How The Netherlands is dealing with Climate Change

Global Climate Change has many potential hazards. One of the more likely hazards is a planet-wide rise in sea level. Rising sea levels make already low-lying coastal regions (Bangladesh, Netherlands, New Orleans, to name a few) more vulnerable to flooding from storms.

The Netherlands (Holland) is dealing with Climate Change on several fronts. To deal with Global Warming, Holland has a massive wind power program to reduce the production of greenhouse gases. To deal with the rising ocean (24% of the country is below sea level), the Dutch have instituted a massive public works program. An excellent Wired.com article details how the Dutch, masters of dealing with flooding and storm, are coping with Climate Change.

What's good for the Group is good for the Environment ...

A new study suggests that following the crowd is the way to influence sustainable behavior. When hotels changed their re-use your bath towel info tag from a "save the environment theme" to a "everyone is doing it theme" they saw a much higher rate of compliance! Talk about "herd" mentality ...

The story is at the Human Factors International site.

While I'm waiting for the solar install ...

I've starting work on another hobby, amateur rocketry. I have many kits around the house waiting to be built. This one is an Estes Saturn V, 30th anniversary edition. I've always liked the big moon rocket and building a scale model is always a challenge.  Fortunately most NASA stuff was designed to be stable, unlike the "twitchy" military rockets. This stability usually scales down to smaller rockets. It increases the chances of getting my hard work back in one piece!

LED light bulbs are becoming more reasonable ...

LED light bulbs continue to advance in output and drop in price. Check out the post at MetaEfficient.com that talks about the new ZetaLux line of LED light bulbs. 60 watts of light for 5 watts of electricity! Hard to beat that comparison. But wait, the article states that one light bulb costs $89.99, you can buy a lot of CFL lamps for that price.

The good news is the price has dropped to $49.99 and a LED will easily outlive an incandescent bulb. Look for more price drops in the future as the technology scales up. The ZetaLux and other LED lamps can be purchased at EarthLED.com.

Suppose Climate Change isn't real -- other reasons to become more efficient ...

OK, what if all the Climate Change experts are wrong? Are there other reasons to become more power efficient? How about National Security and our economy? Check out this report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce entitled, "Transition Plan for Securing America's Energy Future."  It'd be a real "bummer" if one of America's so-called friends pulled the plug at an inopportune time.

Replace those old Christmas lights with new LED lights

A quick way to save power this Christmas is to ditch your old Christmas lights for new LED lights. The web site http://www.holidayleds.com/ not only sells LED holiday lights, they will take your old ones and recycle them. And if recycling doesn't make you feel cheerful enough, Holiday LEDS will send you a 15% off coupon for new lights when you recycle the old ones.

Other bonuses: you'll have more money to pay for Xmas gifts in January (lower power bill) and your new lights will last longer :)

Solar Power System Installer chosen ...

The winner is Brothers Electric & Solar ! Quite frankly either of the two solar installers I talked with were fine. The other installer, Puget Sound Solar, also has excellent references and competitive prices. I chose Dave Cozine (owner of Brothers Electric) because he's nearby and had excellent "word of mouth" from the recent Tacoma Solar Home tour ( a great way to check out existing installs).

The system itself will be 10 Sanyo 200 watt modules (a single panel is a module), 10 Enphase 32vdc inverters, an Enphase energy management unit, and Unirac mounting hardware. More details on the system in upcoming posts ...