The following is a guest article by Shireen Shah…

With cooling costs being so high, especially in light of recent energy crises, it makes sense to start looking for more economical approaches for cooling. However, dwellers of smaller spaces (about 250 sq ft – 925 sq ft) face additional problems when it comes to cooling. Not only do smaller spaces often not include central air conditioners, but even with smaller homes on the larger end of the spectrum are wasting both energy and dollars in over-cooling a small space through central AC usage.

The best option for small spacers is to invest in a portable AC. Portable mobile cooling units provide more specific spot cooling at pennies to a dollar compared to traditional systems. But even with portable cooling units, there are additional clever tips you can utilize to reduce in-home heat. First you should know that there are two types of cooling: passive cooling and active cooling. Active cooling is direct cooling, such as use of a portable, window, or central AC unit, including evaporative coolers. Passive cooling is what we’ll discuss here, which are indirect ways of cooling your home.

Types of Passive Cooling

Window Shading and DIY Awnings – As much as half the heat in your house can come from unshaded windows.  The sunny day heat gain from a hundred square feet of eastern or western facing windows is equivalent of running your heater for several hours.  Window shading, set up as a canopy outside your house and above the window, blocks the heat from penetrating into your home. There is also the option of window awnings, that resemble umbrella-like structures over a window to provide additional protection against heat. Unlike window shades, awnings are retractable, which allows for additional exterior options.

Sun Screens - Also referred to as solar screening, these shades block up to 90% of sunlight and mount in like vinyl frames (think bug screens).  They usually work on a wide variety of windows, particularly ones that would have difficulty with other types of window shades. This is an easy do-it-yourself type of cooling and relatively quick and cheap to complete.

Reflective Barriers – Reflective barriers are placed behind solar screens. The advantage of this set up is that it blocks incoming solar radiation while still being aesthetically pleasing.

Trellis - A plant trellis also makes for a great natural way to provide shading and cooling.  Bougainvillea and Wisteria are visually appealing and inexpensive plants and naturally grow to cover larger spaces.  If you want a spaces covered relatively quickly, then go with Wisteria, which will cover a space within a month to two tops.  However, if you want something much faster, then try Morning Glories; but know that these plants are difficult to control because of their growth rate and will easily dominate existing plants and structures if there is no weekly pruning involved.

DIY Rollup Shades – These shades are some of the easiest types around and great for DIY projects. The materials are relatively inexpensive, easy to get, and easy to make.  It takes next to no time to make a great patio, porch, or window covering. Some people even use a darker role up shade behind decorative curtains, in order to keep out morning sun or keep rooms cooler during hot summertime weather.

Living Wall System – A living wall system is a panel of plants that when fully grown has the appearance of a wall.  They can be created out of flowers, different plants or even hedge like structures.  The greenery not only increases oxygen levels, but the wall also adds an aesthetic appeal and additional shading and cooling from the sun’s heat.

Vertical Gardens - Similar to living walls, vertical gardens allows the use of nature to block out unwanted sun and heat.  These are great for those who like the living wall idea but don’t want the complete blockage that comes with them.  They’re best installed outside a window on the ground or on the balcony.

Shading Structures - Some of the smartest shading structure designs were German entries in the 2007 Solar Decathlon.  The structures are similar to walls of shutters running along the outer perimeter of the home, create a hallway space around the home. The space is also covered by another panel of shutter like panels.  These shading systems can be used on both the eastern and western exposures and are covered with energy-utilizing solar panels.

DIY Cloth Pergolas- DIY pergolas are simple patio covers, and most are easy to make yourself.

Shade Sails - Shade sails, or solar sails, are fabric membranes supported by fixed anchors, and positioned to provide shade.  They are laid out and tensioned in such a way as to be very resistant to winds.  Shade sails can be used to shade decks, porches, play areas, and windows.

Cool Metal Roofing - Used for centuries, reflective metal roofing can keep your house cooler and save on cooling bills. Depending on the finish, these types of roofs offer enhanced energy efficiency through solar reflectance and infrared emittance properties. Cool metal roofs are also EPA Energy Star approved.

All these ideas will help limit the amount of heat entering your home, but for the heat already in your home, invest in a portable air conditioner.

Shireen Shah is a writer with http://www.air-conditioner-home. You can follow her on Twitter @AirConditioners.

Ecopods are modular tiny homes that aim to be eco-friendly.   They are “off the grid” and are made from recycled materials, giving them a very small environmental footprint and impact.  A modular home that is made out of recycled materials?  This should get the attention of all tiny home fans.

Ecopods are taking the concept of turning a shipping container into a home and really running with it.  What they have done is take the already super-tough shipping container, and made it tougher.  They’ve accomplished this by making it weather resistant.  Usage of a shipping container is part of how the ecopod is recycled and eco-friendly, but there is more to come from the ecopod in terms of being eco-friendly.  For example, the floors are recycled rubber from car tires.

The Ecopods are designed to be highly energy efficient meaning that they can be taken off the grid.  The ecopod has a bunch of solar powered options, including a solar-powered refrigerator and roof-mounted solar panels.  They are designed to use a 80 watt solar panel, which should eliminate the need to run power lines.  This, of course, means saving some money as well.

So what does the ecopod look like?  A standard ecopod, they do custom work as well, is a 8′x20′ steel shipping container that has been heavily modified.  Ecopod’s team is particularly found of using steel as a building material. Steel not only has a sturdy nature, but it is “infinitely recyclable.” Steel has always been valuable scrap that makes its way back into the recycling system.

Many people may not get excited when thinking about interior walls, but ecopod is incorporating some really interesting technology for their interior walls.  Magnesiacore technology uses magnesium oxide compounds and natural silicates to create a non-conbustible and versatile building material.  In fact, the ecopod team believes that Magneisacore is superior to “gypsum, cement, clay, wood and paper particles.”  Magnesium oxide is  very commonly found in nature, and Magnesiacore has been given a thumbs up by LEED for all uses.  No wonder ecopod is excited about it.

Sustain, out of Canada, is really onto something with their innovative approach to tiny homes.  In fact, the overall end result of their work can safely be called “breakthrough.”

The miniHOME by Sustain is a series of different home concepts that really pack a lot of punch into a small space.  The concept behind their homes is that each model can stand up to extreme climates.  This is part of the reason that the miniHOME’s all have high r-values, meaning that the homes will make the most out of their heating and cooling dollars.  With those heating and cooling dollars in mind, Sustain has designed their miniHOME’s with an eye toward being off the grid.  They have incorporated high-efficiency light fixtures and appliances.  Their goal is to make their miniHOMEs energy efficient enough that they can easily be run off wind and solar.

Following this environmentally aware theme, Sustain has taken some substantial effort into making sure that they use healthy materials for all their construction materials.  These materials have an eye toward virtually eliminating indoor air pollution, as well as being highly durable and easy to maintain.  The materials employed have been used in a very stylish and hip fashion that, like all great tiny house designs, makes the space feel much larger.

The SOLO SE model incorporates all aspects of Sustain’s mission to build environmentally friendly, healthy homes that can be transported easily across North America.  This 350 square foot home uses one-tenth the water, and a truly remarkable one percent of the energy of a traditional home.  This makes the SOLO SE something of a superstar.  A home that uses one percent of the energy of a traditional home is nothing less than extraordinary. Sustain has lived up to their company name.

With the SOLO SE and the rest of its homes, Sustain has accomplished something that is rather impressive.  Reducing the energy cost of the SOLO SE down to one percent of a traditional home is a breakthrough, and hopefully hearkens to what is in store for the entire building industry.

As many tiny homes are built off-grid, I wanted to share this excellent reference article.  It was written by Heather and originally published on The Greenest Dollar a few months back.  If you’ve never read Heather’s website, I encourage you to go take a look.

Many people have a lot of misconceptions when they hear the words “composting toilets”. Immediately they think “outhouse” or imagine a hole in the ground. Yucky, smelly, and a little drafty.

Well, the composting toilets of 100 years ago (the outhouse) and the composting toilets of today are completely different creatures.

Today’s composting toilets are sleek, efficient, and entirely odor-free. So hang on. We’re going to go take an in-depth look at our stinkier side, and learn how composting toilets can allow us to become more eco-friendly and completely “waste free”.

The Facts On Our Waste
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, septic tanks are a big cause of groundwater pollution. On average, a family of 4 puts 150 gallons of water into a septic tank each day.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, septic tanks are a big cause of groundwater pollution. On average, a family of 4 puts 150 gallons of water into a septic tank each day.

You’ve probably never really thought about it, but where does all that water go, anyway?

Well, septic tanks are designed to have a “leach field” or “drain field” around them. Here’s how it works:

Most septic tanks are 1,000 gallons or larger. Wastewater flows in the tank on one end, and is drained into the surrounding area through the other.

At the bottom is the sludge layer. I’ll let your imagination tell you what’s down there.

At the top is the scum layer (no I did NOT make up these terms, that’s really what it’s called).

In the middle of those two yucky layers is the wastewater that gets drained out. That is, the excess water is drained into the dirt below, and the solid “waste” is left behind to dissolve in the tank.

Think that excess water is 100% pure? Hardly. It’s loaded down with pollutants like bacteria, phosphates, and nitrates, all of which harm local watersheds. Yuck.

According to the “Humanure Handbook“, up to 1,460 billion gallons of this water is leached out of septic tanks each year in America.

That’s an awful lot of dirty water that’s going into our streams and rivers. Yikes.

Now, the soil is a natural filter. Out in the country, there’s plenty of open space for the land to naturally filter all these contaminates out. The problem comes in densely packed urban areas, such as subdivisions. If 30 homes in a neighborhood all have a septic tank, the soil can’t handle all the leach water. So, pollution occurs.

Benefits To Using A Composting Toilet
The cool, amazing thing about composting toilets is that they cut all of this mess out. There’s zero pollution, zero waste, and zero lost water.

Here’s the rundown:

Envirolet estimates that composting toilets reduce household water use by 60%

In fact, Sun-Mar composting toilets estimate that an average family of four flushes 70 gallons of water down the toilet every day, which is a whopping 25,000 gallons per year. They estimate that based on all the composting toilets they’ve sold in the past, their company alone is saving 6,103 gallons of water every minute.

They also keep you from “depending” on your septic tank or city wastewater treatment facility. Ever been in a natural disaster, when the city couldn’t process your water (and thus you couldn’t flush your toilet)? That dependence is completely eliminated with compost toilets.

You can also use the system to compost food scraps and lawn clippings. Try putting those things down your current toilet. Yeah right.

They’re truly environmentally friendly. Neat.

Now the only downside here is that if you live in an apartment, or you’re renting a home, installing a composting toilet isn’t going to be an option. But perhaps your landlord might be interested to hear just how much water these babies save per year. Those savings really add up, and these composting toilets pay for themselves in just a few years.

How Do Composting Toilets Work?
Composting toilets work by quickly dehydrating 90% of the liquid that’s in our waste, and then composting the remaining 10% solids that are left. We can then use those solids, called “humus”, as additive for lawns.

Think I’m kidding here? It’s no joke. You really can turn your poo into garden soil. Let’s continue onward for more detail…

Types of Composting Toilets
There are 2 broad “types” of composting toilets.

Batch systems, or self contained systems (like the picture up above, on right), are “all in one” units. The waste is composted in a tray at the bottom. See that pipe sticking up behind the toilet? That a ventilation pipe. A small wind turbine that’s at the top of that pipe, on your roof, is what keeps the unit completely odor-free.

These systems are designed for lighter use (two person households, or occasionally used vacation cottages). They’re completely waterless. And don’t worry; when you lift up the lid, you don’t see what’s composting in the tray. These toilets have a cover that separate your eyes, and your bum, from what’s being broken down below.

Another perk to these system is that they require no winterization. If you live in a cold climate, then you don’t ever have to worry about your pipes freezing.

Batch systems may only have one tray for composting, or they may have several depending on which model you choose. And how often you have to empty these trays largely depends on how much you use the toilet, and how many people are in your household.

Continual process systems are designed for larger households (pic on right). These can handle more waste, and are perfect if you have a basement or your house is built above ground.

The picture on right is part of a waterless system by Envirolet. It can handle waste from up to 10 people per day, and only has to be emptied every six months or so.

Low Water Systems
Some companies, such as Envirolet, also make low water composting toilets. If you squirm at the thought of letting your waste just go down a hole, then you might want to consider these systems.

They work on the same design as the continual process systems in the sense that there is a large composting unit outside the home. But the difference is that your waste is “flushed” down with a mere pint of water. With the Envirolet system, you can install up to three low flush toilets on one line.

Can I Put Toilet Paper Down There?
As far as I can tell, you can put unbleached toilet paper into composting toilets. But, feminine hygiene products are a no-no.

How Much Do Composting Toilets Cost?
Composting toilets run anywhere from $500 to $2,000. Just like anything else, you’ve got your choices. Every brand and maker is different, and they’ve all got different bells and whistles.

Of course, you could try making your own for far less money. Many people do (see the Resources section below…)

Composting Toilet Resources
These vendors make good composting toilets:

• BioLet
  

• Envirolet
  

• Sun Mar

• Phoenix Composting Toilet Systems

• TreeHugger.com’s video, “Operating A Composting Toilet”

And here’s some resources if you want to try making your own…

• Build Your Own Humanure Toilet

Last Word…
I never, ever thought I would actually have “feelings” for a toilet, but I truly love these systems. You can bet I’m incorporating a waterless compost toilet into our micro home design, and I can’t wait to get one!