Practical Eco

Solar Powered Air Conditioning from Green Core

Last year around this time we ran a piece on a solar air conditioning unit being offered for commercial use made up from an Apricus Hot Water system with a Yazaki absorption chiller (see story here.) 

Now another solar air conditioning system to run across our radar is the Green Core system. This one instead of using efficient solar thermal, relies on solar photovoltaic with a battery backup system to run the unit. It can be configured as a hybrid, using a small amount of grid electricity to charge its battery system, or with a larger collector, it can operate completely off-grid. And it offers an optional heating component so you can run both heating and cooling from the sun's rays.

The Green Core system can cool about a 600 square foot area so it's not a replacement for typical residential systems. Rather it's targeting modular class rooms, construction trailers, guard houses, remote offices and the like. There's a unit available on a wheeled trailer that is perfect for certain off-grid situations.

Low Cost Loofah houses

This comes under the category of inspirational.

In landlocked Paraguay, where poverty is widespread and resources are slim, an innovative social activist named Elsa Zaldívar has come up with a way to use common materials to build low cost homes.

She found a way to mix loofah – a cucumber-like vegetable that is dried to yield a scratchy sponge for use as abrasive skin scrubber – with other vegetable matter like husks from corn and caranday palm trees, with recycled plastic, to form strong, lightweight panels.

It's a little off-piste for this blog but I thought the story, which won a Rolex Award for enterprise, was worth reading. See the whole story here.

Greensboro to build new green library

The new McGirt-Horton Public Library in Greensboro which broke ground recently is aiming for LEED certification. The project is expected to take about a year from when construction begins in early '09.

The site of the project is the Phillips Avenue shopping plaza which is now owned by the city and will be called the Renaissance Center.

The 10,000-square-foot building is expected to cost $3.5 million which has been funded through a bond. It will have the following green features:

1. high, north-facing windows and sunlight-detecting light fixtures that dim when they are not needed cut down on electricity use for lighting.

2. A rainwater collection and storage system for watering the landscaping.

3. High-efficiency heating and air-conditioning units.

4. Environmentally friendly paints and carpet

For the full story on GoGreenTriad click here.

Habitat Building Materials Warehouse Sale: Sat Dec 13 8am-2pm

The Habitat Hand-Me-Up Store is having a building materials warehouse sale Sat., Dec. 13 at 1400 East Geer St. (½ mile east of Cheek Rd. intersection).  Support Habitat by purchasing gently used (and some new) merchandise including laminate flooring, windows, doors, sinks, commodes, cabinets, rugs, nails, and so much more. 

What will be on sale? Kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, laminate flooring, hardwood flooring, floor moulding, tile, countertops, windows, interior doors, exterior doors, fire doors, attic ladders, sinks, nails, toilets, rugs, bathtubs, light fixtures, recessed lights, lumber, trim, crown moulding, shutters, pipe hangers, clevis hangers, pipe clamps, square box, switch box, white wire shelving,  various brackets, and lots more.  Items are either gently used or brand new.

Also, save the date for a future warehouse sale on Jan. 10.  Please note that the warehouse is only open for business on the sale date. 

Visit the website or call 919-403-8668 for more information.