Green Options

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A community in Canada has an unusual form of solar power that can provide over 90% of the annual heating and hot water needs for the homes, despite being situated in a cold Alberta location where winter temperatures can reach -33 degrees C (-27 F).

The Drake Landing Solar Community collects solar energy in a heat storage fluid through an array of solar panels on the roof of each home and covering all of the garages at the back of each home. The heated fluid is transferred to a neighborhood energy center, and then into the ground beneath an insulated layer, where the heat is stored in the earth.

Combined together, the 52 home community is able to collect and store enough energy from the sun during the summer that the ground storage temperatures reach 80 degrees C (176 F). This heat is sufficiently insulated beneath the ground that it can be drawn from throughout the winter to provide heat and hot water.

They’re probably drinking a lot of beer in Quqiao village, in Shaanxi Province, China.

Ma Yanjun, a carpenter, said he wanted his mother to be able to enjoy a comfortable shower anytime, and since a solar water heating system was too expensive, he devised a way to make one of his own.

Using only water-filled beer bottles and connecting hoses, Ma’s mother now has hot water on demand, and so do more than 20 other families [...]

Off the Grid Homes combines beautiful images with technical information for sustainable homes.

The book by architect Lori Ryker is less of a manual for systems to be used in off the grid homes (though it does include good information about the systems and strategies that are used in sustainable off the grid living) and more of a showcase of state of the art homes at the intersection of appealing architecture and high sustainability.

For many, the phrase “off the grid home” brings associations of a rudimentary, hand-built, rustic cabin. It usually suggests a rough hewn character and images of anything other than refinement and elegance. But that image is far from the case in examples presented in this book.

Solar thermal technology provides space heating and hot water and is a frequently forgotten member of the solar family. These highly effective systems are popular in many parts of the globe, from China to Greece to Zimbabwe. They displace the use of the existing hot water heater and heating equipment, typically saving either natural gas or electricity.Solar thermal is a more mature technology than solar photovoltaic systems that produce electricity. It has been used for centuries for water heating. In fact, even Leonardo Da Vinci owned one.

When considering the installation of such a system, it is important to consider the following items.

Image Credit: Dawn Solar

Solar hot water systems should be in use everywhere in the country. They are not terribly expensive to install, and the payback period on them is much shorter than it is for solar photovoltaic. Even in cold climates, it is possible to have a system with a heat exchanger and an antifreeze filled loop, so that the system can be run, even when nighttime temperatures are below freezing.

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PhotoCredit: Path to Freedom
If you have been exploring solar energy at all, you already know that the payback period for a solar hot water system is much shorter than that for a solar photovoltaic system. The system for solar hot water is much simpler. Rather than converting solar energy into electricity with expensive photovoltaic panels and then rectifying the current through an inverter to create AC power, a

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Photo Credit: cmhc.ca
Adaptive reuse is the use of an existing structure for a new purpose; in short, it is recycling for buildings. Rather than demolishing an old structure to clear a site, the existing structure is rehabilitated and used for a new purpose.

Koo's Corner is a project in Vancouver that took an old automotive repair shop and turned it into six urban loft residences. The existing garage building

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