all - there's movement afoot for going carbon neutral by purchasing offsets. if you'd like to, terrific. here are a few sites.
Posted by seaver on January 08, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Green Team,
Here’s an idea for a stocking stuffer…
The Kill-A-Watt is not a very romantic gift, but I’ve found it very useful in determining how much energy is being used by appliances over the course of a day, especially ones that “cycle” on and off - like window AC’s, dehumidifiers, refrigerators, etc - where the electrical ratings on the back of the unit aren’t enough info. It can help you make smart choices: should you run a lot of fans or just one AC to cool the house in the summer…how much money will you save by replacing your fridge, etc, etc…
I was also amazed to find that some electronics were major drains, while others were not at all. For example, my VCR and stereo use 15 W EACH when they’re TURNED OFF!!! That’s like leaving a 30 W bulb on 24/7/365. (so I put them on a separate on/off switch) In contrast, my DVD player and TV barely use 1 W together when they are off (standby). My camcorder and digital cameras kept sucking lots of power just sitting on their docks (even after the batteries are fully charged), while my cell phone did not (once the battery was recharged).
Hope you find it useful…anyone in Cambridge
Happy Holidays!
Tom
Posted by seaver on December 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
GEOFF SWIFT WROTE: TOM WIDEMAN WROTE: We replaced put in CF lightbulbs anywhere that the bulbs were protected (from our kids). Most of the lights in our house are standing or desk lamps, though, and I didn’t want the lamps being knocked over, bulbs broken, and the mercury released. (It’s only about 4 mg per bulb, but I’m kind of kooky about chemicals - odd, considering my background, huh?).
Posted by seaver on October 02, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Hey Nick, Big savings from Colorado! As I indicated before, this is a combination of me (a hardy Oregonian) replacing a soft Tennesseean as Anna's housemate, a concerted effort to keep the thermostat down low, and of course a shared shower or two. Also, we skipped spring and went right to summer here, with mid 80s for the past several weeks. The BBC came and did some filming at one of my research sites last month but unfortunately I was in Mexico on another project so no glory for me . . . will have to get it the old fashioned way, by scoring a cameo in a friend's movie. Hope the writing is going well. Britt
Posted by seaver on September 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
hi nick, we did a number of things this winter to reduce our emissions, but in the end, i think the biggest difference was that we got a new furnace. the old one was 50+ years old and konked out on us over new years, forcing a new, more efficient model into the house. so, yes, the dec number is 0, amazingly enough, and there is currently a credit balance on our fuel account. yeah!! stay well, grace
Posted by seaver on September 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted by seaver on September 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
All, a good energy saver-tip - most of the energy loss through windows comes via draft through the crack between panes and at the bottom of the window. I've found a bunch of places on the web to buy "draft snakes" - tubes stuffed with insulating material - to cut down on this loss:
If these url's wrap around on your screen, you need to merge them back into a single url in your web browser:
http://www.poconomts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Bdix&Category_Code=draft
http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1899658&cp=1901015&view=all&parentPage=family#product_
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00078ZJPG/ref=nosim/002-2125890-8215224?n=284507
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/jump.jsp?itemID=6043&itemType=PRODUCT
Posted by seaver on January 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Home Audit Can Pinpoint Energy Lapses
PELHAM, N.Y. — My house, a 1922 colonial with plaster walls, a gas boiler and 34 windows, looks from the outside like a solid citizen with thrifty ways. But step a little closer and you will find unexplained drafts, a chilly kitchen and winter heating bills that have gone as high as $450 a month. With a household budget so tight it squeaks and the cost of gas expected to climb 40 percent, I decided it was time to bring in an expert.
That expert arrived one morning in mid-October bearing Ghostbusters-style cases and gauges and wearing a T-shirt emblazoned "City Scrap." He introduced himself in a soft Barbadian accent as Henderson Callender, an energy auditor at the Community Environmental Center, a nonprofit group in Queens that makes house calls under a state program, Home Performance With EnergyStar.
The program, begun as a pilot in 2001, now serves the entire state. By October, it had audited nearly 9,000 homes, saving each an average of $600 a year in return for an average of about $8,000 in improvements. Other states and municipalities have similar programs, many listed at energystar.gov under "home energy analysis."
Mr. Callender's tallying of energy leaks and lapses would cost $350, but that would be deductible from the cost of any repairs done by his state-accredited group. We started with a basic rundown of the house, including the cold kitchen and the appliances - all recent models and reasonably energy-efficient, I told him. He nodded, took notes and went to work.
Mr. Callender examined the gas boiler, 15 years old and rather dusty, but not yet wheezing. He pronounced it 78 percent efficient ("22 percent of your heating dollars are going up the chimney"), pretty typical for a boiler that age.
On to the kitchen, which sits over a dirt-floor crawl space. In vain efforts to remedy the cold, I had caulked and weatherstripped windows and a door leading to a patio, insulated the floor, replaced the sweep under the door and added a threshold bolstered by a rolled-up rug. Nothing seemed to work.
Mr. Callender opened a trapdoor to the crawl space and said darkly, "I feel a cool breeze." Somewhere, he suspected, cracks were inviting in cold air.
Upstairs in the kitchen, Mr. Callender asked politely, "Is this house insulated?"
Well, I don't know, I said, mumbling something about Styrofoam under the siding, and maybe a previous owner, and ... umm ... He fixed me with a solid gaze and said: "The first thing - the first thing - is to insulate the walls. It's like putting a blanket around the house."
After pulling out one of his monitors, he discovered that the stove leaked gas whenever it was on. "First time in 10 years of doing this I've seen that happen," he said, edging away. I made plans for a new stove - and a new gas and carbon monoxide detector.
On the second floor, Mr. Callender used his palm to check the temperature of a plaster wall. "Feel how cool that is?" he asked, adding that the presence of plaster often means that a house is so old that it has no insulation.
Imagine my relief when he discovered signs of insulation in the attic.
Back downstairs, he did a blower door test: He hauled out an adjustable metal frame with a vinyl covering and a circular opening, set the frame into an open doorway, inserted a powerful fan in the opening and proceeded to suck air from the house. A gauge reported a number meaning "not very airtight": further evidence that insulation was absent.
As Mr. Callender prepared to leave, he gave it to me straight. Along with insulating the walls and ceilings of first-floor rooms that jut out, he recommended insulating the pipes that carry water to and from the boiler and cleaning the boiler. He would also have foam sprayed into the cracks in the crawl space, and its earth floor covered with plastic to keep out cold and moisture. Replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs would help, he added; written report to follow.
Later I spoke to Peter R. Smith, president of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which runs the EnergySmart program. (Those interested in participating can go to getenergysmart.org, click on the blue logo that says "Home Performance With Energy Star" and then "Locate a B.P.I.-certified home performance contractor near you.")
Contractors must be certified to take part, he stressed, and audits are done "from a whole-house perspective," measuring not only energy efficiency but also comfort (how cold can you stand it?), affordability (how much can you pay for heat?) and health (are there gas or carbon monoxide leaks?).
In addition to the rebate of the audit cost, if the auditor then makes the improvements, the program offers a cash incentive of 10 percent of the costs (up to $3,000) if the homeowner pays out of pocket. Low-interest loans are available, along with grants of up to $5,000 for households whose incomes fall below 80 percent of the state median.
As for me, I plan to have the Community Environmental Center (cecenter.org) clean the boiler (about $100), seal the cracks ($750) and possibly insulate some of the first-floor ceilings ($699). With the $350 rebate, the 10 percent incentive (about $150), and the hope of savings of maybe $400 this winter, that seems the way to go. I'll insulate the pipes myself and switch to compact fluorescents.
What I won't do right away is sink $11,900 into 34 new windows. And I'm on the fence about insulating all the walls: Mr. Callender said that if I do the first floor now (about $2,300), and the rest in 2006 (about $2,200), it will help a great deal. And if I wait until after Jan. 1, I can apply for a new federal energy tax credit of $500.
Meanwhile I know more about my house and am even feeling virtuous about my energy-related expenditures. With my soon-to-be-warmer kitchen - and a new stove - I'll spend more time with my children baking cookies this winter, and let the winds whistle outside instead of indoors.
Posted by seaver on November 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
I Vant to Drink Your Vatts
WASHINGTON — Households across the land are infested with vampires. That's what energy experts call those gizmos with two sharp teeth that dig into a wall socket and suck juice all night long. All day long, too, and all year long.
Most people assume that when they turn off the television set it stops drawing power.
But that's not how most TV's (and VCR's and other electronic devices) work. They remain ever in standby mode, silently sipping energy to the tune of 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per household, awaiting the signal to roar into action.
"As a country we pay $1 billion a year to power our TV's and VCR's while they're turned off," said Maria T. Vargas, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, which sets voluntary standards for energy use, and grants its ratings to the most efficient products.
There are billions of vampires in the United States, drawing more than enough current in the typical house to light a 100-watt light bulb 24/7, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, a research arm of the Energy Department.
These silent energy users include the chargers for devices that run on batteries, like cellphones, iPods and personal digital assistants, and all the devices around the house that have adapters because they run on direct current, like answering machines. Some have both batteries and steady power use, like cordless phones. Experts call all those adapters "wall warts." Many deliver in direct current only half as much energy as they suck out of the wall; the rest is wasted.
Vampires and wall warts are only part of the problem. DSL or cable modems, among other things, are increasingly likely to be left on around the clock. A computer left on continuously can draw nearly as much power as an efficient refrigerator - 70 to 250 watts, depending on the model and how it is used.
It's not that hard to engineer a more energy-aware computer: Dell introduced one in 2004 that drew 1.4 watts in "sleep" mode and just under one watt when "off." But energy-efficient design is not necessarily rewarded in the marketplace, where people who are shopping for the latest shiny electronic device are unlikely to put its energy consumption rate while "off" topmost on a list of considerations.
Energy efficiency experts say the answer lies instead in industry-wide standards, which would require manufacturers to build appliances with low consumption when in standby.
Just about everyone supports such a move. President Bush early on announced that electric devices purchased by the federal government would need to meet a standby consumption standard. Congress is pushing forward, too. This summer it passed a bill to set testing protocols for measuring energy use, clearing the way for nationwide consumption standards. The Energy Department held a meeting this week to discuss developing the standards. California has already adopted its own, to take effect in 2006.
Among the worst vampires are big-screen televisions, mainly because of satellite and cable boxes, which can draw up to 30 watts when turned off, experts say.
Indeed, the words "off" and "on" no longer seem to apply; a better word might be "idling."
"They won't even say 'off' now; they'll say 'power,' " noted Alan K. Meier, a senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency, a consortium based in Paris. "My washing machine draws five watts even when there's no sign of intelligent life."
One culprit is the microchip, whose presence is revealed by a "soft button" instead of a switch. Microchips are generally an improvement over mechanical controls because they are more durable and sophisticated. They also help reduce the size and weight of consumer products. But they require a continuous trickle of electricity. Energy experts say it would be simple to cut that trickle in half - not by running around the house unplugging everything in sight, which would require much resetting of clocks, but by engineering products differently.
It doesn't cost much to make a more efficient device: sometimes just 50 cents a unit, they say. But consumers don't consider invisible energy use - "there's no labeling of power use in 'standby,' " Mr. Meier said, and "no way for people to recognize what a low-standby device is" - making government-imposed energy efficiency the best hope, he said.
The Energy Department would be in charge of setting standby mode standards that would apply to all consumer products sold in the United States. "Things may be a small step for each individual consumer," said Douglas Faulkner, the acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, "but they can add up across the country."
The Energy Star program, whose labels on electronics help consumers comparison shop, has announced that it will not rate a product that fails its standby mode requirements (consumers in the market for VCR's, among other things, can see how they rate at energystar.gov).
"Consumers are buying more electronics, and there are more consumers," Mr. Faulkner said. "So the amount used by these devices is going up."
All the more reason to make each item as energy efficient as possible.
Posted by seaver on November 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Anyone familiar with the notion of having a pro take an infrared picture of the home, so you can figure out where your home's the heat loss occurs? Worthwhile? Familiar with any good vendors?
Posted by seaver on November 04, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Recent Comments