[Chat] Re: [Discussion] Power to the People

Crystal charlesvillager2002 at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 10 01:01:23 EDT 2005


Tweefie,

I appreciate the thought that you put into your note,
though I disagree that our plans are all that radical.
Putting an expensive gift on one's wedding wish list
isn't that radical, and, if anybody actually buys that
dynamo for us, I'll be very surprised.

Next, the reason that we're preparing a multi-stage
plan for solar panels and passive water heating is
because we expect that we'll have to do it one panel
at a time (also on our wish list) and we may have to
eat beans and Ramen noodles for a few years, as my
grandparents did when they wanted to save up enough
money to buy a few acres of land. But if we really
want to do it, one way or another, it will happen.

Further, anyone who can buy 50 cents worth of
sunflower seeds can have edible landscaping! I think
it's cheaper and more practical than purely decorative
landscaping. And it looks great to me!

Also, around here, raspberry bushes can be had for
free -- all you have to do is ask people if you can
take theirs! Most folks would be glad to be rid of the
"weed."  In Baltimore, the mint grew so invasively
into the grass in my backyard that I often just mowed
it with the grass, which made the backyard smell
wonderful! And of course it was good for salads, etc.

Anyway, the point that I'm getting to in a roundabout
way is that having less money to spend requires more
creativity and time to achieve similar results. And,
quite often doing less is better; for example, it is
better for the Chesapeake Bay if people DON'T spend a
lot of money on fertilizers that just run off with a
little rain (or overwatering) and directly cause the
huge dead zones. In addition, one of the most sensible
things that I've heard anyone say regarding energy is:
"The cheapest kilowatt is the one that you don't buy."

Think of the back-to-nature movement of the 60's and
70's who re-learned ancient ways of living off the
land.  Many of them gave up after awhile, but quite a
lot of them are still living very simply. Some people
that I have met live on $8,000 worth of land in a
slip-form house made from stones collected on the
land.  A google search on "slip stone houses" quickly
turned up some other folks who have done something
similar: http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/limited.htm
. I think I've seen the "Stone House" book
(http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop4.cfm/dp/406/ts/4210351)
in the Enoch Pratt Library.

Another friend of mine sold all of his assets and
bought a used trailer for $5k, and acre of land by a
lake in upper Maine for $5k and is very happy living a
simple life up there. I also know several families who
live in various creative houses in the Adirondacks.
One family with a total income of less than $20k per
year for two adults and two children, has managed to
buy their own solar panels and a wind generator.  They
do have to manage their power demand, but everything
gets done. For example, they can't run the dishwasher
and the vacuum when the TV is on and somebody is
drying their hair with a blow dryer. So, when work
needs to be done, entertainment gets put off and
everyone helps. Nobody can use the excuse "Oh but the
game/show is on!"

Anyhow, I think you're underestimating your impact.
Talking about what you are doing and setting a good
example encourages other people to do the same.  For
example, I was always into recycling but hadn't
attempted a compost pile until my sister came to visit
for a week and kept putting compostable stuff in
buckets and bowls. At first it drove me crazy to keep
finding bowls of vegetable bits everywhere.  

More recently, our almost overflowing recycle bin has
been encouraging other neighbors to recycle more. 
I've had folks walk by, point at something and
exclaim, "I didn't know that was recyclable!" In both
cases I think the constant and visible reminders
helped a lot for the light bulbs to go off at the
right moment for the critical "Oh yeah, I can
compost/recycle this instead of throw it away!"

In fact, the really critical barrier for most people
is in realizing that there is a way to make possible
whatever it is that they have in mind, rather than
saying, "Oh it just can't be done." That's why there
are so many lists of "10 simple things that you can do
..." Here's one that I found by accident this evening:
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/12ways/

I found that list when I was actually looking for a
replacement toilet tank top. One of ours is broken and
I saw a really cool tank top at Twin Oaks last year
which sent the tank refill water up through a spigot
and then down into the tank via a bowl with a little
hole in the bottom.  It allowed a person to wash their
hands with the clean tap water before it went into the
tank for a future flush. Of course, they had a normal
sink too, but the idea was really neat.

Another example of the ways that one person can
accidentally positively impact others: when I was in
college and sharing an apartment with some other
girls, I was taking showers as I normally did --
getting wet, turning off the water, soaping up, then
turning the water back on to rinse off. After we had
all lived together for some time, one day I came out
of the bathroom to hear one of my room-mates exclaim
"Why do you turn the water off in the midlle of your
shower?!?!"  

It had obviously been something that she had noticed
and had been bothered about for a long time. So I had
a great opportunity to explain about the scarcity of
fresh water in the world, as well as many other water
issues, including the fact that I hate to use Draino
because I don't want to be responsible for the harm
that might be inflicted on someone downstream of me if
they have to drink that stuff.

One thing that I didn't mention about our new house is
that it also came with a clothes line, which I have
been using extensively. It requires more attention to
the weather and weather reports, but that's not such a
bad thing. Ocasionally, my clothes do get rained on,
or I find a beetle stuck to a towel, and they usually
are a little stiff at first, but it works really well.
And two pulleys and a cotton rope must be, oh I don't
know 15 bucks, tops?

One other thing that I might mention was that when we
had our rowhouse roof re-coated, we used three
containers of white reflective coating at a cost of
about $135.  If we had used standard black coating, it
would've cost $72, which is a difference of $63, BUT
our energy bill dropped by about $8/month. An 8 month
payback period on an investment is really quite good.

Anyway, don't be discouraged just because you can't
buy a solar-powered-something-or-other.  Just paying
attention helps, and it helps even more if you focus
your attention and creativity on developing and
implementing your own ideas that fit into your life.

-- Crystal

--- "tweefie at juno.com" <tweefie at juno.com> wrote:

> Crystal - 
> I commend you on the radically environmentally
> friendly plans for 
> your new house - They sound wondeful - 
> However, doing something like that is just not
> feasable, manageable or achieveable for the average
> Shmoe - How does one who 
> cant buy the latest hybrid car, or install solar
> panels or edible 
> landscaping accomplish a minimum level of
> environmental plunder ? 
> I have been recycling for years - I am not a huge
> consumer, 
> and I live (sometimes miserably) without AC - 
> I dont feel like it amounts to a hill of beans - And
> always wish there were viable alternatives for the
> 'rest' of us - 
> (I also think that if the best choices were more
> attainable, there would be many more people willing
> to do it, which would help everyone -) 
> 
> 
> 
> -- Crystal <charlesvillager2002 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I don't know the specifics on the particular power
> outage that you mention, but I expect more, longer,
> and more widespread power outages in the future. 
> Energy demand is increasing, supply isn't, and old
> power plants keep failing especially in high demand
> periods.
> 
> The class that I'm taking this semester has a
> capstone
> project relating to many aspects of designing a
> coal-powered plant that could be located on the
> Eastern Shore across the Bay from Baltimore. Based
> on
> existing rail lines and cooling water sources,
> Chestertown and Centreville could work. But
> Chestertown has a Country & Yacht Club, which would
> be
> downstream of the ideal site, so there could be
> stronger objections there. At any rate, I don't
> expect
> our class project to ever actually be built.
> 
> Some of the latest solar panel technologies look
> pretty good and I think Justin and I can construct a
> retractable solar panel awning on the sunniest side
> of
> our new house. Then, we can fold it down to avoid
> collecting snow or buffeting by winds and storms.
> Later, we may add the two porches, main roof, and
> garage. Solar technologies actually don't work as
> well
> in really hot and sunny places because they lose
> efficiency when they get hot. Baltimore may in fact
> be
> a more ideal place for solar than, say, Arizona. See
>
http://www.gaiam.com/retail/gai_content/learn/gai_learnCategory.asp?category%5Fid=158
> for more info on solar technologies.
> 
> We also put a human power generator on our wedding
> wish list.  It's a dynamo that attaches to a
> stationary bike and provides a strong motivation for
> exercising. We were also surprised recently to find
> out that, despite or perhaps because of our energy
> star appliances, our water heater currently
> represents
> more than 1/3 of our household energy use.  So,
> we're
> looking into passive solar water heating options.  
> 
> Also, our new house is relatively a blank slate of a
> yard -- two maple trees and a bunch of grass. So,
> we're exploring options for edible landscaping. Let
> me
> know if you're interested and I'll send you the name
> of the best catalog that I've found thus far.
> 
> There is no magic bullet solution, but the more that
> people do things like the above, the slower demand
> will rise, the less pollution that will be created,
> and the more that we can ease into a future of less
> abundant and more expensive energy.
> 
> -- Crystal
> 
> --- OldHouseHistory at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Or, in this case, no power to the people.  
> >  
> > For the second time in a week, our power went off
> > last night.  I know  it was 
> > a large area, and it was off for awhile, from
> about
> > 9:30 until 2:30  am.  It 
> > went off a second time about 3:30 am, until about
> 5
> > am. 
> >  
> > Last week, it was off in the middle of the week
> for
> > about 4 hours on one of  
> > the hottest days.  
> >  
> > I understand the power going off in this extreme
> > heat, but I thought our  new 
> > substation (and scheduled power outage a few
> months
> > ago) was supposed  to 
> > prevent this?
> >  
> > Paul   
> >  
> > Paul K.  Williams
> > Kelsey & Associates, Inc.
> > Preserving Architectural  History
> > 2629 Guilford Avenue
> > Baltimore, MD 21218
> > 410-366-2629
> > _BaltimoreMarylandHistory.com_
> > (http://baltimoremarylandhistory.com/) 
> > 
> > 1929  13th Street, NW
> > Washington, DC 20009
> > 202-462-3389
> > _WashingtonHistory.com_
> > (http://washingtonhistory.com/) 

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