Tag: energy | Apartment Therapy

How To: Insulate with Bubble Wrap

We've blogged about a bubble wrap "stained glass window" before, but bubble wrap also works as a great insulator when it's cold. See how to use leftover packaging to decrease your heating bill, afte...

The Most Useless Energy-Related Products?

Have you ever heard of an energy retrofit that just sounded too good to be true, like insulating paint or passive fresh air inlets? This list has some obvious picks, but a couple on here might just ...

Biomass Stove Converts Heat to Electricity

Being developed mainly for third world countries, the SCORE (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electric) stove converts heat into acoustic energy and then into electricity through a linear altern...

AT on... Energy Savings, 2008 vs 2009

Yesterday, while paying the electric bill online, we realized we have been in our current apartment for more than a year — meaning that, thanks to our city's utility site, we could compare our...

How To: Weatherize Your Home

Did you know that the amount of heat escaping through cracks in the average house is equivalent to having an open window year round? Inadequate insulation and air leakage are the leading causes of ...

NEWS: Stimulus Package Provides 78.6 Billion for Green

The $787 billion economic stimulus package that President Obama signed last Tuesday included $78.6 billion for energy tax breaks, green infrastructure projects and other green energy initiatives &md...

Weekend Project: Install a Storm Door

We’re not sure what the weather is like for all you readers, but here in Chicago we are officially in Fall mode – the temperature went from 80 to 60 in a matter of a weekend. It’s about this tim...

Saturday: ASES National Solar Tour 2008

AT provides our readers with house tours to see how people across our sites are living green – haven’t you ever wanted to see one in person? The ASES National Solar Tour is the largest grassroots...

Green Power: Use The Hamster Wheel

Teenage inventor, Peter Ash, has designed a way to put his pet hamster to good use - by attaching his hamster's wheel to a generator he is able to charge his cell phone off the grid. "I thought the w...

Green Lighting: Solar Powered LED Pavers

We came across this project for one of our clients and just had to share it because it’s so cool and easy. The solar LED pavers are powered by the sun during the day and provide light night. They a...

Good Question: How Much Energy do Computers Really Use?

(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first. Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: green(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com) SF Gail asked this questio...

Sun Run Generation, LLC: Cheap Solar Energy at Fixed Pricing...NOW

Nat Kreamer of Sun Run Generation, LLC I hope the following statement sinks in because it is truly the crux of how the energy revolution begins: You can have solar panels on your house without ownin...

Solar and Wind Photovoltaic ‘Leaves’

The GROW hybrid energy system is a naturally inspired mechanism of flexible, leaf-like solar panels that harness both solar and wind energy. Check out how the "leaves" shimmer...quite beautiful and me...

Highways Could Heat Your Home

These workers are installing a system that works like radiant flooring in reverse. The pipes within the road capture the waste solar heat from roads and transfers it elsewhere, so it can be used to h...

The Paperless Home, explained

High quality image: see NYTimes article linked below If you were a bit stumped by our post yesterday on the paperless home, check out this New York Times Article titled "Pushing Paper Out the Door."...

Hot or Not? The ecobutton

The ecobutton. Its creators say its a visual reminder to power down your computer -- plug it into a USB port and it lights up, and then when you leave your desk for any extended amount of time, push...

Green Idea: Elastomeric Roof Coatings

If a 40,000 square foot commercial roof can benefit from a reflective roof there is no reason that the same technology could not benefit a regular urban home. Elastomeric coatings, also known as whit...

5 Ways to Insulate Your Windows for Winter

While looking into the best way to insulate our drafty windows this winter (apart from replacing them), we put together this mini-guide of solutions we found so far. For the pros and cons of everyth...