Americans in the dark about energy use

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Americans aren't known for their energy-thrift ways. Maybe that's because they have little idea as to how much energy things use. http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/02/news/economy/energy_quiz/index.htm
   
 
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      Stressed out? Look at the the link here and try the free meditation excercise: www.fhu.com 
                                                                        

-- One of my favorite ideas to conserve water is to use water collection buckets/barrels at the ends of water gutters with overflow protection where needed. This water can be used later for the lawn or garden. We bought a couple of 75 gal plastic green containers with a built-in screen on the top. Think this is a must in drought areas like TX and  CA...
They sell FDA drinking water grade 55 gal drums that can be painted green and stacked.
Even office buildings should be doing this, they can be painted green with shrubbery on them, surrounded by other shrubbs. Lawn folks can tap the water spigots on these easy enough. It might be ugly, but we could stack 55 gal drums in series, collecting hundreds of gallons of rain water at office buildings. Perhaps paint them to look like a tree or something.
A summer project for city kids where they get a sponser to buy some of these plastic drums, paint
them, stack them and send the water over to city gardens?

  Q: Mr. blab, we go through too many batteries like AA and AAA. We even buy the expensive ones but are constantly replacing them! Worse, my kids want to recycle them and where do you do that around here?

        
   
A: I was constantly buying AA's in the 20-packs and have a bucket of depleted ones and don't know where to recycle them around here. As we wait for a fuel cell AA, we'll have to be creative, but its definitely a can do situation. 
Anyway, we love our gizmos and you can tell the kids how green thinking your becoming and perhaps get one of these:   I have other types but this is the Solio, capable of charging just about everything. Plus, you get a connector/wire package. Another nice feature is that you can't overcharge (meaning a built in voltage regulator). It looks like you can charge up everything, even shavers, batteries for the electric toothbrush... Speaking of batteries, get the highest quality rechargable batteries you can find. I like the Sony brand but there are other types boasting of thousands of recharges. The kids can put most solar charges in a south side window with a small table for devices. If one of the kids is a tinkerer, get a cheap panel too and let him/her test the voltage with a voltmeter, cut the wires, make new plugs... a great learning tool. 
With summer here and for warmer climates, why not get some solar shower bags and outdoor curtains and hang them up.
If you have kids, buy several and let the kids fill them up and hang them in the sun for a couple of hours. If you come from the beach or have a pool or tend the garden on a hot day, its a great water and money saver.

 --  LED lights are better than CFL. 
Lasting - LED bulbs last up to 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and far longer than typical incandescents.
Durable - since LEDs do not have a filament, they are not damaged under circumstances when a regular incandescent bulb would be broken. Because they are solid, LED bulbs hold up well to jarring and bumping.
Cool - these bulbs do not cause heat build-up; LEDs produce 3.4 btu's/hour, compared to 85 for incandescent bulbs. This also cuts down on air conditioning costs in the home.
Mercury-free - no mercury is used in the manufacturing of LEDs.
More efficient - LED light bulbs use only 2-10 watts of electricity (1/3rd to 1/30th of Incandescent or CFL) Small LED flashlight bulbs will extend battery life 10 to 15 times longer than with incandescent bulbs. Also, because these bulbs last for years, energy is saved in maintenance and replacement costs. For example, many cities in the US are replacing their incandescent traffic lights with LED arrays because the electricity costs can be reduced by 80% or more.
Cost Saving - although LEDs are expensive, the cost is recouped over time and in battery savings. For the AC bulbs and large cluster arrays, the best value comes from commercial use where maintenance and replacement costs are expensive.
Light for remote areas - because of the low power requirement for LEDs, using solar panels becomes more practical and less expensive than running an electric line or using a generator for lighting.

 
-- How about using an electric lawn mower with a pull out rechargable battery. Get a second battery and hook it up to a solar panel!  No gas, oil, maint. trips, and the kids can learn some
science. 
Q: Pete, my kids do landscaping for the summer, but is something like this practical? 
A: Put up a big sign that says: We eCUT because we care.  Let people know they will 
use electric/electronic - when they can - people will like it. 
A: If I expand my computer bus., I will buy an eVan and charge with solar and let people know with
a sign on the side saying something like: PCPETE cares, our solar charged eVan is on the way or some
thing like that, letting people know your out to make a difference.  

-- I've seen yellow CFL bulbs for bugs on the market. 
-- Put the water sprinklers on timers.

-- Cell phones. Just a quick note here as friends know I've studied 'waves' for a long time. Are
cell phones dangerous to the human brain in my humble opinion? The tri-field meter tells me
they emit far too much EMF. I put a neutralizer on the back of my cell phone which greatly
reduces these waves. www.inspiredliving.com


But the boyz are still here.   www.wimp.com/solutionoil 

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      The light bulb went on after visiting a building this morning that installed motion detectors that switch on the hallway light bulb. Great idea, but they were using the old style incandescent bulb. If they had installed CFL's it probably would have cost even more. Why? Because with AC power, the most energy is used upon start up and from what I see, burnout rate is higher than advertised. If you have a big house or office and want to take advantage of this cool idea, use LED bulbs. Even better, put some on the walk path where our eye tends to go more.                                                         

                                                         
-- Leaving your desk for more than 15 minutes? Switch off the computer monitor and desk
lamp. (Make it easier with a small, seperate power strip). If you can get maybe - 25 employees to do this at break or lunch time, savings adds up. By the way, if you can shut off the entire system at night, all the better too. Basically, the workstation should comprise of a laptop, LED lamp, phone, pda/cell in a small area. Quadpod cubicles could be shared, space saved, rent lower, heat and AC bills lower if they are sectioned correctly. For Development, programming, QA and IT, they can have virtual OS's for testing, saving buying extra computers.
Q: Quadpod for developers dude?
A: Why put Customer Service in them like so many businesses do? The sound proofing is not very
good. They are good for space limitations, power distribution and areas that are not loud to begin
with. Its the perfect environment for generally quite folks like Dev/Prog.
 Q: Blab, I think I'm slowly dying in my office cubicle.
 A: In an office? Read this. Think I could add a few more ways...
 http://www.cracked.com/article_18654_6-ways-your-office-literally-killing-you.html



--All shops should be heading towards laptops now since core 2 technology came out, they are as every bit as powerful as a desktop for what's needed. I ran ESRI ArcINFO and Adobe Suite besides M$and other applications on some (the kings of cpu/memory oinkers) and they held up great. Heck, I have a virtual domain (for IT people) on my Dell 1330 with 2 servers, linux and 6 XP workstations.
  
  
The first thing we're going to run out of is drinking water. For less than a dollar apiece, have
the kids put in water saving faucet aerators in the bathrooms and kitchen. 


AM Conservation 1.0 gpm Faucet Aerator

A great website for going green: HOT--->       http://www.conservationmart.com

-- Since we're on water. If you want great drinking water, consider an ionizer like the jupiter
melody. Water, like most of our foods should be living - not with parasites but ionized and purifyed.
Get a good re-usable container and take it with you, clean it often and we'll all help save our
environment from plastic bottles and cans.  

-- Showers --   "Among the top uses of residential water in the US is showering. Showers account for about 17% of indoor water usage. A standard showerhead allows for more water usage in the shower as well as higher water bills. The low flow showerheads use 2.gpm and lower as opposed to the 8gpm a standard showerhead..." - www.conservationmart.com
If we all do this and limit our showers to an average of 5-7 minutes, we can save loads of water.

-- If the water heater is in a cold basement, get an insulation jacket for it, they work.
If the water is too hot, water heaters can be adjusted easily. If doable and affordable, get an
instant hot water heater. Some recommend insulating the pipes too. My pipes sweat too much
but perhaps where the hot water line runs long in big houses/buildings, it will help. By the
way, I've seen crafty people wrap the cold water pipe going into the hot water tank around
the stove or heater unit, the water being warm before going in, using less electricity. Make
sure its up to code.

--  While we're taking about computers. Sever rooms and data centers managers should be replacing their old systems with blade/rack mount servers. I've been installing them here and there for businesses, replacing old Dell's and HP's that have seen better days. Keep in mind when you have a server that has been running for say, 4 years - 24 x7, that's 3 shifts a day and I call that computer 12 years old, not 4. Technology has changed drastically in 4 years.
Blade servers can be stacked vertically on a rack saving on space. The power consumption
is much lower, the cooling needs lower...  "Some data center managers have already reported that the cost of electricity and cooling in the data center are exceeding the cost of the equipment itself." - Blade.org 
More troubling:  A critical first step is to accurately plan for present and future power needs and design a power and cooling floorplan that optimizes power consumption. Many data center managers are shocked to learn that a very low percentage of power they purchase actually gets used in the data center. The majority goes out the window due to inefficient power distribution and cooling footprints. One common and power wasting mistake is oversizing the power and cooling capabilities by overbuilding the actual needs of the data center. Blade.org
    Unfortunately, the cost of power has jumped considerably in the past few years and we're
all looking to save. When the cost of power and cooling starts to hit 50% of the data center
budget, a red flag has to be waving. I've helped design several SR - DC using power and
air flow calculations. Energy consumption software is ok but someone needs to design and calculate the enitre system. Powerful blade servers with VM's  can have a substantial affect 
in performance, reliability and best of all, great savings.
                           
    
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 Light and Life (cont.)
  
    Anyway, its important to have green shrubs and plants around. There are plants for indoor air quality: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/houseplants.html  Delegate a green person(s)
to water and feed them. People are getting more into this type of activity and its a good
thing to have in the business place. Besides affecting the air, all life gives vibrations, humans pick up on plants. Also, I think we could place flat prisms on windows for the full spectrum of light.
Make sure the air is clean and circulating, keep the mold off walls and carpets...
There are so many things to make the home and work place a nice place to be at and
keep people happier at their job. Most of us spend nearly half our lifetime in a work place or office. If you have skylights, use them. 
If you don't want the warm or cool air to escape, just put a clear plastic sheet over the egg crates and let the light thru. Again, a good environment for life will certainly get more production and less sickness. I've put in hundreds of fluorescent bulbs, even the full spectrum ones but don't like them and don't think they are conducive to a good work env. However, I have seen nature scenes used instead of clear plastic over these lights and found them to be better. Use as few as possible above as the light reflects off LCD screens causing headaches... A good desk lamp is the best way to go, also an energy saver. LED lights are remarkable now, true light and other benefits, see
the info. below.
    Check the home and work area for EMF. I use a tri-field meter (best) and found high EMF
rating along many walls. I've seen ratings off the scale and no need to peg exactly how high
the electro-magnetic waves were at that point. Sometimes we wonder why certain groups
of employees are more fidgity, cranky, call in sick more than the group next to them on average?
Q: Can you tell me what you mean by EMF exactly?
A: There are good waves and bad. Our body responds to good waves in a good way, bad waves in
a bad way. We are in a world of natural and man made waves and have to be careful if we want
to keep our health. We take much for granted. The Earth's surface beats at around 8.8 Hz. A slight modification to this would wreak havoc. Google 'EMF'' and keep reading here... 
   

-- Carbon Footprint.. I think its a good idea to look it up and use the calculator to get a general
idea about our CO2 footprint. I don't write about it here or have a calculator because there are just
so many of them to choose from. Also, they are basic and only give an estimate. For instance,
when we used to heat the house by electicity, our bill was high because Maine's CMP had the
hightest rate in the USA and CMP was only the carrier, not the supplier, so the formula was not
accurate. One could argue some points but remember, they are out for profit and charging
high retail making our carbon footprint look higher than it really was. According to the footprint
calculator, we look like the CO2 hogs, oink, oink because of CMP's prices. We jumped to the kerosene
monitor system, the most efficient heat system but even then, its now the highest priced fuel in
NE. Consider that we live in a 1000 sq. ft home with a basement. My friend lives in a 5000 sq. ft
with his wife in another state. Their heating system was calculated to heat that entire home. 
The blower motor is rated to handle this with the fans, etc. Now our monitor is a small one piece
unit, sized for the home too but needing much less electricity to power on and run. Catch my 
drift here? He'll argue with me that he's sealed off 4 rooms but the system doesn't know that I
tell him. We need to think about many things before we tell Mr. Gore we're CO2 approved.  
  Not to discourage the kids from using the calculator, its fun and thought provoking.
But, we don't want to discourage our kids from brushing their teeth. We should all get a glob
of paste on an electric brush, batterys charged by a solar panel in the window, closing our mouth and scrubing for 30 seconds or so, no water needed, then, fill up a water pik for rinsing. A low carbon footprint and a great brush, saving the dentist all that drilling electricity too. I'm getting carried
away but we need to think about things... 
  They asked if we have a lawn, we answer, yes, but they don't ask if we have a veg. garden and get
a summers worth of healthy food... Again, use the calculators for general knowledge but think 
about the many ideas we talk about here and other sites and we'll be doing a load of good for all.

 -- Companies with coffee and vending machines should check on them to make sure they "sleep" at night as well as copiers, printers, scanners or other large electronic devices. If they don't have a sleep setting, pull the plug or hit the power strip, especially over the weekend. Have an elected "green" person for these type of tasks and revolve the lineup. If we delegate a 'green lead',
they could have contests with monthly prizes for the best suggestions and green savings. 
 
" A website where I can learn something and not get hit with 10,000 gogoo adds telling me to whiten my teeth and soften my skin." Thanks Petey. Your welcome Skippy. 
 
   Business green is more than buying green colored trucks or sticking on
green signs. Now that electric trucks are on the market, maybe business fleets
will go all electric. Maybe all those school bus vans? My Pop tells me that the
bread trucks in Boston in 1930 were all electric. Well, 80 years later, maybe...
We really should have put the pressure on our auto companies when we the people 'owned'
them for a while and forced them to design an eCar for the masses at $10K.
    An elected green person can be trained and in charge of the fleet for purchases, maintenance,
trade-in and sale.
    Shop, get some information up front. Servicing these vehicles requires different knowledge
than the combustion engine mechanic has. Make sure the shops have a specialist or 2 for electric
vehicles. Never pay retail for quantity purchases, shop on the Internet first.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors will guarantee the lithium-ion battery in the Chevrolet Volt for 100,000 miles of driving or eight years, whichever comes first, the automaker announced Wednesday.
Full story: http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/14/autos/volt_battery_warranty/index.htm

-- HOT -- Let's not forget our gas guzzlers. My cars get 30% better milage than their ratings
when they were new and they are all over 5 years old. Check and replace the filters on a
regular basis. All is in the flow - gas, air, emissions and oil. Specifically the air filter, gas filter and oil filter.
I also use slick-50 or duralube or lucas oil every 3rd oil change. If you have Jiffy or the dealer
change the oil, buy a bottle and ask the technician to put it in substituting it for 1 qt. of oil, they
are always obliging. By the way, I use synthetic motor oil for the most part, platinum spark
plugs and keep the tires at the recommended air pressure. Don't compete with the slugs who
want to shoot out on a green light, don't hit the gas pedal going up a hill. If you need a truck or
SUV, have something like a scooter or a small car for around town.
    Do you change your own motor oil? Family and freinds too? Just look in Craigslist for people who will pick it up for you. They use it for heating barns and shops in the winter. Tell folks to put the used oil back into the same container and keep it clean and neatly stacked and give'm a call.

                                                                             
--  Unless you like hanging clothes up to dry, we're stuck with an expensive clothes
drying machine. Sometimes I do hang up heavy material like my jeans and blankets after
washing them and throw them in the dryer for a final dry and softening. I also capture
the moist air in the winter for heat but will talk about than in the 'industrial' area below. Do
you remember when older dryers had a window in the front that you could open up to varying
degrees? I think the reason was to let dry fresh air in so the clothes would dry faster. I 
remembered this because I notice when I open the door to check on the clothes, then close it again
and let them finish drying, they dry faster. I know the energy star label has everyone thinking
that the machine is the most cost saving design we can buy but I want my window back :) 
Q: Pete, dryers these days have a properly configured air flow that can't be seen.
A: Arguabley, poorly designed, especially where its so low to the floor. Again, air flow is my speciality and most items I run into can and should be modified. See Vents and air flow below.

   Industrial -- Let's talk about the dryers. Hotels, laundermats, hospitals... with many dryers
running should be capturing the heat in winter. There are kits to capture the lint and send
the moist air around. I've done this several times and know people don't want the lint or the
moist air smell. With some know how, most of this wonderful warm air can be run through
a filter and sent right up into ducts of buildings. All the lint is captured and the warm 
air circulates into ducts with the forced hot air or their own ducts, no smell detected. How many times do we complain about the hot air being too dry anyway? This helps and is a money saver.
     

-- I seal up my windows with plastic for the winter. I know folks want to do this but feel
it hurts the aesthetics. Properly draped curtains can completely hide the plastic. We 
use laced curtains with some patterns, over the blinds which is over the thin plastic windows.

-- People ask, what is the most efficient furnace for homes. The kerosene monitor
and propane both claim over 95% + efficiency. Oil has gotten better too. We use
small 25 Watt fans to make sure the heat / AC gets circulated. Some say that half our
energy is lost out of the house before it gets circulated. Good insulation, tight windows and
fans help this. 

                   
--- WARM -- While we're on water pipes, I recommend the easywater system rather than salt systems for hard water. I used their first model a dozen years ago and it looks like they have improved.
Our water is rough here along the Maine seacoast - very hard. I also use unipole magnets along
the cold water pipes and one above the hotwater tank going in. These are all money, water
and environment savers. 

-- Insteon timers are great if you have a big house and/or lots of kids running around who always forget to shut things off. They are easy to use, work and will help save. 

  
-- Vents. At a few places, I cut some fine threads about
8" long and taped 6 of them to every vent I could find.
When maintenance would come over to check on "no
heat" or "no AC" complaints, we would watch the strings flying around in one distant vent, and dead around ours.
They would get mad and remove the strings but we proved our point, heat or AC was being diverted to other sections of the building. Vents and ducts are usually a mess in many buildings and it takes a dedicated detective to inspect them.

 ----more Vent. Have maintenance wipe down the vents
twice a year with alcohol, their filled with mold. Air flow
should be checked at this time too. Most duct work is poor
and should be checked for leaks but usually never is. -- HOT -- Keep all electic/electronic items
away from vents. Vents are usually not cleaned (just take a look at them at work). Move all
security and alarms away from them. Dust will eventually trigger them or destroy them. 
Remember, dust is the BIGGEST cause of electronic failures and I could tell ya some stories...

 ----- even more Vent. Fans should be installed with all vent and
duct work. The heat/AC source is usually fine, the delivery
system horible. (these can be automated too).

------ I'm still venting. I'm not sure why we put up with poor air circulation, fanning, venting
in many systems. Even eHeat says it doesn't put in fans so the air won't dry out. I've studied air
flow, moving air barely drys it out and only under certain conditions. Having 5 - 20 Watt fans 
circulating warm air in winter, cool in summer is just a good idea. Put them on timers and thermostats so they don't have to run 24 x 7.  My monitor heat system is almost twice as efficient this way, more heat aroud the house with a little bit of extra electricity is well worth it. As we go on here, we will talk about moist air and related information. 

-- If your business has medium to large server rooms and data centers, green IT means to calculate
air flow. And cooler winter climates means using that air. Everyone is going to talk about cloud
computing, virtual servers... that's the 'easy' stuff. We should be using the heat coming out of these areas and/or piping cold in. Back when power was cheap and we running all those old Unix servers, it didn't matter. Power is expensive, and cooling server rooms and data centers is costing a big chunk of the AC bill.  By the way, I've worked in so many gin joints I forgot to mention that I worked a year in one of the largest data centers in the world at Boeing. It may be hard to find a person willing to sit down and do the math, design and implementation but the cost savings will make it worth it and you can proudly stamp a green sign up.   
 
 
-- Buildings with ceiling panels should be inspected for leaks.
Too much energy (heat or AC) goes up and out all the little holes. A few
cans of insulation spray foam will do the trick. I found 46 holes in the last place I inspected.
 
-- I used to leave my Mr Coffee pot on for 2 hours in the morning burning 2 KWH for no reason. Pour the hot coffee into a decantor and shut the 1000 watt pot off.
 
-- Solar gizmos. If you use too many batteries, buy a solar charger and rechargable batteries, they work. Let you kidz put it in the window and consider a 10W panel in the window with a small inverter and charge everything like electric razors... might get them off their cell phones too.

When I have devices that look like their using a lot of power, I put the 
kill-a-watt meter on them:    This is a must have item for anyone who wants to see the
real voltage - amps - watts... of any AC electrical item. These zappers uses 25W of electricity each.

-- The "energy star" label is under fire but if you
want to know the wattage of something, its Volts x Amps = Watts

-- Edmund Scientific has many interesting science tools for everyone. Perhaps little Tommy could get an energy testing tool for the house instead of a cell phone. Perhaps an EMF meter so he can see what EMF is going thru his head while he chats away on his phone.  
  
  
-- Folks with big houses should seal off unused rooms - efficiently. A closed vent will still allow some heat in the winter, be sure to put up plastic storm windows and a door snake so cold won't escape into the house. They sell magnetic vent covers if you really want to sew up a vent but be careful as they will really seal the deal. I've even cut plastic and taped it to the inside of vents in 
some cases.     
 

-- Put a few bottles of iso. alcohol at the first aid station with some wipes around and let employees
know its for the phones, keyboards, mice, desk. IT or the designated green person can stop by and show folks what to do if they are hesitant to do it.

C: Plastic under fire. Now its PVC:    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/26/abandoning.pvc/index.html?hpt=C1