Act now to create jobs that save energy....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-28-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Yesterday, I got this in an email from the Sierra Club.:
“By passing Home Star, the Senate can create over 168,000 construction, manufacturing, and retail jobs in a new energy efficiency industry.
Home Star will create new jobs in hard hit industries, help consumers save money on their energy bills, and reduce our reliance on oil. But we only have two weeks to make our voices heard before the Senate breaks for the August recess.
Call your senators and urge them to support new jobs, lower energy bills, and oil savings by voting for Home Star.
Are you worried about the economy? Home Star will create new jobs in construction installing insulation and windows, in manufacturing producing equipment, windows and doors, and in retail selling insulation and air sealing products. And the program will pay for itself in less than eight years.
Are you worried about your bills? Home Star will save consumers $9.4 billion on their energy bills over ten years, and the program's accredited contractors and certified workers ensure that installations are done right.
Home star will help us break free of our oil addiction by saving over 40 billion barrels per year through home heating oil savings. That's equivalent to the entire Outer Continental Shelf oil production in Alaska and the Pacific combined.
Tell your senators that passing Home Star is the next step to ending our dirty, deadly, and dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and to building a clean energy economy.
The Home Star program is a win for workers, a win for homeowners, and a win for the environment. Now we need your help to make sure it passes before the August recess.
Time is running out -- will you make the call?”
My comments:
1. Both Democrats and Republicans should favor this bill. But if one or both of your senators does not yet support it for some reason or is on the fence, it could cause the bill to fail.
So, if you can, please phone your two senators and say you’d like them to vote for the bill.
For Democratic senators who mostly favor clean energy measures, this bill also can help them point to a job creating bill they voted for.
Also, many Republican senators want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil to make our country more secure which this bill would help do. And they say the most important task they have is to help create jobs right away. This bill would do that and voting for it can also help them point to a job creating bill they voted for.
2. Similarly, if you are a homeowner and this bill passes, I strongly recommend you take advantage of it. The tax free rebate repaying you a large part of the cost helps guarantee that the added savings will net you out more money than you pay. Even better, you can finance the energy savings upgrades and get the rebate and even may have the energy savings be more than the loan payment.
In the winter, you can use far less heating if you have good insulation and double pane windows in every window and glass door. Your utility bills will go down for that reason.
Even better, and worth knowing is that your home will be far more comfortable since it will stay at an about right temperature instead of going back and forth between too hot and too cold and will have far fewer cold drafts of chilling air.
In the summer, if you live in a home with a peaked roof that is not now well ventilated, adding insulation and double pane windows and adding extra ventilation intakes and convection powered exhaust fans in the roof will prevent heat from getting inside. Then you no longer need to run your air conditioner for hours to remove the heat. That can save even larger dollar amounts for some people than the winter savings.
Even better, and worth knowing is that your home will be far more comfortable since the number of times it will be too hot inside will be far less even on days you don’t run the air conditioner. And, by adding ceiling fans you will be even more comfortable and need even less air conditioning.
Best of all, your home will be dramatically less hot at night when you need to be home trying to sleep. Your energy levels and health and quality of life will be better during hot weather than it was before.
This bill is a win-win for our country and for you if it is passed.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Electric Transport is beginning to happen....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-21-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Electric transport is beginning to happen.
1. Tesla is beginning to look like it will successfully become an established car company making upscale electric cars similar to what Audi or Acura or BMW does now for gasoline powered cars. They also have technology they will share with larger car companies.
2. Within five years it looks as if all the following major car companies will make all electric or plug-in hybrid cars that run over 90 % of the time as electric cars.:
Toyota; Honda; Nissan; and Mitsubishi from Japan.
Ford and Chevrolet in the United States.
And, just yesterday, I found out the Volkswagen is making a serious effort to become a leading manufacturer of electric cars.
3. And, if you didn’t see it, this was in our post 3 weeks ago:
And, that’s not all. Coulomb Technologies is developing multiple ways to support building networks of charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrids. They have a large deal with Ford and also are ready to support the Nissan Leaf and are working with Siemens to support an EV (electric vehicle) Siemens is developing.
A company called Better Place is setting up a combination of fast charging stations and electric cars that work with them in several places.
And, Amprius in the Silicon Valley says they have a technology to increase the charge lithium batteries can take and deliver by 40%. If they do and get it into production, that will either increase the range cars can drive using only electricity or lower the cost and weight of their battery packs or both.
And there are also many new advanced technology battery companies as well. These include A123 Systems and Boston Power both in Boston plus the high technology battery companies in China that venture capitalist, John Doerr says are doing well despite very little coverage here.
There’s good news and bad news in this.
The best news is that this will dramatically cut our dependence on and use of fuels from petroleum. It will lower the maintenance cost of transport and driving because electric cars are simpler and far less complex than internal combustion engines.
Since peak oil and price run ups in fuels from petroleum look likely within that same timeframe or soon after it, this transition will really help our economy.
The bad news is that it may make our transport systems vulnerable to solar electromagnetic storms which have melted telegraph wires in the past.
But the likely bad news is that it will put a lot of pressure on the utility companies to generate and deliver more electricity. Some powering of electric cars can be done with existing generation facilities at night when the demand for electricity for lighting, business, and air conditioning is far less.
But it also means that more natural gas and coal will be burned to generate electricity.
All of this makes development of clean energy sources of electricity such as photovoltaic solar, thermal solar, and wind –and -- cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity from natural gas and coal even more important than they are now. And, it will increase the demands to build more nuclear plants to generate electricity.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-21-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Electric transport is beginning to happen.
1. Tesla is beginning to look like it will successfully become an established car company making upscale electric cars similar to what Audi or Acura or BMW does now for gasoline powered cars. They also have technology they will share with larger car companies.
2. Within five years it looks as if all the following major car companies will make all electric or plug-in hybrid cars that run over 90 % of the time as electric cars.:
Toyota; Honda; Nissan; and Mitsubishi from Japan.
Ford and Chevrolet in the United States.
And, just yesterday, I found out the Volkswagen is making a serious effort to become a leading manufacturer of electric cars.
3. And, if you didn’t see it, this was in our post 3 weeks ago:
And, that’s not all. Coulomb Technologies is developing multiple ways to support building networks of charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrids. They have a large deal with Ford and also are ready to support the Nissan Leaf and are working with Siemens to support an EV (electric vehicle) Siemens is developing.
A company called Better Place is setting up a combination of fast charging stations and electric cars that work with them in several places.
And, Amprius in the Silicon Valley says they have a technology to increase the charge lithium batteries can take and deliver by 40%. If they do and get it into production, that will either increase the range cars can drive using only electricity or lower the cost and weight of their battery packs or both.
And there are also many new advanced technology battery companies as well. These include A123 Systems and Boston Power both in Boston plus the high technology battery companies in China that venture capitalist, John Doerr says are doing well despite very little coverage here.
There’s good news and bad news in this.
The best news is that this will dramatically cut our dependence on and use of fuels from petroleum. It will lower the maintenance cost of transport and driving because electric cars are simpler and far less complex than internal combustion engines.
Since peak oil and price run ups in fuels from petroleum look likely within that same timeframe or soon after it, this transition will really help our economy.
The bad news is that it may make our transport systems vulnerable to solar electromagnetic storms which have melted telegraph wires in the past.
But the likely bad news is that it will put a lot of pressure on the utility companies to generate and deliver more electricity. Some powering of electric cars can be done with existing generation facilities at night when the demand for electricity for lighting, business, and air conditioning is far less.
But it also means that more natural gas and coal will be burned to generate electricity.
All of this makes development of clean energy sources of electricity such as photovoltaic solar, thermal solar, and wind –and -- cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity from natural gas and coal even more important than they are now. And, it will increase the demands to build more nuclear plants to generate electricity.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
GE sized electricity innovations....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-14-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
GE sized electricity innovations:
GE just announced a $200 million dollar program to improve the way we create, connect, and use power.
One GE & its venture partners in this pick company ideas to back, apparently the ones that work will then get the entire GE company to help upgrade and sell them.
There will be many technology submissions for this program. Hopefully some will make a truly powerful difference.
Here are some lower tech but GE sized business ideas that have that much potential or
more.
If GE, existing companies that fit, and a new company to co-ordinate and expand them work together on these projects from a pilot project funded by this program we could have some truly large scale effects.
1. Massive development of solar thermal and large scale photovoltaic plants in Mexico.
Mexico is blessed with far more solar potential, particularly for solar thermal electricity generation than all of the United States.
Companies from the United States could set up manufacturing in Mexico using this electricity; and so much solar thermal power would be generated that much of it could be sent to the states on the border, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. This would create a way to give far greater economic development and income to Mexico and add jobs for the people who want to immigrate the United States by giving them jobs in Mexico. The companies would have to create training programs in some cases; but with the jobs and electric power available from this solar thermal build up that should be workable.
This also might be able to bypass the problems now happening in siting solar thermal plants in the United States.
AREVA Solar is a company that would make an excellent partner for this effort as they have the solar thermal technology.
Also, once the new development of new power lines to bring this power to these states begins and brings new jobs to those states, I think it will also act as a catalyst to further solar thermal and new power lines to develop it within the United States.
2. Clean coal integrated with new technology to make using coal dramatically less polluting to the air, more efficient, better able to help replace foreign oil within the United States, and produce less net CO2.
Roughly the Eastern two thirds of the United States now gets most of its electricity from burning coal directly. Those states pay for this with the resulting health effects of the air pollution generated.
Also, coal is heavy and must be transported to the locations where it is burned to produce electricity. (This is also a very big problem now in China I’ve read.)
There are a set of things that could make this far more beneficial and less harmful with new technologies.
If a pilot project could be done to develop an economically viable way to integrate these pieces it would help coal companies and the states that contain them move to a more sustainable future without costing them jobs. That in turn would allow them to support clean energy bills for things like solar thermal far more than they do now. By giving them tax credits for these pollution reduction effects to offset them, they might even support taxes on carbon or cap and trade laws to reduce carbon use.
Here are the pieces to make that work. Some of the needed technologies exist now or technologies exist that may be up to the job with some development.
a) Instead of moving coal to a far away location to be burned, use it at the mines or very near them to make methane or propane with as little resulting onsite pollution as possible or use it to make synthetic gasoline as the Germans once did. Those fuels can be transported by pipeline far more efficiently than coal can be transported now.
b) The methane or propane can be used to make electricity with virtually no air pollution and high efficiency using Bloom Energy’s new fuel cell technology. There would be no particulate pollution or sulfuric acid, or mercury pollution at the sites where electricity is generated. There IS now; but that could be eventually stopped as these new power plants come online. Also, the process is enough cooler from what I know of it that it would sharply cut back or eliminate the production of oxides of nitrogen that fossil fuel burning methods create.
c) Feed most of the resulting CO2 into tanks of algae to make biofuels to replace gasoline and diesel fuels that are made from petroleum. This will cushion the economic shock from peak oil and reduce the run up in petroleum and fuel prices as more economic development simultaneously increases demand. This would reduce our imports of oil from outside the United States as well.
And, it will reduce CO2 emissions below what they would have been otherwise.
Aurora Biofuels, Solazyme, and Amyris Biotechnologies are just three of the companies working in this area. And, there are many others.
d) The major oil companies extract petroleum to make fuels. But they also sell and distribute these fuels. If these biofuels can be brought down in cost to below what it begins to cost the oil companies to do things like drill deep water wells with tons of safeguards, they might even partner with this effort.
3. Provide a mortgage financing arm to make loans, possibly with federal backing, to the people who did energy efficiency upgrades and added solar power and added the cost to their property tax bills. It seems that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and their federal boss have all chickened out on doing so. GE was in financing before. This could be a big dollar growth area – and a safe one if it was done right.
4. Provide an enabling company to help businesses and some homeowners build solar photovoltaic canopies over parking lots and unused yard space.
Often a business or shopping center will have far more square feet of parking lot than they do buildings. So, if they had canopies over the parking lot with photovoltaic collectors, their onsite solar electric potential would more than double.
Not only that; but the people who use those parking lots now use a lot of power running air conditioners in their cars to cool them off after parking in those lots. This is particularly the case in hot, sunny weather. Businesses with such covered parking lots would be preferred by many customers over those that do not have this amenity.
And, though the solar would be less in rainy weather, the people parking in the lots would appreciate being able to get into and out of their cars under such canopies without getting themselves or their belongings wet.
This is already being done on a small scale in some places. It would create a LOT more solar electricity if it was done virtually everywhere there are such parking lots. The potential is there.
5. Create a permit expediting specialty company for people installing solar or wind power and for building new solar “farms” either thermal or photovoltaic – and for new power lines.
Since it often takes far longer now to get permitted to build these things than it does to build them, this could be a huge upgrade from what we have now.
Such expediting is both a learned skill and a talent. You have to know the laws, how the laws might be changed, how to get variances. It helps to know how to work with regulators, city councils, and politicians. And being able to stay courteous and easy to work with when people seem to be -- or are -- deliberately blocking your way or not getting to your case while being very resourceful and determined to get things done is not a common skill set.
But in many communities and construction companies people exist with that knowledge and those skills. And, they DO usually speed up the process sometimes by more than five to one over what the time it otherwise would have taken to get done.
A large multi-part company that specialized in such expediting of clean energy projects, could help us get a LOT more clean energy installed and much sooner.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-14-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
GE sized electricity innovations:
GE just announced a $200 million dollar program to improve the way we create, connect, and use power.
One GE & its venture partners in this pick company ideas to back, apparently the ones that work will then get the entire GE company to help upgrade and sell them.
There will be many technology submissions for this program. Hopefully some will make a truly powerful difference.
Here are some lower tech but GE sized business ideas that have that much potential or
more.
If GE, existing companies that fit, and a new company to co-ordinate and expand them work together on these projects from a pilot project funded by this program we could have some truly large scale effects.
1. Massive development of solar thermal and large scale photovoltaic plants in Mexico.
Mexico is blessed with far more solar potential, particularly for solar thermal electricity generation than all of the United States.
Companies from the United States could set up manufacturing in Mexico using this electricity; and so much solar thermal power would be generated that much of it could be sent to the states on the border, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. This would create a way to give far greater economic development and income to Mexico and add jobs for the people who want to immigrate the United States by giving them jobs in Mexico. The companies would have to create training programs in some cases; but with the jobs and electric power available from this solar thermal build up that should be workable.
This also might be able to bypass the problems now happening in siting solar thermal plants in the United States.
AREVA Solar is a company that would make an excellent partner for this effort as they have the solar thermal technology.
Also, once the new development of new power lines to bring this power to these states begins and brings new jobs to those states, I think it will also act as a catalyst to further solar thermal and new power lines to develop it within the United States.
2. Clean coal integrated with new technology to make using coal dramatically less polluting to the air, more efficient, better able to help replace foreign oil within the United States, and produce less net CO2.
Roughly the Eastern two thirds of the United States now gets most of its electricity from burning coal directly. Those states pay for this with the resulting health effects of the air pollution generated.
Also, coal is heavy and must be transported to the locations where it is burned to produce electricity. (This is also a very big problem now in China I’ve read.)
There are a set of things that could make this far more beneficial and less harmful with new technologies.
If a pilot project could be done to develop an economically viable way to integrate these pieces it would help coal companies and the states that contain them move to a more sustainable future without costing them jobs. That in turn would allow them to support clean energy bills for things like solar thermal far more than they do now. By giving them tax credits for these pollution reduction effects to offset them, they might even support taxes on carbon or cap and trade laws to reduce carbon use.
Here are the pieces to make that work. Some of the needed technologies exist now or technologies exist that may be up to the job with some development.
a) Instead of moving coal to a far away location to be burned, use it at the mines or very near them to make methane or propane with as little resulting onsite pollution as possible or use it to make synthetic gasoline as the Germans once did. Those fuels can be transported by pipeline far more efficiently than coal can be transported now.
b) The methane or propane can be used to make electricity with virtually no air pollution and high efficiency using Bloom Energy’s new fuel cell technology. There would be no particulate pollution or sulfuric acid, or mercury pollution at the sites where electricity is generated. There IS now; but that could be eventually stopped as these new power plants come online. Also, the process is enough cooler from what I know of it that it would sharply cut back or eliminate the production of oxides of nitrogen that fossil fuel burning methods create.
c) Feed most of the resulting CO2 into tanks of algae to make biofuels to replace gasoline and diesel fuels that are made from petroleum. This will cushion the economic shock from peak oil and reduce the run up in petroleum and fuel prices as more economic development simultaneously increases demand. This would reduce our imports of oil from outside the United States as well.
And, it will reduce CO2 emissions below what they would have been otherwise.
Aurora Biofuels, Solazyme, and Amyris Biotechnologies are just three of the companies working in this area. And, there are many others.
d) The major oil companies extract petroleum to make fuels. But they also sell and distribute these fuels. If these biofuels can be brought down in cost to below what it begins to cost the oil companies to do things like drill deep water wells with tons of safeguards, they might even partner with this effort.
3. Provide a mortgage financing arm to make loans, possibly with federal backing, to the people who did energy efficiency upgrades and added solar power and added the cost to their property tax bills. It seems that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and their federal boss have all chickened out on doing so. GE was in financing before. This could be a big dollar growth area – and a safe one if it was done right.
4. Provide an enabling company to help businesses and some homeowners build solar photovoltaic canopies over parking lots and unused yard space.
Often a business or shopping center will have far more square feet of parking lot than they do buildings. So, if they had canopies over the parking lot with photovoltaic collectors, their onsite solar electric potential would more than double.
Not only that; but the people who use those parking lots now use a lot of power running air conditioners in their cars to cool them off after parking in those lots. This is particularly the case in hot, sunny weather. Businesses with such covered parking lots would be preferred by many customers over those that do not have this amenity.
And, though the solar would be less in rainy weather, the people parking in the lots would appreciate being able to get into and out of their cars under such canopies without getting themselves or their belongings wet.
This is already being done on a small scale in some places. It would create a LOT more solar electricity if it was done virtually everywhere there are such parking lots. The potential is there.
5. Create a permit expediting specialty company for people installing solar or wind power and for building new solar “farms” either thermal or photovoltaic – and for new power lines.
Since it often takes far longer now to get permitted to build these things than it does to build them, this could be a huge upgrade from what we have now.
Such expediting is both a learned skill and a talent. You have to know the laws, how the laws might be changed, how to get variances. It helps to know how to work with regulators, city councils, and politicians. And being able to stay courteous and easy to work with when people seem to be -- or are -- deliberately blocking your way or not getting to your case while being very resourceful and determined to get things done is not a common skill set.
But in many communities and construction companies people exist with that knowledge and those skills. And, they DO usually speed up the process sometimes by more than five to one over what the time it otherwise would have taken to get done.
A large multi-part company that specialized in such expediting of clean energy projects, could help us get a LOT more clean energy installed and much sooner.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Be cool for much lower air conditioning costs....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-7-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.
And, of those, the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.
Today’s post:
This post reviews some information that was in previous posts for those of you who didn’t see them or know the information otherwise.
1. In the Northern hemisphere we are now having truly hot summer temperatures in many places. And, in many parts of the United States, a major energy use is for residential air conditioning.
In fact, during the hottest days, it is exactly that air conditioning use that dictates what your utility needs to be able to deliver for peak demand.
Did you know that for many people you can drop your electricity use for air conditioning so much you do pay off the costs in one year and save literally hundreds to thousands of dollars on your summer electric bill for every year after that?
You can. And, it even has a bonus. Your home will be dramatically more comfortable. And the night time temperature in your home will be so much lower that you’ll sleep much better and have a good deal more energy each day!
Here’s our post on this method from April, 2008.:
Slash your Air Conditioning bills this summer....
Today’s post: Weds, 4-9-2008
How does cutting your bill to zero or by 70 % sound?
Hot weather is coming soon to where you live & work this year.
(In our area, in the Silicon Valley, after below average temps recently, our first hot weather of this year is literally predicted to start tomorrow.)
Unfortunately, in many homes & buildings a huge amount of money & energy is spent on air conditioning to pump heat out of buildings it could easily never have gotten into to begin with.
For many buildings & most homes, moderately inexpensive fixes can keep enough heat from getting in to cut well over 50% from air conditioning costs & energy use or even eliminate them totally & do it each summer after they are installed.
In addition, the more people do this, the less new electric generating capacity has to be built to manage peak demand for electricity which is now driven by afternoon air conditioning use on the hottest days.
In climates where the temperature falls enough at night, you can let in cool night air to remove any left over heat from the day before by opening the windows &/or by using fans to pull in air from outside & push out the inside air. Often, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, from 76 actual to 72 perceived, for example, on most days you then will need NO air conditioning use at all.
In climates where it is much hotter or only falls to a level where you still need to run the air conditioning, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, you can get a triple play. You only will need to run your air conditioner at night on most days. That means you can get maximum efficiency per unit of energy as the AC works better with cooler temps to dump the excess heat into so your bill is less. And, you use the electricity at night when it often costs less per kilowatt than at peak times in the afternoon. Lastly, you no longer need to add a lot of load in the afternoon to overstress you local power grid. The idea is to have the house at or office at 68 degrees F or even a bit less in the early morning when it’s coolest outside & have it not set to turn back on until the inside gets to 76 degrees (or perhaps 72 if you don’t have ceiling fans yet. Then, if your heat proofing is good enough, your AC will rarely need to come back on. And, if it does, it will need to run a LOT less.
Well insulated buildings with a lot of thermal mass, ideally with few windows or with double pane windows, that also have good passive design to prevent heat from entering do this very well.
New buildings with part underground or with thick walls made of rammed earth or adobe or straw or well insulated concrete block & heat resistant roofs do this well.
But in most homes today & some commercial buildings, the main problem is in the roof crawl space.
Usually there is no insulation between the roof & the crawl space -- & in some areas not much below it. In addition, the crawl space has almost no ventilation. As a result, instead of the under the roof temperature being only slightly above the outside air, it can be as much as 70 or 80 degrees hotter. Then this trapped heat re-radiates into the rooms beneath acting as a solar heater all afternoon. Even worse, this heat continues to radiate well into the night making the people inside miserable or running up their AC bills like crazy.
My wife & I had a house like that which was also badly insulated and had no air conditioning. On sunny days much above 79 degrees for a high, it was often well over 80 or even 90 until about the time the next morning we had to get up to go to work. This was NOT fun. And, if we had decent air conditioning then, we would have run it a LOT.
We then discovered & installed a system that uses NO OUTSIDE ENERGY AT ALL which prevented this under the roof heat build up. And, we installed ceiling fans.
We didn’t even get to upgrading the insulation and got this result.:
After doing this, we experienced a day well into the high 90’s outside. It would have been over 100 inside from 3 PM to midnight before. After installing this system & adding ceiling fans, it only got up to about 75 inside & then only from about 3 to 6 PM – AND the 75 felt Ok with just the ceiling fans alone. It was in the high 90’s outside and we needed NO air conditioning at all. And, remember, that was before we upgraded our ceiling insulation to R19 or better.
Here is the magic trick we used that I cannot recommend more highly after this experience.:
Hot air rises. So, what we did is to install several very well screened air intake vents around the perimeter of our roof’s crawl space that were under the shade of the roof & we had a competent workman also install several convection powered turbines in the roof near its peak. Then we added ceiling fans to our bedrooms & living room. The entire project cost less than $1,000. And, this was a one time fee.
The very same hot air that was giving us such grief before now happily spun the turbines as it rose & drew the much less hot outside air in behind it. This was all solar powered. We needed no outside energy at all to run it.
If we had more money at the time, I would have liked to add the extra ceiling insulation & a radiant heat barrier in our attic and installed wood frame double pan windows.
Even better would have been to add a decent heat pump system to deliver efficient air conditioning it we ever needed it for days above 100 degrees & install enough solar panels to run it all. And, added window shading on the west & south sides of the house would have also helped.
But, much to my delight, we got close to 100 % of the cooling we needed from this single inexpensive fix that still needs no energy bills at all to operate these several years later.
So, if you have a roof that traps heat the way our roof then did, you can add all sorts of useful extras as I would have liked to do. But for about $2500 or less you can heat proof your house better than you might imagine with this simple system.
(In our area we bought the convection powered turbines & ceiling fans at Home Depot.)
The next part is for today’s, 7-7-2010’s, post.:
These relatively inexpensive fixes can save enough on electricity bills for air conditioning to pay for themselves in one summer in some places while in others, it may take more like 4 summers. But the savings start the minute they are installed. The increased livability and comfort start the minute they are installed. And, once installed, they save money and electricity use every year at virtually no added cost.
2. Consider adding solar photovoltaic cells to your roof. By using this electricity during the time when you are most likely to use your air conditioning, you save paying the higher costs for grid electricity at those times. Even better, at those same times, you will have extra sun to produce extra electricity.
This does cost more than heat proofing and venting the air from under your roof. But there are now some innovative programs to pay the upfront costs for solar installation.
3. Best of all, if most homeowners in a community do both things, they can cut the peak use of electricity by a great deal on the hottest summer days.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-7-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.
And, of those, the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.
Today’s post:
This post reviews some information that was in previous posts for those of you who didn’t see them or know the information otherwise.
1. In the Northern hemisphere we are now having truly hot summer temperatures in many places. And, in many parts of the United States, a major energy use is for residential air conditioning.
In fact, during the hottest days, it is exactly that air conditioning use that dictates what your utility needs to be able to deliver for peak demand.
Did you know that for many people you can drop your electricity use for air conditioning so much you do pay off the costs in one year and save literally hundreds to thousands of dollars on your summer electric bill for every year after that?
You can. And, it even has a bonus. Your home will be dramatically more comfortable. And the night time temperature in your home will be so much lower that you’ll sleep much better and have a good deal more energy each day!
Here’s our post on this method from April, 2008.:
Slash your Air Conditioning bills this summer....
Today’s post: Weds, 4-9-2008
How does cutting your bill to zero or by 70 % sound?
Hot weather is coming soon to where you live & work this year.
(In our area, in the Silicon Valley, after below average temps recently, our first hot weather of this year is literally predicted to start tomorrow.)
Unfortunately, in many homes & buildings a huge amount of money & energy is spent on air conditioning to pump heat out of buildings it could easily never have gotten into to begin with.
For many buildings & most homes, moderately inexpensive fixes can keep enough heat from getting in to cut well over 50% from air conditioning costs & energy use or even eliminate them totally & do it each summer after they are installed.
In addition, the more people do this, the less new electric generating capacity has to be built to manage peak demand for electricity which is now driven by afternoon air conditioning use on the hottest days.
In climates where the temperature falls enough at night, you can let in cool night air to remove any left over heat from the day before by opening the windows &/or by using fans to pull in air from outside & push out the inside air. Often, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, from 76 actual to 72 perceived, for example, on most days you then will need NO air conditioning use at all.
In climates where it is much hotter or only falls to a level where you still need to run the air conditioning, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, you can get a triple play. You only will need to run your air conditioner at night on most days. That means you can get maximum efficiency per unit of energy as the AC works better with cooler temps to dump the excess heat into so your bill is less. And, you use the electricity at night when it often costs less per kilowatt than at peak times in the afternoon. Lastly, you no longer need to add a lot of load in the afternoon to overstress you local power grid. The idea is to have the house at or office at 68 degrees F or even a bit less in the early morning when it’s coolest outside & have it not set to turn back on until the inside gets to 76 degrees (or perhaps 72 if you don’t have ceiling fans yet. Then, if your heat proofing is good enough, your AC will rarely need to come back on. And, if it does, it will need to run a LOT less.
Well insulated buildings with a lot of thermal mass, ideally with few windows or with double pane windows, that also have good passive design to prevent heat from entering do this very well.
New buildings with part underground or with thick walls made of rammed earth or adobe or straw or well insulated concrete block & heat resistant roofs do this well.
But in most homes today & some commercial buildings, the main problem is in the roof crawl space.
Usually there is no insulation between the roof & the crawl space -- & in some areas not much below it. In addition, the crawl space has almost no ventilation. As a result, instead of the under the roof temperature being only slightly above the outside air, it can be as much as 70 or 80 degrees hotter. Then this trapped heat re-radiates into the rooms beneath acting as a solar heater all afternoon. Even worse, this heat continues to radiate well into the night making the people inside miserable or running up their AC bills like crazy.
My wife & I had a house like that which was also badly insulated and had no air conditioning. On sunny days much above 79 degrees for a high, it was often well over 80 or even 90 until about the time the next morning we had to get up to go to work. This was NOT fun. And, if we had decent air conditioning then, we would have run it a LOT.
We then discovered & installed a system that uses NO OUTSIDE ENERGY AT ALL which prevented this under the roof heat build up. And, we installed ceiling fans.
We didn’t even get to upgrading the insulation and got this result.:
After doing this, we experienced a day well into the high 90’s outside. It would have been over 100 inside from 3 PM to midnight before. After installing this system & adding ceiling fans, it only got up to about 75 inside & then only from about 3 to 6 PM – AND the 75 felt Ok with just the ceiling fans alone. It was in the high 90’s outside and we needed NO air conditioning at all. And, remember, that was before we upgraded our ceiling insulation to R19 or better.
Here is the magic trick we used that I cannot recommend more highly after this experience.:
Hot air rises. So, what we did is to install several very well screened air intake vents around the perimeter of our roof’s crawl space that were under the shade of the roof & we had a competent workman also install several convection powered turbines in the roof near its peak. Then we added ceiling fans to our bedrooms & living room. The entire project cost less than $1,000. And, this was a one time fee.
The very same hot air that was giving us such grief before now happily spun the turbines as it rose & drew the much less hot outside air in behind it. This was all solar powered. We needed no outside energy at all to run it.
If we had more money at the time, I would have liked to add the extra ceiling insulation & a radiant heat barrier in our attic and installed wood frame double pan windows.
Even better would have been to add a decent heat pump system to deliver efficient air conditioning it we ever needed it for days above 100 degrees & install enough solar panels to run it all. And, added window shading on the west & south sides of the house would have also helped.
But, much to my delight, we got close to 100 % of the cooling we needed from this single inexpensive fix that still needs no energy bills at all to operate these several years later.
So, if you have a roof that traps heat the way our roof then did, you can add all sorts of useful extras as I would have liked to do. But for about $2500 or less you can heat proof your house better than you might imagine with this simple system.
(In our area we bought the convection powered turbines & ceiling fans at Home Depot.)
The next part is for today’s, 7-7-2010’s, post.:
These relatively inexpensive fixes can save enough on electricity bills for air conditioning to pay for themselves in one summer in some places while in others, it may take more like 4 summers. But the savings start the minute they are installed. The increased livability and comfort start the minute they are installed. And, once installed, they save money and electricity use every year at virtually no added cost.
2. Consider adding solar photovoltaic cells to your roof. By using this electricity during the time when you are most likely to use your air conditioning, you save paying the higher costs for grid electricity at those times. Even better, at those same times, you will have extra sun to produce extra electricity.
This does cost more than heat proofing and venting the air from under your roof. But there are now some innovative programs to pay the upfront costs for solar installation.
3. Best of all, if most homeowners in a community do both things, they can cut the peak use of electricity by a great deal on the hottest summer days.
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