PureGin.org

Since moving into our house in Aug 2007, we've been trying pretty hard to reduce our energy consumption, in particular our use of electricity.

Our house is a detached single-family dwelling, built in 1998, with one finished floor of 2000 square feet (186 square metres) with a full partially finished basement of 2000 square feet. Since our only energy source is electricity, the main challenge is to reduce energy wasted for space heating (using conventional electric baseboard heaters throughout) and hot water (using a conventional storage type electric water heater).

The graph at the right shows our average daily consumption per two month billing cycle for the past 2.5 years or so. We've managed to cut our electricity use by just under 20% over the first year's baseline, saving a total of approximately $620 (at an average price of 7 cents per kWh).

Part of this savings in the past year is due to a relatively mild winter on the South Coast of British Columbia in 2009/2010. On the other hand, we had an extended cold snap last winter (2008/2009).

The rest of the savings I attribute to

Using current 'baseline' solar photo voltaic (PV) electric technology, solar farms covering approximately 2.85 percent of the area of the Sahara desert could generate enough electricity to equal the energy generated worldwide in 2005 from fossil fuels.

Such a solar array would cover approximately 256,500 square kilometers (somewhat larger than Honshū, the largest island of Japan) and cost in the neighbourhood of 150 trillion US dollars to construct, assuming costs of about $500 per square metre of PV cells.

Going greener can be a whole lotta fun, as well as saving money and helping the environment. So I've discovered after buying a second hand 2004 Volkswagen Golf TDI.

We'd been talking about replacing our '97 Chevy Cavalier with a smaller, more fuel efficient, safer, more reliable car for about a year.  Recently rising gas prices, as well as some mechanical difficulties with the Cavalier (the latest was a leaking water pump) had been adding some urgency to the situation. 

I'm excited that I'll finally get to hear Wade Davis speak when the Atira Womens' Resource Society brings him to Vancouver to speak at a fundraiser for the Digital Storytelling Project.

Wade is one of those icons of our postmodern age - an explorer in a time when the very idea of exploration seems a thing of the past. He is a superstar academic, a guy who has let his curiosity lead him to parts of the world few people have ever seen, and who has let all that he has observed there shape a deeply felt and passionately articulated view of the planet.

Over the past several months I've noticed little 'pantry' moths all over the place. I suspect that there is currently a boom in the local moth population, for reasons I have no understanding of. 'Course, this could simply be a cases of the you start noticing things once you start looking for them phenomenon.