What are you doing to be more energy efficient?

[PickensPlan]

October is Energy Awareness Month! Share your thoughts and stories on efforts you or people you know have made to improve energy efficiency.

[Veronica Gold, OH State Leader]

Why not consider joining a national group called Freecycle started by Don Beal in Arizona. There are hundreds of local groups within Freecycle and members both donate and take items without any exchange of money. It's a great way to rid your home or business of items that take energy to eliminate. It's also a way to deepen your connection to your community.

[Richard Barnard]

I fought my war against Middle Eastern Terrorism and I won. I helped turn off the spigot of oil from the Middle East. After 35 years my HEV is being built.

Obviously more can be done.

Richard

[Jacqueline]

I was recently at the West Coast Green Building exhibition - and saw one product available to recirculate (pump) the water for a sink or shower, until the water was hot to use. Cost about $450.

For $5 - our household uses a bucket in the shower to capture the water - until the water is hot, which is usually around 3 gallons, and then we switch the water to the shower head & proceed. The 5 gallon bucket waits patiently until the next use of the toilet, in which it is poured into the bowl to make the flush.

A simple technique that saves gallons of water - but for most American's it is too inconvenient to:
a) view the bucket in the shower
b) lift the bucket up and pour it into the toilet bowl

So your solution is to invest in the pump that recirculates the water until it is hot enough for one's personal preference.

For the kitchen sink - a $1 plastic tub (holds about 2 gallons of water) is used. When rinsing or washing hands, the water is captured in the tub, and when 1/2 full is taken outside to water the deck plants.
The benefits are:
1) You realize how much water goes down the drain - especially if you are carrying it out to water the plants, and notice the frequency.
2) The plants grow happily with daily attention.
3) The exercise to walk from kitchen to the deck is good for the body...
4) In the conscious action, you make more effort to conserve water.

Neither of the above steps are "fashionable" by American standards, but here's an FYI:

“The average person needs a minimum of 1.3 gallons of water per day to survive in a moderate climate at an average activity level. The minimum amount of water needed for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sanitation is 13 gallons. The average American uses a total of between 65 and 78 gallons of water per day. The average person in the Netherlands uses a total of 27 gallons of water per day. The average person in Somalia uses a total of 2.3 gallons of water per day.” [Source: Water Fact Sheet, Pacific Institute website www.pacinst.org]

I've learned this and more through: http://www.longvieweducationassociates.com/

[Robert Mann]

Hello out there I have post before of my 1999 Beetle that runs on Compressed Natural Gas and Gasoline I have spent a few years on just doing VW to run on the New NGAS. I have a site with a lot of information www.CNGvw.com . But this 2002 Jetta 1.8 turbo
As far as I can tell it is the only one in the USA.


I must say it run Great and the MPG is in the high 30’s I had a very hard time with getting the setup to work right .The kit is from Italy the install was very straight forward.
The support was none. And placing the injectors were they said never worked right.
I spent weeks on that set up never got it right.

I had to ask my older brother to help me at this point hated that. My brother and I have been in the racing world for 35 years plus and yes we are couple of old guys.

We designed a fogger system for the car with adjustable injector ports and in a day we had it running sweet.

At 130 octant and filling at home at 60 cents a Gal I think this the way for us to go.

I did show it at the http://www.altwheels.org/index.html and had a lot of interests did make the NEWS.

The TURBO Jetta with the CNG BI-FUEL kit and my invention CNG Fogger is such
a joy to drive. So I drive two CNG cars but by far the Turbo takes your breath away.
I have gotten 179 miles to the CNG tank with 5.1 GAL in it that is driving it hard in
City and hi way mix.
But some thing that I have not do in a long time is bring it up to a very hi speed. There is a place on the way to Cape Cod RT 25 just before the bridge six miles of open road.
I laid into it the Turbo kicked in the CNG flowed and next thing I owned the 122 MPH
marker with a half a throttle petal to go.
So the next time some says CNG cars are slow send them this way.
Bob Mann

[Mark Hedtke]

One of the most important things that I am doing that I feel all Americans can readily do, is to promote energy conservation by sending emails, writing letters and calling their political representatives both at the national and state levels. In these communiques you need to express your own opinions of what needs to be done to help free us from remaining "energy prisoners"! Learn more about the benefits of alternative energy at http://push.pickensplan.com/group/DistrictGroupFL24/forum/topics/la... We all have a responsibility to let them know that we aren't as ignorant of what is really going on with respect to continuing to tie us to non-renewable energy sources, as they may think.. Let them know that just because they try to pass legislation that we can see isn't good for us, we don't have to accept it blindly. We can demand accountability and hold them responsible for the legislation that they pass and if they do it wrong, we can get rid of them and do it over. This is our country and we have a say in what happens here whether they like it or not. Leadership is only given if we permit it. It is our responsibility to have them do what we want as this still is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Do your part and communicate, it is your right to be heard!

[Kevin Arnett]

well even if the price stay's the same it's two dollars that stay hear instead of two dollars that go over seas thats why I beleive the owners of naturalgas and ethanol producers should just hire machanics to start switching the cars that can run on their fuels. even if they do it for free I think they would make their money back,because we fly through oil it's like our economies water

[Rick Sims]

Marketing the products. visit www.newecopowernow.com