Energy Vanguard Blog

The older unventilated gas space heaters didn't have ANY pilot light. The burner was connected to a simple ball valve on the gas line. If the flame went out the house quickly filled with unburned natural gas. Surprised more people weren't killed by them.

Most remote start cars have a timeout if the car isn't entered within a certain amount of time. This probably has saved lives as well as saving gas.

Bob: You're absolutely right about the dangers of having no pilot on unvented gas space heaters. My grandparents had them, and we used to go to sleep at night with them turned on, which is scary just to think back on. I think it's pretty hard for them to go out once they're lit, but it would be easy to turn on the valve, get distracted, and then not light it. 
 
Regarding the remote start timeout, I'd still be afraid. My wife's car has the little alarm to let her know if the lights are on when she tries to leave the car, but it's suddenly stopped working. A dead battery is one thing. A dead body is another.

Allison: After a full year of reading all the scary articles you regularly post here, I thought there was very little left to scare me. But I was wrong. So in the spirit of Halloween, here's a scary tale to share with everyone. 
 
We talk a lot about energy and energy efficiency here. But talk less about basic survivability. As you may have heard in the news, New York and New England was just hit with an early winter storm this past Saturday. CT alone has about 700,000+ homes without power (mainly because trees still bearing leaves were subjected to extra snow loading, and branches snapped and brought down power lines). And the utility companies say it will be at least a week until most power is restored. 
 
What's scariest about all this to me is not so much the loss of electricity, but how heating and water are also affected. Folks with oil- and gas-fired appliances don't have heat because electricity is still required to operate them. People who rely on well pumps have no water. A good many schools have cancelled classes and are now serving as emergencies shelters, and probably will be for a good many days now. 
 
What blows me away about all this is thinking how our society is so technologically advanced, and so strongly predicated on the constant availability of key services from providers. And yet a simple snow storm three weeks too early can bring us to our knees.  
 
Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture. We talk about energy efficiency and energy security, yet our basic services are extremely vulnerable to relatively simple events that would've meant nothing to people living over a hundred years ago. 
 
Anyway, I make these comments here not looking for any particular answers, but perhaps just to try to encourage others to think of the survivability issues surrounding home energy, in addition to efficiency. 
 
So, Happy Halloween to all! And hope I haven't scared anyone (well, not too much, anyway :-)

John P.: Did you read Martin's article? If you think a snow storm that knocks out power to localized areas is bad, imagine a solar storm that wiped out power around the globe! As with peak oil, we've all grown up in this little bubble believing that, because things have always been like this, it has to continue on the same way. 
 
Nature doesn't care about our beliefs.

Hi Allison: I'm aware of Martin Halladay's article, just haven't read it yet. But yeah, exactly. The situation here in CT is kind of like that, albeit in microcosm! :-)

Excuse me. Did you say I might loose my internet?

Allison,just stumbled across your website. Great reading and information. Question for you and your readers after your topic of why the hvac industry doesnt do things right.Almost all the homes i go into in chicagoland have incorrectly sized ducts. Usually to small,but nobody seems to ever address this problem. The loss in efficiency is got to be huge.

Chris in Chicago: Yes, ducts are a huge problem in HVAC. I've written many articles here on the problems with them. Here are a few: 
 
A Bad Duct System Trumps High Efficiency HVAC Equipment 
 
Helping an Asthmatic HVAC System to Breathe 
 
The Ductopus or the Centipede - Which HVAC Duct System Is Better?

Thanks for mentioning the dryer vents! So many people do not clean them every single time they are used - this has always been a point I drive home to my kids because our dryer caught on fire when I was kid. Such a small thing to remember, but could have killer consequences!