One Half

I've become fascinated by a web site called Build It Solar. Despite the name, it's focus is not just on solar power. In fact, there are very few mentions of traditional solar panels anywhere on the site.

It's more of a collection of energy conservation projects, mostly in the low-tech, do-it-yourself realm. That's where I found the amazing 0.1 kWh fridge that I mentioned before. There must be a couple hundred other projects listed. They're not all necessarily practical, but you never know what people might be able to accomplish. Most are low-cost. Many are experimental. Most are interesting or educational.

Some examples:

• A greenhouse made from straw bales, rebar, and plastic film, that uses compost to heat water
• An incredibly efficient rotating solar boiler.
• A Graywater heat exchanger to capture the warmth from hot water going down the drain.
• A simple window shade that does double-duty as insulation and solar collector.
  

But, on the more mundane side, I thought the most interesting section was one called "1/2." It details one households attempt to cut their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emition in half, without significantly changing their lifestyle and without spending a bundle.

For each of the projects, they detailed the cost, the energy savings, the greenhouse gas reduction, the cost savings, the payback time, the time it took to do the project, and the difficulty level. They also have a nice outline of which of the 22 projects are most cost effective.

So how'd they do? Pretty darn well. They acheived a 50% reduction in energy usage, a 46% reduction in greenhouse gas, and got back 44% of the money they spent in the very first year.