Should I Turn That Light Off?
In this week’s energy tip, Al Zelicoff answers the question that won’t go away: Is it better to turn the light off if I’m only going to be out of the room for a few minutes?
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Tyler Cowen on Climate Models
Remember both tails: Make of climate models what you may, there is lots of evidence that a) biodiversity is being hammered, and b) climate change will bring desertification, drought, and possibly coastal flooding to many parts of the world, among other dilemmas. I don’t have a lot of faith in the exact predictive powers of …
Free Iris
Free Iris Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. It took about 10 minutes from the time Lissa put up the “free iris” sign this morning until the first neighbor drove up to grab a bag. The iris bed has gotten a little out of control, and Lissa and I skipped our Saturday morning walk to work on …
How I Use Twitter
Watching my young friend Kelsey’s feed for the Gustav evacuation order. (So far, so good.) update: evacuation order has been issued.
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
On DOE’s new “branding” effort.
Clotheslines and Really, Really Big Houses
It’s easy to make fun of the good folks of Southamptom for having a law against clotheslines (messy, you understand). But is it not admirable for them to sacrifice for the greater good, allowing clotheslines for the sake of energy conservation? From Bloomberg: Even amid such affluence, clotheslines are finding fans among residents seeking to …
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Water Heater Math
I love a good calculation. So does my friend Al Zelicoff, who offers us a doozy of a set in today’s Journal energy tip, providing the back-of-the-very-large-envelope calculation on how much you can save by turning down the thermostat on your water heater: 320 pounds of water X (140 – 60) = 25,600 BTUs or …
The Robins
If I was a robin, here’s what I would do on a cool, late summer dawn in Albuquerque, as I was headed south. I’d get my friends and fly up to the highest tree in the neighborhood, that big elm over there, and flutter around a little bit to keep warm as the sun just …
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
On the Colorado Compact Kerfuffle
Drought, Climate, Change
Southwest is Drier Already