Share your energy/resource saving tips

[henrypie]

Hmm, I remember we had a great big exhaust fan at the top of a stairwell in the victorian monster I grew up in (holy crap, no wonder my dad drank whiskey and listened to Janis Joplin when he paid the bills).  In the house I co-own now, which is two stories, 1400 s.f., the previous owner installed a sizeable skylight in the ceiling at the top of the stairs.  We leave this open as a hatch for hot air, but there is no fan associated with it.  We could possibly put a fan in the attic and leave the stairs pulled down as an extra air-draw, but I think the skylight working as a kind of chimney might be the best combination of effectiveness and passivity, not to mention aesthetics -- the skylight is beautiful, open or closed.  I don't know.  Ruediger's ruminating on it as we speak.

[starboardlight]

Hi LJ. Whole house fan is a high velocity fan that you install into the ceiling of you upper most floor, usually at the top of the stair ways, but anywhere in the hallway. It draws the hot air of the inside of your house into the attic. You leave the windows open. As the hot air is drawn into the attic, the cooler air from outside is drawn in. For places like Seattle, it's a great and less expensive alternative to Central AC.

http://www.wholehousefan.com/

It's not as unattractive as it looks on the site. That's the view from above. From below, where you'll be, you'll just see the vents slats.

Sarah, I think the skylight as a chimney is a great solution. In theory it can work like the Glass Dome of the Reichstag in Germany.
http://germany.archiseek.com/brandenburg/berlin/reichstag.html
http://germany.archiseek.com/brandenburg/berlin/reichstag_dome.html
The Glass Dome is created not only to provide natural light to the building, which today functions as Germany's Parliamentary center, but the dome creates airflow by heating the air within the dome which then flow up, drawing the air out of the building. Cooler air outside is drawn in through the lower levels. When the vents are shut off, the heated air serves to heat the building. I wish this kind of thought is given to new homes, where air flow can be created passively instead of relying on electrical appliances.

*edit to change links for whole house fan. I originally had a link to Home Depot, but dynamic links, kept changing what you'll actually see. so I found one better.

[henrypie]

Neat, Nipith!
Those kwazy Germans.

[silkncense]

Thanks for the link/info Nipith.  I'd never heard of whole house fans before. My house has cathedral ceilings in the living room/stairwell so I am not sure one could properly be placed.  And, as you know, so far Seattle is still pretty immune to many hot days - we had 4 days of mid - upper 90's but it is now back to the pleasant lower 70's.  (I'm wondering if 4 days in a row broke some kind of record!    ).

[David]

Whole house fans are common in many homes in Connecticut.  But now that some new homes are being built with central A/C you see it installed less. 

The fans work great if the outside temp is cooler than the inside.  Such as the evenings.   But here in the North East, our Summers can be very humid even at night.
Those fans are useless when the air outside is as hot as it is inside.   Then ya just blow around the hot, humid air.  Yeck.   

Todays small window air conditioners are very quiet and efficient.     I'm sure the two small ones I use are more efficient together than the one old Der Blitzenator model I used to use.


Oh, and to conserve energy....I recommend showering with a friend.   

[starboardlight]

Oh, and to conserve energy....I recommend showering with a friend.   

ha ha. David, you always have the best idea. I'll have to find a shower buddy then.

[JennyC]

I finally saw “An Inconvenient Truth” last night.  The movie is very engaging.  Gore made a strong case of undeniable facts about global warming and its impacts.  Everyone should see the movie.

Though I have already heard of the many facts presented in the movie already, some of them are still very shocking when you actually see them in the movie.  Like the glaciers melting, the CO₂ level in recent years so dramatically off the chart, US’s automobile fuel efficiency standard is much lower than that of some developed and developing countries, etc.

[ednbarby]

I finally saw “An Inconvenient Truth” last night.  The movie is very engaging.  Gore made a strong case of undeniable facts about global warming and its impacts.  Everyone should see the movie.

Though I have already heard of the many facts presented in the movie already, some of them are still very shocking when you actually see them in the movie.  Like the glaciers melting, the CO₂ level in recent years so dramatically off the chart, US’s automobile fuel efficiency standard is much lower than that of some developed and developing countries, etc.

I agree.  What I found the most chilling (no pun intended) were his slides of Mt. Kilamanjaro (sp?) in the early 70s compared with now.  We all remember that iconic snow-capped monolith it once was.  Now, the snow and ice are almost completely gone.  And all those rivers and lakes dried up he showed, too.  Heaven help us.

The other thing I had a hard time shaking (still do) is what a really good man he obviously is and how different things would be now had he won in 2000 - and not just here, but all over the world.  Heaven help us, indeed.
 

[nakymaton]

The thing that gets me is the sea ice disappearing in the Arctic. I remember reading about all the different attempts to find a Northwest Passage, some way from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of North America. And the ice that prevented it is disappearing.

Sixteen years ago, I spent some time in Nome, Alaska. The people there talked about going ice crabbing in the Bering Sea in May, when the temperatures warmed enough to go out on the sea ice without being totally miserable. They used to put styrofoam covers on the holes so they wouldn't freeze back up right away. I wonder what's happened to the ice crabbing since the last time I was there?

[ekeby]

what a really good man he obviously is and how different things would be now had he won in 2000 - and not just here, but all over the world.  

I remember when he first ran for president (in the early 80s I think), stumping around in a red flannel shirt. I couldn't stand him-- because he was WAY too conservative for me (remember Tipper and the record lyrics biz?). Boy, is everything relative. How I wish he were in charge, what a different world this would be. Literally.