Energy Efficient

Should I replace attic door with insulated exterior rated door?
We are having a lot of work done on our neglected house. New roof, attic insulation, new windows, doors, and siding. With all of these energy efficient upgrades, I am wondering if the door to the attic stairway should be replaced. It is a drafty OLD wooden door. The contractor just put a ton of insulation into the attic floor. I asked him if we should replace the attic door with an exterior rated door. He thought that was a weird question and said no, just leave it as is. But I think that having an uninsulated door to the attic will be a thermal drain. Thoughts?

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The mercury in light bulbs you must purchase thanks to the government?
The new light bulbs have lots more mercury in them . If they break your suppose to leave the room for a time. With everyone from Al Gore to Wal-Mart to the Environmental Protection Agency promoting CFLs as the greatest thing since, well, the light bulb, consumers have been left in the dark about a problem they will all face eventually ? how to get rid of the darn things when they burn out or, worse yet, break. There is no problem disposing of incandescents when their life is over. You can throw them in the trash can and they won?t hurt the garbage collector. They won?t leech deadly compounds into the air or water. They won?t kill people working in the landfills. The same cannot be said about the mercury-containing CFLs. They bear disposal warnings on the packaging. But with limited recycling prospects and the problems experienced by Brandy Bridges sure to be repeated millions of times, some think government, the green community and industry are putting the cart before the horse marketing the new technology so ferociously. When the bulb she was installing in a ceiling fixture of her 7-year-old daughter?s bedroom crashed to the floor and broke into the shag carpet, she wasn?t sure what to do. Knowing about the danger of mercury, she called Home Depot, the retail outlet that sold her the bulbs. According to the Ellison American, the store warned her not to vacuum the carpet and directed her to call the poison control hotline in Prospect, Maine. Poison control staffers suggested she call the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The latter sent over a specialist to test the air in her house for mercury levels. While the rest of the house was clear, the area of the accident was contaminated above the level considered safe. The specialist warned Bridges not to clean up the bulb and mercury powder by herself ? recommending a local environmental cleanup firm. That company estimated the cleanup cost, conservatively, at $2,000. And, no, her homeowners insurance won?t cover the damage. Since she could not afford the cleanup, Bridges has been forced to seal off her daughter?s bedroom with plastic to avoid any dust blowing around. Not even the family pets are permitted in to the bedroom. Her daughter is forced to sleep downstairs in an overcrowded household. She has continued to call public officials for help ? her two U.S. senators included. So far, no one is beating down Bridges? door to help ? not even Al Gore, whose Academy Award-winning movie, ?An Inconvenient Truth,? urges everyone to change to CFLs to save the planet from global warming. Bridges is not alone. Elizabeth Doermann of Vanderbilt, Tenn., had a similar experience. After her CFL bulb broke ? because the cat knocked over a lamp ? she didn?t call Home Depot. Instead, she did what she had always done when old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had broken. She vacuumed up the mess. Only then did she learn about the mercury hazard. ?If I had known it had mercury in it, I would have been a lot more careful,? she told the Tennessean. ?I wouldn?t have vacuumed it up. That blew the mercury probably all through the house.? The warnings on the packages of some of the new bulbs are in fine print ? hard to read. They are also voluntary, with many bulbs being sold and distributed with no disposal warnings at all. Charmain Miles of Toronto, Canada, had another frightening experience Last month she smelled smoke on the second floor of her home, only to discover it was emanating from a new energy-efficient bulb. ?I was horrified,? she told a local TV station. ?I went through every place upstairs and took out every bulb.? The bulb had been placed in a track-lighting fixture. Though the bulb contained no warning about such fixtures, it turns out CFLs are not for use in track, recessed or dimmer fixtures. And while the Consumers Council of Canada advises not to purchase any package of CFL bulbs that contains no instructions, the entire country is on a timetable to eliminate entirely the only alternative ? the incandescent bulb. In fact, practically the whole world ? fearing global warming ? is getting ready to ban the incandescent light bulb. It started in Cuba, moved to Venezuela, then Australia, Canada and the European Union. Now individual states in the U.S., including California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island, are all in the process of legislating an end to Edison?s greatest invention. Even local towns and cities are getting into the act. Many reports now Also radiation levels--the government says no worst than a microwave. I don't sit by my microwave for hours. Does our government even read warnings at all or just saying it's green and I will vote for you is enough? The question is at bottom. And there are reports of injury pouring in -read the web. If it were something else it would be taken off the market Does our government even read warnings at all or just saying it's green and I will vote for you is enough?

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Pentium D vs Core 2 Duo?
Pentium D vs Core 2 Duo? I have an option to get one of these two computers 1- Pentium D 3.0 Ghz 4 MB Cache 2- Core 2 Duo 1.85 GHz 2 MB Cache Apart from that specification for both of them are almost the same I know that both of them are Multi-core processors. I also know that Core 2 Duo is newer than Pentium D. Many people right away suggesting me to take Core 2 Duo without giving any reasonable reason. I also know that Core 2 duo is energy efficient and generates less heat compared to Pentium D. But I don't need anything that saves power or generates less heat. May be I am naive but how come 1.85 Ghz processor with 2Mb Cache faster than 3.0 Ghz 4 MB cache where both of them have multi processing capacity. For me its like comparing a car of 1300 CC (1.3 L) engine with a car of 3200 CC (3.2 L) engine. How come 1300 CC perform better than 3200 CC in term of speed not (fuel consumption) I know there are better processors in the market Like Core i7 but I already have Core i 7 Laptop. So I only have one of above options as I am getting free.

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