Our Environment

Here at Our-Environment.com we are passionate about the Earth and helping to create a better, sustainable environment for ourselves and our descendants.

Environment Vinyl Banner

We are not “tree huggers” we do not want to move back to the stone age, we believe that there are solutions available and available now. Sure there are costs to consider, though the price of ignoring the impact we as a species we have on the environment is even more costly.

Helping us achieve our goals are our sponsors. Our-Environment.com’s major sponsor since the beginning has been Steve Scott (the vinyl banner guy) from B2bJv.com, Steve has helped us in many ways, financially by helping keep our website alive and also by designing and supplying some great vinyl banners for us that we have used to promote the cause.

Here in this article is an example of one of our banners Steve’s created for us. Thanks Mate we all appreciate all your support.

Jamie & The Team at Our-Environment.com

Only a few years ago talk of residential wind turbines was thought of as the territory of the “Greenie” or the extreme environmentalist. Such is not the case any more.

Residential Wind Turbines

Conversion of the kinetic energy of the wind to usable and clean electric power via a residential wind turbine is now a very simple business. Sophisticated off the shelf wind powered generators cost from around $800 (US) up to many tens of thousands for larger high output varieties.

Residential wind turbines are now more affordable, much more practical and applicable to a wider variety of situations than ever before (and without the need of an electrical engineering degree).

Of course yachties have known how effective wind turbines are be for years. Mainly used to keep boat batteries charged between uses, a relatively small marine wind turbine can supply enough electricity to run a television or small appliance and run several lights in a breeze of about 8-12 knots (about 14 mph or 20 kph). Wind turbines have been common place on cruising boats for about a decade.

These maritime versions of  the residential wind turbine usually work on a twelve or twenty-four volt system, though with the use of smart, cheap technologies now available, they can be used to supplement many more domestic uses too.

While I was sailing in Greece this year I visited an island called Levitha, which lies about three quarters of the way to Turkey from the Greek mainland in the Aegean Sea (see the images).

Only one family live Levitha, this rugged though beautiful island, when speaking to the owner I found out that they are 100% energy self sufficient and are less dependent on fossil fuel (diesel) generators than ever before. A large percentage of this power now being generated by the small wind generators pictured here.

Wind power electricity provided them with not only enough electricity to live a normal (if secluded) life on their island home. It proved more effective (in their case) than solar electricity generation because the wind blows here both day and night.

Residential wind turbines are not science fiction, they work. They are clean, quiet and require very little maintenance. The do not interfere with television reception and most small residential wind turbines now days have an expected useful life of over twenty years.

Most residential wind turbines and small wind powered generators have very few moving parts (two only in newer systems) and once installed operate in a completely automated way.

Wind power electricity does not suit everyone. To get the most from your wind turbine you need to have it quite a long way above the ground, the higher the better. The reason being trees, houses and other ground obstacles disturb the flow of the wind in an effect know as “Ground Friction”.

Ground friction, impedes the flow of the prevailing wind and reduces the effectiveness of your residential wind turbines power output.

Depending on the size of your small wind generator, a height of 60 plus feet is not out of the question. So that said, wind power is not really suitable for suburban use just yet.

You realistically need minimum of about an acre of land to erect a suitably sized tower for your  wind turbine, so the ideal situation is a rural and semi rural situation (at least for now).

This is where residential wind turbines shine. Places where power has traditionally been unavailable now can have a cheap clean power source that will supply electricity for 20 plus years.

Many people on the land who are approaching retirement are adopting residential wind turbines to help offset the cost of their power once they retire. Typically a residential wind turbine system will pay for itself in as little as 6 years, any power produced after this is effectively free.

As I said earlier the costs of a residential wind turbine can vary from about $800 up to $20,000+ depending on what you need.

When considering wind as a power option, be sure to investigate the average wind strength in your area over say a 12 month period to really determine if wind powered electricity is for you. You should look for wind speeds of 10 mph or better for at least 6 months of the year. Checking with the local Bureau of Meteorology would be a good place to start to find this information.

So if you do find yourself in a position where you are fortunate enough to be able to use wind power to generate all or at least some of your electricity. Not only will you be reducing carbon emissions and green house gas production. You will reduce your dependence on the electricity power grid and have the option of selling your surplus power back to your utility provider to offset the cost of your own power.

Another bonus of this is that the power you sell back to your provider is clean power for others to use.

If you currently use wind generated electricity, or indeed own a residential wind turbine I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.

Over the next few weeks Our-Environment.com will be releasing our very own school project material. Of course it will be all about climate change and the environment.

All this information will be FREE and downloadable and is the culmination of over 12 months of solid work by one of our top project specialists.

The information is aimed at High School and College level students and will be available in 10 – 12 different modules. We are still finalising the topic categories and project titles though we are sure you will find all the information extremely valuable.

If there is any topic in particular that you would like us to cover please feel free to let us know. If we haven’t already covered your topic of interest in the first series of project packs we will sure to be including the more innovative subject in our next issue.

The scheduled release date in for mid March though if we can we will release the first few Environment School Project packs as soon as we can.

Thanks for reading.

Greenie – TeamMember  – Our-Environment.com

In these days of alloy, plastic and mass production it is nice to find a product that dares to be a little different.

The Ezy-Chair created by Jim Wadley in Australia is just such an item. I recently got hold of one of the Ezy Chair – camping chairs myself a few weeks ago, and to my satisfaction, it really did live up to all my expectations.

I have spent a lot of time in the wilderness and I must have tried a dozen different types of camping chair. I admit many of these were purchased at the local K-Mart or Target store and they were all plasticy mass produced etc. etc. A few of them were quite good, though they always seemed to be? over the top.

I am a simple guy and I don?t need a cup holder, remote control holder and a place for my beach umbrella or anything else. If this is what you are looking for forget the Ezy Chair.

When I stumbled on Jim Wadley?s web page, it occurred to me I was after exactly what he had created. After a couple of emails with Jim, I decided to get one myself.

The Ezy chair is made from timber 100%, plantation grown timber (this caught my interest immediately). It is simple light weight, can be assembled and disassembled in 2 or 3 seconds literally. I love it!

Now I am a ? larger individual and weigh in at about 320lbs (that?s a little over 145 kilograms) and my Ezy chair doesn?t even creak under the load.

The chair is small enough to back pack, yet is comfortable enough to rest in while waiting for that perfect nature shot or ?the Billy? to boil (that?s what we Aussie?s call our bush kettle). I don?t think I will be looking any further for a camping chair again.

Jim makes all his chairs by hand (he is a retired master Cabinet Maker by trade so you know they?re good) and he uses one himself. He is currently putting together a photo diary of the Australian Satin Bower Bird (Jim?s an expert on these creatures). And he has promised to give us a peak at his project as soon as it is complete.

So that said, I do endorse the Ezy-Chair, you can find a link to his website here (camping chair). Check it out for yourself.

Be warned they are not cheap they come in at about $60 (Aussie Dollars) each, though frankly I think they are worth it. If you are interested in getting your own chair and live outside Australia you will have to email Jim so he can work out a freight price for you.

They are unique, they work and they are green? very green.

All the best to you and yours for the festive season, and have a very happy & safe New Year.