Follow Us
Long Fence and Home FansCategories
Blog Archives
Share This Blog |
ArchivesMarch 20, 2010Four Cool Facts About Heat Mirror TechnologyHeat Mirror TM is a clear, polyester film that transmits light but reflects infrared energy, or heat. In 1999, Popular Science Magazine named it one of the top 100 inventions of the past millennium, right up there with the washing machine, the refrigerator and air conditioning. Here are a few more fun facts about this revolutionary technology that today is found in everything from the space shuttle to the best replacement windows. 1. Heat Mirror TM was used in the stealth bomber Some say it’s easier to track a Cadillac on the streets of New York than to locate the “stealth bomber,” a covert military aircraft designed to be undetectable by radar. Part of its stealth comes from its extremely low heat signature, made possible by a liquid-cooled engine and the Heat Mirror TM film on the windows, which radiate the heat generated by the computers on board back into the cockpit. March 18, 2010The Untold Victim of Snowstorms: Your Home – Part 2It’s finally beginning to look a lot like spring around here, and as more people get outside to deal with the fallout from the February blizzards, we’ve been getting questions about preparing your home to prevent ice dams in winters to come. To answer some of your most pressing concerns, we recently caught up with Long Fence and Home Product Specialist Richard Ramos to seek his advice for withstanding even the worst winter conditions. March 16, 20107 Steps to Make Your Home Eco-FriendlyWe recently joined a group of D.C. residents for an energy-efficiency workshop at Greater Goods, a store located on U Street that sells eco-friendly products for the home. Our instructor, Cindy Olson, is a lifelong environmentalist who now helps businesses go green through her work as a consultant with Eco-Coach. Here are some of the tips she shared to help us reduce our carbon footprint at home: Measure your energy use If you don’t measure it than you don’t know how much energy you’re using and you can’t reduce it, Cindy told us several times during the workshop. To find out how much electricity your appliances, electronics and lamps are using, she suggested using a kilowatt meter that you can plug into the outlet. Once you get a baseline reading, you can take steps to reduce that usage, such as using CSL light bulbs or plugging your electronics into a smart powerstrip you can turn off when you leave the house. Cindy said the powerstrips in her home have reduced her electricity usage by 15 percent. To keep a constant eye on your energy use, there also are several computer programs – some of them free– that will do it for you. March 12, 2010Educating Children About Energy EfficiencyEnergy Star has created a great website for kids, designed to teach them where electricity comes from, why it’s important to save energy and how they can make a difference in the fight against global warming. Not only is it colorful and engaging, but it’s really informative too! Did you know that 49 percent of our electricity comes from burning coal? Or that the average American household spends about $1900 a year on energy bills? Or that each home is responsible for 22,000 pounds of greenhouses gas emissions per year—twice as much as the average car? March 10, 2010A Local Extreme Home MakeoverIf you’ve ever wondered what a net-zero energy house looks like, check out the local transformations ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition team did last summer for a Maryland family and a Northeast, D.C. community center.
In addition to giving the recipients more space and creature comforts, the projects also were designed to help save them money and reduce their carbon footprints in the long-run. With input and guidance from the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the projects featured green building materials such as high R-value SeriousWindows, solar panels and insulated concrete foundation forms to serve as examples for cost-effective near zero energy building design. Read more… |
Search Long Fence and Home Blog
|
