One of the biggest energy guzzlers in many homes is the water heater. With an average family of four, daily showers and household chores can deplete the contents of a fifty gallon water heater in no time, resulting in high utility bills. If you’re looking for a greener, more energy efficient water heater, here’s a green alternative that may work for your household. AirGenerate’s AirTap™ water heater uses mostly air and a small amount of electricity to heat the water. The unit attaches atop any standard electric or gas water heater and acts as a heat pump to pull the heat from the surrounding air, compress it, and send it into your water heater to heat the water inside. According to AirGenerate, their AirTap™ heat pump water heater uses 2.5 times less energy than standard water heaters. Along with energy efficient water heaters and other household appliances, don’t forget one of the simplest steps in conserving energy and water—taking shorter showers!

A brand new solar-operated ferris wheel was introduced tonight to the Santa Monica Pier. According to the news, there were hundreds of people lining up for a free ride until midnight. All those that stood in line, but didn’t get to experience the 130 ft above ocean view before closing, got a rain check. What happened to the old wheel? It was sold on Ebay over a month ago for roughly $50,000 (+ $135,000 for the base sold separately + shipping). LA Times revealed that the winning bidder is a real estate developer and the son of a former Oklahoma City mayor, Humphreys. The auction attracted close to 10,000 watchers and 400,000 pageviews. Half of the proceeds were donated to California’s Special Olympics.

Yes, even Apple is going green. Last month Apple filed a patent to integrate solar cells into their portable devices. The new solar technology will prolong battery life significantly. According to Forbes, “information regarding the performance of a device’s solar cells could be displayed on the main screen next to info for battery power, text message alerts and time of day. Or this information could also appear on top of the solar cells themselves, which are likely to display some version of the Apple logo.” Either way, say goodbye to dropped calls and “you are now running on reserve battery power” pop-ups. I wonder how this will hold up to heat exposure since rule number one with electronics is to leave them out of sun’s harmful rays. MacRumors raises the question of whether the design will suffer as a result of solar implementation, but knowing Apple’s genius designers, I highly doubt that it will. I can’t wait for green laptops, green iPods and green iPhones to finally grace retail shelves. Until then there is always a portable solar charger.

* graphic design by GV

The Hot2O Solar Hot Water Heater Kit is an affordable (around $2,000) and very efficient solar product that retrofits your current gas hot water heater. There is a similar solar kit for electric hot water heaters. All retrofit kits include Solar Hot Water Collectors, Mounting Hardware, controller, drainback and more.

Details:

iSol Plus is an ideal solar solution for all of your portable devices. Buy iSol Plus and say goodbye to dead cell phone, iPod, PDA or PSP batteries. You can charge your gadgets wherever you are under the sun (10-20 hours). And if it rains, you can charge it with your laptop via a USB cable (2-4 hours).

Source: Silicon Solar - iSol Plus - $ 43.95

Specifications:
- Solar Panel: 5.5V 100mA
- Rechargeable Lithium Battery: 3.7V
- Dimensions: 4.5 in x 2.5 in x .6 in
- USB charging cable: 5V 500mA
- DC Outputs: 5.5V 500mA / 7.5V 350mA / 9.5V 300mA

Features:
- Charge using the Sun or USB connector
- Major brand mobile phone adaptors
- Comes with suction cups
- Charging and discharging indicators:
Charging in the sun
Charging with USB cable
Charging portable device

I’d like to dedicate this week to solar solutions for your home. Did you know that enough sunlight falls on the earth’s surface each minute to meet world energy demand for an entire year ? I didn’t either, but it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that it’s not being used. The biggest obstacle is that solar power installation costs are not affordable by most. The other day I saw a white van parked on my street with a solar biz logo, so I went up to the driver and asked him how much it costs to solar power an apartment or a house. He quoted me a $30,000 starting price. Even with utility companies’ incentives and tax breaks, it’s still not a solution for everyone. In the meantime, there are some less expensive solar products for your home.

Second runner up to the Centennial Bulb is “The Eternal Light”, located in Fort Worth, Texas. First turned on in 1908 at the Byers Opera House where it spent most of its life. The opera house became a movie theater in 1920 until it was torn down in 1977. The bulb still burns to this day at Stockyards Museum in a glass case.

In third place is “The Bulb” from Mangum, Oklahoma. Turned on sometime between 1926 and 1929 and housed in a fire station built in 1912. “Mangum feels no need to measure itself against others, and has been content to keep its bulb to itself. There are no webcams here, no glass display cases. The bulb doesn’t even have a name. Locals refer to it simply as “the bulb“.

Source: Roadside America

One. And it’s still burning.

This bulb has a pretty impressive history. It’s been illuminating a firehouse in Livermore, CA since 1901. The greenest bulb in the world was made by Shelby Electric Co. who went out of business in 1914. It has become quite a celebrity in its old age, attracting tourists since the 70’s… It even claims an online presence with a website draws about a million visitors a year and features a bulb-cam set up to film it continuously. Livermore firefighters used to swipe it for good luck before leaving on duty and now they don’t dust it for the same reasons. The secret to the bulb’s longevity lies in the fact that it has almost never been turned off in its 107 years and the air-tight seal never let any oxygen in, creating a cold-burning vacuum.

For a full story and facts, check out these links:

LA Times: At 107, Livermore centennial lightbulb is still a real live wire

Official site: Livermore’s Centennial Light

2007 Record: Guinness Book of World Records

Print: Ripley’s Believe it or Not

Wikipedia: Centennial Light

Spending too much on your electricity bills?

Have no fear, Kill-a-Watt is here!

Kill-a-Watt is a wall unit with a large LCD which provides you with information about appliances that are plugged into it. It makes monitoring your electrical usage painless; expenses are viewable by day, week. month or year. It also detects voltage, line frequency, and power factor and estimates the quality of your power. Kill-a-Watt calculates consumption by the Killawatt/hr, as your utility company, which makes figuring out the bill easier.And all that for under $ 20. Find out just how efficient your appliances really are, eliminate energy leeches and put that money towards a weekend trip (or more like current gas prices).