Drew Dowdell

I've looked into a tankless system for the house in the event our water heater goes suddenly and you're right that for the money, they aren't a great deal. Part of it is that the new tank water heaters are so much more efficient these days and hold their heat better than ever. That I wish I could do is solar water heat. Our friends in Cologne have that. It even heats their house through radiant floor heating. The only energy they use is for a circulator pump to move the water around. They do have a small tank water heater that can "top up" the water heat if needed on extremely cold days. 66Stang, you can hook me up? We need to do it soon I think. Every fall I do a re-enactment of the Dad from Christmas Story where I go to the basement and beat the thing with a hammer while cursing profusely. After I get it running at the beginning of fall, it's reliable... it's just those first few times it fires up that it needs help.

Well, you can't say that all greening is a bad idea and not cost effective. I spent $1700 (I think, it was 6 year ago) to have blow in insulation put into my house. It made a tremendous difference in both comfort level and gas usage. Once I replace my furnace that was installed in April 1950, I'll probably see another bump down in gas usage and an increase in comfort again.

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Quit fiddling around with the lighting!

too much money for that.

That price sounds a bit on the high end Balthy. I can walk into Home Depot today and pick one up for about $650. It's not like they require special plumbing.

I should let you into the politics forum.... you'd quickly find a use for it in there.

Everything is fine as long as I'm gettin richer...

Sorry... we temporarily forgot that it's all about the money.

The conservative side of things is saying we shouldn't build windfarms because they are somehow worse than potential oil spills.

hahah... don't tell me that you see Dr. Pobleti..... you're roughly 4 miles from the house I grew up in just off the Whitehorse Circle.

Well.... only somewhat. If you already leave the lights on all the time, going to CFLs will eventually save you energy and money. The thing I'm confused about is the laundry thing. Most of the HE washers are high capacity, so you can do all the towels in one load instead of two. Are people really wearing 6% more clothing? Albert and I already seem to go through a ridiculous amount of laundry a week... and I'm not sure how. I'm struggling to understand how someone can actually increase laundry usage just because they got a HE washer. I understand what you're saying about making something cheaper and people will use more of it.... I just don't see that happening with laundry.

I can look at my bill once I go home. The rate varies month to month.

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it here.

This oil spill is like a nuclear bomb going off in the water fowl and other ocean going animal populations. A fishery is like a drive by. In no place did I assume that all of the water fowl population that was killed was all the same species. Remember, this number is just what has been found. It's unlikely we'll ever know the true number.

I know that on this point, I haven't really seen any reduction in my bills, but I have seen a reduction in my kWh used. I'm a stickler for not leaving lights on even though my whole house is CFL. Unfortunately, the price has increased for me over the years.

More fun facts. Large water fowl have a very low reproduction rate, such that 2,188 deaths can completely decimate a regional population. Most only produce one chick every year to every 2 years. It will take multiple decades for those bird populations to recover. Most (but admittedly not all) windfarm bird casualties are from the smaller song bird and medium scavenger varieties. These birds have as many as 6 chicks per clutch and some even have two clutches a year. Additionally, they have a much wider habitat range than water fowl. They can recover from a drastic population reduction in as little as a year. Yes you'll find some article out there about an eagle chopped up in wind turbine blades, but the Eagle population is growing despite the wind turbines. The water fowl population on the gulf coast will likely be devastated for 20-30 years. Stop trying to defend this disaster.

thats because they run the exhaust pipe through the dashboard.

The CTS 3.6 AWD is 3858, The CTS-V is 4222, the E63 (which is the proper comparison to the CTS-V and that you conveniently forgot to mention) is 4300lbs. So either start whining about Mercedes weights, or stop bitching about GM weights. Some GM cars are porkers. Some Toyota cars are porkers. Some Hyundai/Kia cars are porkers. Some BMW cars are porkers. The only two vehicles in GM's lineup that stand out as overweight amongst their rivals are the Camaro and the Lacrosse. Everything else is about right for it's size. The Genesis coupe is a chopped sedan frame. Thus it is smaller and lighter than the sedan. To make the Camaro, they really didn't chop the Zeta sedan much at all. The wheelbase is only 2 inches shorter, and overall length is 6 inches shorter. In comparison, the Hyundia Scoupe has 4 inches less wheel base and is over 13 inches shorter than the sedan.

I'll admit that the Camaro is overweight. It's a coupe stretched over a sedan frame. That doesn't mean that it's not a great car. It's still very fast and very nimble. The only way it matters what the Mustang can do is if you're going to road race it. Otherwise, buy the Camaro for it's looks and it's moves and be happy. The Mustang is a good looking car. The Camaro is IMHO a better looking car. The Camaro would be my choice out of the two. Why does no one ever complain when Benz or BMW puts out an absolute pig of a car like the E-class, new 5er, S-class, or X6? The CTS is less weight than the new 5er.

I'm going to side with Dwight on this one. The gearing would have to be adjusted, but most likely the Mustang with a 6.2 would at least equal the Mustang 5.0's fuel economy numbers while providing more power. It takes a certain amount of dementia to insinuate that adding horsepower while maintaining fuel economy, the Mustang would decrease it's sales.

I'd probably still be driving an Oldsmobile..... oh... wait.

I took the Camaro from Detroit to Pittsburgh. It's absolutely fine as a long distance car if there are only 2 people traveling. The seats are very comfortable and the ride is smooth, firm without being harsh.

For now. I haven't driven the Mustang yet, but I found the Camaro to be very livable as a daily driver.

The Camaro came from a large sedan that was cut down. The Lincoln LS on which the Mustang is loosely based is much lighter. And it had nothing to do with being based on a pushrod block. It was only because GM half assed the timing belt idler pulleys using plastic ones that would split instead of steel, and they undersized the alternator and put it in a hot spot. There was NOTHING wrong with that engine that wasn't easily correctable. Like all GM products of that era, once they got the engine right, they discontinued it. The 1995 Dual Twincams are pretty much fine.