tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post7357199047951333129..comments2024-03-28T00:20:01.688-05:00Comments on Little Blog In The Big Woods: A Possibility.Greenpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17224906349154302210noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-46431093013831864962007-04-30T14:59:00.000-05:002007-04-30T14:59:00.000-05:00Oh, and to follow up; a 200-amp service is standar...Oh, and to follow up; a 200-amp service is standard here in new construction. I had to replace the old wiring and plumbing, to get earthquake insurance. I did most of the labor, so it cost time and materials. <BR/><BR/>Code here required two circuits wherever the lights need to stay on if a tool trips a GFI or overloads a breaker. That made sense to me for most rooms.<BR/><BR/>I don't want to be in the dark listening to any of my power tools spinning down, trying not to move my hands.<BR/><BR/>Yep, it's way more than our host's using.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-11545548429086119082007-04-30T14:17:00.000-05:002007-04-30T14:17:00.000-05:00For RC, with good electrical advice --- absolutely...For RC, with good electrical advice --- absolutely yes. If it'd occurred to me to ask when we rewired our house, I'm sure our professional electrician would have given me the same advice. I raised it because Lovins says it's an idea to consider for commercial construction and because I wondered. <BR/><BR/>We did in fact put in the ground fault interrupter breakers that were newly available in the late 1990s --- our inspector had to look them up, to allow them.<BR/><BR/>And the newer arc fault interrupters definitely look better yet. Thanks for the reminder.<BR/><BR/>My basic point was --- to ask what might be _better_ than the electrical code minimum requirement, when designing. That's how we put in ground fault interrupter breakers back then --- the electrician said, well, these are approved elsewhere, your inspector won't know about them, but ought to accept them.<BR/><BR/>Same for us putting in an earthquake interrupter on the house gas line --- not required at the time by the residential code, the insurance inspector had never seen one installed and was delighted ---- that was our plumber's answer to the same question, "what can I do that's smart that goes beyond what the code and the inspector will require?"<BR/><BR/>But I'll be more careful than ever to repeat ---- ask someone smarter, look this stuff up, I post what I know and expect to be corrected.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-48204093657704807402007-04-28T19:44:00.000-05:002007-04-28T19:44:00.000-05:00Greenpa - great idea. The current rate system for ...Greenpa - great idea. The current rate system for utilities is abysmal, partly because their subsidies are perversely based on how much electricity they sell. You actually aren't the first person to come up with the idea of paying more for consuming lots of a utility - this idea has been tossed around to encourage water conservation here in Arizona. Even Lovins is hip to the game: on page 278 of Friedman's bible, Natural Capitalism, he states: "Utilities often manipulate tariff structures to discount higher use or penalize efficiency... Getting the incentives right so that rewards are granted for what we want - lower bills - and not the opposite - higer sales - will make such distortions couterproductive and rare." <BR/><BR/>For the anti-academics: I agree that, by and large, our educational system is severely dysfunctional and is probably more of the problem than the solution. But not everywhere. I go to the Gallatin School, a subdivision of NYU where students create their own major, and much of my learning has been experiential. I'll be graduating in a year, and I think my college experience has only made me more equipped to do some serious activism. It's only when what goes on in the college STAYS in the college that acedemics get so annoying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-38932122490150292392007-04-27T09:35:00.000-05:002007-04-27T09:35:00.000-05:00Hi anonymous,One way to cut down on your AC is to ...Hi anonymous,<BR/><BR/>One way to cut down on your AC is to go somewhere else during the hottest part of the day. Malls and libraries always have their AC on. It would be better if they didn't use so much electricity of course, but since they will whether or not anyone goes there, you might as well save some electricity (and CO2, etc) by using theirs instead. A friend of mine used to do this when she was in school in DC. She'd bring all her work and even some hobby stuff and stay at the library for several hours. Or you may even find they have books you want to read :D<BR/><BR/>Do you have insulated shades? At home we open the windows in the evening/overnight when it's cooler, then as soon as the temps hit around 74F we close the windows and pull the shades -- helps keep the house cooler/more bearable for longer. We live in a 2-story plus attic, so we'll sometimes also open a window at the top, so that the heat can pass through and up.<BR/><BR/>And when we do use the AC (I have asthma, so sometimes we just have to use it), we section off the part of the house I'll be spending the most time in, so that the AC is only working to dry out the air in a contained space, not the entire building. We have a window AC, not central. If you have central, I don't know if you can localize it that way.<BR/><BR/>Also, people always talk about insulating for the winter, but it's important in the summer, too. You can insulate with layers of fabric hanging on the warmest walls, and full bookcases can help make a thicker wall as well (although I would put some fabric between the case and the wall, so it's a continuous insulation).<BR/><BR/>Just some ideas that I hope are helpful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-70060911434665372392007-04-27T09:23:00.000-05:002007-04-27T09:23:00.000-05:00Hi RC. Thanks for the info on what's happening in ...Hi RC. Thanks for the info on what's happening in PR. I have to say I don't usually pay much attention to your area, in general. My focus has been more on making folks I know more aware of options and choices in their living (mostly by stuff my husband and I are doing), posting info on what's happening environmentally (bee hive CCD, etc.), and so on. <BR/><BR/>We've cut down on electricity and water use, but nothing like what you have to deal with. But we have cut our monthly electric bill in half.<BR/><BR/>Do you get a lot of rain there? Any chance of using containers to catch some of the rain against times of year when company doesn't have water to send or it costs too much?<BR/><BR/>We're greatly expanding our veg. garden this year, trying to produce more of our own food, and will be making the walkpaths between the rows deep, so that when it rains the water gets trapped in the deep part, instead of running downhill. Helps to water the garden for us. Based on the permaculture 'swales', but smaller because we don't have a big yard. <BR/><BR/>And we use candles at night and sometimes an oil lamp - good enough for general illumination for our activities, although we have to add more candles for reading -- the reflectors I made help to increase the candle power as well. Don't know how much candles cost in PR, though. And of course, never leave a candle unattended, so it's only in the room we're in. Oil lamps are a little more secure for leaving the room for a bit, but don't cast as much light.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for posting on the electric wire thing; I was kind of curious about that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-20929068902523094552007-04-25T19:19:00.000-05:002007-04-25T19:19:00.000-05:00the union electrician I hired to help me when I re...the union electrician I hired to help me when I rewired our 1920s bungalow did a good plan ---convinced me to put in about 18 circuits and a 200-amp service,<BR/><BR/>I have the feeling that A, this is an awful lot of Amperage in a cottage unless the heat, stove, garage, the A/C and lots of cooling and freezing are packed in there and ALL electric and B, the writer was sold a bill of goods.<BR/><BR/>I can say this for sure: this place sucks up some juice, baby!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-62178783241901534782007-04-25T19:13:00.000-05:002007-04-25T19:13:00.000-05:00A note to you Greenpa. Despite my cranky comments ...A note to you Greenpa. Despite my cranky comments {also a grandpa} I love your site, but am somewhat impatient with the dumbed down aspects.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-47221764835113802242007-04-25T19:12:00.000-05:002007-04-25T19:12:00.000-05:00Below is from another comment:From ANKHBut neither...Below is from another comment:<BR/><BR/>From ANKH<BR/><BR/>But neither of us thought about going to say 10 or 8-gauge wire.<BR/><BR/>And it'd have been damned cheap, I did most of the work; yeah, it's harder to wrestle 10-gauge than 12-gauge, but we ran some 10-gauge for the longest run and it wasn't any big deal. I could've done it. I hadn't a clue because I didn't think to ask.<BR/><BR/>My observation:<BR/><BR/>Uh, hold on. I'm an electrician. There are a ton of problems with the reasoning in that comment, and the lack of any knowledge of science or theory related to the power engineering in residences is the main one.<BR/><BR/>Please, Greenpa, try to review these comments a little better. This one is based on some truth {what resistance is about} but it has a rather scrambled trajectory that doesn't end up anywhere and can leave the reader believing that the wiring in their house may be substandard. I have to believe that you would know enough about this from your own off grid activities to tidy up the errors. I notice the commenter never gets into the fine points of cable bundles, mixed AWG sizes in the same conduit, THHN vs UF vs RHW and also the concepts of wiring for AC {very little loss over a distance} VS DC {extreme loss over very short distances}and mixed AC and DC systems to take advantage of power that need not be run through an inverter.<BR/>Nor does the commenter even touch upon breaker amperage or circuit design when dwelling upon fire hazards. Never mentions the new regulations about Arc Fault Devices.<BR/>In short, this was a comment about house wiring by a person with excellent intentions and virtually no knowledge.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-30389229640381669362007-04-25T09:09:00.000-05:002007-04-25T09:09:00.000-05:00I miss your how I do it posts! Right now you remin...I miss your how I do it posts! Right now you remind me a bit of my father-in-law, a very intelligent and long-winded man.<BR/><BR/>That being said: as a medieval history person, England was instituting bans against the mondo-emissions sea coal in the 12th century (London fog started a long time ago) and importing timber from Scandinavia by the 13th, as they'd completely deforested England to keep the iron forges burning.<BR/><BR/>Pollution has a long, long history. I think we're just at the population point where it's got a global effect.Able Ponderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02118601855887908109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-56420486500555544372007-04-25T00:13:00.000-05:002007-04-25T00:13:00.000-05:00Couple thoughts: Rocky Mtn. Institute points out ...Couple thoughts: <BR/><BR/>Rocky Mtn. Institute points out somewhere that the size of electrical wires required by the building codes is sufficient to keep the number of electrical fires low (the wires can still get very hot, carrying the load people draw, just not hot enough to burn off the insulation, melt the copper, and arc through the copper vapor into your stud wall spaces).<BR/>And RMI says that doubling the wire diameter would cut losses from resistance (energy lost as heat) to repay the cost of using bigger wire in a few years -- particularly for big business/commercial buildings, of course. <BR/><BR/>And RMI also says, why haven't you businesspeople ever gotten a bid from an electrician to do your commercial wiring job this way? Obviously, you wouldn't take her bid.<BR/><BR/>And I thought, damn, the union electrician I hired to help me when I rewired our 1920s bungalow did a good plan ---convinced me to put in about 18 circuits and a 200-amp service, and I convinced her to plan for metal-clad wire instead of Romex and teach me to do the work, and that was all good. The city inspector crawled all over the attic on final saying "beautiful work, beautiful" -- they like it when homeowners overbuild the stuff you _can't_ see in the housing stock, for good reason. They're there to protect the housing stock, the people come and go like mayflies, but the buildings go on for a lot longer.<BR/><BR/>But neither of us thought about going to say 10 or 8-gauge wire.<BR/><BR/>And it'd have been damned cheap, I did most of the work; yeah, it's harder to wrestle 10-gauge than 12-gauge, but we ran some 10-gauge for the longest run and it wasn't any big deal. I could've done it. I hadn't a clue because I didn't think to ask.<BR/><BR/>And said electrician, her electrician days behind her, went off to her second career (she'd been accepted at medical school) so I can't ask her, 12 years later, if she'd even thought of it. <BR/><BR/>Missed opportunity.<BR/><BR/>Another thought ---<BR/><BR/>Kim Stanley Robinson's climate trilogy is in its third volume now (Sixty Days and Counting). And several times in there, the question comes up --- why do we have so many toys, but such limited healthcare and housing stock? <BR/><BR/>Good question, that. How come we don't notice that far more is wasted on disposable crap than it would take to get the whole nation decent healthcare and economic, energy-efficient housing? Why do we make such bad choices? Do we hate freedom, that we waste it this way?Hank Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07521410755553979665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-85438401530870241462007-04-24T19:13:00.000-05:002007-04-24T19:13:00.000-05:00I'm in favor of action. A very large part of why I...I'm in favor of action. A very large part of why I'm not in a university.<BR/><BR/>So far, your best comment. I 've led a life based on action too, and lots of change. That's because I'm easily bored and I'm easily made impatient by the dullness of the society around me. I attended University for a short time and couldn't wait to escape. Meanwhile, if the folks at the U world have any answers for us in this world of heat and shrinkage, could they please speak up soon?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-5610747581723566872007-04-24T19:09:00.000-05:002007-04-24T19:09:00.000-05:00Oh, I just checked this month's bill. Counting all...Oh, I just checked this month's bill. Counting all charges, I am paying 19.2 cents per kwh. I only use 290 kwh a month, am residential. Would not dream of having A/C.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-49092402487687630072007-04-24T19:02:00.000-05:002007-04-24T19:02:00.000-05:00I live in PR. We already pay 12 cents for the powe...I live in PR. We already pay 12 cents for the power and only when the oil factor surcharge isn't too high that month-- those months it's lots more. We pay these rates because we have a terribly isolated and inefficient system run by a corrupt government and violently greedy union members.<BR/>But, it is true that we are forced to cut down our use because the costs are abusive. Also recently a graduated water bill was introduced and the costs per cubic meter of water goes way up as soon as you get past a few meters and after a few dozen more, it becomes prohibitive. Water wasting is way down. That is, when there is actually any water to waste. Often the company just doesn't have any to send us anyway, so we are bathing with spit. It's third world chic, mon. <BR/>I'm not making any of this up. Even if you North Americans think it is a joke. <BR/>We have a lot of incentive to get back to primitivity here. Modern life at our rates is a luxury.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-22349794154428941822007-04-24T13:58:00.000-05:002007-04-24T13:58:00.000-05:00C - hey, we use TP! :-) Your power company remin...C - hey, we use TP! :-) Your power company reminds me of the credit card companies- lots of friendly talk; but if you are a day late with a payment, and they CAN screw you- they DO. Why on earth can't they just charge less when you DO meet the goal? Wouldn't kill them. About other people making changes- sure, it's a problem. A huge part of why I was so quiet for so long- nobody wanted to hear, in fact it would just irritate them. Necessity- is creeping up on us, though. And I remain convinced that personal behavior can be the best convincer, ultimately. Try saying "I'm not ready to change" rather than "I won't." Sounds better, even inside your own head.Greenpahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17224906349154302210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703718837080088488.post-80227537860722787122007-04-24T12:34:00.000-05:002007-04-24T12:34:00.000-05:00Now this idea I could live with. I think. Getting ...Now this idea I could live with. I think. Getting rid of my fridge? Grocery shopping everyday? It ranks right up there with no TP on my list of changes that just go too far.<BR/><BR/>My power company, AEP, has a program that is one teeny step toward this. You get a discounted rate if your usage remains below 700kWh each month in the summer. If you make that, you get the lower rate (though they don't provide the actual rates) until the next summer. If you blow it one month you get the higher rate through the next summer. Unfortunately I blew it in August thanks to AC. And yes, I know I don't NEED AC, but it's number three on my list of sacred things that I'm probably not changing until someone makes me (or it becomes impossible to afford).<BR/><BR/>All of this gets me down a bit. If I, a person who cares about the environment and is probably willing to make more changes than the average joe (or at least compared to my friends and family), already have this growing list of things I won't change, what hope is there that everyone else will do anything? --CAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com