A new Kansas-based company called EcoFit Lighting believes it can make the transition to LED street lighting not only much easier, but also much cheaper.

EcoFit’s design is a retrofit module that slides right into place in existing streetlights, eliminating the need to have a full replacement. The company claims using their product would bring down costs from $700 to $900 (for a complete replacement) to just $400. Savings also come in the form of energy efficiency and extended lifespan as EcoFit’s LED lights are 60 percent more efficient and last six times longer than sodium streetlights. Additionally, as it’s estimated that replacing street lights with EcoFit LED lights would take just five minutes (as opposed to taking up to 30 minutes to fully replace the head), labor costs are also expected to be reduced.

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Ettenson told me that the funding comes from the part of the budget that California’s regulated utilities may use to invest in conventional electricity. This may include “negawatts”or energy efficiency measures. This is not just cheaper than building new plants and transmission, but also easier to implement, as it is not subject to the NIMBYism and transmission issues that has impeded development of utility scale solar and wind projects that California utilities must add to meet RPS requirements of getting 20% of its energy from carbon-free sources by 2010. Currently it is at 14%.

This giant leap in funding could jump-start the new low-carbon economy in California; helping grow all the businesses that create cutting edge efficiency in cooling and heating, lighting, building materials, windows, insulation, appliances and smart grid technologies that reduce energy use.

Ettenson gave me some examples of uses for the funding in practical terms:

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From green gadgets and gizmos, to DVDs and loose-leaf teas, I get the occasional product sent to me for a review.  In most cases, I like to give it a thorough once-over before I’m comfortable putting a stamp of (dis)approval on it.

If I take a long time to review a product, it is usually because: the product stinks and the manufacturer wouldn’t want me to publish anything anyway; the product really stinks and I don’t want to waste my time or my readers’ time with it, or; the product is actually quite good and the length of time spending reviewing it is extended because I’m trying to find something bad to say about it — but can’t. In the case of the DOT-it LED lights Sylvania sent me, the reason for my slow turnaround is definitely the last one. These lights are great.

The first of the two lights sent to me by Sylvania was the DOT-it Golden Dragon (pictured top). The ninja-sounding Golden Dragon is the Cadillac of Sylvania’s puck-style LED lights.

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Yes… most of the products marketed on television border on useless crap.  They’re symbols of conspicuous consumption.  The sales pitch feels cheesy. And, yet, as I mentioned in Five Greenish Products You’ve Seen on TV, a small handful of them appeal to values we promote here at sustainablog: conservation, re-use, and efficiency.

I’ve come across a few more that strike me not only as appealing to these values (and perhaps a few others that are positive), but also as a great way to spread sustainable practices… even if they’re not necessarily labeled that way.  Again, I don’t know the lifecycles of these products.  I assume most of them are made in China. I wouldn’t call any of them “green,” or endorse them outright (or try to sell them through affiliate links here).  But they’re definitely “greenish”… and if direct marketers are selling products by appealing to some of the values mentioned above, that’s an ever-so-small step forward. Here we go…

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GE’s new website, What’s Your Lighting Style?, will help you to figure that out. After a fun (if a bit cheesy) eight-question “getting to know you” quiz, you’re given a lighting style for each room in your house. Based on each style, a “tip sheet” tells you how to create just the right atmosphere you want for the room, including furniture, colors, and – of course – lighting. Recommendations include each GE Energy Smart bulb that might be useful in your room, including dimmable bulbs and spotlights.

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Concerns now being expressed do not relate to the issue of the tiny quantities of mercury in the bulbs that was raised a year or two ago (largely misguidedly - while in environmental terms far more mercury is released into the environment by the manufacture of traditional bulbs). Instead they focus on potential difficulties for partially-sighted people.

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Cree Inc. will be fitting Wedge 5 of the Pentagon with over 4,000 LED light fixtures.The U.S. Department of Energy said that LED lighting saved the country about 8.7 trillion watt hours in 2007. This is out of the 765 trillion watt hours used for lighting in the United States.

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The folks at General Electric Global Research have put together the first ever OLED Christmas tree. GE has a tradition of showcasing its most recent technology in an annual holiday gesture, this year choosing to demonstrate their roll-to-roll OLED fabrication that they unveiled last March.

The tree was made by wrapping a green-glowing 6 inch by 15 foot OLED around a spiral Christmas tree form.

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Do you dread getting your December electric bill?  Holiday lights and decorations can be a drain on your wallet, as well as the environment.  However, new technology can help you save money and lower your carbon footprint.

LED holiday lights:

• Are safer (they don’t heat up like normal incandescent lights)
• Use less electricity (40 watts for a 100 light incandescent strand, versus approximately 8 watts for a similar LED strand)
• Last longer (average expected life is 25,000 hours)
• Can be strung together in larger amounts (up to 25-75 strands in one long string, versus 3-5 for incandescents)

Sounds great, huh?  But, as I discovered, there may be some hidden issues with LEDs.

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Few people will argue that LED lights are particularly attractive, but they may just be able to make you more attractive. German researchers reported last month that people who received several weeks of treatment under LED lights experienced a lessening of skin wrinkles similar to what is seen with Botox treatments.

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Philips, promotes the innovative street lighting concept as an ecological street light pole. The pole adapts its shape to capture the maximum source energy from sun and wind during daytime, using this energy during the night for illumination.

Depending on weather conditions, it can alternate between solar and wind modes.

Employing ‘flower mechanics’, the Light Blossom opens its petals to collect solar energy on sunny days and reorients them upwards to harness wind energy on cloudy days which, in turn, powers the lighting pole at night.

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The technology works by using accelerated electrons to stimulate a phosphor coating on the inside of the glass bulb. In contrast, incandescent bulbs run a current through a filament inside the bulbs, and LEDs stimulate semiconductors to create light.

The first ESL prototype is expected to output 40 lumens per watt with a 6,000 hour lifetime.

So why is the ESL bulb any better than CFLs or LEDs?

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>>See also: European Union Bans Incandescent Light Bulbs

The micro-mini’s size is one of its biggest appeals and is what jumped out at me right away. Featuring an ultra-small ¼ inch tube diameter and a compact integral electronic ballast, the 13W micro-mini is the smallest CFL on today’s market.

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You may not know it, but your kitchen is one of the biggest resource hogs in your house. You use electricity and natural gas for your appliances. You use water in your sink and dish washer. Your fridge is stocked with foods grown and transported from all over the world that require chemicals, water and fuel to be produced and transported. And then there’s the non-recyclable packaging that goes straight to a landfill.

Here is a list of things you can do in your kitchen to lower your environmental impact, and also to live in a healthier home. We have recommendations for appliances, products and new behaviors.

Any chance you are planning a kitchen remodel? We also have great recommendations for you– wonderful new materials for countertops,cabinets and floors, leads on top-rated green architects and interior designers, and more. Just scroll down if you’re focused on a remodel.

Get Green in the Kitchen

1. Use energy-saving appliances. You can greatly reduce your power and water usage and your greenhouse gas production by using Energy Star appliances. Energy Star appliances can save as much as 50% of your energy and water use, and can cut your carbon footprint by 1000+ pounds, compared to standard appliances. Click here to see Energy Star models.

2. Use compact fluorescent lighting. Compact fluorescent lights use 1/4 the energy and last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs. And they come in versions that are dimmable, recessed-ready, and daylight spectrum–any version of light type you can think of. Each high-use bulb you replace will save up to $10 and 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, and they last for many years. Click here to see our wide range of CF lighting options.

3. Recycle and Re-use. Can you rinse that ziplock and use it again? Can you reuse the containers you got from take-out? And don’t get plastic bags every time you go to the store for groceries– take durable reusable sacks with you. Click here for reusable grocery bags..

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The 20 teams selected for the 2009 Solar Decathlon have been announced by the US Department of Energy. Each team will receive a $100,000 grant from the DOE to be used for creating a completely solar-powered home for the competition.

The full list can be found in an article at Custom Home Online. The 2009 competition has some international flavor, including last year’s winner, the Technische Universität Darmstadt, as well as the Universidad Polytécnica de Madrid and two groupings of Canadian universities.

• » See also: Volunteer at 1bog.org to help educate about solar energy
• » Get Green Building Elements by RSS or sign up by email.

One former faculty adviser to a university Decathlon team lamented the reduction of the Solar Decathlon to a more narrow range of design concepts. The first few Decathlons were wide-open events, with very different designs. But with certain criteria in place, the strategies have been narrowed down to address the specific problems posed by the Decathlon challenge. These are still good designs that are being produced, but they are now tuned to a set of particular requirements and criteria.

Homes designed for the Decathlon should perhaps be viewed in the same spirit as one views Formula One race cars compared to ordinary cars. In the cases of both the auto race and the Solar Decathlon, the competitors are tuned for specific ways of maximizing the allowable methods for winning a contest. While some developments in the competition may trickle down to more prosaic, domestic uses, it’s not a representative testbed.

We’ll certainly be looking at the entries when the Decathlon is held; however, I don’t expect to see great numbers of them making an appearance in a neighborhood anytime soon. Like race cars, they are great to look at, and fun to think about using, but for most of us, they aren’t a practical alternative to what we have now.
Image (Kansas State/Univ. Kansas 2007 entry in front of Washington Monument) via Curious Cat

Part of the answer might be South Korea’s high usage of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

It took me almost two months of living in Korea before I saw my first incandescent (”old fashioned”) light bulb. All of the others were energy efficient CFLs, like the one pictured here at this outdoor market.

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December 28th, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan

Broke Your CFL? Don’t Panic!

The typical dose of mercury in a CFL is about the sizeof a pen tip 

(circled in red), and these doses have been getting smaller and smaller. 

(Photo provided by EPA.)

Australia has already begun to phase out the incandescent light bulb,

and the energy legislation recently signed by President Bush has

begun that process in the United States. Every time I turnaround,

it seems, someone is handing me a brand new

compact fluorescent light (CFL) to advance the cause of energy

efficiency and help save the planet. CFLs are becoming ubiquitous

in households all over California. We taught them in the pages of

Home Energy all the time. And that’s a goodthing, right?

Brandy Bridges, of Ellsworth, Maine may not think so. A cleaning

company quoted her a price of $2,000 to clean her house after

she broke a CFL.The benefits of CFLs are many–they use about75%

less energy than incandescents and last up to ten times longer.

Replacing a 75W incandescent with an 18W CFL will save you about $46

in electricity costs over the life of the bulb, and thatis at current

electricity prices, which no doubt will go up, making today’s CFLs an

even better deal. Energy Star CFLs (www.energystar.gov/cfls) won’t

flicker, give warmer light, and there area variety of them, from

the ubiquitous A-line bulb, to candelabras.

But, and it’s a big but, CFLs won’t give light without mercury.

The average CFL on the shelf at your local hardware store has about

4 mg of mercury in it. Mercury vapor is harmful to humans,and there

is enough mercury accumulated in some of the fish we eat

to make this Californian think twice about ordering salmon for dinner.

Thankfully, there are ways to clean up a broken CFL thatdon’t involve

an overly frightened and/or greedy cleaning company

(www.epa.gov/CFLcleanup), and recycling centers are available, if not

yet ubiquitous (that word again!) (www.lamprecycle.org).

Even if the worst happens and you break a CFL bulb, the EPA estimates

that at most only 6.8% of the 4 mg of mercury will be released, or about

0.27 mg, since most of it is in the glass, electrodes, and in the phosphor

coating on the inside of the glass. Incinerating a bulb willpotentially

release more mercury vapor, if there are no pollution controls on the incinerator.

But even if the CFL released all of it’s mercury–according to Richard Benware,

a graduate student at Cornell who researched CFLs last summer for EPA’s

Energy Star program–it would still be a better choice than an incandescent,

because over its lifetime, the 15W CFL will have preventedthe release of 5.67 mg

of mercury from an average power plant.

Of course, recycling is best, and that is still a problem. Alan Meier,

Home Energy’s senior executive editor, admits to turning

part of his garage into a “temporary hazardous waste holding facility” to

hold his family’s used CFLs, since the nearest CFL recycling center is

13 miles away from his home in Berkeley, through “one of the worst traffic

jams in the United States.” There is help in finding those recycling centers,

near and far (www.earth911.org).

But we need to put the same effort used in making CFLs ubiquitous into making

disposing of them in a clean safe manner just as ubiquitously easy.

You know what I mean.

Turning off the lights depends on the bulb. If you still have incandescent bulbs, it is always best to shut the light off when no one is in a room or if you aren’t using the light. Fluorescent lights are a little different, since constantly switching them on and off will make them less efficient. For CFLs and other fluorescent bulbs, if you know you won’t be using it within the next 15 minutes, shut it off.

Maximize the day light. Opening curtains to let in natural light is the best way to do this. However, since a lot of heat can escape through windows, especially older windows, close up the curtains after dark to avoid using more energy to heat your home.

Use directional lights. If you’re sitting at a desk or occupying only part of a room, you may not need to illuminate the whole space. Use smaller lamps to better utilize light in a room.

Install sensors. If you’re redoing a space or constructing a new home, consider installing light sensors that will automatically shut off when no one is in the room.

Department of Energy Home Lighting Information

More from Green Options:

Daily Tip: Lights Out

Better Daylighting

I’m going to try and recreate them for Halloween and holiday gifts in place of pumpkins and candles. Maybe add a stencil designs to them like the word "Boo" or a picture of a star or ornament. The only concern I have is the toxicity of the glass frosting spray that I used. The spray definitely made me feel a bit faint at the end of the day and I couldn’t help but hum the tune from Macgyver.

Sun jar instructions:

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/homemadesunjar

Supplies needed: Handy assistant, frosting spray, jar, solar lamp, iced mocha to keep up with the excitement.

Don’t blink!

Oh you blinked and missed the set up because it was that quick!

See more here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earth2joy/sets/72157602337039519

*The title of my flickr set "How to make a BOMB ass sun jar" was in reference to me trying to get through security for my flight home. They did search my bag and instead of saying "science project," I told them it was my solar lamp gift per my smart cousins’ husband’s suggestion.