Category Archives: Conservation & Efficiency

Cooler coolers

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Having a tough time getting you or your loved ones to not stand in front of the fridge with the door open? While behavioral changes are almost always the cheapest and most efficient means of reducing consumption, there are some interesting technical solutions available in this area. You could try installing a curtain (opting for the thinner Mylar/polyester over PVC), or purchasing a chest refrigerator. This little known refrigerator format has the advantage of keeping the cool air inside (it sinks and stays trapped) while also providing a secondary work surface in a crowded kitchen.

New fridge not in the budget? Well, you might be interested in this oldie but goodie which has recently sprung up again: “convert” a chest freezer into a chest refrigerator for about $60. Your custom fridge could end up running a whole year for the cost of one month of power for a typical refrigerator! (140 kWh/yr reported energy use, vs. 144 kWh/mo energy use for 17.5 ft3 frostless refrigerator/freezer) Of course, one disadvantage to this format is that you’ll need a separate freezer, but you should still end up far ahead.

Biomimicry- The next green revolution?

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Wood Ant Hill

Wood Ant Hill

The current green revolution looks to renewable energy and green products to replace the polluting industries of the modern era.  What is often left out of the discussion is our relationship with the living biosphere and how our technology much revolutionize itself to not just being low-carbon, but operate under the principles of how nature organizes itself.  Janine Benyus, a scientist and founder of the company Biomimicry Guild, has been looking to nature to develop technologies that maximize efficiency prinicples inherent in the natural world.  This new movement, labeled biomimicry, asks homo sapiens sapiens to tap into the intellengence of nature in our design principles.  The natural world is not seen as a dumb organic machine, but rather a dynamic force that intelligently adapts to environmental changes to produce rhobust living ecosystems.

Humans are not the first and only species to be master builders, tool users, or farmers.  For over 3.8 billion years, nature has evolved eligant solutions to some of the basic ecological challenges we are struggling with today.  In the new online resource, www.asknature.org, it provides innovative minds with life’s best ideas to help develop sustainable technologies that are conductive to life.   On this free open source website, one can research a design question and find a list of how nature solves the issue.  For example, under the category of storing energy, there is a list of 33 species that adopt strategies to maximize energy use.

In the case of the wood ant, they build a nest with numerous holes for ventilation and entrances. At night and in cold weather the ants plug the holes to keep heat in. The workers also keep the slope of the nest at the right angle to obtain maximum amount of solar heat. The ants bring extra warmth into their nests as live heaters by basking in the sun in large numbers and taking the heat energy collected in their bodies into the nest.  Can our homes be built in ways to maximize existing natural resources and store and cool the building without destroying our atmosphere?  Passive solar design is one quick example of building techniques that blend old and new knowledge into our building design principles– with the potential of creating net zero energy use homes.

I believe this presents a paradigm shift for humanity, in which humans are not separate from the natural world but part of an intellegent ecosystem full of other species that have skills and wisdom to share with us.  To learn more about Biomimicry I recommend watching a talk by Janine Benyus at http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action.html.

4×10<8×5?

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Spring Forward A little over a year ago Utah adopted a 4-day work week for state employees, to combat rising energy costs. While energy costs have come down, the policy has remained in effect, resulting in a 13% reduction in energy use. This puts them well on the way to their goal of a 20% reduction by 2015. Should other locations follow suit? It’s an intriguing proposition, but dependent upon season and locale. One of the major contributions to savings in Utah has been the shifting of work hours from blistering mid-day heat on Fridays, to cooler mornings and evenings of other days; it’s a desert and cools down relatively rapidly once the sun is down. A similar program in Massachusetts should see some reduction in summer energy use, but could increase heating demand in the winter. It is interesting to note that these shifts, and the incumbent savings, are not unlike the complicated story of Daylight Saving Time

MA receives $71M for efficiency, with $106M to follow

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act The Bay State has been awarded $22 million in the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, a little less than all other awards in New England combined; ME, RI and VT received $11M, $9.5M and $8.8M respectively.

Massachusetts will use its State Energy Program (SEP) Recovery Act funds to advance energy efficiency across the state, especially in the building environment. The Governor’s Energy Task Force identified a number of energy efficiency retrofit projects at public facilities with potential for energy and cost savings. The state intends to leverage SEP funds for these projects by using performance contracts wherever possible.

Additionally, Massachusetts will direct Recovery Act funds to help demonstrate solutions to a number of long-standing challenges in improving building energy performance which provides the opportunity to transform future energy efficiency efforts in the state. For instance, the state will provide funding for projects that will move toward the development of a net-zero energy building, along with examining ways to reduce the state’s petroleum usage by expanding energy efficiency opportunities to people and businesses that use oil and propane for heating.

The State also recently received $49M in Recovery Act funds to weatherize approximately 17,00 homes over the next three years, while ramping up a Clean Energy Center to train and support a growing energy-efficiency workforce in the state. Under the program, Massachusetts is increasing the number of auditors and other professionals that will be needed to meet the increased demand for weatherization activities. More than 25 additional auditors have already been hired, along with new private-sector employees that will work with local organizations responsible for weatherization work.

After demonstrating successful implementation of its SEP plan, the state will receive more than $27 million in additional funding, for a total of nearly $55 million. $61 million are available once the weatherization program has program has proven successful.

(Adapted from EPA Region I’s “Community Energy Challenge Monthly Update,” Vol. 10; DOE press release; Recap

Keep your cool

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LemonadeHere are some ideas to help you keep your cool without cranking the A/C down to 63°:

  • If your looking at installing an air conditioner, consider a whole house fan instead. En lieu of a window-mount A/C, opt for a window fan. Of course, if you’re lucky like me, and have two windows, setting a fan in front of one—with the screen out of the way—to blow the hot air out will draw a nice evening breeze in the other; especially if the door is closed.
  • Keep your refrigerator and freezer full. The more empty space there is, the more warm air you lock inside after opening and closing the door. Fill soda bottles with water and stick them in the freezer. When you need more room, move them to the refrigerator where their “coolth” will reduce the load on the system.
  • Take a brief cold shower before going to bed, and towel off lightly if at all. You may find you don’t need the A/C after all; especially with the aid of a low fan.
  • If you have the option, stay-up/sleep in later, this way you’re awake when it’s coolest. Granted, you might use a little electricity so you can see, but a CFL uses much less power than an air conditioner.
  • While it’s always a good idea to make sure unused devices are turned off and/or unplugged, it’s especially important in the summer. Any energy a machine does not use to make noise or light or espresso is given off as waste heat. In some cases this can mean the difference between an uncomfortable room and a tolerable one.

    Note: This does not mean that it’s a good idea to leave these devices turned on all winter long, electricity is one of the most expensive and least efficient means of heating a room.

Feel free to share any tips you have in the comments below.

First in Music. First in Energy Audits.

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Green 10 gallon hat

Austin, Texas–which we have always considered to be a little slice of Massachusetts right in the middle of the Lone Star state–has become the first town to pass and ratify a law that makes an energy audit mandatory when you sell a home within the city limits.

Almost 400 audits have been performed under the new ordinance which was passed in November 2008 and went into effect June 1 this year. After a furious lobbying effort by the Austin Board of Realtors, homeowners are not required to make all improvements, but the results will likely be used as a bargaining chip in most purchases.

One homeowner found that over 80% of his air-conditioning was leaking through his uninsulated attic and decided to make the repair to improve the prospects of selling his house. In this depressed market, most sellers will be looking for any advantage they can get.

Of course, Austinites have to find an energy auditor and pay for the audit. Luckily, if you live in Cambridge, requesting an audit is as simple as filling out a simple form and in many cases it’s free.

Cambridge Community Center gets an Energy Make-Over

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The Cambridge Community Center received a major energy efficiency upgrade on Sunday, June 28th Sunday, when community members and experts gathered to reduce the building’s energy consumption. The community “barn-raising” project was a combined effort of the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and the Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) that aimed to improve the comfort and efficiency of the Cambridge Community Center while teaching volunteers energy efficiency and conservation skills.

Councilor Henrietta Davis, CCC member Yvonee Gittens, and HEET leader Audrey Schulman

Councilor Henrietta Davis, CCC member Yvonee Gittens, and HEET leader Audrey Schulman

The project drew approximately 60 community volunteers, primarily from the Riverside neighborhood in Cambridge. A team of eight volunteers from Mass Climate Summer also joined the neighborhood effort as part of their broader campaign to educate residents on efficiency solutions in partnership with the Cambridge Energy Alliance.

Community volunteers learned how to make doors and windows less drafty, seal air leaks in the building, install interior storm windows, and save on electricity through simple changes. They also received energy efficiency kits from the Cambridge Energy Alliance that contained materials to make their own homes more energy efficient and information on community environmental resources and programs. The Cambridge Community Center barn-raising provided a great opportunity to meet neighbors, try out a green job, cut energy bills at the Community Center, and get a free energy savings kit, while learning to save energy and money at home.

Register to attend the next HEET barnraising on Saturday, July 18th from 12:30 – 5:00pm at two homes in Cambridgeport.

TechTV

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logo-mit-techtv

If you’ve got time and bandwidth to kill, you might want to check out TechTV. In the spirit of OpenCourseWare, MIT hosts videos of various guest lectures and conferences. For instance, Energy forecast for the rest of the century. Although I don’t personally agree with all of the professor’s interpretations—many conflict with the more pragmatic views portrayed in “Sustainable Energy,” which is incidentally available via OCW—it was an interesting presentation, and could probably serve as a good introduction for the uninitiated nevertheless. I also appreciated his putting the scope of human influence in perspective by comparing it with natural flows. It reminded me of prolific environmental author Vaclav Smil’s excellent Cycles of Life : Civilization and the Biosphere.

Ghouls & Gallons

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Here’s an interesting graphic showing the amount of energy consumed by some common appliances when not in use, although the distinction between “passive” and “active” loads also seems unnecessary and distracting. Also, this phenomenon is typically called phantom load not “vampire load,” as the artist has dubbed it, after a less common term for wall-warts. Perhaps this even inspired google’s little contribution towards energy frugality last Halloween: The Haunted House? In any event, be sure to multiply the listed costs of these little suckers by a factor of 2 or 3 to to more accurately reflect bills in Cambridge.

Activity Water Options

Also while surfing this weekend I came across another infographic from progressive magazine GOOD. This one’s a sort of decision tree, comparing water consumption for daily activities. Keep in mind though, that things are not quite as simple as some would like to make them out to be. While it may actually take more water to grow an apple, the devil is in the details. If you’re biting into a Jonagold from Stow in September, then much of the water was rain, and very little gasoline went into transporting it. On the other hand, an orange from a field irrigated with scarce water in California or Florida has a lot of embodied energy. As always caveat emptor.