How far out of your way do you go?

So far I vote F8L for president...

How far out of my way do I go? Somewhat farther than most, and yet not nearly far enough.

I'll give one example that makes most folks in my neighborhood confident that I'm crazy: I have a regular appointment 23 miles from my home. The appointment lasts three minutes. I ride my bike there and back. About 2.5 hours on the bike for my 3 minute appointment. It actually pisses me off when I have to take the Prius for the trip - that happens once every couple of months.

Another extreme view that I like and announce in my profile: The Prius is my most polluting, inefficient form of personal transportation.

We try very hard to eat not just domestically, but VERY locally. The vast majority of what we eat is grown within a 50-mile radius of our home. We live in a place that makes that somewhat easy. My family travels 20,000 miles/ year, and we burn about 40 gallons of gasoline a year. I wish it were less.

Next up at home is solar hot water.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Nov 21 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]542606[/snapback]</div>

Nah, I would tick off too many people with my policies.

Besides, you riding your bike as much as you do is an inspiration to us all. Or at least it should be!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Nov 21 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]542606[/snapback]</div>

Ohh! Maybe you can try to jump on that new deal CA. is trying to pass?

Not sure if that is the correct link but I just read about it somewhere.

 

So Darell, thinkin' about solar water heating? What has changed your mind about that? Personally, I think it should be building code here in the west. One could probably run a few big NG power plants with the saved NG. That in turn would allow us to decommission some coal fired power plants, which would be nice.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Nov 21 2007, 02:14 PM) [snapback]542591[/snapback]</div>

Sadly, that's the way it's going to be for a while yet. It's a rapidly changing market, however, and demand is still outstripping supply so there's a lot of room for falling prices over the next 5 years. I'm planning to put up some panels in the future, but CO has good subsidies, so it's within reach.

 

Why don't A/C makers use a heat exchanger to pre-heat potable water? Incoming water is always cooler than the outside air on days when cooling is called for, so the A/C compressor wouldn't work nearly so hard, and the pre-heated water would reduce the energy load on the nominal water heater. It's win-win except for the added capital cost of what amounts to a second water (pre-)heater.

 

As energy costs continue to rise you just might see something like that. It's been too easy up until now (and it still is from a purely financial point of view).

ez, well the cost of energy is a moving target (but no one thinks it's going to go down) so you have to figure that into your calculations. Also, the debt (if any) is tax deductable so that helps too. Also, houses with solar power on them generally hold their value and sell better than those that aren't so equipped. Most of the data on this is from CA. They don't have the 'cane liability either. Solar installations in the carribean (?) survived hurricane Ivan with minimal damage, if I recall correctly. In FL there would obviously have to be good installation requirements for this sort of thing.

 

i have the Prius that is used now by SO for daily drives (about 50 miles per day) and i use my Zenn EV for daily driving and errand runs which when charged at night uses about 95% hydro electric. on my 6.8 mile commute to work, i pass 4 bicyclists who doggedly pedal their bikes to work every day, rain or shine. i wish i was willing to put up with the bad weather, but simply cannot. so my bike ride to work is limited to one day a year and only because i get a free t-shirt out of it...

i am WAAAY over the top about conserving electricity, water and recycling and constantly police my household for that which includes turning off lights, sorting trash for recyclables (need to be on top of this as it does get nasty with 7 month old if left too long !@!) have CF bulbs where its practical.

i purchased half a cow which was grown and fed on a well managed pasture land. yes its more expensive than hormone-laden, grain-fed beef from the supermarket, but much cheaper than organic beef from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. it is tastier, lower in fat and cholesterol, has a much lower risk of e coli infestations, and eliminates the possibility of mad cow disease.

right now i have been weighing the option of keeping my computers running 24-7 processing the Folding at Home client or shutting them down at night... not sure what is the best way to go on this. it is a great project that could yield huge benefits, but at the same time... any thoughts on this?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Nov 21 2007, 10:28 AM) [snapback]542511[/snapback]</div>

WOW godiva go girl go!!! now that is putting your money where your mouth is. around here, solar is cost prohibited unless you are in it for 20 years, but wind might be an option. plus, solar is getting cheaper and better every day

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ezbngrn @ Nov 27 2007, 06:54 AM) [snapback]544653[/snapback]</div>

Solar water heating is a good way to go there, esp if you're using electricity to heat your water. Electric water heaters use a lot of energy. NG is currently a lot cheaper I think. So if you're using electricity for water heating solar water heating has a better ROI (and a bigger GHG reduction) versus natural gas. It's also a lot cheaper than PV and there's a federal tax credit so you can do this anywhere and get a decent break. Cost of installation varies, of course, but typical systems cost less that $6K, I think. Even if you're using NG it's not a bad idea. NG has a lot of upward price pressure on it. Expect it go get a lot more expensive in the next 5-10 years as we have to import more and more of it (usually as liquefied natural gas, LNG).

 

I guess the most radical thing I do is go around when the city has 'bulk item pick-up days' - when you can put out old furniture, appliances and such, and gather things that are useful. I went out last night (first time they've had one since I got the Prius - which helped a lot) and found bed frames, a glass-top table, a walker, a four-legged cane, and some other odds and ends. All of this will go to my clients (I'm a social worker) who needs such things, plus I got some plastic flower pots my mom can use for her garden club plant exchange. I'm just ticked off that it rained and some usable stuff like mattresses and upholstered furniture was ruined.

I guess people who see me wonder why a decently dressed woman in a nice car is picking through their trash. I'm willing to be considered the neighborhood eccentric, though, if it helps my clients and keeps perfectly good stuff out of the landfill.

I'm contemplating talking to our city council person about proposing a yard sale right before the next one to raise money for something in the community.

 

ahh, now our OTHER other car (geez, we own too many cars, now we've got 4 including the totalled one) runs on waste vegetable oil! collecting and filtering it is gonna be a lot more work than going to the gas station, but DH is very excited.

 

Your career is of very little interest to the rest of the planet. Your career does not support biological life and therefore is expendable. The point the person was trying to make is that we should not be buying products shipped that far. If you lose your job over it then so be it. There are plenty of other jobs you can obtain that are less harmful to life in general. There are other ways to stimulate the economy and make jobs available for you or you can simply choose to go to school and open up a whole new level of jobs.

 

Ahh what are they going to do? Spit tabacco juice on me? I know more than enough truck drivers. In fact I worked on a truck today. lol

Do not mistake me for a wussy little hippy environmentalist.

Fact is you are wrong in nearly every post you made in this entire forum and you're mad because I've called you on it in an effort to reduce the spread of misinformation. No go educate yourself please. I've even offered to help you with sources, politely no less.

 

Hahaha

I completely recognize the fact that many of my goods were delivered to me via truck. Can I live without them? Yes in a lot of cases I could and in some I couldn't. The point is do we need that many truck drivers or better question, can we come up with a better way for them to make a living wage without the degradation the industry causes? Or can we minimize their impact by becoming aware of the problems and working to correct them?

BTW, many of the products I currently own are possesions I aquired before I realized their impact on humans or the environment. I've since reduced my ecological footprint drastically and work at least once a week in the field to help correct others footprints.

 

Do I detect a troll wave?

I also work with trucks and I cheer each time a see a mile long train loaded with container freight 2 high traversing the country. Trucks should be banned from the highway and rail expanded to cover more locations and move freight faster. Sooner the better. I have no problem with truck drivers, most are hard working people although some are drug crazed loonies. Like that doesn't happen in other occupations!

I'm soon to "solarize" my home with a 1000 watt hour PV system and solar hot water. Total cost is $8,000AU after $8,500 in government rebates. I'd be mad not to do it although the payback on the PV is about 12 years if you ignore interest lost on savings. I buy electricity from renewable sources and use gas to heat water food and home. I don't heat above 19 degrees C. My air conditioner is evaporative using a fraction of the energy a refrigerated system would use.

I do all the normal recycling but I'm not all that careful in the shops.

I mulch my garden waste and plant local or compatible native plants in the garden and hardly ever water it.

My lights are mostly compact fluros although I have 1 incandescent globe in the lounge where I have a dimmer.

I dry my clothes on a clothes line but I have a dryer for emergencies. The clothes line is under a veranda for year round use. I use a front loader washer, sorry too lazy to wash by hand but the front loader uses much less water than a top loader and I wash in cold water.

I constantly turn off lights in empty rooms at home and work, I suggested a waterless urinal for work and it was installed then mulching garden beds, that was done.

Well sorry that's all I can think of. I still have a massive carbon footprint but I am trying.

 

I doubt IROC will be worthy of the name.

 

Like I said I dont own a Prius & I dont want one

but I own 200 acres of forestland

That should count for something

 

Depends on what you do with that forest.

Seriously. Where is this land located?