My Energy Report from Russia

[wooferhound]

Hi Y'all

Me and the wife have been in Saint Petersburg Russia for 3 days now, and I've been looking around. I haven't seen anything at all that looks like it was made to catch the wind, and not one single solar cell to be seen. I have seen plenty of large 200 foot plus smokestacks pumping out grey smoke. We have internet here in our bedroom. It's dial up and slow, connects at 40k per second or less and all of Russia is still Pulse dialing as best as I can tell (no tone dialing).

We are staying in my wifes Daughters Flat (apartment) and they have a very old On Demand gas hotwater heater. all the markings on the unit have been washed away from years of cleaning. Still works pretty good though. I have a picture that I'll post next month when I return. I forgot my USB cable that connects my camera to the computer. Will try to buy one if I can, there is nothing like a Walmart here that I can see.

While they have energy efficent Hot water, I can't say that for the building heat. I'm in a five story building with no elevator and we are on the 5th floor. There are at least 60 two bedroom apartments in here. The heating is steam radiaters without any control at all. To adjust the heat all you do is open enough windows till enough heat gets out and becomes a comfortable temperature inside. The gas bill is split equally between all of the residents in the building.

Well thats my obsevations so far. I'll get my Russian wife to as some questions about renewable energy in Russia and give y'all another update soon.

Bye for now

(Dos Vidiania)

[John II]

Great to hear from you.... It's all very interesting... can't wait for more... You might see if they have magazines or trade journals there. There must be some way to find out what's happening in the A.E. field there... no mater how insignificant.

John II

[wooferhound]

Yes I will be looking for a magazine

But I won't be able to read it . . .

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[ghurd]

The pictures are better anyway!

G-

[RobD]

I was told that if you get to Europe you will see an entirely different story. They are doing a lot with wind and solar.

The Russians are still learning how to be Americans.

[ghurd]

Drink some vodka.

Don't worry about it.

That is why people travel half way around the world.

And check out the Russian prostitut...

What? Is your wife there?

I gotta go now...

[nothing to lose]

Read it? You ain't looking for no playboys, who cares about the articals

[nothing to lose]

Darn, I was hoping they were trying for a FREE country.

[nothing to lose]

Find out what you can about the REAL Russia, get us some pics of all the things that DON'T make the news

Maybe you can get something started while your there. Can you find an AC motor? You did smuggle in a few Neos right

"We have internet here in our bedroom. It's dial up and slow, connects at 40k per second or less"

Welcome to rural America, I get a whopping 32K at home myself.

Only been about 5yrs since they went dial tone here and did away with the party lines!

Remember those! No fax, no modems, etc.. alloughed because the nieghborhood shares a phoneline, 4 homes/one line, lots of waiting....

 Hmm, they are less than 5yrs behind us and ALtell here!!

Have fun, see if you can find the real people, local customs, try the food, have more fun, bring me back a rubal or two, print some pictures of the wind gennies from here and drop a few here and there as you walk around

Maybe circulate them like lost dog posters...

Are the people nice, is the weather good, many people there speak english?

Have fun,

[wooferhound]

> get us some pics of all the things that DON'T make the news

I have 77 pictures so far now, and enough Memory Stick for 220 more pics, So far nothing exciting has happened around me. Went to the Moscow Circus today. was very cool.

> Can you find an AC motor? You did smuggle in a few Neos right

Should have thought about packing a few Neos. Can't find any old motors here. Russians don't throw anything away. My wifes friends did ask me if Americans throw anything away. My answer was "Americans are all about throwing things away, it's the American Way". But really I think they already knew that. Just wanted to ask a true american if it's really Pravda (true).

> Have fun, see if you can find the real people, local customs, try the food

My wife is from here and we are staying with her daughters in thier apartment, thats pretty real. Russians put Mayonaise on everything: soup, pizza, ravioli, everything, like I said. We had a party last night with about 15 guests. Musta drank 5 liter bottles of Vodka between us all, not to mention plenty of beer at 5% alcahol.

> print some pictures of the wind gennies from here and drop a few here and there

That's a great idea, Wish I had a Printer.

> Are the people nice, is the weather good, many people there speak english?

The people are extreamly nice. It's a bit crowded here in St. Pete, almost 5 million. People pushing and rubbing up against you all the time. You don't get "Your Space" as I am used to.

Not much Sun so far, and raining a lot, but today was nice and about 55 F Degrees. In the Summer it never gets completely dark at night here. Latitude is the same as Alaska, I can relate to Hiker now.

All Russians know some English, If they hear me talking then they want to try out thier Engish on a real American to see how good they really are, but they are mostly not so good at it. Three people at the party last night spoke good enough to have a conversation with, I did have to rephrase my comments a lot to be understood.

Thats all for now, My next report will be about the Public Transportation systems everywhere, yes, everywhere and mainly electric.

[gale]

You should try to get away from the city out in the country for a few days. I spent a month in the Ukraine 4 years ago.  The most interesting thing I saw was in a recreated peasant village was a cottage with a thatched roof, completly built around a russian stove(Masonary stove) with just a handful of sticks a day they could keep the hut warm.

Just be glad they have a water heater, where I was in the Ukraine, when the city turned off the hot water for the heat in the wintertime, you completly lost all hot water.  Only a few "rich" people had hot water heaters,  everybody else had a 5 gallon pot on the stove.

      Actually the hot water heat system worked strangly well.  If you had a first floor apartment, your room temperature was about 50F, then it increased floor by floor, until the top floor was 90+F.  But in the middle floors the temperature almost always a nice 75F.

[nothing to lose]

Thanks for the comments to my post questions.

So if most speak a bit of english I geuss I could get by there then not knowing any russian?

I read you mentioned the wife was Russian but I was thinking more like from family decent not native. Geuss that makes it a lot easier to find your way around then.

"Mayonaise"

Not everything, but I put it on alot of stuff too.

Sounds pretty good. If a person was going to visit there and did not have friends or family about how much would a trip like that cost? I mean hows the prices on things, hotels, food, and are things really hard to come by or are most needed items easy to get.

Russia Germany and Italy are 3 countries I have wanted to visit for awhile. Maybe someday?

Looking forward to seeing the pics.

[guruji]

You should try to do a wind turbine from car junkyards and produce electricity for more heaters and other appliances.