[TheSupplyGuy]

I've discovered many easy and practical things that could easily help the world and lower oil consumption. Here's some of them:

Install the heater things in every bathroom instead of paper(it may sound worse, but thing of all the energy to get that paper and transport it). The only concern I have is if they're less sanitary, since germs do like warmth.

Replace about as many escalators as possible with stairs.

Buy food from your local farmer's market instead of supporting items that have been shipped 1000+ miles, plus you get better prices and support your local economy.

Turn things off when you leave a room/aren't using them(that may sound ultrasimple, but you won't believe how many people can't seem to manage it). I'll have more later as these ephiphanies come to me .

[clv101]

Nice idea - I'm a bit fan of conservation, a barrel of oil saved is after all just as good as a barrel of oil discovered.

However, I'm not so sure of replacing paper towels with electric heaters... I would have suggested replacing them with cotton towels which are washed and re-used or just not to bother at all... would it be such a hardship not to dry our hands? Give them a shake... walk on, they'll be dry in a couple of minutes.

I can't see replacing escalators with stairs as having a large impact. Sure it's a move in the right direction. I would suggest turning off air-con. Do we really need a steady 22C whilst walking around the shopping centre or sitting in the office? Would 17C on a cold day and 30C on a hot day be such a hardship - HUGE savings to be had there. We need to stop trying to control our environment and learn to live with it... put a jumper on if cold, take it off if hot. Simple.

Buying from local producers - Excellent point.

Turning things off - Also excellent. I think there should be more technology deployed in this area. More things should turn themselves off and on again when they detect people.

Seeing how wistful we are now gives hope for a softer landing.

[TheSupplyGuy]

True, thanks for the encouragement. I'm sure the government got about 10 people together in a room to come up with ideas for conservation, they could easily make up a list of 20 things before lunch.

[MonteQuest]

Here's my first ten:

1.Spend the money to keep your car tuned up, and keep your tires inflated properly.
2.In the winter, turn your thermostats down to 68 degrees or below. Reduce the setting to 55 degrees before going to sleep or when leaving for the day. (For each 1 degree you turn down the thermostat in the winter, you'll save up to 5% on your heating costs.)
3.Turn off non-essential lights and appliances. The electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars!
4.Avoid running large appliances such as washers, dryers, and electric ovens during peak energy demand hours from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
5.Close shades and blinds at night to reduce the amount of heat lost through windows. This also applies during the day for warm climates.
6.Buy Energy Star appliances, products and lights.
7.Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
8.Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
9.Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
10.Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.

As to escalators, why replace them with stairs, just don't turn them on! They are already stairs!

[lowem]

I kinda like those smart escalators I saw in Europe. I *think* it was Monaco / Monte Carlo. They stop when there's nobody and start running when they sense somebody stepping on. So far I've only seen a couple of those here in Singapore.

For PC's, I'd say at least setting the monitor power-saving mode helps a lot, especially for cheapos like me who can't afford (and don't want) LCD panels and have stuck with CRT's. Set to 5 or 10 minutes, and it's off.

The PC itself takes a lot less power than the monitor especially if you're running anything newer/better than Windows 95/98. Windows NT and XP (and 2003 should as well) come with a "System Idle Process" that issues the HLT instruction (HALT, actually) when doing nothing in particular.

Oh, and if you're actually going to buy a new CPU, avoid the Intel Pentium 4's, *especially* the P4E's - they're the V8 energy guzzlers of the processor world nowadays. The AMD64's are cheaper, run faster in most applications except XVID, MP3 encoding (who does that all the time anyway), run cooler and use much less energy.

Mine's an AMD64, it runs at 41 degC idle, 44-46 degC running 3D games, and up to 56 degC XVID encoding. Intel P4E's typically run at over 50 degC *while idle*. And heat up over 60-70 degC, guzzling way over 100W at full throttle.

For the home, in a hot, tropical climate like Singapore's, it's possible to survive without aircon, it all depends on where your home is located, and the direction it's facing. Some people buy the apartments facing East or West - bad idea. The sun shines right into the house and heats up everything and everybody. Some people put the aircon compressor unit where the sun shines - even worse idea, but sometimes there's not much choice about it. And get fans, place them strategically. Each fan is at least 10-20x cheaper in running costs than an aircon unit, just need 1, the most 2, to a room.

[pepper2000]

One strategy is to use the microwave instead of the oven when feasible. Get a small refrigerator/freezer. Put appliances, especially the computer, on a power strip and turn off the power strip when they are not in use. Even when off, many electronics continue to use energy.

I have a roommate who turns the thermostat to 80 degrees, leaves the windows open, turns on every light and sometimes the television, and then leaves the apartment. It drives me crazy.

[TheSupplyGuy]

Wow, I'm sorry for you pepper. Maybe we should keep working on this, and turn it into a pinned thread in this forum?

[xcel]

Hi All:

___My small contribution to humanity …

The Horror, the absolute horror …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email protected]

[frankthetank]

Turn down your hot water heaters...I've seen some that are cranked up so high they'll burn you...

Close heat/ac register in rooms that aren't being used...

[0mar]

Unfortunately, conservation will only delay the peak by a few years. Even if the US completely stopped importing oil, the peak could still conceivable hit by 2010-2020. To me, it looks like we have plateaued these last few years. There has been very little change in the total production of countries, despite new drilling and finds. This is mainly due to depletion in other non-OPEC countries. I am not saying that conservation is bad; it's a wonderful stop-gap, but it will never solve peak oil.

There needs to be a fundemental change in the way we use energy and more importantly, in how many people occupy the earth. For one thing, suburbs should be demolished ASAP and people should start living closer to work. The US's standard of living, along with most highly developed countries, needs to drop to about the level of Turkey or Poland. On top of that, ~3 billion people just plain need to go. And all these useless pieces of sh!t need to go too. Like electric toothbrushes, 13.1 stereosystems, lavish week-long parties thrown by rich people, and generally all the sh!t we don' t need in the survival-sense of the word. Useless novelties that serve no purpose other than existing to be sold.

What we need to do is educate people that true happiness comes from social interactions, a satisfying job, and a decent family. What one really needs in total is the above and a couple (and I really do mean couple) hobbies, such as woodwork or computers or music etc etc. We need to stop advocating a consumerist culture that thrives on exploitation. A society built on avarice and unsatiable needs will never suceed in the long-term. Guess what kind of society we have.

[pbcoole]

I just stumbled over this sight while ordering a copy of the End of Suburbia.

In this entire thread on conservation, no one mentioned getting rid of your car altogether. My wife and I sold our car back in May, and in some ways, it has actually been easier. We took the money and bought a triple bicycle which my five and three-year-old children ride with me. For a long time before that, my five-year-old rode on a tandem bicycle with me.

I sometimes see people defending the use of cars because, well, we live in a car culture. We should, instead, press for higher cafe standards, etc. That's a circular argument if I ever heard one. The reason we have a car culture is because people drive cars. The way we would stop having a car culture is through individual choices not to drive.

We stopped driving because we did not want to participate as intensively in the car culture rather than to conserve oil, although it is true that oil is used in the manufacture of things which are more important than transportation (medical supplies for instance).

(People ask us this time of year what we do about icy roads. The answer is easy: studded bicycle tires).

Paul

[Xelat]

I second pbcoole. I drive 10 to 20 thousand miles a year. But having learned about PO in January and watched the elections go down I became just to fed up with the whole thing. So I stopped driving. That's what you should do. Anyone who is half a man (or woman) and recognizes the threat of PO should get out of their car and on the bus, train, bike or even walk. This is true even for the doomers - I have frequently heard doomers say that you need to be able to put in a whole days worth of manual labor. Well being able to walk/run 40 miles in a day I would think would be essential. Putting in an hour or so a day on your bike will take you a long way towards this. It really is not very difficult at all.

We ought to start a bike advocacy thread and just keep it floating toward the top of this forum.

[TrueKaiser]

For PC's, I'd say at least setting the monitor power-saving mode helps a lot, especially for cheapos like me who can't afford (and don't want) LCD panels and have stuck with CRT's. Set to 5 or 10 minutes, and it's off.

The PC itself takes a lot less power than the monitor especially if you're running anything newer/better than Windows 95/98. Windows NT and XP (and 2003 should as well) come with a "System Idle Process" that issues the HLT instruction (HALT, actually) when doing nothing in particular.

Oh, and if you're actually going to buy a new CPU, avoid the Intel Pentium 4's, *especially* the P4E's - they're the V8 energy guzzlers of the processor world nowadays. The AMD64's are cheaper, run faster in most applications except XVID, MP3 encoding (who does that all the time anyway), run cooler and use much less energy.

Mine's an AMD64, it runs at 41 degC idle, 44-46 degC running 3D games, and up to 56 degC XVID encoding. Intel P4E's typically run at over 50 degC *while idle*. And heat up over 60-70 degC, guzzling way over 100W at full throttle.

you can do a little better. if gaming is not you thing i recomend geting one of those via cpu's they use as little as 7 watts.clicky large passive heatsinks for your cpu and video card should also reduce power usage though you will need a case that has good ventilation.

edit: i forgot to mention that even the us army is condsidering switching to open source software cause on avergae it is cleaner code thus takes less power to execute.

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

As to escalators, why replace them with stairs, just don't turn them on! They are already stairs!

Mitch Hedberg

An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

[Barbara]

Do you REALLY use disposable paper towels in your house bathroom????

(Sometimes I think these americans really deserve a good lesson... )

[TrueKaiser]

Do you REALLY use disposable paper towels in your house bathroom????

(Sometimes I think these americans really deserve a good lesson... )

yes. we are told it's better then useing normal towels cause towels will hold germs....

[Frank]

A little exposure to germs is good for you, ya know? Keeps the resistance built up.

A programmable thermostat saved us almost 20% in our oil-heated house. Compact fluorescent bulbs are more efficient and save energy and money. If your refrigerator is more than 8-10 years old you can cut consumption in half by replacing it with a newer product.

etc. etc. There's a ton of good ideas out there - maybe someone should collect a "bullet" list of them.

[mindfarkk]

dammit, i thought we were talking about toilet paper!

[TheSupplyGuy]

Courtest of naturalfamilyonline.com:

51 Easy Ways to Go Green By Tabitha Tucker
Sustainable living is an approach to social and economic -- indeed, all activities -- for all societies, rich and poor, which is compatible with the preservation of the environment. It is based on a philosophy of interdependence, of respect for life as well as non-living parts of nature, and of responsibility for future generations. -- The Sustainable Living Network

Sustainable living is essential to the welfare of our world. Try some of these suggestions to leave your environmental footprint a little lighter and make a difference:
1. Compost.
2. Recycle.
3. Use vinegar and water to clean.
4. Maintain a pesticide-free garden and lawn.
5. Take shorter showers (even one minute shorter each day will add up to a lot of saved water).
6. Wash and re-use food containers.
7. Buy organic food.
8. Use cloth napkins.
9. Turn the water off while you brush your teeth.
10. Use your towels several times before washing them.
11. Install low-flow shower heads.
12. Turn the heat down while you’re out and asleep.
13. Garden.
14. Grow indoor plants.
15. Clean with baking soda.
16. Wear your clothes more than once before washing them.
17. Order coffee in a reusable cup.
18. Walk to the corner store rather than driving.
19. Shop locally.
20. Live near your workplace.
21. Use public transit.
22. Ride your bike.
23. Reduce your consumption of disposable items.
24. Get out and enjoy nature (you’ll automatically want to help preserve it).
25. Use gift bags that can be reused (and then reuse them).
26. Support fair trade.
27. Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge.
28. Eat more veggies and less meat.
29. Carpool.
30. Choose an energy-efficient vehicle.
31. Wash clothes with a full load.
32. Run your dishwasher only when full.
33. Repair leaky toilets.
34. Repair leaky faucets.
35. Use a low-flow toilet.
36. Plant drought-resistant native species in your garden.
37. Use high-efficiency appliances.
38. Wear natural materials (organic, when possible).
39. Support local farmers.
40. Learn about local environmental issues.
41. Eat whole foods.
42. Avoid excessive packaging.
43. Carry reusable shopping bags with you.
44. Support alternative energy sources.
45. Use recycled paper products.
46. Let the dishes in your dishwasher air dry.
47. Use rechargeable batteries.
48. Use cloth diapers.
49. Support green businesses.
50. Air dry your laundry.
51. Decorate your home with natural, renewable materials.

[killJOY]

9. Turn the water off while you brush your teeth.

Also use baking soda/salt/peroxide instead of expensive toothpastes that come in nonrecyclable things.

12. Turn the heat down while you’re out and asleep.

Let the woodstove go out during the night in March/April and wake up to a cold house. It's not as bad as you think.

28. Eat more veggies and less meat.

ONLY if those veggies are local. It's rather pointless to eat avocados in Minneapolis in January if you can run down to your freezer and take out a hunk of locally grown pork...

37. Use high-efficiency appliances.

How about ditching some appliances, such as... a dryer: don't need it. No electric canopeners, food processors, coffee grinders, etc. Everything can be done by hand (or air dried).

38. Wear natural materials (organic, when possible).

This might make you feel VIRTUOUS but it is not efficient. You gonna turn your nose up to a decent polyester shirt you found at Goodwill or buy your imported, six thousand mile "organic" tank top?
Overall, an admirable list. Just don't fool yourself that so-called "organic natural alternative free-range" product is anything but a marketing device to make you think you're the new Thoreau.