Since our computer began playing possum early last Spring, we’ve been searching for green alternatives to nursing along the old desktop or just giving in and buying a whole new system. Compounding the problem has been the wife’s departure for a month of clinical training taking her laptop with her. By nature, laptops and netbooks consume less power because they are partly rated on battery life. You could search and find any number of options there if you like. But they also tend to be expensive for the technology you receive, you pretty much have to buy the whole package, and when you are done, throw away a whole package. So with a mind toward reducing, I’ld begun talking to my eldest son (the resident tech wiz) as he handed down equipment and software to get us through the summer. During our discussions he told me about an exciting new product that would come out before August.

So, most of the summer, we were waiting for the availability of the $200 Zotac Ion ITX A Mini motherboard. We ordered one and it came in last week. Now as far as motherboards go, it is relatively expensive for an Atom based system. Atom is the brand of processor in most netbook computers. It doesn’t come with an integrated screen or keyboard. But we had the full sized versions from our desktop which I prefer. We still need to add DDR2 memory, a mountable mini itx case sans power supply, and a hard drive which all comes to about $150. Yes, we considered a netbook for $350, but we would be stuck with a 10″ screen and poor internet video capabilities. No, we won’t be able to surf at Starbucks on battery power. But then again, we could unplug the brick and pick up the monitor with pc attached and go somewhere that has wifi and an outlet. What came in the package runs on very little power, and has awesome video capability. It is recommended for use as a home theater personal computer. The motherboard includes the graphics circuitry, and the package includes an external 90 Watt power supply (the brick) similar to what you would use to charge your laptop battery. It even has Wifi on board, and 6 USB ports. The case we found is small enough to mount on the back of our LCD screen, and can be purchased with the mounting hardware for very little extra.

Now, there are lots of mini motherboards, so what makes this unit so special? Due to the integrated Ion 9300 graphics circuitry, this tiny motherboard can stream video from the internet, which it does it without taking up much space, fits in a small cabinet, won’t require liquid cooling or lots of fans (heat = inefficiency in electronics), and it may even run most video games without so much as a fan. In fact, it resembles a video game system in size. You may want to use the fan that is included, which quietly pulls air across the heat sink. But the fact that it isn’t required means this unit is very efficient in terms of energy use, and without the fan, the only noise comes from the hard drive.

I didn’t do any checking on Zotac’s reputation as a manufacturer in terms of it’s environmental record. It also takes a bit of DIY to assemble even a mini computer, but you would be surprised how little. We’re going without an optical drive attached once it is set up with linux. If you are like me, you have working computer parts you hate to throw in a landfill, and you may prefer to minimize the footprint on your desktop. Since everybody is posting digital video these days, the Zotac Ion ITX Mini A may be a pretty good option.

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Since I began going to work without a car again, I’ve been able to do it with a bike and the bus system in comfort and without any major concerns. I even made a couple of bus commuting rookie mistakes without any significant loss of time thanks to a friendly bus driver’s advice. Planning for the commute took time, and going completely car-light will undoubtedly require a changed mindset, but using public transit is now far simpler in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley.

Valley Transit has joined the ranks of Google Maps Transit. You go on Google Maps, put in your starting and destination address just like you do for a car trip, and select public transit from the drop-down menu. You can get directions, a map, and an itinerary including transfers and fare prices for many transit systems around the world. How awesome is that for planning a vacation and skipping the car rental? (Click the link above to see a demonstration of how it works.) What is great for a bike commuter is that it makes it easy to try out various bus stops. Honestly, the rack and ride option speeds things up substantially if you explore boarding options and are willing to ride a bit farther. If I take the first option offered by Google Maps from my home to my workplace, nearly door to door service is over 2 hours by bus alone. By riding to points farther from my home and workplace, I have that same trip down to less than an hour each way.

I had spent a lot of time second guessing myself and learning the bus schedule. But once they completed the process of joining Google Maps, trips on Valley Transit have become quick and easy to plan. I hope that ridership goes up as a result because funding for all transit systems is going down. They need more riders to fill their trips and help to fund the system. It makes it possible for them to continue serving those who depend upon the system as their only means of transportation.

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During the crazy month that we’ve had with news of banks and bailouts, a piece of legislation was slipped into the bill that encourages employers who provide benefits reimbursing employees for their use of public transportation to also include bicycle commuting expenses as part of their benefit package. Since the legislation tagged this benefit on, and because many companies hire a benefits administrator service, employees may begin seeing this included in their benefits in the near future.

I just want to say, if it helps with the motivation to cycle to work, more power to everyone who pulls their bike out of the garage as a result. In the past three months, I’ve saved 936 pounds of carbon from gasoline emissions, and I’m proud of that. My employer doesn’t have to pay federal taxes, so I won’t be seeing any reimbursement of my related expenses unless the wellness committee talks them into it. But the idea that people are being given this incentive is a positive step, even if it is a small one in terms of economics.

One of the contributers to bikeforums.com provided the following sample letter to his HR department to request that they consider supporting this addition to the tax code…

Human Resources Department,

As I’m sure you are aware, the Congress just passed H.R. 1424 “The Bail-Out Bill” on Capitol Hill. Although this legislation deals primarily with the housing market, there were several other unrelated provisions added to the bill. Among these was a tax incentive for employers who promote the use of bicycles for commuting. The specifics of this tax break are laid out in Sec. 211, “Transportation
fringe benefit to bicycle commuters” under the Transportation and Domestic Fuel Security Provision section but the change is pretty basic. The bill offers a $20 a month tax relief per bicycle commuting employee to cover the cost of any employer reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”

I am interested in finding a way that [Company Name] could implement a program that would allow employees who cyclo-commute to expense less than $20 a month in bike related expenses.

The benefits of an expense reimbursement program for cyclo-commuters include:
• Lower fuel costs on company owned vehicles
• Less required maintenance on company owned vehicles
• Ability of [Company Name] to claim a full $20 per month per eligible employee
when actual expenses are likely to be far less
• Improved employee health which in turn increases employee productivity
• Creates a progressive and environmentally conscious image for the
company

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information about this recent tax code change.

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We’re going to be on the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s Solar Home Tour this weekend!  It’s kind of a Parade of Homes for folks interested in renewable energy, and showcases things that regular people can do in an effort for more sustainable energy.  Our system, described here, was installed by Green Sky Energetics.  We’re all just a little bit geekily excited about the tour.  A word of caution here–the tour is about our hot water system ONLY.  No fair judging the condition of the rest of our home.  Hopefully, we will be ready enough that participants won’t be tripping over shoes and socks in the entryway, or smelling our dog Preston’s latest accident.

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Back to school with hopes of increasing my commitment to a bike commute, I’ve been searching the web for information and tools. All in the name of more fitness and fun, but less fumes. I purchased a new bike for inspiration, and in order to make it pay off at $0.52/mile, a commuter’s calculator shows that I’ll have to average4 days per week for 7 months on the 12 mile ride in the morning and again in the afternoon. If I hop the bus with their rack and ride program, it will lengthen the time frame some, but not much at $1.50 per trip. While researching this, I found a web site that includes fitness calculators here’s one that includes a variety of fitness activities. You can log your activities and use calculators for free. If you want more services, a nominal annual membership brings the ability to print maps of your route.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/wi/appleton/249109326611″>09/01/2008 Commute</a><br /><a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/wi/appleton”>Find more Bike Rides in Appleton, Wisconsin</a>

Update: Through November 11th, the Map My Ride Calculator has added up the mileage so far and reports the following:

Green Stats

Total Workout Days: 63
Distance Traveled: 793.79 mi.
Gas Saved: 44.10 gallons
Money Saved: $153.47
Carbon Offset: 853.8 lbs. of CO2

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Could it be that time is one of the largest contributors to global warming? No, the batteries for my watch aren’t that big a factor. Even if it does not charge up with sunlight. I’m talking about the scheduling problem. When we say yes to everything, time becomes the main reason we all want to drive our own cars. We need to get from point A to point B quickly, and without consideration of who else may be heading in the same direction, because their calendar exists within a completely different agenda. My kid needs to have every opportunity, so I’ll plan for him to be involved in every activity possible. We book them for lessons, practices, and groups. Is it logistically possible? Hmm, if the piano lesson can be changed to a little earlier, I can still get child B to their practice at school Z. We seek the best possible competitive activities, and we don’t mind if it is across town, or even across the state. Did we have fewer children than our parents so that we could be sure to accommodate their every potential, or was it because of the population explosion? I can’t remember which came first, can you? Then, I idle my time away in my mobile shelter, waiting to make the return trip or to transport child A to the next appointed session.

Would it be possible to have children become happy, fully developed human beings if they had fewer interests to choose from? Or would that amount to a failure of parental responsibility? My mom was the eldest of 13, so she didn’t have very far to go. There was a baby on her hip from the time of her first memory. Gardens of beans to pick bugs off of, wood to gather for the morning breakfast bisquits, and a long walk to school. Fun was a hoop and a stick or a doll that was in the stocking a few winters before. Our Dad spent all of his time at the skating rink during the winters in Green Bay. Said that he never felt his feet for weeks at a time. There was basketball and baseball to play the rest of the year. How is it that they could be happy growing up with so few options? When I was a kid, I remember riding my bicycle to swim lessons, tennis lessons, and even art lessons. If it would have required a car ride from a parent to get there, it probably wouldn’t be an option. Baseball was the exception. We walked across the street for that activity, but rode in cars to the more distant diamonds when I was older. Cube that and you have an idea of what my kids have to choose from. But they are still bored.

So if we rode our bikes to stuff instead of driving, could we get there in time? Check out http://www.carfree.com/to see the ideas around going carless. My bike commute requires an early rise from bed, and over one hour to complete the journey if I don’t get a flat. Got to be there, so I have to allow an extra half hour before the first class.  Twenty minutes by car or an hour and fifteen minutes by bike is the choice. That time difference is a much greater factor than the feeling of riding on a cold day. Much more of a consideration than the choice of which bike to ride. Check out http://www.bicyclinglife.com/PracticalCycling/commuteguide.htm to learn about riding a bike to work, or http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/commute/index.htm and http://commutebybike.com/2008/04/04/insanely-long-bike-commute/ to learn even more. I have the return trip to consider. Sure, getting up is simple even if daylight savings time has sprung forward. But the true battle is with the expected taxi service post school day. When I look at my version of the American lifestyle, I have to point at the agenda as a major portion of my carbon footprint. At least as big as my less frequent choice to purchase, purchase, purchase. Because it is all of the extra trips I make to give our kids their opportunities that ties me to my car. But if that car became unavailable, would my kids lives be that much worse? I think we may find out pretty soon if the price of gas keeps rising.

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Mark your calendars for The Energy Fair, put on by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. It’s going to be held this year June 20-22 in Custer Wisconsin. Our family has enjoyed the fair in past years. There’s lots of workshops, exhibits, speakers, entertainment and yummy food! This year is the 4th annual Clean Energy Car Show, and there will be a Green Home Pavilion. As in past years, there will also be fun activities for kids. For more information, visit www.the-mrea.org.

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I’ve been watching the sun a lot the past couple of months. Wondering, will we ever see the pay-off on our investment in a solar hot water system? (Click to see ours.) Frankly, it’s been surprisingly good weather after all of the snow we received earlier this winter, so here’s what I’ve learned from the experience:

1. Snow slides off of the panels until it piles up at their base on the roof’s surface. That causes it to back up onto the panels until I clear the snow pile, and I may as well clear the panels while I’m at it. I broke the plastic pool brush that I was using to clean off snow initially, so I took an old aluminum shovel and turned it’s bracket around to make a roof rake. Now, I can keep everything clear again. The solar electric panel that runs the system’s pump is small and easy to keep clear, but I think that clearing the four 4′ x 8 ‘ solar hot water panels is worth the time since the snow just piles up at the base.

2. Don’t count on a quick return of the Focus on Energy rebate. We had to have a follow up inspection from one of their people, and I’m not sure where we are in the process at this point. I’m hoping that the contractor will come address the concerns of the inspector soon since $3K of our money is at stake. The contractor’s only incentive is positive word of mouth since they are paid as soon as the job is complete. Guess who’s volunteering to be part of the solar home tour? We’re the ones who want the rebate check, not them.

3. The system needs a good chunk of space for a family of 6. The 100 gallon tank, plumbing for the heat exchanger, and the associated valves were laid out fairly compactly, but they did require that our washer/dryer be stacked to make space. Think about the same footprint as a full sized clothes washer. The good news is, it’s not in a finished space, so we tend to keep the door to our utility/laundry room closed most of the time anyway.

4. A simple system is what we were promised, and with the decals showing the direction of flow through the pipes, it is fairly easy to tell what is happening. Propylene glycol coming in off of the roof entered our house at 125 degrees F when it was -20 degrees F, and it drops anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees as it passes through the heat exchanger. That’s after about a 40′ run through insulated pipes outside! Water coming out of the top of the tank is often hot enough to avoid burning any natural gas to heat water on sunny days. I’ll bet we don’t burn any natural gas during the summer.

5. Water within the solar heated water storage tank varies in temperature from 55 degrees F in the bottom to 130 degrees F in the top, and we draw the heated water from the top into our regular 40 gallon water heater. I had no idea that such a small storage tank could contain water with such a wide temperature range.

6. Even a simple “2-3 day” installation may have it’s share of complications. First, there was the application process for the rebate program once we signed the contract on the 1st of November. I thought we’ld have the project done by the end of the year at that point. The application was approved on December 28th. Then, the installation was relocated to the garage roof because the space directly over the living space initially proposed had too many elements that would interfere, including a sky light and roof top ventilation. That in itself cost a couple of extra days due to the time laying copper and insulating the pipes. Also, because it was installed during an unusually snowy month of January, there was a fair amount of snow removed from the roof to create a work surface where the panels would be installed. Throw in the California based suppliers not shipping items since they were in the midst of taking inventory, and it stretched the job out quite a bit. Most of that impacts the contractor more than us. But, we are still waiting to see the rebate check in late March after the job was completed and paid for at the end of January. Still, I’m of the opinion that it will be worthwhile once we receive the rebate and take the tax credit during the following tax year.

7. I’m not sure what kind of impact this is having on our carbon footprint, but it has to help. We have two teenagers and two younger boys (who still prefer to avoid bathing at this stage). Once things warm up outside, we use a lot of towels due to a swimming pool, so that increases the hot water use. No, we won’t hook up the system to heat our pool. We’ll just keep using the solar cover instead. I’m hoping to offset any increase in our use of water (longer showers!) by installing rain barrels at all of the downspouts around our house. That will mean less water out of the hose to water the garden.

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I got the email the other day. You know the one. Gas prices are so high we should all not buy gas on some specific date. Oh, wait, this one had a much better idea than just not buying gas on a specific date; it said that we should all just avoid buying gas from the two biggest companies. And this will really work, really. And we should all forward this to all 209 people in our contact list. Really.

I wanted to reply, but resisted to avoid appearing cheeky. I actually wanted to “reply all” since I got this email twice in the same day from two different people, with open recipient lists. I really had to actively talk myself out of it, because that would have really been cheeky. Really.

So, here’s what I would have said if I had replied.

Yippee! The price of gasoline is finally so high that even people who aren’t weird, hippy, granola types are thinking twice about how much of it they buy. (When I bought my first car nearly 20 years ago, my family mostly giggled because I really wanted one that got good gas mileage. Really.) I can hardly wait until it gets to $5.50 per gallon to see just what it will push us to do.

If I don’t buy gasoline on a specific day, how does that matter? I don’t buy gas most days, only about once per week. It’s very likely that I won’t be buying gas on the arbitrary urban legend date in the email that everyone is forwarding around. And I’m probably not avoiding the purchase of gas on that day because of the email; I probably just don’t need to buy gas that day.

Let’s talk about what kinds of things we could really do that would make a difference in the price of gas.

We could demand that all cars are highly fuel efficient.

We could advocate for efficient, convenient, cost-effective transportation. I long for the day I could just jump on a train for the three hour trip to visit my sister and her kids. I’d love to spend that time reading to my kids or knitting, or doing just about anything other than driving.

We could permanently park our gigantic fuel-sucking SUV’s and Hummers.

We could work to make new urban development inviting and friendly for pedestrians and bicycles. I live less than 1/4 mile away from a large chain grocery store. I walked there exactly once to get some milk in the 18 months we’ve lived in this house. It is not convenient, safe, or enjoyable to walk there on roadways that are clearly only designed with vehicular traffic in mind.

We could stop bombing and threatening to bomb countries in the Middle East that are rich in oil.

We could let the Alaskan wilderness remain wilderness.

We could use people powered mowers on our lawns (do you know how much gas you use mowing your lawn?)

We could turn our cars off in parking lots instead of leaving them idling. If your car idles 1 minute, you’ve already used more gas than you will to start it up again. I know we live in Wisconsin, but your car doesn’t get cold that fast, does it?

Let’s start having some real conversations about real changes that can impact our consumption of gasoline. Really.

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