Credit: Planet Green
Living with Ed follows Ed Begley, Jr., and his wife, Rachelle, as they green their home, family, and celebrity friends. But if you've ever wondered what kind of advice they'd give the rest of us, then the Ask Ed forum is your chance to find out. Readers submit questions and comments about the show, green living, etc., and Ed chimes in with his green answers; here, we've rounded up some highlights of the past week.
Q. I need to either repair or replace my roof, and am leaning towards getting a metal version. I've also wanted to invest in solar energy (if I can afford it). I read about panels that come in strips which stick to the metal. Have you heard of these products and, if so, do you have any advice?
A. Thin film solar is still a new product, and it has issues with efficiency. It's also expensive and hard to get. You can do traditional panels on a metal roof - they make special attachments to affix them to the spines of the roof. Work with a good installer who has worked with metal roofs. Should be no problem.
Ed
Q. I loved watching the first season of Living with Ed, and I learned a lot about green products. (Some of them I never knew existed.) Will there be new seasons of the show?
A. We're up and running with 13 new episodes of Living With Ed for Planet Green. The first one will premier on October 21. Thanks to everyone who fought for new episodes. We're having a great time making them! You'll get to see some of our garage remodel, the new gray water system install, a new wind turbine install and some other goodies as well. You'll also get to see me and Rachelle take a few trips together. I hope everyone enjoys watching them as much as we enjoy making them!
Ed
Q. My husband and I just moved into a house built in the '50s. All of the outlets were 2-prong so we switched them out to 3-prong outlets. The old outles have been painted over... I wondered, what's the greenest thing to do with them? We kept them all in a box. I don't know if there is somewhere I can take them or send them where parts can be reused somehow, or recycled.
We also replaced some of our light switches and we wondered if there's anything we can do with the old ones.
One last thing, we also had to take the registers (vents) off the walls -- they had been painted over time and time again, many of them didn't work since the directional switch had been painted over so much and wouldn't budge. Is there anything we can do with them, since I didn't want to just throw all this stuff away? I'm not sure how useful they are but I wasn't sure if they could be recycled.
A. Often times builders and architects looking to restore an old home will search out old parts like this - particularly the covers. I suggest putting them up on Craigslist or Freecycle as well.
Ed
