Art + Architecture + Design
Archive for September, 2008
Eco-friendly Backpacks at Inhabitat
Sep 6th
Our friends over at Inhabitat have put together a great review of backpacks that will do everything hide your iPod to charge your iPhone. Can’t wait for these to come down in price. Check out the deets here…
My favorite is the Voltaic solar, which charges all your gadgets, and is made of 100% recycled PET. Yay!
Sahara Forest project; Solar Microclimates in the Desert
Sep 5th
Solar week continues with this great project out of the UK which has the potential to actually reverse the devastation caused by current greenhouse technology which is depleting water tables around the globe.
The Sahara Forest project
would marry huge greenhouses with concentrated solar power (CSP), which
uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays and generate heat and electricity.
The installations would turn deserts into lush patches of vegetation,
according to its designers, and without the need to dig wells for fresh
water, which has depleted acquifers in many parts of the world.
Read the rest after the jump…
2009 Prius Preview: Faster, Cheaper, more Efficient
Sep 4th
As part of Solar Week here at (incli)NATION I wanted to have a look at the solar Prius. Well, it doesn’t seem to be even close to production, and while I’m all for speculative technology, I’ll need to be upgrading my Prius pretty soon. I found a couple advanced images at Road & Track and thought I’d share them here.
"As for the motor/engine, here’s what we uncovered. The displacement of
the inline-4 will grow from 1.5 liters to 1.8, which will result in
more power and torque. The gasoline engine will produce about 100 bhp
and 105 lb.-ft. of torque, and the electric motor generating about 60
bhp, making the new Prius more powerful than ever. We hear it will run
from zero to 60 mph in about 9.5 seconds and reach a top speed of about
115 mph.With this extra oomph, one would expect the car’s
fuel economy to suffer. Nope. Amazingly, the Prius will be even more
fuel-efficient than it is now. According to our sources, Toyota has
improved its hybrid
system so the electric motor plays a bigger role when driving.
Therefore, don’t be surprised when a slow drive to the corner market is
achieved without using a single drop of gasoline.Now here’s the real kicker. The price of the all-new Prius will probably be
the about same, perhaps even lower, than the current one. Toyota is
expected to offer three trim levels: base, luxury and eco, with the
base model starting around $21,000. Of course, these prices are at the
mercy of the dollar/yen exchange rate, so don’t take them to the bank
just yet. What is sure is that the next Prius will be as
ground-breaking as the model before it, and Toyota will remain the
global leader in fuel-efficient modes of transportation."
Ecoastarchreview, Designnotes, and Architechnophilia
Sep 3rd
We’ve had some mentions across the blogosphere lately and thought y’all might be interested in checking out some other great resources out there. So here are some of the blogs linking back to our posts:
http://www.architechnophilia.blogspot.com/
http://designnotes.info/
http://ecoastarchreview.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-fave-20-design-blogs.html
ecoastarch actually included us in their top 20 design blogs [number 8!]
Thanks to everyone!
d.
RoofRay: Residential Solar Reality Check
Sep 3rd
After the Labor Day break, we’re doing a solar week theme. Up here in the Northwest we tend to get as much sunshine after Labor Day as before so the theme seemed apropos.
First up, Roofray.com, a new site that integrates Google Maps to give homeowners a ballpark idea of cost/savings benefits of various solar options. Simple to use and fun, Roofray will likely put you off the idea at least until the up-front cost comes down. My system came in at 200K! and a breakeven date 20 years down the line.
Check it out here, http://www.roofray.com/
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