A new month deserves a new contest, right? We think so. So, what is the deal with our 3rd contest of 2009?

The Home Depot has graciously supplied us with a $100 gift card to give away to one of the visitors to DailyHomeRenoTips.com to help celebrate Father’s Day in any way we want. They are doing it on other sites as well.

Looking for that perfect gift for your hard-working dad?  Help Dad do more this Father’s Day by giving him a gift card from The Home Depot.
Visit your local Home Depot to find three new gift card styles to choose from, including a gift card that

looks and feels like duct tape

and a gift card that

comes with a FREE 3/8″ drill bit

!

You can use this link to find out more about available 
The Home Depot Father’s Day and every day gift cards
.

Now, here is what our giveaway is all about.

We learned so much from those who entered our Home Depot home energy conservation gift card contest last fall by your many, many conservation tips.

The ways in which our visitors take action to reduce their consumption, your consumption, of electricity, home heating oil and natural gas were outstanding. Thank you for teaching us.

This time we are going to run a similar type of contest, but we have expand it to

also include water conservation suggestions

. As is becoming more and more apparent, water is also becoming a scarce natural resource for all of us.

Each entry you make must include a different suggestion on ways in which a household can directly reduce it’s consumption of either (A) a non-renewable energy resource (home heating oil, natural gas, electricity, etc.)  or (B) water.

You can enter
as many times as you want
with one stipulation;

 

each entry you make must contain a different home energy or water conservation suggestion

.

Remember, your energy or water conservation suggestion has to relate to energy or water consumed
inside the home or around the home’s yard
. After all, our site is about home renovation, home maintenance and home energy conservation, right?

You can come up with your own suggestions (which are our favorite approach so we and others can learn more of what we already do not know) or you can even enter using any of our existing items in our Un-Official Home Energy Conservation Guide. The choice is yours.

You can re-use home energy conservation tips you used in last year’s contest or new ones.

Remember, you can enter as often as you wish as long as each entry contains a different energy conservation tip. And, one energy conservation tip per entry, OK?

SPAM and other such type of entries will be disqualified at the sole discretion of DailyHomeRenoTips.com.

The contest is open to residents of the United Stats or Canada who are 18 years of age or older.

Our $100 Home Depot Gift Card contest runs 
now to 11:59 pm ET Saturday June 20, 2009
(the day before Father’s Day).

The winner will be contacted by email and by entering our contest agree for their first and last name, as well as their City and State or Province of residency to be published by us in articles about the contest and its winners.

Additionally, the winner will need to provide their mailing address (again, in the United States or Canada) to a representative of The Home Depot so the gift card can be mailed out to them.

Good luck to all. Here is the contest entry form.

After the exciting news last week that Daimler is purchasing a 10 percent stake in the auto company, Tesla has been hit with a bit of a setback. The Office of Defects Investigation has discovered that many of the already-delivered Roadsters contain "under-torqued" bolts that could lead to major safety issues for the drivers. The company has had to recall 345 of the 400 cars they’ve delivered so far to fix the error.

Tesla is passing the blame for the cars manufactured between March 2008 and April 2009 onto Lotus, saying they built the chassis on those cars and are having to recall some of their own Elises and Exiges for the same problem.

Obviously trying to stay in the good graces of their customers, Tesla is offering to make house calls to repair the potentially-loose hub bolts, plus they’re performing full vehicle inspections and software upgrages at no cost while they’re at it.

The company pointed out that this recall has nothing to do with the electric powertrain and no accidents have been caused the issue.

via Earth2Tech

A large consortium that includes electronics retailers and manufacturers, the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council has agreed to start labeling TVs with environmental impact ratings that are based on criteria beyond energy efficiency such as mercury, lead and other toxic content.

The labeling system is being called E-PEAT-for-TV after the E-PEAT labeling system for computers that is used for all government computer purchases. The rating system will be developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and administered by the Green Electronics Council and should start appearing on TVs in the next 18 to 24 months.

The labeling system met a lot of resistance from manufacturers, but the long timeline to get the labels in place will most likely be to their benefit. Many consumers will be buying new digital TVs as the switch from analog to digital broadcast signals takes place on June 12, which means lots of sales long before the labels show up.

No word yet on the exact criteria and ranking system, but it will likely be similar to the standards used for the original E-PEAT.

via Green Inc.

A former EPA analyst explains how the governmental body set up to protect the environment has been undermined by political pressure and industry.

Eco Factor: Solar-powered street market concept.

In an era where multi-story shopping malls have transformed the process of buying goods and services, Israeli designer Yarel Yair is envisioning a world where sustainability will want small markets to be setup on the streets and powered by the abundant energy of the sun. His visions have taken a consumable form, which he has shared with us.

Continue Reading »
Eco Architecture: Sustainable modular street market stand gets powered by solar energy

The FCX Clarity at the hydrogen tour kickoff last year in Maine. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Although hydrogen just took a hit — Energy Secretary Steven Chu cut $100 million in transportation-related fuel-cell funding from the 2010 budget — that hasn’t meant flat tires for the Hydrogen Road Rally, which kicked off yesterday in Chula Vista, California on its way to Vancouver, British Columbia. The rally lasts until June 3, and you can follow its progress here.

I was at the kickoff of last year’s rally, in Portland, Maine. I chatted with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who didn’t know much about hydrogen but seemed enthusiastic about it all and sat behind the wheel of the Honda FCX Clarity. Fuel-cell cars are “consistent with Maine’s environmental leadership,” she said. “We are a can-do state.”

Among the hydrogen-powered vehicles taking part are the aforementioned Honda, Hyundai Tucson FCEV, Daimler F-Cell, Chevy Equinox, Kia Borrego FCEV, Nissan X-Trail and the Toyota FCHV Highlander. Note that the Chevy Equinox is the only American participant. Both the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation were sponsors of last year’s much longer tour, but are absent from this one. Is the U.S. falling behind in the hydrogen race? How about falling off the map completely?

To be fair, hydrogen-fueled cars haven’t taken off as battery vehicles have, and the simple explanation is a lack of infrastructure. There are only 65 hydrogen stations in North America, which is why all the cars on the Road Rally are relying on mobile refueling stations. At last year’s rally, Roy Kim of the California Fuel Cell Partnership told me there were 61 stations, so we have a net gain of four.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to have his Hydrogen Highway in place, but the state’s budget cuts have gotten in the way. The goal is to have 40 stations built in four years. Schwarzenegger showed up at a West Los Angeles stop on the Tour yesterday and a reporter asked him, “Are you satisfied with the number of hydrogen stations and vehicles we have today?”

The governator replied, “I wouldn’t be here if I was. I’m hungry! I want more cars, more stations, and not just in California. I think Washington has to get with it…We will find the partners and we will build the stations. We always march forward.”

The U.S. government is definitely marching backwards compared to the Europeans and Japanese, who offer large hydrogen subsidies. Given their realities, no Big Three automaker has committed to actually selling a fuel-cell car.

You don’t have to sacrifice glam for green. Learn how to look and feel your best with the hottest green fashion and beauty trends and tips.

The president of China’s Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation has said that Chinese officials are drafting new mileage standards that would require an 18 percent improvement in fuel economy by 2015. New cars in China already average about 35.8 mpg and under the new rules, would be required to get 42.2 mpg by 2015. The new U.S. standards require an average mgp of 35.5 by 2016.

The average mpg in China is greater than in the U.S. because the majority of their cars are much smaller. The country favors smaller cars with a 1 percent sales tax while mid-size and larger cars can come with a 40 percent sales tax. China’s new rules stand to benefit more than just the environment. Up until 1995, the country was self-sufficient in oil, but now they import three-fifths of their oil needs. Breaking free of that foreign dependence could mean economic and political advancement for the country as well.

Domestic automakers stand to gain from the new rules because they’re mainly making the small subcompact models that need very little improvement to reach the new standard. Multinational companies that make up most of China’s mid-size and larger market have the greatest gains to make in mpg to meet the new standards.

While China still has a long way to go in cleaning up their technologies, they’ve repeatedly shown great ambition and advancements in areas like electric cars and renewable energy. These new mpg standards can be added to the list.

via NY Times

A new study by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency considers three different potential scenarios for concentrated solar power’s (CSP) growth over the next few decades. In the third and most aggressive scenario, we could see CSP generating 25 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050.

The scenario includes increased investment in the technology to $29 billion a year by 2015 and $243 billion a year by 2050. These investments would lead to installed CSP plant capacity of 1,500 GW by 2050. The second scenario saw more modest investment increases and a total capacity of 830 GW by 2050, still an impressive 12 percent of the world’s energy needs. The first scenario assumed no investment increases at all, with CSP making up only 0.2 percent of the world’s energy.

The technology has been taking off recently. Spain alone has 50 projects in the works and will be generating 2 GW from CSP by 2015. Worldwide, CSP currently makes up 436 MW and investments in the technology will reach about $2.8 billion this year. Based on current global plans, by 2017, close to 20 GW of CSP capacity will be installed. While the dramatic investment increases that the study explores are very unlikely, it’s interesting to see the full potential of the technology and maybe it will lead to at least a modest increase in investment and development.

The technology is best fitted for desert regions and the entire sun-belt around the equator, including parts of southern U.S., North Africa, Mexico, China and India could make great use of CSP.

The full study is available here (PDF).

via Guardian

For reducing the amount of waste you send to the landfill, composting is essential if you have the means to do it properly.