Friday, July 18, 2014

New windows

So far the new windows are installed. Here's the view from the porch right after he finished with the job for the day. So far I have some of the styrofoam insulation also that I was going to attach to the walls. It's looking like it will butt up well against that window trim.



 Here's what the one in my office looks like. I hadn't even taken the stickers off at this time.

They look pretty good and seem to be making a difference in how much electricity is used in the house. During a normal year the air conditioner in the kitchen had been getting used, not this year. A normal average for July has been 505 kWh, this year it's looking like 365 kWh which is a reduction of 27%.

So far the monthly propane deliveries are decreasing also.  It's more related to the water heater wrap and insulation than these new windows that were just installed. During the last half of last year we averaged about 83 gallons of propane per month. It's looking like we're now averaging about 11 gallons less, or 72 gallons per month which is a reduction of around 13.25%. It's still early and I won't see the major reductions until October.


Everything I'm seeing in the numbers is just incredible. I believe during this month is when the most of the rate increase drops off of the electric. It's been a sizable jump that gave me sticker shock and it was due to the cost of electricity being produced from natural gas. https://www.csu.org/Pages/proposed-rates-r.aspx You hear all this stuff that natural gas is cheaper. It isn't. 

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I'm taking a bit of a break from major writing for the time being. Presently I'm feeling rather worn out. I also had a bunch of extra hours at my day job. I'm needing a break to tell you the truth since I've been going at it heavily for over 2 1/2 years straight.

I've got an interesting idea I'm working out at present for a novel. No one disputes that man originally lived in north and south america about 11,000 years ago. What is proving to be a problem is the theory they walked across the Bering Straight at that time and then down an ice free corridor. The more I'm digging it's not making sense anyway. The various populations all set up residence at the same time. If they had to walk how would you get simultaneous populations? That's really not making sense to me.


The one exception is Patagonia which apparently was originally populated 15,000-20,000 years ago. When I did a little research Patagonia made sense quickly. There's a large current in the southern Pacific Ocean that's runs south by New Zealand, loops around toward Terra del Fuego, and then up the coast to Chile where the current moves west toward New Zealand again. It runs in a very large loop. Even if you didn't know how to sail you could possibly make it if you were fishing as you went. Anyway, on the west to east portion I think you would be travelling against the wind but I'll double check. 

The original residents of Patagonia did a lot of fishing and catching birds for their food. This is what you could also do from a raft. They would have been fairly ill from having nothing other than sea water though. There were people living in Australia and New Zealand all the way back to 40,000 years ago. Let's say you were on a raft, got blown off course, and couldn't find your way back home? The first place you land you find out is populated and they don't want you setting up a new home there. Time to go again.

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Well, on to more home repairs. Today I made a new box to go over the water supply for the house. The old one had fallen apart and was no longer usable. I still had one piece of the cabinet grade plywood.



Inside of the box I used multiple layers of this stuff. I'll be using a bunch of behind the skirting. It has an R-value of 9.8 per inch and a half of thickness. Inside the box I think I have five layers altogether so it's almost a solid block of insulation.