Image Credit: WFI Industries

One of the most overlooked and effective geothermal technologies is the heat pump. As shown in the diagram above, the technology can be used for heating and cooling and depending on the annual temperature variance from the base earth temperature, annual savings vs. conventional HVAC equipment can be as high as 50% per year. Essentially, these systems use the earth (or water held in the earth) as a heat exchanger, moving heat from one place to another via a working fluid in a closed loop system.

In a heating situation, if the ambient air temperature is 32F (0C) and the earth temperature is 53F (12C) the working fluid will be used to transfer heat from the earth to the interior ambient environment – a 21F (12C) advantage over taking exterior ambient air – and then will use conventional means to heat the air to the desired temperature. In a cooling situation, it’s the reverse taking heat from the interior ambient air and transferring it to the earth. Since most humans don’t wish to live in 53F temperatures, further cooling isn’t generally necessary.

One of the leaders in geothermal heat pumps is Indiana based WFI Industries, manufacturer of the Water Furnace. It would seem over the past few years that WFI has been discovered, take a look at their stock chart from that time frame:


Image Credit: Yahoo Finance

This is clearly a technology with huge benefits, particularly where the climate has significant differences in ambient air temperature between summer and winter conditions.

Via Cleantech.com:

Tokyo-based Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) said it plans to start selling plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2010.

That would put the new cars in direct competition with the Chevy Volt from Detroit’s General Motors (NYSE: GM), another plug-in hybrid expected to be released that year.

Toyota said the first sales of its lithium-ion battery-equipped plug-in hybrid vehicles would be to fleet customers in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Read more…

This is the first of many of these sorts of announcements we should expect, the PHEV is a sensible next step in the evolution toward all electric transportation. As can be seen from the troubles with Tesla, it’s very difficult to simply jump from combustion technology to all electric (though we’re still wondering why an electric vehicle needs a transmission per se…)

Photo Credit: Urban Trend

Struggling for ideas about what to get for the person who has everything? Well, your search is now complete because it’s unlikely that they have a Throwzini knife block. I saw this the other day and it made me smile. Check out the Throwzini and a bunch of other novel gadgets at Urban Trend.

HT: Laughing Squid

Greg Long Mavericks Winner 2008

Photo Credit: John Todd

There were some pretty good waves available on a clear, windy, and crisp day where Greg Long emerged as the winner of the 2008 Mavericks Surf Contest. The Airport, Princeton Harbor, El Granada, and Highway 1 were jammed with people trying to see the contest which ran from 8am to 3pm today. Congratulations Greg! Make sure you visit Mavericks Surf, the official contest site for all the latest info and some great photos of the event.

2007 was a great year for Musings from the Coast, our traffic increased dramatically from 2006, over 20x. In 2007 we had over 250,000 unique visitors and served nearly 500,000 page impressions. One of the things I was interested in seeing was, what the heck do my visitors like to read? The results were a little surprising with some older content showing legs. It’s certainly skewed strongly toward humor, so you can guess what I’ll post more of in 2008. I certainly intended to post this around the New Year, but life intruded and it’s taken until now to get it together to post the lists. Hope you enjoy this “most popular in 2007” list…

#10 – Prison Population Growth – Would it surprise you to learn that in the past 25 years the US prison population has grown 16x faster than the population at large? Has crime decreased by 16 times? This entry explores the US Prison Population over the past 25 years.

#9 – Top 10 Most Likely Ways to Die – A look at the most common unnatural causes for death in the US from the year 2003.

#8 – Conference Strength Report – A look at the on-field data for BCS conferences about which football conference is strongest (and weakest) throughout the course of the season.

#7 – Global Warming: The Proof is in the Knickers – A humorous view of climate change through styles in women’s undergarments…

#6 – Save 10% on Gasoline – This entry was very popular as the fuel prices spiked in the US, a series of recommendations that would enable you to save gas easily, cheaply, and effectively.

#5 – My Name is Inigo Montoya – There are apparently alot of Princess Bride fans in the world (I know I’m one…) I’m thinking the picture of the Rodent of Unusual Size, a Capybara, was the draw to this entry.

#4 – Geek Chic, A Different Take – Another entry from 2006 that remained popular throughout the year, it must be the picture. I thought my Geek Chic series would be more widely read, but it wasn’t.

#3 – Great Michigan License Plate – This post was picked up by Sports Illustrated, Deadspin, and was a StumbleUpon favorite. I shows the Morons license plate. The original creator of the photo contacted me and the real story about the plate is posted here.

#2 – A Mighty Wind – An oldie, but goodie that describes in detail how wind power is harvested. Authored in 2006, it still commanded huge traffic in 2007.

#1 – Want to get $3,500? – A post about how much electricity (money) I’m saving with a big bang switch over to compact fluorescent lighting.

Well that’s a wrap, I’ll certainly post more content this year, I hope you’ll bookmark this site and visit us often. If you see something you like from our sponsors, make sure to tell them you were referred from this site. Have a great New Year!