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If you know that you are going to be staying in your home for quite some time to come, it is not as important whether the green updates or changes to your home are as attractive to buyers. If, however, you are trying to find a way to use environmentally friendly items and technology in a way that will increase your home’s resale value, you may need to be more cautious.

Why you need to be careful about the changes you make to your home
It is important to be careful about the changes you make to your home because if a home seems overly unique, it may be difficult for buyers to picture themselves living comfortably in your property. While many people are fairly aware of the advantages that green technology can bring them, others may be more interested in homes that look and feel traditional but which utilize environmentally friendly items that will make their home more energy efficient.

Potential buyers may not see certain elements as a benefit to the environment but if you can offer them savings on heating and energy bills.

If you can show them that your home is much less expensive to operate and maintain than other homes that are similar, you have a much more realistic chance of getting the sale you are after.

What does this mean for renovations?
If you are trying to pick and choose which areas to renovate first you need to choose items that have the most visible and immediate impact. For example, renovating a kitchen or bathroom to make it more eco-friendly or replacing an older, worn out roof with a material that is durable as well as eco friendly will likely give you the best return for your investment.

Some popular green updates that appeal to buyers
There are many green updates that you can add to your home that will appeal to buyers. Tankless hot water systems, for example, are appealing because they can give an almost unlimited source of hot water for any room in the home. They can be easily maintained by new owners as well. Energy efficient windows that will reduce the amount of heat loss are also appealing to buyers as they may not want to have to replace older model windows when they move into a home.

Heating and insulation can also make a home appealing
Heating systems and increased insulation can also be appealing to a buyer. If you add energy efficient insulation and a heating system that will drastically reduce a hydro or energy bill you will create an environment that a buyer may be much more willing to move into.

Only you will know which areas of your home need to be updated first. Obviously, if your home has obvious issues you should consider correcting them first before moving on to any cosmetic updates. An advisor that has experience retrofitting homes in your area should be able to look at your home and tell you where your renovation dollars will have the greatest impact.

Environmental technology (envirotech) or green technology (greentech) or clean technology (cleantech) is the utilization of the environmental science to preserve our natural environment and resources, and to reduce the negative effects of human activity. Environmental technology is centered on sustainable development.

Gasification is one example of green technology. It involves a combination of techniques aimed at pulling out energy from various types of organic matter. Gasification is a process that breaks down carbonaceous materials like coal, petroleum, biofuel, or biomass, and turns them into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by using extremely high temperatures and controlled amounts of oxygen and/or steam to turn raw material, for instance house waste, or compost, into gas. The gas mixture produced through gasification is called synthesis gas. Syngas in itself is a form of fuel. It is composed mainly of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide and has less than half the energy density of natural gas.

The latest form of gasification is the revolutionary Biosphere Technology which was created and developed by the renowned author of various original contributions in scientific literature, Dr. Chris McCormack. Dr. McCormack also serves as the Chairman and CEO of Global Environmental Energy Corporation (GEECF). Biosphere Technology siphons the combustibility of solid wastes and transforms it into a fuel that generates steam of extreme heat which in turn produces green electricity. What makes the Biosphere process unique is the fact that it is performed in a controlled environment of limited oxygen to limit most of the resulting atmospheric emissions. The biosphere chamber is where the biosphere process begins. It is where the solid wastes are placed and subjected to thermal transformation to convert them into syngas. The syngas is then transferred into a combined cycle gas/steam turbine from which electricity is generated.

“Biosphere MK-V” is the materialization of the BioSphere process as a means of generating green energy while at the same time putting into effect the clean disposal of energy wastes.

Pozzolanic Ash

Pozzolanic Ash is very rust resistant which makes it the chief component of rustproof materials built for underwater use. The high alkalinity of pozzolana also makes it especially resistant to usual types of sulfate corrosion. Fully hardened Pozzolanic Ash is also highly resistant to water absorption and spalling.

High Alloy Steel Wire

HASW is an alloy wire that “remembers” its original, cold-forged shape: returning the pre-deformed shape by heating. This material is a lightweight, solid-state alternative to conventional actuators such as hydraulic, pneumatic, and motor-based systems. Shape memory alloys have applications in industries including medical and aerospace.

Carbon Black

The most frequent utilization of carbon black is as a tincture and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black is also very helpful in absorbing heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, resulting to reduced thermal damage and increased tire life. Carbon black particles are also being used as components in several radar absorbent materials and in photocopier and laser printer toner.

Electricity

Electricity is an extremely flexible form of energy, and has been adapted to a huge, and growing, number of uses. Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within homes and factories. Public utilities were set up in many cities targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting.

Article by Ezra Drissman

PowerGenix has been working to improve batteries for two of the world’s most common power needs: home based applications (i.e., games, digital cameras, and other high drain devices) and personal transportation uses like the automobile. Previously, most consumers looked to alkaline batteries for all high drain devices, especially those that were meant to be used constantly for a set period of time like a hand held game. Alkaline batteries offer the voltage that these devices need, but are generally not rechargeable making them ultimately more expensive. It is also a fact that alkaline batteries are not eco-friendly.

Rechargeable batteries, like the nickel-metal hydride battery and the nickel-cadmium battery, generally do not put out enough power to work consistently or well in the high drain devices that sorely need them. Rechargeable batteries also hold the key to sustainable and lasting clean energy. Nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries have the technology to deliver not only the recycling ability of other nickel-based battery types, but they also deliver a full 1.5 volts of power. Why then, if this powerful yet recyclable battery is available is it not more commonly used? The answer is quite simple: marketing, availability, and durability.

PowerGenix produces NiZn batteries. These batteries hit the market in December 2008. The batteries themselves are labeled as the “Quantaray Super Z” rechargeable AA battery (Practical Environmentalist 2008). Durability is the problem with these batteries because the zinc electrodes do not last as long as other materials. NiZn batteries do offer higher energy density, however, so the trade off might be worthwhile for some consumers.

Consumer-based high-drain devices such as hand-held games have a voracious need for batteries. If a hand-held game drains its alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries after four hours of use per day, and the game is played a minimum of four days each week, the total battery usage would be 64 for the week. At the minimum, a four pack of AA batteries costs .00. At this price, the cost or operating a single hand-held game will be per week, 6 per month, and 72 per year.

PowerGenix is also working on NiZn batteries for electric and hybrid cars. It will take time for these batteries to catch up to and overtake the more common lithium-ion batteries, especially in this application, but it is only a matter of time. NiZn batteries are reportedly cleaner to produce and are also supposed to be the easiest to recycle meaning double benefits for the environment.

Green technologies for more than a century today have been our greatest weapons towards saving planet earth. Comprehensive environmental awareness campaigns have been launched all over the world to inform people of the different ecological benefits of using green energy. But all efforts seem to be not enough because brown energy technologies that desecrate the sanctity of the environment are still reigning supreme in the energy industry. Oil and coal still supply most of the world’s energy needs. Unfortunately, coal and oil are also the leading in the release of carbon gases into the atmosphere.

The primary reason why coal and oil are still the most widely used energy sources is because they have remained unrivaled in terms of efficiency for ages now. Efficiency has also been what held green technologies like solar power, wind power, biomass power, and hydro power back.

Most green energies cannot even fully sustain a consumer’s needs. They often need additional sources as supplement to suffice. And obviously, people prefer efficient forms of energy even if they harm the environment rather than green technologies that help preserve nature but are incapable of meeting their demands.

Finally, there is a green technology that has the potential to surpass even coal and oil when it comes to efficiency. This revolutionary process is called biosphere technology. Biosphere technology involves the use of biosphere machines to convert solid wastes into energy in the form of electricity.

Biosphere technology qualified as a green technology because of the fact that a biosphere machine subjects the feedstock under the biosphere gasification process inside tightly closed, oxygen limited containers thus greatly limiting the release of carbon gases into the atmosphere. The Biosphere MKV brought into the Philippines by Ronald Shane Flynn has broken records and is now recognized as the most efficient and most environment friendly technology. Its efficiency is represented by the fact than it can convert a maximum of 97% of the weight of the wastes into energy and more than 90% of the remaining by-products can be further processed to become resalable in the market. Its ecological friendliness on the other hand, is proven by the fact that during the entire waste-to-energy conversion process, only around 2% greenhouse gas emissions are produced. Biosphere technology is so environment-friendly it can even be classified as a carbon offset solution.

Biosphere technology not only prevents future air pollution, it also eliminates current land pollution because of the fact that it uses solid wastes for fuel. A single biosphere facility can convert the trash found in entire landfills into commercial electricity. Governments and organizations therefore now have one more reason to destroy waste, and that is to gain electrical power.

Biosphere technology also entails a more stable economy due to oil independence. Biosphere energy is a stand-alone form of energy, meaning it does not need to be supplemented by other forms of energy to meet the demands of consumers. Thus, a country with adequate amounts of biosphere facilities and machines no longer need to import oil to fuel their industries. The said countries then are no longer significantly affected by fluctuations in the price of oil in the global market.