Blue Boat Home learning to live together sustainably

I've been seeing magazine and newsletter articles for some time promoting the new "smart" surge protector that shut off power to peripheral devices when a "master" device is turned off, but I figured we didn't need one because we usually turn off our power strips manually.  In practice, though, we often weren't turning off the one in the living room, because we'd turn off the TV with the remote and then walk away, go to bed, etc.  So I decided to pick up a Philips mo

My mother's new album of stories and songs is now available on CD Baby!  You can download individual tracks for $.99 or the whole album for $9.99, or buy a disc for $12.97.  More information about the disc is available on her Web site.

The meter monitors indoor and outdoor air pressure, controls a fan to maintain a constant pressure difference, and measures the amount of energy necessary to maintain that difference.

Planning an economical/simple/green wedding is easier said that done.  Some parts of that have been easier than others. We are by no means experts at this but we are giving it our best!

Here is what we have accomplished so far:

Last Thursday we got a home energy audit from a service called IAQ Solutions, part of Blue Dot Kansas.  It would have been good to get the audit last fall, but the waiting list was quite long.  The fees were also quite reasonable: the cost of the audit itself is paid by a grant, so we just have to pay for the auditor's transportation from Topeka, which will be about $125, but we haven't got the bill yet.  In any case, the recommendations he made should pay for themselves in a year or two.

Here's where the rubber meets the road... the auditor made specific recommendations about which leaks I should seal, what order I should seal them in (handwritten numbers), and how much it would cost to hire his company to seal them.

He also provided the names of training agencies, in case I should want to become an auditor or Energy Star rater myself!  He recommended it as good recession-proof supplemental income.

I'm not sure what half these figures mean; this page is only for the curious.

Based on my answers to the client survey, the computer spat out a calculation of how much leakage our house needs to supply enough fresh air to the people who might occupy the house: 1.1 square feet, as it turns out.  That is, if we sealed all our leaks, we would have to leave a window open so as not to suffocate!