Unless you have a green roof, odds are the roof of your home produces quite a bit of rain water run-off. Even though most homes have a gutter and drainage system, the water falling on the surface area of your roof would really be watering a natural landscape area normally. I was wondering how the most common system of gutters could some how be put to better use, and I found one. 

This use is called a rain water tank or rain barrel. This barrel collects the rain that would otherwise be runoff into natural areas of land which normally would not receive such a downpour. If you ever wondered exactly how much water your home sheds off there is a simple equation to do so. This equation is: One inch of rain on a 1000 square foot roof yields 623 gallons of water. That’s a lot of gallons! 

Many rain water tanks are installed to make use of naturally falling soft rain water for home use, to reduce water usage, and to aid a home’s self-sufficiency. In very arid climates, rain collecting barrels are often used to store water during the wet seasons for use during dry periods.. Though many utilize their tanks, which come in many different sizes, to store the water. Later, this reservoir can be used even for watering the lawn through a sprinkler system 

To learn more about water tanks use this link to inform yourself and continue to think green! 

-LINKS-

water tanks

As always art imitates life… or is it the other way around? They come so close any more that it is hard to tell which came first. While watching the new “Simpson’s Movie” I realized that sometimes the best way to get a point across is to exaggerate it. Before you read any further, I would like disclose that this article may include spoilers if you have not seen the movie yet. 

In the movie there were many warnings of destroying the planet. With one family and humor they were able to capture different angles of the debate on global warming. Lisa as always is trying to make the world a better place and represents the activists. She spends her time trying to educate people on the failure of their ways and how it will affect future generations. But that analogy is easy. In the movie Lisa warns Springfield if they don’t change their ways that they will destroy the environment. To this the residents just scoffed as if it did not concern them until Lisa stated that the water they had been drinking through the night was from their very polluted lake near by. This got their attention and helped them understand the immediacy of the problem. This is the exaggeration that I was speaking of. You cannot show someone an issue and have them respect it unless you can show them how it will directly affect them. 

Homer is the ignorant (not stupid) everyday person that does not really have a preference as to what is right or wrong. He just does what is easiest. This category is probably the category that contains most of the population. These people do not really have any idea that things they do can affect the environment and as so destroy their environment without knowing it. Burning plastic cups in a bonfire, throwing garbage out the window while driving, and making 40 copies of a power point presentation instead of e-mailing it to the attendees. In “The Simpson’s Movie” Homer was sitting in line to have his hazardous waste to be taken care of properly, when he hears that there is a doughnut sale, instead of waiting he does the easy thing… well according to him it is easier… he drives through many pylons and a fence and throws his trash into the lake. This dumping is the final straw for the lake and starts the beginning of the end for Springfield. The government traps Springfield in a bubble because they are “the most polluted city in the world.” They are locked in the bubble so that they cannot spread their filth to the rest of the planet. 

Don’t let your town get trapped in a bubble, find your own analogies and see how humor can help make a point of a very real problem go see the movie. 

-LINKS-

Ignorant Definition

Usually, when you think about consumer-grade batteries either a copper top or fuzzy, pink bunny come to mind, but there may soon be other major competitors coming to the shelves. While looking into fuel cells I stumbled across a category of batteries known as bio batteries. They run on all natural ingredients and their popularity seems to picking up quite a bit of speed in the science communities. 

Sony is one company who seems to be taking a lead in this sector. Sony is actually one of the world’s largest makers of batteries and have now developed one which runs on sugar (carbohydrates)! This is pretty interesting, and so far the test batteries have shown the ability to produce 50 milliwatts (the world’s current record for level of power production for passive-type bio batteries). This seems impressive because it is a record-setter, but what about powering products consumers buy on the shelves? Combining four power units together is sufficient enough to operate most MP3 players and cell phones. 

Another interesting bio battery appeals to both energy conservators and bar-folk alike. That’s correct, a battery which runs on gin and vodka. Scientists from the St. Louis University in Missouri have created a battery that uses enzymes as a catalyst to break down ethanol fuel. So far it seems enzyme-based batteries like these have the more serious potential to be cheaper than their direct competitors because the other fuel cells rely on expensive platinum or ruthenium catalysts. Though, because enzyme-using batteries are sensitive to slight changes in pH and temperature they still need to overcome the hurdle of quickly degrading and become inactive. 

Both of these technologies seemed to stand out to me while researching bio batteries, but there are others out there. Who knows who will end up taking the lead in the mass-production market. Whoever it is, the company will surly be aiming to create an effective energy source which will be suitable for practical applications such as the cell phone and the like. 

-LINKS-

copper top 
pink bunny 
Sony 
vodka 
gin

Introduction 

The iPod has gone through many changes and the most recent change is no different. I undertook the most vicious process of anyone here at Greener Thinking. I had to use a brand new iPod to test its relevance in environmental talks. Dang new and cool gadgets that need to be used! Well some one had to sacrifice for the good of Greener Thinking. 

Testing Process 

During the testing phase, I sank the iPod with my computer to transfer songs and T.V. shows to do the eventual testing of the battery and compare it to my old trusty iPod Photo. 

Review 

Battery Testing: I ran the battery to nothing while listening to music to see how long it would hold up. What is amazing is that the battery actually exceeded the Apple estimate of 40 hours. 40 hours is quite a bit longer than I have ever listened to my iPod Photo, which was lucky to push eight hours. I had to keep myself from getting side tracked, I mean think about it, you need sleep some time between there! I believe that Apple is really heading in the right direction with the battery in music. My video battery test resulted in the same, Apples estimate proved accurate. I still think that 7 hours for any device is still a little on the weak side, but it is much better than their previous attempt at 3 hours. 

Style: It’s an iPod. The layout is starting to look a little dated, but there is still nothing that can come close. The new aluminum faceplate is extremely nice especially for its scratch resistance. The new GUI is pretty nice, but doesn’t really add to the experience until you get all the cover art for your music. Apple does have a feature that allows you to download all the cover art it can match to your music collection for free. The only drawback is that you need to create an Apple account and give them your credit card information. One very large drawback to the interface on this revision is more about the expectations I had for this new iPod. I had expected the large 160 GB iPod to come with the new iPhone like control interface and WiFi capability which is a little bit of a downer. 

Quality: It’s an iPod. All iPods seem to have a certain expensive feel to them. iPod quality has actually stepped up with this release and the new aluminum face. 

Packaging: The quality of the packaging and size are a huge improvement to the old iPod Photo in size, quality, and security of the iPod in the box. Its smaller size should help the transport of more iPods with fewer emissions. There seems to be all the same accessories in the box that came with my iPod Photo, in the iPod Classic box, except the power brick. So now the only way to charge your iPod without your computer is to buy the power brick separately. 

Overall: The iPod Classic is a decent upgrade to the iPod line. There are only two reasons for iPod with video users to consider the upgrade: longer battery life and the larger storage. If neither of these applies to you I would recommend sticking with what you currently have. If you are currently using an older iPod then I would have you consider getting either the iPod Classic or look into the new iPod Touch based on your needs. If you need lots of space for all your T.V. shows, Movies and Music then choose the iPod Classic. If you would like a bigger screen to watch your T.V. shows and movies on, and you don’t have that many plus you would like to surf the net at any hotspot I would recommend looking into the iPod Touch. 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 

-PICTURES-

I have just received the new iPod Classic 160 GB. I have had little time to run experiments on battery life and I am currently converting video to run the video tests. As I stated before I will be comparing a little differently. I will be comparing a 60 GB iPod Photo to the new 160 GB iPod Classic to help those who have not gotten a new iPod in a while whether it is worth the upgrade. Today I am going to go over the quality of the packaging and the interface. 

One area that Apple really succeeds in that no one ever realizes is the packaging. They have continuously made the packaging smaller and use less material. Many people are not like me and they throw away the box the second they get their iPod, so it is good to know that there will be less packaging going into landfills. You could fit about three iPod Classic boxes into one of the iPod Photo boxes. This means that when iPods are shipped from the factory they take up less space and they can ship more iPods with fewer emissions. Really even the shipping box that the iPod Classic shipped in barely compares to the iPod Photos retail box. 

The iPod has always strived to be the most easily controlled media player on the market. With the iPod Photo it intuitively began to skip between the letters of the alphabet while scrolling fast, but it was hard to see where you had ended up and when you stopped and started, it would go song by song again. A new feature I found with the iPod Classic is that when it starts to skip through the letters of the alphabet it shows which letter it is on. As long as you are still touching the wheel and you have gotten to the letter switching speed it will stay in that mode. For example you start in the letter A but you need to go to the letter S for “Smashing Pumpkins” you would scroll fast until it begins showing the letter that you are on, on the screen. Then you can slow down and go letter by letter until you get to the letter S and if you accidentally go to the letter T then you can easily just back up. 

Another thing that the new iPod does is show you animated images of what menu option you currently have selected, so if you are over music it will start to show album art that is in your music collection on the right pane of the interface. Also when in the album view it shows a picture of the album and tells you how many songs are in the album, which can be helpful. I have also noticed that the new iPod Classic is much thinner than the iPod Photo. One last obvious thing, the new iPod Classic has a much bigger screen made for playing video. Many people already know some of these things from the last iPod refresh. 

Here are some pictures comparing the boxes to each other along with the shipping box compared to the old iPod Photo retail box. 

-Pictures-

With summer dwindling away and temperatures beginning to drop, perhaps many of you will soon begin thinking about turning the heat on. I know, I shouldn’t have brought it up, but it’s really not that far off. In fact, with temperatures here in Waterford, MI getting into the 40’s at night last weekend, maybe some people already did crank the heat on. Well, if you’re still using an old slide thermostat to manually set the temperature, maybe it’s about time you started looking at upgrading to a newer, energy efficient, programmable thermostat. This investment could quickly pay itself off if you’re like most people and are gone a good portion of the day. This way, you can set the temperature to go much lower during the cold months at night and when you’re at work so that you’re not heating the house when you don’t have to be. There are all kinds of different models out there. Here are just a few examples of some Energy Star compliant models that are available at Home Depot. If you’re going to shop around, listed below are a few models that I’ve heard are some of the best that are also reasonably priced… 

Brand            Model                             Approx Price
Lux               TX9000                            $60
Lux               TX1500                            $50
Hunter           Set & Save 44360              $55 

Good luck, we hope you take our advice and get a programmable thermostat. If so, please let us know how much you are saving on your energy bills by emailing us by clicking on the “Contact Us” link above. 

-LINKS-

Programmable Thermostat 
Home Depot

We have on several occasions on this site promoted the use of compact flourescent light bulbs. And for good reason; they use far less energy than an incandescent bulb and last much longer. However, as we’ve also mentioned they do contain small amounts of mercury which is damaging to the environment. Luckily, some companies have made it easy to recycle these bulbs so that the mercury can be removed and used in future fluorescent bulbs. Sylvania, a maker of CFL’s, is one such company that offers a simple solution for recycling them. You purchase a kit on their website and fill it up with old, used CFL bulbs and then simply use the prepaid shipping label that comes with it to send it back. This allows you to avoid spending time looking for a local place that recycles them and you don’t even have to leave your home. They sell the kit for consumers which can fit about 12 small bulbs or 8 medium to large ones for $15. At first thought, you may think that spending the extra money to recycle these doesn’t seem to fit with our philosophy of saving money here at Greener Thinking. However, even adding in the extra cost of recycling these CFL’s, they still save you a lot of money in energy costs in the long run. 

Here is a list of additional info on recycling CFL’s… 
Lamp Recycling 
EPA 
Earth 911 

-LINKS-

Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs 
Sylvania 
RecyclePak 
Lamp Recycling 
EPA 
Earth 911

Nearly 56 million people (most of them kids) spend a decent portion of their time in schools both public and private. Sometimes these buildings can contain inhibiting environmental conditions concerning learning and often pose increased risks to the health of staff and children. I wondered if there have been any advancements in this particular area, or weather schools just continued to be built just the same as ever. 

After doing some research, I’m happy to say that there are some strides being made. One great resource I came across is developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The site lists several Healthy School Environment Resources. These include: 

Chemical Use & Management, Design, Construction and Renovation, Energy Efficiency, Environmental Education, Facility Operations and Maintenance, Indoor Environmental Quality, Legislation and Regulation, Outdoor Air Pollution, Portable Classrooms, Safety/Preparedness, School Facility Assessment Tools, Waste, Waste Reduction, and Water. 

More than enough areas are categorized to cover the bases and beyond are listed. I checked many out and found them to be quite helpful. Using the information listed here is a great way to get help with any of the above issues weather you are an administrator or a student. There are also lists of links which contain resources outside of the EPA concerning the same sort of material. 

The EPA has also come up with a great tool which you can download here called HealthySEAT. This software allows you to evaluate and manage school facilities for key environmental, safety and health issues. HealthySEAT also includes some critical regulatory elements and voluntary programs for schools, in addition to web links for more detailed information. This looks pretty interesting to me, and the best part is… it’s free! 

-LINKS-

kids 
Environmental Protection Agency 
site 
here 
buildings