Every time I pass a Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Target, I can almost see a pulsing blue aura hovering around the mammoth plex; or rather, an anti-halo that screams: “This facility couldn’t give a rat’s ass what it eats. Enjoy your rolling blackouts this season.” And inside, I hear the hum: A diffuse but powerful white noise surrounding me like a florescent radioactive soundtrack. This, I think, is the sound of energy consumption.

I would never have expected any of these shops to own up to the issue and take some (expensive) steps to deal with retail energy crime. But IKEA may be stepping to the plate.

The often mysterious Swedish (or is it Dutch) superstore has been making a bunch of noise regarding green corporate responsibility in recent years, from investment (IKEA GeenTech venture capital) to sourcing and sustainability. And though the store certainly has its critics, the shop is digging deep to find out ways to deal with facility energy usage. To that, witness its geothermal energy heating and cooling plans for its new Centennial, Colorado (near Denver) store scheduled to open next fall.

IKEA worked with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to design and build the geothermal system, which will be buried under the store’s parking garage. Way under. Like 500 feet-ish under (that’s down, down, a football field down and then down some more), where some 130 pipes will pump liquid that will cool and be brought back to the surface to heat or cool the facility, depending on the season.

Explains Triple Pundit: “When warm air at the surface is passed over the cool pipes, the air gets cooler. When the air is cooler than the liquid, it is warmed as it passes over the pipes.  Meanwhile, the geothermal technology helps to maintain a building’s relative humidity at 50%.”

When it’s super hot or cold outside, the system won’t be able to do the job by itself, but most of the time it’ll be able to take care of business.

IKEA says the system may serve as a model for future stores. NREL Senior Geothermal Analyst Erin Anderson (above, on-site) adds: “The IKEA/NREL project could be the benchmark for a credible standard for geothermal installation in large-scale retail stores nationwide”¦ We’re trying to collect data on how it actually performs, which could prove invaluable to future projects. By collecting actual live data on the performance of systems, you have better insight on what needs to be improved. We’ll be able to say with confidence, ‘if you do it this way, it will work this well.'”

At the end of the day, it’s not like your next trip to IKEA will be “hum-free” or that the halo will be any less toxic – much less saintly. It’s positive, though, that these things aren’t going wholly unnoticed. Whether it’s good consciousness or just good PR for the big box shops to show some energy manners, a reduced footprint is a reduced footprint. Let’s hope some more shops dig deep for some answers, as well.

Images: Håkan Dahlström and Pat Corkery

The post IKEA Digs Deep for Energy Efficiency appeared first on EcoSalon.

Air conditioning is overrated. It sucks up a huge amount of energy, costs a fortune to run, and some AC units spit out enough carbon dioxide to choke a water buffalo. Electric fans do a fantastic job of cooling your living space and though they still rely on electricity to run, are much better for the environment.

Let’s take a look at five gorgeous electric fans that will make you forget all about that hulking AC unit you’re used to using.

The Dyson AM03 Pedestal Fan is a completely bizarre and insanely neat bladeless fan that would look awesome blended into just about any decor. It’s roughly three feet tall and sits on the floor or a corner table, pumping out cool air to your surroundings.

This snazzy tabletop fan from Swiss designer Carlo Borer is made of solid European wood and adjusts to generate “a gentle breeze or a gale.” In other words, put this bad boy on your desk and set it to gently waft air around your face or blow your hair around like you’re in a music video. Either way, you’ll look hot while staying cool.

Casablanca Fan Company offers this chic graphite-and-dark-cherry ceiling fan that’s modeled after a European sports coupe. Depending on your room’s decor, this would work in a dining area, home office, or themed game room. The three-speed fan has a built-in halogen downlight and comes with a remote control for easy power and breeze management.

We love, love, love this bronze retro fan from Hunter. It’s speed and tilt-adjustable but, frankly, it’s so beautiful that we’d hardly care if all it did was sit there. It’s 85 degrees of oscillating cooling power is just a nice bonus.

Sometimes you just need a small, portable fan to tote around with you. Check out the Zippi by Vornado. It’s a tiny thing that sits only nine inches high and sports soft cloth blades that won’t slice off a finger if you get too close. Weighing in at just over a pound, this two-speed electric personal air circulator is perfect for travel.

Image: mark.bold

The post Chill Out: 5 Fans to Cool Your Brow or a Whole Room appeared first on EcoSalon.

Would you drink the condensed breath of your coworkers?

The EcoloBlue 28 Atmospheric Water Generator, which I first saw at Ave Natura, is a marvel of green ingenuity. Using nothing but a tiny current of electricity, it’s an office cooler that fills itself up over time, no water supply required.

That’s because the EcoloBlue fills up by wringing moisture from the surrounding air. The device filters the water, renders it bacteriologically safe (according to the water quality lab reports on EcoloBlue’s website) and gurgles the results into your waiting cup.

So while it’s true that you’d be drinking the expelled moisture of Tom in Accounting’s post-lunch burp, it’s really not so bad. (Depending upon how you feel about Tom.)

Consider:

Water from the EcoloBlue is just like what comes out of your tap, only a lot quicker. It’s nature with a small fire lit under her, hurrying along the natural hydrological cycle.

It’s amazingly cost-effective – no pipes or water deliveries required, and a claim-back rate of around 5 gallons of water for every dollar of electricity spent.

It keeps people away from bottled water – and anything that fights against the growing threat of global water shortages deserves our attention.

It’s upcycling the very air around us – a dazzling technical feat!

The biggest hurdle that EcoloBlue has to clear isn’t a technical issue but a cultural one. It’s how we react to a product that shortens the water-recycling loop so we’re intensely aware that the water in our cup left another human being a very short time ago.

The air expelled from our lungs is at 100% relative humidity (think of how quickly your car windows fog up and run with condensation on a cold day). Sweat evaporates off our skin – where does that go? In this instance, into someone else’s next sip. Condensing our office air into drinking water is a kind of refreshing honesty about the way the world works already. We just may not want it poured down our throats.

Images: Clearly Ambiguous and Amazon

The post The Air We Drink appeared first on EcoSalon.

The beautiful people – those fabulously wealthy jet-set elite – have often been accused of acting as if they’re on another planet. That’s nothing new. But here’s an example that defies belief.

In Dubai, it can get very hot. At the height of summer the sea itself warms up to around 37°C / 98 F – so you can be sure that the beach becomes screamingly uncomfortable to walk on. This is bad news for beach-front hoteliers…but let’s not forget that this is ultra-wealthy Dubai, a place where a common response to a problem is to throw money at it until it goes away. Instead of issuing beach shoes along with guidelines about how it’s healthy to limit your tan by keeping out of the midday sun, how about changing the beach?

That’s Versace’s solution to the problem. The strip of beach outside their new Palazzo Versace hotel in Dubai will be refrigerated, via a network of coolant-carrying pipes under the sand and chilled air wafted over it by huge blowers. As Jonathan Leake notes in the Sunday Times, this is the place you’d expect such things to happen: around 60% of Dubai’s enormous power expenditure is on air conditioning.

Further details are emerging of an accompanying 820 square meter refrigerated swimming pool – and plans for another 15 similarly luxurious hotels dotted around the world. Meanwhile, new construction projects shamelessly boast in their brochures of following “environmental best practice” standards. Dubai seems to be setting itself up as the ultimate fantasy destination where normal rules don’t apply – and the rest of the world pays.

Image: novocortex

The post Dubai: Airconning (or Maybe Just Conning) the Environment appeared first on EcoSalon.