We waste huge amounts of energy in the US because of poor building practices and poor traffic management. Improving those would improve quality of life, cut down energy bills, and add more quality time to everybody’s day.
I’m off on my bicycle to Whole Foods, with my new touchpad.
Steve,
We have an old stone dwelling in the Limousin, originally the previous owner had the walls as exposed stone, which looked very nice. After a couple of winters telling my partner that the reason we were cold in winter was down to two things, uninsulated walls and open plan design. So a couple of years ago we fixed both. Since then the house is much warmer, too warm some evenings and the LPG Central Heating only comes on in the morning on the coldest nights; once the wood burners have cooled down.
Unfortunately most ex-pats round here prefer tje look to comfort. Despite the fact that I reckon the insulation has paid for itself already.
BTW I’ve also switch almost exclusively to LED lighting.
PS
Meant to say one of the woodburners is a Range Cooker which means we don’t use gas or electricity for cooking during late autumn, winter and early spring.
Thank God we have the elites on both coasts leading by example.
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/63598857.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1298/1118707975_cef9d75953.jpg
But it’s all “energy efficient” LED. </sarc> A good 10mm outdoor system can suck down 400 – 600 watts for each square meter of display area. They’ve come a long way as that number used to be in the 5 – 8 kw range. They are a bit hit to an electric bill.
Right Gator. It always amuses me how the alarmists preach about conservation from their man-made asphalt jungle heat islands. Isn’t Hansen’s old haunt at GISS just up the block from the lower picture? Small wonder Gaia isn’t cooperating with these frauds…
Just went to Daily Kos (daily Coo Coos) and they had the polar bears and global warming and demands that scientists who prove global warming isn’t happening should be persecuted.
None of these idiots look out a window. Even LA is having cold rain now. There is no excuse.
LA is a bad example this year. We’re having a lot warmer January and February than average, look at http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/los-angeles-ca/90012/january-weather/347625?monyr=1/1/2015 and http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/los-angeles-ca/90012/february-weather/347625?monyr=2/1/2015.
I swapped all my incandescent 65W BR30 bulbs for LED a couple of months ago and our power bill dropped by $30 per month. Now if they actually last as long as they claim then they will be a great investment. If they all break in the next year it will be a costly fiasco.
We bought one LED to test it, $10. Didn’t last 6 months. Well, it sort of did. It had light, but it was as if half the brightness was lost. We haven’t tried another. I hope you have better luck.
I installed lots of GU10 LED spotlights to replace mainly 50W halogens. That was over two years ago. I have 8 in the kitchen which in winter are on about 10 hours a day. So far no failures. I also have two lighting a dark staircase, these are on about 16 hours a day, as much for psychological reasons as anything else, two failed in about a year.
I make scale model boats, and find LED light does not match the halogen when painting, but is better than CFL.
For reliability I found SMD multi LED better than the 3/4 LED type.
I’m definitely in profit.
As long as you don’t make it mandatory.
No doubt Robert; there is a corporate hedging program behind all mandatory “good things”.
As the risk of appearing to have the pessimism(s) of Thomas Hobbes, I invite the attention to how our life-styles drive the costs of air in our dwellings; we have filtered-air, heated-air, forced-air, make-up air, combustion-air, exchanged-air, conditioned-air (dried or cooled), handled-air, exhausted-air, compressed-air, and changed-air (not an inclusive list).
The structures identified as “unusually tight construction” are arguably more expensive than the “leaky” old farm houses that were more than sufficient for our fore bearers.
Even vented air and makeup air require some type of device (window, flapper, or screen) to control what, when and how air goes through it.
There are taxes and fees associated with just about anything that involves the use of air; can’t believe I used to smoke!
Energy efficiency is mostly a function of energy cost. If more energy efficient houses are demanded, energy costs must soar; creating the desired effect. And Obama gets his way.
We can live like Europeans. In little houses, tiny appliances, small cars, no boats, no RV’s, no fun.
Or we can elect a government that will cast off these green shackles once and for all and dot the landscape again with cheap coal fired power plants that will bring back prosperity jobs and hope for the future.
It’s important not to waste anything (resources, energy, food and so on) , especially in this era, when we became a “single use” and “fast forward” society. The real problem with global warming is that is not explained by the energy consumption, as the previous warmings and coolings were. In the past century, we have had many climate changes, but none of them can be explained by energy consumption, as the rates were alot different from today.
Well S-mama, you should be worried about not wasting anything. After all when the Green Blob folks get the population to their goal of 1 Billion, killing 6 out of 7 of us serfs, they will not have the manpower to go find any new sources.
Questions – which side of the 1/7 vs 6/7th are you? And how sure are you of that position.
I wish we could find a use for off-peak electricity.