TreeHugger Picks: Ideas & Products for the Home of the Future

by Collin Dunn, Seattle on 01. 8.07

As 2007 enters its second week, we continue to gaze into our green crystal ball to see what the year might bring. After checking out prototypical energy types and new car prototypes, today we'll go with something a little closer to home. Here are some products and ideas for the home that we'd love to see more of in the coming year.

1) GE's Kitchen of the Future will focus on environmentally friendly products to reduce pollution and increase efficiency while lowering operating costs with things like OLEDs, diverting graywater for other home & garden use and providing its own purified water without using chemicals.
2) Mitsubishi's super-efficient air conditioners will use up to 50% less power than today's average model and features the "Human Sensor Move Eye" that tracks the location and habits of the living things it encounters, and conditions the air accordingly.
3) Taking one room off the grid with a solar package is easier than ever, thanks to Baker Environmental's new DIY kit that's the perfect first step in going solar without making a huge investment.
4) WIRED's NextFest showed us that the "future of green" includes ingenious products like the Flower Lamp, which opens and closes its metallic petals based on the overall energy consumption in your house and the Power-Aware Cord, which lights up to indicate how much energy an appliance is consuming.
5) Putting it all together, the future of our homes includes self heating and cooling, energy self-sufficiency and water independence, roof gardens and plug-in cars.