Off Grid Living

Escaping to the City

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy) — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:22:00 +0000

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summer is almost here, and it's full of some great holidays, festivals and events that take place in some of the larger cities in our country. Here are some of the biggest events that you won't want to miss while you are in the city this summer:

4th of July Fireworks
Nothing is better than fireworks on the 4th of July, and the major cities always put on the best shows. With budgets ranging in the hundreds of thousands, major cities understand the value of attracting huge crowds just for a day or two to their town. One of my favorite places to watch fireworks is over the St. Charles river in Boston. With the Boston Pops playing and the old historic feel Boston brings, no other town in my opinion can beat it.

Music Festivals
There are many music festivals that take place all across the United States, many of which date back over 100 years. Look up a few in your local area, and you may not even need to go to a big city to enjoy a great show. The Lollapaloozaevent in Chicago brings in hundreds of thousands of people for a short period of time, and tickets get sold out months in advance. Even if you don't have a ticket, you can still crash the event.

If you're staying in a city for a while, but you don't have a friend's couch to crash on, make sure you look at holiday apartments for rent and book ahead of time. Quite often you can get a great deal on a place if you plan your vacation trip well ahead of time.

Why Are My Chlorine Tablets Individually Wrapped?

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:17:00 +0000

A chlorine dispenser in a swimming pool in the shape of a Rubber Duck. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s important for pool owners to be knowledgeable about proper water sanitation practices to ensure pool longevity and provide those who enjoy it with water that’s safe. If you ask owners or pool lovers to name a chemical most commonly found in pool water, most will likely name chlorine.

Stabilized chlorine tablets are a popular choice, and they are available in different quantities for an easy and quick way to sanitize pool water. They are powerful, slow dissolving, and soluble, saving pool owners time and money. What’s more, they are EPA approved and will not cloud water. They generally come in sizes of 1 to 3 inches and contain 90% available chlorine.

The tablets are individually wrapped for safe, easy handling. In addition, it safeguards against accidentally putting too many tablets in at once. Most tablets work in skimmers, floaters, and chlorinators. Chlorine kills bacteria, algae, and other contaminants that are hazardous to human health.

With all the pool chemicals available, it’s important to find the perfect balance of chemicals for personal needs. Chlorine tablets are one staple to maintaining clean and safe water. Keep in mind that all chemical levels, including chlorine, muse be checked regularly to ensure they are not too low or too high. Chlorine test strips can be used to check the amount of chlorine in the water in case any corrective measures need to be taken. Testing is easy and involves dipping the strip into the water and comparing it to a chart found on the bottle.

Be Environmental this Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:44:00 +0000

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Now that the weather's starting to get a bit warmer, I started thinking about all the ways people will waste energy with the warmer weather. I always try to sneak in some environmental consulting with my blog posts, so here we go:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we use most of our electricity and energy throughout the summer, which is mostly used on the increased levels of air conditioning we burn through. Quite often, stores leave their doors wide open in the summer time as a way to invite potential customers into their cooler store. Of course, this wastes tons of energy and I try to avoid those stores all-together as an act of defiance. If the weather isn't uncomfortably hot outside, don't bother to turn on the AC. Just roll up your windows and enjoy the nice cool air.

If you're going to be staying inside, simply wear cooler and more loosely fitting clothes. It is understandable if you have to wear a suit to work every day, but change into shorts and a tee shirt instead of cranking up the AC when you get home. I always prefer to jump into my Dickies work pants on a hot summer day, since i cannot wear shorts to work. Also, a polo shirt always looks fairly professional and can keep you cool on a hot day.

Also, if you work in the manufacturing industry, you can be environmentally friendly as well. Take for example the steel industry. Many companies make steel with intense heat repeatedly, which uses up a great amount of energy. Take the heat out of the equation, and make a product like cold drawn steel, and you get a steel product that is just as strong if not stronger, and the energy saved can save the manufacturer quite a bit of money.

Installing a Ball Valve

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:20:00 +0000

Cutaway of a simple manual ball valve 1) Body 2) Head 3) Ball 4) Lever handle 5) Stem Italiano: Sezione di valvola a sfera :1) corpo :2) tenute o sede :3) otturatore (la sfera vera e propria) :4) leva di azionamento :5) stelo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Installing a ball valve can be a fairly difficult process, and it is something that can easily be done wrong, resulting in wasted time and money making fixes. Worst of all, installing a ball valve improperly is essentially installing a safety hazard for you and everyone around. Follow these easy steps to make sure you install your ball valves properly and safely:

Double check to make sure everything is turned off! Sounds like a no-brainer, but it you don't want a big mess to clean up.

Holding the ball valve against the pipe, make marks on the pipe with a marker so you know where the pipe needs to be cut. Make sure you don't cut off too much, as part of the pipe should sit inside the ball valve. It's always easier to cut too little instead of too much!

Put towels underneath the pipe before cutting the pipe. With your pipe cutters, slip them over the pipe, tighten and rotate them around until the pipe is cut.

Follow proper instructions for installing the particular type of ball valve you have. Once installed, make sure you test it at a low pressure.

Help push the Pickens Plan. Wind Power across the Great Plains.

noreply@blogger.com (Lucy) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far. The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.
Today's wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil... How do we get it done? The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.
Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.Pickens Plan

This post was written by Offgrid and originally appeared here