I completely agree with Devilwin. One cool way to add to the science of climate change is through citizen science (Citizen science also includes many other topics besides climate change.)
https://scistarter.com/citizenscience.html
This is a web page with a database where you can search for science projects that request citizen participation in the area where you live.
Many projects are related to making observations where you live about things that you are interested in, including the effects that climate change may be having. It's a great way for kids and adults to learn how to make scientific observations and participate in the science. With citizen science, scientists rely on large numbers of observations over long periods of time to determine if things are changing over time, like bird migrations, insect hatching, tree leaf out, leaf fall in the Fall.
Searching on Durham, NC, you can find a lot of projects that you can participate in even in your own yard. Just a few:
https://scistarter.com/project/18979...gle-Bird-Count
https://scistarter.com/project/874-Watch-the-Wild
https://scistarter.com/project/41-Budburst
I agree with Devilwin, get involved. Get your family involved! And have fun doing it.
~rthomas
Wow, that is expensive. We owned a 2010 Civic Hybrid and passed it on to our younger daughter and her husband (you know, the devildeac delivery service) and they had the hybrid battery replaced at about 7Y/90K miles as Honda had a recall and replaced it for free and extended the warranty to 10Y/150K, IIRC. Otherwise, it would have cost them $3-4K . Haven't had to address that yet with our Prius, currently at 6Y/78K miles but our son and his wife currently have a 2008 (?) Prius with almost 200K miles and no hybrid battery issues. Yet.
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
I have not looked into a timer for the water heater. I'll take a look. I could see that becoming especially useful when my kids are off to college. Right now they get home around 3pm so it'll be interesting to see if it helps to have the temp change from 8-2:30. I need Nest to do that, I really like my Nest thermostat.
Yes, the water heater does have a pvc overflow pipe to the outside which will help in case a leak that's not too bad.
Hopefully, I won't have to worry about that for another 7 years or so!
you can't fight water, water always wins...have to come to some sort of accommodation with it. Just took four visits from the dishwasher repair savant to (seemingly) end the leak.
For those who share my concern (bordering at times on phobia, yes, hydrophobia), here's today's tip: consider not hooking up your fridge's automatic icemaker. I know three different people who
have had their kitchens ruined by leaks when they were away, many thousands of dollars of damage...in discussing this with an appliance selling pal, he said his company has refused to hook them up
for years, way too many instances of failure...a lot of the crucial parts, even in upscale models, are made of cheesy plastic. You want it hooked up, call and plumber and then blame him if it fails.
I worked in an office where they outsourced a coffee machine with a water feed, a straw sized feed. They installed in on a Friday, and it popped off sometime over the weekend. The water damage spread about 75 feet on both sides of the kitchen. Several computers (sitting on the floor under desks; I still discourage that!) fried. They had to call in the flood recovery folks - dehumidifiers, holes in the walls, and a ton of fans to help dry us out. The coffee vendor took care of it...
-jk
Water heaters have really good insulation. I suspect a daytime downturn won't make a measurable difference. (During several day-long, winter storm-related power outages, our kids' reptiles were kept happy with the hot water from the tank.) A weeklong absence, more measurable!
-jk
When I was young (junior high - high school), my dad had a few Honda civics. This was circa 74-79.
I can swear I remember that they got 40+ MPG highway. This was around gas crisis II time. Each successive model and competitor vehicle seemed to outdo the prior on fuel economy.
Am I remembering correctly?
If I am, why have we not progressed beyond that and even regresses in fuel economy?
Was better mileage possible with leaded gasoline? Why can't hybrids get 75-80-90 mpg.
What am I missing here?
No, I've never crunched any timer numbers. I'm not sure it saves much money these days, if the water heater is inside a climate controlled structure. Water heaters now have much better insulation and there probably isn't a great benefit for it or a water heater blanket. Twenty or more years ago was a very different story.
Upon reflection, scratch my dated idea.
My Kia Soul is small, it's 4 cylinder, has lots of plastic to make it pretty light and is rated at 25 MPG. Seriously, why is this? My Dad had air conditioning and the Civic may have been heavier than my Kia. Does automatic transmission really make that much difference?
Check this out:
77hondacivic.jpg
The ubiquity of plastic and how it has infiltrated the food chain of most marine bird species I'm sure is topic about which most DBR readers are knowledgeable, generally a well-read lot. Plastic is light, energy efficient, durable, frequently reusable, but also very deadly, particularly single-use plastic. These two videos aren't preachy but they don't have to be. The first includes a necropsy if that bothers you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_2NuK5O-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7on22jA48