The perfect washing machine

When my ex-wife moved into our current home in 2001 we purchased a new Staber washing machine.  It is the most efficient washer available at the time based on energy, water, and detergent usage.  It is particularly pleasing to know that it was designed and is still manufactured by a family owned business based in Ohio. 


What is distinctive about this machine is that it is a top loading horizontal axis design.  See this promotional video that shows its features, and a cool video about How It's Made.  When you open the lid, you are presented with two stainless steel doors that open into a hexagonal washing chamber that rotates inside a larger water tank.  This means that it uses significantly less water, detergent, and also electricity due to its very simple and elegant design.

The control panel is very simple and basic - yet has all the features needed.

I noticed a little water underneath the washing machine yesterday so I jumped into repairing it today.  To be clear, this is the first repair I have had to do on this machine in over 13 years!  I remembered that another major feature of this washer is that repairs can be accomplished from the front which is quite unique in the industry and a very thoughtful piece of design.  It was quite simple to remove four screws from the bottom front edge and then take off the front.  I discovered that a flexible rubber hose had developed a leaking seal where it exits the bottom of the large stainless steel water tank.  It was a relatively simple matter to clean off the existing silicone sealant and replace it with new silicone.  Problem solved!

While this machine is relatively expensive at $1300, I am sure it has saved us hundreds of dollars in energy, water, and detergent.  Overall we have been extremely pleased with it.  If you are looking to replace your machine with a beautifully engineered piece of American design and want something extremely efficient - look no further than Staber!

As of December 2022 this machine is still running great after 21 years!  I did do one other minor repair that required that they sell me a small replacement part. 

Propane: the dirty little secret of rural living

propane tanks below my solar collectors

Living in rural America, one notices propane tanks everywhere because we do not have natural gas pipelines out in the country.  It is a convenient fuel source for cooking, water heating, clothes drying and building heating.  The tanks pictured above are used to supplement the heat from the solar collectors that heat my workshop, and also run our backup generator during power outages which are frequent in the winter.

While propane is a fossil fuel, in the grand scheme of things it is one of the cleaner fossil fuels and is also relatively benign.  I found this webpage promoting propane that offers the following bullet list:

• Propane is not considered a greenhouse gas.
• Propane is not damaging to freshwater or saltwater ecosystems, underwater plant or marine life.
• Propane is not harmful to soil if spilled on the ground. Propane will not cause harm to drinking water supplies.
• Propane vapor will not cause air pollution. Propane vapor is not considered air pollution.
• Propane vapor is not harmful if accidentally inhaled by birds, animals or people.
• Propane will only cause bodily harm if liquid propane comes in contact with skin (boiling point -44°F).

This webpage also states: "damaging emissions following LP Gas combustion is far below that of any readily available carbon based fuel used in vehicles and engines today."  Despite all of the above slightly biased factoids, I have been doing everything I can to reduce our usage of propane, for instance over the last 10 years or so we have dropped our propane consumption from about 800 gallons a year to around 400 gallons a year in our house.  This propane is used for heating, water heating, clothes drying, and cooking in pretty much that order.  This reduction was  created by installing solar collectors for water heating, and replacing our old propane water heater tank with a tankless unit.   Here is a chart showing our annual propane since 2003:

propane statistics for our home

You can also see live statistics of how well my solar collectors are working on this page of my website.

In my workshop, I have dramatically reduced my propane use - largely by burning wood that I cut on my own property:

workshop propane usage - reduced by using solar and firewood

 Live performance statistics for the solar heating system are on this page of my site.

Many of my neighbors have traditionally heated their homes exclusively with firewood.  Two neighbors in particular have added supplementary propane heat over the last five or six years.  One of them rationalized it because he did not want to worry about freezing pipes in his house if he needed to leave it for more than a few days in the dead of winter when temperatures dip below 0°F frequently.   Another neighbor added an in-law suite that was at the far end of his home from the wood stove and elected to put in a propane heater rather than another wood stove.  Unfortunately, propane heaters require electricity to operate so if the power does fail as it often does during winter storms one is still without backup or emergency heat.  This makes a wood stove and/or a propane fired backup generator an important asset.

I have come to accept propane as a necessary evil.  I remember a quote from an author writing for Home Power magazine in which he stated: "propane is the dirty little secret of off grid living".  And that has stuck with me as a way of focusing my consciousness around this relatively benign fossil fuel.

Why I'm committed to living sustainably

This is a re-post from my May 12, 2014 blog

Someone recently asked me why I am so committed to living sustainably. The question took me completely by surprise, and I was unable to come up with a cogent response in the moment. After pondering this question for almost 2 weeks I came up with a response.

Part of my response can be summarized as: “I’m an engineer dammit!”. Most of what I do for a living is design and develop electronic products. As an engineer, it is my job to use technology to solve problems, and in this case I am addressing climate change directly using technologies that I find engaging. If misusing technology has gotten us into this mess then appropriate use of technology should be able to get us out of it. By transitioning our global energy systems to renewable ones, I have hope that we can limit the damage to our planet.

I also fall into the demographic category known as the “Cultural Creatives“. Cultural Creatives is the term coined by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., to describe the group of individuals who are the early adopters of progressive trends in a society. They are the ones who are creating and defining the future of life and living. As a rare combination of both artist and engineer, I am someone uniquely suited to think outside the box and vision an inspiring future for humanity.

I also read a great deal of science fiction, particularly the subgenre of extrapolative fiction in which authors take an existing facet of our contemporary society and explore outcomes.  A number of authors have tackled climate change in various ways.  Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a trilogy: “Forty Signs of Rain“, “Fifty Degrees Below” and “Sixty Days and Counting“. These books are set in present day Washington DC and center around the sociological and political aspects of abrupt climate change. The central character endures significant challenges personally and professionally and makes the whole story come alive with the direct impact of climate change on his life.  These books left a profound mark on my perception of the larger issue and imbued me with a sense of urgency to do what I can personally.

I have spent some time at the Maine Statehouse lobbying for renewable energy bills, and I became so discouraged by the response within the Utility and Energy committee that I gave up.  As I watch the American federal government become more and more dysfunctional, I realize that the solution to the world’s problems will not be political it will be up to those of us operating within civil society to take direct and personal responsibility for the well-being of our planet. The good news is that a large number of cities, counties, and states in the US are choosing to take action independently of the federal government, and I find that very encouraging.

Repurposing old light fixtures to use LED lamps

Over the last year or so I have been replacing CFL lamps with LEDs since they are more efficient and last longer and I also feel they provide a nicer quality of light. 

Today I decided to upgrade the torchiere lamp that sits next to my spot on the couch.   I have had this lamp for over 15 years and first purchased it from Real Goods in California as we were beginning to transition from incandescent lamps to compact florescents.   It came with a 30 W circular florescent that is dimmable, and I have always used it at maximum brightness.  It was claimed that this lamp was functionally equivalent in brightness to a 150 W lamp originally, and I have found this to be more or less true.   Here is a shot of the original circular florescent installed in the lamp:

And here is the upgraded lamp with 2 - 12W 1100 Lumen (75W equivalent) warm white (3700K) LED lamps:

The conversion was quite simple, and all I needed to do was purchase a couple of lamp sockets that come with small angle brackets to screw them down.  I had to slightly modify the fixture with some small metal parts to get the lamps to place nicely within the bowl of the lamp, but that was it.  

So now one of the most used lamps in our home has been reduced from 30 W to 24W.   According to my rough calculations this should save around $.15 a month on the electric bill - not much - but these LEDs will last much longer than the circular tube that I had replaced several times.   Many torchiere lamps use halogen lamps rated at 100 to 300Watts - if you have one, it may be worth upgrading to LEDs because they could pay for themselves in a matter of months.  Of course my electric bill is irrelevant in the summer when  our solar panels export excess energy back to the grid, but the principle of conservation is essential to me. 

Vehicles and shading

It is early fall here in Maine and we have already had our first frost, yet today temperatures peaked at almost 82°F.  This means that we are transitioning from leaving the windows open in our home to closing them up  at night and firing up woodstoves and propane heaters.  It also means that the decision of how to set the climate control in our Chevy Volt becomes interesting.  Unlike a regular gas powered vehicle the Volt uses precious battery energy to heat the cabin when in electric mode.  This means that I give a lot of thought about when to use the heater in our vehicle.  One strategy I use is to park the vehicle in the sun so that it is pre-warmed before I get in it.  But at this time of year it is challenging to decide where to park it since night can be chilly and day temperatures can be hot.  Shortly after we bought the Volt, I expanded the shed on the side of my workshop into a full-sized carport and that is where the vehicle sits today (photo above taken today).

Once we have exceeded the volt's battery range of 27 to 39 miles, the onboard gasoline powered "range extender" activates and at that point heating the vehicle becomes free due to the waste heat from the engine.   On many trips I will turn the heat down very low until the point at which the engine comes on in order to conserve energy and extend the electric range of the vehicle.

As we edge into colder weather I will be leaving the vehicle out in the sun unless a snowstorm is imminent.  On very cold days, or very hot ones, we can use the remote control from up to 100 feet away to activate the climate control system in the vehicle for 10 minutes while it is still plugged in to our charging station.  The advantage of this is that we are not draining the battery to pre-warm, or pre-cool the vehicle interior since it is using "shore power". 

These strategies can be applied to any vehicle to reduce the requirement for air-conditioning in the summer.  For instance when parking in a public parking lot in the summer I always look for the shadiest spot to reduce the need for energy hogging air-conditioning.