Tips for water heater maintenance

There are several simple and inexpensive ways to increase the operating efficiency and longevity of a water heater. Some actions - adding insulation and adjusting the temperature - only need to be done once. Others, such as flushing the tank and checking the anode rod, should be done annually.

Check the TPR valve

Turn off the power and the cold water supply valve.

Place a bucket under the pipe connected to the temperature-pressure equalization valve on the top or side of the tank. (This valve will open if the pressure in the tank becomes too high).

Lift the tab on the valve to release some water, then release it. If water continues to flow, drain the tank a little, unscrew the old valve with a pipe wrench, and install a new one.

Check the anode rod

Connect a hose to the drain cock of the tank and drain a few liters of water.

Now insert a 2.6 cm fitting onto the hex head of the rod on the top of the heater (or under the top plate) and unscrew the rod. If the rod is less than 1.2 cm thick or covered with lime, buy a new one, wrap the thread with Teflon tape, put it back into the tank and tighten it.

Drain the tank and wash out sediment.

Drain the remaining water in the tank into the bucket, then agitate the sediments on the bottom of the tank by briefly opening the cold water supply valve. Drain and repeat the process until clean water comes out of the hose.

Close the drain valve, refill the tank, and turn it back on.

Setting the temperature

Locate the temperature gauge on the side of the tank and unscrew the cover. Using a flathead screwdriver, set the temperature to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. For every 10 degrees the temperature is lowered, you can save up to 5 percent in energy costs.

Turn off the water heater or set the thermostat to the lowest setting if you plan to be away from home for more than three days.

Insulate the pipes

Slide foam over the hot and cold water pipes as far as you can reach. Insulating the cold water pipe will prevent condensation from forming in the summer.

Insulate the heater

Wrap around the side of the tank, and seal the cuts with foil tape. Do not cover the top of oil or gas heaters.

Cover an electric heater with an oversized circle of insulating material and tape its edge securely to the side of the tank.

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Oil Pipelines: is it as easy as turn the valves? Activists in Action

Companies decry ‘valve turners’ who shut down pipelines BISMARCK, N.D. — As Enbridge prepared to move climate-damaging tar sands crude through a 40-year-old pipeline in eastern Canada in 2015, environmentalists and indigenous peoples including Vanessa Gray thought about what happened in Michigan just five years earlier: Another of the company’s lines had burst, sending oil into a river in one of the largest spills in U.S. history. With that in mind, Gray and others decided they needed to do more than just speak out. In December 2015, three activists from Montreal entered Enbridge property near the Quebec-Ontario border and turned an above-ground emergency pipeline shut-off valve. About two weeks later, Gray and two others did the same at a different site, drawing even more attention because authorities levied charges that could have landed them in prison for life. They ended up with no jail time and accomplished their goal of raising awareness. “I hope it inspires others,” Gray, 26, a member of an Ojibwe tribe, said in a recent interview. It already has, by activists in the U.S. who believe fossil fuels are precipitating a global warming crisis. Just last month four activists targeted an Enbridge oil pipeline in northern Minnesota. But pipeline companies say so-called valve turners are dangerous — to themselves and the public — and many energy industry officials and advocates say they should be treated as domestic terrorists. Several states are considering increasing fines and prison terms for such attacks and holding associated organizations legally accountable as well. “It’s reminiscent of a number of years ago when environmental groups were spiking trees to interfere with the timber industry,” said Alan Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association. “When environmental groups go out to cause physical harm or to harm infrastructure, in my mind that is domestic terrorism.” To Michael Foster, it’s a wake-up call to a world quickly approaching “a life-or-death moment.”

“We must stop the flow of fossil fuels as a society,” said the mental health counsellor from Seattle who spent six months in jail for turning a pipeline shut-off valve in North Dakota in October 2016. “You can argue about the best, or better, ways to do it, but we haven’t done it yet, and we’ve run out of time.” Foster was part of a loose-knit group of 11 climate change activists who dubbed themselves Climate Direct Action and simultaneously turned shut-off valves on five pipelines in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Washington state that carry Canadian tar sands crude into the U.S. “We were committed to nonviolence. We were committed to safety and making sure no communities were impacted or damage occurred. We weren’t interested in damaging equipment,” Foster said. “That’s where we took the cue from Canada.” In response to that action, federal regulators issued a bulletin warning that tampering with pipeline valves can result in “death, injury, and economic and environmental harm.” None of the valve-turning incidents has led to an injury or a spill, but critics say the protest tactic is at the very least hypocritical. “What eco-extremists fail to recognize is that their own reckless actions risk seriously harming the same environment that they claim to be trying to protect,” said Craig Stevens, spokesman for Grow America’s Infrastructure Now, a pro-pipeline coalition. Enbridge spokesman Jesse Semko said tampering with pipelines is no different than targeting railways or power lines, and the company “will support the prosecution of those individuals to the fullest extent of the law.” But some think the law doesn’t go far enough. The valve-turning protests all have been prosecuted under state laws, and the punishments have varied. No protester other than Foster has spent more than two days in jail. A group of bipartisan lawmakers, led by Colorado Republican Rep. Ken. Buck, asked the U.S. Justice Department in October 2017 whether protesters could be prosecuted under federal domestic terrorism laws. The response in February 2018 from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, provided by Buck’s office, didn’t give much clarity. Boyd said pipeline protest incidents “may or may not qualify as ‘domestic terrorism,”‘ and he wouldn’t comment on whether any federal investigations were happening. The department didn’t respond to an Associated Press request for comment. Some states aren’t waiting for federal action. The American Legislative Exchange Council has created a model bill that carries stiff penalties for protest incidents targeting “critical infrastructure” such as pipelines. It’s inspired by a 2017 Oklahoma law that carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Louisiana last year passed a law similar to the model, and the legislatures in North Dakota , Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, Indiana and Wyoming are considering similar bills this year, according to Grant Kidwell, the council’s energy policy expert. The oil and gas industry also is acting. The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance in October 2017 launched an online database to catalogue attacks on pipelines, including valve-turning. “I hope it doesn’t spread,” Alliance President and CEO Toby Mack said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s just kind of a stupid way of making a point.” Activists believe the stupidity lies in ignoring a climate change crisis. “The state of the movement for climate justice in the United States is in need of more boldness,” said Jay O’Hara, co-founder of the Climate Disobedience Center. —— Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake Published at Sat, 09 Mar 2019 15:34:07 +0000 Read the full article

Activists head to court after shutting down pipelines. Their defense? Climate change.

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The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that four anti-pipeline activists facing criminal charges have a legit case to argue the “necessity defense” in court. In 2016, two of them turned off valves for Enbridge oil pipelines that transport Canadian oil to the U.S.

The so-called “value turners” will argue that climate change is such a daunting threat that taking illegal action — like trespassing — is necessary when there’s no other recourse. Sometimes, the logic goes, it may be more dangerous to follow the law than to disobey it.

APPEAL DISMISSED! We are GOING TO TRIAL ON THE NECESSITY DEFENSE .

!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I generally think all caps and multiple exclamation points should be illegal. But first, tar sands pipelines should be.)#ClimateTrial#Valveturners pic.twitter.com/XeNuSP4HZJ

— Emily Johnston (@enjohnston) April 23, 2018

The judge approved the valve turners’ request last year to invoke the necessity defense, but the prosecution fought back and appealed. That appeal was just dismissed. Next up, science will take the stand: Climate scientists and other experts will testify about the serious threat posed by global warming.

The necessity defense has worked for climate activists before. Last month, a Massachusetts judge ruled that 13 protesters were not responsible for civil disobedience after they were arrested for sitting in holes dug for a pipeline to block construction.

This story was originally published by Livescience.Tech with the headline Activists head to court after shutting down pipelines. Their defense? Climate change. on Apr 24, 2018.

New post published on: http://www.livescience.tech/2018/04/25/activists-head-to-court-after-shutting-down-pipelines-their-defense-climate-change/

Valve Turners on Trial: Judge Acquits Three Climate Activists Who Shut Down Tar Sands Pipelines

By MARK HAND

A month before the 2016 election, anti-pipeline activists staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from Canada to the United States. On October 11, 2016, activists in North Dakota, Washington, Montana and Minnesota turned the manual safety valves on four pipelines, temporarily halting the flow of nearly 70 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States from Canada. They came to be known as the “valve turners.” What followed was a lengthy legal battle that ended with some of the activists in jail. But on Tuesday, three valve turners who broke into an oil pipeline facility in Minnesota on that day in 2016 were acquitted.

After the prosecution had made its case against the two activists, Clearwater County, Minnesota District Judge Robert Tiffany surprised the court by abruptly ruling that prosecutors had failed to meet their burden of proof that the activists had damaged a tar sands pipeline when they trespassed on private property to shut down two Enbridge Energy oil pipelines in 2016 by turning the wheels at an above-ground valve site.

Tiffany dismissed all charges against the defendants. Johnston and Klapstein were facing up to 10 years on felony counts related to the incident, and Benjamin Joldersma, part of their support team, faced misdemeanor charges for assisting them.

The case, however, was also seen as a significant test of a new type of climate defense strategy. Ahead of the case, the judge accepted that the climate necessity defense could be used by the activists in their case. As part of this, the judge agreed to let expert witnesses corroborate the defendants’ testimony that their actions were justified by the need to avert imminent climate catastrophe.

The Minnesota case, the last of the valve turner cases, was the only one of the four cases where defendants convinced the judge the “climate necessity defense” argument carries enough weight to be used in court. The other defendants in Washington, Montana, and North Dakota lost their cases and faced short sentences, community service mandates, and deferred imprisonment.

As it turned out, though, the Minnesota judge acquitted the defendants before they could argue that their actions were necessary due to climate change.

And only days before the trial was scheduled to begin, Judge Tiffany did an about-face from his earlier decision to grant them the necessity defense. He barred testimony from defense experts who would testify about the barriers to effective political action for addressing climate change and the effectiveness of civil disobedience, similar to the valve-turning action, into historical context.

“It was shocking and our supporters in the courtroom were ecstatic because we’re definitely not going to jail. And we were happy,” Klapstein said Wednesday in an interview with ThinkProgress. “But at the same time, we were indeed disappointed not to be able to present this to the jury. We were hoping to educate the jury and the classroom of greater public opinion on the dire issues of climate change.”

It remains unclear why the judge, at the last minute, decided not to allow the use of the climate necessity defense.

As climate action remains stalled at the federal level, climate activists are increasingly turning to protest and civil disobedience to disrupt fossil fuel infrastructure projects around the country. With those acts of civil disobedience on the rise and the risk of arrest increasing with stricter laws being proposed, more defendants are turning to the climate necessity defense.

Two years ago, Johnston and Klapstein participated in the action on the U.S.-Canada border as part of a coordinated action by a group of Climate Direct Action activists to shut down five Canadian tar sands crude pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington state. A total of 11 activists were charged in the four states; seven of them went to trial.

In each case of civil disobedience, after calling the pipeline companies to give warning, the activists turned the emergency shut-off valve wheels in a coordinated attempt to stop the flow of tar sands oil.

When the Minnesota court ruled in October 2017 that the valve-turners could present a necessity defense, Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, described it as “extremely unusual.”

The state of Minnesota appealed that decision, arguing that allowing defendants to present evidence about climate change would have a “critical impact” on the case and severely undermine the prosecution’s odds at achieving a conviction. The Minnesota Supreme Court disagreed, ruling in July that the defendants could mount a necessity defense.

Johnston and Klapstein admitted they turned the emergency shut-off valves on two pipelines owned by Enbridge Energy pipelines on October 11, 2016, near Leonard, Minnesota, about 210 miles north-west of Minneapolis. The two were charged with felonies.

The climate activists disrupted the flow of millions of barrels of crude from Canada to the United States in a rare, coordinated action that targeted several key pipelines simultaneously. The coordinated protest in four states stunned the environmental community and the energy industry for its boldness.

The activists had studied for months how to conduct the shutdowns safely. “We are acting in response to this catastrophe we are facing,” Afrin Sopariwala, a spokesperson for the group, said at the time of the coordinated shutdown, referring to global warming.

#ValveTurners bolt-cutters returned outside of Clearwater County as all charges dropped at the #climate necessity defense #ClimateTrial in MN. pic.twitter.com/3J5YJSPwLx

— Climate DirectAction (@ClimateDA) October 9, 2018

Of the seven valve turner activists who went to trial, Johnston and Klapstein were the only ones who were acquitted of the felony charges. Each of the defendants in the other cases are appealing their guilty verdicts.

“While I’m very glad that the court acknowledged that we did not damage the pipelines, I’m heartbroken that the jury didn’t get to hear our expert witnesses and their profoundly important warnings about the climate crisis,” Johnston said Tuesday in a statement.

Regardless, Lauren Regan, executive director of the Eugene Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center, believes the case sets a strong precedent. Regan represented both Johnston and Klapstein.

“First, the climate necessity defense was upheld by the highest court in the state, which affirmed that these climate activists had the right to assert the climate necessity defense to a jury,” Regan, said Tuesday in a statement. “Further, the defendants were acquitted of felony criminal damage to critical energy infrastructure and pipelines.”

Klapstein also added in her statement that, “I want to acknowledge that we were treated more gently by the court than any people of color ever are and we know that is in part because of our white privilege.”

“We see this in the trials of the indigenous people who were arrested at Standing Rock many of them have been charged with felonies for doing much less than the Valve Turners did,” Klapstein continued, “and most of them are being convicted and given harsh sentences, such as a several years.”

In February, Michael Foster, another valve turner who targeted an oil pipeline in North Dakota, was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years deferred. In August, Foster was released from prison after serving six months and will remain under supervised probation for two years.

The climate activists understood that whoever turned the valve on the pipeline in North Dakota would likely face the most skeptical jury of the four states. Foster stepped up and agreed to be the one who faced the charges in the the state.

“We knew going in that North Dakota would be the worst. And Michael Foster very generously agreed to be the person to go there knowing that,” Klapstein told ThinkProgress.

During the jury selection in Foster’s trial in October 2017, Klapstein said that 20 out of 50 people in the jury pool were excused for cause because they stated that they could not give the presumption of innocence to the defendant because they believed if someone is arrested by the police, they must have done something wrong.

This article originally appeared on: ThinkProgress

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How to flush sediments from a water heater

Every homeowner knows how important it is to clean and maintain their systems and appliances. However, many homeowners don't know that flushing a water heater annually can remove sediment from the bottom of the tank. Flushing debris can improve the life and efficiency of a water heater. Debris can form a barrier between the water heater's heating elements and the water, making it harder to heat the showers, dishwasher and laundry in your home. By flushing debris from your water heater, you can save money and heat your water faster.

Turn off the water heater

If you have an electric water heater, turn off the power switch. If your water heater is a gas heater, turn your thermostat to the "pilot" setting. This will turn off the heating element in your water heater, allowing your water to cool. Before you begin this maintenance project, make sure no one in your home is trying to take a shower, wash dishes, or do laundry.

Turn off the cold water valve

Turn off the cold water valve. A water heater moves hot water through your home when cold water is piped into the tank, displacing the hot water. If no cold water is coming into the tank, you can drain the tank completely. If you neglect this step, water will constantly flow and drain into the tank, which can cost you a pretty penny on your water bill.

Allow the water to cool

Don't drain scalding hot water. Allow the tank to cool after you turn off the heating elements. This can take up to two hours for some larger hot water tanks.

Connect a drain hose or garden hose to the drain valve on the side of the tank

Locate the drain valve on the side of your water heater and connect a hose. Make sure the hose is fully screwed on, otherwise leaks may occur when the water heater is drained.

Put the end of the hose into a bucket or drain

Do not flood your house! Make sure you put the end of the hose into a heat-resistant bucket or drain. Before you start draining the water heater, make sure your drain does not overflow.

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How to unclog a faucet

A common cause of slow water flow from a faucet is a clogged faucet aerator. A clogged aerator can come from mineral deposits or sediment flowing in the water lines until it lodges in the aerator screen or internal faucet parts. Newer faucets have internal cartridge valve systems instead of the old-fashioned rubber seals and valve seats. Dissolved minerals and debris can build up in the small openings of the cartridge and slow the flow of water. Replacing the cartridge may be the best option if cleaning the aerator doesn't help.

Cleaning the aerator

Wrap a protective layer of cloth or a wide rubber band around the outside of the aerator, which is located at the end of the faucet. The protective layer will prevent scratches from the pliers on the polished aerator surface.

Place the jaws of the pliers around the aerator and adjust them so that they are firmly seated over the protective coating.

Rotate the pliers to loosen the aerator, then unscrew it by hand. A typical aerator consists of a polished metal ring with external threads, plastic flow restrictors, and a wire mesh strainer. The flow restrictors and strainer may be one unit. Disassemble the aerator components and use your fingers to remove as much mineral debris as possible.

Place the parts in a small cup and pour in enough vinegar to cover them. Let the parts sit in the vinegar until the minerals have dissolved, 30 minutes to overnight.

Reassemble the aerator. Tighten the aerator by hand, then tighten it further with the adjustable pliers and the protective coating.

Replacing the cartridge valve

Turn off the water supply to the faucet. After the water supply is turned off, open the faucet to allow water to flow from the faucet spout into the sink.

Each model is different, so be sure to check the owner's manual or manufacturer's website for instructions on how to disassemble the faucet. If your faucet has two handles, you will need two replacement cartridge valves.

Locate the screw holding the faucet body and loosen it to remove the body and expose the cartridge. The cartridge is a cylindrical plastic part under the faucet handle. Loosen the screw and slide the cartridge out. Slide in the new cartridge and replace the screw. Reinstall the faucet handle.

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