Green tech home

Popular Mechanics has a checklist for cutting power bills. Click around the site to find more information about low-tech solutions to using less electricity.

Getting steamy

I don't consider myself a car enthusiast, but these articles just keep popping up. While the air car is already slated to join the Indian taxi service, here's a technology that we just might see at home some day. It's a modified internal combustion engine whose inventor has added two steam cycles to the engine's normal four combustion cycles. Essentially, this engine captures some of the energy that would otherwise be lost as unused heat, resulting in 40% greater efficiency for gasoline engines, and 5% in diesels, which are already more efficient that gas.

Air car

Looks like compressed-air vehicles might be viable. Don't know how the car would fare in a crash test (or real crash, for that matter), but if you can make them safe (and stylish wouldn't hurt, either), they look like a great commuting solution.

Just add water

Researchers at Purdue have developed aluminum and gallium pellets that release hydrogen when water is added. Producing hydrogen on demand eliminates the transport and storage problems, making hydrogen-powered cars that much more feasible. This sounds like an exciting breakthrough, but I must be missing part of the story because the article seems subdued in describing what would seem to be a rather revolutionary technology.

Lights out

Okay, so there is a lot more to CFLs than I first thought. Apparently they have earned the ire of Rush Limbaugh, but now Wal-Mart is persuading producers to limit the bulbs' mercury content.

In other news, the Tesla electric car is a great example of green tech that isn't all about the moral superiority that too often seeps into the energy efficiency debate. It's a smokin' fast car that proves that prudent (less petroleum dependency) doesn't have to be prudish.

Green light

It's not just about CFLs when it comes to energy efficient lighting. Skylight 2.0 and fiber optics are illuminating an increasing number of interiors; access cnet.com's "25 Way's You Can Go Green" story here.

All Aboard!

Trains. Not new technology per se, but new technology may help them run more efficiently, and more efficiently means more green-ly. New software will increase fuel efficiency by determining the optimum speed, load, etc.

Additionally, an increase in rail infrastructure could equal a decrease in traffic, with time and fuel savings for all those who are too often snarled up in an unfriendly parade. Loading up the trains means fewer tractor trailers, which means less traffic, which means more happiness.

Now comes the funding. Some might shiver at the suggestion that the government subsidize an increase in railroads or railroad efficiency, but the government pays plenty for the "free"ways, and some well spent cash on railroads would be great for the interstate highways.

Finally, I rode MARTA, Atlanta's commuter train, this last weekend rather than drive my car around town. I'd love to see more commuter rail options, especially in the Atlanta area, but it is a hard sell when the train are old, smelly, and inconvenient. Granted, some of the MARTA trains seem fairly new, but a little renovating might do a lot of good. Plus, because increasing the fare may discourage potential riders, I hope that some portion of revenues are used for making the mass transit experience more convenient (more trains, more routes, more frequently) or more clean.