EcoStreet posted a great article on how to get ready for winter using green products. Now that winter is almost here it’s time to really test how eco-friendly you are. It’s a lot hard to bike to the corner store in -10 degree Canadian winters!

This article has some great tips on how to save on your energy bill in the notoriously expensive winter months. Heat is valuable and you’ll want to make sure your house is properly insulted. EcoStreet talks about Cavity Wall insulation, Loft Insulation, Draught Proofing, and Double Glazing. Check their post for information but these are some great tips to conserve heat in your home.

Conserving heat is incredibly effective at reducing your energy usage during winter. A lot of energy is spent on replenishing wasted heat; heat that is lost to cracks or windows.

EcoStreet also has some easy tips to save some money if you don’t want to go to the trouble of re-doing your house’s insulation (or if you’re renting and can’t). Three simple tips can help you save a bunch: turn your thermostat down, turn your water heater down, and close your curtains at night.

A Great product they covered in this post was the low-energy Biobulb. It’s a full-spectrum CFL bulb that creates a natural light, which can be a godsend in the dark, cold, winter months.

Check out their post for all the green winterizing tips.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Ever thought your network could go green?

Well no doubt most people have routers or switches in their home, and due to the always-on nature of the internet, these devices are always on, and always sucking power. While it’s unrealistic to get everyone to turn off their network at night, D-Link has released a line of switches that intelligently reduce power consumption whenever possible.

D-Link’s new line of switches reduces power consumption by up to 44%, with no drop in performance.

It achieves this by intelligently deciding how much power is needed by the devices it’s connected to. For example, shorter cables need less power to receive a signal then longer cables. The switches figure out how long the cable is, and reduce power accordingly.

While I’m not sure how much electricity switches use, they are one of those devices we leave on all the time. These switches only eliminate wasted power as well, which is sure fine by us.

Good job D-Link!

via Geek.com, PCPro

Popularity: 20% [?]

The Aptera is a new type of super-efficient vehicle from Aptera Motors of California.

The Aptera, which means “wingless” in Greek, is a super fuel-efficient vehicle, rated at a whopping 300mpg! It’s a hybrid diesel/electric vehicle, and is lightyears ahead of today’s hybrids, which in comparison, get a measly 35-45mpg. The Aptera is about 10 times as efficient!

How is this efficiency accomplished? Magic mostly, and a whole lot of engineering brilliance. Weight and wind resistance are huge factors that affect efficiency, and the Aptera has been carefully designed to optimize every aspect of the design to boost efficiency.

The Aptera weighs only 850 pounds (compared to the Toyota Prius at 2,890 pounds). This is achieved through what the company calls “Panelized Automated Composite Construction”, which basically means composite materials are use extensively instead of steel, cutting down on weight. Using only three wheels also cuts down on weight, and partially covering the wheels cuts down on wind resistance.

The Aptera can only hold two passengers, but with an insane 300mpg rating, you can always make extra trips.

In addition to the an amazing efficiency rating, the Aptera also features an innovative air conditioning system. It’s solar powered. This means that even on hot days when your car is off, the air conditioning can run and keep your car comfortable. Knowing first hand how brutal a car gets in the middle of July, this alone would be a great selling point!

In terms of safety, the composite material is super-strong, providing support in a collision. It also features a 360-degree viewing angle, accomplished through rear-mounted camera.

The Aptera has some impressive performance stats as well. 0-60 in about 11 seconds, and a top speed of 95mph. Costing only $30,000, it’s perfect for the average eco-conscious consumer.

The Aptera was created in response to the X-Prize Foundation‘s Automotive eco-competition. Having moved on from space, the X-Prize put up $25 million for the first vehicle to reach 100mpg. At 300mpg the Aptera has a great shot at winning

Check out Aptera Motors, and the Aptera Myspace Page

via AutoblogGreen, San Diego Union Tribune, popsci , Wired, Automotive X Prize

Popularity: 28% [?]

Toyota has made some great progress with fuel-cell vehicles lately, and it’s just tested the newest version of it’s next generation fuel-cell vehicle, the FCHV.

The hydrogen fuel-cell car has a reported range of a whopping 480 miles! In tests, it was able to make a trip from Osaka to Tokyo, a 350 miles trip, and finished with 30% of it’s tank left.

While a lot of this range is based on a large tank (about twice as big as it’s predecessor), Toyota has made great strides in efficiency as well, improving 25% over the previous model.

A 480-mile range is a great advancement in fuel-cell vehicles, as it approaches the range of modern hybrid car. Just doing some quick math, we see that a 45mpg 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid, with a 12.3 gallon tank, has a maxiumi potential range of about 553 miles.

So it appears hydrogen has finally reached the efficiency of modern gas vehicles. Now that the technology is finally here, the infrastructure is now the biggest hurdle to a consumerized version, but we’re on our way!

via Engadget, Reuters

Popularity: 26% [?]

The Windspire is is a practical, quiet green energy device, and could just get a shot as mass consumer adoption.

It’s a 1 kW, vertical-rotating, bird friendly wind turbine. It super quiet at 25 db, “the average noise of a residential neighborhood at night”, which is great for residential uses.

It’s a bit expensive at $4,000, but it can produce up to 2,000 kWh per year. It’s a great way to offset some of your grid-power with all-natural, sustainable wind power.

Bird friendliness is also important to this design. You’re not going to hurt any animals using this, and in a residential environment with lots of birds, that’s crucial.

All-in-all this is a brilliant design that could really get some consumer attention if it was a bit cheaper. The low noise is great for a residential environment, and it’s small enough to fit in an average backyard as well. Most importantly, it’s bird friendly so you’ll take care of your local wildlife as well as the global climate.

Windspire

via Treehugger

Popularity: 15% [?]

Well we’ve been seeing a whole bunch of new electric vehicle concepts, securing the age-old idea that we’ll all drive electric cars in the near future.

Unfortunately electric cars still have a problem with range. Most of them are very energy efficient, but still can’t drive very far without needing a recharge.

Mitsubishi has put some innovative ideas into the iMIEV to solve this problem. Use green energy!

The iMIEV features a solar panel on the roof and two compact wind turbines in the front to generate electricity. Along with solar and wind, the iMIEV has a regenerative braking system, which uses braking friction to generate electricity.

These technologies help recharge the car’s battery and helps to improve the car’s range. The solar roof alone adds about 20 miles to the range. It’s not much, but every little bit helps, and if it’s green energy, all the better!

In addition to the green power, the car features LED based lighting, heat-absorbing window glass, and green plastic – a plastic made from plant resin.

It’s great to see some innovative thinking in creating a green car, it’s ideas like this which will give us the car of the future, not just a simple concept.

via Treehugger

Popularity: 27% [?]

AutoblogGreen has posted a list of the top 10 eco-friendly RVs.

Now, RVs aren’t exactly known to be green; they guzzle gas. This list has some impressive vehicles however.

Here are some of my favourites:

Modern Park Trailer

This one looks more like a small office building on wheel than an RV, but contained in this large-windowed RV is a bathroom, living room, and even a bedroom and closet. Pretty cool!

VW Westfalia Concept

This one really makes me want to dress in tie-die, get high, and follow a band around for the summer. While it might remind you of the old hippie vans, this concept has one modern high-tech upgrade: it’s solar powered.

Solar powered hippie van? Can you get any more cool?

GMC Pad Concept

This one looks so cool it has to get a mention. It’s only a concept right now, but the design is striking. The inside is apparently “all about media display” and check out these pictures to see what that means:

These are some great examples of some green RVs and RV concepts. Good to see RVs taking to green technology!

Read the whole list from AutoblogGreen

Popularity: 19% [?]

The Powercost is a home energy monitor, allowing you to see how much electricity you use.

The Powercost will tell you how much your energy is costing you as well, allowing you to see the effects of any green initiatives you’re trying in your home. You will be able to see exactly how much energy you are using, seeing this will help to motivate you to reduce you consumption, and save some money while you’re at it!

It’s easy to install and only includes 2 pieces. The sensor is separate from the display, so unlike some other monitors, the display can be placed anywhere and is not required to be on an outlet.

If you live in Ontario and have Hydro One as your energy provider, you are actually eligible for a free Powercost unit. Give them a call and get yours!

If you’re outside of Ontario, you can get your own Powercost for $150.

via Treehugger

Popularity: 18% [?]

Do you remember wind-up toys? I used to prefer those over the battery kind since your didn’t have to wait 6-8 hours for a charge.

Well in addition to those simple toys, wind-up power has moved into the lighting industry.

This wind-up lamp is powered by a high-carbon tensile steel spring, which basically means it’s going to last a long time. With a super-efficient LED bulb, you could get some great charge time!

In addition to a green power source (human power), it’s going to have power whenever you need it, and not when you don’t. You’ll no longer have to worry about losing your lighting in a power outage, or wasting electricity if you forget to turn it off. Great green innovation!

This isn’t available for purchase yet, it’s only a design. It’s a great idea however, and is already used in wind-up emergency flashlights. I could see this technology becoming a lot more widespread.

via Keetsa

Popularity: 21% [?]

This monitor is a mash-up of a bunch of different pieces of information to create a better view of your energy usage and costs.

It gets information about time-of-day costs and local weather, and combines this with your energy usage. This allows you to see what usage times are costing you the most, let’s you see when your usage is unusually high, and lets you predict when your bill is going to spike.

This monitor has the benefit of using additional sources of information to help you better analyze your electricity usage.

This is being tested in select markets before hitting the shelves soon. If you are in New York city, you can get one for testing from Consumerpowerline. If you’re outside New York, you’re outside the testing area, but send them an email anyway and you might be able to get your hands on one.

via Treehugger

Popularity: 20% [?]