Belron, the parent company of Speedy Glass, contracted SOS Design to facilitate their move. Hard to find locations in the auto repair district it took over a year to secure a new lease. The new facility also operates Interlock. SOS Design has, over the past couple of years, assisted Belron with screening new locations in North Vancouver, Vancouver and Victoria.

SOS Design planned this 2 storey 112 m² addition to a  typical bungalow style home in Victoria BC.

Our client purchased a home that had been renovated by  its previous owner without a permit. There were several infractions: the internal  stair had been removed and an illegal suite was created in what used to be the  garage.

Before a permit could be granted the owner had to comply  with the city’s “clean hands policy for planning approvals“.

Our client had to obtain a building permit for the illegal  work and a parking variance for the loss of the garage before any new building  permit could be considered. See illegal work 12.09.2011

The project was constructed by the owner and completed 2010.

Mark McDougall has created the perfect tool to join the interests of sellers and buyers with an innovative use of technology.
The aim was to create a customized strategy that removes the stress of selling or finding a new home. Here, for the first time, sellers can see what buyers are looking for. Mark will help to formulate and capture the essential wishes for a committed buyer.  (visit homesandbuyers.ca)

BC Hydro is replacing our current digital electric meter with new “smart meters”.

The cost to the users is over $1 billion. The claim is that it will save $1.6 billion over 20 years in theft and labour. Currently there is no way to know how much electricity is being stolen.

In many older homes the power entry is located near a bedroom. This can cause harmful exposure to electromagnetic radiation while sleeping. It is important that new homes are designed to prevent unnecessary exposure.

The new meter will cause additional exposure by its capacity to transmit data similar to a cell phone call.

BC hydro claims that you can save up to 15% if you monitor your consumption. Only the most careless users would be able to see that benefit if they drastically changed their habits.

It is very disappointing that the new meter will not allow for buy-back of the electricity produced by wind power and pv panels, and there is no provision for off-peak time rate reduction.

Hardly anything to complain about.

New 212 m² – 3 br. house is now in construction, to be completed early 2012.

Clever! Geothermal Power Plants Could be a Massive Source of Lithium for Batteries

In absolute terms, lithium is not particularly rare on Earth. It’s the 25th most abundant element, close to nickel and lead. Bolivia alone is estimated to have enough lithium to make batteries for 4.8 billion electric cars and since lithium is not destroyed in use – unlike fossil fuels – old batteries can be recycled into new ones, or used to smooth out the output of wind farms.

So the question isn’t: Will we have enough lithium? Rather, it’s more like: As demand for it explodes, can we ramp up production rapidly enough, at a low enough cost, and while keeping it as environmentally-friendly as possible.

It’s still probably going to be much better to make a battery once and then use it for years with progressively cleaner electricity (as the grid incorporates more and more renewable energy) rather than fill up a gas tank with non-renewable fossil fuels from halfway around the world every week, but even in that scenario, it’s going to be better if we can get the lithium cleanly and close to where we’ll use it. That’s where geothermal power plants enter the picture…

Michael Graham Richard  Editor, Transportation, Science & Technology / Ottawa, Canada

TreeHugger.com November 17, 2011

by SOS Design led by Deanna Marie Sellyeh.