Turn out that light!
Before you start huffing and puffing about radioactivity, I'd recommend that you read up on exactly what radiation is . "Radioactive" has been turned into an irrationally, emotionally laden term with nearly the same attendant hysteria as has the word "chemical." It kills me. A lot of people hear the word radioactive and see a mushroom cloud yet ignore the sun blasting away overhead and think nothing of getting into an airplane. Similarly, chemicals in consumer products are somehow always a bad thing; but newsflash, water is a chemical.
OK, now that I even have that off my chest, lower back to the thieves at Progress Energy and their a great deal-needed nuclear plant. Progress Energy estimated that the new plant in Levy County will cost 17 billion dollars to build. Yes, it really is billion with a "B." Staggering fee, sure however wherein it gets exciting is that due to a -12 months-old Florida law, utilities are allowed to pre-invoice their clients for infrastructure upgrades. When those charges began to trickle out to the public last winter, Progress Energy estimated that it would begin charging a $9 a month surcharge in January '09 (on pinnacle in their current charge increases) to pay for the new plant years before every body starts offevolved shoveling dust. Now, bringing up "confidentiality agreements" of their quest to find a builder, Progress Energy has declined to put a variety of on that surcharge as they seek permission to charge it from the Public Service Commission. They are inquiring for a clean check and that they simply may get it. Argh!
My beloved St. Pete Times has been on this like a hawk and bravo for the St. Pete Times ! Call the Public Service Commission and your state legislators. This is a bad idea brought about by typically bad legislation. One party rule is a terrible, terrible thing.
Before I start hollering any more about this blatant thievery and getting my blood pressure up even better, there's a way you can offset something January's construction surcharge ends up being. Swapping out incandescent light bulbs for less-electricity-hogging compact fluorescent bulbs is an smooth one. You can also decrease the temperature on your water heater, set your thermostat a diploma or two better and on and on. But what about the things I do this I'd always been instructed used less energy? I depart my AC on 24 hours an afternoon and simply boost the thermostat to 80 degrees after I leave within the morning. I've continually been advised that doing that is more energy green than turning it off once I leave. Well, it turns out that that little pearl of conventional understanding is incorrect.
The kids at Treehugger ran a piece yesterday on energy savings and it tackled such efficiency conundra as the turn-off-the-AC or not question and others that vex people like me. Treehugger's entry included a link to a website called Mr. Electricity .
Mr. Electricity is the brainchild of an efficiency enthusiast named Michael Bluejay and readers of this weblog could do nicely to spend some time poking round on his website. The guy anticipates and solutions almost any query you might have and offers the whole thing in an interesting and tasty style. He explains the entirety from how to read a producer's labels to a way to read your personal electric powered meter. Once the whole thing's defined, he'll display you a way to use it on how your backside line. Seriously, test this out and keep a few money.