without / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

  How to cool a home without AC While it's true that no matter where you live, be it urban, suburban or rural, the hottest days and nights of summer may have you dreaming of coolers climates. However, those living in dense urban areas will feel it the most, where ambient temperatures can be 5 to 9 degrees Celcius highe...

...without a car. One of the nice things about living in the city is public transportation and proximity to services, which makes it possible to live without a car. Or at the very least, it can reduce the amount of driving you have to do. When choosing a place to live, check the walking distances from buses or subway stop...

...without over producing. Hydro electricity can be balanced somewhat without significant changes in water levels, but solar and wind (arguably the more eco-friendly renewable energy sources, but let’s not open that can of worms now) are not overly-predictable, since they rely on weather reports to anticipate supply. A t...

...without them deforming, overheating, or in worse-case scenarios, exploding or catching fire. In general, trickle or slow-charging a battery causes the least colateral damage and ensures that the battery lasts a long time while retaining a good and usable level of charge. All that said, there are some good tricks to lea...

...without having to build an 8-foot concrete wall, nor do you have to build a wooden subfloor on top. Comfort and efficiency: In the absence of 5 feet of dirt, a slab-on-grade in cold climate zones requires additional measures to avoid frost heave, so it includes levels of insulation that otherwise seem to be omitted fro...

With the intention of reducing the speed at which flames can spread, fire-retardant compounds are added to almost all the materials we furnish our homes with: children's toys, curtains, carpets, mattresses, sofas, electronics, plastic, etc. How flame retardants work: The chemicals generally used as flame retardants are...