Town, County and Schools Open

Clarity: According to today’s stories in the Journal, Taos and other points of disconnect in El Norte were specifically chosen to suffer by NM Gas Co. Engineers–who made the decision and said it was due to dropping pressures and rolling black outs, a lack of redundant electrical resources in Texas. They chose to stick with larger population centers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Apparently, the gods have withdrawn their blessings from Taos.  Here’s a cute name for yesterday’s New Mexico Gas Co. spokesperson: Monica Hussey. Visit New Mexico Gas Co. web site or phone them if you want to make a financial claim.

Tuesday, 2/8/11

Winter Vacation is over.  Connelly says “The Town of Taos will be open [Today!] for full operation, as will Taos County, and the Taos Municipal Schools (including local Charter Schools).

” The Town of Taos will also hold its Regular Council meeting at 1:30 p.m., in Council Chambers, 120 Civic Plaza Dr., Taos.  Attached is the agenda for that meeting, which was developed prior to this week’s natural gas outage.  Of course the outage will also be a topic for Council discussion under Citizen’s Forum and Manager/Mayor/Council issues.

Connelly reminds you that “Hot showers:  The Town’s Youth & Family Center has had about 18 in for hot showers – regular hours for the Center, and showering, this week are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Town Divided over Daniel: Friction notes that the Mayor and Manager crisis continues, according to the agenda–each side will pummel the other with criticism and support for the former wunderkind from El Prado at today’s meeting.

TMS Note: On Wed. the current TMS school board will consider El Weston’s recommendation to hire a suspicious person, allegedly related to an incoming board member by marriage, according to Flavio. “Los Tres Primos take over on March 1 and El Blancito wants to please Chuby and the Gang,” says the longtime custodian. “Ca Commence,” as les Francaises say. “Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.” (See the TMS agenda item, No. 5. “Hiring Tobacco Grant Ms. Cordova,”  published in The Taos News–under Super Recs. What’s her first name, Weston? Eh, Mr. Nepo? We’re only asking.)

To KCEC: “Staff [PRC] will not take a position on whether and how to narrow the scope of this rate proceeding until Kit Carson files its complete rate application which, according to the Order Suspending Rates and Appointing a Hearing Examiner issued by the Commission on January 13, 2011, is due on or before Monday, February 14, 2011 and further, may include alternative rate designs.”–Happy Valentine’s day, Luis.

The Real Disconnect

After listening to Paddy Mac’s endearing callers and the message from the Gas. Co. Matriarch on 101.9 FM,  it is obvious that the real disconnect concerns theoretical office folk v. the men and women in the field. Some people follow all of the rules; a few follow none of the rules; and some follow some of the rules. But nobody knows what all the real rules are. So take wrench in hand and matches in fingers—give it a shot. Then wait for the results to light up your life.

See web do-it-yourself at : http://www.ehow.com/how_7412399_purge-natural-gas-piping.html

(Yours truly turned on his meter and relit the hot water heater and boiler. If I can do it…)

Hey Bill,

Thanks for posting the msg. from Connelly. I just hooked my gas up nd thought, Why didn’t I just do this three days ago?!

Steve

Hello Bill,

We just went out and turned on the gas with a crescent wrench and then tested for gas using the cooktop in the kitchen.  It worked perfectly.  So, then I turned on everything else, one at a time.  We are fully operational again until the gas co screws up again.

Thanks, G.

Gas on in Vista Linda … across from the new Armory on C110, down the road from UNM-Taos and the Golf Course. Spread the word. 3:00 p.m. Thanks to the Salvation Army of the Gas Light Boys!!!

Catherine

Editor:

A friend of mine did it for us while I watched. Exactly what I would have done. Lighting the gas water heater pilot was as hard as flicking a Bic. I just wasn’t going to wait any longer: after scouring the Taos Police Department’s Facebook page comments, I had the procedure down, then double-checked with Google images of where the valves were, and so on. Nothing to it if you’re informed and sane. No idea how you and I managed it.

J. (John Farr)

On Redundancy

The “Big Freeze” of 2011 raises several interesting points, most of which have to do with “multi-source” or creating “redundant” sources of energy. As you reduce the distance between your energy source and your use, you become more secure: like growing a garden or installing a green house—instead of always going to the market. Countless stories during the “Big Freeze” demonstrate how Taosenos mix and match resources for heat and energy. But we need to focus even more closely on avoiding corporate or even Coop connections as the future of the grid and pipeline become more problematical and complex.

Wood i.e. “bio-fuels” is the most accessible source. We’re used to it and it’s a tradition. Free-lance operators are fully engaged in providing wood. Or you can go get a permit and gather enough down and dead trees to heat your house, if not for the entire winter, at least for emergencies at the cost of a few hours work. And you’re helping out the forest by reducing the fuel loads. New technologies for wood heaters and cookers mean you use less wood today to heat longer and bigger. (Years ago I had an Ashley Woodstove and it burned wood and magazines for 12 hours without an injection of new fuel.)

You can still buy coal in Southern Colorado, a cheap if dirty source. I wonder, has the industry adopted new scrubbers for home use coal? Somebody on Ranchitos road used to sell coal in Taos.

Propane, as a secondary and emergency source, is good but expensive as a main source for older houses and energy inefficient units. Electricity is good for the entertainment goodies—TV, VCR, DVD, Internet and great back up for hot water and cooking.

The propane fired or wood fired BBQ is always useful. Think camping equipment—sleeping bags, cook stoves, tents. A gas-run generator seems like another idea good for emergencies. Pellet stoves require electricity but also function as a secondary source.

Insulation and solar energy or design reduces impact. But cloudy days and long days of freezing temperatures reduce solar security. Wind energy seems problematical though there’s plenty of that on radio and at press conferences or at local government meetings. Mother nature helps but she’s a tricky wench.

If you can mix and match, think of your house as compartmentalized but carry on like the connections of the organs in the body, you might come up with not a “mechanical” but an “organic” system that fits your digs. Include the corporate and the self-sufficient  as well as old and new fangled methods. Those who live west of the Gorge off the grid set one standard. The Coop’s propane-electric combo sets another. Natural gas users set still another standard. But mixed use is best.

We must avoid the monocultural claims of corporate America. A combination of wood, natural gas, propane, solar, electricity, and lots of blankets suggests a more formidable defense against cold weather. Let us have more gadgets—not fewer—as we adapt to a future filled with the admonition: “Be prepared.”

I invite my readers to email  bwhaley@newmex.com with their ideas for energy security and we’ll post them here.

From Joanne Forman

Your Favorite Composer is snug enough! You are right on about multi-source. Yes, I have a woodstove; this is the  first winter in 6/7 yrs. I’ve had to buy wood, but it is STILL much cheaper  than gas, nat or prop. I get a lot of scrap, too. (I can cook, too, on the woodstove, and have.)

I do have a little electric spaceheater, which, in deference to being an old party now, I run for about an hour in the morning.

A thing you didn’t mention:

CLOTHES: I have on at this moment: silk underwear, a flannel nightgown, an

ankle-length thing made of sweatcloth stuff, and a down bathrobe. (I have  Dr. Zhivago-style wool gloves, with the fingertips cut off, but I don’t  usually need them.)

I know it’s totally unAmerican, but the body is more flexible than we think. I have learned to be comfortable at about 62 degrees. I remember an ad from eons ago about natural gas: a baby comfortable in the dead of winter in just a diaper–that’s what Americans are supposed to expect….forget it.

Please lemme know if you get this–my e-mail has been screwed up for a long time, and nobody seems able to fix it. So much for technology.

Carry on.

From: Taos Sound

Diversify

Bill, I could not agree more that having multiple sources of heat is wise. But it is also time for ALL of us, not just Taosenos, to get real about keeping a house warm all the time.

Here are some ideas.

Turn your heat WAY down or off when out of the house.When you get home, have a hot beverage and do active chores. You will stay warm while the house heats up. Heat yourself, your family, your pets, your plants, your pipes etc. Stop heating ‘your house’. Close off rooms you don’t need.

Try using an electric mattress. They send heat up to YOU, not the room. Try shopping hard for clothing that you LIKE wearing a lot of indoors. Stretchy comfortable layers are cheap and so very ‘Taos casual’.

It is not wasteful or dangerous to turn a space heater on for a shorter time in a smaller place where you are. Heat people, not houses. It may be hard to understand, but after figuring in gas in the car, studies show that it is more efficient to go out and have fun somewhere that is already being lit up and heated. More Party = Less Petrol.

Robin Mclean

From: Bob Fies

Regarding providing heat, don’t forget our bodies are great heatgenerators as long as we’ve got adequate water, food, and clothing (include covering your head). Begin planning and preparation by making sure all are well covered. Redundancy of external heat sources is great, but make sure you do all you can now to reduce heat loss from your home to a minimum. Short term this means stopping air infiltration around windows and doorways and anywhere else a small draft can be found (a pack of matches can turn you into Sherlock Holmes). Windows can be covered with blankets or anything you have and Visqueen and a staple gun can stop convection.

Long term, get an energy audit of your home which will showits vulnerabilities and the net cost (and savings) of  bringing your home up to snuff with insulation, storm windows, etc. Even an old adobe can be retrofitted successfully (New Buffalo has 5,000 sq ft and stays safe and warm on one wood stove fire a day). And Joachin Karcher is designing new homes with essentially zero energy loss.

Bob Fies  776-2015

From: Erich Kuerschner

Methinks a large part of this effort is to divert attention away from fiduciary malfeasance and liability to compensate for economic loss. Shutting down during Super Bowl weekend entails some serious money.

Otherwise, why not explain potential “dangers” (if any- as you know most appliances are consumer lit, have numerous safety features to cover most eventualities, and NG operates at a very low pressure) and explain if homeowner is willing to assume liability, here is what to do.  All I heard today on engr lady with Patty Mac is Danger! v Danger! – you stupid- us smart..

Nice try at creating illusion of dependency and disallowing a challenge of their authority/ right to decide whether compensation is due.

Erich

From Beth Enson

Hi Bill!

One energy source you didn’t mention, that really helped out this week, was a rooftop mechanical solar hot air collector (basically a trombe window hooked up to a vent and electric blower).  We put this in about 8 years ago and it pumps nice hot air into the house as soon as the sun comes up, with just a little electric hot air pump–pretty darn efficient.  It sucks cool air from floor level and circulates it through the system, blowing it back once it’s warm.

I want to get another one for the side of the house where we use the radiant heat.  The one we have is in the same room as the wood stove.  Sort of redundant, but really as you point out, that’s a good thing.  I think we paid $800 back then, and it has definitely paid for itself over time.

Beth