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From the monthly archives:

July 2008

Dockside Green Awarded World’s Highest LEED Score

July 31, 2008

We featured the innovative Dockside Green community previously on MetaEfficient. Recently, the entire community was certified to be built to Platinum LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) standards. It was awarded the highest LEED score in the world.

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Motion-Sensing LED Lights: A Review

July 30, 2008

Motion-sensing LED lights — these lights are perhaps the most efficient lighting devices available today. They switch on whenever their infra-red sensors detect movement in a room — such as when someone begins to walk down a dark hallway. I’ve been testing them in my own home, and I’ve found them to be effective and [...]

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Efficient Green Hard Drive Released

July 28, 2008

A company called Fabrik has released an external hard drive called the [re]Drive that it is said to be the world’s most energy efficient. The drive’s cover is a sheet of bamboo — this is good choice for a drive casing, given bamboo’s tensile strength and durability. The drive’s chassis is made with recycled aluminum. [...]

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Office Building Lit With 100% LED Light

July 27, 2008

Last year, we featured a nightclub lit entirely by LEDs, but here’s an office building that is said to be the first to be lit by 100% LED light. The lighting was provided by the Netherlands-headquartered Royal Philips Electronics. To showcase the potential of LED light, Philips designed the lighting system to be warm and [...]

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Best Toaster Ovens Of 2008

July 24, 2008

Toaster ovens are efficient devices for cooking small meals. They typically use two 750 watts heating elements and draw a total 1500 watts, whereas electric ranges draw about 3000 watts (and thus require a 240 volt electric socket).
Toaster ovens also heat up more quickly, due to their smaller size. But the most efficient toaster ovens [...]

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75% More Efficient: Blue Ridge Parkway Destintation Center

July 23, 2008

The new Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center has just been completed in North Carolina. It’s a beautifully designed building that is also highly efficient — it will use 75% less energy than a comparable conventional building. The building has Trombe walls: a very clever feature that will reduce the building’s heating load by 35% alone! [...]

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The Strida: An Efficient Short-Trip Bike

July 23, 2008

Several readers have noted that we neglected to mention the Strida folding bike in our folding bike round-up. The Strida is a unique bike designed to take a commuter a few miles to the train or bus. It has an extremely quick folding action: it takes about seven seconds to fold one up. Here’s a [...]

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The Best Chest Freezers 2009

July 19, 2008

When researching energy efficient appliances, we often turn to the recommendations of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The ACEEE continues to publish helpful information about all sorts of appliances, including freezers. The ninth edition [...]

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Energy Efficient iPod Speakers: The Vers 2X

July 13, 2008

I’ve been testing the Vers 2x iPod speaker system. This system is one of the most energy efficient and sustainable products I’ve come across. The casing is crafted out of wood (either cherry, bamboo or walnut). The wood comes only from plantation forests, and each speaker system is hand-finished. This is a refreshing change from [...]

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Windows That Double As Solar Panels

July 11, 2008

MIT researchers have announced that they have created “organic solar concentrators” that could make windows become powerful solar panels in as little as three years. The concentrator is mixture of two or more dyes painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes absorb light across a range of wavelengths, re-emit it at a [...]

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High School Captures 280,000 Gallons Of Water Per Year

July 11, 2008

Our buildings and homes could capture all water we need on a daily basis. A great example of rainwater harvesting can be found at the Langston Brown Community Center and High School in Arlington, Virginia. The community center has two 24-foot-tall 11,000-gallon cisterns that store rainwater.

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The Best Pressure Cookers Of 2010

July 11, 2008

Pressure cookers are efficient cooking devices –  they are up to 70% more efficient than conventional pots. The lids of pressure cookers are built to completely seal the pot so that the contents can boil easily inside the pot. Food cooks faster because the liquid inside rises to a higher temperature before boiling. Cooking times [...]

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Hand-Crafted Recreational Vehicles

July 8, 2008

Tonke Campers are hand-built RVs that are now being sold in the Netherlands. The Campers are a distinct contrast to the mass-produced plastic RVs that are so common in this country (although the market for these RVs is actually plummeting). Tonke Campers are inspired by gypsy caravans, and the classic yachts created by Dutch boatbuilders [...]

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Universal Battery Chargers Of 2010: A Review

July 6, 2008

We briefly reviewed battery chargers in a previous post “The Best Rechargeable Batteries of 2010“. But let’s take a look at the best “Universal Battery Chargers”. These are chargers that can handle AAA, AA, C, D sized cells, and well as 9V cells.

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90% Of Israeli Homes Have Solar Water Heaters

July 3, 2008

I recently noted that Hawaii has enacted a law that requires all new homes to install solar water heaters. Eventually, Hawaii may have as many water heaters as Israel, where 90% of homes have solar water heaters installed. When viewed from above, the Jerusalem often glitters with the shine of the thousands of solar heaters [...]

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Portable Air Conditioners

July 2, 2008

Electric fans are the most efficient cooling devices. Fans use far less power than air conditioners (see our recent review of the most efficient portable fan). But in hot and humid weather, air conditioning is a great relief. Cooling an entire house uses a lot of energy — it’s much more efficient to only cool [...]

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