Saturday Green Thoughts

Looking at some energy audit RFPs at work these days, and it brought to mind a continuing line of research on what to do about energy consumption at both places - Alexandria and the Hawksbill Cabin. For either place, I'd like to have a program of ideas that we can gradually implement over time, that would whittle away at the carbon footprint of our US lifestyles.

I've been thinking about how to add a solar energy element to the house in Alexandria, and we want to begin doing some things along this line to the Hawksbill Cabin. Today I found information about a solar roof tile product called Sunslates. I was pretty excited to see the installation at www.sunslates.com ... then I read the finer points - 1kw for 100 sf on a south facing roof, and an estimated installed cost of $15K per 100 sf. That's going to take some planning and saving.

While the porch roof in Alexandria faces due south, and there is about 200sf installable surface there, the cabin installation would be more challenging. While the house was built with a due south perspective to maximize natural light in the main room, the roof slopes from front to back making installation of a product like this not feasible - we'll have to continue our research.

Also, a friend at work sent me this. I am not a FiOS subscriber, but I had been wondering about this..."Attention FiOS subscribers: This week we had Verizon FiOS (fiber optic internet and cable) service installed at home. After inspecting the installation, we learned that the central box they install to run the system needs to be plugged in--so we get to pay for the juice. Additionally, the TV set-top boxes cannot truly be turned off. A real energy hog!Using our trusty Kill-A-Watt EZ meter, initial estimates are that each box is drawing about 40 watts all the time. That translates to about $3.50/month. Multiply that by several boxes and it really adds up to serious dollars and carbon. The simplest solution is the Smart Strip--a power strip that kills the power to the set-top box--it really turns it off--when you turn the TV off...from www.amicusgreen.com ."