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The Go Pointer’s Guide to Unforced Errors
By Michael Useem
Author of The Go Point
All in all, our decision-making equipment is pretty sound. We don’t follow the lead lemming over a cliff. We can’t be fooled into thinking that a 99-cent lure is a meal. We don’t try to catch car fenders with our teeth. Then again, it wasn’t a dog who launched New Coke. So there are a few bugs little design flaws of the mind that can have big consequences.
People are clinically overoptimistic, for instance, assigning zero probability to events that are merely unlikely (such as a massive iceberg in the path of a really big ship). We see “patterns” in the random movements of stocks the way our ancestors saw bears and hunters in the scatterplot of the night sky. We make choices that justify our past choices and then look for data to support them. Not only do we make these errors; we make them reliably.
That’s the good news. Predictable errors are preventable errors. And a few simple techniques, like those below, can help you steer clear of the most common wrong turns. They can get you to your go point, that decisive moment when the essential information has been gathered, the pros and cons weighed, and the time has come to get off the fence.
Problem: Authority Is Not Bestowed
Tool: Pursue Responsibility
For some, responsibility is simply bestowed: a princess is handed the kingdom upon the passing of the monarch; a favorite son inherits the family business. For most, however, the authority to make decisions must be actively sought.
Born in the Bronx of an interracial marriage, Jaime Irick thrived from his earliest days by tackling new challenges. In high school, he jumped into sports; at college, he took on social service projects. After graduation, Irick joined the military, qualified as an airborne Ranger, and found himself promoted up the officer ranks. Back in civilian life, he repeatedly asked for larger and stretch assignments. “I’ve never been fully qualified on paper for a job that I’ve had,” he told me, yet he so readily embraced his duties that ever more responsibility came naturally his way. With a new MBA degree in hand, Irick brashly contacted GE’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, with a simple message: “I always wanted to run something.” The personal appeal to the CEO worked. Today, as director of sales in General Electric’s Homeland Protection division, Jaime Irick plays a significant role in one of Immelt’s growth businesses.
Madhabi Puri Buch did much the same at ICICI, one of India’s premier banks, which she joined in 1997. With little experience in fairly specialized fields, she tackled a succession of responsibilities, ranging from Internet trading to mortgage financing. Finally, she asked chief executive K. V. Kamath to give her a crack at running the “boiler room” of the bank, the back office that handles the enormous volume of paper, telephone, and electronic data that surges through the bank every day. “In the past,” she explained, “I had been given assignments where I had no experience. Yet they worked well!” Now she upped the stakes by taking on one of the bank’s least glamorous but most critical operations. Her friends thought she had been “sidelined.” Instead, Buch mastered the essence of still another banking function by taking responsibility for deciding how to remake it.
Problem: Unfamiliar Responsibilities
Tool: Appraise the Past
In embracing new responsibilities, past decisions can serve as a natural curriculum for avoiding future mistakes.
Liu Chuanzhi was working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1984 when his country commenced its momentous liberalization. Inspired, Liu formed what would become Legend Group, at first distributing a few foreign personal computers and eventually morphing into China’s largest PC producer. In 2005, rechristened as Lenovo, the company acquired IBM’s personal computer line, making it the number three PC producer globally. As a young man, Liu had wanted to become a fighter pilot with the People’s LibÂeration Army. Instead, he became one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
When Liu left the state-Âsponsored research laboratory in 1984, he knew nothing about how to build an enterprise, so he set about learning to do so by studying his own go points in minute detail. At the end of every week, Liu and his top aides met to review major decisions of the past five days. Many errors were committed, he told me, but the weekly debrief helped “to ensure that we don’t make [the same] mistakes in the future.” Thanks to the reviews and lessons drawn from them, Lenovo was able to weather China’s economic gyrations while others faltered. By routinely looking back on his decision processes, Liu Chuanzhi constructed his own decision template for going forward.
The after-action review can be monthly, quarterly, yearly, or even daily, depending on the decision-making tempo. In July 2004, I watched a wildland fire crew in action against a raging blaze in Yosemite National Park. Every afternoon without fail, the incident commander, operations director, planning chief, and a dozen responsible firefighters gathered to review the present day’s decisions and decide on the next day’s actions. At the end of each of the fact-drenched, disciplined reviews, one of the participants would pose four questions: What had been planned for the day? What actually happened during the day? Why did that happen? And what should be done next time? RoundÂrobin style, each crew member addressed each of the topics. Only in that way could firefighters stay on top of a situation that changed constantly with the fire’s everÂchanging momentum. The principle: study the past, even if it is only yesterday, and heed its continuing lessons.
Problem: Inexperienced Gut
Tool: Educate Your Instincts
“Go with your gut.” “Follow your intuition.” “Trust your feelings.” The sayings are commonplace, but do our instincts make good decisions? In fact, blind instinct cannot be trusted, but it can be educated. The main purpose of flight simulators, for example, is to allow pilots to experience unlikely surprises so many times that, should one actually occur, their response will be reflexive. “Train like you fly and fly like you train” is how they put it at NASA’s astronaut training program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Consistent with that dictum, astronauts undergo an exhaustive curriculum that includes some five hundred simulated landings of the shuttle before flying it. No wonder so many of the space travelers are apt to say upon returning to Earth, “When something went wrong, I went into my training mode.”
Practice does not always make perfect, but it certainly helps. When he was named Episcopal bishop for the diocese of Pennsylvania in 1998, Charles E. Bennison drew on the three decades of experience since his ordination to tackle a succession of touchy issues. Despite widespread opposition from priests and laity, he pushed through plans to hire a fullÂtime fundÂraiser to shore up finances for the 162Âparish diocese. Later, again knowing he would encounter protests, he suspended a church rector who opposed the ordination of women and gays. “Day by day I don’t have too much doubt because I trust my intuitions,” he said. “I may be making big mistakes, but I feel fairly confident on an incremental daily basis that I am in touch and that I am making the right decisions.” That doesn’t mean Bennison jumps to the go point. Far from it. “I’ll stew and waver and listen and take in data and talk to all kinds of people before I feel comfortable with something,” he said. But it does mean, that in getting to go, he consults a wellÂeducated gut.
“If you get educated about something and then you live that, the line blurs between what your instincts used to be and what they are now,” General Peter Pace explains. “Your mind touches on resources it’s not even conscious of touching on.” In the words of Blink author Malcolm Gladwell, that is the “power of thinking without thinking.”
Problem: Analysis Paralysis
Tool: The 70 Percent Solution
Only professors and journalists get paid to say, “On the one hand….” When the rest of us continue to mine and massage the data in pursuit of perfect knowledge and thus perfect certainty we are edging toward that clinical condition of decidophobia, fear of facing a go point.
The Marine Corps battles this syndrome with the “70 percent solution.” If you have 70 percent of the information, have done 70 percent of the analysis, and feel 70 percent confident, then move. The logic is simple: a less than ideal action, swiftly executed, stands a chance of success, whereas no action stands no chance. The worst decision is no decision at all.
Analyze, but not overanalyze: that is the message Hewlett-Packard executive vice president Ann Livermore sends to HP’s Technology Solutions Group, a $30-billion-plus business that en-compasses enterprise storage and systems, software and services, and employs 95,000 IT professionals. She places a primacy on “fast enough” decision making based on sufficient information, not perfect data. GE teaches the same at its retreats. By requiring ranking managers to vote up or down, individually and publicly, on a variety of proposed changes, GE avoids the endless analysis that compromises decision tempo.
Drawing upon his own tumultuous experience as president of Pakistan since 1999, Pervez Musharraf says that while a leader must hear opposing views and engage people in the deliberations, he or she “must never suffer from paralysis.” Moreover, in reaching a decision, rarely are all the data available to be sure of its outcome. “Decisions are twoÂthirds facts and figures,” Musharraf contends, and “one-third a leap in the dark where you don’t have all the facts.” If you increase the short side of the equation, you’re too impulsive, but if you increase the other side, you’re not a leader.
Problem: Mistakes Happen
Tool: Tolerate Them Once
Short of perfect information and analysis, mistakes are sure to happen. The secret, says Peter Pace, is: “Don’t beat yourself up. If you’re not making mistakes, I don’t need you in my organization,” which in his case includes some 2.4 million uniformed troops. “I want you doing 90 percent right in a big universe rather than 100 percent right in a small universe.”
Charles Elachi directs the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s contract agency for unmanned space missions, including the 2004 Spirit and Opportunity Mars landings that found evidence of water between layers of volcanic rock. Given the technical complexity of space flight, Elachi insists that every significant pre-mission decision at JPL receive intense peer appraisal and even outsider review. To ensure disciplined decision making during a mission, he also insists on resilience. “We operate under very heavy pressure,” he says. “Many critical things are riding on our decisions. You have to have nerves of steel. Everyone involved in the project has to keep calm and composed so that we can think clearly about what is happening. Anyone who panics under pressure is just in the wrong business.” To instill those steel-like nerves among his 5,500 employees, Elachi requires less experienced workers to witness JPL veterans making decisions.
Predictably, though, some of JPL’s decisions do go wrong. A mission to Mars in 1998 ended in such a high-Âprofile, costly failure that the mission’s top two managers were ready to resign. Elachi would not let them. “Normally, when a project fails, people look around for someone to blame,” he says, “but if you hang the person who made the mistake, you’ve also lost a lot of experience.” Instead, Elachi told the two managers, “We have spent $400 million training you. You have to learn from those mistakes, and I’m sure you will not repeat them.” Six years later one of the managers was serving as a mission director and the other as a deputy manager for the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity trips to Mars.
Problem: Rush to Judgment
Tool: Preserve Optionality
Many decisions come with looming deadlines: the battle is lost, the market opportunity gone if you do not act in timely fashion. Even without a deadline it can still be tempting to get the hard business of choice making over with. The more one can tamp down the uncertainties and let the pieces fall in place before deciding, however, the more likely one will reach the right go point.
As U.S. treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999, Robert Rubin faced a string of momentous decisions ranging from the bailout of the Mexican peso to China’s application to join the World Trade Organization. Time and again, Rubin elected to keep his “choices open for as long as possible,” a proclivity that his thenÂdeputy Lawrence Summers calls “preserving optionality.”
As CEO of Scottish Power, an energy producer with major operations in the United States and United Kingdom including extensive wind farms, Ian Russell makes investment decisions entailing hundreds of millions of dollars at a shot. One of his new power plants alone can guzzle $350 million; wind farms have consumed $3 billion. With so much riding on each go point, a rush to judgment on any one decision could result in a strategic error from which recovery would be extremely costly.
Not surprisingly, Russell takes his time in making such choices. “Let’s be careful,” he warns, and to that end he works to ensure that his team understands the decision options, appreciates their upsides and downsides, and knows what might go wrong with each so that the company does not look “foolish in a year’s time.” For decisions of such scope, Russell counsels waiting three, six, or even twelve months to diminish complexity and reduce uncertainty as much as possible before pulling the trigger.
Reprinted from THE GO POINT: When It’s Time to Decide. Copyright © 2006 by Michael Useem. Published by Crown Business, a division of Random House, Inc.
Michael Useem, the author of The Go Point and The Leadership Moment, is the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, as well as the director of its Center for Leadership and Change Management. Professor Useem takes his students to the ends of the world — the Antarctic, the Andes, and the Himalayas — to learn about their personal and professional go points. Visit www.thegopoint.com for more info.
The ancient art of Feng Shui can bring you success in a number of forms including better relationships, health, creativity and generally more success in work and your personal life.
It’s easy to do so lets look at Feng Shui in more detail.
Pronounced different ways depending on the dialect feng shui (fong shway, foong swee, etc) is the very ancient Chinese proto-science of space management.
It comprises the arranging of buildings, interiors of buildings, and spaces between and in between in order to harmonize the environment with the perfect order of the universe. Feng Shui roughly means â??the way of the water and windâ?
How Old is Feng Shui?
Actually, there is no evidence of an origin, or even of a certain place.
Ancient Chinese villages from over 6,000 years ago show graves being laid out in classical feng shui style.
However, in ancient Europe, there are many of the same evidence, and it appears that our ancestors were pre-occupied with this harmonization with the universe. The monolithic stones at Stonehenge are a good example.
The pyramids also are arranged in perfect feng shui. The science may not have been Chinese originally, but has since been taken as a native Chinese art and science.
What Is Good and Bad Feng Shui?
Good feng shui is meant to bring one success, good health, successful relationships, manners, creative talent, and aid meditation.
Bad feng shui block all of these and seem to produce their opposites.
How Feng Shui Is Supposed to Work
The ancient seers and sages were observers of the world and the universe.
They knew that as everything that exists contains chi or qi (life force), and this life force is made up of two opposites, ying and yang.
Yin is the feminine or reception form of the qi, and yang is the masculine or creative and active form.
They understood that yin and yang cannot exist without one another. Furthermore, the sages divided the qi into eight qualities, namely the Lake, the Mountain, Fire, Water, Heaven, Wind and Earth.
The sages devised a system of understanding the energy patters from these elements, and with the proper arrangement, a person who resided or moved within a harmonized environment, gained the good feng shui as well.
This arrangement is called ba gua (Sequence of the Later Heaven), and it is superimposed on each house or interior the feng shui master wishes to evaluate and correct.
Certain qualities are found in each of the eight elements, such as health, creativity, even luck. The feng shui master makes the space arrangement not only in harmony with the universe and qi, but also, your personal situation and circumstance.
Some Practical Examples of Employing Feng Shui
1. Mirrors in oneâ??s home should not face your bed or even chairs
2. The front door or any home or apartment must not be too big or too large. Either of these will keep the qi from flowing properly.
3. Your home should not be near the end of a bridge, a church, or even a highway. All of these will have too fast qi or not enough.
4. Understanding that qi enters one home from the doors, you must have doors facing each other, as that lets the qi move too quickly out of the room (apartment, home). Rather have doors on adjoining walls.
5. When decorating your home, never put a sofa or chair with their backs to a door or window.
6. Windows must have a good and pleasant view, if not, window â??dressâ? it with flowers or some other ornaments.
7. When buying land to build a house on, but sure the lot is rectangular, preferably on a hill and having open spaces between the house and the end of the lot.
This is only a brief introduction to to the art of Feng Shui discover more and change your life today.
When building a new home, adding on an extension or even just a simple remodel within your home, you should always consider your local environment to maximize the efficiency of every aspect of your project.
There are four main areas that need to be focused on when planning your building project. They include:
- water
- energy
- building materials
Each of these areas contain specific products and methods that can really benefit your home lifestyle and increase the capital on your house to.
The first area to cover is water, which may or may not be relevant to your project. However, where ever there is plumbing or an outside wall where gutters can be fixed the optimal water conservation methods should be utilized where possible. There are many interior products that can really help to reduce water wastage and improve efficiency which include:
- water saving taps
- water efficient showerheads
- composting toilets
- water diverters (diverters which hold the water while the hot water reaches your tap to save wasting all that water whilst waiting for the hot water to arrive)
Furthermore, by installing a Greywater system you can use all the water that usually runs down your drain, on your garden or lawn.
For the exterior, high quality gutters and water storage devices such as water tanks are ideal for harvesting hundreds of litres of water that can be used for a variety of applications.
A strong water budget mixed with an overall highly efficient water system can save you heaps of money on water bills and reduce the impact on your local catchment system.
The second part of this article focuses on energy. Most people immediately think solar and then think â??I canâ??t afford it!â? but there is much more that can be done to improve the efficiency of the energy usage in your home.
If you are doing large scale renovations, the position of your home / room in regards to sun direction is vitally important. A north-south facing house is much more energy efficient in terms of temperature control as the sun has less direct focus on the rooms.
Many different products exist to generate energy or improve the energy usage and overall efficiency of your home. Some of these include:
- a solar panel system, either stand alone, grid connect or hybrid with wind turbines to generate electricity
- high quality insulation, including batts and foil boards
- solar hot water systems
- ventilation and extraction fans
- energy efficient appliances and white goods
- lighting, including CFLâ??s (compact fluorescent lamp)
- hydronic heating
- air conditioners with inverter technology
All of these products will either generate free electricity, use much less energy than other products on the market, or control the temperature of your home to save on running costs to maintain comfort.
Building materials is another important consideration when starting your project. Many materials have good qualities, while others can contain harmful chemicals which can be dangerous for your health. Knowing all these risks is almost impossible, but there are certain things to look for when making these decisions.
- Use as much untreated materials as possible. Most treated materials use very harsh chemicals which contain volatile organic compounds (VOCâ??s) and formaldehyde. Over time, these compounds break down and become part of your indoor breathing space.
- These VOCâ??s can also be found in conventional paints and finishes. Always ask your supplier for brands which use little or no VOCâ??s in their products.
- Concrete that contains high levels of flyash are much better for the environment and lower the use of the toxic concrete powder in construction
- Conventional termite control utilizes the harshest of all chemicals and can be extremely carcinogenic. However, there are many new products that can remove termite problems without the use of harmful chemicals. Always ask your provider about their environmental policy and research the chemical they use
- Many insulation companies still use the resin based fiberglass insulation which contains high levels of formaldehyde and are damaging to your health. Look for insulation that is glass wool or made from cellulose fibre is your best bet for your families health and the environments.
- Double glazed windows and the utilization of roller shutters and blinds is the best way to reduce heat build up within your home.
- Strawbale and compressed earth homes are becoming more and more popular due to their constant interior comfort levels, and no they donâ??t look like â??mud hutsâ?, in fact, they are fast becoming a distinguished and stylish home design
- Finally, cabinets and draws often use the cheap particle board over the solid wood varieties to save money. However, the particle board contains formaldehyde to bind the particles together.
Building and home improvement can be very satisfying when the job is complete. However, it becomes even better if taking into consideration these factors mentioned above to make your home comfortable all year round for you and your family.
This time of year that this article is being written is winter. That means all we can think about around here is some are and how we can make the best of summer. For some of us, this means coming up with a plan on how to build outdoor kitchen. There is nothing more we like around here at this time of the year at the dreaming about eating outside and enjoying the outdoors without freezing ourselves. If you are like us in our thinking about how to build an outdoor kitchen I want to share some of our experience at what we’ve gone through so far in designing our outdoor kitchen.
First you need to understand that as with any big project no matter how much thought and energy you put into designing it there will always be something that comes up to make it a little more expensive and take a little more time. One of the first things you need to consider is how many months out of the year you want to use your outdoor kitchen. If you live in an area that does have the four seasons you will want to decide how much weatherproofing you want to do. If you live in a very cold area and only want to use your outdoor kitchen for a couple of months out of the year or maybe four or five months, then it will cost you less money to build. You may also want to consider building an outdoor kitchen that can be weatherproofed later on so that you can use it more time out of the year.
My goal is that you will be able to plan for everything and have enough money in your budget to do what you want to do. The first thing you need to think of is where you’re going to put your outdoor kitchen. You want to build the kitchen out of the wind. It is also important that you don’t have any part of your home overhanging the cooking area. For that matter, make sure you don’t have any plans or any decorations hanging above the cooking area. The heat from the cooking area will ruin plants. You don’t want anything hanging over the area because you do not want to have a fire hazard.
Another important thing to consider when deciding where to place your kitchen is how close you want to have it to your house. You want to have a close enough so that you are not running around like a crazy person trying to bring things from the inside to your outdoor kitchen. Of course how much running around you will have to do also depends on what type of appliances you decide to have it your outdoor kitchen. For example if you decide to install a refrigerator that can cut down on a lot of your running back a forth.
Another thing you want to consider is how much you want your outdoor kitchen to resemble your indoor kitchen. I don’t mean the design of it as far as colors etc. what I mean is do you want to have a sink? Do you want to have electricity? All these things are fine to have, but they will add cost to the final project. This is because electrical wire will need to be brought in for electricity and plumbing will need to be run for the sink. If your budget can handle it I suggest you do this because it will make it easier to use or outdoor kitchen and therefore you will enjoy it more.
The last thing I would want you to consider is what type of equipment you want to have in your outdoor kitchen you wanted to be tough because it will have to survive some of the elements. So make sure you don’t go for the cheapest thing because you do want it to last long without having to replace it.
All in all just have fun designing your kitchen stick to your budget and you will enjoy the fruits of your labor and research as you’re sitting outside with a nice juicy steak in your own backyard.
In a recent interview on British TV, Chancellor Gordon Brown called on households to do more to cut greenhouse gases, in effect, by making homes better insulated and more fuel-efficient. The climate change bill ambitiously seeks to cut emissions by 60% by the year 2050. Is this viable in today’s “me” society? Or over time will we slowly turn into a “them” society? Is this compatible with capitalism? And just how easy is it to turn an existing house into a green one? Guy Alexander Bell, editor of the online magazine “Never Paint Again” suggests some things we could to make our home, and our lifestyle within it, more greenâ?¦
With more “green” legislation coming into building design and construction, more and more houses and commercial buildings are being built with “green” credentials. Things such as solar panels, better insulation, timber from sustainable sources, are just a few of the latest trends in building, but what about existing and older buildings? In this article we look at various steps that the average person can take in order to make their older house a bit more environmentally friendly for future generations.
How can a hundred year old house be green, or made to be green?
Putting aside the notion of actually painting it green (Doh!) and embracing the literal sense, what can be done for old houses? If we consider VERY old house, dating back to maybe 1600, it could be argued that these houses were far more green than modern ones, or even ones built over the past 100 years, but why is that?
When a house was built 400 years ago, it was built with whatever was around (in the literal sense) at the time. So if it was being built near a quarry, it would be made of local stone. If there were reed beds or hay etc nearby, it would have a thatched roof, making use of crops that would have otherwise been burnt or thrown away. If it was near the sea, many of the timbers would be recycled from old ships or boats, and in fact many buildings in established seaside locations in and around the British isles have some surprises in their lofts when you look! Many an old ships mast was made into a staircase, and timbers were used in the roof and for lintels above doors and windows. The global transport infrastructure did not exist then. Goods were sourced locally, or at least brought by sea, river or canal, from somewhere fairly nearby.
When undertaking home improvements on a more modern house, it difficult in todays world to keep your green credentials. For example, what about all the car journeys to go and fetch the new items from the DIY shop? What about the builders turning up in their old van? For a month. (plus in some cases, the amount of methane builders’ emit! Cups of tea are very important to a builder, but not too many, and make sure no egg sandwiches and baked beans are served!)
What about the fact that the items (paint, tools, whatever you buy), have probably clocked up loads of “carbon miles” by being shipped around the world, and sometimes from countries with very poor human right records?
That’s not very green is it?
So how can you make an old house green?
Well if the interior is concentrated on first, steps could be taken such as solar powered heating and power from rooftop or garden based wind power units. Setting them up can be expensive, but the cost is falling all the time. Make enough power, and if you have a surplus, you can sell it back to the national grid, although how long it would be before the government find a way to tax that is another matter, although inevitable, it could be argued!
If we all generated our own electric like this, the need to build new power stations would diminish. You need to take a long term view on this, and it is only the most ardent “pioneers” who are doing this at present. Also why not use solar powered lights in the garden?
Interior
You could also hang curtains made from hemp and buy some new green-friendly furniture. You could buy decent second hand curtains or even furniture from a charity shop (many sell nearly new ones at bargain prices), and from an ethical point of view, you’ve donated to a worthwhile cause. Re-use, don’t throw away, even if you can afford to buy new, do you really HAVE to?
Buy “A graded” energy efficient appliances such as dishwashers, fridges etc and these will save you money too. Take baths instead of showers. During the autumn months, install cheap and effective draught excluders to cut down on heat loss. Have double glazing fitted if you don’t have it already, although wooden double glazing is better as UPVC manufacture is perhaps not as environmentally friendly as it could be. Or if you’re rich, get a “little man” to do it (!) (The butler?)
Your plans could also include bizarre sounding ideas like chairs and sofas made from recycled bottles and cushions with recycled stuffing, deck chairs made of old milk cartons, and chairs made with removable, washable and replaceable covers. Do you really need to buy brand new furniture?
Also try and find a local workshop or skilled tradesman who could make the furniture locally, preferably from re-used wood. From experience this is harder to find depending on where you live.
If doing an extension or major refurbishment, you could also install wood floors made from reclaimed pallets; you could install long life low emission fluorescent bulbs, and install skylights roof windows or larger windows around the house to minimize daytime lighting needs. And throughout the house why not use non-toxic, water-based paints?
Very importantly, make sure your loft is well insulated. Many local councils in the UK run a “warm homes” scheme for people on low incomes. This was in fact a little known piece of government legislation that enabled this and is covered in full under the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000. Take advantage of these. Most heat loss contrary to what “smarmy” double glazing salesmen tell you, is through the roof, not the windows!
Exterior
The exterior of the house also needs attention. Use water catchment systems like water “butts” to harvest water for watering plants etc. Make sure all your windows are in good condition and are clean to let in the most light. Make sure there are no areas where damp can get into the house. Damp can not only make your house feel colder, it can also very badly affect your health (buy to let landlords take note please).
Make sure the walls are in good condition and get them repainted regularly. One option would be to choose a professional specialist company to apply a long life exterior wallcoating. This specialist high performance paint is installed with either a spray or a roller, depending on the material used.
Not only can it cut down on spending money year after year repainting, it can also stop damp and make the inside of the house warmer due to not only cutting out wind chill, but also insulating properties too. Most of these coatings are far thicker than paint and they don’t need to be redone ever year, so that’s about 10 coats of paint at the same time, saving money and the environment in the long term, especially as many are made with natural dyes and resins in small to mid size manufacturing facilities instead of huge multinational factories belching out smoke and chemicals. The best site to find out more info about insulating exterior coatings for houses is the world renowned www.neverpaintagain.co.uk
The other benefit is that the work is done ONCE every 25 years instead of every year, thus less materials used in time, less van and lorry journeys, and less pollution. (and less money)
Do more research about how to make your house greener, get involved. There are plenty of great websites out there that can offer some valuable help and advise to start going green, and staying green, but its anyone’s guess as to whether the whole world will take note, but its worth a go.
Green lifestyle
There are other smaller things you can do to make your household use less energy and be more green. Consider a hybrid (electric) car. A combination of an electric motor and a normal one. Few cars have them (probably due to pressure from huge oil companies to buy more fuel), but one day these will probably be the norm. If the public transport system in the Uk wasn’t so awful, you could consider taking a bus or train (where they still exist), although if renovating a house, that’s going to be pretty hard, but tell that to the government!
Don’t leave your TV, stereo etc on standby. If you’re not using it, switch it off. Cup of tea? Don’t fill the kettle up for one cup, you’re throwing money away. Off on a plane? With cheap flights it’s tempting but think what you are doing to the planet. Why not holiday in the UK instead. (no, don’t laugh!)
Can we move to a society where we can all “carbon offset” anything we do that uses energy? Carbon offsetting is whereby if you chop down 10 trees to build a house made of wood, then you replant 10 trees (or even more) to “offset” what you’ve done. A very brave vision indeed, although if society will change for the better, only time will tell. With summer around the corner, traditionally the busiest time in the UK for home improvement, just stop and think for a minute about what you’re doing!
Unless you’re mega rich, do you REALLY need that outside spa? Do you REALLY need to buy brand new chain store furniture? And why put a finish outside that you have to repaint every 2 years or so? Whats the point? Evidence from various sources, and from my own analysis, suggest that the housing market in the UK maybe up for a sharp drop in 2008.
As being “green” and environmentally sound is becoming far more popular as people become aware of what they are doing to the planet, a “green” house, or at least a house that is energy efficient, coupled with one that is in good repair and visually appealing, will be easier to sell, and cheaper to maintain in the long term and will provide instant street cred, with the advantage of helping to save our planet.
So what’s stopping you becoming green now?
One of the Earth’s great renewable energy sources is actually the energy that can be found in all the waves of the ocean. Let’s look at this further.
If you have ever been to the ocean, you were probably fascinated by the phenomena of the waves crashing against the shorelines as the tides came in. The ocean’s tides are the product of gravitational pull of the sun and the moon, as well as, the Earth’s rotation. It causes the ocean waters to be raised and lowered from time to time. The tides have cycles of twelve and one half hours, twice per day, and are easily predictable.
The use of tidal power is seen as early as the twelfth century where tidal mills used the force of the tides to grind grain and corn. The eighteenth century brought competition from windmills and waterwheels. Tidal mills pretty much became extinct with the invention of cheap steam engines. In 1967, France became the first to be able to put tidal wave power to work on a large scale to produce electricity.
The generation of electricity from tidal waves is similar to that of hydroelectric power generation. Bigger dams, known as barrages, are built on the bottom of a tidal basin. Gates on the barrage allow the tidal basin to fill during incoming high tides. Likewise, the basin will empty through a turbine during the outgoing tide. This would turn an electric generator for the production of electricity. There are also systems that generate electricity from incoming and outgoing tides. This system can have a negative effect on plants and animals in the area.
Tidal fences are also used to generate electricity. Vertical axis turbines are mounted on fences. Passing water is forced through the turbines. Ideal locations for these are channels between two landmasses. Tidal fences are cheaper than tidal barrages and cause less of an environmental impact on large marine life.
Tidal turbines are a new technology used for tidal energy. They are similar to wind turbines and are arranged underwater in rows. They work best in areas with strong tides. Although they are heavier and costlier to build, they also are capable of capturing more energy. They are also the least environmentally damaging of all the tidal power technologies, since they do not interfere with migration paths.
In order for tidal power to work successfully it requires a tide difference of at least sixteen feet. Unfortunately there are only a few places where this occurs. This means tidal power plants cannot just be constructed anywhere. There are only a handful of sites on Earth with this type of tidal range. At present, France is the only country that has been successful in using tidal power. It is hoped developments in technology, through research, will be made to allow better use of this, what is now, wasted energy. The future of tidal energy seems hopeful. Tidal power has great potential and hopefully we can make better use of it in the future in our quest to find a replacement for fossil fuels.
As with many Americans, I believe that I may have detected a
flaw in the Bush energy plan. It seems that oil resources are
vulnerable to weather that can shut down by a little bit of
rain. Well, okay, a lot of rain. And when you are dependent on
one source of energy, that source can be disrupted and prices go
up. By the way, could somebody tell me what doesn’t cause gas
prices to go up?
The fact of the matter is that if you bother to look around
you’d see that energy is - for all practical purposes -
unlimited. Energy blows in the wind and falls from the sky and
pops up from the ground, and beats down on you on a hot Summer
day. Everything that can burn is energy. The reason we can’t or
won’t use it is entirely cultural. We could be self-sufficient
in energy if we really wanted to. Think about this: If everybody
in our country, say, took all the money they spend on oil and
gas and built themselves a wind-mill and bought an electric car
there absolutely would be no energy shortage - ever.
“But, Ste-eve,” I hear you whining, “I don’t want to build a
windmill!”
Okay. I’ve got a solution for you polluters out there, too.
Here’s how it goes. I am a big fan of the Jon Stewart show. A
couple of times on his show he’s made the quip that he can’t
understand how people aren’t able to produce oil a lot more
cheaper since: “it’s only carbon.” He said that once to the
former New Jersey governor and then head of the EPA, who
chuckled merrily and then did not answer his question. I wrote
to him at an address I got off of the Internet and then got the
letter returned, so, I’ll tell you instead.
Thermal depolymerization, if I remember correctly, is the name
of the process. It was featured in Discover magazine in May 2003
and the name of the article was Anything into oil. This article
discussed how the process was being used to take biological
waste, in this case it was at a chicken farm where they took the
unusable parts of the chicken and turned them into oil.
The way it works is that the biological/carbon containing
material is put into the device, a vacuum is created, and the
water on the material is boiled away. As this happens, it frees
the bonds of the carbon containing material and it is turned
into oil. The vacuum is necessary so that the amount of energy
needed to cause the moisture to boil is greatly lessened. The
thing looks like a huge tangle of pipes and takes up a lot of
real estate, but it’s really basic and simple technology that’s
used in an innovative way.
The company, I believe, is called Changing World Technologies.
At present it costs them twelve dollars a barrel to turn animal
waste into oil - which is a nice profit with oil at fifty bucks
a barrel, however, it’s still a whole lot more expensive than
pumping the same amount, which costs the oil company three
dollars a barrel.
Discover magazine did an update on this company a few months
back. They were attempting to build a demonstration facility but
had a setback when their contractor produced faulty workmanship
(ie) pipes that needed a huge amount of re-welding.
It really was one of these things that sounds too good to be
true, turning garbage into oil. Well, you can look up the
article for yourself, or I suppose have an assistant of yours do
it for you.
Now, believe it or not: not all scientists accept that oil is,
in fact, a fossil fuel or a limited resource. There is an
alternate theory that oil is not composed of decayed biomass
that seeped down into deep pockets in the Earth but rather is a
result of geological processes within the planet and it bubbled
up into those same pockets. Time magazine had an article about a
scientist named Gold who proposed this and was also responsible
for some other unconventional theories that turned out to be
true. I forget what those theories were, maybe about comets. I
filed his away in my mind and then forgot about it - because
everyone kept saying oil was a fossil fuel and it seemed a
pretty safe bet that they weren’t all wrong. Although, I always
found it odd that oil which would have to be created by an
abundance of life is found underneath some of the world’s most
inhospitable areas. (Deserts, frozen wilderness, deep, deep
under the ocean).
Then NASA came back and said that the probe they had sent to one
of Saturn’s moons, Triton, had found seas of oil on the surface.
Triton, they estimated, had temperatures of below two hundred
and eighty degrees centigrade and a methane atmosphere. How did
that oil get there? Did Triton have a whole bunch of really cold
dinosaurs up there or was it maybe the result of geologic
processes that might be similar to Earth’s?
Okay. That’s something for you to think about. It’s an alternate
theory and I don’t necessarily believe it, but you’ve got to
admit that it’s pretty interesting
Many people today are unaware of why and when you should use renewable energy sources in today’s world. The main reason for using natural energy is mainly down to the environment, and if you care to improve the quality of it. But with many viable energy sources out there, which one you choose can be a nightmare to decide upon.
Before you set off to purchase lets say, a couple of solar panels, you should take a look at the other technologies available to decide which is most appropriate for your environment. For example, solar panels may not be of much use near the poles, put a hefty, durable wind turbine would love to sit up there and spin round and round all day.
You don’t have to be a genius to discover that solar panels work best near the equator and reduce in efficiency, the further away you travel from the equator. So, if you live nearer the poles than the equator, you should choose a wind turbine right? Wrong!!!!
Wind turbines could be placed anywhere on our globe (where the land can support them) and still generate hardly any power whatsoever. It all depends on the surrounding environment, for instance, if you build a home wind turbine in your backyard, you could be very disappointed, unless you were the only house in the most common wind direction. What we mean by this is, if there are many houses surrounding your house, they will block most of the winds power and your turbine will probably just spin round at a very slow speed (assuming its windy), and this doesn’t generate the power you require.
However, if you live in the country and place a turbine in your backyard, you are more likely to generate a larger output of electricity. So the answer is buy one if you live in the countryside? Wrong again!!!
If there are large hills, forests or mountains nearby, these too can greatly reduce the winds power. Before purchasing a wind turbine you should definitely either do research yourself into the surrounding are, or hire a professional to do a survey. If your house is surrounded by other houses, dense tree plantations, hills, or mountains, (presuming they are blocking the path of the average wind direction), you should consider looking into solar cells or even a geothermal system to heat your home.
For more information on wind turbines, why not take a look here: http://www.clean-energy-ideas.com/wind_turbines.html
Renewable energy is really getting the attention it needs. Today fossil energy reserves are depleting and focus is shifting to others sources of energy that replace these traditional energy sources. The focus is on these energy sources and not without reason. It is environmentally friendly and an almost unlimited source of energy. International energy ministers and advocates together with different non-governmental organizations and environmentalists are joining efforts to promote utilization of this energy. All over the world governments are awarding grants and incentives for the development of renewable energy systems.
But what is it? How do we use it today and how can we use it better in the future? Will it solve our energy problems we experience today? What price do we have to pay to these new energy sources? All these questions and more are hot subjects that are discussed by many all over the world. Let’s start here with the simplest question and answer it for you.
What is Renewable Energy?
This energy source has been used in many ways, but it has been taking for granted many years now. We usually don’t stop and think about these daily little miracles happening all around us. For instance the sunlight does wonderful things us. Sunlight helps us to grow our plants, fruits and vegetables. You can dry your clothes outside in the sun and white clothes even become whiter with sun rays. Every one loves to have fun in the sun, Disney World and Universal studio’s are build on location where there is a lot of sunshine and not without reason. Simply lying on the beach in the sun is done by many of us. Sunlight keeps us happy and when deprived from it humans become depressed. But sunshine can be used otherwise as well. You can convert sunshine into electricity and use it to power you home and can even give you hot water and heat your pool. Converting sunshine into energy is one of the new sources of energy.
Not only sunshine is seen as one of new sources of energy. The water we use for recreational purposes like kayaking can be used otherwise. This flowing water can also be used to generate energy.
Wind can also be used and is already used by several countries. In England and Germany the wind generators are placed on the shore where there is plenty of wind. There are also smaller wind generators available for home owners that can be used in addition to the traditional grid system.
All these mentioned energy sources are free to use to every one. Sunlight is available during the day and wind is available day and night. Flowing water can be more difficult to make use of because it is not available for every one. The availability of these sources depends where you live. You have to make sure you use the source that is applicable for your personal situation and can even combine several sources together to make the most of it. Although the sources are free, the devices used to convert these energy sources into usable energy for our homes are not. But nearly for all budgets there is a solution.
How does it work?
The traditional fossil energy sources such as coal and oil produce energy by means of combustion or burning fossil fuels. These sources work by directly converting the energy into useful forms. Sunlight is directly converted into electricity which can be used instantly.
Why do we need it?
There are several reasons why we need alternatives for the traditional energy sources. The fossil fuels reserves are diminishing and the demand for energy is rising and will increase even more. The fossil energy sources will become harder to find and even more expensive. To fight these high prices we need alternatives that are in abundance and cheap. Precisely, what these sources are: cheap and in abundance.
The combustion in traditional energy sources results in emission of harmful gases in our atmosphere that causes drastic changes in our climate. These reasons also prompt different governments to prioritize the use of renewable energy to avoid energy shortage, economic, and environmental problems.
Thus, these energy sources can go a long way in helping us achieve a stable and reliable energy supply in the future. The energy sources will be available for all and will be cheaper than traditional energy sources. What is even more important is that we will live in a world that is a better place, for us today and for future generations to come.
When planning your new house, an energy efficient green house floor plan would be an excellent alternative to a traditional stick built home. One improtant thing to consider is the orientation of your home on the property. One way to gain energy savings is to situate the house toward the northwest and use fewer openings and heavier walls on that side.
The house should open up to the southeast in order to take advantage of solar heat. Use louvers to block harsh summer sun angles and also allow weak angled winter warmth. With a southeast orientation, the slope of the main roof should face southwest with solar panels placed on that side.
Another way to save money is in the configuration and construction of the house. Heavy mass should be used on the north or northwest side in a green house floor plan to block the winter cold. It also is an efficient way to run plumbing and HVAC. The roof may be designed to collect rainwater in large barrels or cisterns which will cut down on city water costs.
The interior of a green house floor plan should be open and spacious to allow for natural airflow from open windows and stragically placed panels. This type of design cuts down on the need for air conditioning by making use of wind currents to bring fresh air into the home. Pick out the most energy efficient doors and window you can afford since they will provide an excellent return on you investment in lower energy bills month after month.
The true beauty of a green house floor plan is the ability to live “off the grid” with only a few extra features. A combination of features such as rain water collection,gray water reuse, solar panels and wind power with battery back up will afford a better lifestyle that is also easier on Mother Nature. With careful design and planning you can make your new home easier on the environment with a green house floor plan.