I created a hosting account with ThinkHost.com, and they were fine for the first three weeks, until I needed to use cPanel for mounting another blog if you are a tropical fish fan, try the Novice Aquarist blog.  They use a different, seemingly non-standard access panel for operating their system, and since it was not compatible with the programs I was using, I asked to be refunded for the added time after the month I was using the system, as a matter of fact, I asked for them to take two full months off and please refund the rest of the two year term I signed for.

Their response was that since it was over 14 days-two weeks, I was out of luck.  The length of time I was with them wqs 21 days!!!! - I had paid for two years!  Needless to say, I will never do business with them, and from now on I will ensure that everyone is aware that the policy they have, primarily a much shorter evaluation policy (14 days and you are locked in with no parole) and the fact that the “president” does not have the compassion or willingness to consider anything but his bottom line makes me unwilling to ever do business with them again.  To bad, because his selling line is that he uses only solar and wind generated electricity, the main reason I went with the system and wanted to support them above and beyond anyone else.  All well and good, but he has stolen the last 22 months I paid for the service because he wants to stand on his abbreviated guarantee and is obviously greedy.  Other hosting services I saw were a month or even 45 days, those would have been fine with the timing it took to determine his non-standard access was not useful for me - but I got caught.

I cancelled the account and closed my services, so now he is in effect stealing twenty two months of service, without offering anything in retuirn.  Since his service is non-standard,  I had no choice but to go with another provider who can supply all the same services, but with a much more standard admionistrative panel.  Ihope he can sleep at night.

If you are looking for hosting, try one who has some business acumen and is willing to listen to his customers.  The unsigned president of Thinkhost left a really bad taste in my mouth, and will every time I am asked what hosting company I use and or recommend. The final communication from them was:

Hi Steve,

I am the owner of ThinkHost. You entered a very clear legal contract, and we demand that you follow through with your side. We are happy to re-open your account, but you will not receive any refund. We are happy to provide a copy of the contract to the Better Business Bureau. Best of luck.

The coward didn’t even have the courtesy to sign his name!!!!!!!!!!!

But on to what has been happening, I successfully moved my sites from my original provider for many years to Thinkhost, then 21 days later off again to HostGator.  The www.income-energy-time.com website followed fine, but the blog didn’t.  I have finally gotten the blog up and running and so i am writing this initial posting.  Don’t worry, I will be getting back on topic with a new post shortly.  I will fish this with the original posts that went back and forth between myself and Thinkhost.  You decide whether I was beign reasonbable or not…….

Dear Chris Larson,

Let me recap, I requested termination of my account approximately 23 days after my initial welcome letter, October 15, 2008, starting the process on November 7, 2008.

As a small company, I budgeted and allocated funds to ensure hosting would be uninterupted during my initial growth phase. In good faith that your sytem and its accompanying applications would provide me with a hosting platform I could grow a fledgling internet marketing business upon, I allocated funds for a two year subscription.

I do not agree that 14 days is an adequate time period to determine whether the hosting service will support all the requirements of an evolving business in its first growth phase. I found the incompatibility approximately one week after the 14 day period elapsed. That is not even the length of time of your shortest subscription period, which is 1 month. In all logic you should feel confident enough in your offering to back up your service to at least the minimum of that. In addition that is a guarantee of satisfaction with a no questrins asked refund, I am not asking for that. There is nowhere in that statement that this is the only consumer protection I have available, or that once that period is over there is no recourse.

I am not asking for a full refund, never have. In previous mailings I suggest that you charge a full two month subscription rate - since my activities have spanned two calendar months - October and November - at the full monthly rate, and return the difference. I understand that I am exposed to some form of penalty. But, by deciding that the only period of time when any re-imbursement is allowed is the first two weeks of service, no matter the plan length is both arbitrary and unethical in my opinion.

The incompatibility of operating systems is fundamental, you have chosen what seems to be a non-standard access to domain administration that will not work with a program I chose as the platform for my business. The application I use works on cPanel, you offer only cCenter. As such, I have been forced to find alternate hosting. My research showed that there are plans out there that offer up to 45 days refund policy - 3 times your guarantee. Yours is the shortest I have seen.

As far as your explanation that your service is not much like a magazine subscription, that is patently bogus:

“In order to provide projected hosting for a length of two years, we must also project our future system’s needs based on account signups and the contract lengths chosen. Unlike magazines, who may alter the number of magazines created, or are able to market to one time buyers, our subscriptions require a long term allotment of resources.”

In addition to having the title of Customer Service Manager for the largest family owned pet product manufacturing corporation in the world, I have spent the last 8 years as the webmaster of a rather successful website - receiving up to 10 million hits per month alone. As extra branded websites were added to the host, that single site average has dropped to an average of 7-8 million hits per month. However those satellites have more than made up for that lost traffic in thier activity alone. The system has always been hosted in-house. The only allocation of resources required on IT’s part for additional sites was to ensure enough disk space and connection to the Apache webserver to ensure the correct availability to the internet. The site started with a few thousand hits per month and has matured in content over time. There was no need to “require a long term allotment of resources”

The size of the potential space allotted is identical between a monthly subscriber and a long term one. It is the same - unlimited. The benefits of the plan do not change between them, only the price/month. If a monthly subscriber drops, the same space is freed up as if I were to drop out. It can easily be recycled and replaced with a new subscriber coming on the system, long term or not. Delete the old directory and create a new directory and ensure the disk storage is not compromised. As long as you maintain adequate disk space, it makes no difference how long the period might be.

Unlike the costs accrued with a physical magazine, where allocations for paper and printing costs vary with the number of subscribers, and the costs per issue vary, hosting multiple accounts on a server, as they vary up and down on a monthly basis makes no significant change in the costs involved. The users are managing their account, and the electrical costs are identical to run the machine whether the system is maxed out or has a single subscriber.

So, unfortunately I must disagree with your premise that a long term subscription is treated any differently than a single moth - each has exactly the same plan variables, so each can use the same resources. If one or the other drops off, the same [potential] space is freed up. Now, possibly your statemtnet might hold a kernel of truth when dealing with a matured account that has been established over the course of many months and has a large number of domains. But that is not the case here, my account is less than a month old and used minimal disk capacity. I was associated with the account less than a month. By cancelling my account, you simply regain some space that is now available to another subscriber, no matter what term the plan.

Once again I am asking for a pro-rated return of my money, and only for the unused portion of my subscription service. Either way, I require you to terminate my account effective immediately. I do not require two hosting companies, I require one only that can provide the services I require. Either you are going to accept that your service cannot offer me the application I require to continue with my business building and return the unused portion, and we part on an amicable basis. Or you are going to refuse this request, dropping the cash directly to your corporate bottom line profit, since I will be costing you nothing in service or support. You have the money and it is up to you what your next step will be.

Should you decide to stand on your previous position: I will require that you provide, in the return response with your decision, your full mailing address and the name of the Customer Service manager to address my concerns in writing. Since, with this communication, I consider you to be directed to terminate my hosting account and all business connections with Think Host, effective immediately, I will also feel free to express my opinions and experience with your policies in any venue I see fit. This includes, but not limited to, your local Better Business Bureau, the various Internet forums, the company that recommended your service in the first place, and possibly, as an experiment, to see what a fully SEO optimized website can do to let the world know of your position in this matter.

Is your position, and the chance to make 163.90 (179.80 - (2 x 7.95)) pure profit for your bottom line at the expense of a start-up company really worth that?

I await your response.

Steve Pond

Hello,Cancellation Advice Please check the username, password and reason for cancelling fields are completed and correct before closing the account. Account Username : blueram85 Password : 0w6iLOlOj3 Name associated with account: Steve Pond Email address : spond@pubnix.net *Reason* for closing account: — I have enrolled in Wordpress Direct which automates a number of the operations required to add content to the blogs and websites. To use the program’s automation facilities, the host must use cPanel, unfortunately ThinkHost does not use that program for domain control, so I must find one that does. I do wish I could continue, but unfortunately in this case I must ask for termination of my account and refund for unused time. Best Regards, Steve Pond — If you are transferring to a new host, may we ask which one, and why? Answer: It seems the best bet for my needs is Host Gator - as mentioned above, I require cPanel for host control, and they have it available. So far I have not enrolled in any host yet._ Is there anything we can do to improve our service in the future? Answer: Your service was excellent, it is simply a feature that is lacking. Do you wish to close the account now or at the end of the month? Answer: Now Cancelation form v1.1
Roman Romanenko

Posted On: 08 Nov 2008 08:06 AM

I have also been watching a Geothermal electrical production company - Sierra Geothermal Power Corp.  I first wrote about it last February when I saw it at a financial forum at the Palais de Congress, then it was about .70 a share, I purchased a couple of thousand shares a couple of weeks before the meltdown for .22, now it is down to .12.  I think thast is way undervalued and will watch this one with longterm expectations.  I am not a day trader, and the above two stocks will do well in the future, at least in my opinion.

I still have great faith in the alternative energy sector, now we just need to back that up on a personal level, and continue dropping the use of oil and forcing its price lower.  OPEC is scared, and so are a lot of the oil producing countries. I heard on Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia needs 50.00 a barrel to keep their economy out of a deficit situation, that is fine.  But more interesting, Venezuela and Iran need at least 95.00 a barrel to make ends meet.  Let’s all do our part in letting them both feel the hurt for a long time and continue to reduce our oil consumption to a point where there are lots of viable alternatives to supporting anti-democratic regimes.  It is our responsibility to remove the war machines determination to capture oil production, let’s get free of the requiorements of oil and allow a peace economy without infection from theocratic regimes.

We can’t do that very easily quite yet.  But in the interim, I am using a product called Ethos FR - a fuel reformulator that both drops my emissions and extends my gas mileage at the same time.  I am a distributor, the track record is impeccable and the syste of product dispersion is weighted to the distributor.  It is not made of any petroleum products and improves the engine by lubricating it and cleaning out built-up deposits.  It brings the engine back to new specs, and it has been used commercially for over 7 years.

This is a blog devoted to my search for energy alternatives, but it also has a financial element.  But I am starting to veer from that exclusive path with a focus on the internet and seeing what can be done as a business model.  Alternative energy research s not being very fruitful, I have decided toi drive my time towards creating an online business to drive revenue streams to cover that research, rather than take it out of my pocket.  I have enrolled to become a CMPS - Certified Media Placement Specialist, and this one offers plenty of value for money. It isn’t confined to any one system, there are plenty of bonus additions that are very valuable to follow for a good understanding of what you need to do to become financially free enough to work full time on creating ways to use the present technology to reduce oil consumption, there is plenty of free potential out there, we need to use it to its maximum effectiveness.

If you want to try your hand at Internet marketing as well, there is a 100 Million dollar Internet Challenge being issued by Russell Brunson, that has aveery structured contest system that can win you a Corvette at the end of the contest.  I honestly don’t care about the car, but what I am seeing is an extremely well thought out system for making money on the Internet. Russell Brunson is clear and concise on what he wants done to win the car, and assuming you follow the contest steps one by one, you will end up as one of the people whose income will add up to the 100 million dollars he is expecting the contestants to generate over the course of the challenge.  Pretty heady expectations.

Hope all have a wonderful week, we will see what transpires in the next week who know where energy and yur finances will be then!!!.

I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I think you should see this and evaluate it for yourself.  It meets all the criteria I have ever defined for a viable home business, but even if that is not of interest, you can buy it and save money on a necessary part of your budget – you will save more using it than if you don’t.

This single physical product meets Warren Buffet’s criteria for purchase (that is if it were a stock)*.  It is right at the beginning of its growth cycle.  But at the same time, it has an extensive track record with Corporate America proving it performs as advertised in industrial conditions – This creates a very large competitive advantage, and barriers to competition.  This is not something cooked up in someone’s basement.

Ethos FR helps reduce the cost of driving your car in the face of rising fuel prices.  It is a bio-degradable liquid that requires no installation or modification to a vehicle, and works with any fuel – gas, diesel, bio-diesel and ethanol!  Not only does it improve your gas mileage, saving more at the pump than the cost of adding it, but it cleans and lubricates the engine AND dramatically reduces toxic emissions from the exhaust (30% or much more), automatically lessening your impact on the environment at the same time.  It is not a petroleum based solvent, so it doesn’t cause any deterioration of engine parts.  In fact, it returns the internal engine parts to very close to the cndition they were in when they left the showroom as new.

Take a look at it, buy it from me to save on your present fuel costs, or, or even better, leverage this ground floor opportunity to make a profitable business out of it.  Use it to increase your household cash flow.  You are going to need it anyway, so why not put yourself in the position to buy it wholesale and make money from it as well?  Believe me, it is cheaper to buy and use the product than if you don’t add it.

Personally, I think this is an opportunity you need to evaluate carefully from all angles.  It is so important that I would hate myself if I hadn’t at least given you the chance to see it and its potential to rock your world right from the start.

Look over the information on my website, and get back to me with any questions you may have on anything you need further details.

energywithoutoil website

Technorati Tags: , Fuel Addititive, Fuel reformulator, gas mileage

Lots has happened during that time, though most of it has little to do with saving the planet and prying the sheeple off their addiction to oil that MegaOilron has fostered like a pusher with an attitude.  In that time, Oil and gas at the pumps has hit massive highs, done irreparable damage to both the environment and the world economy.  Massive amounts of the world’s economic resources have migrated to the Middle East, denying the ability for the cash to be re-used within the economic engines of North America and civilized Europe.

Just recently, however, speculators have also taken a pretty good bath.  The fabricated price has taken them on a dizzying magic carpet ride as contract dates expired.  The bears got fleeced.  Good for them, lose as much as you like -unfortunately, at the rate the government has been systematically bailing out their Wall Street cronies, they won’t have to worry about any losses.  I am sure they will get it given back to foolishly squander it again soon enough.  The only one left holding the bag, apparently, is the individual tax payer.  We may not be able to get any of the plunder by these pirates, but government is sure damn set to ensure we pay the tab as usual  for the ones slurping at the pig trough of public cash.  The problem is thay have stepped up quite a few levels in their greed and mismanagement.

As taxpayers, we’re not seeing any breaks at all.  If you just remember a few months back, less than a year, the price of oil and especially gas at the pumps was much much less.  Right now, because of the trauma from where the prices have been recently, everyone is really ecstatic that the price of oil and gas are nowhere close to their record highs hit a couple months ago, down from $150 a barrel close to just $100 per barrel.  Now, we are happy to pay 1.30 a liter - and have been conditioned to forget the times where it was under .70, not so very long ago.  Obviously the tiome has come for a much cheaper alternative to be found.

But, do you really think that the Middle East sheiks and the multinational oil companies, MegaOilRon, and all the others feeding on the beast; raking in huge windfall profits, are ever going to let the price of oil drop back to where it is not crippling the ordinary family.  I doubt that very much.

As far as my search for alternative ways to power a city home is concerned.  During the early Spring, I priced out the cost of putting the house on a geothermal diet.  The benefits are extremely appealing, but that alternative is just too expensive for me right now.  I will make the plunge and do it, sometime soon.  It’s just that I couldn’t get the cash outlay together to

1) redo and install the ducts
2) drill the hole 450 feet deep into Mother Earth’s epidermis
3) then finally purchase the machine needed to utilize the earth’s warm heart to fight the cold Montreal winters or cool the family during the hot summer days.

It really has to be done as a complete project, nothing is useful in and by itself.

I have promised myself it will happen, I just don’t know when the cash will appear to do this.  As far as I can see, it is truly the most efficient way to take out a huge chunk of the energy requirements of any home. I am told this technology will eliminate 3 out of every 4 watts of energy I now use.  Even if it was only 60%, that would be a huge earth savings.   I must candidly admit, I like my toys - computers and other electronics do use lots of energy, so I can’t be too optimistic at overall percentage savings. And of course the father’s biggest complaint has always been that the family never shuts anything off - wasting untold watts for absolutely no useful gain!

Assuming a Geothermal solution is implemented soon, I will want to make up that last watt or two.  To do that, I fully intend to add the benefits of a solar awning to manufacture at least a part of that power during sunny days.  I don’t have the option of hydroelectric or wind generation where I live.

For those of you who don’t know what a solar awning actually is, it uses solar photovoltaic panels in an array much as they would for more standard roof configurations.  But, instead of installing them on the actual roof, a framework is designed to hold the panels out from the side of the house, just like a standard awning.  It won’t roll back into the house or anything, but it will provide a useful source of both shade and electrical generation.

Why would I want to do something like that, one might ask.  As far as I am concerned, the roof is a much better place to trap the heat of the sun with a solar thermal installation to heat the house’s hot water requirements. So the plan is really a conservation of resources.  Maybe it will have to be a stopgap before I can afford to step up to the Geothermal solution for home heating and cooling.  We needed furniture this year instead, and stuff for my son’s sports, and a new computer…and a sudden unexpected charge for a rental apartment…and…!

The dark, heat absorbing shingle backing provided by the roof makes solar thermal panels a lot more efficient at extracting the infrared spectrum from the solar power dropping from the sky during the day.  That captured heat could offer most of the hot water for daily showers, dish washing and the multitude of other requirements during the days where the sun can help actively heat the system.

The roof is not as much of an advantage for installing solar photovoltaic panels.  They work best when kept cool during opperation.  They are inhibited from peak efficiency the hotter they get.  Putting a solar panel on a roof will give it a lot of exposure to the sun, granted, but the roof underneath gradually heats as the day gets on, and that will reduce the panel’s ability to create electricity, usually right when the sun’s power is at its strongest.  There are now double sided solar panels that create electrical flow from both sides. Assuming a strong enough framework is designed to extend from the back wall of the house, and support the panels through everything the elements throw at us during the seasons of Montreal, and these panels were placed as an extension from the house, they will provide a dual advantage.  We will get a relaxing shade during the heat of the day, and the direct rays of the sun and generate even more effectively from both the top and the bottom.  Since, by design, they are suspended in space, they will not be as affected by reflected heat from any surfaces.  Properly positioned, the awning could also provide the initial protection and walls for a cabinet for the batteries needed to store the daily harvest of power.

Of course, if this works, the next logical step would be to use some of those panels specially configured to provide the perfect power to drive electrolytic chambers.  With enough power from the awning, or an additional fence canopy, the electrical cracking of water to generate hydrogen (and oxygen) to store should be quite ratonal, if not somewnhat radical.  The hydrogen would be stored under pressure for later use.  I expect it to run a generator during the dark hours and put me right off the grid permanently.  I would not want to consider an internal combustion engine for this application - both for the noise and the overall maintenance.  Give me a Stirling Engine, or better yet, the Cyclone Power Waste Heat Engine tuned to burn hydrogen - it uses no oil in it.  It is lubricated by distilled water.  It has been documented to work well with most other fuels, algae derived ethanol, bio-fuels of all types, so hydrogen can’t be that difficult.  It is the only engine I know of that is pretty close to mass producton using an external combustion patented technology.  Ticker Symbol - CYPW.

I promise, I won’t keep you waiting anywhere as long for the next entry.  I plan to document my trials with Hydrogen (actually Brown’s Gas) generators in my test car looking for documented gas mileage increases.

www.kitco.com

They even have accounts where you can hold physical gold in their vaults for investment and savings purposes. Being from right around the area, this is a wonderful resource for putting away the pennies for a brighter future.

Another very interesting find was a Geothermal play on the TSX Venture board, SRA - Sierra Geothermal Power Corp. I listened to the presentation by the President and CEO, Gary R. Thompson, they seem to be quite well versed in the Geothermal Geology and have situated themselves in the highly active Nevada region. They are drilling very deep through the mantle of the earth to use the Geothermal potential to create electricity for California where the demand is huge and growing. They have two proven wells dug, but are still in the pre-production phase, so if it goes, the potential is huge. The problem is that it is still early exploratory with nothing scheduled to go on-line until 2009, and of course as with anything else, one has to expect unforeseen delays.

Since it is pretty much exploratory, it can disappear just as easily off the face of the earth. But as a focus on energy without oil, this is a pretty pure play that will eliminate coal fired electrical plants in a very green way. For that very concept, I will consider putting some patient money down and see what happens in the next five years. You can bet I will track it as a something to watch in my watchlists, even if it isn’t on anyone else’s radar for a while.

The final interesting possibility is a gold play on the TSX Venture coming out of Australia - Queensland Minerals Ltd - CA.QML. I don’t claim to be a good investor, and purchase things on gut feelings most of the time. I loved Australia, and this was just a great way to reminisce about the two visits I have had there, and the wonderful things they have.

But the most important things I heard over the series of seminars was from a banker from Belize who made a fewe comments that seem important for Nort American’s to hear. He said that the US dollar is strict fiat money, there is nothing backing it but the good will of the US, and since that country is now the largest debtor country (thanks in the greatest part to Bush and Cheney and a;ll their oil pig cronies), we are pretty much watching the demise of a superpower. Robert Kiyasaki and most of the Rich Dad-Poor Dad people I have seen in the past few years backed that up. They, as well as Warren Buffet are all heavily into gold and silver as a play at protecting the integrity of their investment power. ForRich Dad’s predictions for 2008, go to the site for the predictions by his advisors.

The banker made a much more illuminating comment though, he said move your money to Euros, the Euro is backed about 17% by gold right now, so it is firmly on a gold standard and he mentioned that by 2010, the Euro will be backed by about 25%. In 2007, the Euro gained 27% against the dollar, and I am willing to bet that it will not do too shabby against the dollar again this year.

Time to get pretty defensive if you are forced to deal with the US dollar as your currency. Even the lowly Canadian Looney has risen dramatically against it. Better buy gold while you are able to, before the government decides that it made a miustake by allowing US citizens to own gold. You are going to need it to barter with when the greenback is worth a wheel barrow full for a loaf of bread. When they do repeal the right to own gold form the citizens, I bet they forget to return the dollar to a gold backed currency, until they do that, the world is in for a seriouly bumpy ride.

Once you purchase the system, you can access the two main books plus a whole lot of additional maerias. The books are kept current on the website as constantly updated .pdf e-books for easy, immediate access without special programs - all you use is your browser - preferable as far as the system authors are concerned Firefox 2.0 or above.

They are also available for download to keep the information alive and circulating no matter what MegaOilRon or the various financial institutions do to suppress the information from the general public. If you decide to buy the system, download the .pdfs to ensure you always have the valuable content and keep it alive. The Oil Companies would much prefer us left in the dark and force everyone to go begging for their energy resources, tightly managed and totally controlled by MegaOilRon, on their financial knees. They would have their plans for world domination seriously impaired if (but I expect when) a new source of energy becomes available through technological advances. This new turn in technology would probably ignore the need for Internal Combustion Engines to be their inefficient refuse burners of the garbage leftovers of Oil cracking towers.

I know, you don’t believe me, but take a look at the following You Tube video links that are suggested on page 14 of the Water4Gas Driver’s Manual. I found the discussion by Lindsey Williams, the author of Energy Non Crisis to be extremely distrurbing, not so much that the Goverment is powerless to shipo oil in its country to the people who will use it, without the interference and profit by the Middle East, but because it clealry accuses the big oil companies of collusion to control the world and bring it to its knees for their profit and ultimate power.

WATCH THIS 8-VIDEO SERIES BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbakN7SLdbk
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGjbDjnNzw
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q39ic04vhNo
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCyCYz_aHY
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TYmSGwAumk
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbwMOvV6ctg
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5HGHsy3H_0
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC61X78-OI0

This seminar is about a book written in 1980 and revised in 1985 by the author who is “naming names and pointing fingers” why we are so much in debt to the Middle East when we have plenty of oil already discovered and proven on North American soil to satisfy the enormous demands we have for it.

DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND, I am not advocating the sudden reversal to using oil however we want, and making the SUV and HUMMER the only type of car around. Far from it. I am firmly of the belief we need to reduce oil to a minimum or better yet eliminate it altogether as an energy source. We need it to keep us in plastics and other materials, but it should all be used for those purposes, not simply burned for our transportation and heating requirements. As far as transportation is concerned, I am still fervently of the opinion we should find our Energy with-out Oil

Back to the core if this entry, the Green seminars at Hudson’s Civic Centre. Those topics included about 7 presentations of 15 minutes each on various aspects of the greening of Canada, and how it is proceeding. What was amazing is that the moderator kept everyone to their schedule and it went quite close to the printed times of the talks. Not an easy feat for any gathering, but they did it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the Canadian Government is giving grants for people who push their houses toward more green energy usage. That was one of the talks, who to call to get an energy audit and a list of things that can be done in the home to make it more energy efficient, and then when you do them, the government and Hydro Quebec have a set schedule of repayment for the work, and how much each task is worth in grants.

There were a number of other interesting things included in the topics, Montreal’s entry to a zero net energy house that will product all its energy needs over the course of a year. There will be times when excesses in energy production are put into the grid, and other times where those excesses are retrieved back. But, overall, the home is designed to use no net energy over a twelve month period.

At the time I was also very interested in the use of a wood burning stove to heat the house. I had visited Woodstock stoves in Lebanon, New Hampshire at their factory to evaluate them for my house….and to put it simply, if I decide to go with a woodburning stove in the future, it will be one of theirs with a nice soapstone exterior, the stoves are great to look at, and of extremely high quality. Plus, being from New England in the the first place, the design and old style look is extremely appealing. One of the talks was about eco-logs, artificial wood logs that are sold to use for heating. They have lots of advantages as they are much dryer, use waste hardwood sawdust and ship and pack much more efficiently in storage. If I was to move to a woodburning unit, those would be the wood source I would use for sure. It was almost enough to get me to get the hearth on our fireplace re-done so I can burn off the wood that I have left over since the Ice Storm in ‘98.

But above and beyond everything else, the most interesting topc was the one on the use of Geothermal heating in the home. That is the topic that I have actually taken action on, already haviong two visits from the rep to determine the cost and usefulness of implementing Geothermal heating in my home. The prmise is that I will save two to three watts for every watt I use. If that is true, then I would be much closer to being able to produce the rest of the electricity I use by solar power much easier. In addition to the system being able top provide home heating and cooling, it will also mainly supplement the water heating for home use as well. Of course the roof can be dedicated to solar thermal heating to ensure the rest of the needed heat for showers and dishes is provided in non-polluting ways, so the area of heat is pretty much covered by that. All that would be needed is to add a solar panel awning to provide the electricity and the home is well on the way to energy self-sufficiency.

Follow this blog for further developments in the way of Geothermal implementation on the residential level. Right now it is really hard to wander around the yard to determine actual figures, this has been the heaviest snowfall year in Montreal since I have been here, better than 20 years, so I can’t have true estimates done until the six feet or so of the snow covering the yard slowly melts away. The well will have to be 450 deep to give the proper amount of heat, and that can’t be done unless the earth is fully dry, or frozen, but with so much snow, no truck is going to get in, so it will have to be considered in the late spring instead.

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

I love it, and plan to seriously incorporate it into a number of areas, since the system is so much more than a Brown’s gas generator. But then, why don’t you be the judge here and read for yourself all about the Water4Gas concept and system.

Water4Gas fuel saving system and program

As far as I can see, the system will work with any fuel running through the engine, I expect it won’t be affected by ethanol instead of gas, but you do need an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to allow it to do its job.

Stay tuned for future reviews on the system itself, as I am presently in the process of getting the parts together to build one myself. If all goes as expected, though, I will be making more for sale in Canada.

It would seem that the fact that ethanol is starting to take root is getting lots of bad press. Warnings of skyrocketing food prices, dire consequences to the water supply and so many other terrible things that ethanol can cause. It seems to me that the press is [conveniently] forgetting the real demon in this, probably because they are willing to listen to all the spin the Oil companies want to offer and print it as gospel fact. After all, MegaOilRon is paying so much more for advertising than the upstart, but scary competitor for energy dollars, ethanol.

In my [not so] humble opinion, the oil companies are more to blame for the sudden rise in prices than the growers of renewable energy feedstock. The farmers need to run their vehicles to sow and harvest, that is a much greater contributing factor than the sudden popularity of ethanol producing plants. A barrel of oil is rising in price much more dramatically in price than any farm commodity, and that is causing the most pressure ans well as sudden demand as people begin to realize the importance of weaning from the Saudi prices and their straglehold on the American throat.

Most corn is used, not for human food, but fodder to grow cattle, and even lots of the exported corn is used to fatten cattle for rich princes, not to feed their starving surfs, as far as they are concerned it is more important to have fat princes than minimally fed children. The world does not have aenough food for the people init, but not because of ethanol, it is because of greed and the rich controlling the supply. So even should corn rise, it is not taking much out of the mouths of babes.

The fact that ethanol only really removes the solar power in the form of sugar from the corn (As noted by author David Blume in his book - Alcohol can be a Gas) is also often forgotten. There is little waste to contend with since the dried distilled grains are much better food for cattle than raw corn…and they can often be used in other foods as well. Ethanol does not shrink the food supply, it improves it while at the same time adding to the available transport energy of North America.

Water is the next great problem for the Oil company pundits who want to belittle ethanol as a fuel in any way they can. The water used for production of ethanol is not ruined or made toxic with strange chemicals, rather the water is used to create the mash for the yeast to feed upon and then be the carrying medium to bring it to temperature to distill the alcohol from it. Then the remaining wort needs to be dried and the water can pressed out and in most cases be pretty much retrieved, or allowed to evaporate to the air….water vapor is not toxic at all. Oil on the other hand often pumps huge quantities of irretrievable water and steam into the earth to create pressure to pump the dwindling oil in a well to the surface, the water is left in the ground, contaminated and toxic, and often would be unusable if pulled out anyway. I don’t even want to think of the destroyed gallonage of pure water for processing the tar sands and the possible damage to the water table from that. So yes, ethanol production uses water, but it is not rendered toxic like it is with oil production.

Let’s always keep it in mind, where are these foolish comments originating - Oil company dupes and their long practiced spin tactics. m Give meEnergy with-out Oil, and pay a little more in food prices,but pay so much less for the recovery we will have to pay for the damage from oil and its use in the long run. Belive me, renewable food, used without waste is so much more economically feasible and desirable.

One last thing,

Technorati Tags: Ethanol, MegaOilRon

There are quite a few additions and changes that I am sure will occur as the next year comes and goes.  I intend to document the changes that I make to the house here in Montreal as it becomes more energy self-sufficient and leaves the requirements for fossil fuels behind.  Hopefully thatdocumentation will help others become free and clear of MegaOilRon in their lives as well.

As the finances allow, changes will be made in the heating and electrical generation in the house, although in Quebec, where most of the electricity is green to start with, it is not the most economical choice.  Simply reducing the amount of energy I input from Hydro-Quebec right now is the primary challenge.  This might fall under energy conservation rather than strict alternative energy for most.  But my focus has always been on converting the sun’s power into usable energy for the individual, something that is obviously a mega-trend if you read the headlines for any length of time.  So I will be concentrating on projects and products that transform the freely available energy pounding us every day from Sol into useful heat and power, without the need for external corporate production and the environmental destruction that is often the by-product of for-profit companies looking only at the bottom line.

My New Year’s resolution is to find ways to lower the overall requirement for energy from all external sources - making my own from freely available sources.  Rather than than simply move from one form to another, relying as much as possible on the free energy from the sun to deal with the major expenses of power in a standard home - heat and light.

I will be most seriously looking at reducing the heating bill - it is an all-electric heated house - Solar Space Heating looks like a viable economical option, even with cheap Quebec electricity.  The second major expense is the water heating costs - the roof should be able to support panels that can help greatly in this area.

I really do like the benefits of a solar awning on the south side of the house, to add power of course, but it should also help keep the home cooler in the hottest part of the summer, which does seem to get hotter with global warming, every year.  The awning will be independent of the house, jutting out from it, eliminating the requirement for a roof mount and the challenges presented there.  The other major advantage I see with an awning configuration rather than roof mount, is that the solar panels can be double sided (a relatively new and rare product) and will run more optimally as they will not get as hot with trapped heat rising from the roof, let the solar water heater monopolize and utilize the roof and its added heating potential instead.  Dual sided photovoltaic panels also increase their efficincy by turing reflected light into power as well.  Water heating works better the more heat is generated and transferred, so the roof and its dark surface are much better suited for this type of energy capture.
If possible, and there is any extra money after those projects, then adding strategically placed skylights and extra natural illumination is a priority, as long as it is energy efficient and doesn’t add hidden costs in heat loss.  I do love the little solar powered light I use to read at night by, and hope I can find other lamps that will work as well to reduce the use of electricity from the grid….each watt helps.
That experience should help me when I try to get completely off the grid in a rural setting where I hope to produce ethanol as a fuel for the various vehicles that I use.  And you don’t have to worry about the feedstock, I have no intention of trying to use a standard food stock for manufacturing ethanol from a plant source.  What I have in mind should not cause any damage to the environment or take food from the mouths of starving children of Africa.  It will improve the standard crops and fields, though as the final by-product after I am done with it will be used as natural fertilizer to improve the soil and increase yeild naturally.

We can solve the fuel crisis without resorting to war or reducing the food supply of the world to make “gas”.  We can live in the power level to which we have become accustomed without sacrificing lives or denying others the same chances - by showing the way, we can help others around the world break the energy shackles as well.

It can all be done symbiotically with proper planning and the permaculture attitude that there is no waste in the energy chain, only opportunities for alternate products.  Of course I am convinced that has to come from the individual, since the mega-corporate structures prefer to ensure that there are always imbalances to offer opportunities for war and the profits that can be made from them.

Taking the challenge as an individual to be responsible for your own energy production and use is the basic idea of this blog.  By providing your own energy, you become free to think and act for the good of mankind, not stay a cog like all the other sheeple listening to the myths and spins from big government and big business alike.

May you all have a Healthy and Happy New Year.  Let us all hope that in the coming one, each of us will demonstrably and dramatically reduce our reliance on externally produced power - with the firm goal in mind - Energy with-out Oil