Vegas lit up
My wife and I just got back from a weekend trip to Las Vegas for a family get-together. While I went to Vegas when I was 13, this was the first time I've been there since I've been allowed to gamble AND I've been interested in sustainability, energy and water consumption. Aside...
I recently wrote a post about internet enabled smart thermostats and thanks to that post an Ecobee programmable smart thermostat arrived at my door last week. I finally got a chance to get it installed and I am very impressed! Not only does the touchscreen thermostat look pretty cool and is...
I had the Ecobee internet enabled smart thermostat installed over the weekend and so far I'm very impressed. The full blog on my initial thoughts will be following tomorrow. I just wanted to release a teaser video. All I'm trying to show is how the Ecobee thermostat can be controlled over the...
You know from reading my blog on household energy consumption that heating and air conditioning make up almost 50% of your energy usage. And once you know that, it is fairly obvious that outside air temperature would be the biggest influence on how long you have your air conditioner or heat on. ...
In Sunday's post I'm going to be looking at how outside air temperature impacts your home's energy consumption (mostly because of heating/air conditioning). In order to do that, I had to find history data on weather in my city. This was actually harder than I thought. Here's how to do it in...
Hit the eCycle button
You already know what Recycling is. Chances are you've been putting your paper, plastic, and glass in the proper bins for years now. But what about that old TV that just got hit by lightning (yes, this just happened to me), the computer monitor that is the size of a small...
Wireless electricity is in our near future, so get ready to quit tripping over all your electronic charger wires. An article on CNN today highlights a new company working on wirelessly powered gadgets and took us on a short glimpse into our future. The CNN article discusses the venture that came...
In the past week I've seen two great articles about heating your home with Wood Pellets and a pellet stove. The first was in October's issue of Consumer Reports, which has a great section on energy efficiency for the home and a section on pellet stoves. They also have a good pellet and wood-...
So you figured out the very basics of Solar PV and you've seen a Solar PV schematic/diagram and you want to move onto the next step and do a little more research to see how well Solar PV will work on your home. This was the exact topic that Scientific American blogger (and soon-to-be consumer of...
Programming thermostat over web
Hopefully you've read my post on Household Energy Use and you know that heating and cooling make up about 50% of your energy bill. Once you realize how much it is costing you to heat and cool your home, you realize how valuable your programmable thermostat is. ...
Energy Mind Map
Energy is a huge topic. We use energy to heat our homes, power our TVs, get us from point A to B, etc. In the movie "The Watchmen" they can stave off the threat of nuclear war if only they could find a way to produce unlimited amounts of free energy. But because we can't...
My post on the Magniwork free energy scam was so popular that there must be a strong need out there for someone to uncover all of these free energy scams on the web. With energy prices continuing to rise, it is an unfortunate fact that scams promising "Never pay for energy again!" or "lower your...
TED 5000 iPhone App
I've been hearing rumors about a TED 5000 iPhone application for a few weeks now and I was happy to search the iPhone app store today for "TED 5000" and find the app there waiting for me. The app was developed by Brent Halsey and is a very nice way to see what your TED 5000...
Chevy Volt 230 MPG?
The news that the the new Chevy Volt is going to get an estimated 230 MPG was plastered all over the internet this week. I'm going to analyze how GM came up with the Volt's mileage rating and provide the method that gives the best way to truly arrive at an electric car's...
A Mountain Blown Apart
Today I received a mass email from Matt Wasson at iLovemountains.org, and it got me thinking: I've mentioned mountaintop removal several times in blog posts, but I don't think I have a post dedicated to the travesty that is mountain top removal coal "mining". Matt linked...
Smart Grid City
PECI, a national energy efficiency consultancy based in Portland, Oregon has completed one of the best analysis I've seen on the coming Smart Grid and what it means for buildings (both residential and commercial). The PDF of their report can be found here: Smartgrid Whitepaper....
Energy Conservation Mind Map
In David MacKay's excellent book, Sustainable Energy - without the hot air, he lists his top energy saving recommendations at the end of chapter 29 titled, "What to do now". While his tips are from a British perspective, they are also applicable to Americans and...
Here's my top ten list of sustainability videos in no particular order. I tried to throw in some videos of:
Sustainability visionaries (Amory Lovins, Bill McKibben, William McDonough, Thomas Friedman, etc.)
A few good commercials from corporations and organizations (IBM, Repower America)
A video...
I usually don't do this, but I am re-posting one of the first blogs I put up on Mapawatt way back in February. It has been a hectic week (not much time for writing) and I think the post on how sustainable practices can help Gorillas in the African jungle has some really great lessons in it. Not...
DIY Electrician
It seems I'm on a roll finding renewable energy claims that are just too good to be true. A few days after discovering the Magniwork Scam I came across Earth4Energy.com. Now, I wont call what they are doing a scam, but I will say they are being a little misleading.
Like Magniwork...