In my quest to continue finding items of interest I believe Linda would love to see posted during her absence, I came across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and it’s Solar Decathlon’s solar power housing submission from Team China.

Solar Powered Housing Simple Affordable

The U.S. DOE “contest” poses the question, “How to design, build and operate solar powered housing” with emphasis on cost effectiveness and energy efficiency, all the while being pleasing to look at and live in.

Team China has stepped up to the plate addressing the affordability question with excellent, potential results.

As you can see by the video, their solar powered housing provides plenty of outdoor living area, collects and filters rainwater for personal use, all the while using energy efficient, super insulating materials. Their solar power housing naturally ventilates itself and is most definitely a “sustainable design.”

Now to Get Team China’s Solar Powered Housing to Washington

The next step that is vital to competing will be for Team China to disassemble their six recycled shipping containers and get their entry to Washington. This should be a breeze for their team since, conveniently enough, their solar powered housing Y shape use of shipping containers makes for a super simple shipping solution.

The U.S. Department of Energy says you are paying about $100.00 a year for nothing and the EPA estimates that this nothing consumes $4 billion worth of power each year. Equivalent to the power generated by 12 power plants.

This energy Black Hole is the total of all those appliances that still draw power even when the power buttons are switched “off”. The average house hold has between 20-25 of these appliances that have electronic controls or smart features that still pull energy while “playing possum.” (more…)

The first American Flag sewn by Betsy Ross was made of Hemp!

Recycled aluminum cans has saved 15 million barrels of oil per year.
This is the amount of energy it would take to manufacture new cans
had the recycled ones been tossed. (more…)