Riot – April and May 2013 – Months 54-55

OVER FOUR YEARS OF RIOT! I’m a little late reporting but I did calculate the Riot a couple of days back for the months of April and May 2013 for the three of us and three house guests for 2 weeks, making it on average 4 people. My summary of our first three years is here. …

The Sun is Back and Hyper-Local Lovage Soup

After a couple of days of rain and chill (yesterday morning I even lit a fire in the wood stove) the sun has returned. I got a lot done what with all that pent-up green energy! I cleaned the chicken coop. All the veg beds (‘cept the hoop house ones) are now planted, the potatoes …

DATA! First Solar Hot Water Data

Is this neat or what? We have a SECUSOL system, manufactured by Wagner. The MassCEC sprang for the monitoring system. They get valuable data (which they use to determine rebates, etc.) and we get to look in. The chart above is today’s. It was grey throughout. The top of the water tank (green line at the top), …

Solar Hot Water is Up and Running

Well, that was cheaper and quicker than the PV. Took them seven hours to install the entire system. We have two Wagner collectors,  one 92.5 gallon storage tank, in a drain back arrangement (it’s basically this Secusol system), with our super-efficient oil boiler as backup (second heat-exchanger). A fun addition was the monitoring system, which …

Thoughts on Technology in the Face of a Blizzard

And here we go again. Nemo is upon us, starting to throw what will amount, according to the forecast, to buckets of snow. Of course the power is going to go: we expect it now. And as I alternate staring out the window with staring at the Wundermap, I realize how contradictory and conflicting my feelings …

Going for Solar Hot Water

We are very close to choosing our solar hot water system and installer. It is something we were thinking about even before we went for the solar PV, and when the latter system was designed, we made sure there would be plenty of room for thermal collectors. Now that we have whittled down our oil consumption, …

Nor’easter > Without Electricity Again

The Nor’easter of October 2011 hit our town pretty badly. Actually, it was just a small snowstorm, not too heavy, not long-lasting. But the trees were not ready for it. It was only the fourth time that there was snow before Halloween in NYC since the civil war! Add to that that the trees now “think” …

Riot for Austerity – Month 34

We’re back. On Sunday, Irene knocked down a couple of trees on our block, which mostly missed people, houses and cars, but got hung up on the electricity cables. Power was restored yesterday, after four days. More on that, later. First: This is the Riot for the month of August 2011. August saw ebbs and …