The Good Energy Shop

Energy Saving News

Pay as you save proposed for 7m British homes
The UK Green Building Council, a government advisory body, has made a radical proposal to increase energy efficiency in 7 million UK homes. The group has put forward a plan for a scheme that would give homeowners access to up to £10,000 for energy conservation efforts, which they could then repay through increased council tax.

The importance of energy efficiency is finally being recognised as a vital tool for emissions reductions. As we reported last week, the US could save $1.3 trillion and a gigaton of electricity usage a year simply through energy-saving measures in industry. Now that’s a lot of emissions. In the UK, household emissions account for a quarter of our total, largely through lack of insulation and inefficient appliances. Tackling household emissions will be a key part of our low carbon transition.

"This innovative proposal would provide the finance to trigger a revolution in household refurbishment, creating thousands of new jobs and significantly cutting emissions. Both government and opposition have voiced their support for the principles of a scheme like this – what's needed is to get on with it," Paul King, Chief Executive of the Building Council, told the Guardian last week.

The idea is that councils could take a Local Land Charge out on each house so that the costs would be reflected to the house rather than the owner. Then if the house is sold, the additional cost will be passed on to the next owner. It is thought that the huge savings on electricity and gas bills will offset the higher council tax.

The proposal has not had the best response from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), who are wary of using local councils as funding mechanisms. DECC wants energy-saving initiatives to come from power companies.

Developers claim £80 a year bills for new homes
Property developers Saxon Weald have just built some showcase houses in West Sussex that boast such stringent energy-efficiency measures that their annual electricity bills will be as low as £80. Built to meet level five of the government’s sustainable housing code the properties come equipped with solar panels, rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pumps and energy-conserving insulation and double glazing.

With average electricity bills currently around £500 this proves how much can be achieved with decent energy saving standards.

More on the story at the Energy Savings Trust.

Light lane goes into production
One of our first posts on this blog was about a concept product called the Light Lane. An ingenious idea that projects a bike lane onto the road for cyclists so that cars know to keep their distance.

The concept got such an overwhelming response that the design team decided to put it into production, and are now building a prototype. Keep up to date with them at their site - http://lightlanebike.com

And watch the prototype video:

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Shop Team

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Product of the future: charging mobile phones from thin air

According to phone giant Nokia, within the next few years its phones should be chargeable through “ambient airwaves.” This is good news for those of us who forget to charge our phones too often and have wished we could charge them out of thin air.

Now excuse us for getting all scientific on you, but here’s how it works: Loads of stuff in the air has small amounts of energy in it. Like radiowaves and TV signals for example. A device can be made to capture this energy and use it. The device can be made small enough to fit into a mobile phone.

So far the invention can only capture a tiny amount of energy needed, not enough to actually charge the phone. But researchers at Nokia’s Cambridge labs are confident that in a few years time they will be up to scratch.

As any regular reader will know, we’ve got a bit of a thing for phone chargers and a pet hate for people leaving them on when not in use. They consume far too much energy, even when your phone isn’t plugged in, so ridding the world of them would be a good thing.

For now, the best option is to charge your phone with solar power – see our handheld solar phone chargers at the shop.

And if you would like to get heat from thin air - take a look at our new air source heat pump.

Good Energy Shop team

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Product of the future: The Kyoto box

Okay this is not really one for our homes here in England, but this seems a great idea and is worth drawing attention to. The Kyoto Box is this year’s winner of the $75,000 Climate Prize for ideas to fight global warming.

It is a very simple solar stove that can be produced for $5 for use in rural Africa, and it could save an estimated 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. It consists simply of two cardboard boxes with a layer of straw between them for insulation, an acrylic hob top to let the sun into the black painted chamber and some foil to direct the sun inwards. Amazingly this contraption can be used for boiling, frying and baking.

So not only will this prevent burning of wood or gas to cook with, it will also have significant health benefits due to a reduction of smoke inhalation in the home – a common problem in many African communities.

The design is so simple it can be produced with only minor tweaks at existing cardboard box factories, as has just happened with the first batch in Nairobi.

Mr Boehmer, the designer, also hopes these cookers will be eligible for carbon credits, meaning that the Kyoto Box could even turn a profit for their owners.

Hats off to the man!

Product of the future: Soil lamp

Did you know that you can generate electricity from soil? No neither did we, until we found this soil lamp by Dutch designer  Marieke Staps. Most soil naturally contains conductive materials like copper and zinc, and the energy can be harnessed to power an LED bulb. All it needs is a bit of water every now and again, simple. 

Good Energy Shop team

Greener Gadgets Design Awards

New York, March.

Not really! We’re still in Chippenham, but the 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Awards winners have just been announced in New York. There were some great ideas this year, here’s a round up of our five favourites:

The Tweet-a-watt (winner)

  We are very familiar with electricity meters and think they are a wonderful thing (in fact, ours are better than this). This one is has been adapted to interact with your twitter account (a social networking tool) and displays your energy use to all your friends and contacts online. We like this idea a lot as it will make you look at your usage everyday (if only out of fear of embarrassment), and will spark competition between groups to see how low they can go.

http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/entry.php?projectid=63

The power hog (winner)

This product is designed to help kids learn about the cost of electricity, and the need to conserve it. You have to insert a coin to get 30 minutes of power for your appliance after which it cuts off. It’s a great visual device for a younger generation who will grow up with an ever increasing amount of electronic gadgets. With a good bit of parenting to boot this will be a useful way of highlighting the environmental impact of electricity. Although the smart ones may just pull this out when it runs out of juice… hmm.

http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/entry.php?projectid=50

The Laundry Pod (winner)

At a flea market recently I stumbled upon an 1950s machine clothes washer that was operated by hand, and wondered why these are no longer available. It’s essentially exactly the same as this, so obviously the judges were unaware of the old machines. But it’s good they could now be available again. You put your clothes in and then and soak in soapy water, hand pump the cylinder to dry them, and hey presto, no electricity used.

Oh and they are marketing it for being good at ladies undies!

http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/entry.php?projectid=56

Take away sink (runner up)

We throw so much water down the drain unnecessarily that could be well used again. This removable sink avoids that problem by allowing you to transport your dirty spud water over to your plants and your hand washing over to the clothes horse.

http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/entry.php?projectid=60


Fancy energy saving bulbs (runner up)

At the Good Energy Shop we don’t like it when people say that energy saving bulbs are ugly, because we have plenty of good looking ones. We haven’t got these in (yet) but we’re up for supporting anything breaking that silly old stereotype – these are real design pieces.

http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/entry.php?projectid=19

To see all the entries click here. http://www.core77.com/greenergadgets/index.php

If any of these products make it into production then we’ll try them out and if they pass our rigorous tests sell them at the Shop. If you would like to see any in particular let us know.

Michael

Good Energy Shop team

Product of the future: Whirlpool hydro power

In true mad scientist fashion a new way to harness hydro power has been accidentally discovered by an Austrian engineer in his back garden. Franz Zotloterer was actually trying to invent a system to aid water purification by creating a vortex in a natural swimming pond, and realised that he had created a useful source of power.
 
Instead of water channelling straight into a turbine, it is guided around in a circle to create a vortex, and then the turbine extracts the rotation energy to power a generator. One of the main advantages is that it means electricity can be generated without the need for an area with high falling waters, as with conventional hydro.

A prototype has been built in Austria and the results are good. The small 8kW plant is working up to 80% efficiency and has steadily produced 55,000kW of electricity so far. Zotloterer believes small scale plants could be made to 150kW.

Another upside is that the turbines doesn’t require a mesh to stop the flow of river bits and bobs, as they seem to pass with ease. And the same with fish, apparently they can swim even upstream through the turbine (their website says this needs to be licensed though. Those efficient Austrians, even the fish have swimming licences).

The design is apparently limited to small scale generation, but we love that at the Good Energy Shop.

We’ll keep an eye on this to see if we can get hold of them.

See the website here

Product of the future: Light lanes

Unless you live in Copenhagen where the cycle lanes are bigger than the car lanes, you will like this. 

Here is a design concept that gets our vote to go into prototype, a DIY cycle lane. A "product innovation firm" in the States called Altitude Inc have come up with the idea of cyclists being able to project their own safe zone onto the ground to ward off cars and lorries that brush too close to them. It's called the light lane concept.

If you've ever cycled around a town or city you'll know all too well that they weren't designed with bikers in mind, and that drivers are pretty intimidating when they play that game to see how close they can get. Cycle lanes are a God send, but every now and then, they stop, and you are on your own. 

It's odd, but people in cars do need a line drawn to tell them not to drive into you. Red may not be the best colour for colour blind drivers, but I'm sure that can be considered...

It's difficult to imagine the lines being constant with bikes wobbling about so much, and they'd have to be some pretty decent lasers. But if you like it write to Altitude and tell them to get on and make it! 

But for now, get behind our partner Sustrans, for real cycle lanes, and astounding work on sustainable transport.  

 

Transparent solar windows

Now here’s an exciting new idea – the world’s first (as far as we know) power generating window - transparent solar PV panels that generate between 80 and 250 watts. Okay so that’s not huge but it’s a good idea, and not a bad start. Especially when you read that the panes are thermal insulators too – either heating or cooling the room!

It all sounds a bit too good to be true doesn’t it? Hints of an Achilles heal appear in the press release from RSI solar – the company behind the product, which states “The RSi PV-Glass Window uses the sun’s light and heat, to generate electricity, reduce heat, and provide a semi-transparent display”. A semi transparent display? Doesn’t sound like a great window. Maybe a good natural light, but not a window! And funnily enough there are no pictures either - all the website seems to be is an invitation to the launch, which we can't go to because we can't travel back in time. 

Anyway, one to keep an eye on.