We are big fans of the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and Spotlight Cam Battery, but these wireless outdoor security cameras need to be taken down periodically to have their lithium ion batteries recharged. Enter the Wasserstein…
Let’s face it. There is no joy in paying your monthly energy bill. But there is much you can do to reduce the amount of energy your home consumes each month, driving your bill down to a…
Make no mistake, your solar panel setup is a sturdy piece of technology that should only be handled and maintained by your solar provider—at least when it comes to repairs, replacements, and electrical maintenance. However, this doesn’t…
Smart and sustainable homes can offer excellent energy efficiency, curbing energy and resource waste on a global scale. A variety of technologies and applications promote efficiency in smart homes, with light bulbs, thermostats, window coverings, sprinkler controllers,…
These days, technology is prevalent everywhere. It may be in our pockets, on our wrists, in our cars and—unsurprisingly—may be found throughout our homes. With the right suite of tech accessories, all you have to do is…
With much of the buzz around the tiny house movement focused on start-ups making their plays in the micro-housing ecosystem, high school students at the Construction Careers Academy outside of San Antonio, Texas, are quietly going about…
Lost beneath the Model 3 electric vehicle messaging in Tesla's Second Quarter 2017 Update newsletter to its investor community last week, the company quietly announced its solar roof product had progressed to the real-world testing stage on…
The month of June in the city of Austin, Texas, can be blistering hot, as the sometimes-moderate temperatures of spring yield to an often-oppressive summer climate where the thermometer can climb toward or inch beyond the century mark.…
High clerestory windows are a common design detail on residential and commercial structures. But in the architectural case of the under-construction metro Dallas store for green retailer TreeHouse, clerestory windows are not merely details, they are applied…
Call it the Tesla triumvirate. It’s no accident that Tesla drivers visiting the future metro Dallas location of green home improvement retailer TreeHouse will be able to rapidly recharge their electric automobiles from a bank of on-site Tesla…
Metal surfaces have earned a well-deserved reputation as the leading roofing choice on today’s sustainable architecture homefront, and for good reasons. The benefits of these roofs are many, including an extremely long service life, near-zero maintenance, increased…
Pingo Solar intends to make solar purchasing transactions more frictionless and less costly for homeowners, by launching an easily-navigable do-it-yourself (DIY) online platform and effectively removing salespeople from the process. The platform, which was officially launched on…
A holistic deconstruction and rebuild-from-the-ground-up process was used for this airy and contemporary zero-energy home, a project completed by green builder NATiVE for homeowners that loved the close-to-downtown Austin, Texas, neighborhood location of their small 1930s-era home but…
Packing a high degree of architectural value into a small footprint, this 850-square-foot home is an affordable and high-performance alternative for individuals seeking to reside in a sustainable home. A joint project by the Austin Community Design…
Islands of disconnected technology can often be found in today’s high-performance homes. That rings true with one of the core renewable energy systems that typically enable zero-energy homes—that of a rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation—which can often…
High-performance home building is a carefully orchestrated symphony of site selection, architectural design, component selection, and construction prowess. Having any single element of this quartet out of tune with its fellow housing members can ultimately lead to less-than-optimum…
It’s a storyline that plays out over and over again on bright sunny days, where homeowners with grid-connected solar arrays can become energy producers for their neighbors. From these high-performance, inherently energy-efficient homes, excess electricity flows instantly onto…
Part 2 in our series on managing and monitoring energy production and consumption in your home, apartment, or flat. David Allen, the noted author and personal productivity guru, once wrote: “Your ability to generate power is directly…
