Going Tankless

I've been collecting information on things I want to include in my dream home. I'm currently researching tankless water heaters.

I'm leaning toward electric over gas because of the solar panels, but I wondered if any of my readers have any experience with tankless or on demand water heaters. My brother in law said he looked into them and decided not to get one because of the yearly maintenance. I can't find anything that says they require yearly maintenance.

I like the idea of not keeping a tank of water constantly hot. I also like that if we have company staying with us, we won't run out of hot water. My concerns mostly center around what temperature the water will be heated to and how well the temperature will be regulated when the temperature of the incoming water changes throughout the year.

Making good use of space...

Along the freeway in the Sacramento, CA area, there are beautiful flowering bushes. At least that is my memory from the yearly trips to the northern coast. Coming home after vacation always made me realize how dry and plain the roadsides in Utah were. The plain roadsides (at least a mile or so in Kaysville) will soon take on a more interesting, and useful appearance.

From today's Salt Lake Tribune:

Seeds planted today along a strip of Interstate 15 will some day fuel state trucks and snowplows. And that will reduce the need for mowing, allow the use of less-harmful pesticides and look pretty when the summertime yellow, blue and red and flowers bloom. Utah State University and the Utah Department of Transportation are teaming up on an experiment to plant a bit more than a mile of grassy safety strips around the state with plants whose seeds can be crushed and processed into 100 percent biodiesel. UDOT will use the homegrown stuff to replace the biodiesel it already uses in state vehicles.

The idea came from Dallas Hanks, a 44-year-old biologist who is working on his doctoral degree at USU. With an initial $50,000 from UDOT, Hanks aims to prove the 2,500 miles of state-owned highway right-of-way could yield an annual average of 500,000 gallons of 100 percent biodiesel, or B100. Planting the safflower, camelina, canola and perennial flax will save about $1.6 million per year in mowing costs, UDOT officials said. They won't know, however, the total savings to the agency from the project until the first-year experiment is finished...

I hope the project is wildly successful, and is spread to more areas.

Edited to add a link to today's 5/9/07 Tribune, which has another article about the bio diesel project. USU & UDOT

Blue Sky?

My parents are talking to a contractor about installing solar panels on their roof. They could power 75% of their energy usage that way. The contractor who is doing it didn't have good things to say about Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program.

Here's what my mom related to me:

Apparently Rocky Mountain Power is divided into two sections, one is directly involved with selling the power to customers, and I can't remember exactly, but I think the other one must be the power generation side. The side they present to the public and the PSC is conveniently always struggling. The profits stay in the other, more obscure side. They have lots of money, are making big profits, and keep the stock investors satisified. The really good reason for RMP to get the customers to buy "shares" of Blue Sky is that you get nothing tangible for your investment, only the good feelings of having helped make our environment more green. But they could easily build out the windmill project with other income and make their stockholders (who take real risks in investing and should get some return for it) partners instead.

You would do better to invest in the stock of companies who are working to improve our environment an at least have an opportunity to also participate in the profits.

So obviously here, the way Rocky Mountian Power is running the blue sky program is not so great, but if people just stop paying extra for the renewable energy resources, will RMP keep putting money into it or will they just let the whole thing drop? I'm feeling a bit torn, and for now will keep my 1 block of blue sky.

Wouldn't this be cool?

...I can say that because I'm not the one who mows the lawn.

It must be a conspiracy

I haven't been able to get on the Salt Lake Tribune website since friday. My web browser tells me that the server www.sltrib.com cannot be found.

What is going on? The part of my brain that thinks my opinions are more important than anyone else's opinions thinks that I have been banned for stumbling onto some sort of governmental conspiracy (yeah, that's it...). Has anyone ever been banned from the SL Tribune site for posting things on their comments sections? (I don't think I've said anything obnoxious, although I'll admit obnoxious is relative...)

I feel like I'm missing out though, the Deseret News just doesn't do it for me.

Go Canada!

One of my Canadian friends mentioned how, in their federal budget, there will be extra fees attached to the purchase of new "gas guzzling" automobiles, and rebates on purchases of fuel efficient vehicles (not just hybrids either).

Hooray for a government that is getting it right! An article I found on the CBC Website says that it will hurt families who don't have a choice when it comes to smaller vehicles. I find it hard to believe that families HAVE to choose SUV's. Our minivan doesn't get the best mileage in the world, but it is not too much worse than a regular sedan.

It makes me glad to see a government holding those who want to drive large vehicles that waste resources financially responsible for their excess instead of trying to punish people who can't afford to drive new cars, which from what I can understand is what the Tailpipe Tax would do.

I would agree that imposing higher taxes on cars with higher emission levels would be good for the air, perhaps people would be more careful about taking care of their cars and driving cleaner cars, except that it seems to me, that people who drive older cars do so because that's what they can afford.

Not so Inconvenient...

I finally saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth yesterday. I'll admit that I was not looking forward to it. A movie with Al Gore doing all the talking? What could be more boring!

I was pleasantly surprised. It was really well done. According to my father's science-community friends, it is pretty accurate too. There is some question as to whether warmer ocean temperatures increase the strength of hurricanes, but otherwise, the science is there and backs up everything in the movie.

I've seen and heard people argue passionately about whether global warming exists. My first thought is that whether global warming exists or not, there is nothing wrong with conserving resources. If it doesn't exist, you've saved yourself some money by using more efficient light bulbs, walking or using mass transit (or carpooling), and insulating your house. If it does exist, you've saved yourself some money, and done a small part to help keep our planet healthy. It's way too easy to blow off the idea of recycling or doing anything else that might seem "crazy, liberal, hippie, sierra club"-ish. I believe that we were created by a loving Heavenly Father, and that he placed us on earth and asked us to be good stewards to the things we have, so why do we go around driving SUV's when no one else is in the car? Why do we need to fill two huge cans with garbage every week? Why do we waste so much, and then make fun of people who are trying to be good stewards?

Between this movie and the current inversion we are suffering through, I'm really interested in learning more about what I can do. I hate that I can't let my kids play outside because the air is so disgusting. I don't even want to walk to pick up my son from school because I don't want to be outside any longer than I have to. We all have sore, tired eyes. We all feel a little more congested than normal. I blame the air.

Back to the movie, the title is interesting to me, because no one is asking anything terribly inconvenient of anyone. No one is suggesting we go live in a tree somewhere. The suggestions for improving carbon dioxide emissions are mostly small things that any of us can do without much trouble.

This website has the following list of suggestions, for more information on each suggestion and links go to the website.

What can I do?
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Install a programmable thermostat
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
Use less hot water
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting
Insulate and weatherize your home
Be sure you’re recycling at home
Buy recycled paper products
Plant a tree
Get a home energy audit
Switch to green power
Buy locally grown and produced foods
Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Seek out and support local farmers markets
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Avoid heavily packaged products
Eat less meat
Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Keep your car tuned up
Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
Try telecommuting from home

Many of these things are things that my family is already doing, and most of them are things that are also money savers.

Save some money, take care of the earth, help improve air quality.

Someday, if my Mr. and I ever get to build a house, we'd like to include a solar panel, so I've been reading about solar panels and discovered that Rocky Mountain Power has a net metering system, where any power you create off the grid, is used first, reducing demand during peak usage times, and reducing your power bill. Any power you generate that you don't use is sold back to the power company. It's a good deal for everyone! Solar panels are not cheap, so it will have to wait until it can be bundled into the cost of building a new home.

In the meantime, I've signed up for one block of wind generated power from Rocky Mountain Power. The more demand for renewable power, the less it will cost. One block is equal to 100 kwh and adds $1.95 to your monthly power bill. I'll increase the amount we are purchasing in the future to cover all our power usage, but it's a start. You can find out more at theRocky Mountain Power website.

New Posts

In the past, to post photos, I have used Photobucket to post pictures on my blog. For the past several months, photobucket has not been working- I can't upload any pictures to it, so my blogging has kind of slowed down.

Today, thanks to my sister's Mister, I signed up for a Flickr account and am now able to post pictures again.

That's why there's a rush of posts today- I'm catching up.