Zone Gadget

There are many fireplace designs out there but not really that flexible. We have left our traditional fireplace already but we don't leave our friendly-environment habit at all. Thank to the designers, Schweiger & Viererbl, The TURN Fireplace is there for you. It can turn 360 degree so it means everyone can enjoy it.

Gizmodo via ConMoto via Mocoloco

It looks so strange. How about having this one with your house? This Elegant Embellishments Ltd displayed their 'prosolve 370e' as part of the dmy allstars exhibition at DMY design festival 09.

The air cleaning quasicrystalline structure is based on an innovative derivative of
five-fold symmetries. they are assembled from only two module types to yield highly
complex structures. as functional ornamentation, they increase the efficacy of the
photocatalytic tio02 coating in the decomposition of air pollution. prosolve370e was first
shown as part of 'updating germany': projects for a better future at the german pavillion,
11th architecture biennale venice 2008.

[DMY via elegantembellishments]

It is not funny but it is really interesting. This is really a very innovative and if you have time to go to the beach, you may consider this chair instead of the regular one.

Have a big amount of wasted paper in your office? You may not want to throw it away for nothing, right? Yes, you can turn your office waste paper into toilet paper. It is really a big help your clean your office and at the same time save some money as you don't need to buy toilet paper.

The toilet paper machine is able to produce two rolls per hour from around 1,800 sheets (or 7.2kg) of used A4-sized paper, which would have usually been just thrown away. At 600kg, it seems to be a dangerously massive piece of hardware. Wait the machine costs $95,000.

[crunchgear via Mainichi]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Duke Energy will build between 100 and 400 electricity-generating mini solar power plants throughout North Carolina over the next two years in one of the first large-scale initiatives of its kind in the U.S., CEO Jim Rogers said today.

“Solar and wind are both going to be key parts of our strategy going forward,” Rogers told reporters following the company’s annual meeting.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission on Wednesday issued a decision allowing Duke Energy to proceed with its $50-million proposal to install solar panels on the roofs and grounds of homes, schools, office buildings, shopping malls, warehouses and industrial plants, starting later this year.

Collectively, the solar sites will generate enough electricity to power 1,300 homes.

The electricity will flow directly from the solar sites to the electrical grid that serves all customers.

Duke Energy’s solar initiative will be among the nation’s first and largest demonstrations of distributed generation, in which electricity is produced at numerous micro generating sites rather than at a large, centralized, traditional power plant.

“We are redefining our boundaries. We’re looking ahead and we’re looking around the corner,” Rogers told shareholders attending the meeting. “We believe the future is a low-carbon world. The 21st century mission of our company is to decarbonize our energy supply and provide universal access to energy efficiency.”

Duke Energy will own and maintain the solar panels during their expected 25-year lifespan. The company also will own the electricity generated.

It will pay a rental fee to property owners who host the panels for use of their roofs or land, based on the size of the installation and amount of electricity generated at any given site.

The solar plan is one of several renewable and clean-energy initiatives announced by Duke Energy in the past 12 months, including:

Solar

• The purchase of the entire electricity output (16 megawatts) from what will be one of the nation’s largest photovoltaic solar farms, to be built in 2009-2010 in Davidson County, N.C.

Wind

• The opening of three new electricity-generating wind farms in Texas and Wyoming.

• A plan to build two more wind farms in Wyoming in 2009.

• The potential development of 5,000 additional megawatts of wind energy in 14 states over the next several years.

• An agreement with Wal-Mart to supply wind-generated electricity to up to 15 percent of the retail chain’s 360 stores and other buildings in Texas.

Biomass

• The creation of a joint venture with AREVA to build power plants fueled by wood waste – the first “biopower” (biomass to electricity) partnership in the U.S. between two major energy companies.

Landfill Gas

• The purchase of electricity generated by combusting methane naturally emitted from decaying garbage at two large landfills in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Electric Vehicles

• Partnerships with General Motors and several other automakers to help lay the groundwork for the deployment of vehicle-charging stations – critical for the large-scale launch of plug-in electric cars and trucks.

Energy Efficiency

• Major energy efficiency programs to help Duke Energy’s 4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky use less electricity and save money.

• An investment of at least $1 billion to improve the efficiency of its substations, power lines and electric and gas meters, using advanced digital “smart grid” technology.

In addition to hearing Rogers’ remarks, shareholders re-elected all 10 members of Duke Energy’s board of directors to one-year terms. The company has a declassified board, meaning that shareholders vote on all directors at each annual meeting.

Shareholders also ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche as the company’s independent public accountant for 2009.

Property owners interested in having their home, business or land considered as a potential solar site can register online at www.duke-energy.com/solar-host. Properties must be located in North Carolina and currently served by Duke Energy.

Do you know what are the material your chair are made of? You will surprise to see this chair which was made of re-purposed garden hoses and electrical wire. It is designed by a Korean designer, Kwangho Lee. You can feel free to recycle your wire by yourself and make use of it.



[KwanghoLee]

It is absolutely a very stylish chair/desk. No matter in what condition, you can flip this chair as you desire. It is designed by Joven De La Vega for your daily activities use. You can use this chair to use your computer, having meal watching tv or relax. With this one chair, you will feel that you have many chairs.




[Source]

Previously we have seen a concept of building a house on tree and now another interesting house is built on water. A German based company, schwimmhausboot, has brought us this Silver Fish Floating House. It is quite interesting to experience a life on boat in which seem like we are back to the pass when people living be fishery and at the same time make a temporary house.

[DesignBoom]

Tire? Yes but we don't use this tire with your car. You know what this is your iPhone case. If you are a race fan, this Tire Tread iPhone case is best. It can protect your iPhone from damage but it looks so hard. Don't run over this one or your iPhone will be crack.

[bookofjoe]

Early human do build their house on tree because they have many reason such as staying away from some predator or flood but why now we still want to build a house on a tree. Of course, it is not because of the previous reasons. Look at this house, I am pretty sure that you must want to stay away from your 16 floors room. Many people do dream of having this kind of house.

If you are reluctant to choose a cool small staircase for your house then you may consider htis new plastic staircase from Techne. This staircase is designed by Albini & Fontanot. It is small enough just to suit with any size of your house. Techne is created with a compound of polymers reinforced with fiber glass. There are plenty of color for your selection that you can choose according to the color of your house.

[albiniefontanot]

Take a look at this washbasin, I am pretty sure that you must never see this kind of washbasin. Actually this Abisko Washbasin was designed by Eumar Santhenica and Swedish Designer Johan Kauppi together with architect Lars Sundstorm. Normally our tradition washbasin has tube but this Abisko Washbasin deosn't have one. It is pretty interesting and surely can attract people attention.

[Product Page]

Thank to the new technology today that now we can make thing even look more real. Especially most of our stationary exercises are getting more real. For RealRyder ABF8, you can steer, lean and balance. This time not only the muscle of your legs works but also your upper body. What do you think of a $1,995 price tag for this ABF8?

[Product Page via uncrate]

What do you think of this lamp for your first look? It seems to me like big monster. Actually this Swan XL Floor lamp is a larger lamp taking aspect of our ordinary table lamp (Yes, this one is bigger). Just try to think that you are walking below this lamp, how do you feel?

This Swan XL Floor Lamp is designed by Eero Aarnio for Finland based manufacturer Martela.

I wanted to give these components a new, modern form and this led to the creation of Swan XL. It is not just a larger version of the table lamp, however. I’ve altered the dimensions to make it work better as a floor lamp. To ensure that the design was functional, I made life-size drawings of the XL version to see what it would look like next to my favourite armchair.

[eeroaarnio]

If I have a chance to get this one for my house, I will get one soon. This coffee table is extremely very attractive with extraordinary design but you must be careful or you will break this table. Jan Timme has brought this coffee table to an Exhibitions where you can find many other attractive products.

[contemporaryartdaily]

Do you need something special to keep in your house? Keep you eyes on this cool single function watch. This Ora iLegale clock was designed by Denis Guidone and we have to wait for NAVA to produce this clock.

Or is it two functions? It tells time, yes, time perfectly well. But it eliminates the problem that I just saw, not 2 minutes ago, saw the tv character “Monk” having. At daylight savings time, a person has to set their clock back or forward exactly one hour. For some clocks, this is basically impossible because the spinner spins all the wheels spinning at the same spin. With this “Ora ilLegale” clock, as you can see, it’s a cinch!

[Yanko]

Seem like not thing really get hotter when Sony has managed to file this patent for a remote-controlled car in which we can use PSP to control the car. What you need for this car is a camera for visual data from the car’s camera is beamed back to the PSP so the user can navigate around obstacles or record and save a movie.

[siliconera]

HAL(Hybrid Assistive Limb) is a new great robotic suit which inflates the ego, boosts your strength and scores you loads of nerd dates. It is really useful but seem like $4,200 is pretty high. Cyberdyne is expected to team up with Daiwa House in a mission to bring mass production of HAL. Anyway we now can wait for the 400 production which will be available soon.

[hplusmagazine]

Absolutely a very innovative idea that they can come up with such a lovely TV stand by Italy’s Pacini and Cappellini with official Disney licensed. You can store your TV in the head while the two big ears are for DVD or other CD. I guess your kid will like this Mickey Mouse Style TV Stand.

[trendir]

Just a few days ago, we have noticed that the Pleo-maker Ugobe's company website was gone and actually no one answer the phone. With this situation, many people think that Ugobe is dead already but they are still waiting for an official confirmation.

Anyway now seem like thing is getting better after the company CEO, Caleb Chung, told the Idaho Business Review today that the company will back to its normal status and press release will be soon released. Hope that the company will be able to go through this critical circumstance.

[Ugobe]