Small Green Project - Recycling

Living out in the country is great! But I do have to trade a few city conveniences for our homestead. One of those is curbside recycling. If you live in town, recycling requires little effort, but in the country it requires a bit of dedication. We recycle everything we can and have only a small kitchen garbage bag of trash a week. We recycle veggie food scraps, coffee grounds, a bit of paper and paperboard tubes in the compost pile. We recycle 1-7 plastics, all colors of glass, steel cans, paper, cardboard and paperboard by taking it to a recycling dropoff center outside Prairie Grove. I take the aluminum to Vaughn Battery and Recycling. The price per pound for aluminum varies but each trip to vaughn helps pay for the next case of beer! The bins you see here are our recycle bins. I have a small crate in the house where we collect the recycling, then once a week I move it out to the shop and sort into these bins. Then about once every 6 weeks I'll take a truck load to the recycling center. City curbside recycling is convenient, but they don't necessarily take all types of recyclable material. Most in our area only accept #1 and #2 plastics, however the drop off center outside prairie grove accepts all 7 plastic resin code types. If your local pickup doesn't include all plastics or has other restrictions look for a self-service drop-off point in your area. This will allow recycling of much more material than a curbside pickup, such as yogurt and "butter" tubs, ketchup, mustard, honey, and medicine bottles, cd jewel cases, and thousands of other products that would otherwise go into a landfill.

Here are some links if you are thinking of recycling too!

http://www.ides.com/resources/plastic-recycling-codes.asp  - List of plastic resin codes and products made from recycled plastics

http://www.bmswd.com/recyclin.htm - Boston Mountain Solid Waste District recycling centers

http://www.bcswd.com/drop-off.htm - Benton County Solid Waste District recycling centers

http://www.fcsolidwaste.com/recyclinglocations.html - Faulkner County Solid Wast District recycling center

http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/solwaste/branch_recycling/ - Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality recycling branch

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/wycd/catbook/index.htm - EPA's consumers guide to reducing solid waste

Small Green Project - Solar powered pathway lights

Stumbling around in the dark can be dangerous. You never know where you might step. Having your walking paths lit can prevent a fall or at least you can see where you will hit the ground. Solar powered path lights are a simple way to illuminate any path around your house. They require no wiring so installation is as simple as putting a stake in the ground. The top of the light has a small solar panel that charges a rechargable AA battery. I've put in two sets of lights, one by the shop building and the other set in the rose beds along the front of the house. They are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased in large packs at Sam's club. You can get solar pathway lights at any hardware store, discount store and even harbor freight tools. The only maintenance involved is to occasionally clean the dirt that will accumulate on solar panels and to prune any bushes that will block the solar panels from sunlight.

Small Green Project - Composting

If you grow your own garden, or grow any kind of plant, you can benefit from compost. Compost is decomposed organic matter. All organic matter decomposes and those materials provide nutrients and growing medium for plants. In a compost pile we are trying to speed up the natural process of decomposition. By providing an optimal environment for the microorganisms, insects and worms the material can be decomposed in a few months rather than a year or more in the natural decompostion process. The decomposition we want in our compost pile is aerobic decompostion. That is, we want our materials to decompose in the presence of air. anaerobic decomposition is more useful in biodigestors for the production of methane gas. Anaerobic decomposition is what is responsible for the foul smell that can come from a compost pile if not properly maintained. In order to maintain your compost pile you need three things: 1. organic material 2. water 3. air. The ratio of carbon and nitrogen is  important in your organic material and can be maintained by putting a variety of materials into your compost pile. If you put mostly yard wastes that are high in nitrogen as I do, you can add high carbon materials, such as shredded paper (think junk mail) or paper roll tubes to balance things out and keep the pile healthy and decomposing quickly. You need to also keep the pile moist. The air come from turning the compost pile on a regular basis. If you don't have the room for compost piles in your yard, barrel composters and small worm bin composters are available to buy or build and all provide valuable nutrients for your plants!

Here are some links if you are thinking about a composting too:

http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/solwaste/branch_technical/compost.htm  - Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality site on composting

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/composting/basic.htm - EPA composting site

http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/composting.htm - UA's Cooperative Extension composting site

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm - Build your own worm bin composter

http://www.solidwastedistrict.com/projects/bin_barrel.htm - Build your own barrel composter

Large Green Project - Energy Efficient Heat Pump Replacement

During August the first year we lived in the country our undersized heat pump failed. It was hot, we were unhappy, it wasn't fun! Small holes throughout the system prevented keeping a refrigerant charge. The coil was rusted and had to be replaced. It was going to be a costly repair, and the system was undersized for the house and wasn't very efficient. I decided we should upgrade the existing heat pump with a new more energy efficient model and add an extra vent and return air duct. We chose a lennox XP 16 heat pump. What is a heat pump? It's an air conditioner and furnace all-in-one. During the summer it extracts the heat from the inside air to make it cooler and in the winter it extracts the heat from the outside air to heat the inside air. Yes, even in the winter there is still enough heat in the air to extract to heat your home. It just gets less efficient the colder it gets. But in moderate climates they can be more energy efficient than a separate air conditioner and furnace. We also have a wood burning stove that offsets the demand from the heat pump in the winter. Having dual sources for heat or a constant temperature source such as geothermal makes a heat pump a good choice for heating and cooling your home. Our unit has a SEER rating of 17. SEER is the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. The higher the number the more energy efficient the system is or the more money you save when using the system. The system cost about $5100 installed and included a new duct and air return in another part of our home. The heat pump qualified for the energy efficiency tax credit and has lowered our energy usage by an average of 400 kWh per month.

Here are some links if you are thinking of an energy efficient heat pump:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/heat-pump.htm - How heat pumps work.

http://www.lennox.com/products/heat-pumps/XP16/ - here is the heat pump we got.

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=US43F&re=1&ee=1 - residential tax credit information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump - information on geothermal heat pump systems. Geothermal is an attractive option for a heat pump especially if you don't have a supplemental heat source and they are available in our area!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_energy_efficiency_ratio - SEER info.

Medium Green Project - FSC certified Wood Tiles

I put in a small hot tub earlier this year. I've mistreated my back in years past and from time to time I'm reminded of my past transgressions, so I convinced my wife a hot tub would be therapeutic and voila! A short soak and a good glass of vino is a nice way to unwind in the evenings, but I digress. I realized after a couple of months that I needed a patio covering that is easier on the feet than concrete and didn't let me track grit into the house. I had seen wooden tiles on a DIY show, but wasn't sure where to get them. A few internet searches later and I found these. They are FSC certified eucalyptus wooden tiles from Vifah manufacturing. They snap together and can be taken apart and re-assembled just about anywhere. They have a plastic plaform that raises the wood above grade to let the water shed away, and since they are installed on our back porch there is already a slope away from the house to shed water. The tiles are oiled from the manufacturer and as you can see from my pic they need to be sealed once a year or they will weather grey. Use any wood sealer such as what you would use for your deck. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. It is a non-profit organization advocating and certifying wood products that come from responsibly managed forests. The tiles are about $3.50 per square foot. They are a little expensive but wear well and look great. You can also find refurbished tiles cheaper and they are sold in larger lots at a discount.

Here are a few links if you are thinking of wooden tiles:
http://www.fsc.org/ - Forest Stewardship Council website
http://www.decktiles.org/ - Vifah's retail website

Small Green Project - Recycled Rubber Path

I have a stepping stone path around my shop that leads from our patio to the trash and aluminum recycling cans. Rather than putting in an organic mulch around the pavers that would break down and need to be replaced, or rock that would retain heat and be less comfortable to walk on, I decided I would try a relatively new product available at most home-improvement stores: recycled rubber mulch. It is available in 2 colors, red and earth tone (dark brown). It is soft to walk on and is guaranteed to last and be colorfast for 15 years. It is made of 100% recycled rubber. I haven't been able to find what the rubber source is,but nontheless it is recycled rubber and whatever we can keep out of the landfills the better. It is more expensive than traditional mulch, running around $12 per bag, but you don't have to re-mulch every year. Wal-mart and sam's club have started carrying the mulch and it is priced cheaper than the home improvement stores. I've been pleased with the mulch so far this year and am planning on a rubber mulch walkway around my raised beds next year.

Here are a couple of links if you are thinking of recycled rubber mulch:

http://www2.dupont.com/Garden_Products/en_US/products/mulch.html  - DuPonts Mulch product page

http://www.internationalmulch.com/ - another rubber mulch manufacturer

http://www.americanrubber.com/mulch/ - here is a rubber mulch that is made from recycled tires (sold at sam's clubs)

Medium Green Project - Solar Attic Fan

Well, I've done it. I cut a hole in the roof today and installed a 10 watt solar powered attic fan. I already have a 10 watt solar powered gable vent fan, (earlier post) but the gable vent fan wasn't quite enough ventilation for the hot attic air. 1 -20 watt fan or 2 -10 watt fans are recommended for my roof size and pitch. My roof it L-shaped and the gable vent fan is installed at the top of the "L". The attic fan I installed today is in the middle of the bottom of the "L". That allows the fan to expel hot air from that section of the attic and pull in fresh air from the north and south gable and soffit vents. Like the gable vent fan, the attic fan has a thermostatic switch controlling when the fan turns on. When the attic air temp rises above 80 degrees the fan switches on and switches off when the temperature falls below 70 degrees. That should allow the fan to run most of the year but stay off in the dead of winter. As I wrote in the gable vent fan post the ideas behind adequate attic ventilation are lower energy costs for cooling,because the temperature differential between the inside and outside temps are lower, as well as slowing the deterioration of the roof from the lower temperatures and lower humidity in the attic. While I was in the attic today I located a spot above our kitchen where I can install our tubular skylight. Look for that post soon! The total time to install was a couple of hours and the cost for the fan was about $320. The fan does qualify for a 30% tax credit for photovoltaic systems.

Here are some links if you are thinking about a solar attic fan:

http://www.solaratticfan.com/ - this is the company that makes the fan.

http://www.infinigi.com/ - this is where I got the fan.

http://www.dsireusa.org/ - Federal and State tax incentives