Do It Yourself Solar

You hear a lot of great ideas for designing and building an energy efficient and eco friendly home. From thermal mass and R-values, we break down some of the most important terms that are associated with your environmentally conceived home. So next time you pick up a green directory, try these terms on for size:

Passive Solar Design: A broad term used to describe non-mechanical design of the building’s infrastructure that allows regulation of internal temperature. Principles include orientation of room, location of windows and thermal mass (see below).

Thermal mass: is a material’s ability to store heat. Brick, stone and concrete have high thermal mass; glass and timber do not. Eco designers will strategically place these materials to create heat sinks that absorb heat in the winter and remain cool in the summer.

R – value: A measure of ‘thermal resistance’ or the material’s insulating properties. For example Pink Batts insulation has a measure of R1.5 while strawbale comes in at R4, meaning it retains heat better.

Cross ventilation: Breezes from the outside are naturally drawn into the home to help cool it down. In good design, windows will be positioned in line with each other on opposite walls to create the maximum cooling effect.

Double glazing: Two sheets of glass are sealed together to create a single glazed piece with an air space in between them that help trap heat between the two panes. The air pocket essentially acts as an insulating barrier.

Grey water: Waste water that comes from the laundry, shower, dishwasher and bathroom sink that can be collected and re-used in the garden. It does not include black water which comes from the toilet and kitchen sink.

For more great green building tips, look for the Green Pages, Australia’s leading directory for all things about the green home.

Paige Green
http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/key-terms-to-understanding-your-eco-friendly-home-714658.html

Being an environmentally friendly parent for babies involves buying products and services that are eco friendly and baby friendly. The range of products is increasing weekly as parents wake up to the green revolution.

What can I buy?

The real question for eco parents is: what can’t I buy? but you don’t need to always buy new, you can re-use items already in existence, the less new items you buy the more ecologically friendly your new family will be! Baby clothes are easy and good-value to buy secondhand and because babies grow so fast, they tend to be hardly worn. Other items to look for in secondhand and charity shops include cot linen, soft furnishings, bouncy chairs and inflatable baby nests.

These products also minimize the impact on the environment and by taking actions such as recycling you can set a good precedent for the future generation. You can now buy most things in a ‘green’ version for babies including organic baby clothes, baby food and even green magazines made out of recycled paper. There is an increasing movement by parents to return to the old days and use cloth nappies instead of the disposable ones which add to the land fills. Imagine how many of these nappies you can get through in the first years of the babies life? Hundreds if not thousands! Many of these cloth nappy companies are stating ease of use, financial benefits, less rubbish and the comfort of natural cloth over paper and gel against delicate skin as some of the many reasons for making this change.

See the green directory for companies that offer cloth nappies and other eco products for babies and the home. Choosing reusable nappies is one of the biggest single things you can do to make a difference. It’s been estimated that two trees a year are felled to provide the pulp for each baby who wears disposables and it also takes hundreds of years for them to break down in landfill sites. Reusables are a lot less hassle than they used to be. And for times when they are inconvenient, the range of eco-disposables is expanding and is better than ever. If you’re buying wooden objects, such as high chairs and baby toys, avoid tropical hardwoods. Look for ones made from trees grown in sustainable forests and remember if you doubt you really need something, don’t buy it yet – wait and see.

I want to enable parents to choose and use products which will benefit baby and his or her family now and protect his / her future environment. GuideMeGreen is essentially a result of my own search for natural and eco-friendly products for my family and offers a service that makes it far easier for other parents to find the right products for them. With the introduction of a discussion board, parents are able to find out information and ask questions to an area which is new to them. We want to convert those to be more eco friendly that at the moment couldn’t care less. I spend half my life telling family members off for throwing glass and plastic away. Being a one man band I deal with all emails and often receive requests from teenagers asking for information on ethical clothing shops and other products of interest to them. My thoughts are …. If teenagers are interested, GuideMeGreen must be doing something right!

Davinos Greeno
http://www.articlesbase.com/women’s-issues-articles/eco-friendly-baby-amp-family-products-84550.html