Possumblog

I've already got a Ticked Off Tuesday post up.

Pointing up Gore's energy usage in his Nashville home is interesting.

I just ran the receipts I have for our 2,000 sq. ft. and averaged to about 16,500 kw a year, which is higher than the average American houseold according to this article.

This is a middle-aged terribly inefficient house. (Something like its owner.) Five times that 16,500 to account for 10,000 sq. ft. is 82,500. So how did his household come up with 221,000 kw for 2006?

A house of that caliber often has a heated pool, awfully expensive to run, but still?

It's gotten to be like making fun of televangelists who get caught with their pants down and a fistful of ones. The only difference is that liberals aren't forced to publicly pretend to be ashamed of themselves.

I'm still pondering this. High ceilings would be one factor. The type of soaring entry that has been built so frequently in recent years would be a bear to keep comfortable.

A sprinkler system would take some energy.

Hmmm, what else ...

A security system.

His "crew" of "homies" hanging out in the "crib", doing laundry and keeping the fridge door open too long (looking for the plate of sliced papaya).

Extra showers/hair treatments (his grey content varies month to month).

His kick-a** computer/network system he uses to monitor his "baby" (otherwise known as the Internet).

Let's not forget the temp/humidity controlled wine closet (or is it a vault?).

And last, but certainly not least, Tipper's media center she needs to review "questionable content".

A 19 cubic foot SubZero only takes 339 kw year, unless you stand around with the door open --which I wouldn't doubt. Al's looking pudgy these days.

Not the showers. He has natural gas, also, so that would probably run the water heater,

Well, I think it's just because it's a huge house, and they live all over it, and don't really care if they leave every light in the place on the entire time. They've got better things to worry about, such as making sure I believe MY lifestyle is what's killing the Earth.

I've noticed that the large, expensive houses around here tend to have lights on all night including the spotlights out front which ensure you can see how important the occupants are regardless of the time of night.

But I'd bet he uses CFL spots.

I have to think its air conditioning to drive usage up so high.

Oh, come on--we all know Al illuminates everything that surrounds him with a glorious brilliance liken unto the sun. Amen.

Incandescence, Hon.

More grist for the mill and how it's better to lead by example than hot air:

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-03.htm

[Edited to fix formatting. Ed.]

Sorry for the trouble on that, Marc--for some reason, it lets me fix it in the edit side of the program, which seems to be defeating the purpose of having a spam filter, but hey.

Are there any tables out there that would let us compare energy usage in our house with an average for size and region?

Janis, you might be able to find that information from your local power company, or you might want to check this information sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I should point out that, in fairness, Al's house is only half the size of John Edwards'.

But not only does Al use a lot more energy than the rest of us, but I've read that he hasn't even signed up for the feel good "green power switch" that Nashville Electric offers.

Of course, neither have I.

How inconvenient!

I read that he has. Oh, he's making every effort to offset his energy usage. He just doesn't seem to be doing much at home.

Truth!

Thanks for the fix on the link. I just read the whole thing, and it turns out to be a hatchet job in the last half of the article. Apparently a Democrat can live as an energy hog as long as he's on the right side of the appropriate tree-hugger issues.

If you're a President and have a responsibility for the whole country, Gaia forbid if you don't pass the Kyoto treaty or want to pump oil out of barren frozen lands (let alone off of the coast of California!).

And for anything you want to know about wind power, check Peg Britton's site.

Ah. This ABC report indicates that about half the usage is for the pool house.

It also indicates that his is an older house, but doesn't say what age.