Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

The buzz-words for today’s environmentally conscious consumer are “low impact”, as in do your best to leave the planet a better place than how you found it. This article outlines ten neat gadgets on the market today that can help an average person maintain a sustainable lifestyle while enjoying some modern day conveniences.

Most of the devices run on solar power, some on wind, some on a little bit of elbow grease and one incorporates the laws of thermodynamics. All are ingenious and convenient and easy to use.

My favorite has to be the sand-powered refrigerator. Put a vessel of food in a larger one, pack the space between with wet sand, and cover the whole thing with a damp cloth. As the sand dries, it draws heat out and keeps the contents cool enough to store the food for days.

That giant ball of gas in the sky, our sun, can provide the energy necessary to power lighting fixtures, heat water, and even cook your food more safely than with the open flames of a barbecue pit or grill. The solar water heater is one device with a myriad of uses and rolls up to fit in a backpack. The kinetically powered MP3 player may also come in handy in emergency situations when the electrical grid fails and you’re in desperate need of a cell phone or flashlight. There’s the added bonus of the extra exercise you’re getting as well.

Prices for some of these gadgets range from pocket change to a second mortgage, but most are within reach of your average middle-income consumer. The knowledge that these conveniences are drawing on renewable and sustained energy sources coupled with the “it’s so cool” factor make most of them well worth the initial cost.

As with all good things and developments like the green movement, it seems like there’s someone out there ready to take advantage of the technology learning curve and people’s desires to do good. This company was stopped before they could do too much damage, but I personally hope that they get what they deserve for defrauding the environmentally conscious Texas public.

Joe

Excerpt from My Fox Austin.

05/14/2008 — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott obtained a temporary restraining order and limited asset freeze Monday against Forum Trading, Inc.

The state’s legal enforcement action charges the Austin-based company, which is organized as a multi-level marketing scheme with independent distributors, with marketing energy devices it falsely claims will significantly reduce power consumption, extend the life of household appliances and save consumers money.

“With Texas families focused on energy prices and seeking cost savings, these defendants are promising lower electricity bills but failing to deliver,” Attorney General Abbott said. “Experts who reviewed the defendants’ products discovered no actual savings for well-intentioned purchasers. The Office of the Attorney General will continue to aggressively crack down on scam artists who attempt to illegally profit from Texas families.”

Court documents filed by the state indicate that Forum Trading, Inc. and several affiliated companies, including Xium Corporation and Xedia Technologies Inc., deceptively market and sell small devices that can store electric energy. The defendants falsely claim that the “Xpower Energy Saver,” which they sell for almost $200 per unit, will reduce consumers’ electricity consumption by up to 25 percent, while the “Mega Power Saver,” priced at nearly $300, will result in more than 10 percent savings.

However, engineers who tested the purported energy-saving products at the University of Texas at Austin concluded that the Xpower Energy Saver could produce no more than a 0.06 percent reduction in electric consumption in an average house. The Attorney General’s laboratory expert similarly concluded that the Mega Power Saver could provide, at best, no more than one percent total energy savings. According to the state’s expert, the devices have no effect on the life of household appliances, despite the defendants’ claims that the Xpower Energy Saver allows appliance motors to “run about 10% cooler.

The laboratory testing also revealed that the products are, in reality, ordinary capacitors, which are often used in electronic circuits to store energy or to differentiate between high-frequency and low-frequency signals. Capacitors are regularly used by electricians, and they can be purchased for less than $20.

You can read the whole story at MyFox Austin.

There’s no question that most states, particularly Texas, want their residents to build and reside in environmentally friendly homes. Statewide incentives are heavily advertised, and local builders are openly praised. Thus you are well aware of the regional benefits of building green. But are you also aware of the incentives outside of the state for eco-conscious construction? Have you, for example, looked into what the federal government is offering you?

There are numerous federal incentives for building and living in a “green home.” For instance, installing energy conservation measures to reduce the electricity or gas that you use daily warrants a tax break. Your gross income, come next April, will not include the value of the solar paneling or whichever device you chose to use. And if you think you can’t afford this step, think again. The federal government offers loans and grants to a variety of individuals and businesses for installing environmentally safe devices.

If you are starting from scratch, building a completely new home rather than simply installing an energy saving device, you have even more to gain. Depending on the methods you employ and materials you use, you could garner a $2,000 tax credit. At the very least, you’ll get a $1,000 credit; as far as minimums are concerned, that’s not bad at all.

So you see, it’s not just the state providing you with reasons to build green; it’s the country, too. There are numerous federal incentives waiting to be taken advantage of by you and your eco-conscious plans. All you have to do is know that they exist. To do that, visit the Green Building Initiative at thegbi.org. It has a database of benefits just waiting to be acknowledged by you.

Austin Brings Home the Environmental Gold

December 17th, 2007 6:25 PM

I love living in a place where people, both in the private sector and the government, strive to do what’s right. It’s refreshing to see Austin continue to set the bar across the nation for protecting our environment.

In other related news, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has proposed guidelines to implement legislation passed this year requiring electronics producers to provide recycling programs for consumers in Texas. Environmental advocates, local government leaders and electronics recyclers have argued that the proposed rules do not do enough to ensure the programs will be convenient for residents and provide responsible recycling.

Yesterday the three TCEQ Commissioners voted to invite broad comments so that they can consider alternatives that would strengthen the proposed guidelines, which are weak.

Visit www.TexasEnvironment.org for the latest details on the campaign to make electronics producers recycle.

Austin in top 10 list of greenest cities

…excerpt from the Austin Business Journal

Austin ranked ninth in a national survey of the top 10 green cities in the country.

According to data compiled by the EarthLab Foundation, a Kirkland, Wash.-based nonprofit, Chicago tops the list followed by New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Remaining top 10 green cities are Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin and Portland.

The data used for the survey is based on a sampling of more than 1 million U.S. residents who used EarthLab’s Carbon & Lifestyle Calculator, which scores users’ personal impact on the environment, factoring in energy consumption, transportation, work, recycling and other lifestyle habits.

U.S. green-tech hot spots go coast to coast

Investments in green-tech start-ups are going through the roof. Which regions in the U.S. are in the lead?

excerpt from News.com

Texas

Texas netted 149 million in clean-tech venture dollars in the first nine months of this year, with more than half of that going to Austin-based HelioVolt, a company that is building solar electric cells using CIGS (copper-indium-germanium-selenide), an alternative material to silicon.

The Austin area is the hotbed of activity for Texas clean-tech start-ups, where there is a University of Texas-linked Clean Tech Incubator to foster development of new companies.

Austin benefits from the advocacy of Mayor Will Winn who is pushing for mass transit, a green-building program in conjunction with municipally owned Austin Energy, and plug-in hybrid stations. “You tell people (they) get to drive around on West Texas wind, not Middle East oil, and it resonates with a broader spectrum of people,” Winn says.

Texas has the fastest-growing wind industry in the U.S., according to the American Wind Energy Association. And its strong ties to the gas and oil industries make it a natural place to test material technologies to improve refineries and exploration.