New Windows

A turkey vulture soared over nearby fields as I was on my midday walkabout today with Aria and Bella. This seems a tad late for this bird to be hanging around our area, but then again there is this thing called climate change...... In the woods the big pines were having a one-way snowball fight, lobbing wet blobs of snow, big and small, to the ground. Back at the house we are replacing nine windows with more energy efficient ones - better glass, better fit, more wrap to prevent leaks.

All this, plus the Copenhagen Climate talks just underway, got me thinking about energy. If I were to change careers I think it would be something related to energy (this might not be a random thought). This past week I also received my "personal" email from the Rocky Mountain Institute co-founder Amory Lovins, touting their next big thing - Reinventing Fire. No small task. They plan to do this, in large part, by tapping into the "the two biggest motherlodes of energy, efficiency and the Sun," according to Lovins.

We are nearly totally dependent on fossil fuels for heating and running our house. A part of reinventing fire should include reinventing home building and renovation, at a scale and cost that works for the average homeowner. Sad to think that the entire mortgage crisis and housing collapse relates to houses that are probably neither efficient nor self-reliant on alternative energy.

We are tapping into the Stimulus Plan for our window renovation - a tax benefit on the cost of the windows. I do not know if these one-time programs, such as cash for caulkers, are a good thing for the environment or the economy. Why are we not just making high quality, energy efficient goods to begin with? Surely it is because it costs more. Yet, people spend money on all sorts of frivolous things. Maybe by saving more, we could afford to buy better-built and longer-lasting highly efficient stoves, washers, windows, houses, and such.

Okay, the sun is not out today so I am going to ponder energy efficiency. Although right now one of my front windows is out while our carpenter prepares the opening. With temperatures barely above freezing, energy efficient we are not! If only the sun was out.