Something we tend to ignore

Yellowstone, the picturesque and ever popular vacation spot, is a volcano. It isn't like Hawaii where it has huge mountains from lava running and solidifying. It is what is considered a supervolcano. This indicates that when it blows it is so big that there's literally nothing left to solidify.

And it is about to blow. I really believe this.

After reading about such things in the must have book A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson I started watching Yellowstone and for that matter all earthquakes. Have a look for yourself:
Yellowstone area Earthquake list
That list shows, as of the time of this writing, 177 earthquakes. How long would that take? 4 days. 2 hours ago there was a magnitude 3.5 quake. There have been 10 quakes greater than magnitude 3.0 in the past 4 days.

Something down there is awake and is not happy.

So what's the history? Well from what Bryson penned, Yellowstone erupts about every 600,000 years. Its last real eruption? Just over 640,000 years ago. As he said, "We are overdue."

What will happen if it does blow? Reports are grim. Extinctions. A blanket of soot and ash across the earth to cool her down again. Is it related to global warming? Who knows. But if it does blow again we will all need to take cover. Life, as we know it, will cease.

What can be done? Nothing. We must ride the waves on this ocean of life. We can only watch out for the rocks beneath the surface. Have an action plan. Where will you go if something cataclysmic occurs? Short of taking up residence underwater I'm not sure if any plan is good enough. Historically it seems that most aquatic life fares better in times of global upheaval but we are ill equipped for such choices. It seems to me life underwater would have been more studied up to this point. Instead we seek life outside our own atmosphere. Personally I plan to go underground if such an event occurs. Perhaps it will not work. Perhaps the bears, bobcats, and other vermin will have the same plan and simply have me for a midnight snack. But it's a plan.

What's yours?

Green for the sake of?

Green. Like energy conscious. Yeah, I can dig that. But me? I'm green for the effort of saving money. Everyone has their reasons for stuff. Most people believe in God out of fear, not faith. I shit you not, dear reader. Ask around. Probe.

Anyway, we have an energy suck in my house and I hope to find it. We have already converted over to the small fluorescent bulbs but not to save money. We do not receive 100 or 100 volts. We get 130 out of our plugs. Why? Well we are rural and they say they have to boost the power so the people on the ends of the lines get the right amount. Again, I shit you not. So in the hopes of saving changing each bulb about once a month we opted for the more expensive but hopefully longer lasting bulbs.

Our dryer, a Kenmore 90 series, consumes 4kwh per hour on Permanent Press.
So at this rate it costs less than 40 cents per hour to run our dryer (along with a computer and two laptops and several lights. No heat or anything though. No televisions or hot water usage. Actual cost would work out to be: $0.3906 per hour.

I'm suspecting the water heater. Could be the heat pump. Maybe it is the washer? I'll edit this post with further findings.

Here's what I've found today:
Item Cost per hour
Dryer $0.40
H2O tank $0.30
Oven/Stove $0.40
Heat Pump $1.00


I don't think any of that is out of line. Still not turned the heat on and we've found that within the general vicinity of a computer the temperature is measurably higher, unsurprisingly. Maybe the short answer is that with 4 people in a house things add up. More studying to come. It really isn't that cool to work the heat pump that much in here, average of about 66F and the weather is to be increasing in temperature so we may not need the heat for a while. So no conclusion as of yet. Back to edit when I have more information.

Added heat pump. Started at 60F ambient temp. Allowed to run for 30 minutes. Brought ambient temp to 66F. 5Kwh used. $1 per hour. hmm.