Archive for the 'Energy conservation' Category

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90% reduction day

Got the last bill today, so I can put up my stats. I think I forgot to write down when I got gas after the last month’s posting, because I don’t have it marked. I know it’s been several weeks since I got any.
In any case, here’s what I have:
Electricity: 4050 kWh (448% of national […]

Boone Pickens has a plan

He wants us off oil.
Which is pretty surprising for an oil man:
The octogenarian oilman has a message for Americans and the two presidential candidates: Our dependence on imported oil is destroying the country. Pickens is serious about this–he’s spending $58 million and a chunk of his personal time to get the word out. “I’ve been […]

Reduction day

Cause … the bills came!
Uh, yay.

Well, in any case, here’s what this month had to offer:
Gasoline: due to … not driving much, I used 7.5 gallons so far this month (for 4 people) — 4.6% of the US national average
Electric: 3207 kWh — 354.7%. Not a good month, and I don’t see the […]

Had fun today

I cooked local leg of lamb in my solar oven. I put it in at around 11:30 am, rock hard frozen. At 4 pm it was done perfectly, using free energy and the house not heated at all.
I could get used to this

The peach adventure

My son loves canned peaches, so when I saw the listing for peaches in the co-op,
(cue dreamy music)
I thought of beautiful jars filled with perfect golden slices, layered ever-so-nicely, rows upon rows in my pantry …

That’s not how it went today.
First, I had the idea to get the skins off by putting them in boiling […]

This is rather disturbing …

Nine meals from anarchy - how Britain is facing a very real food crisis

…There might be 11 million gardeners in Britain, but your delicious summer peas won’t go far when your kids are hungry and the baked beans have run out….
I hope all of you have made steps to feed yourselves, and have more than […]

Ack

I think last month, my calculations were off for the Riot.
Here’s what I got when doing them again (and we’ve had an excellent month):
This month –
Gasoline: 16.4 gal (for 4 people) - 10% of US average
Electricity: 1981 kWh - 219.1%
Water: 4230 gal (for 5 people) - 28.2%
Natural Gas: 8.2 Therms - 10%
For the year (which […]

McCain on Climate Change Policy

Remarks given to the Vestas Wind Technology Training Center, today, in Portland, Oregon.
The full text here.
Discuss.

Whoa.

I figured out the numbers for April (except the water bill’s not in yet) for the Riot for Austerity challenge, and I got a nice surprise!
Here’s the numbers we started out with back in June 2007:
Gasoline: 59% of the American national average
Electricity: 425% (multiple computers, TV’s, and lights on all the time, in an almost […]

A village dumps the supermarket and grows their own!

Take a look here …