Smart Outlets

What if an electrical appliance could communicate with its house? What if a coffee maker that is suddenly drawing too much current and could not only shut itself off, but also shut off its circuit?

John La Grou, longtime electronics inventor talks here about such a product. Another exciting step toward Nogginhaus - the house that thinks for itself.

Fast Response Even Faster

I know it's hard to believe, but 2 weeks ago we were in summertime weather. A lot of air conditioners were breaking down in South Jersey.

Thankfully, people were able to count on Runnemede Plumbing Heating Cooling & Electric

Here's a nice note from a homeowner in Mount Ephraim:

Thank you so much for responding to our call as fast as you did on Saturday. Our central air broke late in the day and with the outside temperature increasing over the weekend we needed your help and expertise right away... My husband and I were able to sleep comfortably, and so did our Golden Retriever Harley who was panting frantically earlier throughout the day...As homeowners we will continue to use Runnemede Plumbing Heating Cooling & Electric because we need a business, and service such as yours we can depend on to help us with the unexpected. Go Big Red R! Thank you once again.

With office hours Monday through Saturday 7am - 10pm, TheBigRedR is definitely the place to call with your home service needs; who wants to take off from work in this economy??

But then there's Nogginhaus.

With Nogginhaus, the air conditioner's problem would have been identified and fixed before there was a breakdown. No hot Saturday afternoon. No worry about a hot, miserable night. No panting Golden Retriever.

Fast response even faster.

Nogginthought About Alternative Energies

Wow, energy is a hot topic these days. It appears that cap and trade is a shoe-in and that our nation's efforts will move more and more toward finding alternative ways to power our buildings.

But despite the hype and the seemingly clear path away from carbon based fuels, there are still some doubters.

In today's Wall Street Journal, Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune points out what a small drop in the bucket(or should I say barrel) solar and wind power will make toward reducing our use of fossil fuels.

27.7 million barrels of oil were not consumed during 2008 thanks to the use of solar and wind. Problem is, he points out, that America uses the equivalent of 17,301 million barrels of oil worth of energy per year. That makes solar and wind quite a small contributor to the solution of our energy problems.

His conclusion is that hydrocarbons won't go away anytime soon and that the politicians need to admit that fact.

I'd have to agree with him. Politicians do things for power. And rallying against hydrocarbons is a politically popular thing to do.

Now, I don't propose to have all the answers, frankly I believe all politicians are cut from the same cloth, but I do think about this stuff.

The one thing that stood out in Robert Bryce's opinion piece is that he, in fact, has a solar array on the roof of his home that provides about a third of the power his family uses.

And that's where my Nogginthoughts begin. A Nogginhaus is a thinking house. And just like a thinking person is an independent one, so too will a Nogginhaus be an independent house. Sure, the nation needs to reduce it's dependence on foreign oil, blah, blah, blah. But we also need to reduce our dependence on the government 'doing something' to solve our problems.

Gas companies, electric companies, and water companies are all utilities that are fingers of the hand of government. And while all this talk revolves around solving the energy problems through various means, it is the individual who will pay for it.

Think now about how your home can be independent and then let the government do what it will do anyway - no matter what you think.