Instructables has a couple of posts on building solar heating for smaller spaces such as a garage. This post here shows the smaller scale model made for a chicken shed followed by a bigger version here for a garage. It’s cheap to build and best of all the heating is free. You can find lots of background information on the solar heater at Mother Earth news.

There is an article here on which wood is best to burn to heat up a house most efficiently. The main points the article makes is that factors such as stove type and the dryness of the wood have an effect but one of the main ways to make a difference is by burning dense wood rather then light.

Slower growing, denser woods such as oak, beech, and hickory are known as “hardwoods.” .. Evergreen trees are generally called softwoods. Softwoods burn easily but with less heat, and are good for kindling or when less heat is needed. Fruit woods apparently make lovely, hot firewood but take quite a long time to dry sufficiently.

Grist via Reallynatural

Although line drying your clothes can save as much as 10% off your energy bill, this is not always easy to do (see laundrylist.org if you never knew that in some places line drying is prohibited…). The next best thing you can do if you can’t line dry is to cut down on the amount of time needed to dry the clothes. This is where these dryer balls come in. They reduce drying times by about 20% and soften the clothes at the same time. This means further savings and less chemicals. (Bean Sprout (the person who also did the eco-balls test) took them for a test drive here.)

Dawn at Frugal for life has posted about her tips and experiences with installing a new low flow shower head which is helpful for anyone who has not converted their shower yet (and an amusing read). She has also made a list of the new showerhead’s pros and cons.

Low flow shower heads save as much as 50% off your water bill as well as your energy bill (for not heating the extra water you didn’t use) which is good for the environment AND your savings account. Low flow shower heads mix air with the water to make it feel like there’s more pressure and to even out the flow.

LightCap - Solar Powered LED Light & Water Bottle by SolLight.

This very cool water bottle doubles as a night light or camping light (or power outage light). You can switch the light from white to red depending on how much light you need. It needs about 4 hours to recharge in the sun and will work for many hours. Very handy for kids who wake up to have a drink of water throughout the night (like mine).

Risign Phoenix Design has a good article about the energy use of monitors depending on what colours they are displaying on the screen.

White and bright colours (especially in background) can use up to 20% more power then black or dark colours.

The site also encourages people to switch to using LCD computer monitors if they are still using CRT monitors as they use a lot less power.

Green design Via Hugg

Eco-balls are an environmentally friendly alternative to using washing powder in your washing machine. They produce ionized oxygen that activates the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate the clothing fibres and lift dirt. They have many benefits.

1) There are no harsh chemicals which is good in a number of ways. Obviously less chemicals going down the drain is always a good thing.

2) The other benefit is that people with sensitive skin and chemical sensetivities will not have a problem with these.

3) You can skip the rinse cycle of your wash which means water and power savings as well as prolonging the life of your machine from less use and less washing powder build up.

4) You can reuse the waste water on your garden.

The initial cost is high but these balls are supposed to last for hundreds of washes which means they work out to be very low cost per wash.

If just 10% of the worlds cell phone users unplugged their phone chargers when their battery is full, they would save enough power to power 600,000 homes for an entire year. So imagine if just 10% switched to recharging their phones using alternate means. Such as a solar charger. You can pick one of these up for about $20-30 (Ebay) or more for a product such as Solio’s chargers.

The way they work is that the charger has it’s own battery which you can charge with the sun (or by plugging it in to the wall if you wish). You can then transfer this charge to your phone any time you want to. This type of charger is very handy not just for energy saving purposes but also in emergencies such as if you are in a remote area.

There is much debate about the most energy efficient way of making a cup of tea or coffee. An under sink on demand hot water system has been voted most efficient over at TreeHugger
Another power saving suggestion (for those of us who don’t have an undersink system) is to boil some water for your first cup and fill a thermos to drink from for the rest of the day so that you don’t need to boil the kettle again and again.