Plug-In and Charging Station Tracker
If you're starting to think about getting a plug-in vehicle, there are two main things you should be concerned with:
What cars are currently available and what will be available soon
How are you going to charge your vehicle once you get it
We maintain a list...
Maybe you've heard about all the issues PG&E got into when rolling out the first wave of smart meters. Maybe you were even one of their customers who decided to sue them because you thought it was their smart meter that was raising your utility bills (which probably had more to do with bad...
Old toilets ready for the grinder
After replacing my old toilets that wasted huge amounts of water, I had four porcelain thrones that I didn't want to dump in a landfill. After a little research, I found a place in Atlanta that recycles old porcelain bathroom fixtures into gravel.
Packer...
You may have read our blog about PACE financing being under attack from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Great news...you can do something about it! There is a briefing in D.C. on Feb. 10th, so please call your Congress representative and have them or an aid attend. PACE financing has the...
If you're not aware, some of the Federal tax incentives that were in place for home energy improvements have expired as of Dec. 31, 2010! If you installed or upgraded your energy systems in 2010, you're good to go for tax season this year. The changes that took place will affect installations...
Peter Porteous and PowerCost Monitor
I was lucky enough to snag an email interview with the CEO of Blue Line Innovations, Peter Porteous. Blue Line manufactures the Power Cost Monitor, which we've written about several times on the Mapawatt Blog. They've come up lately because they are one of...
Unless you live in California, you may not be aware that the 100- watt light bulb is being phased out; which started Jan. 1 of 2011. From the California Energy Commission article about the phasing out of the 100 watt bulb (the "standard" referenced to below is the Energy Independence and...
Alright, so maybe Secretary Chu doesn't really love us (at least not yet), but he answered a question we sent in via Twitter to his Town Hall style chat, so that's a start. The purpose of the chat was to "...discuss President Obama's Clean Energy and Innovation Agenda" and it can be seen on the...
Last week I put up an article on the Basics of Home Heating as an overview of the different methods people employ to stay warm in the winter. Today, I'm going to run some numbers showing a cost comparison of heating with natural gas vs. heating with electricity and provide a calculator that you...
The following post about different methods for homeowners to take advantage of energy from the sun is written by Alan Parker is a blogger based out of New York, NY who writes about alternative energy, climate change and green technology.
Whether trying to decrease their utility bills or remove...
There are several methods you can use to heat your home, and when it is this cold outside, these methods are vitally important to your comfort. You probably know what method you employ in your home, but maybe you don't know all the methods that are available in case you build a new home or need...
Interest rate 7.5%, downpayment of 10%, 30-yr, principal & interest only
Rarely do I encounter no-brainers in the world of energy efficiency (unless I'm talking programmable thermostats). The answer is usually, "It depends on where you live" or "Does the mercury bother you?" or "Will you...
I'm thinking about putting up a few more sustainable policy posts in 2011. Our focus is still on Energy/Water Conservation and Clean Energy strategies, products and services for your home, but occasionally I like to liven it up with a philosophical post. I think it's important for people to...
Draft comes in around handle and lock
Today's post is going to be a visual one, and it's pretty self explanatory, but I'll give you some background. When my parents were over for Christmas my dad was by my door leading out to my deck and noticed there was a draft coming through where the door...
When it comes to the Smart Home, communication protocols may not be the sexy part, but they're doing all the work behind the scenes. It's great to monitor and measure something, but if you can't transfer the data into a usable form for viewing on the web or communicating with other devices, all...
The silver is the insulation
While everyone knows the importance of having insulation in your attic (you should definitely know this) some might overlook the attic stairs. Fellow blogger Allison Bailes covered this issue on Friday in his post "Attic Stairs - A mind blowing hole in your building...
Instead use "Climate Change"
Do you want to know an easy way to stop Global Warming? It's simple, just tell everyone you know to stop using the term! Instead, insist they say Climate Change. I bet you thought I was going to tell you to turn off your lights, drive and fly...
One form of Greenwashing
Product manufacturers and service providers realize there is a portion of the public willing to pay more for "Green" products and services. Some business are honest and will make a product that is better for the environment and society (i.e. more sustainable), while...
Below are some of our top posts that were published in 2010. They are roughly in the order of the amount of traffic they received, but the first one is a clear winner. The majority of our searches come from Google searches, so traffic mainly depends on how high we are on Google and how popular...
In February we wrote about residential natural gas fuel cells, which allow homeowners to create their own electricity and heat from natural gas. The only catch is that fuel cells for residential energy consumption is still an emerging technology, and not everyone has access to natural gas lines...