My electric bill for May dropped even more. As you might recall from a previous post on the topic, I cut my electric bill in half by shutting off my hottub and switching from incandescent light bulbs to Compact Fluorescents. My goal was to drop my kilowatt hours (KWH) under 1,000 and last month bills had them at 758 and now they 717 (see photo of my bill below)!! We're well under half my peak bill in January at 1,841 KWHs. Anything generating heat is a killer!! Imagine if everyone tried a few things like this. The electric companies would be begging us to use more power.
Well, I have to confess, our 25-year-old electric dryer broke down about midway through May and given a graduation and other stuff, we have not replaced it. The clothes dry outside and end up like cardboard. Anyhow, our two college age kids are home for the summer so we've probably hit bottom in terms of KWHs. But it's not that hard to reduce your electric bill.
BTW, I'm keeping the old Hotpoint dryer. All it needed was a new belt and dryers aren't much more energy efficient than they were 25 years ago (washers are, though). Heat is heat. And don't throw away your old appliance either. In the words of one repair and parts site: "A good rule of thumb is, if it can break, melt, dull or wear we can order it for you."
My goal was to drop my kilowatt hours under 1,000. Last month's bill had them at 758 and now they're at 717.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.