Water

There are many simple ways to ease your off-grid life and Gutter guards are one of the simplest. Its hard managing your own power plant, hauling your own trash and sourcing your own water, so any help is gratefully received. And guarding your fresh water is a very high priority. One brand is Gutterglove on amazon, but there are many others including balloon filters on Amazon and Buy micro-mesh from Amazon.

Gutterglove makes gutter-protection systems – anchored by stainless steel micro-mesh that made it one of the Sacramento region’s manufacturing success stories.
Between 2014 and 2016, nationwide sales ballooned from $4.5 million to $9.6 million.

“I’ve dealt with leaves before as an arborist; now I’m dealing with them in a different way, said the company founder Robert Lenney.”

Part of Lenney’s gutter guard empire is a newly certified component for a rainwater harvesting system. The company last month announced that its gutter guards received Underwriters Laboratories certification to be used in rainwater harvesting systems where the water ultimately can be used for drinking.

Rain-harvesting

Gutterglove’s product can be used as a first-stage filter in a rain collection system. Key components of such a system: Source: rainharvestingsystems.com The Sacramento Bee

Lenney believes there will be growing demand for water-conservation practices and sustainable eco-friendly green product.

“Homeowners that have rainwater catchment systems will appreciate having a gutter guard that has been taken through the rigorous test by UL for the (certifications),” Lenney said.

Lenney launched the original stainless-steel mesh gutter guard back in 2003 but he cites 2010 as the year when things took off. That year, Consumer Reports rated the Gutterglove Pro product as the No. 1 professionally installed gutter guard it tested. That drew a lot of attention.

Today, there are numerous Gutterglove gutter guard products, ranging from professionally installed, intricate gutter guards to more basic ones for do-it-yourselfers.

All are based on the same basic design dating back to 2003: fine stainless-steel mesh over aluminum channels, blocking even the smallest debris while allowing the flow of water on all manner of homes. Homeowners no longer need to scramble up a ladder to clean out their gutters.

Gutterglove systems are now sold throughout the United States and Canada but they are not the only brand Big-box retailers Home Depot and Costco stock Gutterglove and many other products. Roofing and gutter supply stores also sellgutter guards.

Colleagues noted that Lenney is always inventing, producing variations of his products. He holds seven U.S. patents and two are pending.

Lenney recently unveiled the Gutter Guard Brush, a telescoping pole topped with a brush laced with lines of firm bristles positioned at numerous angles. He says the brush tool can clean any gutter guard system on the market, without the user climbing a ladder.

Spread out over the expansive, high-ceiling manufacturing area, Gutterglove workers stand at specially designed stations, drawing out …

A New York Times investigation into rapidly rising water and sewage bills highlit the involvement of Wall Street finance in upgrading century old waterworks.

The paper has a detailed case study of three small towns across America,including Bayonne NJ, a rustbelt area.  The story shows that you might consider investing in your own well or rainwater harvesting if you live in a similar city:

n 2012, this blue-collar port city cut a deal with a Wall Street investment firm to manage its municipal waterworks.

Four years later, many of its old brown pipes have been replaced by shiny cobalt-blue ones, reflecting a broader infrastructure overhaul in Bayonne. But the water and sewer bill jumped so much that some are thinking about moving out of town.

“My reaction was, ‘Oh, so I guess I’m screwed now?’” said Ms. Adamczyk, an accountant and mother of two who received a quarterly bill for almost $500 this year. She’s not alone: Another resident’s bill jumped 5 percent, despite the household’s having used 11 percent less water.

Even as Wall Street deals like the one with Bayonne help financially desperate municipalities to make much-needed repairs, they can come with a hefty price tag — not just to pay for new pipes, but also to help the investors earn a nice return, a New York Times analysis has found. Often, these contracts guarantee a specific amount of revenue, The Times found, which can send water bills soaring.

Water rates in Bayonne have risen nearly 28 percent since Kohlberg Kravis Roberts — one of Wall Street’s most storied private equity firms — teamed up with another company to manage the city’s water system, the Times analysis shows. City officials also promised residents a four-year rate freeze that never materialized.

In one measure of residents’ distress, people are falling so far behind on their bills that the city is placing more liens against their homes, which can eventually lead to foreclosures.

In a typical private equity water deal, higher rates help firms earn returns of 8 to 18 percent, more than what a regular for-profit water company may expect. And to accelerate their returns, two of the firms have applied a common strategy from the private equity playbook: quickly flipping their investment to another firm. This includes K.K.R., which is said to be selling its 90 percent stake in the Bayonne venture.

Bayonne’s sales pitch to its citizens illustrates the bold steps town officials can take — including making promises that are at odds with the actual terms of the deal — to attract private equity money.

At a public meeting in city hall, a lawyer for the city promised that, after an initial rate bump, there would be “a rate freeze for four years,” according to a meeting transcript. Bayonne’s mayor, Mark Smith, later reiterated the four-year freeze in a magazine article.

That promise turned out …