Hanging out in rural VT

I'm now in South Royalton Vermont, spending time with my great friend Jes who is a law student at Vermont Law School. The past few days have been fairly relaxing, spending time in a nice old house with two cozy kitties, cooking local food from the organic coop in town, checking out school events, etc. Oh, and checking out options for natural bridesmaid dresses as I will need one for Jes' wedding in 2008! :)

I'm getting very excited for the upcoming holidays and for trying to put into practice some of the techniques for sustainability i've been learning. One idea is to get an energy audit of my mom's suburban Long Island house, not only for us to learn what improvements can be made to reduce heating bills this winter and make the house more energy efficient, but also for me to see some energy technologies first hand that I have until now only seen in slideshow presentations. Technology such as thermal imaging of a house to see how much heat is being lost due to poor insulation, and the blower door technique which sucks in air through the house to see how much unwanted airflow gets through. In a house over 80 years old (William Gibson created the "Gibson" area of Valley Stream in the 1920's), many improvements can be made, but at what cost? I hope to find out and to share the info of course. Will keep you posted!

Here's an infrared imageof a home losing a lot of heat (red and yellow areas) due to a poor building envelope:

(Courtesy: www.atv-infrared.com/residential.htm)