Your Questions About How To Save Energy At Home In Winter

I think my fuel line is frozen. Any diagnoses?

I think the fuel line in my car may have frozen over night on Monday night. I had less than a quarter of a tank in (my fault – but I am a wimp in the winter and couldn’t bring myself to go out in the single digit weather to put gas late at night when I got home from work) so I decided to do it in the morning when the sun was out and it was going to be in 21 degrees. A little warmer than the day before.

In the morning my car started fine, I drove across the street to a gas station, filled it up to half a tank, went to start it – and it wouldn’t start. It tries to start, but doesn’t turn over. Luckily, I was just down the road so some guys helped me push my car back to my parking lot.

Various people said frozen fuel line, so being that it’s in the 30s today and supposed to be near 50 tomorrow, I was hoping it’d unthaw. My boyfriend got it to start at 9 this morning. I went down at 10, got it to start, drove it across the parking lot (I had to park in someone elses spot, so I moved it to mine), turned car off. Went to turn back on, just to be sure – and same problem as yesterday.

So I bought fuel line anti-freeze and poured it in about 2.5 hours ago, but I checked an hour ago and the car still wouldn’t start. And now I’m not sure if it’s a frozen fuel line at all, if I was able to get teh car start, but once I move it a short distance and turn it off – that’s when it doesn’t start again.

Could it be the fuel line was beginning to unfreeze, and that’s how I was able to move it, but not enough to keep it going again? Or if it was a frozen fuel line, would it not be able to start and move at all?

I really dont have the money to get it towed. (I JUST got it back from the shop a week ago for new belts.)

The battery is two months old, as well as the starter. There’s fresh oil in it. All my fluids are fine. Any possible diagnoses? I just want to know if it’s worth it to save money and let it warm up with the weather in my parking lot, or if I should save time and energy and just get it towed now, so that I get it back sooner.
EDIT: It’s a ’99 Nissan Sentra. I’ve had it for two years now, and over those two years it’s been mostly fine, except for this winter.

Since I’ve had it I had the battery and starter replaced the end of last year, and just two weeks ago my belts broke while driving and I had to get those replaced. Those have been the biggest problems. Other than that (and generally bad luck like being rear-ended and hitting a pot hole which popped my tire and broke my rim last year), I’ve had new brakes and had to have the exhaust system replaced when I first bought it, stuff like that.

Programmable Thermostat With Electric Wall Heater – Constant Click On/Off Ideas?

In order to save some money over the winter months I researched and found a nifty thermostat, just like those for gas heaters, for baseboards. Our home we bought last September has electric heating throughout and had baseboards in all rooms. We have replaced the large baesboards in the living/dining room with in wall heaters with blowers for better heat circulation.

The way these heaters work is by a switch on the unit its self to set the temperature and it kicks on and off as necessary. With the way our home was wired before, we still have both heaters going to the thermostat as well, so we could technically turn the heater its self to max, and let the thermostat control it.

With the new thermostat that I got that is programable, you can set up times and temeratures (obviously) which can help concerve energy. Problem is, the heaters are kicking on and off constantly to maintain temperature, rather than letting it drop say 3-5 degrees before heating again. When I lived in an apartment with these heaters (both new) they did not kick on and off constantly to maintain temperature.

What I am trying to determine is how can I keep the programable thermostat or one like it, but get the darn thing to stop kicking on and off constantly. Its not just the anoyance factor, but doesnt it take more energy to kick on and off and on and off, than to heat as necessary? I would assume we would still save money on our electric bill with the program feature (lower temp while at work and sleeping), but the fan kicking on and off is just irritating! My husband wants to get rid of it entirely but I love the program feature.

Do you agree with Cap and Trade, does this synopsis work for you?

An acquaintance wrote this and I thought I would put it out there to see what people’s opinions are of this bill.
I have been challenged with explain exactly “What is Cap and Trade” and I am amazed that very few people that I know has any idea what is in this magical black box. Since this bill has passed the House and is soon to be voted on in the Senate, I would like to make my best effort to explain what it is.
Specifics and formulas have not been worked out to my knowledge so the examples below are not to be taken face value but should get you pointed in the right direction.
Every individual in the United States will be given a set value of acceptable carbon footprint. Every function whether it is purifying water, keeping your house cool, driving your car uses energy. Energy usage through mathematical formulas can be converted in to carbon output. For example, water is pumped from Lake Meade, sent Through processors and filters. Chemicals are added and the water is pumped to your home or business. The pumps from the lake take energy, the processors take energy, the chemical factories use energy to produce the chemical, the water is used and has to be treated back to its original state. The byproduct of all this energy is carbon.
Now we get down to how this is applied to you and your life. Every household will be monitored as to how much power, water, waste, gas, fuel…..to determine if they are over or under their allotted carbon footprint. Believe me the values are not high for example: Water usage-Showers not to exceed 3 minutes per day using a low flow shower head. Flushes using a low flow toilet to be limited to a set number per member per day. Dishwashers, baths, and normal laundry, landscaping and swimming pools will put you over your limit. Let’s just consider them luxury items and you have to pay more for using them.
Electricity gets a little more complicated but follows the same principal. Every household will be allotted so much electricity per resident. The value will be set around 250 square feet of living space per person living in the residence. So a family of four will be allotted 1,000 S.F. of living space and the electricity to light it using energy efficient lighting a limited number of hours per day, air conditioning or heating to climate control the living space at 860F in the summer and 670F in the winter a limited number of hours per day. They will probably throw in 3 hours of TV and some power for small appliances.
Your car, you will be allotted a certain number of miles to drive per week and they will be based on average commute to and from work along with a few errands and necessary trips. If you go over your miles, then you will have to buy carbon credits.
Now, who is going to determine your allotted carbon footprint? The government will and they will also monitor it. So you can save some carbon credits here and spend some there but at the end of the year, you will have to square the account to zero.
Where will you buy carbon credits? Not everybody has a car, air conditioning, 250s.f. per resident and they will have carbon credits left over. Now you just have to buy them. Another example: An inter-city mother of 4 children living in a 550s.f. apartment with no electricity and no daily commute will have ample carbon credits left over and she can sell them to an exchange. We will purchase them from an exchange along with a processing or administrative fee to the exchange.
The intent of the Cap and Trade Bill is the following:
People and individuals who have excessive carbon footprints as determined by the Federal Government will have to make every effort to reduce their standards of living or pay a yearly fee (tax) to keep it. Public transportation is one way to conserve, using public restrooms, laundry facilities, city pools….
The second is that less fortunate households, with many members living under one roof, will have a commodity that they can sell to the more fortunate citizens….otherwise known as “Trickle-Up Economics” or “Redistribution of Wealth.”

If this is so, what do you think is right or wrong? What do you think is fair or unfair? Do you think our government has any place stepping in to your life in such a way? Do you view this as intrusion? How much do you think that implementing something like this would cost?
Again, I did not write this, but I would love to see what people here on YA think.

Your Thoughts?

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Yes, it is true. Just look at the data and facts. People don’t want to hear this. And when people have to take responsibility to change their lives, they always want the easy way out and a silver bullet. So when you tell people that we are going into an economic down turn worse than the great depression, the childish responses are, “Well I hope your wrong.”

Let’s look at the data. When we went into the the depression the United States didn’t have an national debt of 9 trillion we had a surplus. When we went into the depression there was no such thing as credit cards and most people didn’t own homes and there wasn’t anything called a home equity loan .

When we went into the depression, the United States was not fighting 2 wars and possibly a third coming on. So when you go over the data you can see by every measurement that the economic down turn we are going in now is worse than anything we’ve ever seen before.

What is going on now is way worse than what was going on in 1973. We’re talking about a barrel of oil going at $134 and I believe it will reach $200 thus making it $10-12 a gallon at the pump.

You no longer hear the people on these money shows talking about “Well accounting for inflation, oil is still a lot cheaper than what is was at the worst point of the energy crisis back in the 70′s and 80′s. They don’t say that anymore because it’s not true. We are in an energy crisis now. Major media networks should be making headlines every day about what’s going to happen, come winter. But they won’t.

How are people going to afford to heat their homes over 4 dollars a gallon for home heating oil? How are they going to pay utility bills? We are going into an economic down turn, a crash that no one has ever seen before.

There is nothing in the future that’s going to save this country. And the federal reserve which by the way most people don’t know is really just a private company, it has nothing to do with the federal government . And it’s illegal also according to article 1, section 8 clause 5 of the constitution, which gives congress the sole power to print and regulate money. They’re the ones and the bankers behind them, brokers and wall street bandits that have flooded the country with cheap money, driven down the value of the dollar and are robbing the people of their future.

But people don’t understand this, they don’t know what it means to have a cheap dollar, they blame the Arabs, they blame everybody for the high oil prices except themselves and the Government.

I believe the average American is fully aware that they are living non sustainable lives. I blame pop culture today in this country. It’s all about becoming their own self serving bloated beaucracies.

The average American is sick. We have over 1 hundred million that are over weight , we have 63 million with heart disease, we have stress related diseases and cancers, and arthritis and diabetes all of which are 95% preventable.

We do nothing in our society to prevent any crisis. We’ll continue to move into hurricane alley, tornado alley, we’ll move where it’s dry as a tinder box, we’ll move to states where there is barely any water left (California), continue to smoke, we’ll eat fast foods, watch stupid television, we’ll spend money we don’t have, we have negative 1.2% savings. The Chinese have almost 38% savings. We’re negative -1. The average American could not last more than one week without an income flowing in or they would hit the poverty level.

35 million Americans are going to bed hungry. And we don’t have a single person talking about why we have 35 million Americans going to bed hungry each day and a hundred million of Americans are very close to that.

But as it is with people in America. We’re looking to dull the pain and looking for others to bail us out. The people in this country have no civic courage, and theres a lack of self respect. Take a look at the way people in this country dress/look. You go around the world you don’t see it anywhere else.

We’re talking about $134 dollars a barrel and what do we hear? It’s the presidential clown race. and if anyone thinks that the Democrats or Republicans are going to change the course, they’re kidding themselves. And I think most people know it but they continue to say the same stupid thing over and over again.

“I’m going with (Clinton, Obama, McCain) with this one because it’s the lesser of 2 evils.” What kind of relationship is that? Oh the last person I was with was terrible, this one isn’t as bad but it’s terrible as well. It’s this kind of logic that runs rampant, and it’s pathetic to see.

High prices, people losing jobs, becoming homeless all fuels the fire for a major break down in the country and people will panic and when people panic, all hell will break loose. That’s ok, no body should listen, just watch American Idol, ride around in your SUV and everything will be fine.

The bottom line is, this nation is on a non stop course to destruction and the best that I can say to people is, understand what’s going on and start taking pro active measures to avoid the worst.

I hope these words are a cry in the dark and some people wake up to this truth. Start looking with open minds.
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“I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” Augustus Caesar

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Yesterday, 11:21 PM #2
Marlon Brando
Forum Member

Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 272
Re: America is collapsing (My thoughts)

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We have a black cancer period.

I wrote this in Creative Writing. What do you think?

My teacher made us write this short story thing and it had to start with “Chocolate makes the…” and it had to be set in a cave.
Critic please. thanks!

Oh and I know it’s long, but don’t read it unless you want to.

Tonight
Chocolate makes the taste of seawater more repulsive. I think it’s the combination of salt and bittersweet fudge that deters me –confuses my tongue. It’s like summer and winter, each trying to overcome the other, both failing to achieve that harmony that would make their unity together possible. Sugar and salt are the same. And I can’t decide which is stronger.
Still, I take another sip of the salty ocean water cupped in my hands, and then break the very last piece of chocolate I have left in two. I eat one and save the other for later. I’ll be hungry in an hour or two, and I don’t think I am ready to starve tonight. Not tonight.
The taste in my mouth is so awful I gag and cover my lips with my left hand. A small portion of the chocolate remains in my right one; I let it slip from my weak fingers to the ground, where it is met by sharp rocks and old, dying seaweed. Everything here seems to carry a sense of weakness and deterioration, I realize. Everything is dying tonight.
I don’t know how long I’ve been in this cave. The waves crash outside its mouth in the wide ocean and I know I don’t recognize this place. The sun is setting now, hesitantly; it paints the sky in orange and red and the water is a mirror reflecting its dazzling splendor. It’s a beautiful sight, true, but I’m not the cliché and I don’t stop to marvel at this foreign, unknown ocean by which I am trapped. I don’t think it matters when I am, in fact, in the middle of nowhere (or somewhere) and running out of food. All that seems to matter is that it will be the very last thing I see.
There’s a small paper, crumpled and dirty, on the floor. I pick it up and curl my fingers around it. I can’t squeeze it as hard as I could before; my fingers are frail. And I don’t need to open it to see what’s inside. For the words, “Good Luck”, are already etched on my skin, forever planted in my brain. But I don’t need luck now; there is no such thing. I crawl away from the cave’s wall slowly; my limbs are weak and my body is fatigued from lack of nutrition. Every movement takes energy, and so I have to think about it fifty times before I execute my move. If it’s worth it or necessary, I move – crawl through the cave. Sometimes I walk, but I haven’t done that in a long while. In fact, I haven’t moved at all, let alone leave the wall’s side, for days now. The last traces of life trail slowly from my body, and I know if I risk burning any further energy, I will only speed this up. And I don’t want to die now. Not now. Not tonight.
I drag myself to the cave’s opening, disregarding the damp sand and sharp shells that cut at my bare skin. I’ve felt enough pain now to numb myself to it. Routines we go through everyday sometimes go unnoticed or overlooked because they are repetitive and habitual. Same goes to pain when it is a regular thing. I find the last traces of sunlight blinding to my eyes, for I haven’t seen the sun in a while. This, too, I disregard.
There is a small beach-like area around the cave’s mouth. Covered in sand, the land curves around the cave, leaving escape impossible on either side of it. The cave is but a small breach in a massive mountainside. And I am trapped in this perfect enclosure. So I crawl to the water, where the tide sweeps in and out upon the sand, luring, calling, wanting me. I brush away the ocean’s whispers like the whines of a pesky little sister. I won’t listen to its temptations. I won’t listen to its mockery.
I lie back as I reach the water’s edge and rest my head against the warm sand. It’s comforting, soothing even. I do this here sometimes; it’s the only comfort, the only thing that feels like home. My hand stretches for the tide, and I feel its warmth seeping through my fingers. I breathe in heavy, ragged breaths. The haul from the cave to the shore takes up much energy –energy I lack. I try to calm myself now, and I do. Soon my breaths are shallow, and I can hear the ocean again.
The tide is high tonight. It rushes towards me, and then retreats. If only I were as free and strong as it was. If only I could run back and forth as it did. It comes towards me once more, and this time it’s so strong it hits me. I cough on the saltwater, and clutch my chest at the ache of it. What little, worn-out clothing I have on are now drenched. I want to sit up or move away, but I can’t seem to bring myself to doing so. I don’t think it matters now anyhow. I’m not sure it matters tonight.
Thoughts of the ocean bring back memories from the past –memories I should know, but can’t remember. My life was simple before I woke here, with some chocolate and a note of good luck. I don’t understand this; I don’t understand any of this at all. And it doesn’t look like I need to tonight; all things are finally
And it doesn’t look like I need to tonight; all things are finally slowing to an end.
I feel a rumble in my stomach and it hurts. I realize I’m hungry again, as I should be. I turn my head towards the cave. It’s black and dreary inside, looming in the golden afterglow. And I think of the small piece of chocolate inside –the way it would taste in my mouth, the way it would melt on my tongue, pour into my feeble bloodstream. My stomach rumbles again. I think of the last piece of chocolate, and I want it. I think I’m ready; I think it’s meant to be tonight.
I leave the tide shivering. As I drag myself to the cave, I think of this moment. I think of this moment as the last time I will ever be able to feed my hunger, answer my need. The chocolate is the last food I will ever taste.
A soft breeze blows by and the sun sets leisurely in the west. The last traces of it shine in my eyes until, swathed by the cave’s darkness, I can see no more.