Eco Tutor: Solar Heating for your Home

This guest article was kindly written by Ron Bean of The Green Chameleon. It’s a great introduction to domestic Solar Heating and how it all works.

It’s that time of year again – time to break out the sweaters, winter coats and watch those winter heating bills go up every month. Chances are that along with those monthly energy bills, you’re also contributing to global warming.

If your home uses a conventional gas-fired furnace, or fuel-oil, both of which are fossil fuels, which generate greenhouse gases. If you have electric heat, you are indirectly generating greenhouse gases, since the electricity needed to power electric heaters is often provided by coal-burning electric power plants.

But what if you could keep your home toasty warm all winter long, generate zero greenhouse gases and your monthly heating bill was zero? That’s right, I said zero – as in nada, nothing at all. (more…)

Solar-Powered Nintendo Wii System

The team over at Tom’s Hardware Guide have had a flash of inspiration and created a new eco gadget, a solar powered Wii gamestation. Using a high-def screen, a Wii, solar panel, inverter and heavy duty battery, they’ve created a slightly odd looking portable and green entertainment device. The whole system gives them an estimated 8 hours of playing time, however, the charging time via solar panel is a little longer than that. (more…)