Energy Saver Guy

Gas Hot Water Heater Turn down the temperature setting on your gas hot water heater. With a gas heater it is as easy as turning a dial! This is something very easy to experiment with and can save big money. Turn it down to a little bit below warm, try it for a couple days. Too cold? Turn it up a bit. You can also turn it to “vacation” if you go away for more than a day. Recently we went away for a long weekend, I turned the hot water heater to vacation Friday morning, when we returned with relatives Sunday evening one of them took a shower. I apologized when they came downstairs saying I had forgotten to turn the hot water heater back on! They said they didn’t even notice. I took a shower a half hour later and it wasn’t hot, but it was still comfortable. Needless to say, I never turned it back on Sunday night. Monday night (Hot and humid 90 degrees) I took another shower and I must say it was a little brisk, but the whole experience was kind of interesting, not heating any hot water for 4 days, heck thats 12% of my billing period with no usage!

With 125 million households in the US heating 40 gallons of water amounts to 5 billion gallons of water being kept hot! What a waste! Turn your gas hot water heater down today.

Peace is not the answer, or is it?

By Do it David December 2008

It’s the holiday season and peace is called for in every song I hear. I wonder what everyone means by peace. It seems humanity has been chasing this goal for so long, why have we not achieved it? Now that I have your attention let me say that I think that peace is the answer but I think there may be an intermediate step, which will help us get there, one that we have not yet tried. I think that step is harmony. Let’s explore a couple of definitions of these concepts to see if this makes sense. First let’s look at peace.

Peace — stillness, calmness, lack of motion, being present and neutral, observing.

Let me ask you, is your life still or is it full of activity, action, motion and vibration?

Every molecule, every atom every inch of our experience is always in motion. Even the experiences of prayer, yoga and meditation require you the human to do something. If life is not still why are we trying so hard to achieve this state? The state of peace or stillness, which is so far from the everyday experience? The universe that we are able to experience with our five physical senses is a place of motion/vibration. So it seems logical that our first goal should be to achieve harmony.

What is harmony?

Harmony is the the result of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. This happens when energy or frequencies/vibrations co-exist and add to each other through their co-existence. In music when notes are in harmony they do not cancel each other out. They add to each other to create a sound that is greater than and was not possible when they where by themselves. Harmony is very clearly experienced when someone is signing off key or the incorrect chord is played. In fact I think peace is being in harmony in the moment or the “Now” as Eckhart Tolle would say. So how can we bring harmony into our everyday experience to have a more pleasurable and fruitful life?

Practice of course.

Practice what you ask? I would suggest practicing being aware of the vibrations within yourself then being aware of and working with the vibrations external to yourself. I.e. the age old process of self awareness or self consciousness. There are many ways to do this. I find dancing the best way for me. Why dancing? Well I think it requires the most amount of self and external focus of any activity I know. Let me explain.

Social partner dancing has many levels of motion that all come together in each moment of the activity. First there is the connection with your own body. You create an awareness of where each of your parts are and how to move them from one point to another. Energy flows initially from your mind and eventually from your heart through every atom of your being. Secondly there is the connection with the floor. This connection with the physical world enables us to move through space and time. Third there is the connection with another person, usually one of the opposite sex. The combining of the male female energy in harmony is one of the strongest forces in the universe. I believe that moving in harmony with your partner and the music is making love. Creating the environment where the experience of love can be fully enjoyed. Love, is one of the creations/vibrations that is greater than the sum of its parts. Fourth there is the connection with the music. Our movement comes from and is inspired by the music. Co-creating with the music is the second something that is greater than the music could be by itself. When we are tuned in to ourselves, our partners and the music we truly are “harmony in motion,” yet we are peaceful and present in each moment. Due to this experience, I think peace really is harmony with each moment, a calmness that comes from connecting with all the movement of the moment. From this peaceful state we have the ability to change and create. Yet, just like in the dance there are external forces we are working with and peace comes from co-creating with those moving external forces. If this is true then I think peace is the ultimate goal, the ultimate state of being.

What do you think/feel?

Hey folks,

I just wanted to take some notes here on some national local and sustainable economic support organizations.

I will come back later and discuss each one in further depth.

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

BALLE - Business Alliance for local living economies

In our area there are several grass roots groups forming

Sustainable Saratoga

Capital District Local First

Have you been wondering what sustainability means? How do we measure sustainability and progress toward it?

Click here for a very comprehensive dictionary of sustainability terms produced by the Presidio School of Management.

Understanidng our goal and helping us speak the same language will be a big part of getting us all moving toward saving energy.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to read through these terms.

Saving energy in our homes and all aspects of our lives so that future generations can enjoy life as much as we do.

One of my most inspiring sources is the Entrepeneurial Thought Leaders Seminar put on by Stamford University.

Here is another great presentation on Clean Tech/Green Tech inventions.

You can download all of the episodes in this series in iTunes.

Enjoy,

David