Green Gifts for 2006
green-techZONE 2006
by Annual Holiday Gift Guide

Whatever it is you and your loved ones gather around this time of year, wouldn't it be nice to know you're using less electricity than before? To help put some real EVER-green into your holidays, Lee Goldberg and contributor Dave Bell have assembled a few of their favorite cool gadgets that are sure to give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Dave's Picks:

Take control of your electricity consumption -- one appliance at a time with the Kill-A-Watt energy monitor that lets you figure out exactly what it costs to run that dishwasher or plasma TV. It also measures the quality of your power by displaying voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Or you can go all the way with the EUM-2000 whole-house energy monitor or the PowerCost monitor (reviewed here October 2006) from Blue Line Innovations.

If you really want to cut your domestic energy consumption, the Solar Oven lets you bake, boil, or steam food up to 400ºF using only the sun.

With all the battery-powered gadgets you'll be giving and getting around the holidays, environmentally-friendly Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries make a great stocking stuffer. Since a single battery can be used hundreds of times, your local landfill and your wallet will thank you. You can find them in most major retail stores, but Greenbatteries.com and All-battery.com offer wider-than-usual assortments of batteries and chargers.

To recharge all those watt-thirsty cells, you might want to consider the Micro-Solar 3-in-1 Solar Power Supply which is designed to power major cell phones brands and charge the four included AAA Ni-MH batteries. The $39 unit even includes a bright LED light that doubles as a battery capacity indicator. PowerFilm offers light-weight, flexible solar chargers, as well as the Soltronix Solar-Rechargeable Headphone Radio.

For the style conscious eco-freak, there's the sleek Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger. The sexy ovoid case fans out to reveal three solar petals that charge its internal LiIon battery that can provide power to cell phones, MP3 players and nearly any other handheld device.  At $99, it's a bit of a splurge, but the unit's compact form factor and beautiful design make it well worth it.

Of course, it's not always sunny out, so the battery-free, pocket-sized SideWinder(reviewed here May 2003) might also be a useful addition to your travel gear. The hand-powered Sidewinder allows you to crank up juice for your cell phone whenever or wherever you like. But if you'd rather type than crank, you can recharge your AA batteries simply by plugging into a USB port. Check out the USBCELL, with AAA and 9-V models, as well as options for a range of phones and other portable devices in the works.

The Micro-Solar 3-in-1, SideWinder, and Solio charger are available from Sundance Solar, along with a wireless solar outdoor security camera, solar alarm clock, solar radios, and other gadgets that draw their power from the sun.

Finally, if you're looking for something that actually looks like a gift, Close the Loop LLC has unusual gifts and other products made from recycled and reused materials -- from earrings crafted from soda can pull-tabs to decorative silverware and glassware and custom cheese boards made from wine bottles.

Lee's Picks:

Solar chargers have also been on my mind as a really nice present to give or get. That gorgeous Solio universal charger that Dave mentioned is definitely on my wish list, but I also found a couple of other cool devices from a German company called Quantys. At the top of my list are a messenger case and a computer knapsack with their own built-in 4-W solar chargers. At around $300, these computer cases are out of my budget for the moment, so I had to content myself with one of their little Swiss-made solar-powered flashlights which are supposed to run around 6 hours on a full charge. Like the backpacks, these lights are very high quality and well worth the money. I splurged and bought the stainless steel model and am very pleased with its light output -- not to mention how good it feels in my hand.

But photovoltaics are SO 2005. While solar is still hip with the granola-munching set, hydrogen will be the must-have-tech for the hard-core greenies. Although it will be a another year or two before we see fuel-cell-powered laptops in common use, there are at least a few early H2-powered gadgets on the market for the 2006 holiday season. For you green-tech hobbyists out there, Horizon Fuel Cell offers several very reasonably-priced experimental kits that let you mess around with solar cells, hydrogen generators, and fuel cells to run the hydrogen they produce. You can also get a complete, turnkey, hydrogen-electric car. Horizon's H2 Racer fuel cell-powered toy car comes complete with its own ac-powered hydrogen generator station which turns water into fuel so you never have to worry about batteries.

For really serious hydrogen buffs, there's Angstrom Powers H2-burning fuel cell powered flashlight. These rugged (and expensive) beauties are equipped with a proprietary on-board metal hydride storage system and a micro fuel cell that can drive its 1-W LED for twenty four hours on a single charge. The only drawback is that you'll have to also buy a special fueling station (which uses commercially-bottled hydrogen) to recharge your light.

If your hydrogen supply (or budget) is limited, you might want to consider one of FreePlay's wonderful hand-cranked flashlights and radios. Built using wind-up generator technology originally developed for use in third-world nations, these reasonably-priced, battery-free devices are definitely much better-built and better-performing than anything else I've seen. They belong in the tote bag of any serious camper, emergency worker, or survival enthusiast.

Finally, I want to put in a word for electric bicycles again. Things have gotten even better since 2004 (when I last featured them in our green gift guide) with better range and reliability for the buck. One nice example is the GT-S210 from Strong of Canada, which retails for under CAD$1000, and can be found on sale for considerably less. The electric-assisted 21-speed travels up to 55 km at an average speed of 28 km/h on pure battery power, and moderate pedaling can nearly double the range. If Santa does not put one under my tree, I may pick one up at a Canadian Tire store when I make my next press tour of Ottawa's Silicon Tundra.