Things You Can Do to Defeat Islamo-Fascism, Terrorism and Global Warming -- Simple Tips to Conserve Energy

Oil is the Enabler of Much Evil: As I have mentioned before, it is abundantly clear that the more dollars we spend on oil and gasoline, the more money we put into the hands of Iranians, Saudis and others in the Arab and Muslim worlds who directly (in the case of Iran), and indirectly (in the case of the Saudi government) use these dollars to further the causes of Islamo -Fascism and terrorism, and the teaching of extremist Islamist ideology and anti-Americanism. Beyond those characters, our oil dollars subsidize other authoritarian, anti-humanitarian, corrupt and/or anti-American regimes of various stripes in Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and a host of other bad places. To my righteously indignant liberal friends and self-hating Americans of all stripes, say what you will about the U.S., but I'm sorry, these other peoples are a lot less responsible world citizens and defenders of liberty and human rights than we are.

If the geo-political implications of oil usage isn't enough, the use of oil, gas and coal is the core controllable cause of global warming which is quickly wrecking this planet and appears to be going on unabated, treaties or not. (See "U.K. Government Report Warns Of Unchecked Global Warming" in today's Wall Street Journal). Our government seems to do very little on either the research front or any other front (see my blog the other day, "Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming - New York Times").

Other than bringing in a responsible, common sense third party candidate not beholden to anyone (Mr. Bloomberg is out there teasing us), what can we do in our everyday lives to reduce our energy usage, and fight our enemies and global warming at the same time?

Some Personal Energy Facts: Did you know that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the "average American consumer" (whoever that is):

-- expends 75-80% of his or her energy budget (usage, not dollars) on transportation, and 20-25% on his or her home;
--of the home energy budget, Mr. Average American expends his energy approximately as follows:
-Appliances and electronics -- 20%
-Space heating and cooling -- 56%
-Water heating -- 14-25%
-Artificial lighting -- 15% (why do these categories of usage add up to 105-116%? Don't ask me, ask the braniacs in the Department of Energy. From examining their website, it looks like they might overlapping the water heating and the space heating/cooling categories).

Anyway, here are some simple (and not so simple) things you can do to reduce energy usage. Pass these around to your friends if you care about our childrens' futures. If you do anything, it will help. In most cases the payback for your effort is close to immediate or at worst, within 1-2 years. Much of this is painfully obvious, but bears repeating:

Transportation: Use mass transit as much as possible, get the most fuel efficient car for your needs (i.e., typically, hybrid or diesel over gas engine, minivan or station wagon over a truck-based SUV, the "base engine" model of a car over the model with the V-8 engine). Combine yor trips to cover as many errands in one shot as possible. Carpool. In terms of driving habits, when you accelerate, try to avoid "jack rabbit" starts, and try to play a game when you know there is a stop sign or other reason to stop ahead -- coast (without your foot on the gas) for as far of the distance into the stop as possible.

Home -- Water Heating: Lower the temperature on your hot water heater to 120 degrees or a bit less -- if you are currently up at around 130-140, this can save 10-20% of your ho water energy budget. Insulate every hot pwater pipe possible, as well as the hot water heater. reduce hot waater use wherever possible, such as with laundry and the dishwasher. take showers instead of baths. Install flow control faucet nozzles, if you don't already have them. If your water heater is 15 years old or more, the lining of the tank is approaching its useful life anyway -- take this opportunity to seriously consider installing a high efficiency hot water heater, a tankless hot water heater and/or a solar assisted hot water heater (like I have -- it saves very significant carbon emissions (tons of greenhouse gases) and energy per year and, with tax credits, should pay back within 4-6 years of installation (after tax credits, my system cost approximately $4,700).

--Artificial Lighting: The easiest to improve -- make it a habit to turn off light when you leave the room, and train your kids ot do so as well, if you are handy, install timer or motion sensitive switches in the basement, garage and bathrooms -- places people (especially children) can leave a switch on by mistake and it will stay on for days without being turned off.

Use of new lighting technology can reduce electrical usage for lighting by 50-75%. The most valuable thing to do: install compact flourescent light bulbs (those spiral bulbs that you see more and more at Costco). They cost more than regular incandescent bulbs, but last 10-15 times longer and consume less than 25% of the energy as a regular bulb for the same light output. A 23 Watt compact flourescent puts out the same light as a 100 Watt regular bulb, and produces a lot less heat (requiring less air conditioning)! It is best to start replacing regular bulbs with compact flourescents in the highest traffic locations, where the lights are on the most -- kitchens, family rooms, bedrooms. They throw off a bit yellower light than regualr bulbs, but if that really botehrs you, mix them half and half in a room with regular bulbs (e.g., in high hat light fixtures) and you will not realize the difference. Note, these bulbs do not work with dimmer switches.

--Appliances and Electronics: If your refrigerator is 15 years old, throw it out and reduce energy usage on it by one to two-thirds. Vacuum its condenser coils every six months to reduce energy usage. Ditto on replacing old washers, dryers and dishwashers. Clean the dryer exhaust vent -- a clogged vent uses up a ton more energy, dries slower and can cause a fire. Turn off that computer if you are goign to leave it on unused fr several hours (especially overnight). If you have an old fashioned heavy CRT tube monitor for your computer, get rid of it NOW (environmentlally safely) and replace it with a light LCD screen (they are now dirt cheap) which uses a fraction of the energy and produces a fraction of the heat. Consider doing the same if you have a big CRT television -- good Americans watch TV on energy efficient plasma or LCD screens!

-- Space Heating and Cooling: This is where it counts the most, energy-wise. First, insulate, insulate, insulate. Everyone focuses on the attic (for good reason), but one of the least insulated places in the house, and a major source of heat loss, is the basement. Did you know that an uninsulated cinder block wall insulates almost as poorly as a sheet of glass? Whether your basement is unfinished or finished, insulate (if it is unfinished, you can easily get hard foamboard insulation and just glue it to the walls). Look for holes were air can escape to the outside and caulk them (e.g., holes in walls for pipes or vents -- also a great pace to stop rodent penetration). Replace old windows or repair them and use storm windows during the winter. If you have old steam radiators, put foamboard wrapped with tin foil behind the radiator (foil facing towards the room) to radiate heat in towards the room. Have boiler cleaned and boiler and air conditioning regularly serviced, and ducts cleaned. If you have hot water or steam heat, insulate as much of those pipes as possible. Don't block radiators or heat supplies with any insulating materials (like piles of clothes, books, etc..). Use programmable thermostats, try to keep it a couple of degrees colder in the winter and warmer in the summer. During the Summer, if you use an attic ventilator fan attached to a themostat to keep your attic below 95 degrees, you can save substantially on air conditioning usage for the rest of the house (a good roofer can install this fan if you don't have one).

Again, if your boiler or air conditioner is 15 years old, consider upgrading to a new high efficiency heating system, whcih can cut your fuel bills and furnace pollution by half or more! A new furnace can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5-2.0 tons for a gas system or 2.5-3 tons for an oil system per year.

We can talk about other, more radical solutions, like solar voltaic cell electricity generation (not such a great thing at current solar cell prices and sun availability in the Northeast, roughly 14-16 year payback -- focus on solar hot water heating instead), or geothermal heating and cooling (a big winner), but these are more expensive and complex solutions that can be discussed some other time.

To sum up, you can make a difference to our national security and health of our planet, and save money at the same time. Start today.