Ho-ly mo-ly. Manfred Mornhinweg, de la República de Chile, is now an official eco-hero, joining the proud ranks of such luminaries as Amory Lovins (and almost Michael Jackson).

Not only did Manfred freaking build his own homemade mini-hydroeletric power plant, but he documented the entire process with pictures and step-by-step instructions!

With the help of some of his friends and neighbors, and a whole lot of gumption, he dug a side-channel off a creek to divert some water for his lil’ hydroelectric plant.

He ordered the hydroelectric turbine from the glorious People’s Republic o’ China:

And eventually was able to READ MORE »

This Saturday I’ma have the chance to test drive a brand-spanking new electric car known as the Nissan Leaf.

“Dang”, I hear you say, “But I want to test drive that electric car, why not me?” . Why not you indeed.

This Friday (March 4) through Sunday (March 6) will be your chance to test drive the all electric Nissan Leaf when it comes to the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh.

You can either sign up for a spot to drive the Leaf, or take your chances and just show up and wait. You can sign up for a test drive at this link here.

Tell them EcoJoes dot com sent you, and wink when you say it. They’ll know what you mean.

Alright, so you may have seen posts on here about free CFLs before. But have you ever seen an offer for 15 free CFL bulbs at a time? That’s right, fifteen free compact fluorescent light bulbs!

Well, if you’re a customer at good ol’ Duke Energy, then I suggest you CLICK ON THIS LINK and go get yourself some free CFL bulbs. Not only will using CFL bulbs help you use less electricity, but it’ll cut down on your power bill.

Once a CFL Bulb Has Died…

If your compact fluorescent bulb happens to smash or die from old age, por favor be sure to recycle your old CFL bulb.

Normal wind turbines are okay, I guess, but what about a horizontally spinning one that generates a lot more power, up to twice as much power as some other wind turbines?

Check out this 885-foot wide wind turbine named the Aerogenerator X Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. It’s being built ahora, and will be finished by 2014. Once it’s done, it’ll generate over 10 megawatts per hour, beating out the current wind turbine record of a little over seven megawatts.

If you want more information about these crazy horizontal wind turbines of the future (and hey, who wouldn’t?), click on THIS HERE LINK.

Have you ever wanted to charge your cell phone, but didn’t want to waste precious electricity that you had to pay for? Well now you can get some exercise AND charge your phone for free, because good ol’ Nokia just came out with a bike phone charger!

How do I Charge my Phone with a Bike?

The Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit is attached to your bicycle. As you pedal your bike, it powers a small generator that transfers electricity to a charger on your handlebar. Voíla, just that easy.

How Much Pedaling To Charge Cell Phone?

I’ll let Nokia answer this question; Nokia, the floor is yours:

“To begin charging, a cyclist needs to travel around six kilometers per hour (four miles per hour), and while charging times will vary depending on battery model, a 10-minute journey at 10 kilometers per hour (six miles per hour) produces around 28 minutes of talk time or 37 hours of standby time. The faster you ride, the more battery life you generate.”

That sounds pretty good to me. Plus, it only costs around $20. So if you’re down for biking and charging your cell phone at the same time, this might just be the ticket for you.

Have you ever wanted to save money on your heating and cooling bills without sacrificing your precious comfort? What to do?? I, too, was in the same boat as you, until last weekend when I installed a programmable thermostat.

“What’s the big deal about a programmable thermostat, anyhoo?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’ll let the good ol’ U.S. Department o’ Energy tell you:

[During winter], by turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%–15% a year on your heating bill—a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long.

Gadzooks. If your average power bill is $70 a month during the 4 coldest months of the year, a programmable thermostat can save you between $14 and $42 during those 4 months! Not to mention the painless energy savings.

But it doesn’t only conserve energy and save money during the winter, oh no. During those hot months, you can set the temperature higher while you’re gone, and have it cool down more when you’re actually at your house. Voíla, even more energy and monetary savings!

Read instructions carefully when installing a programmable thermostat

Me and some friends tried to install my thermostat on one of the coldest days of the year. We wired everything up perfectly, but the heat wouldn’t come on. A day later, my friendly neighborhood electrician fixed the problem by reading the manual and figuring out that you had to tell the programmable thermostat that we had a heat pump. Dang, that one night without heat was a cold night
indeed, but I learnt a valuable lesson about reading instructions.

Dang!! Back in college, me and some of my friends talked a lot about creating perpetual motion machines, and came up with all kinds of different designs. Eventually we decided it was impossible, and abandoned the idea.

But apparently some people did not give up, and recently the famous Alex Chiu announced that he had built a working perpetual motion machine. The only caveat is that it will not work on Earth — it needs the zero-gravity of outer space.

Still, this should revolutionize everything. Not since his immortality device has such an invention been unveiled to the world. Free, limitless energy should dramatically lower pollution and energy costs, and get rid of the need for gasoline and coal.

Sources:
Alex Chiu, Boy Genius
Rare Interview with Mr. Chiu