Jay Gaulard Blog

Saving Water, Electricity, Honda Civic, Solar and the Prius

Monday, June 16th, 2008

Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water

Though many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to plan for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link.

New Material Absorbs Light Completely And Generates Electric

A partnership between Duke University and Boston College turned out to be very beneficial for the science world, as they obtained a metamaterial that absorbs all the light it gets (yes, it becomes invisible) and that is supposed to generate energy more efficiently than the solar cells.

Civic Outsells F-150 for First Time Ever

Go little Civic, go!

How To Heat Up Solar

It seems incredible then that the U.S. Senate has again failed to pass a bill that would extend solar tax credits to build new power plants.

Prius is Now the Most Searched New Car on Cars.com

Cars.com has announced that for the first time ever, the Toyota Prius has become the most searched for new vehicle on the popular vehicle classifieds site — surpassing long time favorites such as the Accord and Camry. The Prius first appeared in the top 10 most searched vehicles list last summer.

Cleaning Gutters & Installing Amerimax Gutter Covers

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

If you have ever gone through the agonizing process of dealing with gutters, you would certainly know that it’s…well, agonizing.

Here’s one for you. Have you ever realized that every single gutter cover company claims they are the best? It actually gets comical after a while. They all seem to have the “latest patented technology” and all have 100% effectiveness. Wait…some of them go the honest route. They tell you that no gutter cover is 100% effective. They say that you will still have to climb up that ladder at least a few times a year.

Well, what is someone supposed to do when they have to maintain gutters that are about 40′ high? There ain’t no way this old man is getting up there.

It’s the same old story. These are the things I deal with when I move to a new house. I guess it’s only been twice now, just try to ignore that. Each time, I go around and figure out what needs to be done. I just do it. I don’t wait. The longer I wait, the more something rots or gets clogged or prices go up. Plus, I like doing these things. I have a certain affinity for “systems.” I like to watch things work. Who else takes pictures of gutter cover installations?

Here is my situation. We have about 136′ of gutter. They are all clogged with oak leaves. There are no pine needles. When it rains hard, the gutters fill up and overflow. This makes my face turn red. There are two reasons why I don’t pull out the big 40′ ladder and clean them out right then and there…one being I don’t have that 40′ ladder and two being I don’t like the feeling of lightening running through my body.

The whole reason for gutters is to stop the rain from pouring down and the water sitting against the house foundation. This keeps the basement dryer. Gutters are very good, but we, as a species, have yet to perfect a cover that stops debris from filling them up and stopping their functionality. You would be amazed at how few leaves to takes to clog a gutter.

You are lucky I didn’t have this blog when we moved into the other house. I went through this whole fiasco then. I would’ve dragged you through it with me. The difference there was the highest gutter was about 14′. That was nothing. If I tried to climb a ladder to reach parts of the gutters here, I probably would get “shaky leg.” If you have ever climbed something high, you know what I am talking about. I remember one time I was at the very top of a 100′ oak tree and my leg started to shake. I guess that’s the body’s way of telling you to get down.

Since I am not about to do the gutter thing here, I decided to call some professionals. I had a gutter cleaning company come over yesterday and they gave me a price of $125 to clean them. That was fair, but the problem is that the cleaning really doesn’t solve the problem. They would have to come at least twice a year. I decided to try to solve the problem. Later on, I called another gutter company, this time, one that installed gutter covers.

Back at the other house, I installed “Leaf Relief” gutter covers that worked very well. I was, and still am, very happy with them. I put them on when we first moved in and never had to clean them out again. I checked each year and they were spotless. Because of my experience with them, I really want them on this house.

I spoke with the other company on the phone. He gave me a price of $7.50 a foot to clean and install the Leaf Relief gutter covers. That wasn’t a horrible price, but about twice as much as the actual gutter costs to install. Weird, isn’t it? I can tell you from experience, gutter covers are really easy to put on and there really isn’t much material to them at all. Why they cost that much to install is beyond me. At that price, this job would be costing at least $1,020. I would pay it if I had to, but I am really trying to find another way.

Since I was making a trip to Home Depot today anyway, I thought of a great idea. Why not buy some gutter covers from the Depot and install them where I can reach? If I do that, I can at least knock a couple of bucks off the job.

When I got there, I looked through the gutter covers and one type stuck out. It was the Amerimax Home Products 4 Ft. White Solid Gutter Cover. These were about $1 per foot and seemed to remind me of a few other big name brands. I thought to myself, “Heck man, what the freak, let’s go for it.” I bought 44′ worth.

There are two spots I can reach on this house…one in the back, over the porch and the other the front of the garage. If I could install the 44′ worth, I would be saving $330. Not bad.

I gotta tell ya, I really like installing gutter covers. Seriously. I cleaned the gutters out and slid these covers up, under the shingles. Then, I clipped the fronts around the lip of the gutter. They were secure after that. I went one step further and screwed two self tapping screws in the front edge of each cover, just to be sure. The screws are rust proof…yeah, that would be a mess.

After I installed them, I got the garden hose out and sprayed the roof. I watched the water slide around the nose of the cover and enter the gutter. What a great feeling it is to hear the water running down the downspout. The cool part is watching the water “cling” to the gutter as it goes around the bend.

While the first (and cheaper) guy was here, I asked him if he could install the covers if I got them. He agreed, for a price. I am sure I can negotiate a decent price with him to install the rest of the covers. I am pretty sure that he got the impression I am not the type of person that has a gutter cleaning company come over twice a year. As I said, I like to “fix” the problem.

New Washer and Dryer

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Yes, I know, this is probably one of my more boring posts. Actually, maybe not…I have a lot of boring posts.

Well, we had our new washer and dryer delivered today. We left our old ones back in NY. We were going to bring them, but I thought it would be a good selling point for the other house if we left them, especially since they are almost brand new. Also, I really wanted to get one of these new types of washers. They are Energy Star® and use much less water. Also, the spin cycle spins the drum at 1,100 RPM, so the clothes really get a lot of the water spun out of them before they hit the dryer. That equals less dryer time.

The washer is very quiet. I was sitting right next to it, while talking on the phone and could hardly hear it operating. I like the way I can watch the clothes flop around in there. We got the “LG Electronics 4.0 Cu. Ft. Energy Star® Front Load Washer in White” from Home Dept. I think the Energy Star®, along with the reduced usage of water was worth the few extra bucks.

The dryer is a regular old dryer. It is the “GE 7.0 Cu. Ft. Super Capacity Electric Dryer” also from Home Depot. When we went in to pick them out, I really wanted the stainless steel drum. The sales girl told us that she went to a class just the day before and was told that the stainless steel did virtually nothing for performance. I thought this was a little odd because the stainless costs more and she would probably want to make a bigger sale. Since we really don’t need any fancy features for a dryer, we got this one.

The first wash is going right now. I am going to get the dryer going and start finishing up the pile was already have down in the laundry room.

Peace out.

Bull’s Bridge River Rapids in Kent, CT

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

As promised, I am posting some (well all) of the videos we took the other day when we were in Kent, CT.

I would say there are eight videos in all. I am posting them as I upload them, but as you might guess, YouTube takes a while to upload, especially when the videos range from 30MB - 130MB. In the videos, the cool part is how much water is going down the river. We have had a bunch of rain, so that really took its toll. Also, the weather was great, so there was some company during our hike.

Enjoy the videos.

Fife’n Drum and Bull’s Bridge, Kent, CT

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I know that I have told you in the past how much Laura and I like to eat lunch at the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT every Easter. We have been doing it now for about four years. It usually is a very good time. Well, unfortunately, yesterday was our last visit to this restaurant.

I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and not too much like a restaurant critic. Let’s just say that it seems like there is some new management and a new chef at this place.

The wait was very long during each portion of our two course Easter lunch and the food was amateur at best. It seemed like the dish washing dude was back there cooking too. I swear it seemed like there were parts of my dishes that were from a can. To me, “warm potatoes” does not mean potato salad that tasted like it was straight from Costco. A vegetarian dish does not mean boiled vegetables. Oh well, there’s $80 down the drain. We didn’t even stay for dessert…my favorite part. We just left the money on the table and left. During the last 20 minute wait to have our plates cleared from the table, three different waiters walked by and looked at us at least seven times. We kept wondering if our waiter had gone home. Well, as it turns out, as we were leaving, Laura caught sight of this guy eating at the bar. What the hell? If you can’t tell, I am a little annoyed. To think, I still left a tip…A TIP. I didn’t have the patience to wait for any change. I swear, if we had stayed any longer, they would’ve started vacuuming the floor while people were still eating. Yes, we will have to find a new place to eat on Easter.

To simmer down, we went on our traditional hike at Bull’s Bridge. I have a few posts about our previous hikes. It’s a really neat place.

Since we have been down the same trail so many times, I thought it would be a good idea to check out the top part of the trails. Laura might have been a little disappointed because she wanted to go on a real hike. I will have to make it up to her. We took lots of pictures and video. I will upload the video today and post it here.

This is a photo of the front of the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT. I don’t even know why I am showing this. Perhaps someone from the restaurant will read this post and mail me a refund check.

This is the monument in Kent, CT.

These are two shots of Bull’s Bridge itself. We got lucky with very good weather.

These are all shots of the river. The water was rushing very fast, due to all the rain we have been getting. We didn’t see any kayakers like we have in previous years. Maybe the water was going too fast. I sure wouldn’t get in there.