Energy Conservation Consulting

In order to understand the bigger green picture, and not just the smaller one at our finger tips in our homes and offices, it is essential to understand where our electricity comes from.

Our power mix in the Northwest is largely hydropower at approximately 80% with coal, nuclear, natural gas and renewable making up the balance. Therefore a lot of people claim that the Northwest is a green power region. But is that the case? You can decide that for yourselves, but you should get a little first-hand education on the subject before making up your mind. If your understanding stops at the plug-ins in your wall, here are a couple of ideas to put on your calendar for summer fun served up with a little education on the side.

Wildhorse Wind & Solar Facility sitting high up top of Rye Grass Ridge near Ellensburg is a feast for the eyes, ears, brain and soul. With fancy vacations postponed, finding new and fun mini-vacations that are new and entertaining becomes a challenge. Even though it is a good day’s round trip from Seattle to Ellensburg and back, learning about wind and solar in WA State and signing the guest book should be on your summer to-do list. Their beautiful visitor’s center is on top of the regional world, higher than Snoqualmie Pass in elevation, and looks out over the entire Central WA region. The drive up the ridge and back down is not for the faint of heart, so take blindfolds for the passengers who might be a bit height sensitive!! The tour hosts are passionate and enthusiastic about their facility and are full of great information to share. Two little known facts: Wildhorse has the largest solar installation in all of WA State and the center is the first LEED Gold for new construction building in eastern WA State as well. http://www.pse.com/community/tours/Pages/WildAccess.aspx

For a two day trip, or a very long one day voyage, stop at a visitor center for the Rocky Reach hydro power dam near Wenatchee as well to see what has traditionally been considered green power, although lately is not making the green grade according to some experts. Hydro power doesn’t pollute the air like other forms of electricity generation, but it does disturb the natural environment of the water eco system in a fairly large way. The dams also will not last forever, concrete being what it is, so we need to start thinking about what we will support next to feed our power demand. http://rockyreachdam.com/

To round out your education, especially if you have kids, it is probably a good idea to learn a bit about nuclear energy. There are technological breakthroughs in nuclear power generation that could make it a much more viable energy source than it has been so far. Again, deciding for yourself whether this is a desirable and green strategy is important to helping our region define its energy future. Work with your kids to visit this site that is fun and informative: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/

Lastly put on your best scientific glass and visit this site to learn about the new ideas in nuclear: http://intellectualventureslab.com/?tag=terrapower The travelling wave reactor concept by TerraPower is getting a lot of high powered attention lately.

Educating ourselves on the state of the power generation and distribution will be crucial to help position the Northwest as leaders for sustainable energy production in the near and far future. It will also help us to not take for granted how the power arrives at the plug-ins in our walls. It is a process that is at once remarkably reliable and technologically ancient.

Everyone has the same thought after reading George Orwell’s 1984 book where he introduces the government’s spy machine, Big Brother. To briefly recap: The “benevolent” brother watches what you are doing and knows what you are thinking to ensure that it isn’t a violation of the principles that are for the good of humankind. Of course the “good of humankind” is the Party philosophy or rather the corrupt government that seeks to promote a society that is based on uniformity and eliminates individuality. The shared thought therefore is this, “Thank goodness this is just a socio-science fiction novel and not reality!” Brace yourself.

Quietly in Puget Sound region there has been a movement afoot by scientists, UW PhD candidates and utilities to install “smart meters” that will tell a utility what appliance is being used in your home and when. http://ubicomplab.cs.washington.edu/wiki/Main_Page These meters are very easy to install and can tell what exact appliance is on-in standby-or off, even if there is more than one of the same appliance. Computers, televisions, phone chargers, refrigerators, microwaves and stereo equipment cause a constant draw of power that over time adds up. Appliance standby power can be as much as 10% of a utility customer’s bill. http://standby.lbl.gov/

The intent here is not to judge whether your habits are anti-Party, but to be able to control the flow of electrons to specific appliances and to shut them down when they are on long term standby, thus saving the necessary energy to be able to effectively control the demand of electricity. The overarching goal is to provide the consumer with a real time bill that details energy use so that the consumer can adjust their use in ways that they decide, thereby minimizing their electricity use and the associated bills. So instead of retroactively billing the client for past service shows a cost representing a past monthly use of kWh, the bills, which will be available 24/7 and can be affectively controlled by the consumer, can interactively be influenced by consumer behavior to meet budgets, both theirs and the utility’s.

It really is amazing that in this day and age of digitized everything, that power companies generally aren’t aware of an outage until they are called by a consumer. The three main electricity grids are 100 year old technology straining to supply the ever increasing demands of the 21st century consumer. The Smart Meter technology will work through a Smart Grid system now receiving major federal funding for development.http://www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm The Smart Grid and associated Smart Meters will be able to manage our electricity use with technology that has been with us for decades – and it’s about time.

Saving energy can be accomplished one house at a time, because it does add up. The alternative could be to ration electricity at some point in the not too distant future, eliminating any input or influence by the consumer. Too radical – too archaic? Think again. It’s done everyday all over the world in countries whose utility provider simply can’t meet demand.

So the days of taking electricity for granted are over. Our system is getting close to the point where without 21st century technology and ideas and individual conservation, we may be forced to choose what power we will consume on any given day. Imagine family breakfast conversations such as, “Shall we run the oven or the clothes dryer today?” Let’s welcome the utility’s version of Big Brother before it’s too late!

What can you do with Tyvek, bicycle inner tubes, bug screens and maxi pad wrappers besides throw them away after their useful lives? Answer: Make a fashion statement.

For four years Portland green-fashionistas have hosted an event called “Junk to Funk” whose only obvious criteria is to submit an entry that uses real trash and sewing talent to create wearable, repurposed “trashion”. The event was hosted by Mayor Sam Adams, who will probably not ever lose that job solely by virtue of his name which has to delight the majority counter culture voters of Portland. This evening is full of fun, fashion, green counseling and purpose through repurposing. It can also be used a fund raiser for non-profits interested in a little more of an off-beat event as compared to the ever popular silent auction – wine tasting – dinner – dance combo. Visit www.junktofunk.org/ for more details.

Repurposing has been made famous by our mothers and grandmothers who survived the great depression and can’t possibly throw away that bright orange, plastic fruit netting, because it “might be useful someday”. It is now an extremely dark green strategy that has the potential to save us from our consumer-is-king economic model. If items were designed to have multiple purposes before disposal, or better yet, if final disposal resulted in a product that decomposed into nutrients for the soil, then we could all say, “Viva consumerism!!” and not suffer guilt pangs in our souls.

This idea of products being designed to be repurposed and not thrown away is gaining in momentum and support. An in depth treatise on this can be found in the book, “Cradle to Cradle” by William McDonough and Michale Braungart at http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm. Why not design a new white shirt that when the spaghetti sauce leaps up on it and renders it unwearable, it can be buried in the back yard to raise new tomatoes for next year’s spaghetti sauce?

Ideas like “junk-to-funk” illustrate how we can keep consumerism as the basis of our economy, rightly or wrongly, do good for our planet and as a bonus, save the fashion industry from its crazed and mindless pursuit of creating the next “must have” sensation made from virgin materials that have used toxins, water, energy, dyes and child labor to produce. It’s at least a fun and guilt free start!

Recently there was an attempt to ban electric resistance (ER) heating outright in the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) hearing process. The attempt failed, but brought to light areas that already exist in the IECC and other energy conservation codes that need closer examination. Why for instance are there punitive multipliers for what utilities the consumer hooks up to at the site of the building? Why do these multipliers favor the burning of natural gas at a building site over the burning of coal or the use of nuclear fuel at the source generation site as if the consumer has a choice? If we consider those code realities at face value, then it would appear that the IECC and other codes are becoming energy selection codes instead of energy conservation code as their names suggest. While this is applicable to a green construction and real estate development codes, it is not applicable to a building conservation code. The distinct differences between energy conservation, energy efficiency and clean energy are becoming blurred in a code that should only be applied to one building’s energy conservation capability. The sad truth is that the blurring of those distinctions are forcing ER heat to become an illegal and ostracized technology.

For the time being, however, ER heat is safe and remains a viable option in a limited capacity for residential heat. The limitations for its applicability remain and are hidden behind prescriptive requirements, software modeling fuel use multipliers and target energy use values all of which are based on other technologies that use natural gas as the primary fuel or forced air-based heat rejection equipment. What has crept into the energy conservation codes is a bias against electricity as the primary fuel source for any building because of the generating fuel mix or “source”. This does not seem at all fair to the building owner given that the supply of electricity and the availability of other fuel sources varies drastically throughout the United States and is still a monopoly commodity in most regions.

There is hope. More innovation with ER heat in building integrated systems, plus the move toward a net-zero building construction that can use ER heat in small quantities can reinvent ER heat and secure the future for this simple, clean heat source. These pathways cannot develop fast enough for many reasons but take money, consumer acceptance and an economy that fosters widespread availability.

Unfortunately, the short-sighted attempt to ban ER heat in the home or office will continue as threatened by those promoting it. It is time that industries like the ER heating industry jump in with both feet to keep their products alive and to keep the energy conservation codes focused on building use and not on utility supply. Unless there is a great deal more success at removing these unfair code provisions that are increasingly limiting ER heat, eventually it will be obsolete. If your company is an ER heat product manufacturer you can no longer afford to sit back and hope things change. It is now necessary to become involved in your local energy code adoption process as if your industry’s life depends on it – because frankly it does.