Strange name isn’t it, for this exuberant money-spending-stuff-buying-gift-buying day? Well, there are the traffic jams, gift buying pressures, but also the possibility of a store or business getting out of the red and into the black because of this day, this spending season. Well, no need for darkness. Consider using the power of the sun to brighten up your gift giving this year!
For those with bucks and someone who has a dark room in their own home, consider a Solatube or similar device. “Daylighting” is a way of lighting rooms during the day using concentrated and reflected light from the sun. The Solatube is one device. I had one installed years ago in the darkest room in my little house and have rarely needed electric lighting during the day in that room since. Considering the great benefits, they are fairly inexpensive and installation, done professionally, is also not very costly. A federal tax credit brings the final price down 30% until Dec. 31st!
Thanks to super power efficient led lighting, solar powered lighting is practical now, especially for outdoors. The Real Goods solar multilight has 5 leds and a panel that can be put up to 10 feet away. It only costs $30! They also have a motion activated sensor light for outdoors, totally solar powered, and lovely handblown strung glass lights. Portable solar powered chargers for laptops, cell phones and ipods are handy too, imagine leaving one in your car or on your windowsill, and never having to have an outlet to charge your phone again. The ones for phones and and ipods can be had for little. You’ll have to pay more for the ones that generate enough juice for a laptop or other devices.
There are some pretty cool and educational solar powered toys available these days too. Some stuff is better than others, and light and energy from the sun = good.
http://www.solatube.com/
Realgoods.com search “solar” on their home page.
http://www.brainwavestoys.com/solar-toys-c-141.h
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Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person
“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
– The Lorax, Children’s book by Dr. Seuss
Ecofacts blogs presented by Green Products Global:
http://www.greenproductsglobal.com/
Tags: black friday, daylighting, solar gifts, solatube