Adding organic material into your compost can sometimes be a sticky situation, especially if you’re new to the composting game. You’ve probably heard of some stuff called “green matter” and “brown matter,” too. Now, as gross as that may sound to some of you, it’s really not what you think. This all stems back to the carbon/nitrogen ration (C/N ratio). Green matter, which is chock full of nitrogen, usually consists of yard wastes such as grass clippings and non-diseased weeds, fruit scraps and humus. Chicken manure and rotted manure also falls under this category. Brown matter, which is full of carbon, would usually be dried leaves, hay, sawdust and wood chips.

How much green matter to brown matter you want to throw into your compost bin is really up to you. However, there are a couple formulas you can start with until you find the right plan that works for you. The first thing you should keep in mind is to achieve the ideal batch of hot, fast compost is to try to stick to the 30:1 ratio. With 30 parts carbon for every 1 part of nitrogen, all the beneficial microbes will be able to reproduce and decompose all the organic matter quickly and efficiently. An easy method I use to achieve this ratio is by mixing half of the brown matter and half of the green matter by weight. Keep in mind though that yard waste and food scraps weigh more than dried leaves and hay so there’s a possibility that you’ll have to include three to four times the amount of brown matter to reach the same weight of your green matter.

Once you’ve got your own formula (or are even using the 30:1 formula), it’s time to start throwing everything into your compost tumbler or bin. Assuming you’ll be composting in your backyard, set up your compost bin in a shady area and near a water source. Throw in a pile of dried leaves that’ll fill up about eight inches in your bin and turn the hose on it to dampen them just a bit. Afterward add in some green matter like grass; remember to keep in mind the half greens, half browns weight. Mix well so that everything is evenly distributed and damp. For an added boost, sprinkle on some rich soil, but not a shovel full!

Check on your compost regularly to make sure that nothing’s too damp or too dry, and to make sure your pile is shrinking. After a few weeks and regular turning of the pile you should have some ready made compost to use in your garden.

Energy audit training is without doubt one of these branches in “green education” that can offer great rewards to those who take it up now. Saving energy is no longer a feel-good choice. It is a must, regardless of the economy moving up or down. This career is a stable one for the long-term.

It is not as if home and commercial efficiency audits are a new, untested thing. They have actually been around since the 1970′s. Then it was the oil crisis that prompted interest in energy saving.

Today’s circumstances are different. Now it is ‘Peak oil’, and effects of global warming, combined with a global economic crisis and rising energy prices.

High demand, growing demand, rising prices

Governments, citizens and businesses must now sink or swim. Despite some squabbling about this, climate change is real and can only be curbed by a combination of energy saving, emission reduction and incentives in renewable energy.

Governments everywhere are stimulating the economy with green activities and green jobs, through grants, tax breaks and other incentives. The result? Energy audit training is attractive as never before.

What home energy assessments do is identify where energy is wasted and recommend which steps to take to save it. This may include recommending other products in renewable energy or insulation for example.

Think of it… Millions of homes and businesses wanting and needing energy efficiency services, often subsidized by government.

Why energy audit training makes sense

Some reasons for the current good opportunities in energy auditing are:

* a greatly increased awareness of the need to avoid rapidly rising energy bills;

* increasingly entire towns and regions require adherence to certain energy efficiency standards for new buildings;

* renewable energy incentives are a good combination with an energy assessment;

* value of properties increases with energy-efficiency features;

* a rising public awareness of the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Such factors combine to develop a huge, and ready market for energy efficiency assessments.

Energy audit certification

In the US there a few levels at which energy audits are done. No audit certification requirements are government-mandated in the US whereas in other countries they are.

The most straight-forward approach to energy auditing is where the auditor examines your power bills and literally walks through your home or business building. Then he or she will identify any inefficiencies in insulation, ventilation and appliances. The building’s owner will receive recommendations about taking those steps that save energy and money. Identified savings can range from hundreds to many thousands of dollars per year.

An energy audit at RESNET or BPI standards is more in-depth, involving infra-red equipment, blower doors and duct blasting. The cost is significantly higher than a walk-through audit. However, the walk-through audit identifies 80% of the savings of the more involved method and is least intrusive. The right energy audit training in the walk-through method is fast and effective.

Energy savings with energy audit training

Energy savings upwards of 30 percent, in the walk-through method, are not unusual. And energy-inefficient buildings are everywhere! This makes an hour’s energy assessment highly valuable for virtually any client. You are not selling. You are helping!

Energy audit training is available as online courses or live training, with some highly respected qualifications offered by some. It can be a part-time job, a career, business or in combination with a trade. Can you afford not to look into this?

Thermal mass
Thermal mass refers to materials that are able to retain their heat for a period of time. Materials such as concrete, bricks and stone are high in thermal mass, which means that there is a lag in the time it takes for the material to heat up and to cool down. The considered placement of thermal mass by designers helps a room to stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter. It can also moderate temperatures between daytime and nighttime fluctuations, making the home a more constant temperature. The poor placement of thermal mass – as many will have experienced – can create spaces that are too cold (like a tiled bathroom floor on a winter’s morning) or too hot.

Cross-flow Ventilation
Cross flow ventilation is a fancy term for allowing breezes into your house to naturally cool the spaces. ‘Cross-flow’ refers to the approach of placing openings at opposite sides of a room to encourage available breezes to cross evenly through the space. A space designed with cross-flow ventilation in mind will have openings at opposite sides of the space that can be easily opened when required. Cross-flow ventilation can be used during summer nights to ‘purge’ the house of the day’s hot air and to cool the thermal mass ready for the next day. If windows or openings on both sides of the house cannot be opened, the ventilation of the space will be limited.

Solar Dryer
Another fancy term referring to something we’re all familiar with – a clothes line! The solar dryer – or clothes line is the natural way to dry clothes. The term is a bit of a misnomer however, because it is actually the wind that does most of the drying, while the sun is responsible for all the fading!

Insulation
Insulate refers to a material’s ability to resist heat transfer. Insulation is a product used in homes to prevent unwanted heat loss/gain. A well insulated home will be warmer in winter and cooler in summer and require less auxiliary heating and cooling. All components of the building envelope have the ability to be insulated including the ceiling, roof space, walls and under the floor. The insulation requirements of your home vary depend on your climate.

R-Value
R-value is a measure of a material’s ability to resist heat flow. The larger the R-value, the more insulating the material is. R-values are typically used for insulation products as a guide to how effective the product will be at resisting unwanted heat loss/gain.

Insulated Glazing
Typically, glass is a very poor insulator. Windows are the most common place where unwanted heat loss/gain occurs in an otherwise well insulated home. Insulated glazing uses two or more panes of glass separated by a thermally resistant spacer to create an air gap between the glass. As still air is a very good insulator, this increases the insulating properties of the glazing unit. In some systems, a gas such as argon is used in the air gap which further reduces heat transmittance.

Grey Water
Fresh water is considered to be ‘white water’, while water contaminated with faecal matter or grease and kitchen scraps from the toilet and kitchen is referred to as ‘black water’. Grey water sits somewhere in the middle of these two extremes and is usually wasted along with black water from the shower, laundry etc.

There is a potential to easily treat and reuse grey-water in the garden or to flush toilets and use in the washing machine. This is an effective way to save water that would otherwise be sent down the sewer to a treatment plant. It is important to investigate ways to manage and treat grey-water and devise a system that best suits your situation and needs.

Grid-connect PV
PV stands for Photovoltaic. A PV cell or panel is able to transform solar radiation from the sun into electricity. A grid-connect PV system is a solar electricity generator that is connected to the existing power grid. Small-scale PV systems can be installed on you roof. The benefit of this type of system is that when the sun is shining and the panels are able to produce a lot of energy, the system will feed excess energy into the grid for use by other homes, businesses etc.

Many energy companies will essentially reverse your power meter as electricity is fed back into the grid, while some green savvy suppliers will actually pay you a premium for the energy you give back, meaning you can experience significant reductions in your electricity costs – maybe even a credit! When the sun sets or on cloudy days when the PV system is not supplying enough energy to meet the demand from your home, you seamlessly begin drawing power back from the grid, meaning you will never be without electricity, even during the dreariest seasons!

Passive Design
Passive design is a technique of building design that minimises the need for mechanical heating and cooling systems. By utilising many of the features mentioned above, a passive house will be warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Key features of a passive design are:

Climate responsive design Orientation to the North (or South in Northern Hemisphere) to maximise solar gain in winter Adequate shading to prevent overheating in summer Appropriate insulation to reduce unwanted heat loss/gain Good access to ventilation to allow for natural cooling and temperature control when available Thermal mass, appropriately located to help moderate the temperature

Passively designed homes can significantly reduce and often eliminate the need for artificial heating and cooling. This ultimately saves money on heating and cooling costs as well as being an ecologically preferable, more comfortable environment for occupants.

As we near the end of summer and thoughts of getting our children back to school and making those last minute end of season trips abound, we also need to spend time on our lawns and making sure that it is prepped for the coming fall. Homeowners in today’s green-conscious world have quickly turned more and more to the most efficient lawn care methods that will translate into savings for our wallets. Beyond saving money is water conservation, which affects both us and the environment we live in.

In this article, we will focus on irrigation and mulch, two areas of lawn care that should be considered for all homeowners with the desire to conserve and decrease water consumption and a cost-efficient way to cultivate the lawn and landscape.

Irrigation

Lawn sprinklers and irrigation systems are known to be quite wasteful, consuming two or three times more water than the water used indoors. Experts report that much of the water applied to a lawn is lost due to poor application practices, high evaporation, uneven distribution, and excessive runoff. To combat these lawn ails, an efficient irrigation (or sprinkler) system and watering schedule is necessary.

Irrigation Techniques

To make the best use of irrigation, divide your plants up into groups or zones with the same watering needs. Lawns, plants in containers, vegetable beds and fruit orchards may need more water than other plants such as trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs. Your irrigation system should reflect your different plants’ watering requirements and only fulfill what is absolutely necessary to maintain your greenery. Be sure to understand your watering zones and check that these systems are not giving too much or too little water to the plants or lawn area.

An efficient watering system such as drip or soaker hoses can be used to minimize water loss through evaporation or runoff. Lawn experts further recommend that, for reducing evaporation, operate your irrigation system during the cooler hours of the early morning rather than during the heat of the day or in windy weather.

Turf would be best irrigated with sprinklers, since infrequent, but deep watering can encourage deeper root growth and greater tolerance of soil moisture fluctuations. Keep in mind that about 1.5 inches of water are needed per week for the summer. If you are not sure how much water your system is delivering to your plants, simply place a bowl or a cup in the area before the sprinkler system comes on then remove it when the system cuts off. Then all you have to do is measure the collected water. If this amount is more or less than the recommended amount, adjust your system accordingly.

Maintain Your System

It is important to not only make sure sure your irrigation is working efficiently to get your plants and lawn the water they need, but also crucial to check up on your irrigation system to be certain that it’s functioning correctly. This includes checking the system for leaks, broken heads, faulty valves, and other malfunctions. You may also want to check that water isn’t being misdirected onto sidewalks, driveways, or streets.

Mulch

Mulch can act as both a protection for your plants from the heat as well as an agent to trap and retain moisture. With water conservation a big issue for homeowners, mulch is more important than ever as a way to efficiently keep your plants healthy and protect from harsh conditions. Mulching helps to maintain a more consistent soil temperature and can also control weeds that may otherwise consume water meant for garden plants.

While you may not be able to control your water consumption all the time, you can definitely make an impact on both your water bill and your local community by following lawn care methods that are focused around water conservation and efficient cultivation methods.

Solar energy for homes is a practical, and nowadays, relatively cheap solution to reduce your home energy costs and utilize a renewable, clean source of energy. Clearly solar energy is a huge benefit to the well being of the planet with the total absence of polluting residues or damage to the environment.

It is surprisingly easy to utilize solar energy to reduce or eradicate your home energy costs and in this artilce I will look at the practicalities of doing so.And the knock on benefits to the environment are enormous and obvious with the reduction of reliance on ever decreasing supplies of fossil fuels.

Solar Cooking

A solar cooker will allow you to cook food for up to 6 people..with no costly inputs such as electricity and your solar cooker will allow you to boil,bake and roast your food. The only drawback you might encounter is the lenght of time it will take to cook.

But given that you are using solar power,and it is a free source of energy,many people are more than happy to be a little patient and reap the benefits of the cheap energy and reduced energy costs.

Solar Home Lighting

Solar home lighting is created by charging cells with solar energy which stores the energy and allows you to light your home, even when the sun is not shining.

Solar Heating Systems

Solar heating systems are becoming more popular and there are many companies installing such systems now. The return on your investment is such that after 3/4 years your reduction in energy costs will have repaid your initial investment and leave you with free energy into the future.

In this day and age everyone is trying to do their part to make sure that they are trying to protect the environment. We all know that this world’s resources are only depleting and the quality of air is only getting worse. We must conserve this world for the generations after us and insure that the earth’s resources last as long as they can, all while making sure that the quality of life stays the best that it can possibly be. One way to help make this happen is by living and owning a green home. A green home is a quality home that helps you save money and keep your way of living as best as it can be.

A few key ways that a green home works is by helping to save energy, time, and money. A green home is designed to increase the efficiency off all the appliances in your home. They help by increasing the productivity of the amount of water you use as well as making sure that all the energy you are using is being used to its full ability, and not being wasted. All these things are able to help you save money by using less and producing more. This is one of the most important things about having a green home. It is important to conserve the resources that we need the most to make sure that they will be there for generations after us, and to save money while doing it.

Another thing that makes a home into a green home is by insuring that the air inside your home has the best air quality possible. Having the air in your home be as clean as possible enhances the overall livability for you and your family. Having this kind of overall air cleanliness reduces things in the air like pollutants, which will only spread things like allergies and sickness. Clean air inside your home reduces all these things and also improves the ventilation throughout your home. This helps you and your family to breathe as easy as possible, and keeping them healthy as well.

There are all different types and ways that you can do your part to help the environment. You can drive hybrid cars, recycle, plant trees, and many other things. Having a green home is just one more way to help keep this world clean for the generations after us. We all know that eventually our planets resources will run out, we must all do our part to make sure that that can last as long as possible.

If you have not heard of solar or sun cooking and baking, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Cooking with the sun has been around for quite some time. The first documented research and successful results of solar cooking or baking was in 1767 by a French-Swiss physicist, Horace de Saussure.

It was not until the past decade that a more concerted effort has been made to develop an oven/cooker that would effectively utilize the energy of the sun for this purpose. Until the recent overwhelming increase in the cost of nonrenewable fuels such as fuel oil, gas and natural gas, there has not been a sense of urgency to find alternative sources of energy. Now there is more emphasis on greenhouse gases produced from burning fossil fuels, coal, wood and petroleum products.

In the past, electric power and natural gas have provided a cheap and convenient source of energy for powering or stoves and ovens, eliminating the need to pursue alternative sources of energy such as the sun. No one can deny that the earth is going through a change in climate, whether caused by man or a natural reoccurring cycle. If man is the cause of climate change through the “Greenhouse Gas Effect,” then it would behoove us to do our share in preventing further damage to our ozone. We can reduce the size of our individual carbon footprint by cutting back on our consumption of nonrenewable resources.

One way to accomplish this is by utilizing the sun’s energy through the use of solar panels and by baking and cooking a portion of our meals with a solar sun oven or cooker. Anything that can be cooked in a conventional oven can be cooked in a sun oven. From the moment a sufficiently designed solar oven is placed into position, pointing at the sun, it will reach 300 to 400 degrees F. within 25 minutes. If the solar oven has the proper reflectors and insulation, it will more easily maintain a constant temperature, even on a partly cloudy day, resulting in a more efficient appliance.

Some amazing facts about the sun oven are:

o You cannot burn food using the sun’s rays to cook with.
o There are no “hot spots,” so the food needs no stirring.
o You never need to add additional water to what you are cooking.
o Food does not dry out as it can in a conventional oven.
o Food cooks more evenly in a solar sun oven/ cooker.
o Vitamins and nutrients are not diminished cooking solar.
o You cannot overcook food using a solar sun oven.
o Sun baked; steamed or cooked food tastes much better.
o The fuel source is free and non-polluting “green energy”.

In conclusion, the main factors to be aware of in choosing the best sun oven are:

o Should be warranted for a minimum of 10 years.
o Should be able to reach and maintain 300 to 400 degrees F.
o Should be well insulated and not be warm to the touch on the outside.
o Should utilize reflectors for maximum energy control.
o Should incorporate a tempered-glass oven door to protect food and hold heat.
o Should be easy to clean and maintain.
o Should be lightweight and portable.
o Design should allow oven to be tilted to receive the sun without spilling food.

Sun cooking can be economical, fun, healthy and nutritious, enjoyable and kind to the environment. Join the hundreds of thousands of people around the world in over 128 countries that have discovered a new way of cooking and a new way of living cleaner. Solar is the future, if it is not already too late.

Composting is an invaluable part of today’s green lifestyle. It also offers the satisfaction of receiving a gift of beautiful “brown gold”, nutrient rich soil, at the end of the process.

Studies have shown that individual home composting can divert an average of 700lbs of waste from landfills per year. Food waste and yard clippings represent approximately 30% of the waste stream in the US, so recycling these materials in a composting bin can make a significant change to our impact on the environment.

Composting is basically making use of the decomposition process that occurs in nature whenever a plant dies. Microorganisms and invertebrates attack the remains of the plant and break it down to become natural humus. This natural decomposition can be encouraged in the backyard environment by providing ideal conditions in a composting bin. The process requires oxygen and water to create the perfect conditions for speedy decomposition. A dry, untended compost pile will decompose, but very slowly. Active composting, however, can be completed in around 6 weeks.

There are 3 key components necessary to create the ideal composting environment:

1) Aeration

The decomposition process uses up all of the available oxygen in the center of the pile, so it needs to be “turned” regularly to allow oxygen to be replaced and bring new material into contact with the active microbes. There are excellent composting bins available that accomplish this process, utilizing a rotating drum on a fixed frame that can be easily turned allowing internal fins to break up the pile and provide good aeration.

2) Moisture

The ideal compost moisture content is between 40 and 60 percent. This represents the moisture content of a well wrung out sponge. Too little moisture will result in the composting process slowing down as the microbe activity will become dormant. Too much moisture will hinder aeration and cause a bad odour to be emitted from the pile. A healthy compost pile will have a sweet earthy odour.

3) Carbon/Nitrogen Ratio

Carbon is generally referenced as “brown” material and Nitrogen as “green” material. The ratio between the two will have a significant impact on the health of the pile. The bulk of a compost pile should be “brown”, with just enough “green” to aid the decomposition process. The ideal ratio is 30 parts carbon (brown) to 1 part nitrogen (green). Too little green material will slow the process and too much may cause the generation of ammonia gas and unpleasant odours.

Examples of Brown material are:

Cereal Boxes, Coffee Filters, Egg Shells (crushed), Dry Leaves and Grass, Newspaper (shredded), Brown Paper Bags (shredded), Saw-Dust, Straw (chopped).

Examples of Green material are:

Grass Clippings, Tea-Bags, Leaves (green), Fruit or Vegetables, Bread, Pasta (cooked), Rice (cooked), Seaweed, Garden Weeds (not bearing seeds or pervasive root structures).

Examples of materials not appropriate for compost piles:

Bones, Cheese or other Dairy Products, Fish, Meat, Rhubarb Leaves, Fats (oils, grease, etc.), Diseased or insect-infested plants, Treated Paper (slick or glossy).

With the above components in place a healthy compost pile will generate heat as the microorganisms decompose the organic material. An efficiently operating compost pile will generate temperatures between 90

Composting – Nature’s Recycling is a post from: Sustainable Living

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Conservation of Energy is all our responsibilities. Global Warming is not a joke, and you can see by your high energy bills that it is getting worse. Besides our homes with inefficient insulations, our heating and cooling systems drawing more and more energy, we have the items inside our homes and businesses, which we turn a blind eye to, saying, “But, I have to have my….”

Read what some of your small appliances are using, and simply turning them off is a start to down your path to a little conservation of energy…do your part.

Refrigerators – Your old refrigerator can use over 1200 KWH a year. An Energy Star refrigerator of about 20 cubic feet uses about 400 KWH per year.

Lighting – If you change all the bulbs in your home or office to compact fluorescents, you can save over 1000 KWH per year. Turn off your TV and lights when you leave the room, and you can save another few hundred KWH each year.

TV’s – Brands and size will vary, but on average they use as much as 450 watts. If you have the TV on 8 hours per day, you are using another 1300 KWH a year. It does help to use the lower power technologies such as LCD or DLP. Don’t let us forget those who have DVR or TIVO Digital Recorders. You can add another 500 KWH per year, as they run all day and night year round!

What about your Computers? PC’s with a printer can use over 1000 KWH a year. Just as with TV’s, multiply that times how many you have in your home.

Your Laundry room is a wasteful place waiting to happen! Each load of clothes you wash and dry uses 3600 KWH a year. Now multiply that by the number of people in your home. The majority of that goes to heat the water. At that point you are also running the water heater. Always use cold wash, and cold rinse. Find out where you can get a solar dryer, or use one of our kits.

As you can imagine, Heating Systems are the biggest guzzlers at approximately 26,500 KWH a year. Of course this is an average, and some systems are larger capacity than others, so the billing is accordingly. Using passive heat is as easy as opening the shades and curtains to let the sun in. It heats the inside of the house, retaining that heat to release later when it cools down.

Today people are looking into geothermal more often. It’s free heat once you apply the system. They are starting with solar power, many combining wind power, and then with geothermal you are coming off the grid.

Green living isn’t something that is exclusive to an elite few. Now, everyone is able to get in on the green living lifestyle and easily do their part for the environment. It isn’t a fad either- this is a very real way to help maintain and improve the environment for us and future generations. Now that the environmental damage of past generations has been evaluated and can be fought, the time is right for everyone to do their bit and make the world a better place to live in.

You don’t have to go overboard straight away. You can start in simple ways by recycling your waste paper, bottles and plastic. You can Cut down on energy use by making sure things are turned off or unplugged when not in use. You can conserve heat in your home by making sure doors and windows are closed while the heating is on, thus making sure that you’re not wasting energy.

Then there are other, larger things you can look into such as solar power, growing your own organic produce, water power, wind energy and more. You can have a look online for local groups and advice on how you can start to turn your lifestyle green. Green living doesn’t have to be a huge change to the way you live, but it is an important factor of modern life that needs to be considered.

Conservation isn’t something that just happens in far-off jungles and distant countries. Green living can have a big impact on the world on your doorstep, and with a few simple steps you will genuinely feel that you are doing something positive for the environment and the lives of future generations.

There are clean and renewable energy sources to think about, changes to your home and shopping that you can make easily (simple things like re-using fabric bags instead of plastic bags to cut down on waste), and soon you will see that the green living lifestyle can work wonders for you as well as the world around you.