Going Green

Here's a list of products and things we are doing to date to reduce energy costs and take back dollars spent on foreign energy. Don't get me wrong - my old muscle car still depends on oil, however, this helps offset my oil dependency and use. I'm considering Supercharging it on E85 but still need to do more research. Then again it sees very few miles so it's really not an issue.

We made the decision to use clean renewable energy as much as we could. We opted for a 200% wind energy plan that puts twice our electric consumption into the grid for a few extra bucks a month. Sadly rates are changing and going up for all types of power.

This device provides energy use monitoring for everything in your home by reading the electric meter. It's pretty slick and you can actually see what is going on and validate your electric bill. Mine works extremely well.

From Blueline: "The PowerCost Monitor™ is a wireless energy monitor for your home. It can tell you at a glance how much electricity your home is using from moment-to-moment and in total. Why wait for your electricity bill when you can see what you are spending on electricity as you spend it!"

Here was another opportunity to do things better and they are made in the USA. I got rid of the gas powered 6.5HP Scotts Lawn mower after 8 years of faithful service. Now there's no soar shoulder, no storing of gasoline in the garage, no maintenance, no fumes, and it's quite. I've got a small yard now so it works for me. If your yard is bigger than a 1/3 of an acre you'll need a second 36 volt battery or a Billy Goat....

Malibu 8-Pack Solar Copper 2 Tier Light Kit (LED)- I'm using solar lighting rather than 11o to light up the front and rear of the house. The trick here is to ditch the 600mAh "AA" rechargeable batteries for 2100 or 2500mAh "AA" rechargeable batteries. The result will be a LED light that lasts all night instead of 3 hours.

This is similar to what I did - I used a remote solar panel and have the fan mounted inside the roof behind a low profile plastic roof vent. I'm using it to vent the garage of heat and fumes since it can reach 120 degrees plus with no venting. It runs with no noise, no hassle, and no additional cost. So far it keeps any fumes and the temperature consistent. I also have an additional 110 version attic fan mounted for an exhaust vent on a manual and thermostatic switch. I vented the garage because there is living space above and this help regulate the temperature inside the rooms. Two more solar units are planned for the larger roof areas rather than using 110 AC.

60Watts of light for 13watts of Power consumption per CFL bulb and they last ten times longer - They are also 10 times the cost. Any questions? I replaced every light bulb in the house to the tune of about $300. Ceiling fans, flood lights, outside lights, etc etc etc. That alone made a big difference we noticed on our electric bill the next month. Home Depot or Lowes carry them

Can't have enough to slow the heat transfer in or out of your house, water heater, and garage space in my case. I did several things. The first was to add electrical outlet gaskets on all outlets and wall switches on exterior walls and seal the electrical outlets. It's amazing how much air leaks in. Did the same in the garage. The house should have had Tyvek, plastic under the drywall, and foam insulation in all the garage walls to create an air tight seal, but the builder was only required to insulate walls that backup to living space. What a joke. I'll be retrofitting the garage walls with a low expansion foam. I also added R-38 in the attic where the exposed interior stud walls were. I also insulated the inside of the garage door since the afternoon Sun heats it and the interior space fairly well. I added Reflectix to the garage door panels (7'x16'). 3M spray adhesive and Aluminum tape seal the deal. The weight is minimal and it works extremely well. Home Depot or Lowes carry the product.

Reflects 97 percent of radiant energy. Lowers heating and cooling costs year round, Not affected by moisture or humidity, Nontoxic/non-carcinogenic, Does not require protective gear to install.
Does not compress, collapse or disintegrate , Class A Class 1 fire rating, Durable and lightweight
Fiber and formaldehyde free, Controls condensation, and is Environmentally safe.

What a pain - we were buying so many and then holding on to the dead ones to recycle. So I now have a two fold problem of supply and demand. I've started switching over to rechargeable ones but again there is a cost factor. One of the hidden issues of going green is you will spend more on select items, but the long term gain is worth the cost. Up till now recharging Alkaline batteries would either result in a small explosion, fire, or a beating from Robert Conrad. Here's a few cool products we are moving to:

These are nice if you are on the road and use a laptop - they charge in your USB port. I also charge my cell phone and bluetooth headset via a USB port - less chargers and wires to carry around.

Here is another promising product called the Power Save 1200. I just recently installed it. More to come on how it works and it if saves power and money.

The Power-Save reduces the amount of power drawn from the utility by storing (in its capacitors) otherwise lost electricity (watts) caused by the inductive motors in your home. (Some examples of inductive motors are Air Conditioning units, refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, pool pumps, vacuum cleaners, furnace blower motors, fans etc.) The technology applied by the Power-Save 1200™ Unit supplies that stored electricity back to your inductive loads, thus causing you to decrease your demand from the utility. If you decrease your demand from the utility, your meter slows down, and you use less electricity. The thought is, you’ve already paid for that electricity, why pay for it and waste it when you can pay for it, store it, and reuse it again. This whole process is called power factor optimization.

What is Power Factor?
Power factor is the percentage of electricity that’s delivered to your house and used effectively, compared to what is wasted. For example, a 1.0 power factor means that all the electricity that’s being delivered to your home is being used effectively for its purpose. However, most homes in America today have a .77 power factor or less. This means that 77% of the electricity that is coming thru your meter at your home or business is being used effectively, the other 23% is being wasted by your inductive load. With a low power factor, the utility has to deliver more electricity to do the same work. However, the Power-Save unit increases that power factor in most cases to .97 or .98, thus increasing the effective use of your electricity and lowering your usage.

I'm converting my 69 Camaro to run E85. The simplest way to do this is with a carburetor conversion kit from Heath Daniel's RaceonE85. His site is http://www.raceone85.com