Stop being so wasteful, yo

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by RoyLennigan, Jun 9, 2007.

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  1. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Cut down on energy use!

    Stuff four people in your car instead of driving around town all day by yourself. Or ride a bus. Don't buy a huge SUV unless you know you are going to be carrying a lot of stuff all the time (not just once or twice). Prius' (despite recent badmouthing) are actually a hell of a lot more energy efficient than pretty much anything that affordable and practical today. Replace your lightbulbs with fluorescent ones (if you havent already). Make sure your house is sealed properly to cut down on heating or AC use.

    If you don't have the money for a prius then buy an old diesel and run it on straight vegetable oil that you can get for free from your local restaurants. It only costs a few hundred dollars to convert, pretty simple. If you want to make actual fuel, then read about how to process the free vegetable oil with lye and ethanol to create biodiesel. You don't have to be a chemist (but it helps). You'll probably spend a bit more than what you need to run off of straight veg oil, but you can make an ASTM standard fuel (that you could even sell) that will run in any standard, unaltered diesel engine.

    If that isn't enough, you can take the byproduct of biodiesel, glycerine, and either make soap, or ferment it and make a natural gas with which you can power cooking ovens, water heaters, or other heating devices.

    Buy solar panels! After the initial expense, its free energy! Connect the panels to a network of batteries to store the excess energy (if there is any) so that it can be used at night.

    And on top of it all, urge your government representatives that this is one of, if not the most important issue facing our country, as well as the world, today.

    Here are some useful links:
    University of Florida (where my dad works as a professor) on energy use. Includes guides for easy home conservation of energy that will both greatly reduce the money you spend and the energy you use up:
    http://search.ufl.edu/web?query=energy

    Appalachian State University's Biodiesel operation:
    http://www.biodiesel.appstate.edu/

    Methods of running on straight vegetable oil:
    http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html

    Power scorecard, another site telling you easy ways you can reduce your energy impact:
    http://powerscorecard.org/reduce_energy.cfm
     
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  3. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    No, thank you ...I'm doin' just fine the way I live now.

    But I do wish that you idealists would do as you want others to do ...that would free up some energy that I could use.

    Baron Max
     
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  5. sandy Banned Banned

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    I, a single chick, am supposed to cut back on energy use? I hardly use any as it is. I don't have a house full of kids so I seldom run the heat or a/c. My utility bills are miniscule. I drive a small car that gets great mpg. What more am I supposed to do? Turn off the computer

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    When those who preach about energy consumption start practicing what they preach, I may be impressed. Then again, maybe not.

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    And if anyone in my neighborhood ever starts running a vehicle on vegetable oil, I would faint from shock.

    I disagree that "...And on top of it all, urge your government representatives that this is one of, if not the most important issue facing our country, as well as the world, today."-- Are you serious? We have MUCH bigger problems than energy use. We're trying to stay alive from evil terrorist threats and away from criminal aliens.

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  7. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    This message was intended for all those who actually give a shit, Baron. And how exactly do you know I'm not taking my own advice? Or would you rather inaccurately lump all people you don't like into one ill-fitting stereotype just so you can belch out some more hot air simply because the world never went the way you wanted it to from the get-go. You don't have to take out all your regrets on others, just go out and do something so you can stop complaining.
     
  8. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Why? Because you have your head stuck so far up your ass that you can't imagine anyone actually reusing something instead of just wasting more resources they can't make anymore of? Tell me this, what are you gonna do when you don't have anymore oil? We use fossil fuels to run the generators that create electricity to power electric cars. We use them to create hydrogen fuel.

    Tell me, why exactly would you faint from shock if anyone around you showed enough intelligence and ingenuity to slightly modify their engine so they could reuse a very common substance as fuel and not even have to pay for it? Where is the absurdity in that?
     
  9. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I do give a shit! I want everyone else to stop using so damned much energy, and especially energy that they don't absolutely have to use. People should never go to the movies, because that's not necessary to survival. And people shouldn't use computers unless it's absolutely necessary to survival.

    Hey, wait a minute ...why are you using a computer? Is it necessary?? Or are you just proving that you're like everyone else ....a hippo-critter?

    Baron Max
     
  10. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Did I say anything about not using a computer? No... Why don't you check out the last time I even posted here besides today. Because I really am fed up with this place and the hypocrisy here. I don't use the computer that much at all, in fact this one isn't even mine and it would be on regardless of my presence here. And I am using to post this message aren't I? So if it even gets one person to heed my advice, then I'd say the cost of the energy for me to use it is worth the energy not used because of it.

    I am, at the moment, involved the process of fitting a van with the heating and filtering equipment needed for it to run on vegetable oil. This van will be driven with at least 3 people in it. I've talked to professors and researches at the university of florida about the process of making biodiesel. My dad is an engineering researcher/teacher there and has been gradually but steadily modifying our house to be more energy efficient. I drive a '92 honda civic that gets ~30mpg but I'd say I only drive 4 or 5 miles a day on average and I try to ride with people or have them ride with me as much as possible. I turn off anything I am not using (and sometimes for other people who leave them on). I don't use the AC. I still live with my parents even though I am 21.
     
  11. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Baron, the reason I haven't been here in a while and will continue to not come here is because of people like you. You would rather be the cynic and disagree or bring someone down than just do your own thing. It seems like most people here end up doing that. Try not to be such a grumpy old man, at least for your own sake.
     
  12. phonetic stroking my banjo Registered Senior Member

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    Being green is expensive.

    If everyone tells their MP to do something, everything will no doubt become more expensive. Be arsed.

    The world isn't going to implode. It isn't going to do anything very much different from what it would naturally, if us humans weren't here.

    We're all going to be dead by the next ice-age. Tough luck for the generation that get it, but would it be any less of a hardship for the next generation, or the generation 100 years from then? Probably not.

    As for the Maldives going underwater. Unlucky. Get the fuck out of there before it does.

    In short, though, doing all of this environmentally friendly stuff is expensive and will change my (and most peoples) way of life. I don't really relish the thought.

    If I lived in a city centre, rode a bike everywhere and was a vegan, maybe I wouldn't really care, because it wouldn't affect me that much.
     
  13. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    That's just the thing.... its not expensive. Maybe the initial costs seem a little daunting the the average joe, but in a few years time you'll get all that money back because you won't be wasting nearly as much as you would with 'conventional' use. And a few years after that you'll actually have more money in your pocket than you would if you hadn't spent the initial money to become efficient.

    So its not just because I want to "save the world." I am by no means the eco-friendly hippie that you seem to want to make me out as. I just see it as stupid and wasteful to be using so much energy and spending so much of your own money doing it when you could just upgrade and make things both efficient as well as less expensive. Your just kicking yourself in the ass at the moment and its not just your kids that will regret it. You will too, somewhere down the line, unless you aren't aware enough to figure it out.
     
  14. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Does using a different lightbulb change your life? Does using a different fuel change your life? Does changing your AC filter every now and then change your life? Does sealing up your house so that your energy bill doesn't go through your roof change your life (other than saving you money). Would carpooling or riding the bus really change your life enough to make you more uncomfortable than you already are? Would doing things like being more moderate with your usage of hot water, AC and heat, filling your dishwasher and clothes washer to full capacity for every load, replacing inefficient appliances, replacing your shower and faucet heads with more efficient ones, really change your way of life enough for you to just not care that you are wasting so much as it is?

    If you did these things, you would be saving a lot more money in the longer run that if you didn't. Of course, if you live in an apartment, I guess it would not be feasible to do it yourself, but you could always try to persuade the owner that doing these things would save them a lot of money later on (and it very well does).
     
  15. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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  16. phonetic stroking my banjo Registered Senior Member

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    To do things by halfs it might not be expensive, but when you fully consider everything you do and approach each area of your life with the same enviro-friendly frameset, it will be expensive.

    Solar panels are expensive just now and depending on where you live, aren't all that great. For about 8 months of the year, they'd be pretty much redundant where I am. I would love some solar panels, wind turbines and a battery farm to run my little hideout in the woods, but in a normal house, in a normal street, these things aren't that easy. I know they sound like excuses, and they are to an extent, but things like planning permission, neighbour's consent, cost of alteration to your house, hiring of a qualified electrician - these things all add up.

    I like to go the whole-hog when I do something, and I suppose that's why I'm a little hung up on it. I do agree with what you're saying, honest.

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    To change an inefficient house into a very efficient house is no mean feat. Decent windows, new and more efficient insulation, possible rewiring, draught excluders, energy efficient appliances, new water tank, solar panels, wind turbines, rain collection system with purification and so on. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
     
  17. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    But I am only asking to do what you can without really changing how you live. If you follow just those tips on what you can do in your own home to make what you already do more efficient, then you are basically living just the same as you always have been, but you aren't wasting so much and you have some more money to spend on what you really want.

    If you were to go all out, then you would likely never have to pay for energy again. There are more ways than just windmills and solar panels to create power. But at least here in florida, those solar panels are really useful. And in Kansas, those windmills can pump out a lot of energy.

    If you can or want to do more, then all the power to you. I know a retired professor from the university that collects all his biodegradable waste and composts it to create methane; he can make natural gas from the leaves he rakes up in his yard. He says it isn't very useful for one home to do (because of the small amount) but if a whole community were to do this, then it they could basically use it to run all the heat they needed. But I am not asking you to do this, I'm just throwing it out there as an example.
     
  18. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Take a look at the site, its not as hard as it seems. And again, I'm not asking for everyone to put solar panels on their roofs and collect rainwater.
     
  19. desi Valued Senior Member

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    Roy, modern society depends on alot of energy use. Unless you have a cheap alternative fuel to offer the world you just make yourself an annoyance by fussing about this. Nobody will listen because most people are just trying to survive the best way they can. Like me, its probably not practical for them to ride a bike 20 miles each way to word each day. Their neighbors probably don't go to the same job in the same part of town so...

    Add to that the real problem of the industrializing third world which has no environmental standards for manufacturing and I hope you get the picture. Stop wasting everyones time with your errant finger pointing.
     
  20. VitalOne Banned Banned

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    Who cares about wasting energy....instead of figuring out ways to save energy we should find alternative energy sources...
     
  21. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Did you even read the post? Even with an alternative energy source, its not gonna last long unless you are efficient with it. Most people in the world are trying to survive the best they can. Most people in the U.S. are trying to make the most money they can while trying to care about as little as possible. I am not talking about riding your bike 20 miles every day (though I know some people who do it just for fun). I am not talking about riding with your neighbors. I am saying 'do what you can', and then listing what can help.

    If you have your own home, then making it efficient will help you even more than it helps the energy problem.
     
  22. RoyLennigan Registered Senior Member

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    Again, even with alternate energy sources, its not gonna last long unless you're efficient with it.
     
  23. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    when will solar power become widely available?
    when some greedy asshole figures out how to charge you for sunlight.

    so, why is oil so outrageously high priced?
    because mr. oilman knows there are no widely available alternatives.

    P.s.
    i can remember gasoline being sold for 25 cents a gallon.
     
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