This is what I’m talkin’ ’bout! This agricultural barn is being cooled with Big Ass Fans powered by solar panels. What a concept! This is so obvious! When the sun is beating down hot, the buildings and people and animals need cooling off. Rather than sucking black gunk out of the ground and burning it to create energy, why…
My heart goes out to the victims of Hurricane Irene. I feel your pain. (And I promise not ask this inane question: Why would you live/rebuild where hurricanes can hit? I’ve been to Vermont. I know why you live there.) Six years ago, when the federal levee system failed in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina,…
If you can’t sell your parent’s former home, why not turn it into a showcase for green remodeling? That’s exactly what Jay DeChesere and his wife did with a ranch style home in Wilmington, N.C. that his parents moved out of and into an assisted living facility. You could say the collapse of the housing…
Back in 1998, in a massive recall, virtually the entire furnace and boiler industry — along with the manufacturers of high-temperature plastic vent pipes and the Consumer Product Safety Commission — joined to correct a problem with 250,000 vent pipes that could crack or separate at the seams and leak deadly carbon monoxide fumes into homes. According…
Deb and Vern Jahnke, pictured here, are way too nice to brag. So let me do it for them. Even on the hottest days, their home in Claremont stays cool and comfortable without artificial air conditioning. See how it works: This home stays cool most of the day because the walls are made of super-insulating…
It might be soon to talk about recovery as the tragedy unfolds, but Southern Californians do rebuild after fires. I’m sure Claremont residents Vern and Deb Jahnke, who lost their house in the 2003 Grand Prix Fire, are thinking about and praying for (he’s a minister, after all) the victims of the current fires. After…