Bone Power

Whale bone meets power transmission...output formalizing throughput in new ways. The structural object combines relatively new use and traditional surround, a pretty new skin for an oft-abandoned part of modernity. From a firm where metonymy has been more than mentioned...

Beauty? I think so. I wish my local towers were made of older ones, transmuted, equations taken from nature and refomed.

PG&E, are you listening?

Energy Efficiency in the Darker Months

For many Californians, saving power in the summer is second nature --- we open windows and turn on fans rather than using central air conditioning. We turn lights off when we leave a room. We wait until nightfall to do laundry and dishes. The summertime tips are many and frequently stated; come fall, however, the wisdom dries up. Other than expensive things like re-insulating your house and investing in double- or triple-glazed windows, how can we be more efficient in the winter?

1. Wear more clothing and turn down the thermostat. I know, I know...total no-brainers. But really, make sure you have a sweater on before you turn the heat above 68°.

2. Use radiant space heaters instead of a forced air heat pump (except when every room is being used). Radiant heaters warm the surface of your skin, not the air surrounding it --- psychologically, radiant heat makes you feel much warmer than a forced air system set at the same temperature. In addition, air is one of the worst thermal masses out there; using it to transfer heat from furnace to every room in the house is inherently wasteful.

3. Use your ceiling fan on very cold days. As counter-intuitive as it is, a fan on its lowest setting will circulate the hot air which gathers near the ceiling without creating so much flow as to make you cold from convective heat loss. Fans draw just a few Watts and will make much better use of your heating dollars (regardless of heater type).

4. Re-arrange your furniture so that chairs/sofas/beds are near interior walls. In addition to keeping infiltration (drafts) away from your skin, it will allow what sunlight there is to heat the surfaces inside your space.

5. Open blinds when the sun is out; close them on cold, dark days. As mentioned above, using your floor as a thermal storage unit is very efficient; make sure the sun hits the floor when it's out. Conversely, convective cooling can be significant when the differential between house and outside temperature is >10° --- creating an airspace between window and blind effectively creates one more layer of insulation.

6. Place area rugs on hard-finish floors near frequently-used chairs, sofas and tables. Keeping your feet warm will keep you psychologically toasty.

If you want to know more, find more tips here.

Posted on Blog Action Day 2007: 8l0gg1ng 4 t3h 3nv1r0nm3n7s

Holes in your Granny Smith

On July 20, the new national EnergyStar standards went into effect. These standards are, as expected, more stringent than the last set. They "are expected to save consumers and businesses more than $1.8 billion in energy costs over the next 5 years and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to the annual emissions of 2.7 million vehicles."

This is fantastic! As with the recent proposal to strengthen the CAFE Standards for the first time in 30 years, America seems to be regulating its way closer to carbon sustainability. This is change that is undeniably worthwhile, independent of the corporate expenditures needed to make it happen.

I'll give you one chance to guess what major computer manufacturer is blantantly disregarding the new conservation rules...think hard...you guessed it! Our good friend Apple computer. Not a single product in their lineup meets the new standards, though they knew months ago that this change was coming (Acer, Gateway, Lenovo, Toshiba get green points for taking heed).