Iran Situation

11.27.13: In Toronto Star Nov 25th.

Very controversial position taken by Obama.

Iran is in a power struggle with the big 5 and wants to be one of them ... makes me very concerned.
How can you blame them? A number of countries have nuclear bomb capability, including Pakistan.

It may be a poor decision, as it just provides more time for Iran to develop (and hide) bomb grade enriched uranium. They already have over 18,000 facilities for making enriched uranium at close to bomb level.
It also provides money to Iran, as it relaxes the trade restrictions put in place to force agreement.

It may prove to be a good move, if Iran does go along with the stopping of the enrichment pgm (for more than the 6 months agreed to).

In my opinion, Iran will not stop their enrichment pgm under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and without much more stringent trade restrictions. They want to be a main world power and think a nuclear bomb is the way.

Quite a few countries will watch very closely the results of the daily inspections to be done as part of this temporary agreement.

I am waiting to see what happens when Iran finds ways to impact the quality (and bandwidth) of these daily inspections.

What do you think?

Online Home Thermostat Control Mgmt

13.11.19: Did you know you can alter your home thermostat setting from the Internet anywhere in the world?
Particularly useful when taking a trip and about to return home.
When leaving, we usually turn down in winter and turn up in summer. The day before returning, it is nice to make your home more comfortable for your return.

With PowerStream (our hydro provider in Markham), we can go to a website to make changes to our physical home thermostat.  

By going to the PowerStream site and signing in (with either account number or email address).
Then select Energy Management -> Residential in the top menu and then Thermostat online access in the left menu.
Then click on your thermostat number (left menu) and select:

1. Schedule - to create a new schedule that will override the thermostat 
2. Manual - to create a temporary setting (until next thermostat scheduled setting)
3. Saved Schedules - to delete any online schedules you made 

It is important to remember any schedules you make online will always override any set on the actual thermostat.

Be sure to check Saved Schedules and delete any previous online schedules, once you return home.

Check the Hints and Details section (on the Schedule page), if you have questions.

PowerStream customers can call 1-866-323-0206, to find or reset your username and/or password.














Were you aware prices were going up $.05 per kilowatt as of Nov 1st? 
More important every year to be aware of the TOU rates and times.

Hydro Smart Meter

13.11.19: Ontario Hydro Smart Meters

This is in addition to five other related blog items:

1. Online Home Thermostat Control Mgmt. Nov 20132. How does your home compare? April 2013
3. Up-to-the-minute Hydro Usage. Dec 2012
4. Hydro - Time-of-Use Pricing. Oct 2010
5. PowerStream PeakSaver. Jan 2009

Smart meters are now installed in most homes. Have questions?

What is the purpose of a smart meter:

• They support the implementation of time-of-use prices. By time-stamping your consumption data, local distribution companies will be able to determine how much electricity was used during off-peak times and how much was consumed during on-peak periods. This capability allows homeowners to find electricity savings by shifting their electricity use.
• They help LDCs to identify power theft and respond to meter failures and outages more quickly.
• They provide greater operational efficiencies in local distribution system management.

Does this appear to be smoke-and-mirrors to you?
The purpose is not to save us $s but to provide up-to-the-minute household electricity use to the govt. 
Home hardware installations probably caused the Nov 1st price increases...

Always good to check your usage (electricity and water) and compare to others in your area (as outlined in How does your home compare).

Harper's Environmental Influence

13.11.18: In the Toronto Star today.

By Chantal Hébert.

Who would have thought Hour PM's lack of environmental concern would negatively affect Obama's consideration for the Keystone XL pipeline!
I am not allowed to show the link, as the Star indicates I must pay to do that.  

"Would Obama have found it easier to sign off on a pipeline bid that was backed by a Canadian government whose body language was climate-change friendly? "

By Raveena Aulakh.

This article is more emphatic about the lack of climate policy presented by our PM ... in his pursuit of big oil residuals (for retirement).
Sorry, I can't include the link here.

We are now 58 out of 61 countries, failing to take action on climate change. 

"Canada still shows no intention of moving forward with climate policy and therefore remains the worst performer of all industrialized countries."

"Belief in the science behind climate change is common among those who generally support the NDP (76 per cent) and Green party (79 per cent), followed by the Bloc Québécois (70 per cent) and Liberals (69 per cent).

Only 41 per cent Conservative party supporters share that view."

"The survey also breaks down opinions across the country: belief in the science of climate change is most widespread in Quebec at 66 per cent and Atlantic Canada at 65 per cent, followed by Ontario at 61 per cent and B.C. at about 59 per cent. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, only 52 per cent believe in it, while Alberta is at 47 per cent."

Canada's World Ranking 2013

13.11.01: Even with a Senate, we are 3rd in world ranking in the prestigious Legatum Prosperity Index.

In August, we were visiting (Baltic cruise) the countries that ranked 1st (Norway), 4th (Sweden) and 6th (Denmark) and I am pleased to be in their company.

We ranked first in Personal Freedom, second in Education, and fourth in Economy.

What took us out of 2nd position was probably Health and/or Entrepreneurship & Opportunity.
But not sure about category weightings.

Interesting to see the USA is 11th and United Kingdom is 16th.

Switzerland jumped to 2nd from 9th last year.

Denmark dropped to 6th from 2nd last year. 

Norway has been 1st for the last 5 years.

Not sure how the sub-index scores are weighted, as the sum of the 8 categories doesn't indicate ranking.