Category Archives: Improvements

Vacuum Tube Solar Hot Water Comes to Cambridge

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Bruce install

One of the first home improvements Rachel and I made when we purchased our condo here in Cambridge this spring was a solar hot water installation on our rooftop.

The system we had put in uses vacuum tubes, a newer, more efficient type of solar collector than the black box flat panels of old. As a writer covering energy and the environment in Cambridge and China, I’d spent the past three years tracing this new and exotic technology back to the factories and cities in China where they are surprisingly commonplace.

I first read about the tubes three years ago in a story in the Boston Globe. A family in Newbury, MA was using a massive installation to provide hot water and heat for their giant barn of a house.  A photo that went with the story showed their installation covered in frost on a cold winter day. Somehow, despite the cold, the tubes were still kicking out 120 to 160 degree water.

The secret behind vacuum tubes that allows them to work just as well in winter as summer is, just as their name suggests, a vacuum space. The diagram at the right shows how the tubes work. Sunlight passes through a clear outer glass tube and travels through an evacuated space or vacuum where all of the air has been sucked out.  The sunlight passes through this vacuum and then hits an inner black pipe that absorbs the sun’s rays converting the sunlight to heat. What’s key about all of this is that whereas light rays can pass through a vacuum space, heat can not. All of the heat is therefore trapped inside by this highly efficient, transparent insulator.


After I read the story in the Globe I found out that there are thousands of factories kicking out these tubes in China and roughly 1 in 10 Chinese people use them for their hot water.

Six months after first hearing of the tubes, I toured the R&D center of one of these factories in Beijing for a story I wrote for New Scientist.

The story also led me to Rizhao, a city on the coast between Beijing and Shanghai where 99 percent of residents get their hot water from the sun.  Here is a video I made from a rooftop of the city while talking with Rizhao’s mayor, Li Zhaoqian.

By the time we had a chance to buy a place of our own I was totally sold on the technology and couldn’t wait to put the tubes in on our own place.  Evacuated tubes are still hard to come by in the US, however, and most of the installers I spoke with insisted they were no better than the flat panel solar collectors that had been around since the 70s. The estimates I got for flat panel installations, however, were twice the size of what I figured I could get by with using vacuum tubes. Then I found Bruce, a contractor with New England Solar Hot Water, who, like his company’s name suggests, only does solar hot water installations. Bruce and his crew had been doing vacuum tube installs for years and were stoked to hear I’d actually toured some of the factories where they get their parts.


In mid June they installed the collectors shown on the right that heat all of our domestic hot water; the water we use for showers, laundry, and in our sinks. The system is backed up by natural gas but on a sunny day like today, its unlikely we’ll need it. At 9am, with an outside temp of 43 F,  our tubes are already a toasty 95 F and climbing.

Cambridge residents cut carbon as part of International Day of Climate Action

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Area 4 Light Bulb Exchange

Area 4 Light Bulb Exchange

On October 24th, volunteers worked with the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and the Cambridge Energy Alliance to weatherize Cambridge buildings and provide efficient light bulbs and resources to Area 4 residents as part of the International Day of Climate Action.  This local grassroots effort was part of 4,000 world-wide groups that demonstrated their commitment to fighting climate change by rallying in big cities and engaging in creative community actions. The International Day of Climate Action is called on world leaders to commit to bringing carbon emissions down from its current 387ppm to a safe level of 350 or less.

Women's Center Barnraising

Women's Center Barnraising

Over seventy volunteers came together to weatherize both the Women’s Center and the Wendell Street coop through air sealing improvements to the windows, doors, and gaps in the basement, plus other efficiency measures like installing compact fluorescent light bulbs.  The communities of Reading, Boston, Waltham, Arlington, and Maynard will continue the spirit of the International Day of Action with weatherization barnraisings scheduled for the next 30 days. The buildings included homes for mentally disabled adults and a church.

The HEET team also collaborated with the Cambridge Energy Alliance to help Area 4 residents save energy and cut carbon by exchanging incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents.  The light bulb exchange was a huge success; saving Area 4 residents over 29,000 pounds of carbon per year by replacing 346 incandescent light bulbs.  In addition, the Cambridge Energy Alliance completed its fall canvass in other Cambridge neighborhoods that day by exchanging 579 cfl lightbulbs, saving an additional 341,378 lbs of carbon. These outreach activities also provided energy effiency resources to help families start saving money, plus connect them to energy effiency programs for their homes or businesses.

Many of the Cambridge volunteers ended the day by joining the Boston 350 Under Water Festival.  Hundreds of citizens gathered en masse in downtown Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park and engaged in positive attention-getting and imagination-catching activities.  The Boston 350 event used the iconic image of sea level rise to draw attention to the threat of global climate change.

The International Day of Action reflected the famed mantra “Think global and act local”!  There are a number of ways to get involved in sustainability, energy, and climate activities which can be found on the Cambridge Energy Alliance calendar.  To get involved in the Home Energy Efficency barnraising events visit there website at heetma.com/.

Jackfrost nipping at your nose

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snowflake Although you could be forgiven for wondering if we even had a summer, it’s clear winter’s just around the corner. Here are some ideas to help you prepare:

  • Eat spicy food
  • Drink warm beverages
  • Use body heat instead of central heating: cuddle
  • Wear socks/slippers: warm tootsies = warm feelings

For other, more pragmatic tips, see the CEA website.

The real estate industry vs climate change?

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Brian Brady

Mortgage Broker and Climate Change Guru?

Following on from an article published on Warm Home Cool Planet a couple of weeks ago on mandatory Energy Audits in Austin, TX, we have noticed a growing movement amongst the real estate industry targeting the ‘Cap and Trade’ bill and any local ordinances that might obligate homeowners into performing an energy audit on their home or making energy improvements in their home before they sell.

Here’s one from Brian Brady ‘America’s No. 1 mortgage broker’:  “Sadly, the theory of carbon dioxide emissions’ effect on climate change is accepted as fact by our politicians without rigorous examination of its merits. It’s easy to turn a blind eye on faulty legislation when it attacks “big business”.  Cap and Trade, however, is much more restrictive than its supporters would have you believe.  Your neighbor’s penchant for bay windows and your desire for key-lime green bathroom walls might just be at stake. ”

As in all cases where people attempt to sow doubt on the accepted fact of climate change, it’s important to consider the source of these opinions.  It’s also worth mentioning that the scientific community, not politicians, are responsible for deciding what is scientific fact.

Mortgage brokers make their money from arranging mortgages for people who aren’t considered good risks by banks. (Which describes at least 50% of Americans at the moment.) The mortgage broker assumes the risk of the loan for a premium on the prevailing interest rates (usually in the form of ‘points’). Mortgage companies then package up these loans and sell them to banks so they can be traded as financial instruments like CDO’s (Collateralized Dept Obligations) which in large part were responsible for the near collapse of our financial system last fall.

Mr. Brady’s business suffers if anything gets in the way of him writing another mortgage and stuffing more dodgy paper into our already teetering financial system. To prevent that from happening,  Mr. Brady has hauled the “man’s home is his castle’ trope out of the cupboard and dusted it off. According to Mr. Brady soon ‘the socialists will be invading your home and telling you how many light switches you can have’.

As a recent home seller (and potential home buyer) I can assure readers that the marketplace is already factoring energy efficiency into the price of homes. Anyone seriously considering buying our Central Square home asked our broker for recent energy bills so they could figure out what their total house expenses would be each month. A gas boiler tune-up performed the previous winter, and an Energy Star-rated air conditioning system resulted in our home energy bills comparing favorably to other homes with a similar square footage. As a result our home was sold.

Given his connection to the real-estate industry, Mr. Brady should know that potential home buyers are already performing something close to an energy ‘audit’ on every home they are considering for purchase. Local municipalities are simply reacting to current market trends and ensuring that everyone gets the information needed before they make a home buying decision.

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.

Dow Corning gets boost from Economic Stimulus Package

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The Pink Panther saves the World?
The Pink Panther saves the World… and Newark.

Dow Corning, the largest maker of residential insulation in the US, can expect their economic recovery to start ahead of time due to the tax rebates and incentives for housing weatherization included within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama last month.

“The weatherization program is the sort of activity that is likely to spur demand,” said Owens Corning spokesman Scott Deitz. “No doubt, people will install insulation because of this program. We just don’t know how many.”

This could also boost employment at Dow Cornings’ largest US insulation manufacturing plant in Newark, which has lost over 700 jobs in the last decade.

An estimated 80 million homes in the United States are currently under-insulated. Any home built before the mid-1980s and that has not been remodeled is unlikely to meet  insulation building codes in force today.

Cambridge Energy Barnraising

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Last week, we showed you how a local Cambridge organization (HEET–Home Energy Efficiency Team) ‘weatherizes’ a house for fellow Cambridge residents.  Weatherizing a house involves making some basic non-structural changes to a house to reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling and save money on utilities. The homeowner supplies all the materials and HEET provides the knowledge and manpower needed to finish all energy efficiency improvements in a single day.

It’s a great community activity and a fantastic way to meet your fellow Cambridge residents while learning from skilled tradesmen how you can make your own home more energy efficient. And there is always a party to celebrate the completion of another successful Weatherization Barnraising.

The next HEET Weatherization Barnraising is scheduled for Sunday, March 1 between 12:30—5 pm at 120 Chestnut Street and 100 Henry Street, Cambridgeport.

The Work to be carried out on site includes:

  • Spraying the basement rimjoist using RetroFoam, led by Tom Lawler (the head of RetroFoam, a Massachusetts-based insulation company)
  • Using Plexiglas to insulate windows
  • Repairing drywall
  • Weatherizing doors
  • Possible building of an insulated cover for an attic hatch

The number of participants will be limited to assure that everyone has guidance and support from a skilled team leader.  You can sign up today by contacting Steve Morr-Wineman at swineman@gis.net or 617-876-4753.

HEET Barnraisings—a green twist on an old idea

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You may remember the scene from the 1985 movie Witness starring Harrison Ford. A group of Amish people converge on a neighbor’s property and assemble a barn in a single montage, a single day. A Cambridge-based co-op  HEET (for Home Energy Efficiency Team) does weatherization work that’s less lofty, but arguably more important to the modern world. It’s a model for what can be done by harnessing the power of progressive community which emerged during the Obama campaign.

As Bob the Builder might say, ‘Can We Caulk it? Yes we can!’

Combining the materials purchased by the homeowner with free knowhow and labor from HEET, the team has weatherized several low-income  homes in Cambridge, with the goal of performing a barn-raising per month. As they do so, they transfer the skills needed to make—and keep— a home more energy efficient to both homeowners and groups of new volunteers. The energy savings persist, putting cash in the pockets of Cambridge residents, which can be spent in the local economy in different ways—a Cambridge mini-stimulus.

HEET grew out of neighborhood organization called GreenPort. The purpose of both groups, according to co-founder Steve Morr-Wineman, is to bring neighbors together to respond to the environmental crisis. A recent project included weatherizing the Cambridgeport Public School, a pioneering public-private-volunteer collaboration with the savings going back to Cambridge’s tax-payers.

Daily KOS thinks the model needs to go national, and so does Warm Home Cool Planet.

Somerville, MA will soon hold their first weatherization barnraising and Watertown, Brookline, Lexington, Medford, Milton, Newton, Beverly, and Boston are thinking about starting their own groups.  I think it would be a good idea for this idea to go nation-wide.  In fact, a weatherization barnraising on the White House might be a very good way to kick-start that process.

Our hats off to the HEET team. You’re doing great work. Expect to hear from us soon.

Boston Globe reporter gets audited

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No, our local paper is not in trouble with the taxman (that’s just President Obama’s cabinet picks) but Geoff Edgers from the Boston Globe decided that his heating bills were getting out of control. So he called up his energy provider-National Grid-who sent over a Conservation Services Group auditor to perform a thorough check up on his 100 year old home. Among the pleasant suprises-free CFL light globes to replace his incandescant bulbs. Watch the video below to see what else Geoff learned while making his home more energy efficient. If you’re a Cambridge resident, you can sign up now for your own FREE home energy audit.

Crawlspace 101

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This weekend, Warm Home Cool Planet received a message from Lands’ End specifically targeting everyone shivering their way through winter here in Massachusetts.

lands_end

You know it’s cold when folks from Wisconsin are sending you winter sympathy messages via email. Beyond how cold it might be outside, the recent patch of artic weather here in Cambridge has resulted in lots of time spent inside for most residents. For Warm Home Cool Planet, that also means plenty of time to ponder why the ground floor of the house is always colder than the floors above.

A quick search around the Internet revealed a wealth of information on how most houses–particularly those built before the 1970s–don’t have properly insulated crawlspaces.

So if your bottom floor feels like a skating rink, find out why crawl space vapor is reducing your comfort–and increasing your heating bills. We also recommend looking at your all your options for properly sealing and insulating your crawlspace. Depending on the situation under your house, you need to check your polyethylene sheet has the right thickness, and you have the right kind of membrane to deal with moisture build up under your flooring.