You are here: Home » Archive » Archives for May 2005

May 2005

Clothes Drying Racks: Effective

If you dry your clothes on these racks instead of a clothes dryer — they will smell fresher and last longer. In many homes, the clothes dryer is the number two electricity consumer, after the refrigerator. Used in combination with a Spin-X: metaefficient. GreenFeet sells clothes drying racks made of reclaimed wood. The Vermont Country [...]

Read the full article →

Biopavers

We mentioned previously that using porous pavers is an effective alternative to paving with concrete. They make patios and driveways less erosion-prone and they do not get as hot as hard-surfaced pavement. Now a company called Biopaver is trying to take things a step further by introducing a new type of paver designed to catch [...]

Read the full article →

Bricor’s “Vacuum Flow” Shower Heads

David Okada, a MetaEfficient reader, wrote to us to say that he’s compared the Oxygenics shower head, with another low-flow shower head from Bricor. David says Bricor had better spray at lower flow rates and was quieter than the Oxygenics (recently featured on MetaEfficient here). Bricor offers a range of low-flow shower heads, including one [...]

Read the full article →

Faucet Restrictors/Aerators

Have you ever spent time at the sink, judiciously adjusting the hot and cold water, to achieve that happy medium between “cold” and “scalding hot”? Well, we’ve been there too — and we’ve noticed that water streams down the sink in a meta-inefficient manner. That’s why these faucet restrictors are so handy. They attach like [...]

Read the full article →

Silicone-Based Sealants

If you’ve got to fix a leak, you might want get some silicone sealant, instead of such things as Plumber’s Goop that contain toluene. Silicone sealants are often sold as aquarium or marine sealants. Some silicone sealants still contain questionable ingredients – best check the label. There are alternatives to any toxic substance they have [...]

Read the full article →

Electrical Timers

Electrical timers are humble devices, but they might give you that energy-saving edge you’re after! In fact, they are one the simplest upgrades you can make to your house. The Intermatic timer pictured here plugs into any electrical socket and switches that device on or off at the times you set. It costs only $11, [...]

Read the full article →

LED Light Bulb Replacements

LEDs are close to becoming metaefficient alternatives to regular light bulbs, but they are not quite there. Right now the brightest LED bulb is equivalent to a 25W incandescent bulb. The bulb seen here has 36 LEDs and runs on 1W. That means it could run 10 hours a day for a whole year for [...]

Read the full article →

BioBag: Biodegradable and Compostable Bags

BioBags are the first 100% bio­degradable alternative to plastic bags. They are made from cornstarch, vegetable oil and other renewable resources. BioBags makes kitchen “compost bags” to store foods scraps before composting. They can also can be used to store food in the refrigerator. The advantage over plastic, is that these bags will “breath” without [...]

Read the full article →

Men’s Bamboo Fiber Shirt

Bamboo Textile has released a new, thicker men’s bamboo shirt. (We outlined the advantages of bamboo fiber clothing previously). We were thinking a thicker bamboo shirt would be a good idea — the thinner ones are really only suitable for summer, or to wear as an undershirt. The new shirt is 70% bamboo fiber and [...]

Read the full article →

Eco-Disposable Diapers

Nobody makes eco-disposable diapers in the U.S. — Seventh Generation diapers come close, but according to a company representative, they are not fully biodegradable. The trouble is the outer liner of disposables is always some kind of plastic. The only commercially available, fully biodegradable, disposable diaper is the Swedish "Nature Boy & Girl" diaper which, [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries