Category Archives: burning reduction methods

Growing Vegetables Is A Great Way To Exercise – But mainly it is good food

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Here is a site with the basics.

http://www.environment911.org/99.Growing_Your_Own_Food_Small_Vegetable_Garden_Ideas

Growing Your Own Food: Small Vegetable Garden Ideas

Growing your own food has its advantages. It’s a low-cost source of fresh vegetables, herbs, and legumes. You retain control over whether chemically-laden and potentially dangerous pesticides and fertilizers are sprayed on your food. Plus you get the satisfaction of chopping and sautéing food you personally planted and harvested with your own hands.

The sense of self-reliance that comes from growing your own food in a small vegetable garden can be exhilarating. The task appeals to primal, survivalist instincts. Furthermore, many nature lovers regard organic home vegetable gardening as good for sustaining the environment.

 

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Couple Tries Life Of Sustainability – In response to Peak Oil

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I am not sure that I believe in Peak Oil. At one level it is actually a distribution problem and the chaos that results when that distribution systems capacity is exceeded. Not an issue of how much oil is left. I think that global warming will get us much more quickly than Peak “any resource”. I also have my doubts about the sustainability of global capitalism and the devastation that may occur when it falls apart. But seriously, whatever the reason, living an uncomplicated, simple and frugal life is such a good thing. If we all did that the world of consumerism would go BOOM overnight. As always I have issues with videos. So:

http://peakoil.com/consumption/a-young-couple-find-freedom-in-simple-living/

A Young Couple Find Freedom in Simple Living

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn3AX540j20

Rather than follow the customary American dream, Tammy and Logan sold their home and car, and moved to a bikeable/walkable neighborhood in Sacramento, California. After reading Derrick Jensen’s writings, this couple used Your Money or Your Lifeas a means to get out of debt and, they feel, regain their lives and their future. While they recount the psychological challenges of facing a future of declining resources, the catalyst that continues to move them forward is a dream of living in an affordable tiny house within a supportive community. (rowdykittens.com).

Listen to audio. Read in Janaia’s Journal about our visit to tape them.

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I found the video on Youtube and put the link in the story where it would be in the brief piece. But the video was posted 2 years ago and that means that it is probably older than that. Why is Peak Oil going with old content. Go there and read. Peak Oil is an interesting site. More tomorrow.

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Changing The Environment By Changing The Culture – How to classify this

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I have no idea how to classify this but I found it interesting nonetheless. She is kinda cute no matter what.

 

http://www.blueplanetgreenliving.com/2009/01/30/culture-change-drives-environmental-improvement/

Culture Change Drives Environmental Improvement

“What I’m doing is socially engineering organizations by working with employees so they can shift their company culture and drive business performance — and even personal performance,” says Elizabeth Frisch, president of Culture Technologies, Inc. and director of development for A Nurtured World.“

Elizabeth Frisch of Culture Technologies and A Nurtured World
Elizabeth Frisch of Culture Technologies and A Nurtured World

 

One of the things we’re committed to is inspiring people, enrolling them, and getting them connected with their passions in the workplace. This is just like we do on the consumer side with A Nurtured World, getting people to commit to green living in their home, so that being environmental is not about suffering, deprivation, and “something else that is on my To-Do list.” Instead, you create space around it, so that it’s this open frontier. There’s all this possibility!”

Culture Technologies is working with the Dallas Cowboys to green their new Cowboy Stadium, a topic you’ll read about in tomorrow’s post. Today, we talk with Elizabeth about how Culture Technologies helps businesses become more environmentally responsible through culture change. We spoke with Frisch from her office in Austin, Texas.

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Go there and read the really long interview. More tomorrow.

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Cuba Moves Ahead With Alternative Energy – Will they move ahead of the U.S.

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As rediculous as it sounds, Cuba could very easily overtake the U.S. in its use of alternative forms of energy. Why? Because like China they have a planned economy.

http://peakoil.com/alternative-energy/cuba-on-the-road-to-clean-energy-development/

Cuba on the Road to Clean Energy Development

More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island.

“If the world’s clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using the polluting kind?” asked Luis Bérriz, head of the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (CUBASOLAR), a non- governmental organisation that promotes the use of alternative and environmentally-friendly power sources.

According to his calculations, the amount of solar radiation Cuba receives is equivalent to 50 million tonnes of oil a day.

“If we covered the 1,000-kilometre-long national highway with solar panels we would generate all the power currently used, without using fossil fuels or occupying a single square metre of agricultural land,” Bérriz said to IPS in an interview.

Moreover, “nobody can block the sun; it belongs to all of us,” he added.

Bérriz is a researcher and long-time advocate of renewable power sources who prefers to talk about “reversing” climate change – which he says is caused by “the destructive actions of today’s societies” – instead of “adapting” to it.

In his opinion, adapting to what others destroy sounds more like “conformism”. Industrialised countries are responsible for 75 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which cause global warming. The leading GHG is carbon dioxide (CO2).

For Bérriz, the best course of action is to move from oil to clean energy sources, which exceed power needs. The way to do this is to develop the knowledge, technology and industry necessary to tap into the various renewable energy sources most available in each area, he says.

Key components of this process, Bérriz argues, are the training of scientists, technicians and skilled workers to cover human resource needs, and the creation of an energy and environmental culture that will raise the awareness essential for the development of solar power based on “fairness and solidarity”.

 

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It’s a big article, so go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Rightwing Rant From A Probable Oil And Gas Stock Holder – Or is it coal

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I normally would not put up a rant against alternative forms of energy which I believe are the energies of the future. But I love how they all make the same mistake. We as a society must use the CHEAPEST forms of energy. Yet we as a society get to SAY what kinds of energy are used and then it is up to businesses to get on with what they do best – steal us blind. Resources are not free to those that just dig them up and they can not be allowed to destroy the world while they are at it. This shouter and denier from Northern Wisconsin is all about preposterous side arguments that are not even true in his political wet dreams.

http://madisle.info/2012/01/30/renewable-green-energy-yields-very-poor-results/#axzz1lLKfgK9z

Renewable “Green” Energy Yields Very Poor Results

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Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re tired of me telling you “I told you so,” but once again, as usual, I am right and you are not.

Why we’re even fiddling around with this green alternative energy crap is beyond me. It doesn’t work for the most part, and what does work is extremely expensive and highly inefficient.

Renewable electric energy from nonhydroelectric sources — chiefly wind and solar — contributed only 3.6 percent of total U.S. generation in 2010 — yet received 53.5 percent of all federal financial support for electric power.

And wind power alone, which provides 2.3 percent of generation, received 42 percent of all support.

Wind and solar renewable energy have failed to thrive despite government support because they face substantial “market impediments,” according to Benjamin Zycher, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

“Energy policies in the United States for decades have pursued energy sources defined in various ways as alternative, unconventional, independent, renewable, and clean in an effort to replace such conventional fuels as oil, coal, and natural gas,” Zycher states on the AEI website, and “renewable electricity receives very large direct and indirect subsidies from the federal and state governments.

“These long-standing efforts have, without exception, yielded poor outcomes.”

 

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Go there and read the rubbish. More tomorrow.

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Finally Get A New Water Heater – Do yourself a big favor and go Tankless

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Before I post that however let me thank:

Roger @

Ray’s TV

625 West Beecher ST

Jacksonville IL 62650  tel – 243-3051  email pegasus2112@frontier.com

He fixed my computer for next to nothing and I am here today because of it. (no boos or hisses) THANKS

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While Consumer Reports does not like “on demand” water heaters, I do. Once you get used to them they are a blessing and if you have a large family the money you can save is amazing. But for me it is a mental thing. First in mind solar water heating should have been the way our society should have gone 100 or even 200 years ago. I mean it is there and we “throw it away”. But there is also something so bourgeoisie about heating up a bunch of water to sit in a tank wating for us to (what?) fain to use it. But if we don’t then a heater comes on and heats it up again. The whole mindset there is flawed.

http://www.tanklesswaterheaterguide.com/

Tankless Water Heaters heat water directly without the use of a storage tank. Therefore, they avoid the standby heat losses associated with storage water heaters. When a hot water tap is turned on, cold water travels through a pipe into the unit. In an electric Tankless Water Heater an electric element heats the water. In a gas-fired Tankless Water Heater a gas burner heats the water. As a result, Tankless Water Heaters deliver a constant supply of hot water. You don’t need to wait for a storage tank to fill up with enough hot water. Typically, Tankless Water Heaters provide hot water at a rate of 2 – 5 gallons (7.6 – 15.2 liters) per minute. Typically, gas-fired Tankless Water Heaters will produce higher flow rates than electric Tankless Water Heaters. Some smaller Tankless Water Heaters, however, cannot supply enough hot water for simultaneous, multiple uses in large households. For example, taking a shower and running the dishwasher at the same time can stretch a Tankless Water Heater to its limit. To overcome this problem, you can install a “whole house” type Tankless Water Heater or install two or more Tankless Water Heaters, connected in parallel for simultaneous demands of hot water. You can also install separate Tankless Water Heaters for appliances—such as a clothes washer or dishwater—that use a lot of hot water in your home.

Other applications for Tankless Water Heaters include the following:

  • Remote BBQ or outdoor sink
  • Poolhouse or pool shower
  • Remote bathrooms or hot tubs
  • To serve as a booster, eliminating long pipe runs, for solar water heating systems, dishwashers and sanitation.

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Go there and see all their pretty pictures and diagrams. Read the text. More next week.

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Insulate Your Basement – Even in an already built home

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Yes, you can get a backhoe and dig a trench around your house for relatively cheap but, it really is a waste of time. Parging the walls first pretty much means coating the walls to make sure moisture does not get behind the insulation that you are going to put up. I suggest using a modern basement epoxy of some sort and I recommend rigid insulation after you have done that. Rigid is easier to work with and you can make the whole project into an adhesive affair where you adhere the furring strips to the epoxied walls and then you adhere the foam board (or whatever) to the furring strips. Boom, you are done unless you need to paint them for someone else in the house that hates the color of the “naked” board. You know who I mean. Like the article says as far as the vapor barrier placement you have to call your local building code people cause I got no idea,

 

http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/energy-efficient-basement.html

Exterior wall insulation inside the walls

Insulating outside your exterior walls is often too expensive or impractical in existing homes. You can insulate the inside of your basement walls but you may exacerbate the problems associated with moisture if you don’t do the job correctly.

Parging: If moisture is seeping into your walls, parge the masonry walls to seal any cracks and strengthen any weak or porous masonry. This will help prevent water from seeping in from outside.

Vapor barrier: Vapor barrier should be outside the insulation if you are in a hot climate and only cool your home; it should be on the inside if you are in a cold climate and are mainly heating your home. Consult your local city building permits department to find out what are the suggested or mandated insulation and vapor barrier configurations for energy efficient basements in your area.

Framing: If possible, leave a gap between your framing and the exterior walls, to prevent moisture from the masonry from causing wood rot in your framing. Use small spacers behind 2×3 studs, rather than 2×4 studs against the outside wall, and you’ll still have room to install the standard insulation for 2×4, 16-inch-stud construction.

Insulation: If there is any likelihood of moisture getting into your basement, use a rigid foam insulation rather than batt or other fiber-based insulation. Moisture seeping through exterior walls will dampen the insulation and reduce its R value significantly within a few years, so you’ll start with an energy efficient basement and in a few years be losing as much heat to outside as before the renovation. Moisture will not have much effect on the R value of foam insulation. Buy the highest R value insulation you can – you can get an R value of 6 per inch in some insulating foam sheets. If you want both insulation and waterproofing, you could consider having Icynene insulation applied to exterior walls after framing but before drywall is installed.

Other places you should insulate

A couple of other important things to consider about basement insulation:

  • In an older house, where a shower stall is already installed against an outside wall, check the insulation level behind the shower. A prior owner or contractor may have installed the shower without adequate insulation. If you are remodelling or can access the wall space behind it, inject foam insulation or otherwise upgrade the insulation. You’ll have more comfortable showers and you’ll cut down on overall heat loss.
  • Insulate the perimeter of your basement ceiling (an area called the ‘rim joists’), from the outside walls to about 16″ to 24″ from the outside walls, to prevent moisture from creeping in between the upstairs

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In this case, go there and read a bunch. More tomorrow.

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Cleaning Your HVAC Filter – If you are still replacing it, STOP it

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If you are a home owner and you are still using the crappy disposable HVAC filters please stop. They are inefficient and expensive. For the price of 2 boxes of those filters you can buy a single washable filter that will save you a bunch of money on filter costs and equipment costs, and end up with cleaner home air and  house as a result. If you are a renter and you pay your own utility bills it is well worth your time to invest and you can take it with you to your next apartment or your first home.  As always, I have never owned this particular filter nor have I purchased anything from this company. It merely is an example of one of dozens of companies and types of filters on the market.

http://www.air-care-filters.com/

Electrostatic Air Filters

Air Commander electrostatic air filters are 10 times more efficient then the standard disposable filter. By switching to a permanent electrostatic furnace filter, the air inside your home will be cleaner and fresher. Our furnace filters are electrostatically charged to trap up to 94% of the dust and allergens in your home.

Just easily wash the filter every 1-3 months and put it back in place. The sturdy metal frame will stand the test of time. With a lifetime warranty and 100% money back guarantee, why not make the switch to a permanent air filter?

How Electrostatic Furnace Filters Work

Electrostatic Air Filters clean the air by using static electricity, a safe, naturally occurring phenomenon. An electrostatic charge is generated by air flowing through a maze of static prone fibers. Airborne particles are attracted and held by the static charge until released by washing. All Air Commander Electrostatic Air Filters contain an EPA registered anti-microbial material to inhibit mold and bacteria growth on the air filter surface.

The air you breathe contains many irritants such as pollen, dust, bacteria, mold spores, pet dander and smoke. Most of these particles are smaller than one micron. Our Electrostatic Air Filters are an effective and efficient way to reduce the number of these particles in your air. This illustration shows the typical dust loading pattern of the electrostatic fibers. This unique characteristic improves air flow while providing maximum filtration.

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Go there or google the subject and read. More tomorrow.

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Clean Your Dryer Lint – Save money and save lives

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When I start in on equipment appliance maintenance as part of residential  energy conservation, people start to lose interest and want to talk about the sexier things like new windows. Did you know that there are 15,000 house fires a year caused by dryer lint. That is right every year. If folks just took 30 minutes to clean their dryers out, especially the older one. You can save pretty good money and maybe your life. Here is an ad that I get for a device that could make it easier to do;

https://www.lintlizard.com/?uid=12FA483C0D3B2074C0E642987EF83D81

With the Lint Lizard™, you can reach right into your dryer and clear the dryer clogging lint at its source! Just attach the Lint Lizard™ to the end of your vacuum, and its built-in fan nozzle reaches easily into your lint catcher and even your dryer vent outside. Keeping your dryer free of lint maximizes energy efficiency, saving you money… and nothing works like the Lint Lizard.

Now, for a limited time, you’ll get the incredible Lint Lizard™ for the super low price of $10.99 plus $6.99 shipping and handling. *Act now, and we’ll double your offer and we’ll include the Dust Lizard, just pay separate $6.99 fee. You also have the opportunity to qualify for free shipping when you upgrade your order to the deluxe. And remember, this offer is not available in stores, so the only way to get it is to order now!

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Here is the old fashion way. It is probably more effective too.

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Home-Repair/Appliance-Repair/dryer-lint-cleaning-tips

Lint escapes through tiny gaps around the edges of the dryer drum and falls into the cabinet, especially when the exhaust vent or vent cap is clogged and airflow is restricted. The lint can get ignited by electric heating elements, gas burners or even a spark from the motor, and the flames then travel through the lint-lined exhaust vent. To make sure this doesn’t happen in your house, check the exhaust vent and the inside of the cabinet frequently.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Blown Insulation – My pick for retrofits

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It is a pain in the behind to cut blow holes in walls to blow in insulation. It is also tricky to work around windows and other internal factors like headers and footers,but if you are not tearing out the interior walls and are environmentally concerned, I still think it is the best bet. Here is a great article about it.

http://www.aboutsavingheat.com/cellulose.html

Fill your Walls & Ceilings, Not our Landfills!
We use blown-in cellulose for most of our insulation jobs, (except for crawl spaces, where moisture and the lack of hollow walls won’t allow it.) Blown cellulose is less expensive, safer to you as well as the environment and more effective and energy efficient than its leading competitor – fiberglass.

Cellulose fills walls and ceilings and stops air infiltration better!
The fibers of cellulose insulation are much finer than fiberglass. When cellulose is blown or dense-packed into your walls and ceilings, it takes on almost liquid-like properties that let it flow into cavities and around obstructions to completely fill walls and seal every crack and seam. No fiberglass or rock wool material duplicates this action. Liquid-applied foam plastics do, but they cost much more than cellulose.

In new construction cellulose insulation can be installed in walls using a spray process or several different dense-pack dry techniques that are also effective at sealing homes against air infiltration.

Cellulose is a naturally recycled product…

Cellulose insulation is made from recycled wood fiber, primarily newspaper. One hundred pounds of cellulose insulation contains 80 to 85 pounds of recycled newsprint. The remainder is made up of Borax and Boric acid, both non-toxic fire retardants.

Today more and more communities are addressing the challenge of waste disposal through “curbside recycling” and similar conservation programs. These efforts work only if there is demand for recycled products.

The federal government is attempting to create demand through such measures as the Environmental Protection Agency’s comprehensive procurement guideline for products containing recovered materials. Cellulose unquestionably meets all requirements for insulation specified by the guideline.

When you choose cellulose insulation you help solve the waste disposal problem and help fight air pollution. This may help your community hold down taxes or refuse disposal charges. It certainly contributes to a cleaner environment.

Paper that is not recycled ends up in landfills, where it may contribute to environmental pollution, or at incinerators where energy is wasted reducing it to ashes, soot, and smoke.

…And a responsible use of resources
Even if waste paper did not create a disposal problem, most people believe we have an obligation to make maximum use of the resources we consume.

Cellulose insulation does not “save trees,” but it makes maximum use of the trees we have already harvested.

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I am no hmtl warrior and their fonts to not transfer well, so go there and read. More tomorrow.

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