June 1st, 2009
Energy Efficiency Stimulus Funds Coming to a City Near You
Stumble it!
Funds from the Obama Administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act economic stimulus package are finally beginning to make their way to green projects near you. Aside from the expanded tax credits that we’ve highlighted previously, it’s often tough to figure out how you as a home owner/renter can benefit from the confusing maze of funding sources.
One of the key funnels for money to local green projects is the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants program. Under the EECBG, the Department of Energy will distribute over $2.7 billion to local governments across the country. All cities/towns with over 50,000 residents are eligible, and most will receive several hundred thousand dollars or more (click here to see how much your town is receiving). Towns smaller than that can still receive funds, but must apply for them through their state energy office.
How can this program benefit you as a resident of an EECBG recipient? It’s up to local government officials to determine how the local grants can be used, but many eligible activities could funnel resources directly to individual homeowners or local neighborhoods, including:
- Incentives for residential energy audits;
- Local energy efficiency financial incentives (rebates, financing assistance, etc);
- Funds to reduce transportation emissions by supporting employee flex time programs, bike lanes, rideshare commuting programs, etc.
Others that might impact your daily life include retrofits of traffic and street lights, changes in building codes to promote energy efficiency, and new incentives to promote recycling and use of recycled content products. You can find the entire list of efforts promoted by the EECBG program here.
The trick, as with any government funding program, is to make sure that your local officials structure the program in a way that benefits you and your fellow residents (vs. special interests who are also clamoring for these funds). The best way to do that is to contact your local government officials, and in particular anyone associated with energy or greening initiatives, and to make sure that your voice is heard. Applications by cities are due to the DOE on June 25th, and cities have to submit an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy document that lays out their plans for the money within 120 days of application. Many cities will submit the EECS before that, so start advocating for your favorite programs now!
Popularity: 5% [?]
May 27th, 2009
Household Energy Use to Triple by 2030, Due to Power-Hungry Electronics
Courtesy of CleanTechnica.com
Experts call energy efficiency the low-hanging fruit, because it’s cheaper to cut power use than create new energy from fossil fuels like coal.
But our creature comforts — like iPods, cell phones, PCs and plasma TVs — are sucking the life out of advances in energy efficiency around the world, the International Energy Agency says.
In other words, too much fruit is rotting on the vine.
The IEA says in a new “Gigawatts and Gadgets” report that electricity consumption from power-hungry electronics could cause household energy use to triple by 2030. That means increased greenhouse gases from electric generation, and increased electric bills for creating that power.
The agency is urging consumers to choose more power-sipping devices when they go shopping. Technology allows trendy gadgets to be up to 40 percent more energy efficient, but standards are lacking.
It used to be that refrigerators and other appliances used the most electricity in our homes. If you go to buy a new fridge, you’ll see tags that show “estimated energy use per year.”
Our digital gadgets have now surpassed the electric use of “white goods” like refrigerators, Reuters reports.
What to do? Before you go shopping, check out some online guides to greener gadgets:
Popularity: 3% [?]
May 18th, 2009
ZigBee-Powered Smart Grids: Coming To A Home Near You?
You can’t read a green-focused blog or periodical these days without seeing something about smart grids. Smart transmission grids from wind farms to cities, smart distribution grids from our local utilities, or even smart energy networks at home. The advertised benefits are many - the ability to move renewable energy from remote sources to urban areas, less energy waste in transmission, and the ability of utilities to optimize energy consumption across their grids all the way down to (and into) your home. To make this last leg work, utilities will need to be able to talk to your appliances, climate control systems, and other home energy devices in order to manage their energy production in a smart and low-carbon way. (For an entertaining and informative if optimistic description of how this might work some day, check out Chapter Ten of Thomas Friedman’s great book Hot, Flat and Crowded).
Enter ZigBee, a relatively new wireless technology that is a frontrunner in the race to network and control all of your home environmental systems. Now, if you’re like me, your first question might be whether we really need another wireless technology. As if WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, CDMA, GSM, and the many other protocols out there aren’t enough already! But ZigBee has several major attributes that DO make it an important piece of the puzzle. The ZigBee protocol is optimized to pass relatively small amounts of data between devices efficiently - not great for streaming real-time voice conversations or music, but perfect for sending a thermostat setpoint or refrigerator temperature to the smart meter outside your home. The key benefits are that ZigBee transmitters are very simple and inexpensive to build AND they require very little power. They cost fractions of what a Bluetooth connection would cost, and can be powered for months or years on the smallest of batteries. This is the key advantage - they can be integrated into almost any point of home energy use (switches, outlets, lights, appliances) without requiring a significant power source and without driving up the price.
A home full of ZigBee-networked devices could be the termination point for the developing smart grid. All of your home energy users would be networked to a centralized controller or your PC, and you could see and change energy usage throughout your home from your office or cell phone. You could program lights and outlets to turn off if a room is unoccupied, or if electricity prices increased during a hot day. You could turn on your heating system and lights before arriving home on a cold winter’s night. And your utility could shut down or delay certain systems (with your pre-approval, of course) if it faced a day of peak demand across your local electricity grid.
So, if you consider yourself an early adopter of green technology, can you get your hands on any worthwhile ZigBee-powered devices? Unfortunately, there aren’t that many consumer-oriented ZigBee products available yet, but that’s likely to change. Utilities are already beginning to install ZigBee-enabled smart electricity meters on homes and apartments throughout the country, so expect to see products that communicate with them soon. Keep your eyes open for products from these leading ZigBee-related companies:
- Tendril. Tendril is a Boulder-based smart grid company that is launching a full line of residential products, including the Vantage Internet portal, the Insight home energy monitor, the Set Point thermostat and Volt wall outlets. They’re not available at retail yet, but they might be available through your utility if they happen to have a smart grid pilot program.
- Cisco Systems. Cisco is the world’s largest networking hardware company, and just today they announced the outlines of their plans to enter the smart grid market. They stated the intention to enter the residential market without mentioning any specific plans. But Cisco’s successful forays into the small business and residential networking markets after initially focusing on corporate markets (via big steps like acquiring Linksys) suggests they’ll launch major initiatives soon.
- Greenbox. Greenbox will provide a web-based solution that allows you to manage your home’s energy usage and environmental footprint from one place.
- GE and other major appliance manufacturers. The major electronics companies haven’t announced many residential smart grid plans yet, but they’re clearly a big piece of the overall puzzle. Look for ZigBee in a refrigerator or washing machine near you soon.
Popularity: 3% [?]
April 24th, 2009
Berkeley Considering Requiring Home Energy Improvements
The City of Berkeley is always progressive (perhaps that why some call it Berzerkeley). They are taking a very strong stance on limiting their city’s contribution to global warming. In November 2006, Berkeley voters marked their concern regarding climate challenge by overwhelmingly endorsing a ballot that set a bold but simple mandate: reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. The ballot measure passed with 81 percent of the vote. The measure directed the Mayor to develop a Climate Action Plan to reach that target.
City staff have drafted a 145-page Climate Action Plan which includes several proposals for home-owners to make energy-efficiency improvements to their houses. The plan covers such broad topics as advocating trash reduction, growing vegetables at home, and making energy upgrades to homes. You can read the chapter on Building Energy Use Strategies here.
This past Tuesday evening, things got pretty exciting at the Berkeley City Council meeting. Public comment on the proposed requirement for home owners to have energy audits performed on their homes and then make upgrades (e.g., insulation, caulking, etc.) was quite harsh. Understandably many citizens are not able to spend cash on home upgrades– especially in this economic climate. The Council voted to delay a vote and will meet again on May 5.
What do you think of the idea of cities requiring their citizens to improve the energy-efficiency of their homes? We admit we really like the idea of requiring home energy audits– they are relatively inexpensive and provide a plan that homeowners can follow to save energy and money. Some of the upgrades proposed will be inexpensive (window caulking, furnace filter changing, insulating hot water heaters, etc.) and some are more expensive (e.g., solar panels, tankless water heaters, etc.) We think homeowners should have the right to choose what changes they want to make to their homes — but that requiring them to at least know how they rate on efficiency and to learn what their options are is a great idea.
Popularity: 5% [?]
March 31st, 2009
Green recession tip: Buy to save
You’ve probably heard the economic downturn’s good news for the environment because people aren’t buying unnecessary things. But the economic downturn can actually mean people ARE buying things — energy-efficient things, that is.
The Shelton Group just released a study (PDF) showing that consumers are willing to buy green even in this down economy — if their purchases save green. And the most attractive green purchases are those that start saving green immediately. For example, of the people who responded to the survey:
- 44% say they’ll likely buy a programmable thermostat — and 32% already have.
- 43% say they’ll likely insulate their homes; 26% already have.
- 42% say they’ll install a higher-efficiency water heater; 26% already have.
Most Low Impact Living readers have probably incorporated all three of those eco-friendly things into their homes already. But if you haven’t, it’s not too late to stay ahead of the eco curve — and save money at it too!
Programmable thermostats: Start by browsing our selection of recommended programmable thermostats, ranging from $50 to $130. Since these gadgets can cut your energy bills by $100 or more a year, you’ll make your money back pretty quickly. And installing a programmable thermostat’s easy! Just follow our simple instructions and watch the savings add up.
Green insulation: Insulating your home will save you money on your heating bill, and using green insulation will let you avoid formaldehyde and other dangerous chemicals or materials.
Browse our list of green and eco-friendly insulation to find one that fits your lifestyle, then follow our home sealing tips for winter. As LIL co-founder Jason Pelletier’s pointed out, “The insulation investment will pay for itself in less than five years. And your local utility company very likely offers substantial rebates, so be sure to check with them for incentives.”
Water heater and insulation: Get the low down on tankless hot water heaters, which can give you instantaneous hot water, thus saving you money on both your water AND your heating bills. Or if you live in a sunny area, consider a solar hot water heater — for which you can currently get a 30% federal tax credit!
Can’t afford a new heater? Then start by getting water heater insulation to make the heater you already have more efficient.
If you have limited funds and don’t quite know how you can get the most eco-bang for your buck, try using the Low Impact Living Impact Calculator. For each green project, you’ll be able to find out how much money you’ll need to put in up front, how much money you’ll save, and what your carbon footprint reduction will be.
Remember — however — that you’ll still need to use energy wisely with energy-efficient products. If you start washing more clothes more often because you’re psyched out about your tankless water heater, you won’t see the savings add up so quickly….
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