Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

A single cup of coffee per day has reduced my hot water usage by 20.5% — it seems improbable that such a small amount of liquid could have such a large impact, but I have been taking careful notes and checked them twice: it’s true. Here’s how I figured this out.

My hot water usage is composed of a daily shower, a small amount to wash my face, and one quarter of the dishwasher usage, as I share with my family of four. All our clothes washing is in cold water.

As per an earlier post in which I measured the water usage of various low-flow shower heads and settled on the Oxygenics Elite 700. When on full-blast, it uses 1.6 gallons per minute (GPM); when the lever is turned to low it uses about 9/10ths GPM. I’ll typically turn it on high to get wet, shampoo and rinse my hair (50% of shower time), then turn it on low while I wash my face and body (30%), then on high to rinse off (20%), or 70% at 1.6 GPM, and 30% at 0.9 GPM. Because I have set my water heater to about 115 degrees, it’s almost or all hot water.

Our Energy Star dishwasher uses about 4 gallons per cycle, of which I account for 1 gallon per day.

So how does the coffee affect hot water usage? (more…)

Here’s a chart of our electricity use at home over the last four years, showing an almost 50% reduction in use over the course of four years, saving us $118 per month at our current rate. You can make the same kinds of changes we have — nothing we have done is exotic, and nothing has really affected the quality of our lives.

One Half As Much Saves $118 Per Month

Conservation is about as un-sexy as it gets; but it works and is easy for electricity. Measuring our gas bill is a little harder, but I have to think we have made some progress there, too. I did a calculation on our water bill, and that one is stunning, as well.

Conservation may be dull, but saving money is cool, and it’s very easy to save a pretty substantial amount. One way to think about saving money by conservation is that it is like tax-free income! Between state and federal taxes, you probably pay from 20% to 50% of your income; if you got a $118/month raise, you would see less thant $100 of it, maybe as little as $59! But if you conserve, it’s tax free income. (more…)

Projections are usually wrong when they are based solely on what has already happened — but this method is considered the most reasonable approach. When the projections are then considered predictions we start making bad decision — in other words, the status quo tends to rule the way we think about what we can do. We need to step away from raw data and factor in common sense. This may seem contradictory from someone who regularly argues that we must consider what has happened in the past as a lesson for what might happen in the future; it is not.

Today I read or skimmed a 360 page report by BP titled US Energy In Perspective: Data & Analysis of US Energy Supply, Production & Consumption (pdf). This report is truly incredible as a resource, and despite my occasionally less-than-favorable views of oil companies, this report generally seems to present the full picture of where we have been, and where we are with US energy with very little bias. The report also presents some projections, typically through 2030.

What struck me was that 2030 will play out an environmental (and political, economic and other) disaster if we actually do follow the path of the projections.

It also struck me that the very analytical, solid, fact-based analysis presented could easily be read as a foregone conclusion of what will happen. Or, if you are of a careful mindset, that which might be skeptical of “bold new plans” and other things that politicians have been heard to say from time to time, you might ask for the most reasonable set of facts and predictions available — the CEO of a major oil company might take this approach. The BP report cites numerous government studies, as well as many university and other scholarly works. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the methodology, that I can see.

Except that its implied predictions are dead wrong. (more…)

There’s a brilliant story today in the New York Times, At ExxonMobil, Making the Case for Oil. Many aspects of what is reported struck me as remarkable, but the one that got my attention was Exxon’s predictions of the future:

According to Exxon’s own outlook, global oil demand is set to reach 116 million barrels a day by 2030, up sharply from 86 million barrels a day today.

Meanwhile, renewable fuels, like solar, wind and biofuels, will grow at a brisk pace but they will account for just 2 percent of the world’s energy supplies by then, according to Exxon, while oil, gas and coal will represent 80 percent of global energy needs by 2030.

“For the foreseeable future — and in my horizon that is to the middle of the century — the world will continue to rely dominantly on hydrocarbons to fuel its economy,” Mr. Tillerson says.

Of course as the world’s largest corporation (this year, at least when oil prices were high), Exxon certainly has a degree of power to control the future. But aren’t they thumbing their nose at … pretty much the entire world? Is this stance one that really serves their stockholders well? Perhaps in the short term it does — all those other companies are losing profits by investing in alternatives, even if still only to burnish their images rather than to make serious investments compared to their sizes.

Can it possibly be the case that Exxon discounts all of the various factors that suggest we are beginning a dramatic global shift away from hydrocarbon fuels? (more…)

Good Picture (borrowed from Slashgear)

Netflix is a great service, which by now everyone probably knows about — they pretty much single-handedly killed numerous movie rental chains just by being easier and better. You pick movies from a web site, and they send them to you in a special envelope that you use to return them when you’re done watching. TiVo is also a great service that allows you to watch TV on your terms (far better than the horrible “TiVo-like” DVR services offered by cable and satellite providers).

Netflix recently started making some of their movies available over the internet, on demand. But you needed a special player. More recently, you could use an XBox as that player, and there are even a couple of Blu-Ray players that are “Netflix capable”. But now, TiVo (HD models only), and that’s the best. (more…)

Since 1973, we have been grappling with the vagaries of a market we no longer control: oil. It’s an important market mainly because our country has become dependent upon it for our economy to work. The current financial crisis was a disaster waiting to happen, it seems, but one could argue that it was oil that pushed us over the edge as prices rose ever faster until it all crumbed. But now we’re getting payback: as demand crumples its price has fallen even faster than it rose (except that we’re not, since a failing economy isn’t good for anyone.)

Or is it?

We have an opportunity now to do just what we said was most important just six months ago: get off the stuff. But we now have a new problem: in a time when credit is flowing like molasses, we have great uncertainty, and we’re faced with numerous other problems like job losses and business failures, there will be a growing impatience with any solution that seems … indirect. When blood is pouring out of a vein, you put on a tourniquet. For the millions of people whose jobs are lost, the analogy is apt.

But we must avoid simplistic solutions, and we must be patient. (more…)

Replace?

But before I get too complicated, I think it’s safe to say that if you don’t have working lights now, and are buying new ones for decoration, LED is definitely the best choice.

So go ahead and replace your lights, right? Not so fast. By “replace” do you mean get rid of the working ones you have now and buy ones? It’s a bit trickier in this case, but here are some facts that might help you decide. (more…)

I find it remarkable that we appear to keep getting surprised. Yesterday the stock market took a tumble, and the Times’ headline was “Dow Plunges 680 Points as Recession Is Declared“. Were all the people that sold holding out in hope of some wonderful financial miracle? Were the other indicators that have added up to this rather obvious outcome not sufficient?

This is far from the first example of this phenomenon. Bad news is announced and the stock market tumbles disproportionately. The inverse is true, as we saw with five straight sessions of gains.

Well, of course markets are crazy! They over-react, they under-react, the act wrong, and everyone says “don’t pay attention to the markets”.

My amusement over recurring surprises relates more to the CEOs and Boards of significant companies who are making really important decisions, and peddling great amounts of influence on many different areas, many of which relate to energy and climate (more…)