Sorry - got off on a rant there.
We REDUCE (Mostly to save money) - All the usual stuff: CFL bulbs, turning stuff off when we're not using it, generating our own electricity, driving as infrequently as possible, turn down the thermostat, etc.
We RE-USE - Save our plastic bags and reuse them for stuff, then recycle. We don't use any styrofoam or paper cups or dishes in our house. Have a bin of redworms that compost some of our leftover tidbits, and save containers to be used in the garage for nails, screws, etc. Yesterday we lined our garden with wood that we scrounged from other projects. And we just sharpened our saw so we can go out in the woods and gather up all that firewood that's just lying all over the ground.
We RECYCLE. With a community recycling bin for us to use, we discovered that we only produce a couple bags of real garbage a week. We were able to cancel our garbage service and piggyback off of my parents. I've been saving cans to do one of those passive air heater things.
I was talking with one of my more liberal friends recently about who he's going to vote for, how he knows the earth is getting hotter, how bad this country is, etc., while drinking a coke he gave me. When I was done, I said, "Where should I put this can?"
He said, "Just throw it in the trash."
Oh well, people like me believe it starts with the nuclear family. So we're doing everything we can right here at home. :-)
This last winter, we switched from propane to electric heat and saved about 50% on our heating bill. In the process, we replaced our compact flourescent lights with incandescent lights. When heating with electricity, there is no advantage to using flourescent bulbs.
For us, it's pure economics. [ Parent ]
I'm not understanding this statement ? W o o f -={([ Parent ]
So if you're using them as a 100W space heater, and you're getting light, that's great! Switch to the CFLs in the summertime. Well, or install a skylight. :-)[ Parent ]
Tell me about it.
Every time I go over the Dunbarton bridge lately I see the solar panels that KGO (the only financially successful liberal talk station, as far as I can tell) put in at the base of their antenna farm.
What the HECK are they powering with that, in their max-power transmitter blockhouse, right UNDER one of the high-tension lines feeding the bay area? It's sure not heat. B-) The blinky lights on the towers? The half-dozen bulbs in the blockhouse that are only on when an engineer is there? The vent fans? The darned panels are probably generating more power by rectifying the near field of their signal than they collect from the sun.
These days price is a very good signal of sites where it's ecologically sound to install alternative energy systems. Twenty feed downwind of the San Francisco Bay salt evaporators is NOT one of them. [ Parent ]
