Tips For Green Living In The Home

Do you care about the environment and your health, but want to be stylish with your home décor at the same time? Luckily, there are plenty of green living options that can be implemented in your home in order to create a great look while remaining eco-friendly.

Making Sustainable Choices

Making sustainable choices are an important component of green living. Making sustainable choices means purchasing products that don’t cause a negative impact on the environment and that will not make it more difficult for future generations to continue to sustain themselves. Making sustainable choices during the design process is referred to as 'green design' or 'sustainable design'. Some great sustainable choices to consider when decorating include:

• Natural stone counter tops
• Cabinets and other products made from woods such as bamboo, eucalyptus, or recycled wood
• Carpet made from natural fibers, such as wool and cotton, or made from recycled materials
• Green-friendly paint and home wallpaper, which is being offered by a growing number of manufacturers
• Antiques – after all, they are being recycled!

You don’t have to create a bland and boring home décor in order to enjoy green living. In fact, there are numerous options out there that will allow you to make your home look great while still protecting the planet.

Appliances for Green Living

When it comes to green living, a great place to start is in your kitchen. Remodeling can add a great deal of value to your home, can make it more functional and attractive, and can help you make your home more eco-friendly.

When buying for your kitchen, look for modern appliances to help bring your home up-to-date. By purchasing those appliances with the Energy Star rating, you can potentially cut the amount of energy you use to power those appliances in half. Adding faucet aerators to your kitchen and bathroom faucets will also help reduce the amount of water you use while still providing you with a high pressure stream of water.

Obtaining Green Products

Fortunately, green living is rapidly growing in popularity. In response, many manufacturers are offering lines of eco friendly products that can be used for decorating purposes. In addition, a growing number of online and offline stores that are dedicated solely to green living are becoming a more common occurrence.

One great resource for green living products is www.greenhome.com. This site carries only eco-friendly products, including furniture, bedding, and home furnishings. Home furnishings offered at www.greenhome.com include candles, picture frames, tableware, home accessories, clocks, lamps, rugs and carpet. Another great online resource for green living products is www.livingreen.com. Here, you can find wall coverings, furniture, flooring, and more. Go to www.vivaterrra.com for fabulous green gifts for the home and garden.

Although it may take a little more time and effort to find and purchase eco products for your home, the effort will be worth it. Not only will you be doing your part to help conserve and protect the environment, green living is better for your health and can save you money in the long run.

About the Author:
San Francisco Interior Designer - Mint Home Décor.
San Francisco Interior Decorator - Mint Home Décor.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Tips for Green Living in the Home

Best 5 Renewable Energy Innovations

To develop environmental friendly methods in generating power is a brilliant renewable energy innovation from a renewable energy company. Producing renewable energy powered generators for unfaltering energy supply and cut down the cost of energy utilization. Harnessing renewable energy resources for a clean energy supports the environment as well as the future.

Here are five of the best renewable energy innovations.

First thing that come in mind when renewable energy is mentioned would be the solar panels. They come in all sizes to fit the needs of every household. When it first came out solar panels are so tiny it can only power a calculator. There are two types of solar panels, first is the solar thermal collector that heats waters for consumption or homes. A solar thermal collector is basically made of an insulator box and a black metal absorber. Natural convection takes place with solar thermal panels and is widely used in sunny European countries to cut down water heating costs. The other is the photovoltaic panel. These are solar panels that are made of wafer based crystalline silicone cells or a thin- film based on cadmium telluride or silicone. It converts light energy, thus the name photovoltaic, into energy by photovoltaic effect. Solar panel reduces carbon emission in the atmosphere promoting cleaner energy.

Second is the windmill. Water as a renewable energy resource has been known to man since the late 600 AD. Windmills are used to grind up produce and draw water up water. Modern wind mills or properly known as wind turbines makes use of the wind to produce electricity. Wind turbines convert kinetic wind energy into mechanical energy then into electricity. There are two types of wind turbines, namely the horizontal axis wind turbine and the vertical axis wind turbine. Between the two, the horizontal axis wind turbine is more common than the other. Everybody can recognize a tall tower with horizontal axis blades are called wind turbines.

Third is a biomass powered generator. Who knew that there's a Do It Yourself version of this contraption. Now left over food and animal litter has more usage other than fertilizers. On a larger scale, Biomass, being the most abundant of all can generate powers providing large farmlands and forests. A renewable energy company that utilizes biomass normally makes use of the biomass steam cycle to generate electricity. Other ways of utilizing biomass is by extracting biomass fuel from decaying materials.

Fourth is making use of tidal power. Tidal steam generators produce incredible amounts of energy due to the high density of water flowing from the ocean. Geographically speaking, this type of renewable energy is only available to countries that have access to the sea or coastal areas. It is considered as one of the best long term renewable energy resources in the world. Using tidal turbines rather than coals to run heavy machineries can reduce the output of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Last would be nuclear powered generators. Although it is highly debatable, nuclear power is an abundant resource for us to utilize. It can generate power twice as much as fuel and other resources combined. The downside of this would be that there are much health risks involved in putting up a nuclear power plant.

About the Author:
Shirlyn Dee is a co-owner of Keen Partnerships, a pioneer renewable energy marketing company. Keen Partnerships acknowledge the fact that the renewable energy company startups need due exposure, and has the resources and manpower to give quality Internet marketing services for renewable energy players.

She has successfully deployed sites, and has been in the "Internet Marketing" industry for 4 years now. Now her expertise is mostly focused in deploying sites for Keen Partnerships clients, whose businesses are often in the renewability and sustainability field.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Best 5 Renewable Energy Innovations

Eco Home Give It An Artistic Touch

Eco home, is slowly gaining its importance of late, due to its cost effectiveness. An eco friendly home is other wise shortly known as eco home as its built keeping in mind the environmental factors, with its prime intention of environmental conservation. It is in the welfare of the nature and environment causing no harm to the environmental balance. In complete tandem with the environment to put it in simple words.

Making use of building materials which uphold the concept of nature and environment, and causes no harm to the environment at any given time. It is not only environment friendly, but is cost effective and gives a very homely and cosy feeling to your house. With an additional aesthetic appeal to the building. Also considered is the fuel, which is less harmful and leaves no fumes in the environment and plastic that won't decompose in the environment if thrown away, if used it will be disposed in a safe manner so that it doesn’t affect the environment in any way. Enough care will be taken in case plastic is used. In addition to this, eco home products are used in some houses, which not only looks good, but also does good. Such as cork stool instead of plastic ones, alpaca cushions, buckram light, organic sheep skin.

Eco homes basically highlight the concept of sustainable building design and emphasizes on sustainable lifestyles. Such homes are carbon neutral; and make use of power (from a number of different green sources) efficiently and imaginatively; with beautiful furnishings.

Create a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary within your home. With eco friendly items from around the world, makes your eco living a real pleasure. The key aim behind such eco homes is conservation of environment and revolves around the concept sustainable building design and sustainable lifestyles. With limited resources around the world, one should consider conserving the environment which is endangered and is heading towards depletion. Take enough care when you build your homes and reach out to eco home experts, and be a fully aware citizen who is takes responsibility towards his own environment and creates that aesthetic appeal that his or her house deserves. You feel good about your house and make the environment also smile with no harm caused to it.

The rising population of the world has a very important role to play in this. This is where living in homes that are friendly to the environment becomes important. That is because these homes are saving what the world has so that the future generations won't feel the pinch. Take a step towards building an eco friendly home!

About the Author:

Expert author, Platinum status. Eco home help: Eco home

Free guide or assistance on Bangalore Property: Mysore Property

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Renovation Innovation For Sustainability

Sustainability; the biggest challenge that interior design is facing in these present times, in times where growth is accompanied with consequences that concerns environment. The industry is up to generating a more sustainable interior design that would complement the modern standards.

Innovation is now making its way in renovation. The designs are on the process of reborn, the concerns with regards to materials to be used and the progression involved are all facing sizable considerations.

Trend would be the best terminology to describe this process. What would be the most ideal interior design trend for today? Interior designs that are ecologically concern and friendly, that is what the industry is after for.

The materials and the process are the two important things where focus is expected to be set to. The materials used for renovation or designing are now diverged into something natural or those so called “indigenous”, materials which can easily be found and does not require too much use of chemical ingredients that would contribute for any possible pollution. The approach would be more relaxing, refreshing and nature-inspired.

The process on how to generate the design is also hot. Interior designers are now up to a deep process of conceptualization on how they would be able to save more resources during installation progression.

Marcella Enriquez; an interior designer Los Angeles specializing in commercial interior design said that the move of the interior design industry is one way of showing its full support on minifying the effects of the global environmental dilemma.

“If we would be able to impart to our clients the importance of our environment, they will learn to appreciate it and there starts their concerns. At least on our small little ways we were able to give our part” she said.

Innovating interior design will still continue, as long as it is seen that it is needed. For once the interior design is after a more sustainable way of living.

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Basics Of Energy Efficient Home Design

Good house design takes its form in part from the forces that act on it. Climate and weather are two of the strongest form-makers (there are no igloos in the tropics) since houses must be designed and built to repel the damaging effects of the world we live in. Mother Nature is always trying to tear our buildings down.

Climate and weather also affect the comfort of our homes, and cause us to seek out ways to maintain the temperature and humidity of our homes within tolerable levels. A great deal of design effort is devoted to keeping the heat in or keeping the heat out, depending on the climate and season.


This Old House

At times throughout American history, the forms of our homes have reflected – to greater or lesser extents – our ingenuity in making our homes’ internal climates more comfortable.

Settlers in the Deep South built deep porches around their low-slung homes to shade them from the harsh sun and to create a reservoir of cooler air that could be drawn into the house.

New Englanders built compact homes with small windows to shield them from winter winds and to hold in as much heat as possible. And prairie homes, often built of stacked sod, were half-buried in the earth to even out the temperature swings and to protect them from the frequent violent storms that sweep the plains each summer.

Simple and effective strategies like these were necessary because fuel for heating homes was limited. We created houses that conserved resources; we didn’t know how not to.

That changed with the era of cheap and plentiful electricity and natural gas for home heating, and with the introduction of the first air conditioners for private homes in 1928. Suddenly, houses didn’t need to respond to their environment; any home could easily be kept as warm or as cool as desired using mechanical means regardless of the weather outside. Little thought was given to energy conservation strategies until the early 1970s, when the cheap energy we’d taken for granted became suddenly very expensive, and the climate-ignorant houses we’d built for decades became expensive to heat and cool.


That 70’s Show

But then a very cool thing happened. Architects and builders across the country began to revive the “lost art” of designing homes that responded to climate and weather. Ancient ideas like earth-sheltering and thermal massing were used again. New passive-cooling strategies and unique ideas like the Trombe wall were invented.

And most interestingly, the houses using low-energy techniques took on new, exciting forms. Suddenly there was something else out there beside Old World inspired design. It was a fun time full of invention and experimentation.

But that era was short-lived. By the mid-1980s fuel was cheap again and energy-efficient unique home design was all but forgotten.


Back To The Future

So it’s no surprise that we now find ourselves having come full circle, with rising energy prices and a revised interest in home energy efficiency. It’s a critical concern in a time when some studies show residential buildings consuming up to 21% of the nation’s energy.

Today’s home energy efficient strategies are different than they were 30 years ago, however. Today the focus is on technology rather than on design. New materials are techniques have been developed that make otherwise climate-insensitive home designs (and there are plenty) better stewards of the energy they need to maintain human comfort.

Technical solutions can be expensive, however, since they demand that common building materials perform at a higher level. Windows have “high-tech” glass with low-emissivity coatings, Argon gas-filled spaces, and up to three sheets of glazing. Heating systems are running at higher efficiencies, and may come equipped with programmable thermostats and insulated ductwork. Solutions like these do conserve energy and are important components in any home but the technology crutch shouldn’t be leaned on too heavily. We also need better design.


Designer’s Challenge

What if, instead of spending hundreds of additional dollars on high-tech glazing to keep the sun’s heat out, we more carefully located our windows to avoid direct sunlight in the first place? What if we used elements of the house itself to shade those windows from heat radiation and UV rays?

Suppose we took better advantage of the ground’s relatively stable temperature to stabilize the temperatures in our houses, rather than exposing every square foot of a home’s exterior surface to the elements? Instead of constant mechanical air conditioning to remove heat and humidity, why not try opening windows onto shady porches and let the breeze cool the house?

And what if we opened our minds a bit – stopped thinking so much about fashion and resale value – and allowed the forms of our houses to be shaped more by how they respond to the climate and the environment we live in?

The surprising result might be interesting and beautiful homes that cost very little to heat and cool – just like the old days.

About the Author:

I have over 20 years’ experience in the field of architecture and have designed homes and buildings across the country.

I see my work as much more than just designing homes - I see residential architecture as an expression of a social art; an art with a strong responsibility to culture and environment, expressed in its enrichment of family life and by its contribution to community.

I truly love my work, and look forward to sharing the excitement of the custom design process with you.


Richard Taylor, AIA
President
Richard Taylor Architects, LLC
Residential Architects

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Basics of Energy Efficient Home Design

Buy An Eco House With A Wise Decision

Buying an eco friendly house will be a great idea. As it has more aesthetic value and has a positive appeal, enhancing our spiritual self too. It is said that eco friendly houses have a positive impact on our health to, a cooling effect and is environment friendly. It basically works on the concept of sustainable building designs and green building. Utilise eco friendly products which are energy or water efficient; such products use healthy, non-toxic materials. Finite sources of energy and materials are being depleted, and much of our environment is being polluted or spoiled.

Consider eco friendly products too, when you are looking out for eco homes. It gives an added value to your house. Makes more sense to have eco friendly products to decorate your house too. Isn’t it? Consider carpet tiles, instead of carpeting as it is well known for harboring dust mites, pet dander, and mildew, all of which are hard to get out even with steam cleaning. Make use of alternatives to such practices.

Avert any harmful effect which would have other wise affected the human health and environment and thus makes use of eco friendly materials. Conserve your environment and buy an eco house! Such eco friendly buildings aims to repair the damage that less sustainable building methods have had on our environment. Such carpet tiles for your eco friendly houses are considered quite beneficial as it is a recyclable material and is very easy to install as well as clean. It is definitely a wise choice over your carpeting plans. Balconies and roof top decks can also make use of carpet tiles, this way you can use it outdoor. And cork flooring is another good option that can be considered for eco homes. Kitchen composters, garden composters, water saving products are also made use of as part of eco products.

Use your own eco products in a different style! These are typically created from recyclable materials and are very easy to install as well as clean. This makes them a beautiful choice as well as a simple option for carpet across an entire room. Whether or not you support the global warming theory, one thing you can't dispute is the obvious savings, both in the environment and your finances, that making some simple and if you're willing, not so simple, green improvements to your condo or house. Not only will this benefit you as long as you live there, but it will also make your home more attractive to potential buyers if you should decide to sell.

About the Author: Expert author, Platinum status. Buy an eco house advice and tips: Eco house

Free guide or assistance on Bangalore Property: Mysore Property

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