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| Properly placed, trees and shrubs save a
surprising amount of household energy. So do skylights and passive- and active-solar systems. |
A few clever tips & links to save energy and help the planet
By the staff of Solar Washington
In our Spring 2005 issue of our newsletter, Jonathan Clemens documented the relentless rise in worldwide energy consumption. Sadly, much of that energy consumption gets converted to pollution.
How much?
Well, burn just one ton of coal, and you’ll put 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Think of that. For every chunk of coal we dig out of the ground, we nearly triple its weight and stuff it into the atmosphere. Think that doesn’t have an effect? CO2 is the stuff that’s heating the globe enough to throw our climate and weather systems out of whack. By how much and how quickly is still a guess, but we won’t have to guess long.
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| Properly placed, trees and shrubs save a
surprising amount of household energy. So do skylights and passive- and active-solar systems. |
In 1990, the world released 24.2 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere – 23 percent of which came from the United States. By 2025, worldwide emissions are expected to hit 41.6 billion tons.
And CO2 isn’t the only issue. A lot of other pollutants are released to wreak havoc as well. About a half million of our kids suffer brain damage each year because of mercury emissions. Nearly half of those emissions come from coal-fired power plants.
This is serious stuff.
So what can we do? We can switch to clean energy sources, such as solar and wind and wave energy. And we can stop wasting energy.
At the end of Jonathan’s story, Solar Washington President Pamela Burton challenged SW members to contribute energy-conservation or efficiency tips for this newsletter. Randy Brooks of Brooks Solar in Chelan was the only member to respond. No problem, the SW crew took Randy’s tips and added a few others from various sources. These tips are only the low-hanging fruit. No double sweaters. No skipping showers. No shivering in the dark reading by moonlight. And nothing obvious, such as drive less or take the stairs instead of the elevator. Although, we realize that there are lots and lots of savings to be had by doing the obvious, such as adding proper insulation. Half of our homes still have single-pane windows, and each one of those zillions of windows is wasting energy.
The tips we offer here are easy and smart and a little less obvious.
We’ll leave this posted on our website and keep it updated with new tips as we find them or as you send them in. So roll off your couch and help make this the best energy-saving tip sheet on the web.
Don’t eat like an SUV. (Added September, 2005) Thomas Starrs, chairman of the American Solar Energy Society, tackled a tough subject in the July/August issue of Solar Today: Diet. He pointed out that it takes 10 fossil fuel calories to produce one food calorie in the typical American diet. In other words, we use about as much money to grow and process our food as we do to power our homes or fuel our cars.
Most of the problem is that we eat too high on the food chain. When we eat a carrot or an apple, we get all of the calories in those foods. When we feed that carrot and apple to a pig, the energy availability is cut by a factor of 10. By eating less or no meat and more fresh vegetables and fruits and grains and legumes, especially when locally produced, we save a lot of energy. And we improve our health and support local farmers. And we help the planet.
Use synthetic oil in your car. OK, this stuff is expensive, but you can go twice as far before changing oil. And an average car will run an extra mile or two on a gallon of gasoline, enough to more than pay for the extra cost of the oil. Plus your engine will last longer. Switch to a hybrid car and you’ll do even better, but synthetic oil is a good start.
Have your utility do a blower-door test. This test will track down holes and cracks that are wasting a ton of energy. And we’re talking a lot of waste. The amount of wasted energy that slips through poorly insulated windows and doors is roughly equal to the amount of energy that we get from the Alaska pipeline. Leakage is a major reason why Americans use twice the energy necessary to heat their homes. Even little things, such as installing an insulating gasket behind electrical outlets helps a lot. And an open fireplace damper can let 8 percent of your heating costs slip out the chimney.
Skylights make sense in Washington’s climate. The loss of insulation from skylight glass is more than made up for by the huge amount of free, natural light you’ll get. Put mirrors around your skylight to increase light transmission without a loss of insulation. And locate the skylight above walls for even more reflected light. Skylights will make your house more cheery and up its resale value.
Eliminate phantom electrical loads. Lots of appliances use electricity even when turned off: TVs, computers, VCRs, DVDs, microwaves, etc. A watt meter can find these phantom loads for you. On many models, a TV running four hours a day will use more electricity during the 20 hours that it’s turned off than during the four hours that it’s running. So plug these appliances into a surge protector, and switch off that surge protector after you turn off the appliance. The ground-fault interrupt circuit outlets found in kitchens and bathrooms often use models that burn up to 2 watts 24/7 even when not being used. Switch these to non-consumptive models.
Switch from incandescent lights to compact florescent lights (CFLs) and LED lights. CFLs typically last 10 times as long as conventional bulbs and use about one-quarter of the energy to produce the same amount of light. Every CFL bulb will save you $20 to $50 over its life and spare the atmosphere nearly one ton of CO2. And if you use full-spectrum CFLs, you’ll improve your mood and health. LED lights are super efficient for task lighting, such as reading or sewing. They last 100 times longer than conventional bulbs and use almost no electricity. (Note: Dispose of CFLs properly because they contain small amounts of mercury. But still use them. The electricity they save reduces mercury emissions by more than the mercury the bulbs contain.)
Install solar panels. We are Solar Washington, after all. You can hook these up directly to the grid. In addition to getting a rebate from the utility for the power you put back on the grid, you can earn an additional premium of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour from the Green Tag program. (See story in this issue.) You’ll not only save money, but you’ll displace polluting energy sources with clean-energy sources. If you can’t install solar panels yourself, buy Green Tags so that others will have the incentive to increase our solar-generating base.
Switch to a tankless hot-water heater. Hot water consumes 19 percent of the typical home’s energy budget. An electric hot-water heater, on average, consumes $460 of electricity annually and has a lifetime of 5 to 15 years. A tankless gas hot-water heater consumes $154 in fuel annually, and it is a lifetime appliance. If you combine your water heater with a solar hot-water system, you’ll save lots more and use much less energy. Plow your savings back into additional solar panels, and pretty soon you’ll have no electric bill.
Keep things at the right temperature. If your fridge is just 10 degrees colder than necessary, it will chow down an extra 25 percent of energy. Keep the refrigerator at 40 degrees and the freezer at 5 degrees. That’s plenty. Your furnace will save about 4 percent of its energy consumption for every one degree lowering of the thermostat. Keep your air conditioner in the shade, and you’ll reduce its energy consumption by 5 percent.
Heat with passive solar and geothermal heat pumps. Passive solar, properly designed, is free heat. Free is good. Geothermal heat pumps use buried loops or coils to extract heat out of the ground or groundwater. These pumps are super efficient. For new homes, the purchase cost can be wrapped into the mortgage, and the energy savings will more than offset the higher mortgage payment.
Landscaping is your friend. Trees and bushes make effective wind breaks; they can reduce winter heating costs by 40 percent. And a well-planned landscape can cut summer cooling costs by as much as 50 percent. Computer models from the U.S. Department of Energy show that just three properly placed trees can save the average household between $100 and $250 a year in heating and cooling costs. Situating your house properly amid the terrain and vegetation can take advantage of solar heating, solar power and the natural flow of breezes for ventilation and cooling. Air-to-air heat exchangers let your house breathe without the loss of energy.
Be as efficient as you can. Little things add up. Clean the dryer’s lint filter after each use. An energy-efficient shower head will save a family of four 27 cents a day on water and 51 cents a day on electricity. Replace a pilot-flame gas stove with a model that has an automatic electric ignition (but not a glow bar). A dishwasher uses 37 percent less water than washing dishes by hand with the faucet running. But if you fill one side of the sink with soapy water and rinse water on the other, you can get by with half as much water as the dishwasher uses – enough water for a five-minute shower. Energy-efficient aerators on kitchen and bathroom faucets will save a family of four 280 gallons of water a month. Hey, folks, these things just screw on. If 10,000 families tried this, they’d save more than 33 million gallons of water a year.
Nonprofit
The Climate Ark is a climate change search space dedicated to promoting public policy that addresses global climate change through reductions in carbon and other emissions, energy conservation, renewable energy sources and ending deforestation.
ICAN21 The International Conservation Awareness Network (ICAN21)is based in southwest England and holds conservation camps where you can take part in ecology and renewable energy projects.
Iowa Renewable Energy Association, grassroots organization dedicated to promoting wider implementation of renewable energy and energy conservation by educating Iowans to achieve long-term social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
West Wales ECO Centre, UK, is concerned with the promotion of the awareness of the issues surrounding energy use. This includes , renewable technologies, conservation and the impacts of that use.
Energy Star Info on energy efficient products & tips for home energy efficiency
Other
Ecohouseplan.com, An architect-created house plan, designed from the ground up for energy conservation and efficiency.
Rainwater Harvesting, rainwater collection into a tank or cistern. Those who believe in water conservation use rainwater harvesting mainly for household or garden plants but there are many other uses for harvested rain.
Solairgen, Inc., a Solar Installation Training company located in Georgia.
Wholesale Solar, promotes and sells products for renewable energy and energy conservation. We sell solar panels, power inverters, wind generators, and energy efficient appliances.
Home Energy Saver The Home Energy Saver is designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy in their homes, and find the resources to make the savings happen. The Home Energy Saver was the first Internet-based tool for calculating energy use in residential buildings.
Newest links:
http://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/info/Energy_Efficiency_in_the_Home.html This page provides a number of excellent resources on energy efficient homes.
http://www.altestore.com/store/Books-Classes-Educational-Videos/Educational-Videos/c1138/ Offers classes, workshops & webinars on RE
So this is the start of our list. Send in your tips and help us make this list grow. ☼