Forward Thinking

Is your summer hot enough for you? It’s only just begun, you know. Around here, we’ve already experience way too many days of record highs, and that was in June. I can only imagine how July and August will play out.

So, now, scientists are saying that this summer there will be no ice on the North Pole. How’s that for a turnaround? The ice will melt completely, which will impact how much snow mass there is in relation to how much water will be around the pole. Would you like to continue driving that gas hog? Would you like to continue using incandescent bulbs? Would you like to continue manufacturing and polluting the atmosphere? Would you like to continue releasing chemicals and gases into the atmosphere that warm the globe? Go ahead.

Thank you for bringing on what could be the beginning of a new ice age. Eventually, it will happen, and we only have ourselves to blame. It’s an issue that’s bigger than just taking the plastic shopping bags back to Walmart for recycling. It’s an issue that means we need to drastically rethink how we are living and how we are consuming the earth’s resources, and how we are tossing away the only environment we have every time we take a load to the landfill for burning and burial.

Learn to set your thermostat lower in the winter and higher in the summer. You won’t surely die if you get a little sweat on your upper lip, and you will survive if you have to put on another sweater. Really.

Learn to reduce your trips into town. Gasoline consumption needs to be reduced not only for your budget but for the environment as a whole. Emissions need to be brought down to the lowest levels feasible. I know we all depend on transportation in this age, but we can find ways to make it more efficient.

Get those compact fluorescent bulbs! Every light fixture in my house has them. They are a bit costly at the beginning, but they save you money every month on your electric bill. One month’s savings will pay for them all, plus some! They also have lower carbon emissions, which is good for the earth.

Get reusable shopping bags. Walmart has them for only $1 each. It’s a cheap price for something that reduces the amount of plastics produced and the amount sent to landfills or dotting the roadways.

Do all your cooking once a week or once a month. Doing this means you won’t be using your stove daily, which will help with your electric or gas bill and will help with emissions, whether your stove is gas or electric. You can actually use your oven for an hour or so, one day a week, and cook everything you need at one time. Long cooking meals can be cooked in a crock pot, which uses far less electricity than your stove. Invest in several of them for your once a week or once a month cooking sessions.

Start a small garden in your yard. Growing some of your own vegetables in your yard of even in your flower bed or in flower pots helps to safeguard you from contaminants that may affect commercially grown food. It also saves you money. Most of all, if you are growing at least some of your own produce, it means less produce will need to be trucked to the local supermarket. This translates into less fuel used and fewer emissions. It won’t happen overnight, but if we all begin this process, we can make a difference.

It may not be feasible for everyone to go completely off grid and use only solar energy or other alternative energy sources, but we can all reduce our consumption of our own energy and the energy required to meet our needs from outside sources.

Technorati Tags: summer, North Pole, Walmart, Gasoline, transportation, compact fluorescent bulbs, carbon emissions, off grid, solar energy, alternative energy

I finally got two days off in a row and today is Day 1. I was so exhausted that I wound up sleeping until just a little while ago and now it’s nearly noon with nothing accomplished. However, I’m up now and will dive in to working in my house, getting things arranged better, and cleaning.

I’ve got to check my solar floodlight and find out why it hasn’t been coming on at night. I have it pointed toward my front door so I don’t have to use a regular porch light. It’s really dark there when I come home from work and it’s hard to find the keyhole to open the door without some light in that area.

In between chores today, I’ll surf the ‘net to read up on more solar resources, do some price comparisons, and learn more ways to live green. I’ll also read some diet pill reviews, catch up on the news, compare some solar resource prices, and figure out what I can do in this house to reduce my electric bill.

Technorati Tags: solar floodlight, solar resources

Yesterday evening we headed over to Older Daughter’s house to give her the first month’s rent on the house. She mentioned that the electric bill there seems rather high. I think I can keep it low with a couple of little tricks.

One is to put the compact fluorescent bulbs all through the house. Those cut at least $75 off my light bill at the old place. I’ll also make sure I have curtains I can close over the windows when the sun is shining in. This will reduce the heat in the house. As much as I love the look of the huge windows and the view out of them, I want to save that electric bill as much as possible.

I’ll set the thermostat on the heat pump so it’s comfortable, but neither too cool in the summer nor too hot in the winter. I’ll also make good use of the ceiling fans in the house to create breezes and reduce the need for air conditioning.

I want to keep the utility bills as low as possible all around. I will be getting a compact washer and dryer pair. Low water usage and low power usage combined will help keep the utilities at a bare minimum. This will make it a lot more pleasant when they arrive in the mailbox!

The floors in the kitchen and living room are linoleum tile, which is cool underfoot in the summer but too chilly in the winter. I’ll get area rugs to place around in the traffic areas. This way, I can put them away during the summer and put them back down during the winter, when I’ll really need them.

I’ve got great solar driveway lights that I can really put to good use outside now. Also, the solar flood lights will be great aimed at the front deck and steps so we can see when we go in or out at night.

Technorati Tags: electric bill, compact fluorescent bulbs, thermostat, solar driveway lights, solar flood lights

While I still haven’t heard the final word on the home purchase, thoughts of reducing my own pull on electrical and other power sources still occupy my mind. After reading Zero Energy House Award Winning Design, it occurs to me that a lot of people may be thinking that off-grid living is for those hearty souls who want to live in cabins out in the woods, with no modern conveniences.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. You don’t have to sacrifice to the point that you are carrying water in buckets from a stream or reading by candlelight to live off grid. The whole point of this movement is to find and utilize energy resources that are sustainable, renewable, and green while at least partly eliminating dependence on fossil fuels.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that people began to really depend on fossil fuel for energy needs. Then the race was on to see how many ways these sources could be discovered, pumped, piped, trucked, and sold in as profitable and quick a manner as possible. No thought was given to their limits or to the impact on the environment as a whole. I suppose it was assumed they were in endless supply and that since they came from the earth, they couldn’t hurt the earth.

Today, competition is high to get the most dollars from every barrel of oil and every truckload of coal that’s produced. And we, the consumers, are the ones really paying to line the pockets of those who deliver these energy products. Yes, I know. We will also pay to line the pockets of those who produce alternative energy equipment. However, once produced those aren’t things we have to replenish daily, weekly, or monthly.

If and when solar energy, biodiesel, wind power, and hydro-power begin becoming more in demand, the prices will drop significantly and the competition in our free market economy will be on go. This is always good for consumers. We get to pay less for things we want, simply put, when there is spirited competition among producers of consumer goods.

To bring this competition to the front means consumers must be more demanding. It’s up to us - you and me - to insist on renewable energy sources and to turn away more and more from fossil fuels. There are a few pioneers out there doing their part. What are you and I doing?

Technorati Tags: off grid, energy resources, fossil fuels, environment, alternative energy, solar energy, biodiesel, wind power, hydro-power, renewable energy sources

Something that’s here at our friend’s house are motion sensor lights that point out toward the driveway and part of the front yard. I have to admit, I really like these and am thinking seriously of installing them at our house when we move in. I think if I use compact fluorescent bulbs in them to save electricity, these would be a very practical solution to lighting when I come home after dark.

Having them means I wouldn’t have to leave any lights on outside the house other than my solar driveway lights and solar spotlights. I’m not keen on walking up to the door and being in the dark. It’s unsettling. Having motion sensor lights at strategic locations around the outside of the house would let me have light just when and where I need it.

Technorati Tags: compact fluorescent bulbs, electricity, solar driveway lights, solar spotlights, motion sensor lights

I’ve got just about everything packed into the moving truck I rented, including all my solar stuff. The solar driveway lights were glowing cheerfully when I closed the door on the truck. They’ve weathered some very strong spring storms including those with large hail and downpours of rain. I’m quite satisfied that they will stand the test of time, too, and am eager to place them at my new location in a couple of weeks.

This will be our last night in this house and we’ll be practically homeless for a couple of weeks until the paperwork is finalized on the new place. We’ll stay with a friend for a few days and will probably rent an efficiency in a local motel for the rest of the time. My little dog will need to be boarded until I can find someone who will take her in temporarily.

At one point, I used my solar spotlights to light the interior of the storage building when it was dark and I was moving some boxes over there. It was great having that kind of freedom from the electric company even for so small a project.

Technorati Tags: moving truck, solar, solar driveway lights, homeless, solar spotlights

I’m going to be moving much sooner than expected, and I’m not exactly prepared. I have a lot of junk to go through here. I have to decide what I’ll keep, what I’ll give away, and what I’ll just toss out.

I could possibly be moving into town, into a place that is actually very shaded, which really puts the halt on solar energy usage to a large extent. However, I haven’t really seen this place all around in the daylight, so there could still be the possibility there of at least using some solar resources.

I’ll keep you all up to date about the move and everything related as I go along. Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: solar energy

Spring is definitely here. Strong storms and tornadoes are the “soup du jour” of the weather outlook around here! Two nights ago we had large hail that lasted for almost an hour. Talk about noisy! However, my little solar driveway lights and the solar panel for my floodlights withstood the storm very well with no damage at all.

Regular lights would surely have been broken in all that harsh weather. Solar panels are quite durable, thankfully, and can take a good beating of weather such as that. This is very encouraging and makes me want full solar energy for my home even more.

See, with lightening strikes and power outages that come with strong storms, I’d like to know I can still have power in my home through it all. Backing it up with a generator, in case the storms and clouds last more than a couple of days, would round it all out nicely. Perhaps, having a wind powered generator would be the best choice for me for this since when it’s stormy, there is strong enough wind to turn the generator blades.

Another option, of course, is a generator that runs off biodiesel. No fossil fuels involved there and the fuel can be manufactured easily in small quantities.

Technorati Tags: solar driveway lights, solar panel, solar energy, wind powered generator, biodiesel

After the lightening strike that fried a power strip and my battery charger, I am even more inclined to reduce my grid power usage and convert all I can to solar. That could have caused a fire that would have burned my humble dwelling to the ground. I’m fortunate that it didn’t. So, it’s really time to look more seriously into powering as much as possible in my home through solar energy.

You can actually buy home owner insurance that includes your solar array. After all, if you’ve taken the time to apply for an energy rebate, spent a lot of money having the solar system installed, and met all the code requirements for your area, it just makes good sense to insure it against damage and loss.

For me, this is where living in a well-insulated, small cottage or cabin really has an advantage. The energy usage of such a place, depending on the types of appliances I may want to use, would be much smaller than a conventional home. My intent is to eliminate the need for 240 volt wiring and depend only on 120 volt electrical devices. There are plenty of products on the market that fit the bill for this.

Technorati Tags: solar energy, solar array, solar system

I’ve got a small solar panel that’s designed to hook up to your car’s cigarette lighter or have the cables clamped to the battery to supply a trickle charge while the car is sitting in a sunny location. If you have a lot of peripherals in your car, such as super bass speakers, amp, and other sound system devices, you could be taxing your electrical system at least a bit, and unnecessarily draining your battery, so a panel like this would be a good idea for you.

But that got me to thinking. (Yeah, we’re all in trouble when I start doing that!)

Why not build similar solar panels…

…into car spoilers, to give them a trickle charge anytime?

A relay switch attached to the ignition could disable the panel during start-ups so there’s no back surge of electrical power that could mess up the panel. Or, place an additional battery in the car that’s only attached to the solar panel, that runs the sound system alone?

Technorati Tags: solar panel, sound system