From last week’s Wall Street Journal comes news that despite the best of intentions from the local government and residents of Boulder, CO significant energy savings are yet to be realized.
Beyond the usual justifications on the whys and why-nots of any local initiative, the really interesting thing is that energy audits have not been terrifically successful in getting people to move forward on retrofits, despite understanding exactly where savings can be realized.…
The Cambridge Energy Alliance is debuting a poster art exhibit to inform the public about climate change and its impacts, the carbon emissions of Cambridge, and how local citizens can make a difference. Over 80% of Cambridge’s Climate emissions come from residential and commercial buildings, so eliminating wasted energy in our homes and workplaces is a priority.…
No, we didn’t get a new toilet. We converted our old one with a One2flush kit. Turning the handle one way makes a half flush and turning it the other makes a full flush.…
Lest our dog-owning readers think that the above comic unfairly singles out their pooches, note that the original research it is commenting upon is not limited to canines. It turns out that a variety of pets have numerous, oft-overlooked consequences for the environment, be it illegal bird and fish trafficking, or the insistence that Fluffy should eat better than her owner.…
The Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) is offering free Home Energy Saving Seminars to communities across Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Municipal Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association that provides advocacy, training, publications, research and other services to Massachusetts cities and towns.…
On their face, biofuels seem like a pretty good idea: carbon dioxide and sunlight in, carbon dioxide and energy out. Certainly some hobbyists manage to recover waste grease for use in diesel engines, but commercially the field has been dominated by the fermentation of sugars from food crops into ethanol.…
We finally got that Kill-A-Watt we’ve been thinking about, and we spent a good part of last weekend running around the house measuring the energy use of every single piece of electronic equipment we own. It was surprisingly fun. It was also a lot of numbers. (See below.) But we could draw a few conclusions from all of them:
People make all kinds of New Years resolutions: eating better, exercising more, quitting bad habits. But what about resolutions that will help you to save money and also help preserve our planet for future generations?…
After a series of public hearings, the Cambridge City Council adopted the stretch energy code on December 21st. The stretch code is about 30% more efficient than the baseline building code and has different requirements for both the residential and commercial sectors. Visit the city’s website to learn more about the stretch code, which includes a summary table that outlines the new requirements.…
For people who use real Christmas trees, the question comes up each year—should they switch to artificial? Our general rule is that reusable is better than disposable, but in this case, it’s not that simple.
The consensus (based on at least one peer-reviewed study) is that real trees are the way to go.
