Miomarmo

NJ - Going, going, going...Gone Green!

In a recent article in the US 1 paper by Karen Hodges Miller, I read an article that I found astounding.  NJ has become #2 in the nation (only to California) as the leader in the production of solar energy! 

Be it recognition of climate change or the increased activity by government to open up doors to businesses via benefits being given to companies who embrace green energy, the actions are clear; NJ is on the move.  Not only has NJ become 2nd in the nation for solar energy production, it is now also entering into the development of wind energy.  Twenty miles offshore, facilities are in development from data obtained for areas from Seaside Park to Sea Isle City.

Perhaps this will bring the cost of living down in NJ?  This remains to be seen.  But the most important thing to recognize is that we finally seem to be a nation that is taking notice not only in the potential economic growth that can be sustained from solar/wind/water energy, jobs that can be created, but also the positive effects it will have on future generations to come.  

Kudos to NJ for stepping up to the plate and advancing in the pro-active and positive change that we all need!  Here's to hoping that many other states take notice and vamp up their own efforts to make a change for the well-being of this planet and all its inhabitants.

Saving the world with your wallet and your fork

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Hopefully, you already know that the little things you do each day can help make the world a better place. Today I'm asking you to extend that to your wallet and the choices you make at the supermarket. If you haven't already seen Food, Inc., I strongly urge you to watch it for free online and see how scary our food has become, and how overpowering are the handful of giant corporations who control almost the entire food industry.

The trailer:



PBS is streaming the entire movie for free here.

Have you already seen it? What changes have you made for you and your family since you've watched it?

Waaaay Better Than Expected

We moved into our off-grid house a month ago and have been taking baby steps fully integrating our lives into our new home (we still have the old house we're selling, so have access to "real" power, etc.).

We first began sleeping there and then coming to our old house to shower and eat (i.e., cook). Eventually, we began using the water, and plugged in the refrigerator, and are now bathing there regularly. Why were we so afraid to jump right in? We were worried about how much power we had, or didn't have. The controls for our Outback charge controller were overwhelming at first. The display shows things like the five stages of charging regulation, there is screen after screen of data and information, and even though we had read up on all of this, we were, to say the least, overwhelmed with information. We didn't know how much power we actually had, how much we were making, or when and/or if the power would go out any second!

But, we just kept reading and watching the numbers until we "got it." Listen, read, and watch and it all soon makes sense.

So, what's it like living in an off-grid house?

There are two of us in a two-story home in New England (i.e., cold winters). We opted for the big fireplace insert (which is basically a wood stove with windows set into your existing fireplace) and we have never been so warm. During the most recent snowstorm we were inside in our shorts, barefoot. We do have a furnace but so far, no need for that (we have it mainly so we can leave for more than 24 hours at a time during the winter).

Warm 

I had long ago imagined little to no water pressure. Spitting showers were in my future, and washing my car at home would be a big no no. But nooooooo, water pressure is the best I've had, and yes, instant hot water DOES work! We opted for the super-efficient water pump that cost extra, but definitely paying off.

Showers/Water Pressure

All or our lights use CFLs and we have more than the usual number of lights and light switches so you can control light where you are in the house (task lighting), rather than lighting up the whole thing unnecessarily. Since we've never run out of power (yet), this has worked great and we can breathe easier than we thought about this.

Lights

Our appliances are extremely efficient. Our average kwh (kilowatt hours) at our old house, with its old frig, washing machine, etc. uses about 20 kwh per day. And we used CFLs there too, we're very good about leaving lights off, we use cold water to wash our clothes, no dryer, etc. Our new house uses about 2-3 kwh a day (at most). Our refrigerator, alone, uses about 1 kwh per day and it's on 24/7. It's a normal sized refrigerator, brand new, but none of our appliances have extras on them: no cold water from the door, no ice-making machine, only one appliance has a clock on it! We also use Belkin power strips and turn off all our TV and associated electronics (stereo, DVD player, satellite TV box) when not in use. Rather than having to unplug them all (leaving them plugged in uses standby power that adds up over time), one switch turns them all off at once. (Note, the switch is on the wall, no climbing around behind furniture to unplug anything). I don't have a dishwasher, but I could, and will, someday.

Appliances/Luxuries of Life

Daily Life: When we wake up in the morning the first thing we do is check out the voltage readout. A reading 48 or above is plenty of power, anything below and we have to watch it and see if we'll need to run the generator to power up the batteries (we haven't had to do this yet!). If it's above 48 and it's also sunny and/or windy, we're even better as it's only going to increase during the day.

The reading is on the wall in the kitchen so it's easy to watch. You can also see at any time how many amps of power you're using at any given time. It's usually at 0 because it doesn't read anything below 1 and our house is so efficient. When we run a vacuum cleaner or a ceiling fan (and especially something with heat, like an iron) it jumps to anywhere between 6 and 32 amps. But it also fluctuates. When you first turn something with a motor on, it jumps up pretty high then settles down to a lower amperage. So, when I thought I'd only be able to vacuum the house on long sunny days in the summer, I was wrong. I can do this pretty much anytime I feel like it (did I say "I feel like vacuuming"?).

If the voltage is low, I may want to forgo vacuuming that day but we can also charge it up with the generator (a couple of hours of the generator running will supply us with plenty of power for a few days). We do try and not have to use the generator, however, as we're conscious of burning fossil fuels unnecessarily.

So, I watch TV, I listen to the stereo, I take showers, wash dishes in hot water, there's plenty of light, and I can blow dry my hair on a cold day. What it took was preparation and new "stuff." It's a great testament to how efficient new appliances and electronics are getting these days. I could be double-y efficient at the old house as far as usage and still use 10 or 20 times the power I do now at our new house.

We tend to grin a lot and jump and dance a lot at the new house. It's so warm and solid and efficient and light-filled that we have to sometimes pinch ourselves that it's all ours.

Life

Panasonic's Lithium-Ion Storage Cell for Home Use

Panasonic recently purchased Sanyo, which has some very advanced and clever battery technology. Through this partnership, they have announced that they will be the first to produce a lithium-ion storage cell for home use. Even better, they say it will be released in 2011.

The biggest hurdle is not so much harnessing power from wind or solar, but to store that energy for use when the sun is down and the wind is calm. This will be an awesome thing if it comes true.

Years ago when we first dreamed of living where we do (including the need for alternative power based on our proximity to available power lines), they were promising that there would be whole-house fuel cells any time now. Then they talked about solar film that would be so cheap and plentiful, you could paper your house with it and produce all the power you'd ever need. Those manufacturers are still out there, but we have yet to see anything that you or I could purchase. Maybe this time our dreams will come true?

In related news, GM announced yesterday that it has built the first lithium-ion battery for their Chevy Volt.

Life-Cycle Assessment and How to Apply it to Your Buying Habits

Life-Cycle Assessment, or LCA, as defined by the the EPA is "a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision."

Sounds confusing, but you might be reading between the lines already. It's difficult to know, as a consumer, what impact a product you buy has on the environment, humans, and other animals. Most of the products we buy and use today were invented a long time ago, the process used to make each of these products were determined by how much it cost the manufacturer and not how much impact it had on the environment. That's because we were in the dark about the potential dangers of manufacturing, and today we need to basically reinvent pretty much everything.

New industrial ecology is using LCA to take a product and tear it down into it's various components. What it's made of, what process is used to make each of those components, how it's transported, how it's used, how we dispose of it, and how the company treats its employees and its community ... every thing we buy has a hidden price tag on our lives and environment. Making decisions on what to buy, or if to buy at all, can be daunting for those of us determined to make a difference. By remaining uneducated on what we buy, we're creating potential dangers for our futures.

So what can you do?

I've been doing my best to research what I buy. As some of you know, we're building a house and one example, recently, is our search for a sealer for our wood floors. We did some research and found some soy-based products that were looking good. We ordered samples and tried them out and were ready to purchase the product. Then, we found a newer one recently that uses a by-product of cheese making: whey. We liked this, not only were the ingredients all natural, they were using something that was being thrown away. And, it's made locally (in our state). We love supporting Vermont-made products whenever possible.  Bonus: It actually works better than anything we tried! This took a lot more time than walking into Home Depot and asking for a floor sealer ...

Another example, when we put in our plumbing, we decided to go with PVC pipes. Copper is a nonrenewable resource, and other products were less durable so using them meant having to replace them over and over rather than buying PVC once. It's a tough choice when none of the choices are perfect.

The research is time-consuming, but worth it. It's hard to know what information to trust. The manufacturers are using all kinds of phrases to get us to think they're green such as "all natural" and "wholesome" but what is really behind the product and the company that makes it?

In researching about LCA I came across an amazing resource: GoodGuide (now in beta). Rather than rating on how well something may work, they're rated based on an LCA for that product.

So, I went to GoodGuide and looked up a common product: Cheerios. Its GoodGuide rating is 8.5. They based this on:

• Health/Nutrition Performance: 10 "This product has a good nutrition score."
• Environmental Performance: 8.1 "This company has minimal or no community-related controversies."
• Social Performance: 7.4 "This company that makes this product has an above-average score in use of resources."

But it also gives a lot of deeper information and not just an overview. I looked into the Environmental Performance and found that it rated very well in Energy Management, but not as well for Compliance and Toxic Waste. For Social Performance, Cheerios rated "Best in Category" in Working Conditions & Benefits and Philanthropy, but less well (though still not part of the "Worst in Category") in Quality & Safety, Workplace Diversity, and Labor & Human Rights.

Check out GoodGuide's information on their Ratings and Methodology. And their blog.

And please check out what you're buying and maybe you'll find something better? I know I'll be spending a lot of time on this and from my initial look-through, will be replacing a lot of what I buy with something better.

We Can Now (Will) Make Our Own Independent Power!

After years and years of knowing that someday we'd have our own independent power at our new house (which is still not done), we picked up everything we need to make it happen. Last Saturday, we drove to New England Solar in Massachusetts to pick up our system and solar panels. With this, we'll be able to add wind and micrhydro power as simply as plugging it in!

In case you're one of the many (which included me) that doesn't know what's entailed to get off-grid power working, for just over $16,000 we got all this (and yes, we still need to add more power via wind/water/solar, as needed):

• Wall mount racks for the solar panels
• MC connector cables
• Outback Array combiner box
• Outback Array circuit breakers 10A
• Watertight connectors
• MidNite Solar MNE175STM-240-L AC/DC disconnect (pre-wired)
• Magnum MERC-50 remote control (needed for inverter settings)
• Set of 10' 2/0 inverter cables.
• FlexMax60 60A MPPT Charge Controller
• Delta LA303DC lightning arrestor
• 60A circuit breakers
• Trojan T105 batteries (24)
• 2 Ga. battery cables.
• Battery anticorrossion rings
• 12V battery vent fan
• Lightning arrestor (for AC)
• 8 Sharp 170W solar panels
• Magnum MS4448AE 240/120 VAC inverter

Yes, this is a daunting list, what the heck is all this? Now, if you were to add solar or wind to your current grid-tied system, this list would be much shorter. Before all this, we had an electrician in who wired our house just like he would anyone else's house, except that it doesn't connect to a city-supplied electric source.

We first will need to mount the solar panels. Then mount the pre-wired inverter (the last item in the list above) that they so nicely put together for us, and build a wooden box to house the batteries, including the vent fan. And then we'll get our electrician in again and he'll hook it up! I can't wait to plug something in and see it turn on!

The picture you see is all that I've listed above, it all fits in one 6' truck bed. I'll definitely post pictures of the finished product.

Together in Electric Dreams

When I read this recent article in the New York Times, all I could think of was the scene in “Electric Dreams” where the Edgar, the computer, runs all the household appliances and makes coffee as well. (It also tries to steal the main character’s girlfriend away from him, but that’s a whole other story.)

The article, "Keeping a Green Home, Remotely", says:

“Now a new set of software tools lets a cellphone owner track a home’s electricity use from wherever she is.

The new tool from Tendril … lets the cellphone user turn appliances and furnaces on and off from a distance. It integrates with a collection of tools that track consumption and broadcast it to local and distant displays.

Their systems will compare your home’s consumption against similar sized ones in your neighborhood. It will also make suggestions and predict how much lowering the thermostat would lower the bill.”

“Electric Dreams” came out in 1984, and it’s exciting to think that 25 years later, we could actually do some of the things that were so over-the-top techhy back then. Apparently there’s a remake of the movie being planned for 2010 – I can’t wait to see what they come up with for Edgar (the computer) to do this time. I'm sure managing the electricity for a greener household will be part of it.

Below: Edgar tries to get his lovely neighbor's attention....

Reduce Your PC's Carbon Footprint

A few of us at work, including me, just got brand new MacBook Pros! I'm still waiting for some necessary software to arrive before making the big move over from my PC, but I've already played around with it and LOVE my new Mac. I will keep my PC as well though, then I'll always be ready for anything ... including this very cool new FREE download that will help me save energy when I'm running my PC. (By the way, the Mac is ENERGY STAR compliant.)

Verdiem makes products to help companies, and individuals, reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the amount of energy their PCs use. Surveyor is the software for large organizations (they claim a huge organization with 44,000 PCs could reduce their PC energy bill by 60%), but, they also have a personal edition called Edison. It's free and helps you manage your PC power consumption. It lets you choose the level of energy savings you want, including a "sleep" schedule, and then see the estimated savings before initiating the settings. Check it out here.

This is just one of the things you can do to save energy with your computer, here's more:

1. Don’t use a screen saver, believe it or not, a screensaver (which isn't necessary) uses more energy than just allowing the monitor to dim.
2. Turn off printers, scanners, speakers, etc. when not in use.
3. Look for the ENERGY STAR label when buying a new computer!
4. Turn down the brightness setting on your monitor, the highest setting uses twice as much power as the lowest setting.
5. It's basic, but it works: turn off your monitor when not in us!
6. Plug all your electronics into one power strip and turn the strip off when not in use, this reduces what is called "phantom power."
7. Most laptops use less energy than a desktop computer, opt for the laptop if you can.

Use this to start a new procedure at home, but even more important, see if you can implement these power saving tips at work and really make a difference!

A Mighty Wind

We met with Atlantic Air Power to discuss what kind of wind generator will work for our new home. We had thought we needed wind and solar, but it looks like we'll be able to generate the power we need from a wind generator only! Did you know:

Industry-wide, wind produces energy at 4-8 cents a KW. Solar comes in at 38-42 cents KW.

We're still deciding between a Whisper 500 and the new Skystream, but the Skystream is designed as a whole-house residential system and we're tending toward that if all goes as planned. It means we'll also need to purchase and install a 60' tower, and in our freezing winters, this means a LOT of concrete ...

The Skystream is only 2-3 years old and was originally designed as a way to offset electricity costs for homeowners connected to the grid. But, because it's proved to be so efficient they added the necessary components to make it work for off-grid homes like ours. It also has a computer chip in it so if anything goes wrong, they come to the site and use a computer to "talk" to the wind generator. They can also upgrade the system throughout its lifespan using a computer. This means there's no need to bring the tower down or have to scale the 60' tower. Traditional wind generators need yearly maintenance, but this has a 5-year guarantee and a an expected lifespan of 20-30 years!

We're still researching this particular product, but have been a fan of Southwest Wind Power for a few years now, we're very excited. Skystream has a great site, including locating people using the system near you, I'm going to send a few emails asking how it's working for them. Has anyone else gone off-grid using wind only? Let me know what you use and how it's worked for you?

In a future post, I'll talk about how we got interested in alternative energy and how we had to break through the notion that it can't be done (ever seen "Who Killed the Electric Car"?).