Plastic bags suck

I received this as an email forward from my Aunt Lin and thought it was very appropriate to this blog...



And then there is this story which is somewhat unrelated, but hilarious. San Francisco seems like a pretty cool place.

'09 Electricity spike

Suddenly, the investment in solar panels is looking a little less pricey...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/08/news/economy/electricity_prices/index.htm?postversion=2008070817

4-Day Work Weeks

I am definitely not breaking new ground here, as companies all over the place are adopting both flex time and 4-day work weeks, but I am proudly beginning this next week. Basically, I will be working Tuesday-Friday, from 8-6 with about a 35 minute lunch break (37.5 minutes to be exact)... My employer, Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT, thankfully has just begun a 1-year trial program for employees who consistently receive good annual reviews.

This is actually an amazing reward if you think about it. I get about 31 miles/gallon in my 2001 Honda Civic and my daily commute is about 75 miles (blech)... With gas creeping up on $5/gallon, I will be saving myself almost $10 per week in gas alone, not to mention the 75 fewer miles of wear and tear on the car. I used Native Energy's CO₂ Emissions Calculator to figure I will also be saving the Earth from an extra 48 pounds of CO₂ emissions every week. Big fan of that. Check and see if your employer offers this kind of schedule. It is a win for everyone involved. I will be a happier and more productive employee, knowing I am helping the environment by being here one fewer day, but will still work the same number of hours and will have 3-day weekends.

Dehumidifier water

Like many people in New England, and I'm sure elsewhere that it is humid, we run a dehumidifier in our basement all summer. It collects a lot of water. Throughout my life I have seen this water dumped down the drain or in some cases the dehumidifier is connected to the main drainpipe for the house and goes out to the sewer or septic system.

We happen to have four cats, as I may have mentioned before, which means we have a lot of big buckets from buying litter. We have always saved the buckets (which come in handy for all sorts of things and have lids that fit pretty snug). So, we let the dehumidifier work its magic, then dump the water into these buckets, which conveniently hold exactly two batches of collected water, and then use that to water various plants around the yard. It's funny if you think about it, sucking water out of the air and then using it. It's kind of like a rainwater collection system except this water has never even rained down on us.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. If you are paying for the electricity to run your dehumidifier, you might as well get something free out of the deal other than just the less humid air.

edited

Here is some more information about dehumidifiers from Wikipedia

Potability
Water collected from any dehumidifier is technically distilled water in that it does contain few of the minerals and other particulates that are removed in a true distillation process. However, a true distillation process condenses the steam of boiled water, and the boiling process kills any microbes and fungi that may be present in the pre-distilled water. Dehumidifiers are also not kept to a state of cleanliness required for food-grade standards (drinking water usually has very high legal requirements). The collected water is therefore not considered safe to drink.[1] Also, as the water may sit for a while in the collection bucket, the water may be quite stale, in particular with fungus collected from aerial spores.

Gas Saving Tips

A nice little set of tips for driving more efficiently can be found here, put together by the Federal Trade Commission. These are a lot of the same things we have all heard over and over but it's a nice reminder as gas approaches $5/gallon.

Slacking, kind of

I haven't written lately because a lot of things have been going on, including a re-organization at work, two trips, and an upcoming opening reception for my first real photography exhibition. Incidentally, my series of photos on display are very much inspired by my interest in sustainable living and the impact of human beings on this planet.

I am exhausted right now from getting ready for this show but the general idea is that we humans are essentially inconsequential in the grand scheme of everything that is 'out there' in the universe. This is not to say that I do not appreciate the air I breathe or the water I drink. On the contrary, my goal with these images is to push the idea that we are touching EVERYTHING. I just want us to retract a little. Or a lot. Stop over indulging. How very un-American of me to say such things.

700+ kWh hours later...

It's been over a month since I've posted here, which bugs me. A lot has been going on, including a problem with the PV array. It has been producing marvelously. In fact, in the first month of operation, we purchased 288 kWh from CL&P, and sold them 440 kWh, giving us a surplus of 152 kWh that will become a credit on next month's bill... We have a small problem though, and electricians and electrical engineers are working on solving it... Remember that nifty on demand electric hot water heater we got? Well, every single time it turns on, the inverter for the PV system goes into default mode and tries to reset itself. It seems to think there is a problem with the grid and is designed to turn itself off so as not to be damaged.

As you can imagine, this is probably not good for the inverter to be going through these cycles 20-30 times a day. And it doesn't do it just once. For the duration of time that the hot water is running, which means the water heater is turned on, the PV system is basically not doing anything. This is not cool. Not at all. That thing was WAY too expensive to be turning off several times a day just because we are using hot water. Especially when we made it clear we would be purchasing this type of water heater when the PV system was being specced out.

Long story short, Nicole has made a ton of phone calls to Solar Wrights and our electrician to try to get this straightened out. And we do not like being nudged to abandon the tankless water heater (which we just purchased about 7 months ago) as a solution.

So, we'll see what happens.