EnergyMiser101

Walk to School

     If you live less than a mile from your child's school  you should try walking when the weather is good. My daughter's middle school is about 3/4 mile from our house, but I'm always surprised at how many kids who live roughly the same distance are driven to school. Sometimes we're running late, or it's raining, and we drive. But often, we walk.
     If we walk we have to leave the house about 10 minutes earlier in the morning. But we save a little gasoline, it's great exercise, we get fresh air, and it gives us a chance to talk. I figure that if we walk to school three mornings a week, thirty-six weeks a year, that's 54 miles less driving and about 15 hours more conversation with my daughter. Well worth it. The only downside is that I have to leave her a short block from the school so that no one sees us together!! (Why is being seen with a parent so humiliating when you're in middle school??)

Expect to Spend More on Gasoline

    You can expect to pay more when you tank up in coming months as the economy begins to climb out of its economic slump. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA), in its Short Term Energy Outlook,  said it expects regular grade gasoline prices to peak in July, with an average of about $2.70 per gallon. 

     You may have noticed that U.S. prices have been edging up at the pump since around April, but they are still a big bargain compared with last summer when they hit around $4 a gallon. That's one reason consumers may be a little looser about filling their tanks this summer.

Start A Compost Heap

     It's time to start thinking about spring gardening, and what better way to have a beautiful crop of vegetables or flowers than to feed them with homegrown compost. We started ours a couple of years ago, and it's been a great success. You'll also be saving energy in the process. Most non-organic fertilizers contain nitrogen. That's a byproduct of ammonia. And that comes from natural gas! The more we compost, the more gas we save!

     It's better to start it in the fall, when the leaves are falling, but it's still a good time to prepare one. First, select a sunny spot along the periphery of your property away from your deck or patio if you have one. We cleared a flat spot about 6 feet square'. Gather any dead leaves you see around your property. (I'm looking out my side window and see the beginnings of a great pile along my neighbor's driveway.) Sprinkle the dry leaves with water to aid decomposition.

What's It Like Living With Geothermal Heat?

   Heat exchanger in garage.

     Now that the heating season has come to a close in the Northeast, I've been eager to get an update from my neighbor who had a geothermal heating/cooling system installed last fall.

     This past week we got together for a walk and a cup of coffee, and, after discussing kids' schoolwork and social lives, our talk turned geothermal. I had a lot of questions, but what it mostly came down to is this: Are you happy with your decision to invest in geothermal energy? The answer was definitely yes, but with a few caveats.

     Just a refresher (see earlier EM story): My neighbors needed to replace their old oil-burning furnace. Rather than invest the $9,000 in a new heater, they decided to make a radical shift to geothermal heat.

     The cost was about $33,000, but a 30 percent government tax credit brought the total closer to $23,000. Remember, for that amount of money they're also getting a complete central air-conditioning system for the summer. That alone would have cost as much as $20,000.

Try Recycled Paint

      When a big piece of dried ceiling paint fell and almost impaled our cat the other day, I decided that it was time to do some indoor painting. I had heard about something called “recycled paint,” so when I visited our local hardware store to pick up a few samples, I asked if they had any.

     They pointed to a display of about 25 cans behind the cash register. When I asked what recycled paint was, the saleswoman told me that it was more like “rejected” than “recycled.”  People bought the paint,  probably decided  that they didn't like the color and returned it. She said they've just started selling the paint instead of trashing it.