fish poop lol So like mine were all indoor. I really like not having to wash stuff. Grew some strawberries but if they fell in the water that was annoying.

I was just strapping plants to the side of my aquariums. If you built a proper setup you’d almost certainly have better results.

The biggest thing holding my tank back was that I have tropical fish and warm water holds a lot less oxygen.

building is structurally sound

Especially if you go with permanent plants. Like I suggest against Virginia Creeper cuz it will obscure any developing issues.

Hops need LOTS of dirt for roots, water, and something to climb. I live in Zone 6a but our summers peak at 35°C so they might be more viable than you think.

If you do them in raised bed you 100% cannot have a sealed bottom.

Or modifying what you have already.

Take a south or west facing window with a balcony & railing in front. By installing planter boxes on the railings and growing black eyed susans / morning glory / any climbing flowers, letting them grow up bamboo poles space 4" apart, you can create a heat absorbing barrier. The plants block and use the energy that would have been absorbed by your house. Unlike shades/screens they won’t heat up until they begin radiating heat themselves.

Female Hops are another great planting option. They cannot reproduce without a male plant, and every year they will grow back stronger. Train them underneath your building eaves and they will reduce the amount of heat energy your house absorbs.

…

Also insulation. In Canada we need lots of insulation under our roofs for the winter. So while during the summer our black top roofs absorb a lot of heat, not as much of that heat is transferred to the indoor air as a roof with less insulation.

First thing is to avoid air conditioner entirely so that your body climatizes. If you’re sitting in AC at work than that’s part of the problem.

1. Block the sun from hitting your house. Outside the window not inside.

2. Use evaporation to cool your body / the air. Swamp coolers for the house but also neck coolers for your body.

3. If/when it drops below 20°C get as much airflow as possible. If you can use thermodynamics to your advantage by forcing hot air upstairs out while cool air from lower comes in.

When I visited I learned that it can take a year for them to approve permits for a new paved road -even in the middle of a town. The highways are all gravel, not paved. They view paved roads as permanent ecological harm that must be mitigated.

So mindset.

Huh. TIL.

Already had the thing for years, I refill the cylinders ‘myself’, and I don’t purchase their syrups so I’ll probably keep using mine.

Good to know though. I’ll defs encourage people to buy 2nd hand and avoid syrups/CO2 from them.

Yes they do.

But as someone who likes my bubbly I can attest that the soda stream cylinders do produce close to 60L of beverage, easily offsetting 150 cans per cylinder.

The cylinders also do not need to be melted down to be refilled.

Recycling them is the least wasteful option. Aluminum is one of the few materials that recycling actually lowers carbon footprint compared to harvesting raw. Melting them down is easy but there’s few practical applications beyond introductory metallurgy.

The real solution is to switch to soda stream and reusable bottles.

edit:

So I ran across this aluminum can Solar Heat Collector just now. There might be some opportunity to repurpose the cans for some use that’s carbon negative in the long term. But probably not feasible without specialized tools or skills.