Comments for The Ferris Files

Comment on What Matters This Week: Investors Love Tesla, Belkin Kills the Vampire by Belkin Router Ip

Belkin Router Ip — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:43:46 +0000

Hi there, just wanted to tell you, I loved this post. It was practical. Keep on posting!

Comment on The Little Wind Energy Center that Could by Johnny Anderson

Johnny Anderson — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:17:57 +0000

Awfully insightful appreciate it, I do believe your trusty subscribers may very well want far more items along these lines keep up the good hard work.

Comment on The Coming Turf Battle for D.C.’s Grease by davidferris

davidferris — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:02:20 +0000

I knew I forgot something! Thanks, Adam.

Comment on The Coming Turf Battle for D.C.’s Grease by Adam

Adam — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:47:37 +0000

Don’t forget American Renewable Fuels Institute!

Comment on A Special Thanks to the Dojos by Dojo Village Idiot

Dojo Village Idiot — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:19:50 +0000

Your by no means to old to start your Martial Arts Training, nonetheless you do need to remember at our age the body takes longer to recover.

Comment on The Thermoacoustic Engine, Explained by Paul Riley

Paul Riley — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:21:29 +0000

Agree that 2 billion people could benefit from electricty generated from wood stove. We think that the Score Stove has the world record of generating 23 Watts of electricity from a wood burning thermo-acoustic engine (travelling wave).
Comments welcome.
Paul

Comment on A Vortex that Destroys Bridges, or Powers Cities by Les

Les — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:16:49 +0000

So, how will VIVACE affect the marine environment? Modern man’s imposition in any realm will, and has always caused environmental impact to a certain degree, if not catastrophic.
Let’s chat more!

Comment on If India’s Energy Woes Were America’s by Les

Les — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:05:33 +0000

I’m thinking of sending over a crate of electricity-producing condumns and some rechargable batteries…they must like to bump uglies so these will help turn the lights on…in so many ways…

Comment on A Refrigerator Powered by the Sun by Jose Rojas

Jose Rojas — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:02:42 +0000

Hi there!
I am a school teacher, major in Physics, I like to read about alternative energy a power saving innovations. I highly congratulates your group for the great achievement! Hopefully poor people in our country and around the world can benefit from this kind of fridge! Blessings!
Jose Rojas, Miami, FLorida

Comment on Haven’t I Seen You at Starbucks? by K Cups

K Cups — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:15:22 +0000

Do you think Starbucks actually went through so much trouble to make the cups? I guess that explains why the larger sizes are still the same diameter on the bottom?

Comment on How Starbucks Strives for a Better Cup by Vincent A. Wallace

Vincent A. Wallace — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:29:45 +0000

I always try to get rid of my rubbish responsibly but it’s at times depressing when I observe what many countries are doing to the planet!

Comment on What Wind Turbine 2.0 Will Look Like by davidferris

davidferris — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:10:30 +0000

Maggie – Great question, and I hope I can connect you with someone who can help. Have you spoken to the Midwestern Renewable Energy Association (http://www.the-mrea.org/) ? I’ve heard they are active and know a great deal, and they’re active in Wisconsin.

I’ll see what else I can find out. In the meantime, anyone have other resources or ideas to help Maggie?

Comment on What Wind Turbine 2.0 Will Look Like by Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:12:50 +0000

David, I live in a small town in northern Wisconsin and serve on the City Council. We’ve just gotten notice that WPS will be raising our electricity rates, which will drive our budget deep into the red for next year. What I want, and have wanted since I was elected two years ago, is to get this town off the grid. We had a wind study done 18 months ago and we do have enough wind to drive the farmers and rest of us crazy, but apparently not enough wind to justify the cost of installing our own turbines with a reasonable payback time?? Our City Administrator believes, and I agree with him, that any plan that has a greater payback time than about 10 years will be a very hard sell, given the steep up front investment. I think we could sell 15 years. But anything longer than that is “uncertain”, “speculative”, etc.

However, I suspect that the belief that we don’t have enough wind for a reasonable payback time is based on older windmill technology. I’m wondering if you can help us sort this out, whether there are options that can make efficient use of the wind patterns we have. I ALSO suspect there are some significant limitations to the “study” that was done, but not being an expert in wind it would be hard for me to detect those limitations. If we don’t do something now, WPS (who has the power monopoly on northern Wisconsin) will continue to string us along from year to year, always raising the rates “just enough” so that it is still not “worthwhile” for our town to invest in some other type of energy production.

We need seriously better information and realistic ideas. I can be contacted at turnbull.maggie@gmail.com and would love to hear from you!

PS: I moved to Antigo from Washington, D.C. I am an astrobiologist and worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Though I love DC, I came here to get my career and everything else “off-grid”, and it’s been worth it.

Comment on The Weekly: Oil Rigs, Electric Cars, and Google’s Curious Investment by full file downloads

full file downloads — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:46:24 +0000

Hello, I just stopped by your blog and wanted to say hi. You have a lot of really great stuff on here, I really want to read more. thanks a lot for posting.

Comment on How India Puts Itself on a Power Diet by Mridul Chadha

Mridul Chadha — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:31:47 +0000

I wouldn’t say it is a power diet. We, Indians, and most of the Subcontinent never used the amount of energy people use in Europe, United States or other developed countries. Central air-conditioning or heating is absent here and we never felt the need of it either. Air-conditioners are becoming increasingly popular now but they are used just the way you used them, switch on when you need them. No offense but personally I do not understand the way Americans use energy; I just don’t understand why do they need so much energy since we are are doing perfectly fine using so less energy than them.

Hope you enjoyed your trip to India!!

Comment on The Treadle Pump: An Exercise in Productivity by davidferris

davidferris — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:16:34 +0000

Hi Arnold,

Glad you found the story, and that you enjoyed it! As for subscription, that’s no problem.

If you want to have my blog posts sent to your email, you can sign up through this link:

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=theferrisfiles/JWHA&loc=en_US

If you’d like to join my newsletter, which I send out every couple months and that includes some tidbits not found on the blog, put your contact info in the box in the right column of the homepage:

http://theferrisfiles.com

If it’s Sierra magazine you’d like to subscribe to, go here:

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=7040&7040.donation=form1&autologin=true&s_src=N10ZSCZZ01&s_subsrc=JRG

Happy to be in touch.

Best regards,

David

Comment on The Treadle Pump: An Exercise in Productivity by Arnold Sarcone

Arnold Sarcone — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:05:24 +0000

I must say, I enjoy reading your article. Maybe you could let me know how I can subscribing with it ? I feel I should let you know I found your page through yahoo.

Comment on The Wind Turbine’s Tiny Cousin by Margarette Cima

Margarette Cima — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:30:47 +0000

I appreciate the do the job that you’ve put in, in this page. Really great,

Comment on This Issue’s “Innovate” Column: Energy for the Developing World by Krissy Lundeen

Krissy Lundeen — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:35 +0000

I’m genuinely glad I found this post. I’ve been scouring the web for information on solar energy for ages.Looking forward to reading more posts about energy.

Comment on The Weekly: News from Around the Matter Network by Lavenia Biles

Lavenia Biles — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:35 +0000

I recently begun setting up my own solar panels – I used some video guides I found and it’s working out good!