As I sat in the stands with my 11 year old son on Sunday watching the big Nascar race in Loudon NH I briefly pondered the effect that oil and energy will have on our overall way of life. Sure the price is higher but what else will happen?

I am a believer that we must use less oil and energy yet I seem to keep making exceptions to accommodate my "way of life". A very rough calculation comes up with the figure of about 500,000 gallons of fuel consumed just by this race and the people who watched it. This is about 10,000 barrels of oil in one event. I sat in the stands and I loved every drop of it.

I'm sure that each of you have some reason not to conserve. Maybe you will burn a few gallons of gas to go to a hockey game that your son or daughter plays in. Perhaps you will go to a quilting show. Maybe it will just be to run the AC on a hot summer night. There are exceptions for each and every one of us not to conserve.

I like to think that we will be able to keep making these exceptions. What is life if you are unable to enjoy it? We must do what we can to save energy but we must still find the way to live a full life with our families and friends.

I have written a couple of times about the "Energy Room" my wife and I are building on the front of our house. I have received a couple of comments asking for details of this room and will be glad to oblige as the building progresses. At this time we are looking at a big hole in the ground. This is step one. I will repeat that it is our goal to cut our oil use in our house "at least" in half.

I plan to keep accurate records of the cost of construction but I must admit right up front that I also plan to cheat. I don't intend to include cost of gas used to go to the lumber yard and back. I won't include the cost of diesel to run my tractor. I am planning post and beam construction of our room and I have the capability of sawing my own beams from my own trees. I have so far scrounged 6 large insulated glass panels for the cost of free. These will make most of the glass on the front of my building and will save substantial cost. My wife and I will provide all labor for the construction including pouring of concrete, wiring, and plumbing.

My cellar hole that we look at outside our front door took four days to dig with my small Kubota tractor. In the past I have rented an excavator to dig a cellar hole but this hole is much smaller and I am trying to save on the cost. Today I spent the first actual money on the building by buying some 2x10's for the footing forms and a load of 3/4 stone for drainage which I picked up and trucked myself with a small dump trailer which is borrowed. I used my 13MPG Dodge truck to haul it all. This is a great truck but at 13MPG I only drive it when I have an actual reason. I'll post some photos when I figure out how and will write updates as needed.

I read todays post by Peter Cutler and agree completely but we simply MUST do more to cut our use of oil as even if drilling started tomorrow - which it won't - then conservation is the first and perhaps equally important step. If everyone could save half of their heating oil then we would be a long ways toward not needing the imports.

I had the pleasure to visit with my uncle Dave this weekend and he gave me some details on his new house. Located on the edge of Hinesburg, Vermont, it is part of a development of six homes with a goal of being energy neutral - producing as much energy as they consume. My Uncle Dave had just received his year end report from the local utility and was pleased to report that he had produced a little more electricity than he had consumed for the year. This includes his heat which is electrically driven.

Their house is a well insulated, passive solar house with solar electric on the roof and uses a geothermal heat pump system for space heating. The solar electric is a grid tie system and feeds his neighbors when their house isn't using all of it's output. The geothermal system pulls heat from the earth which makes it tremendously more efficient during Vermont's cold winters than a regular heat pump. Cooking is done with propane which is about the only energy that is not produced by the house systems.

Dave contracted to buy the house long before the current oil price runup and has just lived there for a year. He and his wife are strong environmentalists and believe in putting their money where their beliefs are. The cost of the house is such that most people would not justify it even at todays oil prices.

Sometimes there are more important things than money and sometimes the money just comes along later. Dave and his wife believe that their efforts are a small part of what is required to save the world but it doesn't hurt to have free heat at the same time.

While some people will just complain about the price of oil, others will take steps to cut their dependence. The individual reasons are perhaps less important than the final results. Whether you think that oil is just too expensive, whether it is environmental concern, or perhaps the politics of the oil market that bother you, there are steps that can be taken right now to reduce or eliminate your use of oil. At the current price and an average useage of 1000 gallons per year, Daves house will save him about $4600 dollars this winter. Even if your own concerns are more toward saving money than saving the environment, saving energy can still be a good investment.

Is the high price of oil really good news?
Painful yes, but is the high price of oil going to save our economy and the world around us? There are many systems and technologies that allow us to heat our homes and power our cars but since the development of the internal combustion engine and indoor furnaces, the low cost of oil has tied us to these systems and slowed the adoption of others. Why pay more when oil is so cheap? This has led to global warming and pollution of the air around us and has left our country at the financial and political mercy of repressive regimes around the world.
There are many ways to use the sun, wind, and local products such as wood to power our homes and our cars. With oil approaching $4.00 a gallon and gas headed that way, there is a big increase in actual installation of alternate energy systems. The installation of a solar hot water or solar electric system immediately replaces the importation of oil with work for local people who build the systems and do the installations. This serves to support our local economy instead of sending our money to countries in the Middle East or South America.
The large SUV or 4 wheel drive truck with big V8 seems to be the vehicle of choice for many families throughout Maine and the US. Why drive a small car when gas is 99 cents a gallon? I have driven small cars for 30 years and wondered why others didn't but now there is finally the beginnings of a change to high mileage, hybrid, or electric cars. I still have a big 4WD Dodge truck but only put about 1000 miles on it last year and drove my 35+ mile per gallon Chevy (Thats right - a Chevy) or my wifes 35+ MPG Scion for the rest of our transportation needs. We got rid of a Ford van last year and now sometimes have to squeeze to get the family of 4 into our car with all our stuff but the payment on the smaller car is less than the gas we were putting into the old van and that was at less than $2.00 a gallon! We are also sending less oil money to the Middle East and putting fewer pollutants into the air.
I looked at and sat in an all electric car this weekend at an alternate energy show in Damariscotta and it was roomy and comfortable. It won't yet go far enough for my daily commute but would serve many people who live intown or closer to their job. I hope that the increasing cost of fuel will make sales of these cars take off. They keep our energy money in this country which supports local people.
It is always painful to pay more for anything but oil costs are not going to return to their former lows and it is time to stop exporting our money and jobs overseas. Reducing your use of oil through the many choices available saves money and supports our local economy.

Is the high price of oil really good news?
Painful yes, but is the high price of oil going to save our economy and the world around us? There are many systems and technologies that allow us to heat our homes and power our cars but since the development of the internal combustion engine and indoor furnaces, the low cost of oil has tied us to these systems and slowed the adoption of others. Why pay more when oil is so cheap? This has led to global warming and pollution of the air around us and has left our country at the financial and political mercy of repressive regimes around the world.
There are many ways to use the sun, wind, and local products such as wood to power our homes and our cars. With oil approaching $4.00 a gallon and gas headed that way, there is a big increase in actual installation of alternate energy systems. The installation of a solar hot water or solar electric system immediately replaces the importation of oil with work for local people who build the systems and do the installations. This serves to support our local economy instead of sending our money to countries in the Middle East or South America.
The large SUV or 4 wheel drive truck with big V8 seems to be the vehicle of choice for many families throughout Maine and the US. Why drive a small car when gas is 99 cents a gallon? I have driven small cars for 30 years and wondered why others didn't but now there is finally the beginnings of a change to high mileage, hybrid, or electric cars. I still have a big 4WD Dodge truck but only put about 1000 miles on it last year and drove my 35+ mile per gallon Chevy (Thats right - a Chevy) or my wifes 35+ MPG Scion for the rest of our transportation needs. We got rid of a Ford van last year and now sometimes have to squeeze to get the family of 4 into our car with all our stuff but the payment on the smaller car is less than the gas we were putting into the old van and that was at less than $2.00 a gallon! We are also sending less oil money to the Middle East and putting fewer pollutants into the air.
I looked at and sat in an all electric car this weekend at an alternate energy show in Damariscotta and it was roomy and comfortable. It won't yet go far enough for my daily commute but would serve many people who live intown or closer to their job. I hope that the increasing cost of fuel will make sales of these cars take off. They keep our energy money in this country which supports local people.
It is always painful to pay more for anything but oil costs are not going to return to their former lows and it is time to stop exporting our money and jobs overseas. Reducing your use of oil through the many choices available saves money and supports our local economy.