Everybody Staze…

Because this is an ongoing “post” that I will be re-visiting from time to time, I’m going to make a page that will be visible on the top navigation that will serve as a space for this “meta-topic”.

The main goal of this is to hopefully provide an overview of how from the time I really became aware of my energy use (with regards to electricity, gasoline, natural gas, etc), I have been trying to lower that total usage anytime I see easily trim-able amounts.

Now, please, don’t misunderstand. I am NOT saying I’m going to lower my footprint to zero (at least, not anytime soon), and I’m not saying I’m going to give up comforts for the sake of energy use. What I am saying is that with very little extra work, the average person could probably cut a non-trivial amount of energy use from their day to day life, and afterword be no less comfortable in their home (in some cases, more comfortable). What this does take is some time, and in many cases, money. But, in my mind, this money isn’t wasted. It will pay for itself in comforts, or just in long term savings.

The page will be up and running in the next few weeks. At this point, consider what you have around your home that could be replaced/upgrade that would save your money throughout the year, and would have little to no negative impact on your comfort.

UPDATE: A wonderful rep. with Thinkgeek refunded all the expired points!!! While this means I’m 75 short of the 2,500 needed for the Buckyballs, it more than satisfies my complaint. Thank you Thinkgeek! I’ll still be a loyal customer. =)

Original Post: After a coworker brought in some Buckyballs to work yesterday, I finally decided they were pretty fun. So, I’ve been looking around town for them. No love, at all. But, I knew I had some geek points with Thinkgeek, so I figured I could get them that way. So, I go and check my geekpoint balance, and low and behold, it’s 0! What the hell? So I look at the history, and see they’ve started (at some point) expiring points if you don’t buy anything from them in 13 months (it was 13 months since my last order in April… I last checked my balance in March I think). So, I went from 2,500 to 0 in 2 months.

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Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower

Putting it together was a snap (though, taking it out of the box was a bit confusing), and I checked the blade alignment as per the Fiskars website/manual. After seeing it was good, I took it for a spin on the front and back yard.

Now, first, let me say my lawns are pretty flat (though, they do have a few bumps here and there). So, I did a couple passes on my front lawn, and was, honestly, underwhelmed. Thinking that maybe it was just the front lawn, since it’s not very big, I went into the back, and did (it’s much longer and straighter). Using it is pretty easy, and it cuts pretty well. The real advantage, is it’s really quiet. I actually got to hear and look at a couple birds playing in the tree. But, there are two issues that I’m not sure I care for, and they may very well be deal breakers.

1. The “mulch” is rather long compared to my gas mower
2. It misses a lot of grass (many missed tall pieces)

Now, these two issues are very much related. The reel mower has no “suction” that picks up the grass and cuts it. My lawn has a lot of “lazy” grass. That is, grass that lays down rather than sticks up straight. The reel mower completely misses these pieces. This could be due to the weather this year being very wet until recently. I’m not sure.

So, am I going to keep the mower? I don’t know. I’ve got 30 days to return it to Lowes if I don’t like it. And I think I’m going to take out the gas mower (with a newly sharpened blade) and go back over the lawn with it to get all the missed pieces. Then give the lawn another week or so to grow, then try the reel mower again. See how it does. I really like it being so quiet, and not using gas… but at this point, I’m not convinced it does a good enough job.

I’ll post back updates after I know more.

It’s been a while since I posted much of an energy post (other than my TED anniversary post on the 1st of April (here)). So, here we go.

First, for those that don’t know, a heat pump is just what it sounds like. It “pumps” or takes heat from inside (cooling) or outside (heating) and moves it to the other side. Basically, it’s an air conditioner that can “reverse”. See wiki page. When people just say “heat pump” they generally mean an air source heat pump (outside air is the source, or sink/dump for the heat). There are also “ground loop” heat pumps that use the ground as the source or sink/dump. Ground loop heat pumps are more efficient than air source ones, but they are much more expensive, and require more room to install (there are lines that run in the ground, either horizontally or vertically, which takes space/money to install). In my case, I have an air source heat pump.

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