Waste might be defined as any act that expends energy that is not used for any productive purpose. A regular car brakes by causing friction that transfers energy of movement into heat; our Priuses are able to reclaim some of that energy and store it in a battery to help make the car go. So anything that doesn’t use energy completely efficiently is wasteful. And if my college physics memory is correct, there’s a law of thermodynamics that says no transfer of energy can occur without some loss. So look: we’re using up the energy of the universe. Deal with it.
But when it comes to saving energy in a more practical sense, I have found it helpful to think about ways that we use energy that will just be lost. (more…)
We’re enjoying the small but beautiful LCD widescreen TV I wrote about last fall. Amongst its many virtues is that is draws a lot less power than our old tube TV (which we were able to find a good home for through freecycle.org). Now, I want a laptop and while there are possible a few other things that it might do for me, my true objective is, of course, saving energy. Really, I want the laptop to replace my desktop computer because it will save energy. No, really. (more…)
In my recent post on Dimmable Compact Fluorescent floodlights I said I would try two new bulbs; both floodlights.
First the not so good. (more…)
Credit again to Ideal Bite: stop junk mail! I am sure the statistics on junk mail are staggering — I know that after Thanksgiving our poor letter carrier (f.k.a “postman”) was staggering around delivering sometimes twenty or thirty catalogs to our door in a day … and down the street, and across town and over the entire country.
The horror of junk mail is far from limited to the holidays (f.k.a “Christmas”). Every day when I bring in the mail, I rifle through the scores of catalogs and flyers and cards, and letters and solicitations just to find the things I need. Easily 90% of every day’s mail goes directly into the recycle bag. (more…)
In the post Transformer Vampires, I talked about the inefficiency of the “bricks” that power so much of today’s electronic products. We probably have 20 of them plugged in somewhere in our house (we’re geeks, but the average house is said to have 12). I think new rules for Energy Star certification go into effect this year that require use of “switching power supplies” instead of transformers; switching power supplies do the same thing, but are 90% efficient, instead of around 50%.
But why can’t I replace my existing 20 vampires with switching power supplies? (more…)
There are numerous tax incentives and rebate programs for using less energy — see the link on this article. The most immediate one is for those of us who purchased hybrid vehicles in 2005 (and earlier); depending on the vehicle, you can take a deduction of up to $2,000 off your income, even if you don’t itemize deductions. Depending on your tax bracket, this could reduce your tax bill by about 1/3 of this amount (around $660) this year.
And procrastinators rejoice — in 2006 the energy bill includes a tax credit for hybrids — up to $3,600. (more…)
Christmas has passed. And so have many, many goods.
Our two kids, 4 and 8, got a few gifts, but certainly not as many as I know many other kids got. Most of the gifts are now “put away”, meaning they are probably only going to be used a few times more, if ever. Some will last, but I think they are the exception. Gifts came by UPS and FedEx, box after box. (more…)
