Hi all,
Many of you know me from my work either as a graduate student in Environmental Planning at ASU or from my work at the Urban Farm in Phoenix. Well I have recently launched a new venture which includes an extensive webportal and television show called Smart Spaces: Inside & Out.
Each week we publish a new article on just how we can live a greener lifestyle. The article includes an Innovative Idea that is designed to spark your thinking in this area. I have included below this weeks Innovative Idea. I would like to invite you to subscribe (it's free) to our weekly tip here.
Again I want to thank you all for your awesome continued support of the work that I do. I feel blessed each day that I get to follow my heart and will continue to do it for a very long time.
Greg Peterson
June 11, 2007 Innovative Idea
This weeks article is the forward from a really great tool that helps you figure out the size of your ecological footprint. Our ecological footprint reflects as the impact of our everyday choices on the natural environment and believe it or not the cumulative effect of the choices that we make every day can make a difference.
"Anyone who knows me knows that for more than 25 years I've been preaching that at a small percentage of [us] changing the way [we] shop and the way we live can be a powerful force for good in the environment, says Joel Makower, Editor of The Green Consumer Letter.
EarthScore provides a cool scoring system designed to help us measure our personal impact with the idea that by understanding our individual habits and lifestyles, over time, we can identify where we can truly make a difference. Please read our article of the week for more information on the topic at Smart Spaces TV.
We look forward to your comments, interactions and feedback.
Greg Peterson
Editor
SmartSpacesTV.com
Greg@SmartSpacesTV.com
PS. Got a great tip you want to share? Visit Smart Spaces TV connect and share it.
1 comment:
Dear Greg,
How does one survive Peak Oil? What can we do to protect ourselves, when we begin sliding down the other side of the Peak Oil curve?
I live in upstate New York, near pine trees, and an abandoned, moss-covered loose stone wall running through the forest, marking some forgotten farmer's century-old property line. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in rural America. This is a suggestion for those who do.
I have two stoves I use with varying regularity for heat. In the basement is my corn pellet stove. My wood stove is in the living room.
Until last year, the only purpose for these stoves was to heat the house. Then I found a website, www.hilkoil.com, offering a new kind of water-heater. Instead of using oil or gas or electricity, it uses the heat from a stove. Any kind of stove. I decided to install the water-heater in my woodstove, since that's the one I use the most.
They call it a "Thermo-Bilt Coil", and it's a loop of stainless steel. It actually goes inside the stove. I just cut two holes in the side, near the stovetop, with the holesaw bit included in the kit. I think the whole kit cost me less than $125. I finished the rest of the installation in record time. If you're not the handy type, your regular handyman should also have an easy time installing it. Thermo-Bilt provides a good set of instructions (which are not written by someone in a foreign country)!
This doesn't mean I am cutting out my regular water heater. When I'm not using the stove, I just turn on the electricity breaker for my hot water tank. If instead I use my woodstove, the hot water goes straight from there, into the regular (turned off, electric) hot water tank.
It works so good. The stainless steel coil heats my water to the same hot temp as my electric tank. It easily paid for itself the first winter. Now my "free" hot water is not only reducing my bills, I believe it is also shrinking my energy footprint on the earth.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Madon
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