Archive for the ‘Solar’ Category
June 29th, 2009
8 Easy Ways to Save Energy and Money This Summer
Stumble it!
The heat of summer is upon us, and that means folks are cranking up the AC, making an extra batch of ice, and generally burning energy 24-7. But we need all need to continue to try to conserve as much energy as possible to save resources and slow the march of global warming. And we get to save money at the same time– nice one!
Here are the eight easy things we can all do at home to cut our energy consumption.
1. Keep your home at an eco-conscious temperature. 78 degrees is plenty cool in the house. Turn down the AC and get a programmable thermostat so you’re only cooling the house when you really need to.
2. Work with the sun to keep your house cool. Close all shutters and blinds during the day to keep the sun out– then open windows at night to cool the house and feel the breeze (if you have any!).
3. Let the air dry your dishes and clothes. The dryer and dish washer use a lot of energy– and the air does the drying job just as well. Plus your clothes will last longer. See some great clothes-drying racks here.
4. Take shorter showers and do not take baths. Hot water heating is one of the major uses of energy in any home. Showers are the way to go– and keep ’em short. Baths use much more water and heat than do baths (unless you’re taking 30 minute showers!). You can also look into solar hot water.
5. Ditch the beer fridge. It’s amazing how many homes have two refrigerators. Please do not use more than one fridge. And if you have an old model, get a newer Energy Star model.
6. Use ceiling fans rather than AC. They are much more energy-efficient and you can get very reasonably priced Energy Star models.
7. Get solar screens for your windows. These screens cut 75% of the heat coming through your windows, but don’t impact your visibility. They are really great energy savers. See solar screens here.
8. Spend one night each week in candlelight. It’s romantic, fun and inspires new conversation. If you’ve got kids, how about turning off the TV one night and playing a board game by candlelight? Clue would be particularly spooky!
Popularity: 3% [?]
June 25th, 2009
Sears Tower to Get Green Retrofit
Courtesy of Environmental News Network and Reuters
The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere will undergo a $350 million “green” retrofit that its owners said on Wednesday will make the 110-story office tower a beacon for environmentally sound space.
Plans call for the 1,450-foot Sears Tower to reduce its electricity consumption by 80 percent and water usage by 40 percent. It will be renamed the Willis tower later this summer in a deal with new tenant global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings.
To achieve the savings, owner American Landmark Properties and its partners plan to:
- Replace the 1973 tower’s 16,000 tinted single-pane windows and create a “thermal break” between Chicago’s frigid winters and hot summers and the interior.
- Install gas boilers equipped with fuel cells, which generate electricity, heat and cooling.
- Revamp the tower’s 104 elevators and 15 escalators to cut their electricity usage by 40 percent.
- Conserve 24 million gallons of water with new restroom fixtures and “condensation capture.”
- “Harvest daylight” by installing systems that automatically dim lighting based on available natural light.
- Install solar panels to heat water.
- Erect wind turbines on building setbacks, if possible.
Popularity: 4% [?]
June 12th, 2009
Green Jobs Sector Poised for Explosive Growth
Courtesy of Greenwire, via Environmental News Network
Green-collar workers — who include everyone from energy-efficiency consultants to wastewater plant operators — constitute a tiny but fast-growing segment of the U.S. economy, according to a study published today by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The “clean-energy economy” grew 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007 to 777,000 jobs. While that is just half a percent of all U.S. jobs, the clean-energy economy is poised to grow significantly with financial support from the public and private sectors, the Pew report concludes.
“The nation’s clean-energy economy is poised for explosive growth,” said Lori Grange, the Pew Center on the States’ interim deputy director. “The trends include surging venture capital investment … a critical growth rate in clean-energy generation, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly products.”
About 80 percent of venture capital investments in 2008 were in the clean energy and energy efficiency sector, broadly known as “cleantech.” And while cleantech slumped with overall venture capital in the first quarter of 2009, the sector outperformed telecommunications, media and other sectors, according to an analysis of Thompson Reuters data by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
“[Cleantech] is faring better than the rest of the venture capital sectors — that’s driven by the sense that the government policy thinking has changed radically with the new administration,” said David Prend, a NVCA director and managing general partner at the venture capital firm RockPort Capital Partners.
Indeed, the Pew report cites the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which President Obama signed in February, as a significant force driving the clean-energy economy. The stimulus includes nearly $85 billion in direct spending and tax incentives for energy- and transportation-related programs.
The report finds that job growth in the clean-energy economy outperformed total job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia between 1998 and 2007, the most recent year for which data are available. The total number of jobs grew 3.7 percent during that period, which included the dot-com boom and bust and the beginning of the current recession.
Click here to read the rest of this article from Greenwire.
Click here to learn where you can find green jobs.
Popularity: 5% [?]
April 22nd, 2009
More Help Paying For Solar Panels
Despite advances in technology, falling prices for raw materials and an ever-growing number of installations, solar PV panels are still not affordable for most families. Typical setups for even mid-sized homes can come in at well over $20,000 before rebates and incentives.
Fortunately, local, state and federal government agencies are continually adding programs that bring solar PV panels ever closer to affordability. Net metering programs allow you to sell excess electricty back to your utility. Many agencies offer rebates that cut from 30-50% off of the total cost of a system. The Obama Administration recently announced changes to the federal tax code that remove a cap on renewable energy tax credits. And, private companies have stepped into the fray offering a variety of innovative financing and group purchasing programs.
What’s next? Well, CleanTechnica recently published a piece on new loan programs that are springing up (now in California, and hopefully elsewhere soon) that allow you to finance the full price of your solar installation and then pay it back (with interest) via your annual property tax payments.
Several cities are already out of the gate and running:
- Berkeley launched a pilot program in November with funding of $1.5M. The program sold out in NINE minutes, and 39 homeowners signed up. A bit of pent-up demand, perhaps?
- Palm Desert launched its program in August 2008 and has already funded over $7.5M in projects. The Palm Desert program is also open to energy efficiency projects and upgrades.
- San Diego, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Sonoma County, Santa Cruz and many more cities and counties are in the planning phases.
How expensive are these loan programs? Interest rates for the programs launched so far are in the 7% range, which compares favorably with current home equity loan rates (if you can even get one).
The crazy oversubscription rates demonstrated by the Berkeley and Palm Desert programs clearly show that there’s huge demand out there, so we hope that more governments and companies step in to fill this need!
Popularity: 7% [?]
March 18th, 2009
Impact Calculator Upgrades - Solar Hot Water and Air-Dry Laundry
We’re happy to announce that we’ve recently added two new projects to the Low Impact Living Environmental Impact Calculator that show the benefits of air-drying your laundry or installing a solar hot water heater.
First, we’ve added a project that shows how much money, energy and carbon dioxide you can cut by replacing a few dryer loads of laundry a week by air drying. Simply fill in your current number of dryer loads (and your dryer fuel) in the “calculate impacts” section of the calculator, and then go to the “select projects” page. There you’ll find a project titled “Air dry your laundry” (it’s about five or six rows down). Click the “Project Description” link to see all of the details on how much you’ll save. The calculations assume that you air dry 75% of your existing dryer loads. We also show a couple of great drying racks/lines if you’re looking for something a bit better than the standard clothesline.
Second, we’ve added a solar hot water heater option to our list of renewable energy projects. This project takes your estimated hot water use (calculated based on your specific inputs) and the solar resources in your area and estimates how much a solar hot water system would save and cost for your home. Right now it takes into account the recently improved 30% federal tax credit for SHW systems, but not your local or state incentives (we’ll be adding those soon). Our friends at Green Made Simple have an up-to-date listing of renewable energy incentives near you.
This project has also been built so that it is a special “cumulative” project, which means that the project details change as you select other projects on the list. Why is this useful? Because it can help you understand how much LESS you have to spend on a solar hot water system if you make less expensive upgrades such as installing low-flow showerheads or buying an Energy Star clotheswasher first.
As an example, the calculator shows that a solar hot water system would cost about $4,900 (payback period of 16 years) in our home assuming no water fixture improvements - pretty ugly! But if I check off the “low-flow showerheads” and “sink aerators” projects, the cost goes down to $2,500 (payback of 10 years). Our $40 worth of showerheads and $5 worth of sink aerators cut the estimated cost of a system by $2,400 by reducing our system size by one panel and reducing the storage tank size. By the way, the solar PV, graywater and total carbon offset projects work in the same way - they adjust each time you select a project that reduces electricity, wastewater or your carbon footprint respectively.
Last, we’ve made some additional improvements “under the hood.” One that you might notice is that we’ve modified the calculator so that you can’t enter overlapping projects. For example, once you select any one of the water heater insulation, tankless hot water heater, high efficiency hot water heater or solar hot water heater projects, the other three projects will be deactivated. This eliminates the double-counting that was possible by selecting overlapping projects before.
We’ll be making other additions soon (including wind power and using wood as heating fuel), so check back soon!
(Note: Our calculator is meant to be a preliminary planning tool for your green improvements. Before starting any of the more expensive projects, make sure you get a detailed estimate from your local green service providers … which you can easily find using LIL’s green services directory).
Popularity: 10% [?]
March 2nd, 2009
More Money In Your Pocket From Obama Stimulus Plan
We’ve already written several pieces about the benefits of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan for homeowners looking to go green, but there are some pretty important wrinkles that we haven’t highlighted that could really save you some significant money.
If you’re looking to make a major new green home improvement, here are some items you definitely want to keep in mind:
- Solar Hot Water Heaters. The NEW credit removes a $2,000 limit on the credit you could receive for a new system, so larger solar hot water systems will be eligible for the full 30% tax credit.The previous tax credit cap of $2,000 meant that you wouldn’t get any additional help if your solar hot water system cost more than $6,667, which many do. To qualify, the solar hot water system must provide at least 50% of your home’s hot water, and it can’t be used for heating pools.
- Solar Photovoltaic Systems. As with a solar hot water system, the NEW tax credit removes the previous $2,000 maximum benefit cap. You now get 30% of the cost as a credit regardless of the total amount. Because solar PV systems are so expensive, this is a MAJOR new benefit.
- Geothermal Heat Pumps. We’ve written about geothermal heat pumps before - they’re among the most efficient ways to heat or cool our homes, but they’re very expensive. The new stimulus package gives you a 30% credit with no upper cap for installing one, as long as it is an Energy Star version. As with solar PV systems, this can mean thousands of dollars for you. Previously, the credit was for 30% but was capped at $2,000.
- Cool Roofs. Cool roofs can save major money if you live in a climate where air conditioning bills dominate your utility spending. Now, you can get up to a $1,500 tax credit (30% of the intallation cost) for a cool roof, whereas the previous amounts were only 10% of the cost with a maximum of $300. To count, it needs to be an Energy Star qualified roofing product.
- Residential Wind Energy Systems. Today there are more options for residential wind turbines than ever before. Now, you can get up to 30% of the cost back as a tax credit with no cap on the total amount. This isn’t as much of a benefit as in other categories, for the previous maximum credit amount for small wind systems was $4,000. To get any added benefit, you’ll have to spend at least $13,300, which is a pretty large turbine on your property!
- High Efficiency Hot Water Heaters. The new tax credit is for 30% of the installation cost up to $1,500. However, the new unit must have an energy factor of at least 0.82, which rules out even the new Energy Star storage hot water heaters. All new Energy Star tankless hot water heaters will qualify, as will some very high efficiency storage versions (such as the AO Smith Vertex).
As with anything tax-related, you need to consult with your accountant before assuming any of these credits are “in the bank.” Some important caveats to note:
- The credits are for improvements made in 2009/10, with the exception of geothermal heat pumps, solar HW/PV, and wind turbines (2009 - 2016).
- The cool roof and standard hot water heater credits are NOT standalone - you get up to $1,500 for ALL of your energy efficiency improvements together, which includes windows, insulation and the other more typical upgrades we’ve written about previously. The other credits we’ve discussed above (solar HW/PV, geothermal, wind energy) are standalone credits and do not count towards the $1,500 energy efficiency cap.
- Only the solar HW/PV, geothermal heat pump, and wind energy system credits can be claimed by folks building new homes. There’s another set of incentives for typical energy efficiency measures in new home construction that flows through contractors.
For more information on all of these programs, please visit Energy Star’s great tax credit summary.
Looking to start a project? Check out Low Impact Living’s directories of solar installers, green plumbers, geothermal heat pump installers, wind power installers or energy auditors / green home consultants to get a quote near you.
Popularity: 18% [?]
