Village Homes: A Model for Sustainable Suburbs

...ntelligence. For instance, the homes are all designed according to passive solar principles, so their heating and cooling bills are considerably reduced. Some have even have green roofs. But more interesting is the landscaping, the massive network of bike/walking paths and the creative use of public space. The entire development is essentially a big food forest. All of the rainfall is captured and instead of being directed to the sewer system, it...

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Lights Made from Soda Bottles

...Via Make Blog, a clever homebrew solar light made from soda bottles. I’m a bit skeptical about how you could make these watertight, but for an outbuilding or patio roof they might make for a nice low cost alternative to solar tubes or skylights....

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Bubble Wrap Your Windows

Photo by Nick Lowe From the remarkable folks at Build It Solar comes this heating conservation tip – bubble wrap your windows. Simply cut sheets of bubble wrap to fit your windows, apply some water with a spray bottle and before it dries stick the bubble wrap on the glass. While you can buy special bubble wrap designed for greenhouses, according to Build It Solar, regular bubble wrap will probably work just as well. If you number the pieces you u...

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Simple Tech

...r and scrap wood rather than cutting down whole trees to make charcoal for cooking. Rocket stoves if adopted in wide numbers, have the potential to slow deforestation. Another example is a wheelchair made out of the ubiquitous plastic lawn chair developed by an organization called the Free Wheelchair Mission. At just $44 a chair to manufacture and ship, the Free Wheelchair Mission hopes to, as they put it, “Transform lives through the gift of mobi...

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Saturday Tweets: Dumb Appliances, Chinatown Produce,

...po12wOLpI — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 6, 2017 https://t.co/SKIBofeNZS: Solar Cooking with the Solavore Oven (“Moron’s Mea… https://t.co/gIDicJqrtl — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 6, 2017 I love how Metro construction downtown has created narrower bike-friendly streets and extra wide pedestrian crossings. Can we keep them? pic.twitter.com/zxe1GfravV — Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) May 3, 2017 The Real Reason Chinatown Produce is Crazy Cheap | SA...

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