I got a call to do a job out in Concord, CA last week and set up an appointment for Monday.  When I got out to the job, the guy was looking for someone to run some plumbing and electrical for a new pool heater and pump.  Didn't seem like a big deal at first.

When I got out there, the guy had dug the trench for the plumbing already, but it wasn't quite deep enough.  Then it turns out the heater and pump is for a spa, not a pool.  He's using a pool heater so he can heat it faster.  Um, ok.  Next up is the spa itself.  It's not mounted and the shell is sitting on the ground with a couple of hoses loose.  Last, we get to the heater and pump.  Bought off of Craigslist with no labels and filled with cobwebs.

The guy seemed like a great guy.  If he was my buddy I'd have probably helped him on the weekends and we could have figured everything out over a few beers.  Instead, I walked him through everything he needed to do and said he should give someone else a call.  I've got a thing about hooking people up with stuff that doesn't work and doing things the wrong way.  Now there is always the risk that he'll end up with some joker who comes in and takes his money and ends up blowing things up anyway.  I know it happens.  That's why I started fixing things myself.  On other people's jobs though, sometimes you just gotta walk away.

I've talked before about Smart, a car company owned by Chrysler that cranks out really sweet little cars for the European market and are planning full roll out in America next year.  It's time to add another feather to their cap.  The Financial Times just came out with a story about the top green cars and the top two cars were both made by Smart.  What's interesting is that the Financial Times went beyond the normal measure of simple miles per gallon and evaluated the the whole lifecycle of the car from the raw materials to disposal of batteries.

The buzz was created because the Prius ranked number 12 on the list of green cars.  The Prius has essentially become a moving billboard that says, "Hey, look at me!  I care about the environment."  (Though one poster on another board said he drives one just for the mileage and would still drive it even if it ran on baby seals.)

So why did the Prius do badly?  The first and foremost reason is that every single car that beat it weighs about half as much.  When you factor in raw materials alone, you're at a huge disadvantage.  The other reason is the batteries in the Prius.  Batteries are simply nasty things.  One of the reasons so many ecogeeks are leaning away from hybrid cars is because the batteries are toxic and driving a car with two engines rather than a single more efficient one makes little sense.  Last, and to give another leg up to our local Prius drivers: Only one of the other top 12 cars is even available in the US. The other car is the Yaris.

So how do you know how green your car really is?  Gas mileage really counts for the most.  Some companies are working on greener factories with more daylight and less toxins in their dyes, paints, and other materials.  But in the end, if each car is driven 100,000 miles or 200,000 miles, it's good to get a car that gets good mileage and lasts a long time.

For those keeping score at home, here's the list:
1. Smart Roadster
2. Smart Fortwo cabriolet
3. Citroen C1 1.0i
4. Peugeot 107 1.0
5. Citroen C1 1.4 HDi
6. Fiat Panda 1.2
7. Ford Ka 1.3
8. Toyota Yaris 1.0
9. Fiat Panda 100hp
10. Peugeot 206 1.4
11. Mini Cooper D
12. Toyota Prius 1.5

And here's the link which also has some other rankings for off-road, family, etc.: http://www.clifford-thames....

I've been doing a lot of thinking about switches over the last week both because I've had a bit of electrical to do and because politics is one of the most metaphorical of businesses.  Electrical and electoral ideas about power are poorly matched for a number of reasons, and when the terms cross over they tend to obscure rather than (ahem) illuminate.

One of the main problems is that with enough time and energy, you could probably map our political system using electrical terms.  You'd have to use signaling devices and photovoltaics and relays and dimmers, but it could be done.  We tend to think of politics in terms of binary systems mainly because that is how the choices are presented.  An up-or-down vote, Democratic or Republican, yes or no.  Lights on, lights off.

In reality, things aren't quite so clean.   Politics is like an old city, with layers of systems in all sorts of places.  Some of these systems keep life going, in hospitals and homes.  Some are mainly for convenience.  Many of the systems that require resources don't actually do anything but are still connected to the grid and draw from the system.  Some systems that seem wasteful to us are central to the lives of others. Other things draw on the system just because they were built in but you can't shut them off without losing a whole system (does anyone actually use the clock on their VCR?)

The arguments about politics generally come in two flavors.  The first one is one that is the bane of people in facilities management: the "Too Hot, Too Cold" Argument.  According to surveys, the most common complaint in workplaces is that the office is too cold.  The second most common complaint is that the office is too warm.  People think of this in terms of turning the AC on or off though that's a pretty gross oversimplification.  System balancing, distance from vents, vent air velocity, etc all play a part in this.

The other argument in politics is of the efficiency variety, or what systems are critical.  Leaving lights on, turning off computers etc.  As with politics, there are a lot of legends surrounding energy efficiency, including whether it takes more power to leave something on or only turn it on when it's being used.  It also gets into arguments about the necessity of certain systems that are for emergencies.  If you never have a fire, what good is a fire alarm?  If you do have a fire, what is the cost of a fire alarm vs. the cost of not having one?

In the end, there is no ontologically perfect system where everyone can be convinced by facts about energy usage and ideal temperatures.  Politicians make these choices for us for the most part and we flip an array of switches controlling different levels of the system.  The switches are poorly marked and many times don't do what they say they will.  Through observation and history, we make choices and hope for the best.

Or at least hope no one else flips a switch that ends up burning the whole place down.