>>>How many barrels of oil would be saved if the lights of Las Vegas were turned off permanently? I realize the source of energy for Las Vegas is hydroelectric, but that energy could be placed on the grid and used by many other communities thus saving oil used by oil fired electric generators.
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>And the daylight savings is presumably done to save energy, as if the lightbulbs are the greatest consumers of electricity. I've replaced all my lightbulbs with the new neon or whichever gas - so they use up about just 20% of what their hot counterparts would use. And most of the big city lights are already replaced with this sort. And when the LED lights begin to spread, this will reduce the light consumption even further.
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>I've heard that the reason for daylight savings was to have a couple of hours in common between London and New York stock exchange - though the issue became moot when Britain followed.
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>>Why not link up the arms of the slot machines to dynamos, or put fly-wheels on the roulette wheels?
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>And why waste the fitness club energy on nothing? The visitors simply burn their joulories (IS - no calories, jouls!) by lifting weights and putting them back. They could as well roll some alternators.
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>>How about you all just switch a few lights off when you go out? According to just about every US TV prog or film that I've seen, you all come home to fully lit-up houses and go out and leave all the lights on.
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>I've seen this a lot in some places - people just don't bother, or specifically leave the outside lights on all night. As if anybody would notice a burglar.
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>But again, it's not the lights. The high cost of heating and cooling comes from the way the houses are built here - very low on insulation, windows and doors in various stages of disrepair. Comes from building for the market - either selling or renting, the investor will throw enormous amounts of money into pretty façade, manicured lawn, soft rugs etc, while skimping on insulation. The net result is that a lot of energy is thrown into cooling the yard in the summer and warming it up in the winter.
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>I've started fixing some of the insulation issues on the house here, and I was shocked that the assortment of insulating materials in retail is actually shorter than what we had in Yugoslavia in 80s and 90s. Two or three forms of polystyrene slabs, glass wool and bubble sheets in aluminIum foil, period. They do come in various sizes and formats, so the aisle is full. Don't know whether I can't believe my eyes or is it a trick of light.

Perhaps the houses in Virginia Beach were built in a southern style, even though it isn't that far south. Were you looking at any newer houses? I don't like most new construction in my area, but I think that it is at least better insulated.

What insulating materials were you looking for and didn't find? What store weren't they in?