If you live in Pacific Gas & Electric’s service area, you can get a great deal on CFLs. Read the press release and plan to go replace the bulbs that are most appropriate. I wrote an article about this about a month ago (coincidentally, it’s the most popular article I’ve ever written with over 40,000 unique visits to date…)

Steps to take advantage of this offer:

1. Take an inventory of your lighting, make sure to note:
1. Wattage of bulbs
2. Location of the bulbs
3. Special features: does it need dimmable or three-way capability? Is it an enclosed, recessed, specialty, or outdoor fixture?
4. How frequently is the light used? Higher use lighting provides higher benefits
5. Does the light require instant 100% illumination (i.e. closets and refrigerators)
2. Post inventory, analyze the result to decide how many bulbs and of what wattage it makes sense to replace
3. Visit the closest PG&E distribution center and pick up your bulbs
4. Plan a time to simply replace the old bulbs with new in one fell swoop (note: it’s handy to have a ladder, step stool, and a container to hold old bulbs)
5. Be careful with the CFLs, if they break, make sure to follow clean-up instructions due to mercury content
6. Recycle your old bulbs in the glass stream
7. When your CFLs burn out, 6,000+ hours from now…make sure to properly recycle them
8. Compare your electricity usage with PG&E’s handy online tool, you should see savings vs. the same month last year and the prior month

Good luck, if you do this, please leave a comment and let us know how it went. We’ll modify this process to make it work as generally as possible. The above process is what I used when replacing 83 bulbs in June of this year. I’m now saving around 200kwh/month and $45/month…Not a bad outcome. Using the PG&E promotion, you can really get this effect on the cheap. Go take advantage of it!

If you don’t live in the PG&E service area, check with your utility. Many are doing similar promotions and subsidize energy efficient lighting.

This week has been a light publishing week due to the GRC conference. Once I return to the Bay Area, you can expect:

• Ohio State/Purdue preview
• GRC conference review
• A couple of other interesting things observed over this week

Come on back Thursday, it’ll be a busy day!

I’ve never understood convention center complexes not having ubiquitous wifi – even for-pay wifi. Oh well, that means it’s difficult to stay connected. Couple of observations:

• The West tower is MUCH better than the East tower at the Nugget
• The train side of the building is MUCH better than the freeway side of the building
• The opening session for the conference was in a caberet room here – kind of weird
• The hot dry rock (HDR) crowd is growing, despite the fact there seems to be a water shortage where they’re implementing the technology and they haven’t yet connected injector to production wells
• New technologies are appearing: wet organic rankine cycle, smith cycle, screw shaped rotors for expanders, hydrogen-oxygen spalling, and many others

I’ll share more the next time I’m at the keyboard.

For the next three days I’m attending the Geothermal Resources Council conference in the world’s friendliest little city, Reno, Nevada. Like my previous trips here, I’m staying at John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Hint, if you stay here ask for a room not facing I-80. It’s loud all night long.

Here’s the update from this weekend’s college football action. Subtitle for this weekend’s action? The underdog bites. Eight of the Top 25 teams lost, seven to unranked teams, and four lost at home.

OSU Opponent Watch

• Youngstown State (4-1) – Played Missouri State at home, won 49-21. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Akron (2-3) – Played Connecticut on the road, lost 10-44. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Washington (2-3) – Played USC, at home, lost 24-27. Conclusion: Closer than Expected Loss
• Northwestern (2-3) – Played Michigan at home, lost 16-28. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Minnesota (1-4) – Played Ohio State at home, lost 7-30. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Purdue (5-0) – Played Notre Dame at home, won 33-19. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Kent State (3-2) – Played Ohio on the road, won 33-25. Conclusion: Good Win
• Michigan State (4-1) – Played Wisconsin on the road, lost 34-37. Conclusion: Tough Loss
• Penn State (3-2) – Played Illinois on the road, lost 20-27. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Wisconsin (5-0) – Played Michigan State at home, won 37-34. Conclusion: Quality Win.
• Illinois (4-1) – Played Penn State at home, won 27-20. Conclusion: Good Win
• Michigan (2-2) – Played Northwestern on the road, won 28-16. Conclusion: Tougher than Expected Win

Buckeye opponent’s records after the fifth week, 36-22. After 2 weeks of conference play, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan have no losses and are in contention for the Big 10 championship. Surprisingly, after two weeks, Iowa and Penn State are out of contention. After next week, there will be at least 2 fewer undefeated conference teams as Ohio State travels to Purdue and Illinois and Wisconsin tangle. Michigan gets a directional Michigan foe, which they should win easily. But if they spread the field, all bets are off. We’ll know alot more about the conference race this time next week.

Quick Hits from Around College Football

Teams that look like mythical national championship (MNC) contenders from week 5: LSU and California.

These are the undefeated survivors; their play to-date and/or competition level leaves room for doubt:
USC, Ohio State, Arizona State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Kansas, Purdue, Kentucky, Missouri, Connecticut, South Florida, and Hawaii .

These teams are the “Top 10” of the 1 loss club:
Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Oregon, Illinois, Clemson, Texas, South Carolina, Michigan State, and Georgia

Game of the week, there were so many to choose from it’s silly. The one I enjoyed the most from a competition perspective was Michigan State at Wisconsin. Wisconsin won 37-34. Not much defense was played and it wasn’t decided until late. Michigan State is MUCH improved and will surprise teams this year and in the future.

Mismatch of the week, Texas Tech humiliated Northwestern State at home, 75-7. And, the losing team had to go to Lubbock…..adding insult to injury.

My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.) This week, the rankings changed dramatically from last week. Undefeated teams get the benefit of the doubt. Once there are fewer than 12 undefeated teams, the one loss crew can start to creep back in. But for now, one loss and you’re history.

1. LSU – A workman like win over Tulane. I was mildly surprised that Tulane scored 9 on their defense.
2. California – A good win over a tough Oregon team that seemed to self-destruct.
3. Ohio State – A suffocating win over a team with a good offense and lousy defense.
4. USC – Escaped Seattle with a W. Makes the Buckeye win a couple of weeks ago look better.
5. Boston College – Tougher than expected win over Massachusetts of IAA.
6. South Florida – Has West Virginia’s number.
7. Wisconsin – Still concerned about the defense, especially after this week.
8. Kentucky – Would you have believed they would be here in week 5?
9. Missouri – They just keep winning. Early season win over Illinois looking very good.
10. Purdue – Next week will tell if they go up, or fall out of these rankings.
11. Arizona State – Look for them to reach 7-0 without much trouble.
12. Cincinnati – Say what you will, but they’ve proved it on the field thus far.

My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA)

1. Notre Dame – Are they improving? Or is Purdue over-rated?
2. Rice – Bye week.
3. Marshall – Bye week.
4. Temple – Double digit loss to 1-3 Army.
5. Utah State – Double digit loss to 1-3 Utah.

In the coming week I’ll post an Purdue/OSU preview, a game review of Purdue/OSU, and a Weekend Update Sports edition.