Happy Earth Week everyone!
I learned something new in the past couple of weeks. We recently closed on a house (yay!) and one of the first things I mused with our realtor about was, “should we install A/C?” The Bay Area in general has great weather, but the last few summers have had a few days here and there where temperatures were above 90 degrees, making it unbearably hot indoors as well. Today happens to be one of those days - yesterday, temperatures were almost 90 in our apartment, and today, it definitely went past the 90 F mark. It’s hard to resist the temptation to install A/C on days like this.
Anyway, our realtor mentioned installing an attic fan instead. Have you heard of these? During the summer, the temperature in your attic can get well over 100 F. Without an attic fan, heat gets trapped, and it makes your house warmer. An attic fan helps cool down your attic, making your house much cooler. IF you also happen to have A/C running, an attic fan improves efficiency; there’s less work required by your A/C unit to cool down the house. I’ve read that it can save up to 30% on cooling costs, so in the long run, it may be cheaper for you to install one in your own home.
By the way, attic fans are electric or solar. I think they may also come in hybrid versions but I haven’t seen any so far. We’re thinking of installing the solar fan since no energy would be required to run it. Now we just need to figure out where to buy one of these and who can install it. Anyone have any recommendations?
Raise your hands if you own one of those nice flat-screen TVs? My hand is up. I replaced my old tube television about six month’s ago, and opted for a large, flat-screen LCD. It turns out these TVs are really bad for the environment in a couple ways.
First, these TVs contain nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), the same environmentally harmful gas found in the new 3G iPhone. This gas is estimated to be 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and there will be about 4,000 tons of it will be produced per year.
In addition, large, flat-screen TVs use much more energy than traditional tube television sets. I was a bit suspicious when I felt the huge amount of heat my LCD TV emitted when compared with my old TV set. Next time you think about getting a new TV, you may want to think twice. I was going to replace another old TV of mine, but now I think I’ll hold off on doing so.
Not to be outdone by Toyota’s announcement of the plug-in hybrid Prius and Toyota’s Lexus hybrid and the small Toyota iQ, Honda has recently announced a new hybrid. Unlike the Civic hybrid, Honda’s new hybrid will be designed as a hybrid from the ground up. The recently captured spy pictures above show exactly what Honda is going after – Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid.
Honda’s new hybrid appears to be based off the FCX Clarity fuel-cell concept car. Rumors say this new hybrid will replace the Insight, while others claim this will be the new Civic hybrid. Honda is targeting this new hybrid as an entry-level car. Estimates are that Honda will produce 200,000 each year, with half of those sold in the U.S. Some say the price may be as low as $19,000 – no matter what the price is, look for it to be competitive and lower-priced than the Prius. The car will be a five-seater, 4 door hatchback, also similar to the Prius. This new model is not expected to use lithium ion batteries, and gas mileage is expected to be well above 40 mpg. Rumors have the car arriving in the U.S. late 2009. I’m crossing my fingers for it to come even sooner!
I won’t write about the vices of smoking (we all know what they are) or the fact that the amount of money people spend smoking could end poverty (I’m exaggerating). I wrote a couple months ago how bad smoking is for the environment. Smoking isn’t just bad when people light up, but rather, it’s environmentally detrimental throughout the entire production supply chain.
In what was an extremely controversial move, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law last week banning the sale of tobacco products in most pharmacies within city limits. San Francisco, the first city in the U.S. to pass such a ban, hopes this will spur other cities to action. Marin County has already taken notice and is thinking about a similar ban.
San Francisco spokespeople mentioned the law was to promote the idea of health in a pharmacy. They mentioned pharmacies should be places where people go to get healthy. Rite Aid and Walgreens spokespeople expressed concern about limiting customer choice in their stores, and noted people buying cigarettes in their stores could use also pharmacists as a resource to stop smoking. They also mentioned the law lacked basic fairness.
As much as I dislike smoking and as bad as smoking is for the environment, I’m a little torn. I would love for everyone to stop smoking, but I’m not sure bans like this are productive or fair, especially when they seem to single out certain types of retailers. What stops San Francisco from banning potato chips and other products?
Two months ago, I wrote about the all electric Tesla Roadster, one of the fastest cars on the road. Tesla Motors opened its flagship Los Angeles, California showroom back in early May. The showroom actually features the service center as a main attraction point!
I’m excited to announce Tesla Motors has opened its second showroom, this time in Northern California. This showroom is located at 300 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, just north of Palo Alto and the Stanford Shopping Center. It’s close to where I live, so you can bet I’ll be by for a visit. It’s a 40,000 square foot facility, which Tesla says replicates their Los Angeles store on a much larger scale. From the pictures I’ve seen (some of which are above), I have to admit the store and showroom look like quite an incredible experience. Just like the Los Angeles store, the Menlo Park showroom features open views into the service center, which is currently being used to put final touches on cars for delivery to customers.
The current hours of the store are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 6:00pm and Sunday from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Test drives are available, but by appointment only. Rumor has it you need to show you’re a serious buyer by putting down a $5,000 deposit on a Roadster before they let you take out one of their babies. Although I’m not quite ready to throw down $100,000 on one, I’m more than ready to check out the showroom and the sweet Roadster! Who knows, maybe I’ll catch someone on a good day, and they may let me take one out (in my dreams)!
Although I’m sure they won’t give you a complimentary tank of gas upon delivery of a Tesla Roadster, I do hope they give you a full charge!
