Category Archives: energy blogs

Why Conserve Energy – Save money and save the planet

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Every once in awhile it does not hurt to remind people why we do this.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html

NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record
01.19.12

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.

We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” said GISS Director James E. Hansen. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Niña influence and low solar activity for the past several years, 2011 was one of the 10 warmest years on record.”

The difference between 2011 and the warmest year in the GISS record (2010) is 0.22 degrees F (0.12 C). This underscores the emphasis scientists put on the long-term trend of global temperature rise. Because of the large natural variability of climate, scientists do not expect temperatures to rise consistently year after year. However, they do expect a continuing temperature rise over decades.

The first 11 years of the 21st century experienced notably higher temperatures compared to the middle and late 20th century, Hansen said. The only year from the 20th century in the top 10 warmest years on record is 1998.

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Go there and watch the video. More next week.

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Blown Insulation – My pick for retrofits

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It is a pain in the behind to cut blow holes in walls to blow in insulation. It is also tricky to work around windows and other internal factors like headers and footers,but if you are not tearing out the interior walls and are environmentally concerned, I still think it is the best bet. Here is a great article about it.

http://www.aboutsavingheat.com/cellulose.html

Fill your Walls & Ceilings, Not our Landfills!
We use blown-in cellulose for most of our insulation jobs, (except for crawl spaces, where moisture and the lack of hollow walls won’t allow it.) Blown cellulose is less expensive, safer to you as well as the environment and more effective and energy efficient than its leading competitor – fiberglass.

Cellulose fills walls and ceilings and stops air infiltration better!
The fibers of cellulose insulation are much finer than fiberglass. When cellulose is blown or dense-packed into your walls and ceilings, it takes on almost liquid-like properties that let it flow into cavities and around obstructions to completely fill walls and seal every crack and seam. No fiberglass or rock wool material duplicates this action. Liquid-applied foam plastics do, but they cost much more than cellulose.

In new construction cellulose insulation can be installed in walls using a spray process or several different dense-pack dry techniques that are also effective at sealing homes against air infiltration.

Cellulose is a naturally recycled product…

Cellulose insulation is made from recycled wood fiber, primarily newspaper. One hundred pounds of cellulose insulation contains 80 to 85 pounds of recycled newsprint. The remainder is made up of Borax and Boric acid, both non-toxic fire retardants.

Today more and more communities are addressing the challenge of waste disposal through “curbside recycling” and similar conservation programs. These efforts work only if there is demand for recycled products.

The federal government is attempting to create demand through such measures as the Environmental Protection Agency’s comprehensive procurement guideline for products containing recovered materials. Cellulose unquestionably meets all requirements for insulation specified by the guideline.

When you choose cellulose insulation you help solve the waste disposal problem and help fight air pollution. This may help your community hold down taxes or refuse disposal charges. It certainly contributes to a cleaner environment.

Paper that is not recycled ends up in landfills, where it may contribute to environmental pollution, or at incinerators where energy is wasted reducing it to ashes, soot, and smoke.

…And a responsible use of resources
Even if waste paper did not create a disposal problem, most people believe we have an obligation to make maximum use of the resources we consume.

Cellulose insulation does not “save trees,” but it makes maximum use of the trees we have already harvested.

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I am no hmtl warrior and their fonts to not transfer well, so go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Energy Efficient Doors – Actually more about door drafts

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Tomorrow I will do real energy efficient doors. Today though this is an old timey way to help the door out and 19 other standard “cut your bills” list.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/winterize-home-tips-energy-461008

19 Easy Home Winterization Projects

Make your home feel warmer without turning up the heat this winter. With these winterization tips, you’ll save energy without spending much money (and you might even qualify for $500-$1,500 in tax credits).

By The Daily Green Staff
1. Dodge the Draft(s)

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, drafts can waste 5% to 30% of your energy use. Start simple and adopt that old Great Depression fixture — the draft snake, which you can easily make yourself. Just place a rolled bath towel under a drafty door, or make a more attractive DIY draft snake with googly eyes, felt tongues and the like. You can use any scraps of fabric — even neckties — and fill with sand or kitty litter for heft.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Improve The Heating In Your Home – Condensing gas furnaces

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We have been meditating on improving your residences energy efficiency, inlcuding new windows and new roofs. If you live in a colder environment one of the most important things to do is improve your heat source. We will talk about solar, electric, and geothermal heat sources in the coming days. First up is natural gas. I wish there was a date on this particular piece. Maybe if the writer of this sees the linkage he could supply the date. I am not sure this is the latest in natural gas technology, but considering the ages of much of the heating systems out there this would be a huge step up.

http://www.handyamerican.com/articles.asp?id=45-New-Condensing-Gas-Furnaces

New Condensing Gas Furnaces

The invention of the condensing gas furnace couldn’t have come at a better time for American homeowners, gas users who have been watching the natural gas prices rise to heights that were once thought impossible. And any relief in the prices will only be short-lived because of the volatility of the fossil-fuel market.

In the colder areas of the country gas and oil are staples to provide heat for the home. In an effort to get relief from the fossil fuel crunch many homeowners are looking to various alternative methods like off-peak electric and solar hot water heat. However, these systems have very expensive start-up costs and, even with state and federal rebates, the costs can be double that of a gas-run furnace. The idea of a condensing gas furnace is to wring every last BTU of heat out of a unit of burnt gas.

Natural Gas Prices Are Sinking Gas Furnaces

Older gas furnaces waste a lot of energy. They are basically a metal box with a burner and blower apparatus The thermostat tells the furnace control that the house is cooling off and the burner is ignited. When the temperature inside the furnace header pipe, or plenum, reaches a certain point, the blower fan starts up and hot air is blown through the air ducts and into the rooms of the home.

The system works seems to work very efficiently but in actuality the reverse is true. Studies have shown that most of the gas furnaces over a ten years-old can only convert 55% of the natural gas burned into heat comfort for the home. The standard for measuring this efficiency is the AFUE, or Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency.

Condensing Gas Furnaces Are Breaking the Ice

As the natural gas prices go up it doesn’t mean that gas cannot be an economical way to heat the home. New technologies in all parts of the gas furnace have upped the efficiency of the units to an AFUE mark of 97 as compared to 55 for the old furnaces. These modern inventions include dual heat exchanging systems, more efficient gas valves, redesigned fan blowers and electronic motor technology. The new condensing gas furnaces combine all these new innovations into one energy-efficient package.

The Parts of the Condensing Gas Furnace

A traditional gas furnace heats a home by the combustion of the gas under a heat exchanging plate. The more heat that can be transferred to the heat exchanger is less heat that is allowed to go up the chimney. The ability to squeeze 25% to 45% more heat from a unit of gas than the old-style furnaces makes the condensing gas furnace a more energy-efficient source of heat production.

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Good there and read. More Wednesday.

(Tomorrow I take my computer in for work)

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Smart Windows Are Coming But They Are Not Cheap – But they are effective

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So my medical situation came home today. So now I can post. I started the year talking about residential energy conservation. So why stop now.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/smart-window.htm

How Smart Windows Work

by

Green Living Pictures
Green Living Pictures

These SwitchLite Privacy Glass™ windows go from clear to translucent in an instant. See more pictures of green living.

Photo courtesy SwitchLite Privacy Glass™

If you live in the United States, you’ve probably heard recently about the impending energy crunch that is facing Americans. In the next 20 years, U.S. energy consumption will increase 45 percent for electricity, 62 percent for natural gas and 33 percent for oil, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE also says that energy supplies will be unable to meet demand for the next two decades. For consumers, this means paying higher prices for electricity, natural gas and oil.

While much of the country is concentrating on ways to increase its energy supply, some researchers have been working on new low-power-consuming technologies. Among these new technologies are smart windows, and we aren’t talking about Microsoft’s operating system. This exciting, cutting-edge window technology allows consumers to block either all light or just some by simply turning a knob or pressing a button. This type of light control could potentially save billions of dollars on heating, cooling and lighting costs (research indicates that approximately 2 percent of all the energy used in the United States is “consumed” by residential windows).

In this article, you will learn how smart windows work and how they could save you money.

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I never thought I would be happy to say this but; Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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The Climate And Mankind Go Down The Drain – If Copenhagen was a bust Durban was a big boooooom

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The world is just now getting over the disinformation campaign led by the rich, the coal companies and the oil companies that argued that global climate change wasn’t happening. The world had a perfect opportunity to clean it all up. China’s chunk of the atmosphere is a pig stye and they have to clean it up. They have people dying. Everyone has gone toxic over the last decade like it doesn’t matter. One of the reasons the world’s economy has stalled out is that it was in the process of moving to more sustainable models but the super rich and the elites dug in their heels and are holding it back. No new jobs. Why cause we don’t wanna. Sounding like three year olds threatening to take their toys and go home. But where is home anyway. They never got around to setting up a paradise on Mars. This article takes a much more tactful approach than mine but:

http://io9.com/5868551/did-the-durban-climate-change-talks-actually-accomplish-anything

Did the Durban climate change talks actually accomplish anything?

The UN’s latest Climate Change Conference recently concluded after two weeks of intense negotiations in Durban, South Africa. There’s going to be a new agreement to address climate change, but does that really mean anything? Let’s break down what happened.

Top image: Chukchi Sea Polar Bears by AP/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

There’s no point in denying it — the Durban talks, otherwise known as COP17, didn’t directly accomplish much at all, if anything. In fact, you could argue the talks represented a net loss for the world’s commitment to fighting climate change, as Canada announced it was withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, the current UN agreement aimed at cutting climate change, placing it in the unusual position of being lectured by China about its environmental policy.

And if you were hoping for an agreement that would lay down concrete steps to cut carbon emissions or lower global temperatures, then these talks were a dismal failure. Instead, they simply got all the countries there to agree to be part of a future, legally binding agreement that will be defined by 2015 and go into effect in 2020. That might just sound like passing the buck — and yeah, it kind of is — but this does represent some small progress from the Kyoto Protocol.

For one thing, this new agreement has the United States on board, which infamously refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Second, this future treaty will be legally binding for all countries, not just those classified as developed. While major developing powers like China and India ratified the Kyoto Protocol, they were under no real requirement to comply with it.

That should change with this new agreement, although a major contention of the final marathon 60-hour negotiating session was India’s objection that their compliance not be “legally binding.” They eventually settled on an agreement that would have “legal force.” What’s the difference? Your guess is as good as mine, though hopefully that will become clearer by 2015. It was also agreed to set up a fund to help developing countries pay for climate compliance, though there are no actual specifics on where the money would come from or how it would be managed.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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Fascinating New Photos Inside Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

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I can’t post these photos here because there are 67 of them and they are linked. So I will just post the text. I might add that if you skip down to photo 40 or so you will see the real damage to the power plant itself. Most of the pictures are of the temporary village that houses the workers, the drive to the power plant and and the emergency control room. This is probably because this is where the photographer spent the bulk of his time and was bored. They are real cool for the geeks like me. Thank you Denver Post.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/11/14/inside-japans-fukushima-nuclear-reactor/5085/

Inside Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Station

Posted Nov 14, 2011

Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder, along with other reporters, was allowed inside the Fukushima nuclear power station to witness the devastation, for the first time, caused by Japan’s March 12th earthquake and tsunami.
Eight months later, the plant remains a shambles. Mangled trucks, flipped over by the power of the wave, still clutter its access roads. Rubble remains strewn where it fell. Pools of water cover parts of the once immaculate campus.
Tens of thousands of the plant’s former neighbors may never be able to go home. And just as Hiroshima and Nagasaki become icons of the horrors of nuclear weapons, Fukushima has become the new rallying cry of the global anti-nuclear energy movement.
Yet this picture is one of progress, Japanese officials say. It has taken this long to make the plant stable enough to allow Saturday’s tour, which included representatives of the Japanese and international media — including The Associated Press. Officials expect to complete an early but important step toward cleaning up the accident by the end of the year. (AP)

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Go there and see them. More next week.

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Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Suffers Falkland Syndrome – I got my doubts

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You know, it is really hard to have fun with a nuclear disaster. You have heard the phrase of course, digging a hole to China. It became a popular phrase in the late 1880s because China was so far away and exotic and because it is on the “opposite side of the world”. However as this vido points out that phrase is spectacularly wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAxGccJNw0A

So a nuclear disaster here in the US would actually amount to a St. Paul syndrome and a nuclear disaster in Japan would amount to a Falklands syndrome. Every since the discussion about what would happen if a nuclear reactor core got out of its containment and of course the wildly popular but who knows how true to real life movie “China Syndrome”, I’ve had serious doubts. The first premise is that the reactor core is “running” when it breaches the power station. The second premise is that it would tunnel down to the Earth’s magma. The third premise is that would somehow amount to an explosion that would end the world. Comon. Even in pristine imaginary terms that probably does not happen. First that is a lot of bedrock to eat through and the reactor still maintain its symmetry. No symmetry no nuclear reaction. Second if it hit the magma, it would lead to a volcanic eruption but we have those all the time. Am I saying it would be a good thing. NO. I just got doubts. These 2 authors think otherwise.

http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/fukushima-27-hiroshimas-per-day-china-syndrome-inevitable-abused-islanders

Fukushima: 27 Hiroshimas per day, China Syndrome inevitable, Abused Islanders

Deborah Dupre's photo

Human Rights Examiner

November 21, 2011 –

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Though when I read the article it seemed like her editors had merge 2 computer files to make for a very confusing piece. And this guy who quotes other sources.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/fukushima-china-syndrome-inevitable-huge-steam-explosions-or-nuclear-bomb-type-explosion

Fukushima: “China Syndrome Is Inevitable” … “Huge Steam Explosions”, or “Nuclear Bomb-Type Explosions” May Occur

George Washington's picture

Submitted by George Washington on 11/21/2011 23:45 -0500

By Washington’s Blog

I’ve repeatedly noted that we may experience a “China syndrome” type of accident at Fukushima.

For example, I pointed out in September:

Mainichi Dailly News notes:

As a radiation meteorology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide [says]:

The nuclear disaster is ongoing.

***

At present, I believe that there is a possibility that massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again.

At the No. 1 reactor, there’s a chance that melted fuel has burned through the bottom of the pressure vessel, the containment vessel and the floor of the reactor building, and has sunk into the ground. From there, radioactive materials may be seeping into the ocean and groundwater.

***

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Both pieces are really long so you will have to go there and read them. More tomorrow.

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Global Warming Is Huge – And so are the storms it spawns

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This years weather was truly weird. Hot cold hot cold hot cold. Next year will be even more uneven. I wonder when the farmers are going to wake up to the fact that their livelihoods are on the line. Nitrogen fertilizer is one of the chief causes. Yet next spring they will be spraying it with gay abandon.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/blogs/un-wilder-weather-on-the-way#

Russell McLendon

U.N.: Wilder weather on the way

The threat of heat waves and heavy precipitation are becoming especially severe, warns the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Russell McLendon

U.N.: Wilder weather on the way

The threat of heat waves and heavy precipitation are becoming especially severe, warns the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Fri, Nov 18 2011 at 12:36 PM EST
People around the planet should prepare for “unprecedented extreme weather,” according to a report released Friday by top international scientists and disaster experts. Earth’s recent wild weather is likely just a sneak peek, the report warns, as rising global temperatures cook the oceans and atmosphere into a frenzy.

“We need to be worried,” one of the study’s lead authors tells the Associated Press. “And our response needs to anticipate disasters and reduce risk before they happen rather than wait until after they happen and clean up afterward. … Risk has already increased dramatically.”

This dire outlook comes via the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a Nobel Prize-winning research group that issues periodic reports on global warming. The IPCC’s next big report is due in 2014, but a panel meeting in Uganda this week decided the threat of extreme weather warrants a warning now. If greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, the IPCC says temperatures — and weather — could quickly spiral out of control.
“For the high-emissions scenario, it is likely that the frequency of hot days will increase by a factor of 10 in most regions of the world,” says the IPCC’s Thomas Stocker. “Likewise, heavy precipitation will occur more often, and the wind speed of tropical cyclones will increase while their number will likely remain constant or decrease.”
Scientists avoid blaming specific storms on climate trends, but the broader link between weather and warming has been discussed for years — especially after the horrific 2005 hurricane season. It has become an increasingly common topic of debate over the last two years, as blizzards battered North America and Europe, wildfire and droughts ravaged Russia and Somalia, floods inundated Pakistan and Thailand, and tornadoes leveled U.S. cities from Missouri to Massachusetts.

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Go there and see the neat graphs and the rest of the story. More tomorrow.

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Morocco’s Bid To Become The New Saudi Arabia – Transmission losses will be killer

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While solar projects in general are a good idea, location is everything.  Morocco is close to Europe. Well it is close to Spain and Southern France but the line losses with current technology will be huge. I suppose it would help to electrify Northwest Africa, but I doubt if that is the market.

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=14771

World Bank backs Morocco concentrating solar power megaproject

november 18, 2011

Ouarzazate is only the first part of Morocco’s ambitious plan of developing 2000 megawatts in solar energy capacity by 2020. The first stage is a concentrated solar thermal power design, using parabolic trough mirrors.

World Bank backs Morocco concentrating solar power megaproject

The World Bank today approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project, taking a historic step toward realizing one of the first large-scale plants of this kind in North Africa to exploit the region’s vast solar energy resources.

With this approval from the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, Morocco takes the lead with the first project in the low-carbon development plan under the ambitious Middle East and North Africa Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Scale-up Program. A $200 million loan will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the part of the Bank that lends to developing country governments, and another $97 million loan will come from the Clean Technology Fund.

“The World Bank is proud to provide the financing needed to make this large-scale renewable energy investment possible,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “Ouarzazate demonstrates Morocco’s commitment to low-carbon growth and could demonstrate the enormous potential of solar power in the Middle East and North Africa. During a time of transformation in North Africa, this solar project could advance the potential of the technology, create many new jobs across the region, assist the European Union to meet its low-carbon energy targets, and deepen economic and energy integration in the Mediterranean. That’s a multiple winner.”

The 500 megawatt (MW) Ouarzazate solar complex, as the first power site, will be among the largest CSP plants in the world and is an important step in Morocco’s national plan to deploy 2000 MW of solar power generation capacity by 2020.

The World Bank has supported Morocco’s national Solar Power Plan since it was launched in 2009 and is now making this significant loan to co-finance the development and construction of the Ouarzazate Project Phase 1 parabolic trough plant through a Public Private Partnership between the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) and a private partner. Ouarzazate Phase 1 will involve the first 160 MW and will help Morocco avoid 240,000 tons of CO2 equivalent a year.

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More next week.

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