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

[Transient]

not sure, sounds like their efficiency would drop

I'm sure it has something to do with reflecting electrons/protons/whatever off of the surface.

[S@M]

I'd like an underground water tank that was connected to the bath and shower so that water could be used in teh garden,
a handbasin on the toilet cistern so that you could not flush before washing hands - and the hand washing water went in to the cistern.
I also wonder how a waterless toilet system would go - poop in biodegradable plastic bags, which travel via a vacuum system similar to how hospitals etc transfer specimens from wards to path labs

[S@M]

and for households to have solid core pipes in the backyard that drew heat energy from teh earth's core to warm in winter, and was converted to electricity to power cooling in summer.

[[xeno]Julios]

[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.

ah good to know

[Guest]

On the same point of view…
But on a larger scale.
Imagine high ways and bridges convert into type of car wash motion type.
Since there is a lot of slow traffic and a lot of accidents…
You get to the bridge or high way entrance and your car embarque on a type of railing till you get to your destination with your motor off at that. You could as well take a nap or watch TV while crossing the bridge or riding the interstate.
Pete

[shadd_]

and for households to have solid core pipes in the backyard that drew heat energy from teh earth's core to warm in winter, and was converted to electricity to power cooling in summer.

there is something simular to that already. pump and pipes(lots of it) buried in the backyard. i'm not quit sure but i think it generates heat with friction and the fact it's below the frostline keeps it insulated.

i know a few people where i live have it, very pricey to install but works really good apparently.

nightshade might have a better explanation.

[dnoyc]

who the fuck cares. i try my hardest to destroy the environment. i try not to forget to leave my computer on, and turn on the ac anytime i'm not there. i also purposely don't recycle. fuck the environment. i also ride my bike in the most gas inefficient way possible.

[Tsakali]

i also ride my bike in the most gas inefficient way possible.

you removed one of the pedals?

[shadd_]

he likes to ride bumpy roads without a seat is what i think he meant.

[shadd_]

[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.

ah good to know

you can turn it off during sex. the lack of oxygen will lift your orgasms to new heights.

[Nightshade]

i also ride my bike in the most gas inefficient way possible.

I did this for two hours today. :icon25:

[Maiden]

I'd like an underground water tank that was connected to the bath and shower so that water could be used in teh garden,
a handbasin on the toilet cistern so that you could not flush before washing hands - and the hand washing water went in to the cistern.
I also wonder how a waterless toilet system would go - poop in biodegradable plastic bags, which travel via a vacuum system similar to how hospitals etc transfer specimens from wards to path labs

check out the link I posted above, these houses are totaly off the grid.
rain water is used, then grey water is used in an indoor garden where you can grow fruits and veggies, then used again to flush the toilets then filtered to an outdoor bio filter.
built from used tires and cans, solar power, pretty frikin cool, if you are a hippy

[[xeno]Julios]

On the same point of view…
But on a larger scale.
Imagine high ways and bridges convert into type of car wash motion type.
Since there is a lot of slow traffic and a lot of accidents…
You get to the bridge or high way entrance and your car embarque on a type of railing till you get to your destination with your motor off at that. You could as well take a nap or watch TV while crossing the bridge or riding the interstate.
Pete

that's actually not a bad idea.

[dnoyc]

i also ride my bike in the most gas inefficient way possible.

I did this for two hours today. :icon25:

<30 mpg out of a 600cc engine = fun.

[Tsakali]

I'm sure the engine feels the same

[dnoyc]

i'm sure it does, it revs up to 16.5k

[shiznit]

just live in the woods.

[Guest]

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.

I thought about that idea but on a larger scale and that would be great if all workout gyms would be converted to generate energy from them.
A Guilligan island on a wide scale.
Pete

[Guest]

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

I can understand exactly what you mean because I thought about it but with cars and big trucks, like when 40 wheelers go to the scale and then all of the weight of them on a set of gearing underneath the scale generate electricity. Or at a stop, the underground has a type of gearing system that does the same.
Pete

[FragaGeddon]

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.

Well if I was rich, I'd have a lot of solar panels and still be hooked up to the grid so they buy the extra power that the panels generate.

[Doombrain]

I drive in a high gear, overtake when i can and rev like hell just to get the turbo wasting as much fuel as possible.

[4days]

Well if I was rich, I'd have a lot of solar panels and still be hooked up to the grid so they buy the extra power that the panels generate.

thread necromancy?

[Tsakali]

I drive in a high gear, overtake when i can and rev like hell just to get the turbo wasting as much fuel as possible.

natural selection allows for marginal error, consider your self lucky.

[Doombrain]

tomorrow, when i fill up i'm going to spill loads of fuel just because of this topic.

[zeeko]

grass roof, position your house so it faces southeastish for maximum sun exposure, position your windows for natural air circulation, people have been doing greywater collecting for forever- I'm sure you can figure out how to sort the water from the leaves, trees and shrubs can help tremendously for shade and insulation from winds, denim recycled insulation, cement floors (great for heat absorption during the day/retains it through evening), build into a hill, wood stove (my parents electric+gas bill in the coldest month of winter is 40 dollars.)

Also, I would definitely check out the book Cradle to Cradle. It's about rethinking recycling (downcycling) and how you think of "green". It will surely change the framework of your mind.