This is a first for me. I found this cool house done by Georgia State University’s Physics Department. I do not know if the Interactive part of it will hold because my HTML skills are nonexistent, but if not please go to the site below and play with it.
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http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/houseenergy.html
Household Energy Use
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More tomorrow.
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What Difference A Day Makes. I put up this post yesterday and it centered on on a guys website that was kind of cool. As you know (please read the NO NEW CONTENT section), this website functions as an accumulator site. We firmly believe that there is plenty of new information out there everyday that we don’t need to add to the confusion. We never claim the material as our own. As our great high school English teachers (Ms. Carriker and Mr. Grimm) taught us, we never use more than Fair Use and we always cite the source so people can go there and read more. Everyonce in awhile…this is the 3rd time in 3 years… we run into what we call “internet idiots” that want to get all ballistic on us. They always claim that we are violating their intellectually property rights by copying word for word their most precious thoughts. WELL. What I usually do is put up a way to contact them…point out how dumb it is to give up free publicity, even if it is from a small nonprofit website, and move on. But since this guy borrows most of his stuff anyway and since he has an ego the size of a dump truck…I left up the parts that he borrowed and as for the size of his ego please see:
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The chart above shows how the average home used energy (not just electricity) in 2007. (Dept. of Energy)
A little farther down is a chart showing the relative use of various appliances.
(DoE)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Cornhusker Public Power District
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More tomorrow.
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It doesn’t matter what country you are in.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
The great energy rip-off continues. The wholesale price of gas has risen in recent months so the large household energy suppliers are raising their consumer prices.
British Gas has become the latest to do so, announcing a 7 per cent increase yesterday. This comes after a similar price hike by Scottish & Southern Energy last month. And the rest of the “big six” UK energy suppliers are expected to follow soon.
The problem is that the energy sector is only selectively responsive to fluctuations in market prices. Wholesale energy prices are 50 per cent below their peak in 2008, yet consumer bills have fallen by just 10 per cent in that time. It is a familiar story: consumer prices are sticky on the way down, but well lubricated on the way up.
But the fact that we are used to these gouging tactics by energy firms does not make them any more acceptable. This represents a market failure. Competition should hold down consumer prices. But the number of household power suppliers has fallen from 20 to six since privatisation in the 1990s. A competent regulator would not have allowed this situation to develop. But Ofgem, which supposedly oversees the industry, has repeatedly shown itself to be unwilling to bring the energy giants into line. The result is an energy sector that is uncomfortably similar to a cartel.
And the Coalition has, so far, been no more willing than the previous administration to address this problem. The Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, has warned firms to give customers ample warning of price rises. But he has not indicated a desire to force structural reform. And the Coalition’s decision to abolish the Consumer Focus watchdog, transferring its function to the Citizens Advice Bureau, will only make it more difficult for consumers to resist the excesses of the energy giants.
The suspicion is that ministers are treading softly around these firms because they are relying on them to invest some £200bn in low-carbon energy infrastructure over the next decade. Yet a failure to tackle the vested interests of the energy sector would represent a strategic mistake by the Government. Consumer energy prices will inevitably need to rise over the medium term as firms make investments, under Government pressure, to decarbonise our energy supplies. Massive investment in wind, wave and nuclear power is necessary if Britain is to meet its target of generating 20 per cent of our energy from renewable by 2020.
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More tomorrow.
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No one and I repeat NO ONE should be throwing out food. Everyone can compost. If you can’t use the resulting dirt (everyone should have house plants if they value their health) then you can just throw it outside. It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment in a urban center or a house in the country, the message is stop throwing food in the garbage. The problem starts at the store though. Please stop overbuying food…especially meat.
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http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/07/opinion/la-oe-bloom-food-waste-20101107
November 07, 2010|By Jonathan Bloom
Let me guess: You’re concerned about the environment. You recycle, buy the right light bulbs, drink from a reusable water bottle (preferably one made of metal) and wish you could afford a hybrid. You try to remember your reusable shopping bags when you go to the market and feel guilty when you don’t.
But there’s something you could be doing that would make a much bigger difference, and it’s not one of those really hard things like carpooling to work or installing solar panels on your roof.
All you need to do is minimize your food waste. If you buy it and bring it home, eat it. That alone is one of the easiest ways to aid the environment.
About 40% of the food produced in the United States isn’t consumed. Every day Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl. And our national food waste habit is on the upswing: We waste 50% more food today than we did in 1974.
Squandering so much of what we grow doesn’t just waste food; it also wastes the fossil fuel that went into growing, processing, transporting and refrigerating it. A recent study estimated conservatively that 2% of all U.S. energy consumption went to producing food that was never eaten. To give you a sense of perspective, every year, through uneaten food, we waste 70 times the amount of oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico during the three months of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
That waste of resources continues after we throw away food. There is the energy required to haul the discarded food to the landfill. And once there, food decomposes and creates methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent a heat trapper than carbon dioxide. Landfills are the second-largest human-related source of methane emissions, and rotting food causes the majority of methane there. It’s climate change coming directly from your kitchen.
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America should be ashamed. More tomorrow.
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MY favorite quote that I shall only paraphrase is, I could just jump in the car and go to the store for a lot of this stuff..but.
http://www.straight.com/article-357270/vancouver/peak-oil-spurring-locals-selfsufficiency
Brennan Wauters believes that the world has reached peak oil production, and that learning how to do things such as grow your own food and fix household items will help you take care of yourself.
What if you woke up one day and found that the world as you knew it had ceased to exist? It’s a thought that has probably crossed the minds of many and perhaps been quickly dismissed by most as silly.
For Brennan Wauters, this prospect is real. That’s why he’s preparing for what he describes as a “collapse”.
From Wauters’s perspective, the game changer is peak oil. He believes that in the past five years, the world has reached the point of maximum production of oil, and that the supply of this fuel source is on the decline. One day, the pumps may run dry.
But the 42-year-old Vancouver man is not the type to hunker in a bunker. He isn’t storing food, buying gold, or stocking up on weapons to survive in a post-oil world.
“I’m more a survivalist in the sense that I think we have to be psychologically prepared,” Wauters said. “I concentrate on being able to do things with as little as possible. It’s also an exercise to me, like there’s many things that I could just go to the store for. But I deliberately take a harder route just to test my own capabilities, to give me confidence that whatever happens, everything will be fine.”
Learning to grow food is one of those things. Peppers were ready for picking when Wauters showed the Georgia Straight the vegetable plots at the East Side house where he lives with a number of other people. There were also chickens and honeybees out back.
“If there’s a general economic collapse, people are not going to have jobs,” he said. “So they’re going to have time on their hands. And that probably means growing food so that they don’t have to depend upon some larger infrastructure. That’s the clear objective.”
Wauters is also collecting books on edible and medicinal plants. That way, when the Internet is no longer working, he’ll have something to rely on for farming information.
He’s also learning “wildcrafting”, or methods of gathering food from the wild and living off the land. He likewise considers knowledge of canning and smoking food to be important.
Wauters builds sets for movie productions for a living, and that partly explains why he has a large collection of tools. He particularly values hand implements—drills, saws, and sets of screwdrivers—which he said will all be useful when power devices can no longer be plugged into wall sockets.
He can also fix a bicycle, noting that this human-powered conveyance will eventually become more valuable than the automobile.
According to Wauters, neighbours come to him to repair various broken household items. The house where he lives has a shed that stores numerous tools, such as pickaxes, shovels, and rakes.
“The survival aspect is really two things,” he said. “It’s a mental exercise which helps you cope with adversity, and then the other thing is that it prepares you to be creative. You have to be creative to solve those problems that we’re going to face. We can no longer run to the store to buy something to solve our problem.”
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More tomorrow.
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I have tried to get people to save energy at home to save money. You always will. I have tried to get people to save energy to avert global warming. I have tried to get people to save energy to be modern. You know better appliances equals a better life. But now there is a health advantage as well.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/203295.php
Editor’s Choice
Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Water – Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 02 Oct 2010 – 10:00 PDT
Scientists have found compelling evidence of a link between adult diabetes and pollution levels – when particulate air pollution is higher, diabetes risk goes up, even after taking into account such factors as ethnicity and obesity rates, according to an article published in Diabetes Care. This study was carried out by researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical school. The study focused on adult diabetes prevalence, meaning diabetes Type 2.
The fact that higher pollution usually means more cars, which could mean less physical activity, which might lead to higher obesity levels, resulting in higher diabetes rates were factored into this study – in other words, the scientists found a direct link between pollution levels and diabetes risk, after taking into account these variables which may occur in high pollution areas.
This is one of the first large-scale population based studies to detect an association between diabetes rates and levels of air pollution, the authors write. It corroborates previous studies which found a link between higher insulin resistance and particulate exposure among laboratory mice.
The investigators concentrated their attention on fine particulates of 0.1 to 2.5 nanometers, or PM2.5, which is commonly found in motor vehicle exhaust fumes, haze and smoke.
John Pearson and John Brownstein, PhD, of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program and team gathered data on PM2.5 pollution in every country in mainland USA (not including Alaska) from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for 2004 and 2005.
They combined the EPA information with data from the US Census and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to establish adult diabetes rates, as well as adjusting for obesity, physical activity, geographical location, population density and ethnicity – known risk factors for diabetes.
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Clear the air and we are all healthier. More tomorrow.
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It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvYsBlg4QEM
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http://www.professorshouse.com/your-home/environmentally-friendly/energy-efficient-shingles.aspx
Home > Your Home > Environmentally Friendly > Articles > Energy Efficient Roof Shingles
The right roof is essential to designing an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient home. If you’ve got typical shingles or hot asphalt on your roof—as many homeowners do—you could be doing better. Below are a few cutting-edge roofing techniques that can cut your energy costs and make your house greener at the same time.
Use recycled shingles. If you want an environmentally friendly roof, the worst thing you can do is install 15-year, non-recycled shingles. These are among the most disposable building materials, are hardly ever recycled, and contain toxic volatile organic chemicals that evaporate under the heat of the sun. This means that just by sitting under the sun and heating up, your home is releasing toxic chemicals into the air. For a greener option, use recycled asphalt shingles that use reclaimed materials, reducing waste. These shingles often have a 50-year lifespan instead of 15, so you won’t have to replace them as often.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kilR-4rQS5g
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Consider metal. Metal roofs are more energy-efficient than shingles. Metal roofing is typically made from aluminum, copper, or steel, and you should ensure that your roofing is lead-free. Metal does not have the kind of heat-absorption qualities shingles have, so it will absorb and radiate less heat into your home. In fact, the right color metal will actively reflect sunlight, keeping your home cooler in hot summer months when the sun is most intense. Metal roofing also stands up to the elements better than shingles typically do—it’s the best for rainwater catchment systems, and snow slides off it easily.
Reflective coatings. To make your shingled roof more energy-efficient, brush a reflective coating on. Uncoated shingled roofs typically absorb around 80% of the sunlight that hits them—heating your home in the summer and driving up your air conditioning bill. A coated roof, however, can reflect about 80% of heat—giving you significant energy savings.
Clay and slate. Two natural materials that make excellent green roofing choices, clay and slate are both energy-efficient, can be disposed of without pollution, and are much less toxic than shingles. Corrugated clay tiles encourage air flow on the surface of the roof, keeping the home cool in the summer. However, hail will shatter it, which is why it’s typically only used in warmer climates. Slate is far more durable—it can last up to 100 years with minimal maintenance. Slate can also be reclaimed and recycled.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B7YeDmmTFc
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Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). This is a roofing system that’s coated with a film that converts sunlight into electricity—a solar-power coating for your roof. This system uses tiles or shingles, and the electric current flows on the edge of the roof. The tiles look like slate, and can be installed by most roofers—an electrician will also be needed to hook the solar-energy system up to your home’s electrical system. The charge it generates isn’t huge—about 1 kilowatt of energy per 100 square feet of tile
Roof turbines. Companies in the Netherlands, Scotland, and Britain are developing small turbines designed to install on roofs and convert wind power into home electricity. The turbines are typically around six feet across, and are usually mounted on the roof or a pole. Roof turbines feed energy into a converter, which transforms it into electricity for home use. They can typically provide enough power to operate lights, a refrigerator, a television, and a computer—providing significant energy savings. However, the amount of energy an individual house sees will depend on how windy its location is
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More next week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EAog6Crv7c
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The reason that the title is true is that they charge like 500 percent too much money. I don’t care what Bob Vila says modern 40 $$$ electric heaters are not dangerous and have temperature controls. So why don’t all of these people go to jail? Well, for one, they change their companies’ names every year so they are hard to track down. But there is an argument in the energy efficiency community about what constitutes saving energy, ie. saving money.
http://www.buyenergyefficient.org/energyefficientspaceheater.html
Click here to see our selection of energy efficient space heaters.
Overview
Energy efficient space heaters are one of the best ways to cheaply lower your heating bill. According to US Government statistics, the average American spends $1,900 per year for home energy of which nearly half goes to heating and cooling. Space heaters can help lower this bill. Here is the fundamental information you need to make the correct choice for your situation.Potential Savings
By lowering your home thermostat only 5 degrees and employing the use of energy efficient space heaters in frequently used rooms you can lower your heating cost by 10% and eliminate 800 pounds of C02 emissions from the environment. Space heaters will re-warm your space for a fraction of the cost associated with running the central heating. But, to make sure you get the most savings, you have to select the space heater that is right for you and your home. Numerous choices exist including Convection, Micathermic, Ceramic, Radiant, Kerosene, Wood Burning and Gas. With so many choices, we recommend doing your research before making a purchase. No one choice is the correct choice. It will depend on your needs as to what the correct type of space heater is best for you.
Factors to Consider
The first, and obvious factor, is temperature. You will probably want to exclude any that don’t have automatic temperature control as the space you are attempting to heat will either be too hot or too cool and you will constantly have to be monitoring the unit and turning it on or off. This is both uncomfortable and time consuming.Everyone is well aware of the effect of temperature on comfort. However, the second, and less discussed component of comfort is relative humidity. Relative humidity is the percent of water vapor in the air at a specific humidity. In simple terms, a dry house with 20 percent relative humidity will need a higher temperature to feel as warm as a home with medium humidity of 60 percent. That is because your body is giving up heat by the process of evaporation. The lower the relative humidity the faster your body gives up this heat as the higher moisture of your body evaporates to the atmosphere.
A third factor to consider is wind speed. As the air in your house moves it affects the rate at which your body gives up its heat. This is due to the process of convection which is the attraction of hot air to colder air. A house in which the heat is constantly running feels cooler. This is one of the reasons the old steam style radiant heaters felt so warm. There is little wind speed when compared to a centralized blower. It’s also the reason a fan feels so good in the summertime.
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http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions4.php
There are a number of companies selling electric heaters that imply that you will save a great deal of money, some even claim you will cut your costs by 50%. This is extremely misleading. It is sort of like claiming “Save 100% on your heating bills*” where * = “don’t turn it on”. It isn’t a fraud, but is certainly misleading.
Examples are EdenPure, iHeater, so called Amish heaters, the chinese made Heat Surge Roll-n-Glow (their marketing material is the most honest of the bunch).
All portable electric heaters consume electricity and degrade it into heat. All are 100% efficient for one obvious reason. The heat has nowhere else to go except into the room. Anyone that makes a claim otherwise, especially outrageous ones like “10x more efficient than a space heater”, is making a fraudulent claim.
In the images below, cut from an advertisement by Krystal Planet, we see some typical claims — let’s examine them:
a) no combustion, flames or fumes.This is true of all electric appliances,including your coffee maker unless something is terribly wrong.
b)less electricity than a coffee maker. If this is true, then it will give off less heat than your coffee maker. Can you heat your house with a coffee maker? If you can, I’d like to hear about it 🙂
c)Does not dry out the air. Of course not. Electric heaters never dry out the air. How could they? Where would the water go? No matter how you heat up the air in a room, the warmer air can hold more moisture so the relative humidity will go down — unless you want to use a humidifier, vaporizer or keep the kettle boiling on the stove.
d) healthy comfortable infrared heating. Infrared is radiated heat, like you get from a heat lamp or the sun. The product details below imply that the heat source is four 375W heat lamps, but if they are inside the wooden looking box in the picture, then they are not shining on you. They would heat the box and the box in turn would heat the air nearby, which is called convection.
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So do they make a natural gas space heater that is safe to use indoors? I have no idea. More tomorrow.
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http://www.homedoctor.net/doors-windows/residential-doors/energy-efficient-doors
If you live in a cold climate, chances are that your home is equipped with a variety of defenses against the frigid air outside. A sufficient amount of insulation and storm windows throughout the home are just a few ways to keep the interior of the home warm and cozy. But because a third of heat loss typically occurs through windows and doors, energy efficient doors are among the best defenses against heat loss.
Energy efficient doors are insulated and sealed tightly to prevent cold from entering and warm air from leaking out. Regular doors can also become energy efficient doors by adding a few simple weatherproofing accessories, including bottom sweeps, typically made from vinyl, and magnetic weatherstripping.
Energy efficient doors are made from a variety of materials, but wood is considered an excellent insulator. According to professionals, wood is 2,000 times more efficient as an insulator than aluminum, 415 times more efficient than steel, and 16 times more efficient then concrete. For additional energy efficiency, storm doors may be added as well. Storm doors work by trapping air between the main door and the storm door.
A good energy efficient door will have high quality hardware. It will also have the best weatherstripping, which offers the best seal. When choosing a door made of materials other than wood, make sure it has a finish that won’t rust. If you are purchasing weatherstripping or replacing your existing hardware, choose the highest quality products you can find. High quality products will not only provide the best seal, but they will also last much longer than lower quality products.
Energy efficient doors provide a wide variety of benefits. Because they keep warm air in and cold air out, you will use less artificial heat; the same is true for the warm summer months. Instead of running the air conditioning all day, you will use it less as more cold air will stay inside.
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More tomorrow.
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I believe these are custom made windows so they are not cheap either. ( on further review – I was wrong about that ) You can take that however you like.
http://www.marvin.com/?page=Energy_Efficiency&gclid=CP39jvGm4qQCFcu7KgodfGqqJw
Our windows and doors aren’t just beautiful – they can help you save energy. Virtually all Marvin products already meet or exceed federal ENERGY STAR guidelines. Now, you may qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $1,500 under the new stimulus program when you install energy-efficient Marvin windows and doors. At Marvin, we’re committed to providing you with durable, high-performance products that bring lasting value to your home. Your Marvin dealer will help you choose the windows and doors that give you the personalized look you desire – and the energy efficiency you need. Whether you’re building new or looking at remodeling or replacement, there’s never been a better time to purchase distinctive, energy-efficient windows and doors that are Built around you®.
Always striving to meet the needs of an ever-changing environment, Marvin builds energy effiency into product performance while bringing your inspiration to life. Marvin offers a variety of energy efficient glass options:
Low E II – Low E II features a double metallic coating on the inside glass surface to reflect or absorb the sun’s warmth and reduce damaging UV rays. Offers enhanced U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient.
LoE?-366? Glass – Featuring three metallic layers of silver, this glass rejects solar heat and features a lower Solar Heat Gain Coefficient than Low E II. Recommended for warm climates where cooling costs are high and also for areas where intense exposure to the sun is an issue.
High-R Tripane – Features two layers of Low E glass with a clear center pane for a lower U-factor.
Energy Panel – Often confused with storm windows, an Energy Panel is a glazing option consisting of a removable, exterior glass panel finished on the edges by a surround. Energy panels cover the exposed glass surface of each sash, and offer added energy efficiency for wood windows with single glazing.
Storm and Screen Combos – A combination unit is composed of two movable glass panels and one movable screen panel. The individual panels can be configured multiple ways, and can be easily removed from the interior for cleaning.
Understanding these common terms will help you select the right windows and doors.
U-factor – This measures the rate of heat loss and how well a product insulates. The lower the number, the better a product is at keeping heat inside a building. The U-factor is key in the winter months, and important to consider in choosing a window.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) – This measures how well a product blocks heat from the sun. The lower the number, the better. In southern climates or high sun intensity areas, you might actually want to keep the sun’s heat out of your house. Windows can help do that.
R-value – This measures resistance to heat loss. Many people are familiar with the R-value because of its use in home insulation. But actually, for windows and doors, U-factor and solar heat gain coefficient are more important measurements.
Design Pressure Rating – The “DP” measures the amount of pressure a door or window will withstand when closed and locked. Each DP rating also establishes other performance factors such as water penetration; air infiltration; structural pressure; forced entry; and operational force. The higher the DP numbers, the better the performance. Look for the certified hallmark of the Window and Door Manufacturers Association.
To request more information about Marvin’s energy-efficient product offerings, click here.
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More tomorrow.
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