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October 2006

The Archives

• 10.30.06
  Did you know? 70% of Energy is Used for… The Environment | (0)

  Heat. Heating water is 19% on avergae, and heating your home is 51%. The good news is space heating dropped by 15% over the last 20 years. Global Warming? Probably insulation. For your information, Btu is short for British thermal unit, an British standard unit of energy. One Btu is equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit at its maximum density, which occurs at a temperature of 39.1 degrees Fahrenheit. One Btu is equal to approximately 251.9 calories or 1055 joules. The heat output of computer devices ...
• 10.29.06
  Electricity, Where do thy come from? The Environment | (0)

  Your burning curiosity to know the amount of fossil fuels that we consume in the US for electricity is now satisfied. Seems like a lot to me… Period Coal (000's Tons) Petroleum (000's Barrels) Natural Gas (000's Mcf) Other Gases (000's Btu) 2000 994,933 195,228 5,691,481 125,971 2001 972,691 216,672 5,832,305 97,308 2002 987,583 168,597 6,126,062 131,230 2003 1,014,058 206,653 5,616,135 156,306 2004 1,026,018 209,508 6,116,574 186,796 2005 1,045,878 211,256 6,486,761 176,906 Thank you, again, to the wealth of information available at the Department of Energy for these statistics. Energy Information Administration
• 10.28.06
  Did You Know? 1.1 Billion Tons of Coal Provides… The Environment | (0)

  1 year of electricity in the United States. The EIA claims that the US has a whopping 270.7 Billion tons of known coal reserves, which costs (as of this writing) about $27.50 per ton for utilities. The EIA also estimates that the US will consume 1.78 billion tons by 2030. Of course, by 2030, the math would indicate that more than $4.68 trillion of value would be pulled out of the ground, so maybe the coal barons could finance some alternative energy intitiatives! Thank you to the US Department of Energy and the Energy Information Administration for a wealth of information on coal ...
• 10.18.06
  Kill-a-Watt (or two) The Environment | (0)

  There is a device that will tell you how much electricity all of your active, semi-active, and dormant appliances use. Muhhahahahaaa! Um, wait, it also uses electricity. Dang. Well, it's a good start towards understanding your world.
• 10.17.06
  Did you know? 45 Billion Hours of Power Went… The Environment | (1)

  Nowhere in the US last year. It actually leaked out of appliances in standby and flashing digital clocks. Well, what can you say? 5% of electricity use goes right to power leaks in plugged in equipment. Devices just sap up energy like a whart hog in a chicken roost... a Titanic analogy might have been better. Thank you to the ACEE for reminding us of what we lost and thereby found: Leaking electricity is responsible for an estimated 45 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity consumed by U.S. households each year—nearly 5 percent of total residential electricity use—and costs U.S. consumers more than $3.5 ...
• 10.17.06
  Did you know? 70% of Water Usage Goes To… The Environment | (0)

  Hygene. Yep. Isn't it ironic that drinking and cooking is 5% of your water use, while flushing is 40%. When you throw in bathing at 30%, hygene in the United States clears a clean 70% of your water usage. Makes you wonder. Thank you, Iowa State University, for this lovely data: Daily water use per person TypeGallonsPercent Toilet flushing 25 40 Bathing 20 30 Laundry and Dishes 13 20 Drinking and Cooking 4 5 Other 3 5 Total 65 100
• 10.17.06
  Did you know? There Are 6.5+ Billion… The Environment | (0)

  Mouths to feed ever day on Earth. That is one big feast. I cobbled together a little population counter with an accuracy of + or - 50 million. I guess that you could call that a rounding error or Sau Paulo. Imagine if we all agreed on a strategy to make things better. Can't we all be friends on MySpace? Thank you to the US Census Bureau for reminding us of this grand statistic.
• 10.17.06
  Did you know? 7.3% of Power is… The Environment | (0)

  Lost in transmission. Power plants are often far away from residential homes, and between 7.2% and 7.4% of power on average is lost during the journey. In other words, 1 out of 14 units of power is a cost of convenience. This is true if you live on the grid, anyway. Transmission and distribution losses in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995, and in the UK at 7.4% in 1998. Electrical power is invariably partially lost during transmission. This applies to short distances such as between components on a printed circuit board as well as to cross country high voltage lines. Loss ...
• 10.08.06
  5 Ideas for Home Conservation The Environment | (0)

  Imagine if everone in the modernized world cut their consumption of energy and production of waste by 10%. There are a lot of people on the planet... Current world population (estimated): . Here are some ideas to get started at home from PowerScorecard. Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean ...
• 10.07.06
  Did you know? Most Power Comes… The Environment | (0)

  From Coal. 86.2% of utility power produced in the United States comes from the dark and dirty fuel of coal. Coal just has a bad public image: the mine explosions, black lung, and bogs. Coal may need a new PR agency. Think barbecues and energy for the next 200 years. Or, maybe not. Thank you to the US Department of Energy for keeping our knowledge of coal up-to-date.

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