There is a lot of talk about being green these days and a lot of ways to do it.  Since most of us aren't building homes from scratch, what are you doing to make your own home more green?

I suggest compact fluorescent lighting as the first step.  Fluorescent bulbs generally outlast their incandescent counterparts and beat them on energy efficiency by a lot.  I'd recommend trying some of the new ones.  They aren't the flickering nightmares that once dominated the market.  If you've tried them and really can't live with it, try putting in dimmer switches everywhere.  The new electrical codes are going to require them everywhere that is not required to have fluorescent lighting (since most fluorescents still don't work with dimmer switches).  Also, a regular bulb run at 80% power lasts a long longer.

Of course, we've all looked at our thermostats as well, making sure they are set to a higher or lower temperature, depending on the season.  One of the other things I like are the magnetic sheets that go over the grills of your system in rooms you're not using.  For many people, heating and cooling unused areas of their houses is a big waste of energy. 

Another big loser is the drafts from old windows and doors.  The best way to find them is by holding a match or stick of incense and moving it around where your doors and windows meet the jambs.  A little roll of foam from your local hardware store can do wonders. 

These are the very basic things, literally the least you can do and still do something.  Next time, we'll bump it up with some stuff on how you heat your water.

Originally posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/gro... 

Instant run-off voting is an idea that is gaining traction across the country as a way to breathe some life back into our political system.  So many people believe that their vote is wasted, that they have to vote for one of the two major parties, that there are no candidates that represent them.  Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) could solve these problems and help us to get the government that is supported by the majority.

Here’s how it works:  When you go to vote or vote from home, rather than choosing your candidate, you rank as many or as few candidates as you want in order of preference.  When all the votes are in, the votes for the candidates ranked #1 are tallied just like a regular ballot.  If no candidate gets 50%, the people who voted for the candidate with the least number of votes get their number two choice added to the count and their #1 candidate is removed.  If that doesn’t give a candidate with over 50%, another round is added where the people who voted for the new least popular candidate get their #2 votes added to the tally and their number #1 choice is dropped.  Here’s an example:

There are 4 candidates and 100 voters.  The candidates are Bill, Ann, Mike and Mary.  The first round of voting looks like this:

Bill: 30
Ann: 10
Mike: 32
Mary: 28

So after the first round, we eliminate the votes for Ann.  Three people chose Bill as their second choice, the rest chose Mary.  Round Two looks like this:

Bill: 33
Mike: 32
Mary: 35

Even though Mike was the most popular in the first round, he is eliminated in the second, but since there is still no winner, we need to do a third round with Mike out.  10 of his votes go to Mary, while the remainders go to Bill.

Bill: 55
Mary: 45

 Now we have a consensus candidate.

There are a number of other benefits to this system, including getting rid of the spoiler effect and the elimination of primaries which limits the campaign season and keeps costs down.

More info at: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://www.fairvote.org/irv...
http://www.instantrunoff.co...

And a cool animation walkthrough here:
http://www.chrisgates.net/i...

Kicking off the new focus of my blog and with Christmas just around the corner, I thought I'd take a look at fireplaces.  For myself, there will probably never be a more cozy fire than the roaring blazes I experienced at Lodge Pole in the Sequoia National Park as a kid.  The mouth of the fireplace was large enough to walk into, the brick surround radiated heat and we all dripped and defrosted from our hiking and snowball fights.

We've got a lot of air issues involved with fireplaces and are now being forced to give up our wood fires.  (Personally, I'd rather see lawn mowers fitted with catalytic converters but I'll leave that for now.)  So what does the fireplace of the future look like?  For most of us, we'll probably make the transition to newer, cleaner fuels in the next 10 years and there are some cool things happening in the field.  Small wall mounted fireplaces, old reproduction stoves, even some pretty far out designs coming to a restaurant or bar near you. 

Here are a few of my favorite heating devices:

First up is Ecosmart out of Australia, who have put together a portable fireplace that burns alcohol.  I like environmentally friendly, I like portable and if you're going modern, go modern.  Basically, they sell a burn pot and frames that hold it.  Pretty nice if you just want to add a bit of flash to a space and get some heat as well.  Bonus here is that they say you don't need a chimney. 

http://www.ecosmartfire.com...

On the antique front, you can get reproduction fireplace inserts that burn gas and look like wood or coal fires.  Most of these companies are pretty strict on reposting their images though, so y'all can hunt them down yourselves. 

Heat and Glo is doing some cool things including these ultramodern bad boys: http://www.heatnglo.com/pro...

Spires of flame rising in the middle of a glass tube has to be worth tacking an extra buck or two onto every dinner or drink.

There is also a hydrogen fireplace developed by Heat and Glo called the Aqueon.  Basically, you run power and water to the device, the power converts the water into hydrogen and oxygen and burns the hydrogen creating water vapor, and the oxygen is released into the room, no chimney needed.  As cool is the idea seems, it has some major issues, like taking a high level form of energy and wasting it to convert the water and then wasting more in the burning process.  A better use of the power would be to hook up a bunch of light bulbs, which are 95% percent efficient at creating heat (only 5% of the power turns into light).  Of course, that would be less cool to look at.  Heat and Glow has pulled the $50,000 dollar hydrogen fireplace from the market for now, but I assume it will make a return. 

http://www.heatnglo.com/pro...

picture: http://www.bookofjoe.com/20...

All of these fireplaces should be installed by professionals or at least by people who have a vested interest in the lives of the people using them.  How are you planning on staying warm this winter?

 

So I've been fairly focused on politics since we were just running up to the election, but now that it's over, I'd like to get into talking more about construction stuff as well.

Most of the homes that have been thrown up (and I use the term with all puns intended) in the last few years in Bakersfield seem to have been built using the minimum standards to get the job done.  One house I was working one recently had styrofoam detailing and the builder had to come back a number of times to fix things after the home had been built.

So knowing that a number of people have recently bought homes, I thought it might make sense to set up a forum where we can talk about the problems with some of the newer homes in the area.  That said, the majority of my experience is in working on 100 year old buildings, so if you've got any questions about knob and tube wiring, older plumbing, or anything of that nature, feel free to toss them my way.

I'll still be posting some political stuff, but I'm going to try to keep away from the informational and head towards the activational.

Anything off the tops of your heads?