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1. Free Green Home Plans!
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2. Green Apartment Life - Easy Ways To Get Sustainable
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3. Motor Oil Goes Green (But Not Vegan)
Free Green Home Plans!
jchait - Home & Garden
Later today we’ll wrap up our green apartment series, but first I wanted to alert you to a super-fly green home site; FreeGreen.
FreeGreen offers spiffy (and free) building plans for green homes. Plans vary in depth, some showing energy consumption between buildings that meet basic code vs. building that have greener features.
HOW IT WORKS:
- Head to FreeGreen.
- Search for a home you like - there are various ways to do this. You can search by type of home, check out the open source network (which is not free, but cool), plus you can search by all types of various criteria like energy use, size, popular green features, and more.
- Download the plans you like and even buy blueprints.
EXAMPLE:
I picked one house to check out so I could tell you how this works. I went with the Suburban Loft. Once you click on the virtual tour you can make changes and add custom features. Basic features and concepts are explained during the tour. The image slide show is crisp and really nice, showing both exterior and interior features.
Once you click download, you’ll have to register, but the form was short and fast. Then it asks you if you want basic or premium service (which is $100 a year). The plans are pretty basic but give you a nice idea to start with if you’re considering building green. Plus this particular plan offers slides of both energy features and efficiency.
Visit FreeGreen and see the plans for yourself.
Green Apartment Life - Easy Ways To Get Sustainable
jchait - Home & Garden
This week we’ve been looking at green apartment living. So far we’ve discussed:
Now we’ll look at some green tips that apply to anyone, even folks in an apartment, and later we’ll check out some sustainable decor and furnishings for apartment life before wrapping up this series.
When you live in an apartment, some green rules won’t apply. Unless you live in a very flexible apartment complex, you may not be able to do things like install a low-flow toilet, change your heating and cooling source, or build a rain barrel. But there are still plenty of ways to go green when living in an apartment. Such as…
Insulate your apartment. Caulking is iffy in an apartment but weather stripping and door draft stoppers are usually ok.
Turn Down the Thermostat. You may be better off than a home dweller in this case, especially if you live on a first or second floor with an apartment above you. The extra layer of housing can help to seal in heat in the winter and keep it cooler in summer.
Live simply for a better, greener life.
Use eco-smart lighting like compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs and LED lighting.
You can solve indoor air pollution even in an apartment. The same tips that work for a house work for an apartment.
Rethink your disposables. Using items like cloth napkins and cleaning cloths over paper towels is not only eco-friendly, but handy in an apartment. Apartments tend to be short on space and it takes more space to store huge packs of paper towels.
Hold a green audit! Not all green home audit questions will apply to an apartment dweller. However, there’s still a lot you can audit and possibly change to stay green. Check out the following home audits and simply cut out questions that don’t apply - such as roofing or landscaping issues.
- Your Successful Green Home Trash Audit - Tips for Success
- Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
- Green audit your cleaning supplies
- Green audit the bathroom
- Green audit the kitchen pantry
- Green audit your dishes and pots & pans
Do you live in an apartment? How are you keeping it green?
Motor Oil Goes Green (But Not Vegan)
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
Green Earth Technologies has created a fat-based, biodegradeable motor oil called G-Oil. It’s the first non-fossil-fuel, non-synthetic motor oil to earn certification from the American Petroleum Institute, meaning it meets the organization’s standards for use in gasoline engines.
Vegetarians may want to stop reading now, because I’m going to tell you where the fat comes from: livestock. According to Green Earth Technologies, “it takes three barrels of crude oil to make one barrel of motor oil, but it only takes one barrel of animal fat to produce one barrel of G-Oil.”
The API-certified motor oil is 5W-30 weight; the company is seeking certification for its 10W-30 and 5W-20 weight oils as well. The 5W-30 stuff will be on retail shelves in June, but bulk oil will be supplied to quickie lubes “much sooner,” according to GET.
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