I’ve been in full-on “political junkie” mode lately as we get up to the US elections, which, combined with new work projects and new networking projects, has meant I haven’t been posting here as much as I should.
This morning I found an article in the SF Chronicle about folks working on “do it yourself” conservation projects, such as rerouting gray water into gardens and making your own solar systems.
Gray water, the stuff that goes down the drain from sinks, showers, laundry, etc., may not be potable but is otherwise clean and can be used to water gardens, thus reusing/saving water. That is a great idea. From the article:
Like a lot of Bay Area homeowners, Alissa Hauser and husband Steve Brown have already done the small things to save on utility bills and pursue a green life: lower the thermostat, install energy-efficient lightbulbs, use old T-shirts for rags instead of paper towels.
But earlier this month, the East Bay couple took a longer stride into the do-it-yourself green home improvement era by spending a Saturday afternoon routing gray water pipes from their laundry machine to their garden. Now, each time they run a load of dirty clothes, the excess H{-2}O runs through a filtering system that waters their apple, plum and lemon trees. “In many ways, environmentalism has become an expensive, consumer-driven effort,” Hauser, a director at a nonprofit, said. “But this kind of project proves environmentalism can be a money-saving lifestyle, too.”
Hauser and Brown, who spent $250 on materials for a project from which they’ll potentially save thousands of dollars, are part of a new generation of green-minded homeowners who are eagerly switching lightbulb brands but can’t afford the $15,000 to $25,000 required to install rooftop solar panels. To cut water and energy bills – and to help reduce their carbon footprints – these weekend tinkerers are risking the chance of wrecking their homes and are rerouting gray water lines, insulating walls with recycled materials and constructing rain harvesters, to name a few DIY green home techniques.
The article cites a group called Greywater Guerrillas, which provides information on how to do gray water conversion projects. From their site:
The Greywater Guerrillas are a collaborative group of educators, designers, builders, and artists who educate and empower people to build sustainable water culture and infrastructure.
And then there’s buildinga homemade solar system:
Michael Davis, a Florida inventor who owns property in the Arizona desert, became a minor DIY Internet sensation on the environmental Web site treehugger.com last month when he posted a step-by-step guide on building a homemade solar panel system for $105.
Davis said he needed the free electricity to power tools and equipment on his property near Arizona’s Painted Desert, where he relies mostly on a generator. He bought used and blemished solar panels off eBay for about $30 and strung together a bootleg unit that managed to power 60 watts of free juice, enough to recharge his drill overnight – a small but important step in the DIY quest to corral solar energy on the cheap.
Davis’ panels also received high attention on instructables.com, the San Francisco-based Web site that has become a popular destination for do-it-yourselfers looking for detailed instructions. Since the site added a green section last year, users worldwide have contributed more than 120 blueprints on green home improvement projects, everything from contraptions to convert attic heat into hot water to tinning a roof with aluminum cans.
Homeowners go greener with do-it-yourself jobs
Greywater Guerrillas
TreeHugger
Instructables
