Solar Powered City and Home Energy Savings: Part 2

GREEN HOME SHOW #29: Solar Powered City and Home Energy Savings: Part 2 Skit and Audience Going Green Questions

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The following content is from THE GREAT GREEN HOME SHOW #29.

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Overall Segment #2 – 12:00

ECSI Delmarva #3 - 5:30 Sponsored by: Energy Services Group

I was sitting in the office on a stifling summer afternoon, playing “jacks” with my assistant Tammy Argyle. We only played with metal jacks. Those plastic ones are for sissies. I was down to my last bounce and grab when the phone rang, causing me to catch the ball with both hands and lose the game.

JU: “That’s not fair, Nose” I said. I called her “Nose”, because she had one. And it was a good one too... good for sniffing out energy crime clues.

TA: “Too bad chief, you fudged it… can’t use both hands... I’d better get the phone.” JU: “Not Fair” I repeated, as Tammy scurried to pick up the phone that was on it’s third ring. “Phone scared me”

TA: “ECSI, you got a crime, we got the time.” GB: “Hurry! My wife’s down and I’m not sure we do have time.”

TA: “Ok sir, please give me your name and address.” GB: “This is Governor Bacon and I’m calling from the Mansion. My wife has fainted.”

TA: “OK Governor. Please tell me, exactly what’s happened to the 1st lady?” GB: “Actually this is the 3rd Lady, you may remember my first two wives. Any way, I can’t afford to lose the third.”

TA: “Alright. Tell me what’s wrong with her Governor?” GB: “The 3rd lady was opening our Electric Bill and she just passed out.... And now I’m afraid to look at it because if something happens to me who’ll run the state?”

TA: “Don’t worry sir, we’ll be right over to help you figure it out.” I was already on it, putting all our high tech energy audit gadgets in the back of the Prius. I grabbed the door blower, the infrared unit and Alejandro Rojas Vasquez O’Reilly, our best lab technician, and shoved the Nose in the back seat. The short, cross-town trip was as jammed up as a Paris Hilton jailing, but we took advantage of the ten minutes to nail down our Spice Girls Reunion concert plans and were quickly knocking on the Governor’s door. GB: “Wow, that was fast!” the Governor said. “She’s on the floor in the foyer and hasn’t moved. Can you help her?”

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Governor’s, so I decided to give him a little gouge at his worst possible moment.

JU: “Well, I don’t like you or your sustainable energy platform and I didn’t vote for you”, I said. “But your 3rd wife has never done anything to me, so I suppose I can try to help her.” As I was chastising the Governor, Tammy squatted over the 3rd Lady, and removed the electric bill from her motionless hand.

JU: “Governor, please don’t touch anything. And Nose… before your read that bill I want you inoculated against power bill shock. Put on this equity line protection jacket. And don’t be a hero. If it’s really bad, just let it go.” TA: “Ok, I’m ready”, Tammy said. “By the way Jake, before I open the bill I have something that I’ve been wanting to say for awhile.”

JU: “No need Nose”, I replied. “I know what you’re going to say and well, I feel the same way too”. TA: Good, ‘cause you know darn well that it doesn’t matter if the phone rings or not when you’re bouncing the ball. You still can’t catch it with both hands. You cheated!” Alejandro Rojas Vasquez O’Reilly, our best lab technician, grabbed the Governor and we all moved behind our patented “Credit Rating Protection Barriers” to insulate us from any potential Energy Bill Shock. I peaked around the corner and gave Tammy the green light.

JU: Ok Nose, read the Bill. Tammy slowly brought the Bill to eye level and began to read. TA: This month’s bill is $918.27, an increase of... oh no... I’m not sure... I can’t...Tammy went down like a Bush approval rating.

JU: “Ok, let’s get her outta there”, I shouted. “Alejandro, go look for clues”. Alejandro Rojas Vasquez O’Reilly, our best lab technician, ran off quickly to find out what could have caused such a massive increase in the electric bill. It didn’t take him long.

ARVO: Got One Boss... this thermostat is set on 68 and that’s too low. You know, for every 2 degrees you turn down the thermostat you increase your AC bill by 5 to 8%. I quickly found another... they’d been using the dryer when they should have been hanging the clothes outside to dry during warmer months.

ARVO: Got another Chief… filter on the air handler and air conditioning system is clogged... makes the system work harder. How’s the Nose?

JU: “I’m checking on her now. How’s my girl?” I asked her. TA: I’m ok chief, you cheater, but I did find something here that may be a clue...there are no shade trees around the Mansion at all. This place is like a solar collector in the summer... they need trees that drop their leaves in the winter and shade the place in the summer...

JU: Governor, do you turn out the lights at night? This is a pretty large home… (wife groans) what about all the computers and electronic equipment?... (wife groans loudly) GB: Uh, well I like to work late and… well, uh, I sometimes (wife groans even louder) uh, forget to, you know, turn everything off.

ARVO: I think I found another one...they got 2 more refrigerators and a coffin freezer down here. They’re stuffed with double fudge ripple bars and Rocky Road cones and I think I found wives 1 and 2. Better call the blues....you know these extra refrigerators are real electric hogs...

JU: Governor you should be ashamed of yourself... you’re an energy hog... and I don’t think you’ll have to worry about re-election. He’s right here officer. Take him away.

Tune in next week to hear the Premier Episode of ECSI Environmental Crime Scene Investigation, Delaware Valley…

Listener Letters – 5:00 Sponsored by: CMI Electric

It’s time for Listener Letters. What do we have Doug?

1. Our first question is from Philip Roth of Milton DE. Phillip asks: What does SEER mean on the side of my air-conditioning unit?

   Well Philip the actual, literal meaning is seasonal energy efficiency rating. It is a system by which the efficiency of your air-conditioning is rated. The nice thing about this Seer rating is that it's very easy to compare. So if you have a tendency year air-conditioning unit and you buy a 15 Seer air-conditioning unit to replace it, although it may be more expensive than another tendency year is actually 50% more efficient than the 10 Seer unit. So it is worth it to pay the extra money

2. The second question is from Mike Hollaway of Newark, DE... he asks: What kind of alternatives will there be to fuel our future fleet of cars when the gas runs out?

   Mike lives on the Kirkwood Highway near Newark, and I know he loves his cars. So let's see if I can give him a somewhat brief and succinct answer.

   First of all, a look at how much of our oil supply we can replace with ethanol and/or bio-diesel will quickly let you know that we will need to go in a different direction. Even if we took all of the corn we produce in one year and turned it into ethanol in this country, we would only replace between 12 and 14% of what we will we use presently. In five years that will be an even smaller part of the increased use and demand. Bio-diesel, even if it was cranked up and cranked out, won't give us much more than 3 or 4% of what we need to power our fleet.

   There are a couple really neat alternatives. Electric cars and electric plug-ins are probably and hopefully going to be the fleet of the future, or at least an interim fleet until we can find an inexpensive and pollution free way of producing hydrogen. If the government would subsidize and encourage wind power off-shore, we could make a lot of hydrogen at a low cost at night with sea water and wind power. The product should be hydrogen, salt, freshwater, and oxygen. Not too bad huh...

   As to the future… at least the near future probably belongs to the electric car. Carmakers don't want you to believe that for lots of reasons that we can talk about later. They’re economical, fast, and for those fortunate enough to have vision, can be run off of solar power. I just saw the VW prototype van and the entire top of it is a solar panel. Drive to work, park it in the parking lot and let it charge all day. Drive home for free.
   It looks like hydrogen technology is a little further off. Presently, it’s very, very expensive. Fuel cells are better suited to larger vehicles like trucks and buses where they have room to store a large fuel cell. Toyota and Honda are both working on a hydrogen furnace for the home which you can plug your car into. I don't know exactly how it works, it seems to be pretty new, but it holds a lot of hope.

   We could probably go on but we will do a car show in the near future and we'll talk about this in detail. Suffice it to say we will need gasoline engines for a while if for nothing more than to charge our plug-in batteries.

3. Our last letter comes from Maude Lynn of Penns Grove, NJ. She asks: You guys are always so serious, and you're always talking about green… green this, green that, green stories, green your hair.... I mean, do you ever talk about anything else?

   Well Maude, we do have a couple of other colors in our arsenal. Here are a couple of non-green things we can discuss, if it makes you feel any better:
   Blue Angels, Blue Crush, Blues Image, My Blue Heaven, Blue Laws, Jackie Blue, the Red Baron, the Hunt for Red October, The Big Red One, the Scarlet Knights, Scarlet Johannson, The Scarlet Letter, Crimson Tide, Pretty in Pink, Pink Elephant, pink as a baby’s bottom, a pink carnation and a pick-up truck, pink sky at night… sailor’s delight, pink sky by morning, sailors take warning… Purple People Eaters, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Orange Crush, A Clockwork Orange, orange you glad I didn’t say banana again?, Yellow Fever, the Yellow Book, an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini, a Band of Gold, a silver lining, silver bells, Earl Grey, Grey Beard, Gray’s Anatomy, Jack Black, Black Jack, Black Betty, Black Mariah, Black Sabbath, Black Friday, Black Flag, Black and Blue, Black-eyed Peas, Back in Black, black is black / I want my baby back, Vanilla Sky, Betty White, white as a ghost, Brown Eyed Girl and Colonel Mustard did it in the Conservatory with the lead pipe…

Thanks to CMI Electric for sponsoring this weeks Listener Letters. Remember, we’ll answer your questions too.