I just read a lengthy but well written article on earthquake preparedmess. As the focus of the article changed and stretched into related subject matter from current events in Japan, I found the following very interesting:

From the article...

Nuclear power is essentially an elaborate and unlikely way to boil water to turn turbines to create electricity. Its makers must mine, refine, and consolidate huge amounts of one of the deadliest materials on earth, uranium-235 (the less than 1 percent of naturally occurring uranium with 235 electrons; the leftover 99 percent, the less radioactive but nevertheless deadly U-238, becomes nuclear waste in the process). U-235 and the plutonium created from it are dangerous at every stage of the process. In addition, constructing a power plant requires a huge amount of carbon-spewing conventional energy, so there’s never been a lot of logic to building them to bridge our move to renewable energy.

The delusional premise behind nuclear energy is that we can create this material and then contain it for the duration of its dangerous phase. For plutonium, that’s 24,000 years, or about 15 times as long as something called civilization has existed. For uranium-235, that’s 700 million years, a time so vast it’s basically forever.

Fifty years into the nuclear age, we’ve had four major reactor accidents, along with a host of minor ones and leaks and ventings, and we still don’t know what to do with the nuclear waste that plants like the ones at Fukushima produce even when no accidents occur. This is the “spent fuel” that the U-235 quickly becomes. It’s still intensely radioactive and toxic; it’s only “spent” in the sense that it’s no longer useful for boiling water in reactors. It’s still useful for bombs, dirty or otherwise.

There are better ways to boil water.

Follow the related link below to read the entire article.

There are times when quality information is the best tool we have for fighting climate change. Today I received a referral to a website titled "The Homeowners Guide". Bethany, a middle school student discovered the site while doing some research.

The site is filled with information on saving energy, keeping your home safe, how to paint, home maintenance, etc... Keep in mind that proper maintenance means keeping your home efficiency as close to its optimum as possible. A more efficient home will have less environmental impact and in the long run usually saves money on utility bills.

The address for the website is:
http://www.homeloans.org

Thanks Bethany for pointing out a great resource!

- Brad

Here is the short version:

Tap with a filter that is changed regularly is the healthiest and almost as cheap as straight tap water. Straight tap water is next healthiest in most cases and definitely the cheapest. Last, costing 1,900 times as much for the same quantity and containing some of the same toxic chemicals with potential for a few more when not handled properly, is bottled water. Yes, bottled water is very hard on the environment and potentially contains the same toxins as tap water as well as a few that leach from the bottle itself.

Avoid bottled water. Invest in a re-usable container instead.

Follow the related link below to find out more.

LED lighting is becoming more common. I see it in the big box store that I frequent as well as hardware stores. However, there are a couple of things keeping me from changing all of my CFL's to LED.

Let's address the most obvious - cost. The new LED bulbs claim to last 25 times as long as a conventional bulb. The CFL's claim was 10 times as long as a conventional bulb. I already own the CFL's in my fixtures and they have years left to run. There is a second side to cost, the charge for the power the lamps consume and this is the catch. The problem with using watts of consumption to compare cost is this: The LED and CFL use nearly the same watts! The LED for a 60 watt equivalent uses 12 watts where the equivalent CFL uses 13 watts. 1 watt difference for the same amount of light.

What do you gain with the LED? You gain light quality, they produce light that is closer to natural light than the CFL's. However, we are comparing some pretty close numbers again.

My advise - If you already have CFL's, don't change them. Use them until they die and then replace with LED technology.

One more thing, not all LED lights are dimable. Just like CFL technology, you need to check the package if you want a dimable lamp. Both technologies rely on small circuit boards that ultimately control the lamps ability to dim.

Remember, the best way to save power is to turn off lights and other devices when they are not in use.

LED is definitely the next step, but we don't need to run out and change our existing CFL's.

I just read this article yesterday. Some of you may have seen it. However, for those who didn't I will summarize it here.

1. Maintaining a constant temperature

Cause: A persistent myth suggests that you can save energy by leaving the house at a set temperature.

Effect: You could miss out on significant potential energy savings by not using a programmable thermostat and adjusting the temperature overnight and during the workday.

Though the impacts of adjusting the thermostat vary based on your climate and other factors, studies show that knocking the temperature down by 10 degrees for eight hours per day can cut heating bills by 5 to 15 percent.

Sure, the furnace will cycle on for a longer period to return to the more comfortable temperature, but it will be far outweighed by hours of savings when it didn't have to work as hard.

2. Cranking up the temperature to warm up the house

This is a myth because the heating unit only has one temperature, it uses time to cycle the overall temperature up to your setting. If your thermostat is in a poor location, too close to a heat source then you have a different problem.

3. Closing off vents in unused rooms

Experts recommend never shutting off more than 10 percent of vents. Sealing your ducts is a more efficient way to save energy, preventing loss in the walls, attic and under the house.

4. Using the fireplace

The problem here is a traditional fireplace. In the traditional arrangement, you have an open fire that vents up the chimney. Because heat rises and fire needs oxygen to burn, the effect is to pull air into the house through any leaking window, crack or vent to feed the fire as the heat is blasted up the flu and out into the outside air.

To read the rest of the list, follow the related link below.