Greening Spaces

Clean your light bulbs

Nichole Reber — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:00:11 +0000

for light up to 25% brighter. October is National Energy Month, so look for sales on compact florescent light bulbs. By replacing 5 incandescent bulbs you can save $150 annually on utility costs.

Cooking green

Nichole Reber — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:00:22 +0000

Glass and ceramic pans heat more quickly than their metal counterparts, requiring less heat (though the same amount of time) to cook. That translates to saving $ on your utility bills. Lids on pots and using smaller pans also help food cook more quickly.

Did you know you don’t actually have to preheat? Just use this when baking bread or pastries. If anything, you’ll actually only need a few more minutes to cook, but not as many as preheating would require.

Every time you peek into that pot to see if the water’s boiling, you lose heat and therefore cost yourself money.

Don’t use foil on oven shelves– it blocks heat, therefore costing more money over time.

If you’re cooking small meals use the smallest appliance you have, such as a toaster oven or crockpot rather than the whole oven/stove.

Keeping your microwave clean inside actually helps its efficiency.

For more energy-savign tips, go to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Consumer Resources web site.

Keep it safe

Nichole Reber — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:00:09 +0000

Keep the area around your heating unit clear. These things need air to work at their peak ability.

Don’t overload outlets by filling them up with large appliances.

Cheap warmth

Nichole Reber — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:00:24 +0000

Each degree you turn your thermostat down saves 2% on your utilities bill.

Clean & cheap

Nichole Reber — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:00:14 +0000

Doing laundry in cold water saves $. If your outside dryer exhaust is clogged moisture seeps into your house, leading to mold, mildew, insects and other unealthy air quality issues.

Green + technology= Fun

Nichole Reber — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:40:36 +0000

What a treasured memory to help a friend’s 7-year-old hone her reading skills with Go Green, a sort of tip-of-the-day application available for free for PDAs.
I pulled out my iPhone to show her the kewl new game I had promised for hours.
“Will you help me read it?” I asked the blonde whose fine hair was frizzing up like one of those trick light bulbs because of the dry Chicago winter.
“Use power strips to… conservation?”
“Conserve.”
“Conserve. One flick… of the switch…cuts electricity?”
“Energy.”
“Energy to sev- seven?”
We sounded out the words several, then different then electronic then devices.
“One flick of the switch cuts off energy to several different electronic devices…” she continued.
“Yay, we’ve almost got it!” I felt like a proud auntie.
“As if they were all un…unplouged?”
“Unplugged.”
“Unplugged at once.”
By virtue of the mini reading lesson she also got a green lesson from her auntie Nichole, the treehugger: Use power strips to conserve. One flick of the switch cuts off energy to several different electronic devices– as if they were all unplugged at once.
Being green can be as fun and as easy. Go to the iTunes store to find and download your own free application. The tips are good refreshers for veteran e-friendlies or a simple little goodies for green neoph

ytes.
One complaint: even on this little PDA application American capitalism will not let you escape commercialism. There is an ad atop every page. However, like a video game, you scale a hierarchy as you read (and implement) more tips.
Get Go Green and other free green PDA applications.

: Go Green, a free MP3 app

Saving fridge energy

Nichole Reber — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:07:55 +0000

By covering and wrapping food in the fridge we actually help it work better. Uncovered food releases moisture, which makes the fridge work harder. Frost in the freezer makes the freezer work harder, too. Manually defrost regularly.

American Cars: Behind the Times

Nichole Reber — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:36:30 +0000

Yet another example manifested by yet another country other than America has arisen to disprove that greener/more sustainable infrastructure is not too time-consuming or expensive to implement.
Latin American countries are using a new type of award-winning zero-emissions taxis.
“The vehicle has been specifically designed as a taxi, taking into consideration the cultural, urban transit, demographic and climate conditions of cities in Latin America. The use of technologies such as fuel cells and “drive-by-wire” make a more optimised use of space by replacing mechanical components with electronic ones and therefore providing more interior space,” according to red-dot.sg. Read the article.
Just think. America, supposedly the richest and most progressive country in the world, just handed over millions of dollars to a bunch of old, white cave dwellers, nee car manufacturing CEOs, to stay afloat and try to get more in touch with what car buyers want.

Cusato proves young architects’ worth

Nichole Reber — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:09:25 +0000

Architectural designer Marianne Cusato first came up with the Katrina Cottage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina of the Gulf Coast. Today she’s proving that young architects see beyond the concept of starchitect. Now she’s working on building for “McMansion refugees”, demonstrating that architecture is really about creating spaces for how we actually live, work and play. Architecture should not perpetuate the credit-card abusing, plastic-surgery addicted, false integrity ideals that America has come to embrace, which has irrefutably caused our current economic struggle.

“We are seeing a paradigm shift in how we build and what we build based on necessity and circumstance,” says the Miami-based designer, noting that demand has spiked for smaller, more-efficient, modestly priced houses as over-leveraged buyers learn to live within their means. Enter the New Economy Home, a concept that acknowledges this new reality.

See the original article in Builder magazine.

Death to the starchitect

Nichole Reber — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:58:40 +0000

Sometimes just by virtue of having heard it repeatedly, like the presence of WPD in Iraq, those who don’t incorporate critical thinking practices believe whatever swill is being stirred. (This makes me think of all those times I asked builders from 2004- 2008 why they were going green. I came to expect the shibboleth: it’s the right thing to do.)

Now, I’ve read something else three times, dating back to 2007 from Urban Land magazine, residential architect magazine and the Boston Globe: the starchitect is passe. Personally I hope so bc that perpetuates the field’s sense of solipsism. Especially given our economy and the fact that the world is becoming a two-caste system, it is time for the design and building industry to start doing more about how people live, not necessary how rich they want to be perceived.