Joerg

And when some hardcore metallica fans move in next door the fun is perfect :-)

Gulf

than

Yes, and that's a good thing. But ideally every law should have a sunset, mainly to keep legislators from coming up with a flurry of new laws every session without an equal number of them falling over the dumpster edge. The risk in too many laws is that bureaucrats can seriously slow down business development if they want to, just because they can, as evidenced with our church over the last few years.

Then you are extremely lucky. We just built an extension to our church, one that is also open to the community regardless of whether they are Christians or not. Contains a ballfield for the public. So you'd think this would be received more friendly, especially since we as a congregation front 100% of the money. Every single penny. Long story short the building permit process took well over half a decade (!) and the fees and inspections and plans slurped up a major six-digit Dollar figure. That is not my definition of easy.

Before last night it broke the 50 year old record set in '61 and my best guess is that we got another five or ten feet up the hill. I'm guessing that before this is over we will have set the 100 year record.

Jim

Order the champagne.

This is an image of the solar cycles:

In the Netherlands they have a 200km (125 mile) ice-skating race on natural ice (as you probably know). This race can only be held if the ice is thick enough. Now compare the years where the solar activity is low and when they where able to hold the ice-skating race:

You'll see it only gets cold enough when the activity of the sun is very low.

Then you're screwed. My home was built around '95. It has small windows and loads of isolation. The front of my house is made of styrofoam (with plaster on top).

Gulf

than

The VFW I frequented in VT had to go for a >$100K sprinkler system, even though it's only a single story building, on a slab, with large windows and at least one door in every room. They were figuring out how to pay for it and get the permissions they needed to get the water, when I left VT.

Ours in 1994

We have about 3650 sq.ft. (335 sq. meters) 15' x 15' (in three panels) picture window in back (I've posted the hillside views before). ALL windows in the house are thermo-panes plus reflective tint. Pitched roof with Mexican tile, attic high enough that I can walk upright in most of it.

Same, all-around here, except we call it stucco, 2" x 10" studs, with fiber glass batts, then the styrofoam plus wire grid for the stucco attach. ...Jim Thompson

Here it has started to become colder much earlier, around 2000. The amount of firewood needed to keep homes warm has gradually increased, in our case from slightly under 2 cords to 4-1/2 cord this season. Down to a few sticks now and it's c..c..c..cold :-(

Move it to the US then :-)

Well, I like to live here. Just give us some of this global warming and I'll be happy.

But didn't you mentioned to need over 7000kWh (as in thousands) to cool all this?

Our roof has a 15:12 pitch (plenty of room over the garage to build another room, for my tools ;). Not sure why they do it in hurricane country, but it appears to be a zoning requirement.

I don't run out of cords of wood... a 1/4 cord is adequate for my annual "mood fire" needs :-)

Plus electricity costs in AZ are substantially lower than in Californica... partly due to the fact that we have a law forbidding sale of electricity out-of-state unless it's at a higher price than what AZ citizens pay ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Considering generation (in)-efficiencies 7000kWh of consumed electricity is equivalent to much more than one cord, and we never blow through that much in a month. Although with the way winters are developing, maybe in

How many kWh do you consume besides your cords of wood?

Also, what is your total energy budget ($) for a year? ...Jim Thompson

I'd have to dig that out from filing boxes. Average should be roughly

Actually, that I can tell you exactly because it gets entered into a database. For 2010:

Electrity: $ 1235 Firewood : $ 840 Pellets : $ 145

Total : $ 2220

I can dig out fuel for the vehicles but it's a drop in the bucket since we didn't drive more than a combined 3k miles or so. Oh, add in $50 for about 120lbs of charcoal for the barbie. Because during summer we can't steal coals out of our wood stove like I will do in a couple hours.

So, how's Casa Thompson compare?

Just over twice that, but I never feel cold... even when I walk barefoot down the driveway to get the paper :-)

And I have extras like heat-pump heated pool (augmenting the solar when it gets too cold and I want to hit the spa :-); plus an aquarium setup that has its own "chiller" (the salt-water fish like their constant 78°F, and the pump and lights raise the water temperature... runs 24/7 except for the lights... otherwise the fish die). ...Jim Thompson

Gulf

than

My chief complaint with the state budget, is that the cuts always seems to go against required services - teachers, police, fire, but never seems to effect the regulators or legislators! The rule of thumb is, take a good idea, i.e. food safe from radiation contamination, pass a law against it, and then create and staff a new agency just to enforce this one law, or at best a divsion of an existing agency to enforce it. These folks never seem to loose their jobs, I guess we wouldn't 'care' if they did!

Charlie

Gulf

than

It sounds very reasonable but I have to disagree. The problem is that the people running large companies never learned something about ethics and moral. If there are no rules and enforcement then companies will go out of control. The financial crisis is a fine example.

I guess there is some equilibrium which makes us pay for decent products AND pay for people that make sure we don't get ripped off.

Gulf

than

But politicians and bureaucrats are always 150% moral and ethical? Yeah, right.

So do politicians. Think about how the pension crisis in most states came about.

Nope. That was started by politicians. Repealing the Glass-Steagall Act was a major mistake. It was the same as saying "Hey, I had no accidents in 40 years so from now on I shall drive around without the safety belt".

And then their fat pensions rip us off ;-)

Aha! So THAT explains global warming. They're stealing heat from your area, and spreading it around the world. We had enough global warming fall out of the sky this past winter to break two shear pins in my snow thrower. :-(

Ed

Geez, I hope we can find the cabin next time we go up.

John