July 3rd, 2008 · Comments Off on Solar-Collecting Roads Heat Buildings in The Netherlands
Solar is a highly efficient way to heat water. Combine it with underground storage, and a year-round system can be created where the system can cover heating requirements in the winter and cooling in the summer. The Dutch company Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV has taken this concept and moved it a step forward with the Road Energy System® (RES).
Rather than putting tubes on a rooftop, RES lays the collection system within concrete — think the black asphalt of a road or runway. The piping connects to undeground storage areas. Remember the last time you walked on black asphalt on a sunny August day and you understand the heat being transferred into the water in the pipes. This water is then transferred into the storage area. On demand, in cold weather, the hot water is used to heat buildings and to keep the road above freezing. After cooling, the water is moved into cold storage to provide air conditioning for summer months. A year round solar/geothermal heating/cooling system for both the road and buildings. The renewable combo greatly reduces electricity requirements (and thus pollution) and the cooling/heating of the road reduces maintenance requirements (and lowers/eliminates deicing and plowing requirements in winter).
Solar Energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar.
July 1st, 2008 · Comments Off on Busing students … school systems feel the pain
Just a short note, something that should not be at all surprising. Just as drivers and airlines are feeling the pitch of skyrocketing fuel prices, so are school systems. As an example, Nova Scotia’s Acadia school board is now working to get a new school bus contract. The previous contract paid on a student-mile fee basis. The contract didn’t account for the possibility of skyrocketing fuel prices. [Read more →]
June 29th, 2008 · Comments Off on Energy COOL: A stroll in a garden
Since diving into the deep end when it comes to energy issues, almost every day sees new fascinating concepts, approaches, and technologies. Fascinating … exciting … even hope inspiring at times. And, as well, as the passion builds, so many of these are truly Energy COOL.
This is a somewhat different path of discover and discussion when it comes to Energy COOL thinking. This isn’t some emergent technology about to blow your mind away nor news of some momentous change in policy, but a window on a movement to communicate better paths forward through our public gardens.
So, join me in my stroll through a garden and, I hope, plan to take your own stroll.
A wave of interest in small dwellings — some to serve … as temporary housing, others to become space-saving dwellings of a more permanent nature — has prompted designers and manufacturers to offer building plans, kits and factory-built houses to the growing number of small-thinking second-home shoppers. Seldom measuring much more than 500 square feet, the buildings offer sharp contrasts to the rambling houses that are commonplace as second homes.
These are often beautifully designed and constructed residences, maximizing the utility of every square inch, standing in great contrast to the trend to maximize square footage to be wasted. With mounting concern over global boiling and the likelihood of ever-increasing fossil-fuel energy costs, such micro-homes are looking to be an ever more interesting option for those considering looking to building a residence or perhaps an office.
June 27th, 2008 · Comments Off on George Carlin: Global Warming Denier … ?
This video is the rage among the Global Warming denial sect, as they pass it around and post it with great glee following Carlin’s death. Their RIP is a celebration that George was one of theirs.
You got people around you.
The country’s full of them right now, people walking around all day long, every minute of the day, worried about everything …
the greatest arrogance of them all, Save the Planet. …
I’m getting tired of this shit.
Celebrate George “Global Warming Denier” Carlin!
…
Hold on a second … [Read more →]
Well, the man who needs aditzy blond to help him spell words has come out of the woodworks.
Pat Sajak is a strong-worded Global Warming Skeptic.
Sadly, Wheel of Fortune’s host probably has a greater voice than the thousands of IPCC scientists with a segment of the American public … hopefully that segment isn’t highly represented in the voting public.
But, while Sajak’s denier attitude might be worth rejection, he raises an ethical and moral challenge that should make us all restless at night.
The Washington Post is establishing a firm 21st Century tradition: when it comes to Global Warming, take guidance from Faux News, “Fair and Balanced”.
Multiple times in the pastweek, both in reporting and on the editorial page, The Washington Post continued a seemingly iron tradition of coloring Global Warming science by ensuring that skeptics and deniers have their say as well, without providing any indication to the ‘regular’ reader that serial skeptics received a silver platter invitation to the Post‘s pages to spread their deception.
Amid the rush for McMansioning of life, a counter-trend exists, with people looking to 
people around you.
We’ve seen how the 