Green curtains spreading across urban balconies to cool heat islands

[kristopher]

Green curtains spreading across urban balconies to cool heat islands
2011/05/24

As power shortages loom across Japan this summer because of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, people are turning to a tested-and-true method of cooling down rooms by blocking the sun's rays--"green curtains."

Nonprofit groups and local governments alike are distributing free vine seeds and plants to encourage energy conservation by growing walls of green to provide shade to windows and exterior walls, blocking the relentless summer sun.

Green curtains, which are a traditional way of keeping Japanese homes cool while providing horticultural benefits in summer, regained popularity in the last few years amid a push to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Public facilities, particularly schools, have been at the forefront in planting scrims of morning glories, "goya" (bitter gourd) and other fast-growing vines. But despite efforts to promote the method, the problems of overgrowth and insects limited the spread of the method largely to educational purposes.

Now, as businesses ...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105230169.html

[Javaman]

1. And old friend of mine grew up in Oklahoma during the depression...

his parents were share croppers. Poorer than poor, yet they had A/C.

How? You ask?

He explained to me what he father would do.

Take an old potato sack and fill it with straw.

Soak it in water and hang it in front of the window.

When the wind would blow through the sack, it would create a primitive A/C unit.

I tried it at home. Yeah, it works. You won't get bone chilling temps but it will certainly lower the ambient temp for sure.

[lfairban]

2. Remember that.

We stayed at the home of some people in California, near L.A. somewhere. They had straw in their attic that got sprayed with water.

[diane in sf]

3. They made a non-electric swamp cooler.