace on all the time. not good.