A Putterer and a Tinkerer

I'm a putterer and a tinkerer. I putt in the garage, the kitchen, the yard and our basement. I tinker with my tools, my cars, my motorcycles and anything else mechanical that I can find. I'm happy as a lark just hanging out and performing menial tasks in some of the more manly areas of the FNN homestead. And that's exactly what I did this past weekend since ripping through the countryside on two wheels was not an option (yes, I'm still bitter).

I spent a good portion of the day this past Saturday and all of Sunday in the garage, enjoying the nice weather and getting in some solid, quality puttering. Since spring is right around the corner, I concentrated on getting some things cleaned up and ready for summer use.

The lawnmower was thoroughly checked over. It received an oil change, a clean air filter and some fresh gasoline. I cleaned and repainted the deck and performed one of my favorite garage tasks: sharpening the mower blade. For some reason, I just love donning some gloves and safety glasses letting the sparks fly.

I also prepped the snowblower for storage. I removed the remaining fuel with my brand new shiny transfer pump (I busted my old one), and gave it a good cleaning and a coat of wax.

"He waxes his snowblower!?!"

Yes, I wax my snowblower. It helps to keep rust away, and it helps the snow to slide off the paint in the winter. So what?

I also finished the small table I built for a friend's dog. It needed another good finish sanding and another couple coats of polyurethane.

The rest of the time was spent sanding and refinishing my workbench (winter projects had it pretty banged up), putting away the tools, odds and ends that had accumulated over the last several months, and giving everything a good cleaning and wipedown.

Now, that sure sounds productive, but I'll be the first to admit that a very large portion of my garage puttering is just that, puttering. I re-organize tool drawers, sort sandpaper, perform some basic cleaning, and just generally move stuff from here to there and back. But, I love it. I love listening to the radio (talk radio or baseball games in the summer) and just being around tools, dirt, and projects. I love the smells of gasoline, sawdust, and that wonderful hot-electricity smell that power tools emit.

If this is what retirement is going to bring everyday, I can't wait.

YFNN

Kill A What?

This post is based on one of the "blog inspiration emails" I've sent to family recently.

Here's some proof that little changes can yield big (well, relatively big) results.

On January 15th, I replaced about 80% of the light bulbs in our house with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) from Home Depot (the only CFLs that I've found that have the quality of light that we like). The remaining 20% (basement, storage, etc.) we don't use often enough to warrant the extra cost of the CFLs. Most of the bulbs I replaced were 60-watt bulbs, replaced with an equivalent 14-watt CFL. I also started shutting off both of our computers at night and when we're not home, rather than leaving them run 24/7.

Our electrical billing cycle runs from the 15th to the 15th, so I got a full month of data. In January, our electric bill was $124.65. The bill I received yesterday, with the same amount of days in the billing period, same rate per kWh, was $89.57. That's a reduction of 28%!

Now, you're probably thinking "Wow, that's pretty good, but what about the outside temperature? That will drastically affect your heating and electric." Well, we have gas heat for the house, so the furnace won't affect it hardly at all (pennies at most...solely for the blower), but, the hot tub is electrically heated. However, the February billing cycle was COLDER than the January one, so even with the increased heating of the hot tub, it should have affected it the other direction.

So, now you're probably thinking, "Great, the electrical bill is lower, but he just shelled out over $60 for some silly light bulbs!". Well, you're right. After one month, I'm in the red overall, by about $25. But, after next month, I'll be firmly in the black, and since the CFLs last about 7-10 times longer than standard bulbs, I won't be replacing them nearly so often. So, the savings will add up even more quickly.

So, just by paying a little closer attention to our computer habits, and by replacing some bulbs, we're set to save about $400 a year. That's not too shabby.

I also recently purchased a Kill-A-Watt. It's a great little device that measures the energy usage of anything you plug into it. It's a perfect tool to assess how much power that 5-bulb office lamp pulls (322 watts!) or how much it costs to run the porch light all day long. And, at only $25 or so, it's a great gift for any nerd you know. I got mine at Amazon.com.

Other interesting things I learned by taking some measurements with my Kill-A-Watt:
- Even in hibernation mode, our computers used about 220 watts. That's like running two 100-Watt light bulbs 24 hours a day.
- Our air purifiers use 61 watts in "high", but only 22 watts on "medium", with just a small drop in efficiency. No more running them on "high" at night!
- LCD monitors use A LOT less power than the big bulky CRTs (about a third, actually).

Science is fun AND profitable!

YFNN