RECENT POSTS"Peak Alert" is a term used by electric companies through radio and television to notify the public when a period of increased electricity usage is predicated (extremely hot or cold days). When you hear the alert it is important that you try to cut back on your electricity usage during these times. Don't wash and dry clothes,don't use the automatic dishwasher, don't take long hot showers, do turn off unnecessary appliances and lights.
Electric companies have to purchase the same amount of electricity 24 hours per day. The amount of electricity the company has to buy is based on the amount of "Peak Demand". When the electric company announces a "Peak Alert" warning it is because the company is approaching the level of electricity they are having to purchase. If the demand goes over what they already have to purchase then the " Demand Load" goes up and they have to purchase a higher amount daily whether it is used or not. This stays in effect for at least 18 months unless the "Demand Load" peaks again and is raised again.
Every time the "Demand Load' goes up it ends up costing you money because the company has to raise its rates to cover the cost of the added electricity.
Long term it is a good idea to pay attention to the "Peak Alerts" and try to conserve electric usage then so the electric company does not have to raise rates. By postponing your washing, showers and conserving your electric usage during the time of a "Peak Alert" until after the "Peak Alert" you are then using the electricity the company has to lose (but pay for) . It is not how much electricity you use but when you use it that has a big impact on price per kilowatt.
I hope I didn't confuse anyone reading this. If you have any questions or comments on this subject please leave a comment and I will try to answer your concerns.
Cheerily
IJK
If found this and thought it would fit. This would be great. Let's hope it gets going. I really like the price and fuel bill not to mention how great it would be for the environment. Too bad it would hurt the oil companies and the Arabs and Venezuela, NOT.
I ran across an interesting article in the Rural Missouri monthly magazine that comes once a month courtesy of my local electric co-op, Se-Ma-No. I read the article and followed the link it provided and it led me to this link to a business that installs systems that provide electricity for private homes and even allows one to sell the excess back to the utility. Go read the interesting story at: PATH.
If you come across things that might fit with the spirit of this blog please send them to me and I will try to include them. This blog is all about "Energy Conservation". That includes alternative forms of energy, ways to cut energy use (gas, diesel, and electricity), building green, and other methods.
Remember as with all blogs, this is a work in progress not just a website that a person builds and then never adds anything to. Come back often as you never know when something new will be added or how it may affect our lives.
Cheerily
IJ
We have been discussing changing our hot water heater at the local VFW with two tankless units. One up by the kitchen to supply the kitchen and two of our bathrooms and another in the back to supply the two bathrooms there. Now we are running hot water a long ways to get hot water to the back two bathrooms and this should create a savings in energy there plus we are only in the building needing hot water one evening a week during bingo. Why are we keeping a standard hot water heater full of hot water all week long? Because we just thought of this idea. I found this video explaining about tankless water heaters and thought maybe I should share it here.
My veterinarian, Dr David Gourley, came on a herd health visit today and was telling me about a website devoted to conserving the soil, using less fertilizer, less tractor work (thus conserving fuel - oil - energy) and actually improving the land. While it may be just a little off base here I think it really ties together with the main theme of this blog.
Holistic Management
IJ
You have the power to affect your energy consumption (in kilowatt-hours and in money) by managing use wisely—reducing the amount spent on the inefficient use of energy.
This energy-efficiency initiative is built on two core ideas:
- 1) Take control of electricity use, and thereby
- 2) save energy.
As cooperative members, we all carry the responsibility to make the best use of our energy resources. While the costs of providing reliable electricity have been rising, your cooperative system has been working with our power supplier, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., to find the best ways to ease the burden of those costs—for our individual members and for our entire cooperative network.
One of the most important things we can do is slow the growth in energy use. By using electricity wisely, we can optimize our generating capacity in order to postpone building costly new power plants. The good news is that everything you do to reduce your use not only helps
us manage growth, it also helps you manage your energy budget.
To learn more about this exciting new program go to Take Control and Save
Source:
OneWorld.net, February 5, 2006
Title: “Bottled Water: Nectar of the Frauds?”
Author: Abid Aslam
Faculty Evaluator: Liz Close
Student Researchers: Heidi Miller and Sean Hurley
Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief—often mistaken—that it is better for us than what flows from our taps. Worldwide, bottled water consumption surged to 41 billion gallons in 2004, up 57 percent since 1999.
“Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing—producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy,” reports Earth Policy Institute researcher Emily Arnold. Although in much of the world, including Europe and the U.S., more regulations govern the quality of tap water than bottled water, bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more. At up to $10 per gallon, bottled water costs more than gasoline in the United States.
“There is no question that clean, affordable drinking water is essential to the health of our global community,” Arnold asserts, “But bottled water is not the answer in the developed world, nor does it solve problems for the 1.1 billion people who lack a secure water supply. Improving and expanding existing water treatment and sanitation systems is more likely to provide safe and sustainable sources of water over the long term.” Members of the United Nations have agreed to halve the proportion of people who lack reliable and lasting access to safe drinking water by the year 2015. To meet this goal, they would have to double the $15 billion spent every year on water supply and sanitation. While this amount may seem large, it pales in comparison to the estimated $100 billion spent each year on bottled water.
Tap water comes to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure whereas bottled water is transported long distances—often across national borders—by boat, train, airplane, and truck. This involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
For example, in 2004 alone a Helsinki company shipped 1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 2,700 miles to Saudi Arabia. And although 94 percent of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is produced domestically, many Americans import water shipped some 9,000 kilometers from Fiji and other faraway places to satisfy demand for what Arnold terms “chic and exotic bottled water.”
More fossil fuels are used in packaging the water. Most water bottles are made with polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic derived from crude oil. “Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand alone requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year,” Arnold notes.
Once it has been emptied, the bottle must be dumped. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health problems. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year. Of the bottles deposited for recycling in 2004, the U.S. exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China, requiring yet more fossil fuel.
Meanwhile, communities where the water originates risk their sources running dry. More than fifty Indian villages have complained of water shortages after bottlers began extracting water for sale under the Coca-Cola Corporation’s Dasani label. Similar problems have been reported in Texas and in the Great Lakes region of North America, where farmers, fishers, and others who depend on water for their livelihoods are suffering from concentrated water extraction as water tables drop quickly.
While Americans consume the most bottled water per capita, some of the fastest collective growth in consumption is in the giant populations of Mexico, India, and China. As a whole, India’s consumption of bottled water increased threefold from 1999 to 2004, while China’s more than doubled.
While private companies’ profits rise from selling bottled water of questionable quality at more than $100 billion per year—more efficiently regulated, waste-free municipal systems could be implemented for distribution of safe drinking water for all the peoples of the world—at a small fraction of the price.
UPDATE BY ABID ASLAM
Consumer stories are a staple of the media diet. This article spawned coverage by numerous public broadcasters and appeared to do the rounds in cyberspace. Perhaps what seized imaginations was our affinity for the subject: apparently we and our planet’s surface are made up mostly of water and without it, we would perish. In any case, most of the discussion of the issues raised by the source—a research paper from a Washington, D.C.–based environmental think tank—focused mainly on consumer elements (the price, taste, and consequences for human health of bottled and tap water), as I had anticipated when I decided to storify the Environmental Policy Institute (EPI) paper (in honesty, that is pretty much all I did, adding minimal context and background). However, a good deal of reader attention also focused on the environmental and regulatory aspects.
Further information on these can be obtained from the EPI, a host of environmental and consumer groups, and from the relevant government agencies: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for tap water and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for bottled water.
Differences in the ways these regulators (indeed, regulators in general) operate and are structured and funded deserve a great deal more attention, as does the unequal protection of citizens that results.
Numerous other questions raised in the article deserve further examination. Would improved waste disposal and recycling address the researcher’s concerns about resources being consumed to get rid of empty water bottles? If public water systems can deliver a more reliable product to more people at a lower cost, as the EPI paper says, then what are the obstacles to the necessary investment in the U.S. and in poor countries, and how can citizens here and there overcome those obstacles?
Some of these questions may strike general readers or certain media gatekeepers as esoteric. Then again, we all drink the stuff.
Find more stories like this one at
Top 25 Censored Stories for 2007
Even in good years America's family farmers continue to shrink in number and with energy now making up one of the largest costs of farming as well as one of the largest costs consumers face each month and there seems to be very little interest in Washington, Democratic or Republican, to make positive changes.
Before I became a writer I spent 28 years in the trucking industry and throughout most of those 3 million miles I hauled food products with the current food distribution network never making sense to me. For years I hauled frozen Israeli corn from the seaport in Baltimore, Maryland to repackaging plants in Cincinnati, Ohio. And for those who may not know Cincinnati pretty much sits in the middle of a giant corn field.
Then my trailer would be reloaded at the opposite end of the same building with frozen corn placed in smaller packages so that I could haul it to New York City and Baltimore grocery warehouses. On a few occasions I had to wait for the very same corn I hauled in to be repackaged and loaded back onto my trailer.
Now there are some things that make slightly more sense. Take peanuts for example: With the exception of the Southeast, very few places in this country can grow peanuts so if you live in the Northeast or Northwest and want a peanut butter sandwich you're probably going to get it by truck. That said, I have hauled imported peanuts and imported peanut butter to Portsmith, Virginia, the peanut butter capitol of the world.
That's why it's a good thing to seek out local farmers and farmers' markets whenever possible. Not only will you help reduce America's dependence on imported energy and help support your local farmers but you'll also find local products to be safer, fresher and taste better than months old "fresh produce" at the big box grocery store.
I know you'll find it difficult to shop 100% local and while I try I can't always do so myself but the more locally grown food you eat the less fuel you'll be responsible for burning and the better off your area farmers will become.
By the way, I recently got 3 laying hens that I'm allowing to run throughout my fenced-in backyard and after eating fresh eggs laid this morning I may never eat a grocery store egg again.
-Billy
PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- A Spanish company is planning to take 3 square miles of desert southwest of Phoenix and turn them into one of the largest solar power plants in the world.
Abengoa Solar, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend -- a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix.
The company said Thursday it could be producing solar energy by 2011.
Abengoa would build, own and operate the $1 billion plant, named the Solana Generating Station.
Solana will be enough to supply up to 70,000 homes at full capacity.
Read the full story at the SOURCE
KING CITY, Mo. -- Some people hate wind farms for chopping up birds. Others claim their vibrations can make you crazy or sick. But they’re cheaper and faster to build than conventional power plants.
Missouri is one of 30 states with companies harnessing breezes and blasts. Some government leaders in southwest Missouri are eying the benefits that they see accruing here in northwest Missouri.
On sites in three counties, 100 turbines with 140-foot fans crank out enough megawatts to power tens of thousands of homes. They’re 80 miles north of Kansas City, towering above the countryside where the wind is always blowing over what people jokingly call “the tundra” in winter.
To read the rest of this story go to the
Cheerily
IJK
Rogersville — The pick-up truck growled as it tugged the windmill off the ground and into its concrete bed.
Chad and Brooke Monteith watched from below under a cloudless sky as their boxer darted after shadows created by the blades.
Like a growing number of people, the Monteiths installed a wind generator on their property to reduce their energy consumption.
Of the 7,000 small wind systems sold in 2006, the vast majority (70 percent) were installed on farms, rural areas and in the suburbs. While it's not for everyone, wind energy may be more attainable than you think."We're being more ecologically aware and trying to reduce our carbon footprint," Chad Monteith said.
The wind generator, a Skystream 3.7, is made by Southwest Power in Arizona and was designed for residential use.
It begins producing power in 8 mph winds but is recommended in areas that average 12 mph winds.
Monteith expects it will reduce his family's energy consumption by 25 to 33 percent, although the company's Web site said it can lower electricity bills from 30 to 80 percent.
The installation was "fairly easy," Monteith said.
To read more about home based windmills with photos go to the Source
JEFFERSON CITY, MO, FEB. 1, 2008 -- With St. Valentine's Day fast approaching, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources offers a few tips for having an environmentally friendly day. The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day are notorious for creating huge amounts of trash, so now is a good time to watch our "waste-line." Here are some ideas to keep landfills a little less full.
The most traditional gift on Valentine's Day is a bouquet of flowers. After these flowers dry up, they are usually thrown away and end up in a landfill. A compost bin provides a better location for the flowers to keep them out of the trash. For those looking for a different gift idea, call a local florist and ask if they have organic flowers or fresh flowers, trees or shrubs that can be replanted in the spring.
For a more creative gift, consider tickets to a movie, concert or sporting event. It will provide an opportunity to spend more time with your loved ones and creates less trash. Look for gifts made from recycled materials such as fleece jackets and scarves made from water and soda bottles and kitchen tools and house décor made from recycled plastic and glass. Also consider gift certificates to a spa or a favorite store. When taking a trip to the mall or your favorite shopping store, take some friends and carpool and bring your own shopping bags.
For a homemade gift, make dinner at home and eat by candlelight. Not only is it romantic, but it can save a little electricity with the lights turned off. If considering a favorite restaurant instead, walk if it's a short distance away or take mass transit. For friends and family, bake cookies or make homemade candy and package them in a decorated reusable or recycled container. And when giving greeting cards, purchase those that have high recycled paper content or that can be easily recycled. If the gift giver is feeling very creative, there are plenty of great projects for reuse of kids Valentine's cards either on the internet.
With a little imagination and thoughtful planning, everyone can celebrate a "Green" Valentine's Day.
For more information on recycling, reuse and composting, contact the Department of Natural Resources' Solid Waste Management Program at 1-800-361-4827 or (573) 751-5401 or by e-mail to swmp@dnr.mo.gov or visit the department's Web site at www.dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp.
For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming events, meetings and hearings, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/oac/calendar.htm.
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) -- Free hybrid-car parking. Cash rebates for installing solar panels. Low-interest loans for energy-saving home renovations. Money to tear up desert lawns and replace them with drought-resistant landscaping.
Frustrated by what they see as insufficient action by state and federal government, municipalities around the country are offering financial incentives to get people to go green.
To read the full story go to The Source
Cheerily
IJK
I ran across this interesting story about a new water saving toilet that actually works, unlike the first few attempts and thought that I should share.
Kohler, Wis. — For clients of Scott Kelly's architecture firm, seeing — and going — are believing.
His Philadelphia company urges its customers to install high-efficiency toilets, which use 20 percent less water than the previous generation of low-flow toilets. So the firm installed one such toilet in its own restroom, and customers who try it out are impressed.
"Literally after one use, they love it: the seat, the look, the fact that it saves water," said Kelly, of Re:Vision Architecture. "Sometimes it's like a hybrid car — you have to drive one first to appreciate it."
To read the full story go to the
Cheerily
IJKSt. Joseph — The residents of King City and Rock Port take pride in the wind turbines that have sprouted on their rolling hills in the past year.
Citizens of Conception and the next-hill-over communities of Conception Junction and Clyde have watched supplies accumulate for their own wind farm, eager for the day when a gigantic crane will lift them into the future of renewable energy.
There is quite a lengthy story on the benefits of "Wind Farms" to the community and
if you go to the
you can read the entire story.
Reality is there isn't enough used french fry grease in the world to power all of our cars and as people continue to eat healthier there may well be less of it but for those who can running their cars off of alternative fuels is a good idea.
Used vegetable oils can be converted to biodiesel but animal renderings can also be converted.
Here in Greensboro, North Carolina we have an established rendering plant that started selling bio-diesel several years ago. While DOT and police officers doing safety inspections prefer not to crawl under trucks belonging to Carolina Byproducts it is encouraging to know those trucks are fueled with biodiesel processed right here in Greensboro. The largest customer for biofuels in North Carolina is the NC Department of Transportation.
About an hour east of Greensboro in Durham you can find Carolina Biodiesel, one of several North Carolina startups that have partnered in taking what was once dumped in landfills and turning it into fuel.
Unlike E-85 and other alcohol based fuels made from corn that could be better used to feed animals and people, biodiesel is made from waste. Farmers would be wise to look into coops built for the express purpose of rendering and production of biodiesel. After all, it's farmers who raise the cattle, hogs and chicken that goes into biodiesel.
-Billy
But environmentalists cautious in support of "bioplastics."
Mark Jewell
The Associated Press
Cambridge, Mass. — Target offers shoppers an unusual message about its gift cards at some stores, advising that they are biodegradable. "Just make sure you spend them first," the displays conclude.
This isn't just a marketing gimmick. Plastics made from corn and other plants are carving a tiny niche from the market for conventional petroleum-based plastics and being touted as green alternatives for everything from bulk food containers to lipstick tubes and clothing fiber — as well as gift cards.
The full story can be found at the SOURCE
LEI Global's Dodge is the first electric vehicle capable of 500 miles on one charge.
By Donna Baxter
For the News-Leader
Termed the "missing link" in electric vehicle technology, the first electric vehicle capable of traveling over 500 miles per charge was demonstrated Monday at the Ozark International Raceway southeast of Rogersville.
Luedtke Enterprises --LEI Global, of Mansfield — in conjunction with the Texas-based Coyote Electronics, has designed and built a compact drive system that sounds like a golf cart but can run any vehicle, from a go-kart to a locomotive.
To read the full complete story go HERE
This was developed less than 10 miles from my home. IJK
Perhaps you've heard of the $5,000.oo Segway Scooters that were supposed to be the answer to our energy and transportation issues. Perhaps you heard they weren't faring so well. A lot of folks think they went out of business.
Not so fast.
It appears that Segway has found its niche market-- college and university law enforcement. From the Greensboro News & Record:
"Without the blare of a siren, the rumbling of an engine or even the tap of his footsteps, White snuck up on the man and caught him off-guard.
"His eyes were as big as 50-cent pieces," White said. "He looked at me like he had seen a ghost."
The unwelcomed startle came courtesy of one of the newest additions to A&T's patrol fleet — a Segway.
The two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters run as quiet as a mouse and proved well worth their $5,000 price tag that night for the campus community, White said.
An on-the-spot interview with the nervous man revealed that he had a screwdriver in his pocket. Police later found out he was responsible for up to 20 vehicle break-ins around campus.
"We found out we solved about 90 percent of our car break-ins with this suspect," White said."
That's right, campus police departments across the country are buying Segway Scooters, catching crooks and saving fuel in the process. Segways go faster than most people can run, go almost anywhere most people can walk and are proving themselves a useful tool for keeping your children safe while they're away at school. Our thanks go out to Officer White of the NC A&T University Police and to Segway for catching the bandits-- street criminals and oil companies alike.
--Billy