Last Saturday was a dark day. It didn’t start out that way, but somewhere along the way it took a drastic turn for the worst. Let me explain.My weekends are typically full of projects around the house. Some having to do with Watthacking, but mostly I settle into projects that have a home improvement theme. [...]
On Sunday I posted on the new Solana Power Generating station that is being planned for an alfalfa field in central Arizona. Three miles of solar PT1 Trough will collect the sun’s heat energy and transform it into steam; in turn powering clean energy producing turbines. But this is not the first trip that Abengoa [...]
While channel surfing the radio at lunch, I catch Rush Limbaugh on a rant about the silliness of solar power and how in the end the very government who encourages the use of renewable energy, will tax us for it when the coffers run low. Now in some cases adding solar panels to your home [...]
Solar Power With A new Twist
I rarely buy the local paper because their reporting is so biased and usually quite bad. They like to use terms like “undocumented immigrant ” instead of “illegal” and “alleged terrorist” when speaking of Osama Bin Laden. Something is alleged when we think we know who did it. Since Osama [...]
It seems like power management on the home computer is a hot topic these days, so after several questions regarding settings, I thought I’d share my whole power management plan.
Currently I’m running Microsoft Vista Home Premium. One of the great debates right now is why to switch from XP to Vista, but if power management is one of your goals, you [...]
If you’ve been reading other content on Watthackers, chances are good that you have heard of the Watts Up Pro Watt Meter and other similar devices. If not, check out 10 Power Monitoring Devices to put Your House on a Diet and Save Power.
I’ve been busy this week, so when I got my Watts Up [...]
Last night my sister and I had a good hearted debate about the state of our country and how it seems to be spiraling out of control on so many fronts. We talked about the evils of WalMart, cheap products from China, and a Massachusetts pickle grower (Cains), that outsourced their crop production to [...]
I decided to put some numbers to what it would take to run our house on solar panels given our current energy demand. Currently our house is consuming an alarming 18,160 kilowatt hours (kWH) of power each year. Yes, we need to cut this a bunch, but let’s look at what it would take to power this house if we didn’t make any changes.
It’s official – I’m a watt weenie! Since starting this project, I’ve become conscious of our power usage in ways that I would not have thought possible. We don’t sit in the dark and huddle around a candle for warmth, but we have started turning more stuff off and unplugging power hungry electronics when we [...]
As I’ve stated before, this project was born out of a desire to eventually build a cabin off the grid. I have a loose design for our cabin (will need to negotiate this with Liz), researched solar and hydro for renewable power, water sources, and other aspects of this transition. Currently we are not ready [...]
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