GoingTrueGreen's Blog Postings - Going True Green

Revisiting Two Old Articles

8/17/2020

floppy discs, CDs, saving energy, going true green, going green

3.5 inch Floppy

I went through some of my old files this month, not some file drawers, but files on 3.5 floppy discs and CDs. I had to clean off and plug in my old computer that was in the attic to visit yesteryear. What caught my attention were two old articles that I had on my first Lightbulb Hotline website pages in the 1990s and then I posted them on my second website (EnergyHotwire) for 4th of July, 2003 and 2004.

I have now posted them on GoingTrueGreen.com for your viewing today. The data is powerful, but deals with compact fluorescent bulbs, so LEDs will be the way to go today with an even more powerful result. Especially when using today's much higher kilowatt rates.

Visiting the past always helps to make a better future. Feel free to use the Category Links on the right, namely the ones called Memories and Yesteryear Articles and Blogs. To go directly to these two newly reposted articles, use the Archives section on the right ( you may need to scroll down some) and click on the dates: July 2003 and 2004.

Enjoy the "Look Back" - Thank you.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Posting Additional Look Backs

7/31/2019

Before I started GoingTrueGreen.com, I wrote code for websites on the World Wide Web in 1992. By 1995/96 I had the LightBulbHotLine website up and running to help people learn about the many new compact fluorescent light bulbs that were being sold since 1982. Eventually the LightBulb HotLine website became EnergyHotWire.com (EHW) and then I launched GoingTrueGreen.com (GTG) so they could work in tandem. Today, GTG is leading the way!

Light Bulbs, light bulb hotline, energy saving lightbulbs, Energy Saving Light Bulbs, Saving Energy, Saving Money, Sustainability, Climate Change, Sustainable Living, Going Green, Going True Green, Blogs, Articles, Bill Lauto

First Website, 1995, Light Bulb Hotline

Christopher Lauto, Going True Green, GTG Blog, EnergyHotwire, electric bill, energy comics, energy saving comics

Comic Relief On EHW Blog In 2007

Energy Hotwire, Energy Saving Light Bulbs, Saving Energy, Saving Money, Sustainability, Climate Change, Sustainable Living, Going Green, Going True Green, Blogs, Articles, Bill Lauto

Energy Saving Light Bulbs, Saving Energy, Saving Money, Sustainability, Climate Change, Sustainable Living, Going Green, Going True Green, Blogs, Articles, Bill Lauto

Kiplinger's, Kiplinger's Finance Magazine, Saving Money, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Energy Saving Light Bulbs, Sustainable Living, Going Green, Going True Green, Blogs, Articles, Bill Lauto

Kiplinger's April 1992

Over the years, before Blogs came about, I wrote articles or provided data for publications doing a section or column on energy savings. One such publication was in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, April 1992. The first day Kiplinger's magazine hit the newsstands, I received 95 phone calls from around the country. The section was titled: Lights That Lighten Your Electric Bill.

I have always been writing and teaching facts about Energy Saving Light Bulbs, as well as many other energy saving and environmental topics over the decades. I started loading up my articles to EnergyHotwire.com before the Blogging format took off.

This summer I am posting several more of those "Yesteryear" articles from Newspapers, Magazines, my LightBulb Hotline website and EnergyHotwire.com to my GoingTrueGreen Blog. You can take a trip down memory lane by accessing these postings under the Category called: Yesteryear Articles & Blogs, found in the right hand column of this page. For the Kiplinger story, you may click on the date: April 1992 under Archives, also found in the right hand column. To see how I was doing with my energy bills in my first apartment for the year 1988, click on the date May 1989. You can even use the Archives to click on the date November 1972 to peruse my very first paper I wrote on our environment back in middle school. My first article for newspapers on the new energy saving fluorescent light bulbs will be the next Archived date of November 2, 1987.

I also finally added the Category: COMIC RELIEF which brings you back to early 2007 when I published 3 different comic strips on EnergyHotwire.com.
Use this LINK to start off your visit back in time with a laugh or two or three - Comic Relief.

Enjoy the "Look Back" - Thank you.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

A Sample From 1990s

9/10/2016

Bill Lauto, compact fluorescent bulbs, lights, light bulbs, consumer reports, dimmer switches, energy savings, light bulb hotline, going true green, going green, sustainability, environmental science, energy consulting

Consumer Reports Mag

Before Blogs, there were articles, columns, or a writer's corner, published in various types of media. This pre-Blog era was also prior to the start of any Energy Star or LEED certification program established by the government. Information was collected in person, eye to eye, and after being the Energy Advisor to the Earth Day Committee for New York City in 1990, I was contacted several times by various entities.

For example an EPA representative consulted with me as they researched starting up future energy saving programs. In 1992, I was interviewed by Consumer Report Magazine and provided them with data on energy saving light bulbs for their October issue on Efficient Light Bulbs and Dimmer Switches. The Associated Press picked up some of my articles on energy saving light bulbs and so did Newspapers such as the San Francisco Examiner to the Asheville Citizen Times.

Visiting the past always helps to make a better future. Here is a small sample of my work from the early 1990s.
The full write up, with additional images, is under this LINK.

Bill Lauto , GTG
Environmental Scientist
 International Sustainability and Energy Consultant 
Contribute your comments!

A U.S. Energy Plan; 2001

8/24/2016

United States, US, U.S., Eagle, My country tis of thee, energy independence, U.S. Energy Plan, energy plan, going green, saving energy, energy rebates, appliance rebates, saving water

"My Country 'Tis of Thee"

I wrote an article called, A U.S. Energy Plan, in December of 2000. The article provided some sound advice, facts and recommendations for our country’s energy plan. Then on May 30, 2001, I published this article as my first Blog on my EnergyHotwire.com website. This was before Blogs became really popular and before I knew html coding to post comments automatically. Nevertheless, I still have email comments that I received. Here are some comments from Yesteryear by two long-time followers since my first Blog post:

June, 2001:
I just read on your web site your U. S. Energy Plan and I was amazed at the facts about nuclear waste and how much energy we can save. Intelligently written and powerfully executed. A brilliant plan. Now only if our government leaders would read this.
Paul, New York.
---
March 26, 2002:
Bill,
I just emailed my brother Frank to read your outstanding article posted at www.Energy Hotwire.com
Phenomenal writing, I really enjoyed it.
Joe, Buffalo New York

Please use this LINK Yesteryear's Blog to peruse the article that knew what needed to be done to prevent serious problems so many years ago. Perhaps today's politician's should also revisit.

Bill Lauto, GTG
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Yesteryear Blogs

8/11/2016

Environmental issues, environment, pollution, john glenn high school, Bill Lauto, going green, goingtruegreen,

1972: Tenth Grade Paper

This is the first post of GoingTrueGreen’s NEW Yesteryear Articles and Blogs category. Prior to adding GoingTrueGreen.com with my GoingTrueGreen blog to my work, I posted a Hotwire blog on my EnergyHotwire.com website which was a metamorphosis from my first website originated in 1995 called the Lightbulb Hotline. Before Blogs, I wrote articles for local newspapers or organizations’ newsletters going back to the 1980s. However, my very first discourse on the subject of our environment was back in 1972 when I was in tenth grade. I had to write my first thesis paper for Mrs. Mayer, my tenth grade English teacher at John Glenn High School. She gave the class numerous topics that we could select from and I chose to write about pollution mostly due to a lasting impression that was made on me by a television commercial I saw a few years earlier. I will never forget the tear coming down the face of the actor who represented Native Americans after viewing the ways people littered upon the water and land from his canoe.

Now I recently made a short video summarizing my work and I thought back to my tenth grade report that I haven't read in over 40 years. After locating the report in an old album, I read it again and realized that the message I am speaking today, is the same message I wrote all those years ago! Some messages don't need to change. Follow the LINK below to see the video and some excerpts, introduction and conclusion, from the hand written pages of a 14 year old boy…

Young Discourse On Environment

Bill Lauto , GTG
Environmental Scientist
 International Sustainability and Energy Consultant 
Contribute your comments!

Wind turbines built into your apartment building?

5/20/2009

Wind Turbines, Turbinomic, Oklahoma, architect, Rand Elliott, turbine, turbine apartment buildings, Going True Green, Sustainability, Sustainable Living, saving energy, wind power, wind, wind mills

Doing Turbinomic designs that incorporate wind turbines into a building's facade has yet to be done and it leaves many unanswered questions.

However, an Oklahoma architect put together a design that does just that. Will we soon see innovative skyscrapers with wind turbines incorporated into the facade and between each floor? The two images on this page show Rand Elliott's design and he claims that the tower would create all the power needed by the entire building when winds are at 28 mph. About 10 to 15 percent of the building's energy needs would be meet when the winds are only at 10 mph.

Wind Turbines, Turbinomic, Jetsons, George Jetson, Oklahoma, architect, Rand Elliott, turbine, turbine apartment buildings, Going True Green, Sustainability, Sustainable Living, saving energy, wind power, wind, wind mills

George Jetson may live here, but will you?

Each floor's turbine can turn at its own rate, thus different wind speeds at different heights - no problem. Yet we have some numbers missing from the equation:

How much will a building like this cost?

AND...

How loud or how noisy will the turning turbines be?

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

NASA Finds More Evidence for Greenhouse Warming

1/23/2009

Climate Change, Changing Climate, Greenhouse, Greenland, Antarctica, Alaska, Going Green, Sustainability, Sustainable Living, NASA, Chesapeake Bay, ice melt, global warming

Update: Antarctica's Ice Cap in 2014

In an updated report from NASA, the agency stated that a more recent study reveals that ice is melting across our globe at accelerating rate.

Approximately 2 trillion tons of ice have melted from the areas of Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska since the year 2003. NASA scientists calculated that this amount of lost water could fill up Chesapeake Bay 21 times.

The majority of the lost ice came from the area of Greenland, where water from this melted ice has raised global sea levels by .5 mm each year.

The conclusion to this latest study, NASA scientist say, is the fact that our sea levels are rising 50 percent faster than 15 years ago.

Author's Updated Note: While areas around Greenland are having the highest amount of melted ice up to this year of 2019, reviewing all data shows that in 2014, five years after the above NASA information was made public, Antarctica's waters froze to the largest ice mass since 1979. Also more data is now available about the volcanoes under the Antarctica's Ice Cap. Thus, any unpretentious scientist will state that we just don't know the complete picture to predict a time table for future doom or a future of no worries.

We must all be intelligent about our environmental issues and do the most sustainable actions we can within our own budget of time and money. If everyone does what they can, I believe we will survive, because the facts of all the efforts done by individuals over the recent decades proves that we are making a positive difference.

Bill Lauto, Updated from EnergyHotwire.com blog to GoingTrueGreen.com blog
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Why are Solar Panels Blue?

11/7/2008

A Photovoltaic Solar Panel that converts sun light into electricity should be dark in color, but panels are not dark in color because the panels do not absorb all the sun light. Most of the blue color from the color spectrum is not being absorbed and thus the reason why solar panels look bluish.

In fact, only about 66% of sun light is absorbed and coupled with solar panels working best only when the sun shines directly upon them, this all adds up to nominal efficiency. To make up for lost efficiency, the large solar arrays use energy consuming mechanical positioning to follow the sun across the sky. However, there should be a better way, right?

Where is that amazing American intelligence that put men on the moon and brought them home safely? Well EHW is happy to report that our American astuteness is alive and well at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
From all the details EHW has seen so far, we are hopeful that Doctor Shawn Lin and his colleagues at Rensselaer have a 7 layer solution. A new antireflective coating has been nanoengineered to increase the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels across the entire color spectrum and from any angle! Yes, any angle despite the position of the sun in the sky.

Due to this coating enhancing the antireflective properties of the layer below the solar cells will be inundated with 96.2% of rays from the sun. The added bonus is light being trapped and absorbed from all angles. Thus there is a 30% increase in efficiency.

This data sounds excellent, but EHW initiated correspondence with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Dr. Lin's office to get answers to the following additional questions:
* Can this coating be applied to current solar panels already in use?
* Does the coating degrade over time and lose efficiency?
* How does the coating stand up to all the elements?
* When will the manufacturing of this coating be feasible?

Dr. Lin's office replied with the following answers:

The coating cannot be applied to already-installed solar panels. The coating must be applied at the time of manufacturing. EHW also learned that the coating does not degrade, but is somewhat fragile. The research team, led by Dr. Lin, is looking into ways of making the coating more robust and better able to weather the elements. End results, Dr. Lin does not believe we the people will have to wait the proverbial ten years for this product to become a reality in our lives. In fact, Dr. Lin expects a product based on this new technology will be on the market within three years.

Dr. Lin, Dr. Shawn Lin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy New York, Going True Green, solar panels, solar electric, solar power, nanoengineed, color spectrum, solar arrays

Photograph of the actual 7 layer coating

The following is a direct quote from Dr. Lin:
"We are working to determine the best way to bring this new technology to market. We are exploring partnerships and licensing arrangements, but have not decided on exactly how to proceed. But as far as bringing the product to market, I think we're talking near-term, in the next 2-3 years, rather than long-term. In our research, the next step moving
forward will be investigating how to make our antireflective coating more robust.

The antireflective coating requires multi-layer coating, which is slightly more complex than the typical single-layer coating. However, the thickness of each individual layer does not need to be precise to, say, within 10 percent. This makes the manufacturing easier.

The antireflective coating also requires low-index layer (i.e. n<1.1-1.2). Currently, we use a special technique, called oblique angle deposition, to grow porous nanorods to accomplish the low-n requirement. The nanorods can be fragile. Further research will be needed to either find a way to better protect the nanorods, or to develop or use a porous thin film that is more robust.

The economics of modern day solar cell depends largely on the thickness of the substrate (500-1000 micrometer) and the processing cost for making the junctions. Our antireflective coating is made of oxide materials (Silicon dioxide and Titanium oxide) and has a thickness of 0.7-1 micrometer. The deposition is based on a fairly simple technique that is compatible to most standard solar cell manufacturing. The additional cost for incorporating our antireflective coating should not exceed 2 percent to 4 percent of the original cost of producing the existing solar cell.

Our equipment can handle a 2-inch wafer. The process may be easily scaled up to a 6-12 inch process." - Shawn Lin

Bill Lauto , GTG
Environmental Scientist
 International Sustainability and Energy Consultant 
Contribute your comments!

The Inside word is Out - New York's Freedom Tower will be using Fuel Cells for electrical power!

5/3/2008

Freedom Tower, Freedom Tower NYC, New York City, Fuel Cells, United Technologies, New York Power Authority, Going Green, Sustainability, Going True Green, Saving Money, Saving Energy

Completed Freedom Tower, New York City

The Freedom Tower and three (3) new additional buildings to be constructed in lower Manhattan will have the largest fuel cell project on this Earth to provide electrical power. Power not from oil, gas, coal, or nuclear, but from hydrogen. United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is behind the 12 fuel cells that should produce 4.8 megawatts of electricity. About enough electrical power to run 4,800 homes. This is not enough for all the electrical needs of these four new buildings and the New York Power Authority, who made this deal with UTC Power, has yet to provide details such as what percentage of electrical consumption these 12 fuel cells will meet.

Yes, this alternative energy source project on this large scale proves many things and provides us with many positive symbols. HOWEVER, we the people can now only hope that this $10.6 million dollar project, is truly a non-polluting alternative by deriving hydrogen from WATER and not from NATURAL GAS. You see, for the short to medium term, power companies may favor getting the hydrogen from a hydrocarbon fuel such as Natural Gas which is not completely pollutant free. Unlike getting hydrogen from Water, Natural Gas insures money making sales for the fuel company.

Can you imagine rain water and recycled water being collected to make FREE electrical power?

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Ethel & Wilfred, Changing A Bulb or Husband?

4/6/2007

Welcome to our Comic Relief Category. Does this month's comic posting have a sinister plot or a helpful finger? Anyway, this energy saving comic by Christopher is in color!

Christopher Lauto, Ethel & Wilfred, comics, comic relief, energy saving comic strip, going true green, going green, sustainability, sustainable living, saving money, saving energy, saving electricity

Updated Blog Post - From EnergyHotwire.com to GoingTrueGreen.com
Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

All materials on this web page are copyrighted and protected by the Copyright laws of the United States of America.
Copyright © 2005 to 2009 by Christopher Lauto
The IMAGES displayed throughout the site are for VIEWING ONLY. Photos, illustrations, designs, drawings, and any other type of images may not be downloaded, manipulated or reproduced in any way or form without prior written permission from the artist.
Commercial or private use without explicit written consent of the artist is prohibited. Violations of the copyright laws are punishable through US and International laws.