Chris Morrison | posted on December 29, 2008

 

 

Home heating and cooling has always been done by brute force. Vents blow regulated air throughout a house, and somewhere, a thermometer tells the entire system when to stop or start. But houses should be able to make smart decisions on when and how to run their heating or cooling systems, thinks a company called Suntulit; they just need technology to sense humans and predict when to start changing the temperature.

The main barrier to installing smart temperature control systems, of course, has always been the ease of setting up a dumb ones. It’s very simple to just build ventilation tubes throughout a house and push through cold or hot air depending on the direction of the central thermometer. Adding a little intelligence doesn’t just require careful planning, it also typically takes a lot more money, so the most common system controls are people physically opening and closing vents, and manually raising or lowering the temperature controls.

To do a better job, Suntulit’s setup thus has to involve devices that can open and close vents on their own, sensors to tell when people are around, and a computer brain with predictive abilities. And all of the above has to be done cheaply. …read full discussion

Haily Zaki | posted on November 5, 2008

 

The kitchen is the heart of any home. The average American spends three to five hours a day in the kitchen – preparing food, eating, hanging out, entertaining, standing in front of the fridge (with the door closed, of course) trying to figure out what to make for dinner. For our readers who have been inspired by our Green Home 101 series and are interested in doing some serious “greenovating” starting in the kitchen, we’ve gathered a few useful tips to consider. Your goals should include extremely efficient appliances, low-VOC and healthy finishes, and surfaces that are durable, easy to clean, and of course, aesthetically pleasing. …read full discussion

Evelyn Lee | posted on October 24, 2008

Take prefabricated panels, add a dose of ingenuity, and a desire for an extremely green home and you get this half-prefab, half-custom Culver City home, designed by Sander Architects. Not only does the house play host to eco-friendly details that makes it sustainable inside and out– but its acoustically-tuned-to-concert-perfection interior provides owner Thomas Small the ability to play chamber music with perfect resonance. The 4,200-square-foot home uses a prefabricated structure that was assembled on-site and then outfitted with necessary trim, plumbing, and interior fixings for a grand total of $528,000, about a third of an architect-designed home in the Los Angeles area. …read full discussion

Haily Zaki | posted on October 22, 2008

 

From green cleaning products to energy-efficient appliances, Green Home 101 has delved into several different aspects of what makes a sustainable, environmentally responsible household. But what about the home itself? Look skyward in any major American city and you’re likely to see a soaring new green high-rise. With scarce land in urban areas, the cost of housing skyrocketing, and increasing demand for better communities, high-density development is experiencing a renaissance in the US. But development is not just growing up, it’s growing green. As consumers look for long-term savings and seek to live in healthier environments, more big developers have grasped onto the fact that the green in the building can lead to green in the bank. Inhabitat’s Green Home 101 takes a closer look at some of the new high-rise projects sustainable residential towers are sprouting up all over the US. …read full discussion

Evelyn Lee | posted on September 12, 2008

 

Habitat for Humanity recently announced their first LEED Platinum house in conjunction with students and professors at Drury University’s Hammons School of Architecture in Springfield, Missouri. That’s quite the achievement for the self-titled Drury University Sustainable Habitat House, since there’s only 44 houses in the nation that have achieved LEED Platinum. The newly certified residence is located in Habitat’s for Humanity’s Legacy Trials subdivision north of Springfield, but they are looking to incorporate similar affordable green homes on a national scale. …read full discussion

The Oracle | posted on July 14, 2008

A middle school student in GuangDong, China made a bike washing machine, not many details but ready for a re-make via Tim. …read full discussion

Natalie Zee Drieu | posted on June 30, 2008

 

CasaSugar has a project on how to make your own liquid soap from a bar.

Claudia Allwood | posted on June 27, 2008

When it comes to entertaining and special occasions, eco-minded consumers can be torn by two apparently conflicting desires: the need to be green and the easy clean-up made possible by disposable dishes. Thanks to a new innovation from VerTerra, however, that conflict can finally be put to rest. …read full discussion