Archive for Off Grid
January 16, 2012 at 6:20 pm · Filed under Activism, Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Money and Finance, Off Grid, Solar, Uncategorized
Sounds simple enough, yet how?
Being a vagabond is great and all, but I also believe in community and sustainability! How could I accomplish all parts of my equation at once? I mean, isn’t community and sustainability accomplished successfully by living in one location with a group of people, following models of communal or group living, farming and running co-ops? And isn’t tramping around comprised of moving from one place to another quite often, rarely being somewhere long enough to build community or become part of an already established one, coupled with spending way too much time in cars, busses, trains, or airplanes and chain supermarkets to be sustainable? Read the rest of this entry »
December 31, 2011 at 4:48 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Off Grid
Many people – especially for décor and ambience are drawn towards “real antique “pot bellied wood burning stoves. If they are strictly for ambience – and not to be fired up – then it really does not matter. That is except for purchase price. However if you are purchasing the device either as a heating appliance along for ambience and charm , or strictly for its furnace heat output comfort giving qualities any of a number of real concerns come into play. Consider safety, your house and fire insurance policies coverage and extra fees and costs that may come into play. Its not only a question of “is it good enough “ or “safe enough” but also that the device may not meet current fire safety csa ( in Canada ) or Underwriters Listing standards or for that matter even your local building codes. Even if the heater does measure up – you may not know its full condition, its maintenance over the years and even if serious events or damages happened to occur to this one unit over its lifetime.
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November 29, 2011 at 8:34 am · Filed under Green Tech, Off Grid, On Grid, Solar
There are so many different industry buzzwords that have come about lately that it is very difficult to ignore them. Whether you’re talking about “cloud computing” or “grid computing” or even “smart grid technology” there are literally hundreds of company cropping up trying to market their wares to the various enterprises who may be in need of such products. Some of these technologies may take a while for rapid adoption, while others will make it to the masses rather rapidly. In the case of smart grid adoption, I suggest that the former will be more indicative than the latter. Read the rest of this entry »
November 23, 2011 at 2:36 am · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
When it comes time to designing your new home – its not as easy as you might think in 2011 to be fully green and to plan to take full advantage of energy saving practices and technologies that are available. We do not all live in San Diego or Vancouver BC where not only the climate is most temperate – but also we may not encounter the most progressive and knowledgeable government officials, tradesman and contractors. It can be like one giant circus or being at Sea-World as you try to explain to these miscreants. Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Wind Power
Windows are a mixed blessing. No doubt they are great for admitting light and making your home – be it condo , house , apartment bright and cheery while admitting light, providing a view of the out-of-doors as well as collecting some solar energy during day light daytime hours they are not good – indeed horrible – insulators against nighttime heat losses. In fact , in the heating and windows trades it is both well known and held as a truism that single pane glass acts as a heat exchanger to the outdoors – allowing about 10 times as much heat loss per a square foot area than an insulated wall would.
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November 18, 2011 at 6:50 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
Loose fill (pour type) fiberglass, mineral wool and cellulose products are easy to install in unfinished attic areas. These materials also can be blown into walls. However they do settle over time – reducing their insulation values and make for drafty, cold patches of space. Read the rest of this entry »
November 17, 2011 at 6:09 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid
A penny invested in installing and upgrading insulation materials in any building is it your home or office building – your property or an investment group of properties is many KW of electrical power, volumes of fossil fuels saved. Here are some things to consider before you go shopping at your local building equipment store to help you choose the type of insulation materials that you do the renovations and upgrades with. Read the rest of this entry »
November 16, 2011 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid
Unless you have a need of a special material or materials, select insulation and insulating materials based on its cost per net square foot for a given R-value. As an example suppose that you want to upgrade your home’s energy insulation to both save you heating fuel costs and reduce your carbon footprint. Suppose you want to upgrade the values to an R-value of 19. You would or could then price out one kind of insulation that has a calculated and labeled R-value of 3.2 per inch of thickness and costs merely 7 cents per square foot at the 1-inch thickness. Another type, for this calculation exercise, has an R-value of 3.7 per inch of thickness yet costs 8 cents per square foot. Which is the better overall buy?
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October 18, 2011 at 6:51 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Solar, Wind Power
Add-on solar systems are another possibility as an auxiliary source of heating energy. Air heaters, to provide at least a portion of the needed winter space heat, built along south facing walls can be constructed of relatively inexpensive materials Solar water heaters can take much of the load off of conventional water heaters – on a year round – winter , summer , fall, springtime basis.
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October 18, 2011 at 6:26 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, Ecology, Green Tech, Off Grid
If homeowners are going to escape the tyranny of higher and higher oil costs, they will definitely need to cut back on energy use while at them same time them moving congruently to natural energy sources: wood, sun, wind and earth. For most of us however no doubt you can well bet that there are still going to bills and expenses to pay.
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October 15, 2011 at 5:45 am · Filed under DIY Projects, hybrids, Off Grid
The tightest door does not save much heat when it is wide open. Your grandmother may have well told you – when the home may have been heated by wood or by an old fashioned “oil burner” with bunker fuel oil – “Why are you heating the outside”.
It’s sort of pointless now – in our days of global warming. Why waste the energy.
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October 15, 2011 at 5:24 am · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
Most homes, apartments & condominiums can save energy – indeed there are numerous opportunities to abound to save energy if we only look around and do a little legwork and money.
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October 11, 2011 at 6:02 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Off Grid, On Grid
With winter’s chill soon upon us we should do all we can around our homes, offices and properties to take steps to reduce our carbon footprint and fossil fuel use. After all a watt of power saved now – is energy down the line that is not used and saved for future generations and others in less fortunate areas of the globe.
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October 4, 2011 at 7:13 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, Green Tech, Off Grid, Solar
For most homeowners and property owners, investing in equipment to produce all the heat and power needed is somewhat less than practical. Most of us in 2011 need to put priorities on limited energy and fuel dollars – especially to shepherd our fossil fuel usages. The wisest course of action is to invest first in materials, systems and equipment which will give us the greatest rate of return. This is basic logic when it comes to raw savings. In most homes and properties, in this era, space heating and domestic water heating demand attention first and foremost. Or so it seems. Let us do the analysis and workup.
Decrease Fossil Fuel Wattage - Upgrade the Insulation in Your Home
September 17, 2011 at 6:50 am · Filed under Activism, DIY Projects, Off Grid, Solar, The Politics
Energy used to be cheap so overall most people became wasteful of energy even to the point of energy hogs. Whether it was that electric power bills were minor or that you could drive from Winnipeg to Minneapolis return on $ 13 of gas conserving, saving and not wasting fuel and energy was essentially a non-issue. At least in North America most commercial buildings and even homes were built in these pre-1973 oil crisis times of the 1960’s and 50’s when cheap energy ruled the roost and there was power and gas to “burn”. Yet no doubt times have changed, not only in terms of prices and pricing but also in addition in terms of our values and norms when it comes to the using of excess energy and energy conservation.
Don't Be an ENERGY HOG !!
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September 13, 2011 at 12:47 am · Filed under Activism, Bio Fuel, Green Tech, Off Grid, Solar, The Politics
Wherever you and your family reside you can start easing yours, theirs and family members as well into the “natural energy “picture right away. If you look through recommendations from solar , wind and governmental energy saving agencies you will notice that most of what is being done in this area of “alternate energy” and energies is for the most part completely new , complex and complicated and certainly not outside the boundaries of good old fashioned common sense. For the most part we are returning to good old proven and sustainable ways and means. The sun has been there for a long time – billions and billions of years. People have burned wood for heat since the dawn of man.
Add in the potential for heat from hot springs and geysers.
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August 23, 2011 at 4:41 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Off Grid
Uncontrolled air flow through the “building envelope” which protects us from outside air temperatures is the major source of heat and energy loss from living areas of your home and in addition can subsequently result in a host of other humidity, building maintenance and health / allergy / mold problems and issues.
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August 19, 2011 at 4:14 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, Green Tech, Off Grid
What did people do before air conditioning and mechanical air conditioners came on the scene and were installed in homes and offices? Somehow “people lived” and they got through long hot and humid summers – even the elderly and those comprised with breathing illnesses. Yet how did previous generations manage to cool their homes and buildings with little external supplementary energy and power sources?
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August 11, 2011 at 6:05 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid, Solar
We all have heard the phrase “His (or hers) heating budget is just up the chimney. What a waste of energy and the limited resources of the earth. Yet what if the chimney itself is defective or in poor repair and losing heat and energies becoming highly inefficient itself? Defects in masonry chimneys are often neglected because overall they cannot be easily seen or viewed. Yet unseen is neither unheard nor good for overall home energy usage and wastage. Such neglect can be dangerous as well as power and fuel wasteful.
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August 7, 2011 at 1:14 am · Filed under Green Tech, Off Grid
Many of us trying to be “green” and working to reduce our power and electrical consumption may find handicaps in trying to calculate electrical “loads” themselves as part of the scale down and scaling down process themselves. If you do suspect that even if a circuit is drawing too much power overall and wish to bring this downwards you will need to calculate the load factor. In sum total the maximum load of any household or industrial electrical circuit will be indicated by the amperage rating of the circuit breaker of fuse – which should be clearly stamped on it. Obviously both for safety and to be green and not greedy with power and energy usage you should be way lower than that – and always working and thinking diligently on means of ever decreasing power drains. Read the rest of this entry »
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