Eco Washing Lines

Let’s hope that this works and becomes widely available in the near future.

Toyota is planning to launch home battery chargers for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles by the end of 2012. According to the company, the chargers will be compatible with any type of EV and will come in two types. One would be for setting up in a garage and the other would protrude from the exterior wall of a home.

Toyota hopes to sell around 30,000 units in the first year. Each electric car charger will have a price of about US$2,405 (200,000 yen), including installation costs.

The company also said it will start selling Prius-based plug-in hybrids by early 2012 mainly in Japan, Europe and the United States, expecting to have sales of more than 50,000 units a year.

Unlike a a conventional hybrid, the new Prius has the possibility of being plugged in to enable longer-distance driving using only electricity. The car is expected to cost as little as $36,072 (3 million yen in Japan).

Besides this, Toyota, 0ne of the world’s largest automakers will release a model based on the tiny iQ in the United States, Europe and Japan, also in 2012.

Whilst it is a good idea to fully fill your washing machine with dirty laundry before using it to save power and water,  you should not cram it to overflowing. The clothes will not get clean and you risk the machine overflowing and flooding your laundry. Follow the   instructions on the washing powder box – extra powder will not make your clothes cleaner and will just clog your machine.

Once your washing is done, consider hanging it up to dry on a washing line or airer, rather than using your clothes dryer all the time. This will save a lot of electricity and your laundry will smell really fresh.

Think what a difference this would make to the fuel consumption  for  long distance travel!

Easy Jet Airlines plans to apply a revolutionary nano-technology coating on all of their aircraft in order to reduce carbon emissions by up to two per cent and also the fuel consumption.

Measuring less than a micron in thickness, the ultra-thin coating is already being used on US military aircraft but it is for the first time that it has been tested on commercial airliners.

Currently, the company has coated eight airplanes and wants to compare them with the rest of the 194-strong fleet at the beginning of next year.

Generally speaking, this technology is a polymer that enables a high performance solution to cross-link and bond with the surface materials to which it is being applied. The paint applied on the aircraft has microscopic “hills and valleys” that fill up with debris and dirt. The polymer contains hard, durable acrylic elements, forming a barrier to prevent penetration by contaminants.

The UK suppliers of the coating, tripleO, claims this substance weighs only 113 grams, reducing drag by up to 39%. Once the tests will be finished and the results positive, certainly other airlines will use the nano-coating, making the aviation industry become greener.