Homepower Hour Podcast on Carrboro Community Radio

http://www.ibiblio.org/wcom/podcast/mp3s/mp3s/HPH02152012.mp3

This is a radio show interview I did last Wednesday for a small radio station out of Chapel Hill. Enjoy

Scrub a dub dub

Jamie cleaning the salon water holding tank out so we can start running Haircut 101 water through the living system!

On Our Way

Alas the time has finally come to see just how well our plant selections perform under stress. We began "batch testing" our plants against salon water to see if they work well at degrading contaminants in Haircut 101's water. Results will be in next week, however in the meantime water collection from the salon is at an all time high! If you want to be a part of our project, schedule your haircut today at Haircut 101 today!!!

Living System Setup

                                         New plumbing line installed by Erik May to add aeration and equalize distribution of water as it enters the open ponds

                                                                               Pretty Pontederia Cordata (commonly known as pickerel weed)

                                                                                                Up close and personal with the baby pickerel

                                                                    Common koi pond plant, Pistia Strastiotes, also known water lettuce on the left side.                                                                                                                                   To the right floats Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth.

Better Late than Never

Hello everyone & welcome to our blog! Although I'm getting this going a little late, this site is meant to keep you all up to date with the latest happenings in our quest to create a sustainable water treatment system suitable for use in a small business environment. We are growing several species of plants in hopes that they will be able to remediate Haircut 101 (located in downtown Boone) gray water that is being used to shampoo clients. The water could then be re-purposed for toilet bowl flushing, laundry, etc. This is a collaborative student lead research project that has been funded by the Environmental Protection Agency as a part of the People, Prosperity, and Planet sustainable design competition. We will compete for additional funding and the chance to implement our design into the real world April 21st-23rd in Washington, DC.

Thank you for your support and most importantly for taking the time to read our blog and see how Appalachian State Department of Technology and Environmental Design is helping to make the world a more sustainable and beautiful place to call home.

Hydroponic System Setup

                                                                           Hannah with a big smiles as she finally gets the manifold working properly

                                                                          Jen diligently re-potting the alfalfa to go into the hydroponic growing system

                                                                                                Lights, camera, action.. Let the growing begin!!