Green

Environmentally friendly, green ways of living

There are 363 posts filed in Green (this is page 31 of 37).

Rain: just what the doctor ordered

I got myself into a funk last week about the drought. I was thinking ahead to June or July when our Falls Lake water allocation is projected to run out and wondering how I’d feel and what I’d do when that finally happened. I was missing the good, soaking rains I was used to seeing. Where did they go?

Imagine my relief to hear sheets upon sheets of rain falling tonight: the good, steady rain I’d been missing so! I stood on the front porch, transfixed at the dancing raindrops. It was so beautiful!
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Downtown makes me a TV star

On the way to the street to unload a coworker’s car a few moments ago, I got interviewed by WTVD reporter Tim Nelson about the drought and whether the city’s done an adequate job letting people know about Stage 2 restrictions taking effect tomorrow. He was asking if the city’s full-page ad about water restrictions was “buried” at the back of today’s the N&O’s business section. I basically told him you’d have to be under a rock if you didn’t know about the upcoming restrictions.
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Earthly comfort

Hallie and I saw an unusual construction truck while we were on the way to her school yesterday. A large F150 pickup truck was pulling a long trailer stacked with thick styrofoam boxes. I could tell the boxes didn’t weigh much so I wondered what was in them.

Once I read the truck’s logo I had a better idea of what it was hauling. Home Energy, Inc.. was on the way to install one of their energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. Home Energy sells solar water heating systems as well as Earthlinked geothermal heating and cooling systems for homes.
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Not-new home sales also waste water

With the City Council on the verge of imposing Stage 2 water restrictions, much has been said about the water wasted when new developments flush their new water lines. I realized last week how much water gets wasted when a house gets sold: any old house, not just a new one.

We hired a home inspector to thoroughly inspect our new home. The water system is part of the inspection, so the inspector cranked on the faucets and let them all run for over an hour as he checked the system for leaks. It made me cringe to see how much water was going down the drain, and yet I certainly wanted any leaks to be discovered. I just wish there was another way to accomplish this without so much waste.

Then again, last summer when I was still drought-stupid I would habitually water the lawn for 3 hours with two hoses going full blast. I wasted far more water doing that than any home inspection could…

Ever-green

The other day I was chatting with my neighbor while I was working on our backyard fence. I mentioned when we were closing on our new house.

“So … what are you planning to do with your rainwater tank?” she asked as she eyed it jealously. Seems everyone wants their own rain tank nowadays!

As much as I’d like to take my 400 gallons of rainwater with me that ain’t gonna happen. The tank’s gotta be empty for the move so I’ve got to find a new home for all that water. More showers are on the way today and once again I have to pass up the chance to capture more rain. Once you become a rain miser its a hard habit to break!
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Water, water everywhere

It was a wet, bone-chilling day today but not a snowy one, fortunately. Though it rained practically all day, I was disappointed I could only capture 130 new gallons of rain into my tank before I had no more capacity left. Maybe Kelly’s right: maybe I do have a “problem.”

Today’s rain got me thinking again of this N&O story about a potential new water source for Raleigh. A Raleigh company called Eagle Water has rights to up to 58 million gallons of water per day (mgpd) being pumped from the PCS Phosphate mine near Aurora, NC. The problem is the company has no way to get it here to Raleigh where its needed. Not only that, the company needs to sell at least 25 mgpd just to make a profit. Pump anything less and they lose money.
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The streets tell me when school’s out

We’ve lived within a mile of Capital Boulevard for a few years now. I’ve developed the ability to tell if a day is a holiday based on the lack of traffic noise coming from the roads. The same applies to school delays. The morning traffic is not nearly as heavy when the schools aren’t open.

That makes me wonder just how much resources are wasted in getting kids to and from school every day. Its got to be enormous. School has a big impact on morning traffic, and to some extent afternoon traffic, too. When kids are bused to schools across town that makes the problem even worse.
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Astounding water savings

Last week Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker drew some flak for putting forth the goal for everyone to limit themselves to using only 25 gallons of water a day, per person. The mayor’s own water bills showed his household consumption to be around 33 gallons per person per day.

Being of the curious mind, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and see just how MT.Net was measuring up against this goal. Last Monday evening, I carted a flashlight and screwdriver out to the meter and noted the usage. The meter displays water use in cubic feet, and mine read 7,936.7. One cubic foot of water equals 7.48 gallons for those keeping score at home.
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Freecycle

Just caught on to Freecycle after hearing our friends had great success using it in the DC area. Freecycle is like Craigslist but for stuff you want to give away. Its all about free (thus the name, duh).

Wake County has its own Freecycle group with 6,036 members. Orange County has 1,904 members and Durham has 2,312. Looks like a good place to get some bargains and give away some stuff.