wayneluke’s Recent Comments

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  People should encourage their local municipalities to install low-flow toilets and waterless urinals at all public facilities. Local cities and water districts can encourage that commercial buildings install these as well with incentives and tax rebates. After years of drought here in California, a lot of local businesses are installing the waterless urinals to lower their ever increasing water bill. One popular miniature golf course locally estimates that its waterless urinals save 120,000 gallons of water a year. 40,000 gallons per urinal.

  On Ask Umbra on public peeing posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 20 Responses

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  Tried this for a few weeks.

  We tried this for a few months and it didn't go over well. Now I just unplug certain appliances when they aren't being used. The only thing on a power strip that is turned off now are the cell phone chargers.

  Aside from the programming and the satellite receiver requiring 10 minutes to boot up every time it is turned off, is the fact that we experience a lot of power brownouts during peak draw periods. I work at home so am required to use my computers during the day and these brownouts have caused hardware damage. So all 6 of the PCs on the network are on Uninterruptible Power Supplies and line conditioners. They prevent me from losing equipment. Television and DVR are similarly setup. Unfortunately, these have to constant draw power or they do not serve their purpose.

  When I did turn off everything and reduce the power draw, I saw absolutely no effect on my electric bill. Not even a dip in the average kilowatt hours used per day. Instead, we started switching from CFLs to LED lights, switched all outdoor lights to solar power, have battery powered Alarm Clocks (with rechargeable batteries), do most kitchen work by hand, and conserve where ever we can and the power usage has dropped 70% in the last year. Part of that is because we moved to a new energy efficient home. But a good portion is due to saving efforts. Now I am trying to figure out if the environmental cost of new energy star appliances (refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer, microwave) versus long term energy savings and if it is worth it to replace my existing appliances. On Umbra on power strips posted 1 year, 12 months ago 13 Responses

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  Presents

  My children are older but a few years ago, we started giving the kids a Gift Card instead of a bunch of wrapped presents. For my oldest son, he usually accumulates this along with other money for one big thing he wants. One year it was a Nintendo DS. Right now, he is saving money for a Nintendo Wii. My daughter, the youngest, uses her money to usually buy clothes but we have to donate her old stuff to the domestic violence shelter. The only one we have problems with is our middle child. He is autistic and really doesn't understand the concept of a gift card opposed to say a new Bionicles set (Legos for those without children).

  We also take the kids out to dinner at the restaurant of their choice (no fast food though) and purchase them ice cream afterwards.

  As far as dealing with stuff, we cycle through things and give their clothes and toys to charity at Yule time. However it can still be hard to manage things. On Umbra on kids' birthday parties posted 2 years, 1 month ago 15 Responses

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  Turkeys

  For the last few years, we have had a friend grow our turkeys for us. Not completely organic but free range and cage free. We didn't get our order in this year so will probably get an organic bird from the local meat processor that handles our pig every year and also handles the local buffalo herd.On Thanksgiving isn't just about the food; it is about relationships posted 2 years, 1 month ago 17 Responses

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  err...

  That was supposed to be...

  My freezer uses $30 a year in electricity. Need to proofread better without the benefit of an edit function.On Umbra on the impact of food purchases posted 2 years, 1 month ago 21 Responses