Weather Imagery

In the past, electric cars were more of a joke than a practical solution. Even today, when most people think about an electric car they immediately remember the EV-1, a tiny little shoe box that could barely travel at freeway speeds and had a range of at most 70 miles. It’s understandable why no one was interested; It simply wasn’t fun and was barely practical.

However, the electric car has drastically change since then. The Tesla Roadster is an all electric car and not a hybrid. But get this … it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds which makes it faster than a Ferrari. The two door convertible sports coupe can also reach a top speed of 135 mph and has a range of 245 miles. It also comes with all the amenities of a normal car such as a navigation system, AC, radio, ABS Brakes, cruise control, and air bags. Now that sounds like a fun car to drive!

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You’ve probably heard of E85, or maybe you’ve even seen a few gas stations selling this stuff. Perhaps you’ve read that it’s the new, greener alternative fuel for cars that’s supposed to help wean us off our foreign dependency on oil. After all, anything that can achieve that is a good thing, right?

… Wrong.

Ethanol is basically a high proof alcohol (just like we drink) which is created by fermenting organic matter such as sugar cane, corn, wheat, grains, and even our trash (source: Technology Review) and turning it into a fuel we can burn in our cars. This is done in large refining plants all across the country, but mostly near large farms. Because ethanol burns “clean” (no residue), we can mix it with gasoline and use it in most internal combustion engines with no ill affects to the vehicle. In fact, some states mandate that gasoline contain at least 10% ethanol to reduce the affects of smog and as a substitute for the additive MTBE.

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With gas prices approaching all time highs, there are several things you can do to make sure you get the best fuel economy out of your vehicle. These four simple things can save you money and make the burden at the gas pump a little less painful.

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Colorado has the most screwed up water rights laws of any state in the Union. Some call them unique, I call them inadequate and based on a concept of when the state was young and had relatively few inhabitants. The process of acquiring water rights is very expensive, complicated, inefficient and bureaucratic. Colorado water officials have already put too many straws into the glass of coke and not everyone is getting anything to drink. This will get worse unless things change. OK … so, what’s this have to do with rainwater harvesting and collection?

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Although there are many different things which contribute to high gasoline prices, the biggest reason for an increase in gasoline prices has to do with refining capacity. Even if oil were super cheap, we would still have a problem converting that oil into gasoline that fuels our economy which would keep gas prices high. When gasoline supplies are low due to an inability to refine oil into gasoline, prices increase. This is all part of supply and demand economics and it works well in that high prices curtail usage. If gas remained cheap despite how much was available, we may find gas stations hanging “out of fuel” signs on their pumps because consumers wouldn’t cut back on consumption. So high gas prices do serve a purpose; they deter consumption so that we don’t completely run out of fuel. But how high is too high? Is there such a thing? Is the refining industry artificially inflating gas prices by reducing their refining capacities so as to improve profit margins?

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Most of the new hot water heaters are pretty efficient and don’t need any additional insulation. However some of the older tanks, or less efficient newer tanks, could benefit from some added insulation. They way to tell if you need more insulation is to simply touch the side of your hot water tank. If it is warm to the touch, then some of the heat is escaping which is a sign the tank isn’t that efficient.

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