David Custis Kimball - blog

You: Why Dave; why now?
Me: Well, I've a two talented kids; the younger said, 'Stop with the lectures.' Then asked, 'Dad, can I help you set up a blog?' Moments later, Me: 'OK, that's a great idea, thinkin' they might just read it someday.

me ---> 'Gaarr of Blog' <---

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An Unmapped Ponderocity:
To say: '"He is a man of truth," is to say nothing; to say: "He is a man of of," is to state an elementary truth of logic.'
Winston Davids, 1969 - Trinity College Valedictorian - 1970; known endeavor: actuarial contributions to The Donald; since has contacted me and sadly is quite ill. Ask prayers for recovery; thanks for his brilliance and music.

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Jan 29, 2012 5:42pm
Environment, Science, Technology, Hazard Mitigation Bravo.  I bought a 4k watt generator after a 200x hurricane here in Florida, and then had to use it.  The noise, the fact that you had to schlepp fuel and fill it, etc. was a real pain.  The only mitigation was that I wired it into my dryer 220V plug and then switched off my outgoing main panel switch to keep my circuits isolated from the outside wires, then switched off AC, stove, and water heater&#8230; the rest were ok.  So I could walk around the house and switch on lighting as if nothing were the matter.  A small window AC could run in a porch area and kept us cool, and the refrig. had enough power for the 6-8 hour run time per day.  But every day as a fill up of about 4 gallons of gasoline. Now with LED lights, I could buy a big inverter, and attach to my diesel truck, use the same entry thru the Dryer and then switch off all the same circuits and have a successful time.  If I only used the lights using strings of white Christmas LED lights, I could switch off the diesel engine and have all the lighting I wanted for hours and hours. Moral of story:  buy up some of those holiday LED lights where 50 bulbs use about 4 watts, and then buy a small inverter for your car, and even an extra battery, where you could attach with jumper cables (for apartment dwellers) and schlepp the battery up and down the stairs or maybe if elevator works during storm or disaster or like England during black out periods.  You can charge your laptop in the car daily, and then connect the modem to the battery - inverter with the LED lights (even the CFL&#8217;s are 13 watts for a 60 watt bulb), so a few of those are ok, too. And don&#8217;t forget a few glass containers for drinking water from the tap or where ever, put out in the sun of 2 or so days, and you might just make it. Survival, 21st century luxuries, esp. lighting included. electricpower: Solar power cheaper than fossil fuels for 1.3 billion people Here in the U.S., we’re used to thinking about solar power as one of those happy eco-friendly things that we’d all totally be using except for the fact that it’s so much more expensive than fossil fuels. In the developing world, though, it’s exactly the opposite: solar power is gaining ground with 1.3 billion people simply because it’s the cheapest way to go.   Let’s just forget about the fact that fossil fuels are all extracted from the Earth by evil corporations controlled by evil states and that they do evil things to our atmosphere. Thereal problem with fossil fuels is that unless you have a ton of infrastructure already in place, getting, refining, distributing and using liquid fuel is stupidly inefficient and expensive. And we’re not even talking about cars: millions of households in Africa rely on kerosene lamps to provide light at night, which is important because (among other reasons) it extends the amount of time with which people are able to work or study. Kerosene, like any fossil fuel, is expensive. In fact, it costs twice as much to use a kerosene lamp as it does to use a small solar panel, battery and LED lights, and it’s cleaner and safer at the same time. Plus, with a solar panel, you can charge your cellphone too, which otherwise might cost you more money since (in Africa) you might have to rent a charger. There’s a whole new industry springing up to meet this demand with cheap and efficient microsolar systems. For about $10, you can buy a solar lighting system that includes a 2.5 watt solar panel, two LED overhead lights and a battery pack. Every week, you pay a small fee (about $1) to use the power the solar panel provides (offsetting the subsidized up-front cost). After about 18 months, the system has been completely paid off, and you can upgrade it to a larger solar panel with more lights and battery capacity. Eventually, it’s even possible to work your way up to a system than can run a sewing machine or a refrigerator. All this time, you’d be helping to both save the environment and fund a green tech industry, but again, that’s really not the point. The point is that sometimes solar power really does make the most sense, both socially and financially, and if companies can leverage this developing world market to help make solar power more attractive and affordable to those of us who are stuck living in the first world, everybody (in every world) might just come out a winner. Eight19, via MIT / DVICE

Environment, Science, Technology, Hazard Mitigation

Bravo.  I bought a 4k watt generator after a 200x hurricane here in Florida, and then had to use it.  The noise, the fact that you had to schlepp fuel and fill it, etc. was a real pain.  The only mitigation was that I wired it into my dryer 220V plug and then switched off my outgoing main panel switch to keep my circuits isolated from the outside wires, then switched off AC, stove, and water heater… the rest were ok.  So I could walk around the house and switch on lighting as if nothing were the matter.  A small window AC could run in a porch area and kept us cool, and the refrig. had enough power for the 6-8 hour run time per day.  But every day as a fill up of about 4 gallons of gasoline.

Now with LED lights, I could buy a big inverter, and attach to my diesel truck, use the same entry thru the Dryer and then switch off all the same circuits and have a successful time.  If I only used the lights using strings of white Christmas LED lights, I could switch off the diesel engine and have all the lighting I wanted for hours and hours.

Moral of story:  buy up some of those holiday LED lights where 50 bulbs use about 4 watts, and then buy a small inverter for your car, and even an extra battery, where you could attach with jumper cables (for apartment dwellers) and schlepp the battery up and down the stairs or maybe if elevator works during storm or disaster or like England during black out periods.  You can charge your laptop in the car daily, and then connect the modem to the battery - inverter with the LED lights (even the CFL’s are 13 watts for a 60 watt bulb), so a few of those are ok, too.

And don’t forget a few glass containers for drinking water from the tap or where ever, put out in the sun of 2 or so days, and you might just make it.

Survival, 21st century luxuries, esp. lighting included.

electricpower:

Solar power cheaper than fossil fuels for 1.3 billion people

Here in the U.S., we’re used to thinking about solar power as one of those happy eco-friendly things that we’d all totally be using except for the fact that it’s so much more expensive than fossil fuels. In the developing world, though, it’s exactly the opposite: solar power is gaining ground with 1.3 billion people simply because it’s the cheapest way to go.

 

Let’s just forget about the fact that fossil fuels are all extracted from the Earth by evil corporations controlled by evil states and that they do evil things to our atmosphere. Thereal problem with fossil fuels is that unless you have a ton of infrastructure already in place, getting, refining, distributing and using liquid fuel is stupidly inefficient and expensive. And we’re not even talking about cars: millions of households in Africa rely on kerosene lamps to provide light at night, which is important because (among other reasons) it extends the amount of time with which people are able to work or study.

Kerosene, like any fossil fuel, is expensive. In fact, it costs twice as much to use a kerosene lamp as it does to use a small solar panel, battery and LED lights, and it’s cleaner and safer at the same time. Plus, with a solar panel, you can charge your cellphone too, which otherwise might cost you more money since (in Africa) you might have to rent a charger.

There’s a whole new industry springing up to meet this demand with cheap and efficient microsolar systems. For about $10, you can buy a solar lighting system that includes a 2.5 watt solar panel, two LED overhead lights and a battery pack. Every week, you pay a small fee (about $1) to use the power the solar panel provides (offsetting the subsidized up-front cost). After about 18 months, the system has been completely paid off, and you can upgrade it to a larger solar panel with more lights and battery capacity. Eventually, it’s even possible to work your way up to a system than can run a sewing machine or a refrigerator.

All this time, you’d be helping to both save the environment and fund a green tech industry, but again, that’s really not the point. The point is that sometimes solar power really does make the most sense, both socially and financially, and if companies can leverage this developing world market to help make solar power more attractive and affordable to those of us who are stuck living in the first world, everybody (in every world) might just come out a winner.

Eight19, via MIT

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