Green Renewable Energy

Our Michigan summers can get to 100 degrees with very high humidity. Most everyone uses air conditioning. Our local energy board warns every year about the overuse of air conditioning and ‘brown-outs’. We have never invested in a central AC or even a window unit.

We prefer to use ‘greener’ methods which are better for the environment. They are better for our health also. They are easier on our gas and electric bills as well. We have, therefore had to research and explore methods for keeping our house cool and comfortable.

If you want or need to keep your home cool with out an air conditioning system, here are several tried and true ‘green’ tips for keeping your home or apartment cool in the summer.

Hang dark colored curtains, mini blinds or Roman shades in each window. Keep these drawn in the warm sunny part of the day.

If a cool breeze is coming in, you can put a fan on the floor to circulate cool air throughout the house. Close the windows and curtains if warm air is coming in.

Windows that face south will get lots of sun. East facing windows will get morning sun. Windows facing west will get the afternoon and evening sun, which is hotter and stronger. Close them as the sun comes in.

Keep lights off as much as possible.

Use florescent lighting which burns cool and is very efficient.

Use ceiling fans and vents and open windows during showers.

Keep the house clean. A house full of junk will be hotter.

Don’t use the oven in the hot part of the day. Use an electric frying pan or microwave for stovetop foods.

Serve cool foods like salads and sandwiches. Hot foods and beverages make you feel warm. Avoid alcohol when it’s warm; it will warm you up.
ine Be sure that your furnace is off.

When doing laundry, turn ceiling vents on and open window to keep warm moist air out. Be sure outside dryer vent is open and clean.

Do laundry in the early morning or late evening.

Use a clothes line instead of dryer, especially for towels and pants.

Invest in some quality fans, one for each window of the house. You don’t need to spend big to get good quality, if you purchase fans made in the USA. You can get a window fan for under $15.

HeatMax EverCool Cooling Bandanas. Pack of Three Bandanas - Reusable

Use shade and circulation to keep cool.

A company called GreenCore Air has released an air conditioner than can be powered by a single 170 watt solar panel. The GreenCore air conditioning unit can heat and cool a 600 square foot room. It runs on DC power, so there is no need to put an AC inverter between the solar panel and the air conditioner. This eliminates the power losses associated with converting AC to DC.

When the sun is not out the unit runs on the battery bank which is integrated within the unit.

There two version of the air conditioner: a fixed one, and a mobile one that is mounted on wheels.

GreenCore units are being tested by a McDonald’s restaurant and the U.S. Navy.

Air conditioning is possible in a green home. Read all about it in this installment of our “Focus on Green Homes” series.

Air conditioning in green homes is cause for much debate among green enthusiasts. Certainly, the best way to save energy
on air conditioning is to not have it or use it. But this is just not practical for everyone.

Without a doubt, air conditioning of the past was anything but green. It used very damaging chemicals and consumed large amounts energy for what it produces. Even more efficient units in use today still use lot of energy causing enormous electricity bills in the summer months. Can a system be designed for a green home that uses much less electricity and no damaging chemicals? Yes, indeed.

Size Matters – The first consideration when designing an air conditioning system for your green home is the size of the system. Air conditioning systems should be sized correctly for the space to be cooled, considering the number, location, and type of trees, the number of window, the arrangement of the house, and size of the living space. Care should be taken to right-size the system – it should not be too big or too small. Then we need to look at all the renewable resources we can use to accomplish this.

Cooling from the Earth – For the system to be truly green, renewable resources must be considered. One of the best renewable resources is called geo-thermal. Geo-thermal is literally heating or cooling from the depth of the earth. It is the reason that most caves are the same temperature (around 55F) all year round. We can use this constant temperature of the earth to cool air for air conditioning.

To accomplish geo-thermal cooling, water (or other liquid) is pushed through a tube in the ground buried at an appropriate depth. The water is cooled to the ground temperature. Air is then passed over the tube and the warm room air is transferred to the water in the tube, removing the hot air from the home. The heated water is then pushed back though the tube under the ground and the heat is transferred into the ground effectively cooling the water back to 55 degrees and the process starts all over again.

Clean and Efficient – Using geo-thermal air conditioning is clean and quiet. For systems that do not use forced air to distribute the cool air, there is far less dust and noise.

This system uses much less energy to create cool air for the home than conventional air conditioning and is much better for the environment. This system can also be used to heat the home. The cost of the system and the depth to which the tubes must be buried depends on the part of the world in which you live.

The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling