There are no plans available for the coop. Acuario just took a bit of time to think it out ahead of time and went to work. He even claims to be pretty bad with woodworking.

The tools he used to build the chicken coop are:

• jigsaw
• tape measure
• hammer
• electric screwdriver (drill with a bit)
• set square
• staple gun

This article isn’t really intended as a DIY article exactly. But, the design is relatively simple and should be able to be followed from the many pictures below.

Starting with a pile of pallets.

Build the sides up with posts at each corner to nail to.

Don’t forget to add an opening for the chickens!

A sheet of plastic was used to help keep rain out of the coop.

Easy access to the coop.

The chickens seem to like it. It is certainly better than what they can build on their own.

To see more details of the build you can check out Actuario’s forum thread on the chicken coop.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Chicken Coop Built From Old Pallets

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Opiesche claims these fixtures cost around $20 each to make from the following materials:

• 1/4″ plywood
• A strip of acrylic
• 1/2″ – 3/4″ binding posts and matching bolts
• Adhesive
• Aluminum L-profile
• LED modules
• LED power supply

The first thing that must be done is calculate how much light you want the LED fixture to put out. With the chart above, you can see a standard incandescent 60W light bulb puts out about 800 lumens. Each of the LED modules in the string puts out 70 lumens. So, you need roughly 11 of these LED modules to put out the same amount of light as a 60W fixture. If you want more light you need more modules in the string.

Now that we know how many modules we want, its time to size a power supply. These LED lights run off of 12V DC power, not 110V AC household power, so we need a 12V power supply. According to the specifications of these LED modules, each module consumes .7W (the reseller’s site is wrong). So, if we have 11 modules, we need at least a 7.7W power supply. For safety sake its definitely recommended to round upwards around 10%, so a 9W supply should be the minimum. If you have 3 or 4 of these fixtures running off the same power supply increase the power supply’s output accordingly.

Now, on to building the fixtures. Opiesche started with a 1/4″ thick plywood strip of wood as the backing plate. The shape of the plywood depends on the shape of the fixture you want. You’ll also want to figure out where the mounting holes and mounting points for the acrylic glazing will go, and drill holes for them at this time. Painting the plywood is optional depending on what you want the fixture to look like.

Next, a piece of acrylic is cut roughly 1″ (25cm) larger in each dimension than the plywood piece. Opiesche used a jigsaw with a fine blade to cut it. It is then cleaned and sprayed with a frosted glass spray on each side. Two coats are recommended for a nice frosted look.

Now, you need to figure out how you want the lights arranged. Keep in mind they are all attached, and you also need points to mount the light to the wall with a screw or something, and you also need mounting points for the acrylic glazing. Once you have figured it out, use your adhesive to glue the modules to the plywood. Be careful not to tug on the next module before the first is secure. Opiesche used locktite power grab, and said it worked pretty good.

Install the glazing mounting points. Once they are installed you can set the acrylic glazing on the mounting points and mark out where the holes need to be drilled. When drilling, start with a smaller drill bit than needed and use very little pressure to avoid cracking the acrylic. Once the smaller hole is drilled, move on to the necessary drill bit size and again use very little pressure to avoid cracking.

After the holes are drilled, you may mount the backing plate with LEDs on it to the wall or ceiling.

Finally, cut two pieces of aluminum L-profile to the length of the acrylic or slightly longer. Use your adhesive to glue it to the sides of the acrylic.

Once it is cured you are ready to bolt the acrylic glazing up to the LED fixture and you’re done!

The last step is purely cosmetic, and leaves plenty of room to make the fixture your own design. The trim could be replaced with a wood you like that is painted or stained, or any other material you like. Opiesche even made one without a trim piece around the sides if you’re just looking for a simpler look.

For more info on the LED fixture build, see Opiesche’s forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Simple and Great Looking LED Light Fixture

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He started with modifying one of the electric hot water heater tanks he got. It was first checked for any leaks, and then he went about installing a coil of 30 foot long 1/4″ copper refrigerant tubing into the tank through one of the heating coil holes. This is similar to what the A7 AirTap does. To seal the tubing entrance/exit points, he reused one of the hex plugs in the tank. It was drilled and tapped for 1/8″ npt fittings. He then inserted 1/8″ npt to 1/4″ compression fittings in the two holes. The 1/4″ tubing was fed through the compression fittings and the hex plug was re-installed in the water heater tank.

The next step was to get one of the dehumidifiers working. Hv23t found that one of the dehumidifiers had hardly any R22 refrigerant left in it, so he pumped some more refrigerant into it and it came right back to life.

Not happy with that setup, he used a vacuum pump to remove the R22, and instead filled it up with propane. To do this, Hv23t modified a propane torch tip by brazing a 1/4″ flare fitting to the end of it.

The new setup using propane (R290) reduced power usage from 435 – 450 watts down to 365 – 410 watts. He also measured the temperatures in the 140s (F) on the hot side. Sounds plenty warm for hot water.

With the dehumidifier now working and even having its inefficiency increased, it was time to hook the dehumidifier up to the hot water tank and do a little modification to the dehumidifier as well. The 1/4″ tubing from the tank was brazed to the hot side of the dehumidifier’s heat pump. At the same time, the existing heat exchanger from the hot side was replumbed into the cold side increasing the cold side heat exchanger’s surface area.

After everything was replumbed, the water heater was ready for its first test. The tank started at 67 degrees F (19.5 C) and after 1 hour and 51 minutes the heat pump kicked off at the hot water heater’s set point of 100F (38C).

The test was a great success, but of course there were some issues to fix up. The biggest one being that the cold side heat exchanger frosted up like a brick of ice. This significantly hinders its ability to exchange heat which reduces efficiency. We’ll look at that issue, the installation and efficiency testing of the heater in the next article.

For more details on this project, see Hv23t’s forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Heat Pump Water Heater From a Dehumidifier

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The clock requires 3 AA batteries. The batteries I will be using are what you see above. They are some nimh rechargeable batteries I nabbed from the local harbor freight. Any nimh battery will work, but you’ll have to change what solar panel you use according to what batteries you have to use in the clock.

Now that we know what batteries we’re going to use, we can figure out how to charge them. I did a bit of surfing to find some good info and came across this site:

How to charge nickle metal hydride batteries

“The cheapest way to charge a nickel metal hydride battery is to charge at C/10 or below (10% of the rated capacity per hour). So a 100 mAH battery would be charged at 10 mA for 15 hours. This method does not require an end-of-charge sensor and ensures a full charge. Modern cells have an oxygen recycling catalyst which prevents damage to the battery on overcharge, but this recycling cannot keep up if the charge rate is over C/10. The minimum voltage you need to get a full charge varies with temperature–at least 1.41 volts per cell at 20 degrees C. Even though continued charging at C/10 does not cause venting, it does warm the battery slightly.”

This is a great bit of info for us. It contains basically everything we need to figure out our solar setup. Prepare yourself for a little math and electronics speak as we delve into the world of charging batteries.

The batteries I am using are rated at 2200 mAh. The quote above says I can charge them at C/10 safely. C is the battery capacity which is 2200 mAh. This simply means that I can charge them at a rate of 2200/10 = 220 mA. So, I want to find a solar panel that puts out 220 mA or less to avoid doing any damage to my batteries. This is great news because it means I don’t need a charge controller or any additional circuitry to complicate things.

The next step is figuring out the solar panel voltage. Again, we’ll look at the quoted paragraph that says we need at least 1.41V per cell. Well, the clock is using 3 batteries, so we need to provide 3 x 1.41V = 4.23V. Unfortunately, you can’t just go out and buy a 4.23V solar panel. However, 5V and 6V panels are readily available. Either of these will work, but we have to figure out a way to get them to put out 4.23V.

I ended up purchasing the solar panel you see above from ebay. It is rated at 5V output and 200 ma. A 6V panel that is rated for 220 ma or less would work just fine too.

But, we still have to get the panel’s voltage down to 4.23V. To get this voltage drop is actually quite easy, and it is going to be done by another component we need for the solar setup anyway. That component is a diode. It is essentially a one way / check valve for electronics. The diode is not only going to provide a voltage drop down to 4.23V, but it also stops the solar panel from draining the batteries when the sun isn’t shining on them. All solar panel setups use these, and you can get them with different voltage drops.

To get the diode, I went to digikey.com. They have an insane amount of electrical components and shipping is pretty cheap too. This is the diode I selected if you want to use a 5V panel like me. It will provide an approximate voltage drop of .75V giving an output of 4.25V which is close enough for this application. Alternativly, if you wanted to use a 6V panel, this diode should work fine for you. It has a 1.75V drop and will give you a similar 4.25V output.

Once I get all these things in the mail we’ll start putting them together!

For the latest info and a bit more detail, see the forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Solar Powered Alarm Clock – Solar Panel Charger

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I started by doing some googling and amazoning, but wasn’t really able to find what I was looking for. All of the solar powered alarm clocks I found don’t have a back light that is on all night long, probably to increase battery life. My alarm clock is set out of reach, so a ‘push to light up button’ isn’t going to work for me. So, my search for an off the shelf solar powered alarm clock quickly came to an end.

What is a guy to do if he can’t find a product that fits his needs/wants? Well, if you’ve read EcoRenovator at all before (or if you read the title) you already know the answer, DIY!

What I did instead was started searching for some battery powered alarm clocks with the features I wanted. You can always add a solar charging circuit to something that has a rechargable battery in it. What I found was that there are a few alarm clocks out there that do have back lights that stay on all night, but turn off if there is light in the room. This was a nifty power saving feature that helped narrow down my selection. In the end, I selected the Elgin 3350E. Its even quite reasonably priced. I chose this clock over my second choice because it uses 3 AA batteries versus 3 AAA batteries and I’m betting that the AAs will last longer. However, the larger batteries also do give us another advantage that I’ll talk about in the next article when we figure out the second half of this setup, the solar panel charging.

Check out the next article in this series, DIY Solar Powered Alarm Clock – Solar Panel Charger.

If you’d like to see the latest news on the DIY solar powered alarm clock just hit the link to our forum.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Solar Powered Alarm Clock – Clock Selection

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Many different techniques have been discussed. The first mentioned is simply a finned aluminum tube that would radiate heat into the room. There was discussion of a thermally activated fan to improve heat recovery.

Another design brought to us via a youtube video (shown above). It shows a 55 gallon drum used as a heat exchanger. This is the only prototype that has some decent data that I’m aware of. As you can see, he is recovering a fair amount of heat with this relatively simple system.

Image from Builditsolar.com

Yet another design GaryGary (a forum user) is considering, is using a DIY version of a HRV type cross flow heat exchanger. GaryGary has already run some interesting tests showing that one load of laundry has roughly 4.5 kWh of heat available for recovery. That is over 15,000 BTUs. He claims this is his largest single electric load in his house.

So, if you have any interest in dryer heat recovery I’d suggest taking gander at the forum and see if anything looks like it might work out for you, or help others work out their system.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Clothes Dryer Heat Recovery Systems

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The next modification was adding a vent to the back of the fridge. The vent’s purpose is pretty simple. Ecomodded’s fridge has a fan that blows air over the heat exchanger coils. This air is drawn in from the bottom of the front of the fridge and exhausted out of the back of the fridge. The vent now directs the warmed air into the closet behind the fridge which keeps that warm air away from the fridge.

In addition to the vent, Ecomodded also added a flap in the fridge to hold some of the cool air in when the door is opened up. This is made from the same foam that was used on the outside of the fridge. It is flexible enough to still get at the food.

Last, but not least, he also loaded up the fridge with additional thermal mass in the form of water bottles. This helps displace cool air when opening the door and reduces short cycling.

All of these modifications resulted in an additional 14% reduction beyond the 38% initial reduction. The end result is a pretty nice .7 kWh usage per day. This was measured in the end with a kill a watt.

For more information on Ecomodded’s fridge, see his forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Eco-Modified Refrigerator Saves Energy & Money, Part 2

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The first thing he did was cover the back, sides, top, and area around the compressor with SolidBlack–MD Flooring Underlayment. It is actually a sound deadening floor underlayment. However, it has an R-value rating of R3.3 per inch. He stacked four layers of this material up and adhered them to the fridge with some spray adhesive.

The last layer was a blue vapor barrier which is a thin foam material.

With these modifications, Ecomodded noticed his freezer temperature dropped from 0F/-18C to -10F/-26C. To compensate he readjusted the temperature setting from about halfway to about 1/5th to get back to 0F/-18C.

The before and after testing was done without a kill-a-watt, so there are no kWh savings calculated. However, Ecomodded measured the compressor’s time on/off. Before the modifications, the compressor was running for 35 minutes every hour and a half. After the modifications, the compressor was running for 26 minutes every two hours. This is a 38% reduction in on time and translates to just that in energy savings.

Another added benefit of the sound deadening is that the compressor is much harder to hear now.

For more information on Ecomodded’s fridge, see his forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Eco-Modified Refrigerator Saves Energy & Money, Part 1

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Construction isn’t incredibly complex. It has a brick base. The greenhouse itself was a kit that Acuario bought. It is mostly aluminum and polycarbonate. As you can see, the hydronic heating coils are just laid below everything.

With the greenhouse built, Acuario went about designing a control system to automate many of the greenhouse tasks. The controller is designed around a PIC16F877A development board. This takes care of nearly all the routine things from the solar heating, to the grow lights, and even watering the plants.

The one thing Acuario is still working on is a cooling setup for those hot summer days. The plan is to use some temperature sensors and fans to also automate the cooling system.

To top it all off, the greenhouse also requires no energy to maintain itself. In addition to the solar hot water heating setup, it also has solar PV (electric) panels to take care of powering the lights, pumps, and controller.

For more info on Acuario’s greenhouse, see his forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Year Round Greenhouse

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So, lets take a closer look at how this water heater operates. It is a heat pump, which means it only moves heat around. It does not create heat like a regulator water heater would do by using an electric heating element or a gas, wood, or oil burning does. This operates exactly how a conventional air conditioner does. It moves the heat from in your house to the outside. In this case the AirTap is moving heat from where it is and putting that heat into the water tank. Xringer has the tank located in his basement. He is hoping that a side effect of using the water heater is some dehumidification of his basement.

So, lets get to the installation. First step was to find a hot water tank. Xringer decided on an inexpensive 40 gallon GE electric water heater from the local big box store. The water heater was put into the desired position with a drain pan under it.

The next step was adding the AirTap mounting brackets and pipe fittings to the top of the tank.

With the water heater ready to recieve the AirTap, it was mounted on the top of the water heater. To get the heat into the water tank, the heat exhanger needed to be inserted. This comes in the form of a copper tube that is pushed in through the an opening in the top of the tank.

Once the tube is fully inserted, the top of the pipe is sealed with a special nut that makes everything water tight.

With the bulk of the install done, all that is left to do is install a drain so that when the AirTap condenses any water, it has a place to go.

And, last but certainly not least, you have to connect the inlet and outlet to the water tank just as you would any ‘ol water heater.

A nice feater Xringer decided to add was a bypass so he can opt not to use the heater if he decides it doesn’t work well in winter time. Pulling heat out of a cold basement may not be the best option. We’ll see how that works out come winter time.

For now, the heat pump water heater has been working amazingly well for Xringer. During the Summer and Fall months so far, the AirTap has been using a little less than 1 kWh per day to provide Xringer and his wife with hot water. This is opposed to using 1/2 a gallon of heating oil. During his two month update, he noted that he has saved roughly $125 in heating oil by switching to the AirTap.

For more detailed info, see Xringer’s thread on the install.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Air Source Heat Pump Water Heater DIY Install

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For the blog purposes, we’re going to break it down into sections because it is a fairly long list. Please keep in mind that this list was intended to grow over time as we think of new ideas. Feel free to recommend things to be added to the list.

We’re looking at electricity conservation, clothes washing, and cooking tips. There aren’t a ton of tips for each section, but they’re good ones, especially the electricity tips.

Electricity

• Use CFL or LED lighting.
• Find phantom loads with a kill a watt, or other energy meter.
• Unplug electronics when not in use. A powerstrip makes this easier.
• Use a smart power strip to kill phantom loads. This is especially useful for tv and computer setups.
• Turn your fridge temperature up to ~40F and freezer temperature up to ~0F.

Clothes Washing

• Wash clothes with cold water whenever possible.
• Use a clothes line to dry your clothes when possible.
• Only do full loads of laundry.
• Make sure the exhaust ducting for the dryer is clean. This can slow drying as well as become a fire hazard.

Cooking

• Use a microwave when possible, it is more efficient at heating than most other forms of heating food.
• Studies show that using a dishwasher is more efficient than the average joe washing dishes. Users on EcoRenovator believe that hand washing can be more efficient if done carefully.
• Only do full loads of dishes in the dishwasher.

If you like, you can see the full list of 60+ home energy saving tips.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now –Electricity, Clothes Washing, and Cooking

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2. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Heating
3. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Air Sealing

A while back the guys on the forum put together a great list of energy saving tips. These are simple things that you can do pretty much right now, or maybe right after a quick run to the home improvement store for supplies. These aren’t huge projects that take weeks to complete. They also aren’t horribly expensive things to do. These are the basic and cost effective things you can do to cut those energy bills.

For the blog purposes, we’re going to break it down into sections because it is a fairly long list. Please keep in mind that this list was intended to grow over time as we think of new ideas. Feel free to recommend things to be added to the list.

The topic for today is water conservation and domestic hot water saving tips. These are very large energy use groups in a normal home and a few simple tweaks can go a long way to reducing your energy use and lowering those bills. Something as simple as changing out a shower head can save hundreds of gallons of water per person in your household each month!

Water Conservation & Domestic Hot Water

• Turn your water heater temperture down as much as possible while still having enough hot water for a shower.
• Add additional insulation your hot water tank.
• Put a timer on your hot water tank.
• Install heat traps on tank style water heaters.
• Insulate hot water lines.
• Turn off the water heater when you are away for extended periods of time.
• Use low flow showerheads and faucet aerators to reduce water usage.
• Install a dual flush conversion kit on your toilet.
• Put a brick or something else in your toilet’s water tank to displace the amount of water used per flush.
• Plug the tub and let it fill with water as you take your shower. Leave the water in the tub until it has cooled down (heating your house) instead of letting that heat go down the drain.
• Turn the water off when not needed while showering, just use it for rinsing.
• Wash your hands with water in bucket/basin and use that water to flush the toilet.

If you like, you can see the full list of 60+ home energy saving tips.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Water Conservation & Domestic Hot Water

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A while back the guys on the forum put together a great list of energy saving tips. These are simple things that you can do pretty much right now, or maybe right after a quick run to the home improvement store for supplies. These aren’t huge projects that take weeks to complete. They also aren’t horribly expensive things to do. These are the basic and cost effective things you can do to cut those energy bills.

For the blog purposes, we’re going to break it down into sections because it is a fairly long list. Please keep in mind that this list was intended to grow over time as we think of new ideas. Feel free to recommend things to be added to the list.

In this article we’re looking at cooling tips. A lot of the heating tips are also applicable to cooling your house as well such as insulating ducting, dressing accordingly and more. So, make sure to check out that list too.

Cooling

• Turn the A/C thermostat temperature up as high as is comfortable, sometimes using the A/C just to dehumidify the house may be enough to be comfortable.
• Use blinds (good) or awnings (better) to block direct sunlight.
• Use reflective window film to block direct sunlight but still let light in the house.
• If possible, open the house up at night and use box fans in windows or a whole house fan to cool the house down instead of relying on the A/C.
• Install radiant barrier insulation in your attic.
• Place window A/C units on the north side of the house or any place where the sun does not shine on them.
• Use fans to allow you to increase the A/C temperature and still stay comfortable.
• Use solar screens to block more sun from entering through the window. This still provides light but reduces direct sun light and the heat it brings.

If you like, you can see the full list of 60+ home energy saving tips.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Cooling

Related posts:

1. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Heating
2. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Air Sealing
3. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now –Electricity, Clothes Washing, and Cooking

A while back the guys on the forum put together a great list of energy saving tips. These are simple things that you can do pretty much right now, or maybe right after a quick run to the home improvement store for supplies. These aren’t huge projects that take weeks to complete. They also aren’t horribly expensive things to do. These are the basic and cost effective things you can do to cut those energy bills.

For the blog purposes, we’re going to break it down into sections because it is a fairly long list. Please keep in mind that this list was intended to grow over time as we think of new ideas. Feel free to recommend things to be added to the list.

This time we’re looking at tips on heating a home. There are many little tricks to allowing you to reduce the temperature in your home, yet still say comfortable. Also, many of these tips also apply to cooling your house.

Heating

• Turn your furnace thermostat temperature down as much as is comfortable.
• Turn down your thermostat if you are going to be away out of the house for an extended period of time.
• Wear appropriate clothing for the season (bundle up in winter, dress light in summer).
• Seal ducting with aluminum tape or duct mastic. Do not use duct tape.
• Insulate ducting that is not in conditioned space (attic/basement).
• Use a programmable thermostat. It will easily pay for itself in a few months.
• Open blinds/shades during the day to let solar light/heat in, close them once the sun goes down to stay warmer.
• Have a professional come out and inspect/clean/tune up your natural gas / LPG furnace every few years.
• Make or buy interior storm windows to increase a window’s R value.
• Make/buy window quilts or insulating blinds to increase a window’s R value.
• Make/buy insulating window curtains to increase a window’s R value.
• Use an electric blanket to allow you to turn down the temperature more at night and still stay comfortable.
• Use a humidifier to ensure proper levels of humidity in the house. This will allow you to turn down the temperature farther and still be comfortable.
• Remove window screens in winter to let more sun light through windows. Screens block 1/3rd of the light coming through the window.
• Use ceiling fans on low to mix the air in the room up to prevent hot air from staying up near the ceiling.
• Close off rooms and their vents / radiators if they aren’t being used regularly.
• Change your furnace filter regularly. The rule of thumb is change it monthly.
• Clean your furnace’s/boiler’s heat exchanger before each heating season. The built up dust and grime reduce its efficiency.
• Put a radiant barrier behind the radiators to reflect heat into the room.
• Clean your windows before winter. It will let more light & heat in.

If you like, you can see the full list of 60+ home energy saving tips.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Heating

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2. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Air Sealing
3. Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now –Electricity, Clothes Washing, and Cooking

For the blog purposes, we’re going to break it down into sections because it is a fairly long list. We’ll also provide links to examples throughout the site.

Please keep in mind that this list was intended to grow over time as we think of new ideas. Feel free to recommend things to be added to the list.

We’re going to start out with air sealing as its the biggest problem in most houses. Thankfully, its also the easiest and usually cheapest place to start improving things.

Air Sealing Tips

• Seal all penetrations in the ceiling to attic that might leak air (light fixtures, plumbing, ducting…) with caulk or expanding foam.
• Check and fix/replace weather stripping around doors and windows.
• Check and fix/replace caulking on outside of the house, windows, doors, and other trim. Recheck every ~2 years.
• Use magnetic weather stripping for exterior steel doors (like a refrigerator seal).
• Use window film kits to stop air leakage around windows and improve insulation value.
• Use removable caulk to stop air leakage around windows.
• Do a DIY home leakage test (a more expensive, but more through options is a professional energy audit).
• Seal the rim joist in the basement (the board on top of the concrete).
• Seal any outside penetrations in the wall (electrical, plumbing, ducting).
• Seal and insulate the attic access door.
• Install power switch and outlet gaskets.

If you like, you can see the full list of 60+ home energy saving tips.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Home Energy Saving Tips You Can Do Right Now – Air Sealing

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So, lets go over the rules. Its pretty simple, the giveaway will work the same as our last giveaway we had a year ago. You must register on the forum and make a post (any post) to enter. Each post you make will be an entry into the giveaway. Two weeks from now, on October 28th, five winners will be randomly selected from the posts made between now and then. Those five winners will be able to select a prize from the list below. Once the first winner decides what s/he wants, the second winner will be notified and will be able to make their choice, and so on with the rest of the winners.

Giveaway Prizes:

• Bits Limited SPG3E charging station power strip, or Mini Power Minder
• HomePower 1 year digital subscription
• LUX TX9100E programmable thermostat
• Niagara Earth® Showerhead – 1.25 GPM MODEL #N2912
  
• Waterpik ECO-533 1.5 GPM showerhead

I would like to thank the companies listed above.  They have agreed to donate the above items for our giveaway winners!

Good luck to all the entrants!

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

2012 EcoRenovator Fall Giveaway

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Have you ever wished you could just walk in from working out in the yard or garage, step up to the faucet and not have the grime up the handle with your dirty hands? Maybe you thought it would be cool if the water could be turned on without having to use your hands. Perhaps you even thought about using a foot pedal to control the water. It would probably even save some water.

Well, if you are willing to take some time, pjamestx, an instructables user has a nice write up on how to install said foot pedal. He goes through it step by step just as any instructables article does. The setup is surprisingly simple even.

You can check out his write up at: Save Water! Kitchen Faucet with Foot Pedal

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Foot Pedal for Faucets

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This past week I took some time to do some testing with the newfangled wall warts that come with all our modern gizmos (cell phones, tablets, i-pods, etc.) to charge them up. I checked the house and saw that I typically have 5 of these things plugged in 24/7/365. Now, I know with old brick type wall warts, those would be pulling at least a few watts constantly and effectively acting as constant small heaters (you can feel that they’re warm). However, I’ve been told that these new ‘switching type’ wall warts are much better on power.

So, I decided to test how much better these new devices actually are. I grabbed all 5 of the wall warts that I have plugged in all the time and plugged them into one power strip. I then plugged that power strip into my kill a watt and plugged that into the wall. With the old type wall warts I’d expect to see 10-20W being pulled. However, to my pleasant surprised my kill a watt registered absolutely nothing, zero watts. That is all 5 of them running together. In the past, I had been a stickler about unplugging these things, but thanks to the wonders of new technology this is no longer needed.

Anyway, how do you know if your power supply is a new or old type? Well, the simplest way to check it out is to just touch the thing once it has been plugged in a while. If its warm, its the old type that wastes energy. If its the new type it won’t be warm. The new type also tend to be smaller where as the old type are very square/rectangular in shape. The older ones are also much heavier than the new types.

Now, I actually lied, I do have a 6th wall wart out in the garage powering my dog’s invisible fence. I tested it and it pulls a constant 2W. I was going to replace it with a new type, but found out that it is a 12V power supply, not the normal 5V ones you get with cell phones (and that I have extras of just laying around). This brings up the question, does it warrant replacement? A new 12V power supply can be had on amazon for a very reasonable $6.00 with shipping. Assuming it would save me 1W continuously (which I’m not certain of), the pay back would be roughly 5 years. So, your annual savings would be about $1 per year. So, in general I don’t feel immediate the need to run out and replace old wall warts. I would definitely look into replacing old ones with new ones if you have extras laying around. Lastly, before these switching type power supplies, I did make a habbit of unplugging them if they weren’t in use which is a good idea for any electronic gadgets.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Don’t Worry About Those New Wall Warts

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This past weekend, my wife, 18-month-old daughter, and I went over to my Dad’s house. One of my brothers happened to be over there at the time too.

My dad wanted to put up a swing in the yard for the little girl, and took a look at a toddler swing at the store. His complaint wasn’t that it was over-priced, but that it was such a fancy, new-fangled thing, with seat-belts and straps in all directions. He thought it would be easier just to make a simple swing.

So, my Dad, brother, and I took a 5-gallon bucket, cut it to the shape of a toddler swing, ran a rope through it, and hung it from a tree.

The little girl swung in it for about an hour and a half. She typically never goes on any of the swings at the park for more than ten minutes!

I didn’t get a chance to document making that swing, since I didn’t have my camera with me. However, last night I made a second bucket swing to hang in my back yard. I took photos to show how I made it and then made a YouTube video from that as well.

Here’s the video for you.

I have a nice long post about all this on my personal blog. Visit over there if you want the long story and “how-to” directions.

I also made a technical drawing showing how to build the bucket swing. I have that posted HERE. I drew it up to fit one 8.5×11″ sheet of paper, so you can print it out and take it out to your garage or workshop for when you make your bucket swing.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Five Gallon Bucket Swing

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The construction is fairly straight forward. The sides are made of 2x8s. Inside the 2x8s is a layer of polyiso rigid foam insulation.

The top and bottom both have a 4″ duct hole cut in them for the air to flow through. The area was later painted black along with everything else.

Next, two layers of aluminum screen were mounted into the collector to absorb the heat and transfer it to the air moving through the panel.

Lastly, the collector is sealed off with a layer of polycarbonate.

To improve the efficiency of the collector, Menaus added a small squirrel cage fan similar to a bathroom ventblower fan. It is controlled by a plug in thermostat that is commonly used in greenhouse type applications.

Over the winter, Menaus said that on a sunny day the solar collector would raise the temperature of the kitchen pretty consistently around 5 degrees fahrenheit.

For more information, see Menasus’ forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Two Story Solar Hot Air Collector

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