Environmental News, Eco-Friendly Gadgets - FreshAirTimes.eu

Eco Factor: Hi-tech bus stop powered by solar energy.

A simple way to reduce your personal carbon footprint is making use of services such as buses and trains to go to your office and back home. However, tempting car owners to leave their luxuries at home and wait for a bus to their destination to arrive seems a tough ask. MIT architects are envisioning a future where people won’t only be encouraged to travel by a bus, but will also ensure that their relationship with the most modern of technologies is not disturbed in any way.

Passengers waiting for a bus at the “EyeStop” would be able to check their mailboxes, get the latest updates on weather, watch news and even get in touch with their Facebook friends. Other than this, riders can also plan a bus trip on an interactive map and monitor their real-time exposure to pollutants.

The EyeStop also keeps the riders aware of the current status of the bus they’re waiting for and glows at different levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus. The best feature of the EyeStop is that all those hi-tech features don’t consume a single watt of electricity from the grid as it is powered by electricity generated from the rooftop solar panels.

Via: Treehugger

Eco Factor: Outdoor umbrella generates power for recharging portable devices.

Konarka Technologies, an innovator in development and commercialization of Power Plastic (a material that converts light to energy), is working to make sure that power for your portable devices is available anywhere. The firm entered into a technology partnership with SKYShades one year ago and lately, SKYShades received its first shipment of Konarka Power Plastic thin film. SKYShades is one of the global leaders in supplying shade and tension membrane structures. This lightweight thin film, which converts light to energy, will be used by SKYShades to create the Powerbrella, an innovative way to charge your laptop, cellphone or other portable devices outdoors.

Designed for use at outdoor venues such as cafés and restaurants, hotel and resort swimming pools and outdoor lounges, the Powerbrella incorporates the Power Plastic on the surface of SKYShades’ retractable and fixed architectural SKYbrella. Testing for the Powerbrella has been done in 2008 at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando. Physics students at Lake Highland checked the effectiveness of the Powerbrella to withstand the elements, its ability to generate clean green energy and the amount of resulting power that could be stored in batteries for reuse.

Other than generating energy from the solar panels, the Powerbrella will also offer people coverage from the sun. The Powerbrella is expected to go on sale by Q3 of 2009.

Via: Talk2MyShirt

Do away with ugly radiators lining your carefully decorated living spaces with this sleek and elegant Wall Ceramic Design. Designed by Andrey Vostrikov, the heater offers efficient energy utilization along with superior design that gives you better, faster heating along with considerable noise reduction. The unit is also capable of generating helpful negative ions and its built-in LED lights look simply delightful in the dark!
Source: Ployer

Earlier we told you about the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, and car-free city called the Masdar City. This $22 billion development in Abu Dhabi also requires some green building designs that are self dependent for energy needs. Since the city is the world’s greenest the buildings that will beautify the place should also be as green as the city itself. To keep up to this challenge a Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill was chosen.

The firm has come up with a ‘positive energy’ building which will generate more energy than what it actually requires. The 1.4 million sf headquarters of the building (pictured above) will serve as the centerpiece of Masdar City.

Not only is the building green, but its also the world’s first mixed-use, net positive energy building in the world and costs a whooping $300 million. To make up the mega-task of generating own energy, this amazing building will make use of the world’s largest building-integrated photovoltaic arrays, the largest solar thermal driven cooling and dehumidification system, and will also be the first building in history to generate power for its own assembly, through development of its solar roof pier before the underlying complex. This mega structure will also consume about 70% less water than other mixed-use buildings of its size.

Via: Jets on Green

As a child I hated it when my mom made me give away my toys to children’s charities. She always told me that I had ‘outgrown’ my Barbies and toy cars. Thankfully, designer Ryan McElhinney thought better and found a novel way to help people preserve their childhood memories by turning their toys into designer lamps and other decoratives. Ryan takes around 6 weeks to dissemble and reform your toys into beautiful sculptures that can even be handed down generations as heirloom pieces! Very, very cool!
Via: Judy Kitsune

The incubation of the egg of thought behind these unconventional creations is a chicken or an ‘Inkuku’, Zulu word for chicken. The London-based South African designer Ryan Frank drew inspiration from the colourful South African chicken ornaments and put together this recycled range of furniture, of which even the base is of recycled aluminium.

After much dejection during the Avian flu period, chicken is here to redeem its status and become a part of your home decor. Flaunt it, it is something straight out of the box.

Via: TrendHunter

Something that truly lends you an eye and lights your path as you go are these solar wall lights, as philosophical as the introduction may sound, the utility is as practical as it can get. Stuck on the wall along the staircase or on the fence, these not only add a touch of aesthetics they also prevent you from tripping over in the dark. Operating on solar power, once fully charged, the white energy-saving LEDs come on automatically at dusk to provide up to six hours of light. The quality integral solar panel and replaceable rechargeable Ni-MH batteries ensure years of service and are very easy to install. So light up the darkness with the power of sun, intended literally.

Via: CoolestGadgets

I cannot vouch for it personally, but that is what the makers claim. If you believe the makers, is a stone of magic healing properties. Living close to nature is important and if you were ever to believe Coleridge, is the only important thing in life. According to those who market these special salt crystals, these salt crystal lamps are made from salt crystal rocks formed millions of years ago in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Being in India gives me obviously a wonderful opportunity to see things in the right light and if I had to bet my money on it, then I would much rather claim that it is basically nothing but utter nonsense. For starters, most rocks are millions of years old and if you dig deeper, they will only get older. Secondly, having been to the Himalayan range a couple of times, I can personally vouch for the fact that it is the most liberating of all experiences. There is some magic in the air that captivates and heals you. But a stone is not going to bring that feeling into your living room.

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Keen on gardening? Keen on feeding plants a bit of your own compost? You could go about this by just letting your garbage rot in one corner until your nose has had enough (or until your neighbor reports you to authorities). But you could take a gentleman’s way out by spendin’ some bucks on NatureMill Pro.

Basically NatureMill Pro is a trash can that works as an indoor compost-maker. If you waste a lot of food, just put it in this thing and voila, every 2 weeks you’ve fresh supply of home-made manure to replenish your garden.
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Now what would you get if you combine a CFL and a Balloon, A floating Lamp is what you’ll get! So was thought up by designer Luc Schouten who has elevated LED (Light Emitting Diode) usage to “new heights” with his new patent pending ‘Floting Lamp’ design that uses helium filled latex balloons anchored by a small LED base.

The design boasts off features such as multiple light effects like a strobe, flash and glow and has a temporary lifespan of 10 hours. Perfect for use at clubs, discos or house parties.

It is a known fact that Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) use less power than the traditional incandescents and also have a longer rated life. Since CFLs use less power to supply the same amount of light as an incandescent lamp of the same lumen rating, they can be used to decrease energy consumption at the location in which they are used thereby reducing carbon emissions into the air and help in keeping the environment cleaner.

Kudos to Schouten for not only being creative at what he does best but for also keeping the various environmental issues in mind while designing his products.

Source: TrendHunter