Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

Earlier this week, Mark Mondik wrote a post on the TerraPass Footprint blog regarding population. The post itself is remarkable for its measured and rational observations about the topic of over-population, one that has, through the course of modern history, raised the specter of many horrible things. Do you remember Charleton Heston in Soylent Green?

But what I found even more remarkable is that, over these last four days, the comments, now 37 of them, are all civil. Not all are in agreement, and there is a discourse raising several different points. But the comments are all respectful, honest, thoughtful and well-meaning. (And while TerraPass is up-front about their lack of tolerance for abusive or off-topic comments, none have been deleted — I subscribe by email, so you know when that happens).

I was cheered by this remarkable achievement in Internet history, and have hopes that it may herald a new era of civility.

Philips “Halogena” bulbs are not CFLs — they are incandescent bulbs that use less electricity than standard bulbs, and they work exactly like the bulbs they replace. They claim to last about 20% longer, also. Halogena bulbs cost more, about $3 more, per bulb in my case.

I could see no difference in performance compared to incandescent: they start instantly, have nice bright light at full power, nice warm light as they dim, and they dim continuously with no buzzing, the bulb looks the same and fits.

I would have preferred to use CFL bulbs: compared to standard incandescent Halogena bulbs use about 1/3 less electricity; CFLs use 4 to five times less. CFLs also last a great deal longer, even than Halogena’s modest 500 hour improvement. So Halogena are an incremental improvement.

But as per the mission of this blog: saving energy and conservation is a matter of a lot of small steps that add up to big, big savings. (more…)

We recently had an energy audit for our house and learned a lot, including:

• The most of the corners of the house were never insulated the first time
• Our bulkhead door leaks like a sieve (maybe that’s why I can see light through it :-)
• The attic door and whole house fan let in a lot of air
• The chimney damper is pretty useless in terms of insulating
• Air pours into our basement through the sill and old windows
• Most of our windows still need to have caulking around the edges — air is getting in
• All the leaks result in a complete air exchange about once every 70 minutes in winter

How the Audit Worked

There were two parts: a “blower door test” and an infrared camera inspection (the actual reports are linked below). (more…)

Theresa and I have been married for a while now, coming on 15 years. During that time, we have had a lot of pots and pans. I’ll talk about our frying pans.

We started out with a cast iron skillet that I had owned since the year after I graduated from college. My Mom taught me about how to season a cast iron pan so food wouldn’t stick.

Then as we got more money (still “dink”s — dual income, no kids) we went upscale, buying Calphalon. These are anodized aluminum — solid and thick, with steel handles solidly bound on. These pans were the ones used by chefs in real kitchens (more…)

I have several household energy reduction projects in mind and am hoping to get some advice about which one I should take on first. I am considering:

• Tankless (on-demand) Hot Water Heater
• Foam Spray Insulation combined with Energy Audit
• Geothermal Heat Pump
• Solar (PV or Water Heat Assisted)

I have a lot of questions about which ones make sense, how to tell which one is best, how much they’ll cost, and how to measure all of it. (more…)

No Standby

Judging from the traffic I have been getting on that post, it seems that many others are having the same standby issues as I. And there are some other standby solutions I have found since then. I’ll try to keep updating this post, and I encourage anyone with other findings or questions to comment.

Update History

• (edited 9/7/08, added test methodology)
• (edited 9/9/08, added suspected Google Reader issue and 5 minute test period)
• (edited 9/14/08, results of testing free utility, Smart Shutdown — it works! It used to work :-( )
• (edited 10/21/08, some XP SP3 Hibernate problems and possible solutions)
• (edited 11/17/08, added firmer “shut down everything first” to test procedure)
• (edited 11/18/08, added “verify manual standby works” to test procedure)
• (edited 12/13/08, clarified case where iTunes causes problems
• (comment #17 on this post, 1/1/09, Java QuickStart
• (comment from other post, 1/29/09: Symantec AV suspected
• (comment from other post, Installation of SP3 kills hibernate option; see below)
• (comment from other post 2/26/09: Adobe Type Manager causes Keyboard error entering standby, confirmed by Microsoft)
• (additional bolding of some other solutions in comments, 5/22/09): Spamblock Plus, VOIP connection, MSN, others suspected.

(more…)

eRedux is a new site providing resources that are aimed specifically at getting things done locally. Maps and charts of carbon footprint by state, regional and local level are available. US Government and other sources of local data are grouped together by zip code with links to various resources right there.

But what I think is especially cool is that there’s a town, county, and state blog that members post entries in, comment on, and communicate with each other.

I just made a post soliciting people in Newton, where I live, to help me get my new green site (that still has no name yet) off the ground. I really like this idea and hope it can grew and be successful.

My recent windfall from the water company reminded me that I could not possibly have known how much water I was using. I am not so tied in to our heating bill. I am very aware of my electricity bill. I am aware of my vehicle usage. They are all important—why the difference?

When it’s in your face, it’s harder to ignore

I have some proposed solutions that should help get our consumption in our faces. (more…)

Are you like many Americans who spend more than they earn? Well, if you’re talking money, that ain’t the half of it.

Americans “spend” more resources than we make by about 5 times (more…)

Conservation is not the same as deprivation. I saw a show on TV this summer called “30 Days”, which was created by Morgan Spurlock, the guy in “Supersize Me”. In one episode, two egregious consumers of the earth’s limited resources are put into an experimental eco-commune for 30 days. We watch as these SUV-drivin’, meat-eatin’, blowdryer-usin’ two people are thrust into a place with people living a “zero footprint” life. They eat only what they grow, they recycle their waste, they retrieve vegetable oil from restaurants to power their car. So we see people whose lifestyle is perhaps admirable, but utterly different from most Americans. It was good TV, and presented a lot of facts about how badly we are abusing the earth. But it did not present options that our consumption-addicted country can really act on.

Indeed, radical viewpoints can be counter-productive. (more…)