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Old 10-02-2022, 03:02 PM   #7
John Mercier
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Yes. The electric vehicle will use a mixture of largely nuclear and natural gas instead of gasoline to power it. It may even use a local solar array.

But less energy is really a matter of driving less miles.
Moving from a vehicle that got 30 mpg to one that gets more than 40 mpg helped reduce the amount of energy I use... but travelling less would really have the strongest effect.

I do that by better planning my trips. Checking my tire pressures. Watching the dash display to maximize my fuel economy... etc. The trip planning has the biggest effect.

Even for items that I purchase from my work that need to be shipped... I ask them to send them only when a delivery truck will be in my area. It means that I may not see the materials for days... maybe more than a week... but they use less energy on my behalf.

For the house, its weird small items.
Even though the house only loses about 3F overnight... I have the draft dogs and window quilts... but have been thinking about where the ceiling meets the wall. Built in the 70s, I didn't see any energy heels in the truss designs on the blueprints. So I am thinking about urethane, or possibly fake beams filled with rockwool. The headers above the doors and windows are rather close to the ceiling, so I bet my ''insulation'' there is a couple of 2x6s with a piece of plywood between them to make up the width of the wall.

The reason you see so much ''green'' focus on energy production in New England is simply.. everything else is fueled by sources outside of New England.

But on conservation, we are seeing all the old ways coming back really quick.
I have been selling storm doors and weather seal replacement at a much faster pace in the last few weeks; and it isn't I need a special order item... it is what does the vendor have on the shelf that we can get here reasonably quick.

Not sure why, but Larson discontinued storm windows both interior and exterior... so we are going to need a few more tricks to help that front.
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