Category Archives: Alternative Energy

Energy Rebates by the Square Foot

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The details of an interesting program to encourage energy efficiency in Utah just crossed our desk here at Warm Home Cool Planet.

The Energy Services Efficiency Program… eases the financial burden of making large changes that lower the energy load on the power grid, such as better insulation, more efficient air conditioning systems and improved swimming pool pumps.The rebates could pay more than $500 for improved attic insulation, $350 for a new air conditioning unit and up to $125 for a better swimming pool pump.

Warm Home Cool Planet supports this idea because it achieves two things. It ties the reduction of energy use in each house to specific improvements, and it helps the homeowner make the capital investment in what are becoming tough times for all. Looking at the photo below, it seem like the folks in Utah are getting with the program too:

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Larry Morrison, also with Morrison Insulation, said when he learned about such rebates last year, he started alerting all of his customers to the possible benefits. He said it costs about 50 cents per square foot for a typical installation, while rebate programs would reimburse for 35 cents per square foot – as both the St. George and Questar programs do.

Join Al Gore-Repower America

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If you’re like Warm Home Cool Planet, you’ve probably seen a lot of ads on TV with the little green ‘we’ logo. This is part of a campaign from an organization called REPOweR AMERICA. It’s all part of a plan to build up grass roots support for developing alternative energy and putting it on the grid. Al Gore wants to send a message to your local congressman. Let them know we need to include the development of alternate energy in the economic stimulus plan being developed by the Obama Administration. You’ve seen what the power of Internet can do for politics. Let’s see what it can do for our country-and our planet.

31 Billion Down Payment On New Energy Future Passes Senate

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PVA Array

As part of the Obama administration’s Economic Recovery Plan, the Senate Finance Committee today passed 31 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to boost alternative  supplies and promote energy savings. Warm Home Cool Planet feels this is a step in the right direction.

When compared to the estimated 97 to 215 billion spent per year in military expenses needed to secure oil and natural gas reserves around the globe, though, that 31 billion seems more modest. Some of the things the money will go toward include:

  • Doubling the number of plug-in electric vehicles eligible for a purchaser’s tax credit to 500,000.
  • Increase the tax credit for service stations that install pumps that dispense alternative energy fuels.
  • Give homeowners a tax credit equal to 30 percent (capped at $1,500) of the amount they paid for energy savings improvements.
  • Authorize $1.6 billion in new clean renewable energy bonds to finance facilities that generate electricity from wind, biomass, geothermal, small irrigation, hydropower, landfill gas, ocean currents and trash burning.
  • Allow states to issue $2.4 billion in conservation tax credit bonds to finance loans and grants to individual homeowners to retrofit existing housing.
  • Provide individuals with a 30 percent uncapped tax credit for buying solar water heating property, small wind energy property and geothermal heat pumps.

The Democratic-controlled Congress hopes to work out differences between the Senate and House economic stimulus bills and have a final package on Obama’s desk for his signature into law by February 16.

Is your home R-Rated?

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The accepted wisdom is at least 50% of the energy used in our homes is for heating and cooling. That is particularly true for residents in the North-East Corridor and the Midwest, who routinely shiver through winter and swelter throughout the summer months.

The Department of Energy says every house has an R-value, which is your home’s built-in effectiveness at retaining the heat generated within your home. They have even provided a calculator that recommends various  insulation improvements to reduce the effect of climatic changes outside your four walls.

Warm Home Cool Planet input their data and found the results…  a little confusing. Try it yourself though.

To find out more about R-values, you’ll find this explanation enlightening. Particularly the part  explaining why simply putting more insulation in your walls won’t cut your energy bills by 50%.

For those Warm Home Cool Planet readers who passed high-school physics, this Wikipedia stub on thermal resistance makes useful reading before starting an energy-efficient renovation.

The First Mention Ever

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Sent to us by a reader:

‘I just checked, and Barack Obama’s inaugural address was the first one to mention the role renewable energy will play in our future economic prosperity.”

Since Warm Home Cool Planet is a little too busy keeping our audience updated on all things energy efficient , we’re going to take your word for it, rather than read all other 55 inaugural addresses. There are some good ones though.

For those of you watching at home, you’ll find President Obama’s shout out to the alternative energy industry on the You Tube Clip posted below at 9:25.

Click here for the full text of President Obama’s inaugural address. If you haven’t already, we would definitely recommend taking 10 minutes out of your day.

From the Politics Desk… Right Wing Department

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Our ‘friends’ over at American Daily have a unique theory about how to cut the deficit. Eliminate the Department of Energy. That’s right… eliminate.

Apparently, they believe Job#1 of the DOE is to eliminate the import of foreign oil.

According to the DOE’s Web site, however, their mission is as follows:

The Department of Energy’s overarching mission is to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States; to promote scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex.

You could certainly make the argument that lessening our reliance on oil from countries who may not have America’s best interests at heart is part of of this mission. But when the last Vice-President was known for issuing statements like “It’s our god-given right to drive around in SUVs.” It’s kind of hard for those on the right wing to argue they were helping us meet that goal. The whole ‘climate change is a myth’ thing hardly speaks to lessening our usage of carbon-based energy either.

Still, no matter what their motivation, whenever someone calls for greater accountability in how our tax dollars are spent, it’s hard for Warm Home Cool Planet to disagree. Everyone-government, business and individual citizens-needs to do their part in decreasing our use of non-renewable energy and embracing renewable energies and sustainable living habits.

Anyway, as they say at Fox News: “We report. You decide.”

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick Calls for 2,000 MW of wind power by 2020

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Massachusetts Governor and Presidential pal Deval Patrick has very quietly become one of wind power’s biggest boosters over the last year or so. And he looks absolutely nothing like, or thinks nothing like wind power’s biggest booster,  T Boone Pickens. Which goes to show you the search for clean renewable energy, just like politics, can make for strange bedfellows.

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Patrick-2,000 megawatts of wind power on the grid before 2020

Patrick, who called for an increase in Massachusett’s solar capacity from the current 4MW to 250 MW soon after he was elected in 2006, had this to say about the state’s (soon to be) booming wind power industry.

“With the growing interest in wind turbines we see in communities across the Commonwealth  and the abundant wind resource we have off our coast, wind power is going to be a centerpiece of the clean energy economy we are creating for Massachusetts,”

Massachusetts has also been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for one of just two Wind Technology Testing Centers in the country (Texas also was selected), poising the Commonwealth to become a national center for wind power research and development-and thereby offering the potential economic rewards of technology development, entrepreneurship and jobs.

The folks at Renewable Energy World have the rest of the story.

‘Bird Safe’ Helix Wind Turbine Excites Enthusiasm and Skepticism

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9flSPAdOLk

It sure looks cool.

Helixwind’s manufacturer says it works at lower altitudes, is less of an eyesore, and is more bird-friendly than standard turbine designs, but many blog posters are demanding more hard data  before falling in love with the design. We’d suggest some research at  the AWEA site (you didn’t know that stands for the American Wind Energy Association?) before signing any purchase orders. 

The company has recently posted some PDFs containing more detailed specifications.