Siesta Key,  and Longboat Key

Our Environment & Your home

 


http://www22.verizon.com/Content/ConsumerFiOS/?LOBCode=C&PromoTCode=FIS21&PromoSrcCode=V&POEId=VU1SP&CMP=DMC-FIS21



Absolute Windows & Shutters, Inc.
Energy Efficient and Impact Windows
(941) 485-7774
Free Estimates


Learn about Florida's Solar Energy Policies and Rebates.

Sarasota Sustainability
Sarasota County Government on how we can help protect our local environment.

 

Our Town 50
Directory


The areas largest local web resource." ™

Local Resources

Front Page
Arts
Animal News/Adoption

Boating-Fishing
Community Events
Civic -Social Clubs - Non-Profits
Churches
Dining Reviews
Best Florida Cities
Business Directory
Fire & Law Enforce
Fishing-Boating
Food Shopping List™ - Print it
Gardening
Golf Courses
Hall of Fame 04
Hall of Fame Pictures 03
History

Home Improvement
Issues-Local
Maps
Moving to Florida
Road Reports
Politics & Government

Sarasota Bradenton Venice Women
Sarasota Film Fest - Archives
Weather
Women



Medical - Health
 Information

Medical & Health The latest medical studies

Real Estate-Homes-Apartments
Moving to Florida
Homes Real Estate Apartments
Best Florida Cities
Home Improvement

Home Improvement 

History

Home Improvement


Government-Schools
Fire & Law Enforcement

Colleges/Continuing Education and Technical Training

Manatee County
Sarasota County
City of Sarasota

Town of Longboat Key
City of Venice
Charlotte County
City of Punta Gorda

Sarasota County Schools
Manatee County Schools
How are schools in Florida rated
Fire & Law Enforcement
Adopt or Befriend Animals
Local Animal News


Advertise - Contact
Us - About Us
(941) 922-0434

911 Reports
Fire/Police

Patrol car image
These are actual police and fire incidents. In case of emergency call 911.

Sarasota  Offshore
Race Video

Return to top of page.

Our Town 50 kicks off Sarasota  Green House Project read on......


OurTown50 heads project to make a home more energy efficient and hurricane proof. The Sarasota Green House Project  begins to take shape with: MySafeFlorida Home Survey, FPL  Energy Survey, air duct remediation, extra insulation, 3 foot overhangs, low volume toilets and showers, polyfoam hurricane tile, six ceiling fans, low energy light bulbs, energy efficient major appliances, tree canopies, creek irrigation. Watch as this 1973 Sarasota Florida cypress front house transforms. Currently being installed now are   low e and hurricane impact windows and gable shutters. Future projects include low energy pool pump, salt chlorinator, efficient pool filter and vacuum and  solar pool heating, solar water and a solar electric grid. The owner will hold open public tours. 9-08


The Sarasota Green House Project, energy-impact window replacement portion, kicked off , with the delivery of new windows before daybreak, 9-17-08. Follow this page as we chronicle the installation of these windows by Absolute Windows and Shutters, Inc. from Venice.


New energy impact windows are installed in OurTown50's Sarasota Green House this week. Energy impact windows will save this homeowner around $400 per year in insurance savings and at least another $600 in energy costs.  9-19-08

 


A dining room bay window with paper thin glass is replaced with a energy efficient high impact window as part of the OurTown50 Sarasota Green House Project. New energy efficient windows can reportedly reduce your energy bill by up to 30%.


The polar bear and our earth is headed to extinction due to global warming. If the public doesn't start to speak up both will drown into the sea according to major scientists.

 


More local homeowners are going with less lawn to water and more plants. It makes sense but some homeowner associations ban taking out lawns.

Sarasota County Water Atlas

 

Lake Okeechobee - from space, September 1988

 Lake Okeechobee still almost 4 feet below normal levels.  In 2007, during a drought, state water and wildlife managers removed thousands of truckloads of toxic mud from the lake's floor, in an effort to return to the lake's natural sandy base and create clearer water and better habitat for wildlife. The mud contained elevated levels of arsenic and other pesticides. According to tests from the South Florida Water Management District, arsenic levels on the northern part of the lake bed were as much as four times the limit for residential land. Independent tests found the mud to be too polluted for use on agricultural or commercial lands, and therefore difficult to even dispose on land.

 

 

Solar Grids

 

FPL now is required to buy back excess electricity that you generate from your solar systems at the current retail rate.

Additional information Florida solar incentives

FPL Cooling Heat Incentives

* 13 sea turtles get
disoriented on Venice beaches. The turtles are hatching now and get thrown off course from lights at night. Beach dwellers and goers should keep their outside lights off at night.

* Read how the earth
would need 4 more planets if everyone consumed like Sarasota.  Maybe it's time to return to horses:)

 


New energy impact windows are installed in OurTown50's Sarasota Green House this week. Energy impact windows will save this homeowner around $400 per year in insurance savings and at least another $600 in energy costs.  9-19-08
Watch as OurTown50 evaluates solar grids for their Sarasota Green House Project.

 


We are testing an environmental roof cleaner, Spray & Forget. Sunday we sprayed half of the front of the house, but stopped because rain threatened the area. The spray is meant to be sprayed on and not washed off. It reportedly cleans and kills any fungus within 3-6 months with no power washing. We liked the idea because the product is non-toxic and wouldn't damage the tile or the 90# under the tile. Most commercial roof cleaners use chlorine which can degrade the 90#  or asphalt roofs and is toxic.

New windows look better visually and save you energy costs

Photo CWS

Watch our next phase of the Sarasota Green House Project  as we have installed 15 hurricane, high impact, high efficiency windows. We will show you before, during installation and after installation photos. Learn what we spent months researching to help guide you through the process.

The State of Florida as of this writing is till offering cash incentives to change out your old windows with energy, high impact windows. www.mysafefloridahome.com

Windows can save you 30% of your energy cost.

Photo CWS
With multiple layers of glass and a low-e coating on the inside glass your windows can save you up to 30% on your cooling or heating bills. Florida currently has a program that will rebate you up to $5000 for new energy efficient windows that you have installed by a contractor. www.mysafefloridahome.com

 

This hurricane window shows how it reacts to impact. It shatters but it doesn't break into flying pieces or let the outside elements inside.

 

State Solar Incentives

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has applications for rebates and tax credits for purchasing and installing new solar equipment. For homeowners who have watched their rising electricity bills in recent months, this is good news. Floridians who purchase and install a solar water heating system can now receive a rebate of up to $500 ($100 for pool heating system).

Rebates on water heating systems on commercial properties will be calculated at $15 per 1000 Btu per day with a maximum $5,000 rebate.

Also available are rebates for purchasing and installing photovoltaic systems for solar-generated electricity (calculated at $4 per rated watt). Rebates will be allowed at a maximum of $20,000 for residential installations, while systems on commercial property may qualify for up to a $100,000 rebate.

Applications for solar incentives are available at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm

Once complete and after choosing a contractor, you need to fill out an application for interconnection with FPL. If you have already filled out the interconnection request at the federal level, you do not need to do this at the state level.

Additional information Florida solar incentives

 

FPL Cooling Heat Incentives

 

Solar is our future

Here are some other interesting solar PV energy facts from the U.S. Department of Energy: PV stands for photo voltaic or solar panels.

• Compared with electricity generated from fossil fuels, each kilowatt of PV-produced electricity offsets up to 830 pounds of oxides of nitrogen, 1,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 217,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, every year, according to a report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

• Studies have shown that, depending on the type of PV technology, the clean energy payback of a PV system ranges from one to four years. With life expectancies of 30 years, 87% to 97% of the energy produced by PV systems will be free of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

• Today, the PV industry generates about 3,000 jobs for every $100 million of module sales. If the industry continues to grow at the rate we've seen in the last few years -- an average of about 36% -- it could employ some 150,000 Americans in high-value, high-tech jobs within 20 years (Solar Electricity: The Power of Choice, 2001).

• Contrary to some popular notions, the landscape of a world relying on PV would be almost indistinguishable from the landscape we know today. ... In the United States, cities and residences cover about 140 million acres of land. We could supply every kilowatt-hour of our nation's current energy requirements simply by applying PV to 7% of this area -- on roofs, on parking lots, along highway walls, on the sides of buildings, and in other dual-use scenarios. ... We still wouldn't have a land use issue, even if we didn't use roofs for PV. We would need only 10 million acres of land -- only four-tenths of one percent of the area of the United States -- to supply all of our nation's energy using PV.