Study of Americans’ Energy Conservation Views Reveals Misconceptions
Americans mistakenly believe that turning off or unplugging appliances are more effective ways to save energy than buying more efficient ones, accoring to a new study. (image: chicagopressrelease.com)
The good news is that Americans know how to save energy. The bad news is that they are pretty far off the mark when it comes to knowing the best ways to go about it. Both of these tidbits come from a recent study conducted by researchers at Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University that asked 505 participants about energy conservation. The results showed a lack of understanding of the relative effectiveness of different energy-saving actions, a post of the New York Times’ Green blog reported on Wednesday.
For example, the method of conservation most commonly cited in the study was turning off lights when leaving a room. While doing so consistently does save energy, the amount energy (and money) it saves is significantly less than the amount of energy saved by replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. In a similar example, the majority of participants believed that line-drying laundry saves more energy than changing washing machine settings, while the opposite is true.
The perception problem appears to boil down to a misguided focus on “curtailment rather than efficiency,” according to the study’s authors. That is, Americans seem to believe that using less energy is a more effective approach to conservation than using energy more efficiently, which is simply not the case. To apply this truism to heating oil use, investing in a more efficient heating system conserves considerably more oil than turning down the thermostat a few degrees. This misconception is somewhat understandable; people want to believe that small behavioral changes that cost nothing will save just as much energy as major, expensive changes like buying a new boiler or furnace. In the researchers’ words:
Relative to experts’ recommendations, participants were overly focused on curtailment rather than efficiency, possibly because efficiency improvements almost always involved research, effort and out-of-pocket costs (e.g. buying a new energy-efficient appliance), whereas curtailment may be easier to imagine and incorporate into one’s daily behaviors without any upfront costs.
To be clear, turning off lights and dialing down the thermostat are effective ways to conserve energy (so if you’re been doing both or either, don’t use this study as an excuse to stop). But they conserve a much smaller amount of energy than do more extensive measures like adding insulation to a home (which only 2.1 percent of the study’s participants cited). Many people simply can’t afford to buy new appliances or upgrade their home insulation, especially during these times of economic trouble. But it’s important to know that big energy savings require big investments—so when times are better, maybe we Americans will invest in that more-efficient heater or dishwasher instead of buying a gas-guzzling SUV.
Yum! New Light Bulb “Nutritional” Facts Will Help Save Energy and $
They look just like the nutrition labels on packaged foods, but they provide information on energy consumption, which can help keep your wallet fat and healthy. (image: treehugger.com)
By now, most Americans know that compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use less energy and last longer than Mr. Edison’s incandescent bulbs.
Thanks to a new initiative by the US Federal Trade Commission, consumers will soon know exactly how much energy and money they’re saving when they opt for a CFL over a traditional incandescent bulb. Treehugger.com reported on Thursday that a months-old proposal to require energy use and estimated cost of operation information on light bulb packaging has received final approval. The labels will begin to appear on packages by the middle of next year.
In addition to providing information on the per-year cost of operating the bulb and warnings of mercury content (when applicable), the labels will list the brightness of bulbs in lumens. Lumens are a measure of brightness, as opposed to watts, which measure energy use. Most consumers are accustomed to judging the brightness of a bulb based on its wattage, but the new labels will allow for apples-to-apples comparison of all bulb types, as CFLs (and other up-and-coming bulb types) use fewer watts to produce the same brightness as incandescent bulbs.
In the campaign to use less energy and save money doing it, information is key. The simple, easy-to-compare info provided by the new labels will empower consumers to reap energy savings. When comparing two bulbs with the labels above, for example, anyone can see the $5.66 per-year savings and a lifetime that’s longer by 4 years offered by the CFL is a much wiser choice.
New Smart Windows Offer Cheaper Energy Conservation
The RavenWindow automatically darkens on hot days, cooling the interior of the building and reducing the need for energy to power air conditioning. (image: ravenbrick.com)
In the average American building, the bulk of energy consumption (in the form of heating oil, electricity, or other fuels) is used for heating and cooling. A structure that heats less during the winter and air conditions less during the summer can save its occupants hundreds of dollars a year in energy bills.
One weapon in the battle against wasted climate-control energy is the “smart window,” which can be made lighter or darker (to let in more or less heat-generating sunlight) with an electrical control. Smart windows are usually installed in office buildings or other large structures, with a building manager controlling the windows’ tint.
It now appears that smart windows have gotten even smarter. The New York Times’ Green blog reported on Tuesday that a company called RavenBrick has invented a window that automatically adjusts its tint in response to outside temperature. After the outdoor temperature reaches a certain threshold, the “RavenWindow” darkens, blocking a significant amount of sunlight and cooling off the interior of the building. When the outdoor temperature is below the threshold, the window remains transparent, allowing the maximum amount of sunlight and solar heat to enter the building. The design is based on work done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and, according to RavenBrick, “can reduce a building’s energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent.”
The RavenWindow improves upon existing smart windows by eliminating the need for electricity and operating in two simple states: on and off. Cutting electricity out of the operation saves energy, while automation means no one needs to monitor or operate the windows. While it may seem that transitional smart windows that can adjust to allow various amounts of light and heat into the building are superior to simpler on/off models, Wil McCarthy of RavenBrick says that’s not so: “Human comfort tends to be very abrupt. The dividing line between when people say they are comfortable and when they are too hot is not gradual—there’s a threshold.”
The Department of Energy will be the first to try out RavenWindows when it opens the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new Research Support Facility this month. If they successfully reduce energy use there, expect RavenWindows to be the new standard in office and apartment buildings around the country in the coming years.
Microsoft’s Hohm Platform Provides Comparative Energy Data for Your Home
Microsoft’s online Hohm platform provides data on residential energy use for the purpose of informing conservation efforts. (image: microsoft-hohm.com)
One idea behind home energy conservation posits that the more data people have about their own energy use, the better equipped they are to make changes that conserve energy. That’s one of the ideas behind smart meters—if a smart meter tells you that a television left in standby mode consumes 10 percent of your daily electricity, you will probably do something to change that.
Microsoft has taken a new approach to data-driven energy savings with its Hohm platform, a web-based program (still in beta mode) that helps residents monitor their homes’ energy efficiency. Hohm collects data on users’ homes like square footage, number of rooms, and year of construction (these are available through public records and automatically appear on your Hohm profile when you enter an address), and assigns an energy efficiency score based on available data, where a score of 100 means maximum efficiency.
As Treehugger.com reported on Wednesday, a new feature that compares users’ homes to similar residencies around the country could help boost interest in Hohm, and make it more effective. Using collected data, Hohm displays a user’s home energy efficiency as compared to other houses of similar size and construction located in similar climates. The concept is that the apples-to-apples comparison will show users how much more efficient they could make their homes, and the competitive spirit will drive them to make those changes.
The platform is far from perfect (it doesn’t work for apartments), but represents an early stage in the emerging trend toward energy awareness and conservation. Once Americans know how to conserve energy (whether it’s in the form of heating oil, electricity, or natural gas), and more importantly, how much money it can save them, the trend of home energy conservation will catch on like wildfire.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Offshore Oil Drilling, Building-Top Wind Turbines, Trading Oil with Iran
Caption: (image: Mike Lester, Rome News-Tribune via cagle.com)
Opposition to offshore oil drilling has swelled in the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but environmental risk may not be the only argument against offshore drilling, points out Glenn Morton at The Oil Drum blog. Morton looks at BP’s Thunder Horse drilling platform (not the Deepwater Horizon platform that collapsed and spilled) and finds that it is not performing nearly as well as expected, which could be another reason to recalibrate the cost-benefit analysis of offshore drilling.
If you own a large building and you want to save $100,000 a year, here’s a tip: don’t run your heating and cooling systems at the same time. That’s the sort of fix that can be found through “building commissioning,” the surprisingly little-used practice of having an outside expert test a building’s climate control and energy systems, reports Richard Conniff at the Yale Environment 360 blog. If applied to all non-residential buildings, commissioning could save $30 billion dollars by 2030.
Building-top turbines seem like a neat way to add some self-sufficiency to a home or building and cut down on energy bills in the process. Now just imagine how cool they would be if they worked. The trouble is, they usually don’t, as the Museum of Science in Boston found out. Martin LaMonica of CNET tells the story of how the museum is taking advantage of its failed urban wind effort to learn more about the challenges of small-scale wind energy.
Buying oil exports from Iran is legal, but it’s a secretive trade nonetheless, says the Wall Street Journal. Sanctions against Iran only apply to selling oil to Iran, but oil majors like Shell and Total still alter ship-tracking data and turn off electronic transponders when doing business with the ostracized country.
HeatingOil.com at AREE: Honeywell Digital Thermostats
Honeywell's Prestige HD thermostat. (image: designtemphvac.com)
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of digital programmable thermostats here at HeatingOil.com. Programmable thermostats allow you to control the temperature in your home more precisely and not burn any more heating oil than you need to keep warm (check out our instructional video on how to install a digital thermostat). Conserving heating oil means saving money on heating oil bills, making programmable thermostats a great investment in energy savings.
At the AREE trade show in Atlantic City, we spent a moment with Ralph Florio of Honeywell and learned about his company’s latest and greatest digital thermostat, the Prestige HD model. This top-of-the-line thermostat includes high-definition touch screen, USB port for heating technicians to download heating and cooling data, wireless outdoor temperature sensor and a remote control with an on-board thermometer to aid in the climate control of hard-to-heat (or cool) areas of your home. The impressive functionality and snazzy interface carry a pretty hefty price (about $320), but could be well worth it for those with larger houses looking for pinpoint control of their heating and cooling systems.
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The Simpsons Get off the Grid With Wind Power
The Simpsons admire their home wind turbine. (image: hulu.com)
In honor of the 40th Earth Day (last Thursday, April 22), Homer and the rest of the Simpsons clan got into the green energy game. On Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons (titled “The Squirt and the Whale,”on Fox), a huge electric bill prompts the family to attend the Alternative Energy Expo, where a Danish pitchman sells them a wind turbine to power their home.
The Simpsons’ experiment in alternative energy leads them to discover some real-life costs and benefits of wind power. They find that their home turbine contributes electricity to their local power grid in an arrangement that allows them to sell energy to their utility and significantly reduce their bills. They also learn, however, that wind power is only as reliable as the wind—when the air is still, their green power source stops producing electricity.
As is often the case, this episode of The Simpsons uses humor and hyperbole to bring attention to a burgeoning social trend. Wind (“A kite’s best friend, the flag’s partner in patriotism…you’ve seen cherubs blow it from map corners!”) power, along with solar power, geothermal heat pumps, and other clean energy technologies are increasingly attractive options for cost-conscious and green-minded Americans. But as our favorite yellow family’s experience shows, no one green power source is right for everyone.
Maybe Homer will build a biodiesel distillery in his garage for next year’s Earth Day episode.
Watch the full episode for a limited time on hulu.com.
Rebates for Efficient Heating Oil Equipment Now Available in PA and NH
Purchasers of this oil-fired boiler would be entitled to maximum rebates under efficient appliance rebate programs in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. (image: e-comfortusa.com)
Rebate programs for heating oil users who buy more efficient burners, boilers, or water heaters have kicked off in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The programs, both of which are funded by a $300 million allocation in the federal stimulus program and administered by state agencies, are intended to entice residents to invest in more efficient heating systems that will consume less energy and lead to lower bills. Both programs focus on climate control and water heating appliances, as they account for the largest portion of energy use in American homes. While consumers save money on future heating oil, natural gas, and/or electricity bills, the logic behind the rebate program says that the purchasing of new appliances will also help stimulate the still-sluggish economy.
In Pennsylvania, the rebate program applies exclusively to heating and water heating appliances, with rebates of $200 to $500 for oil boilers and burners (higher efficiency appliances qualify for bigger rebates). Television station WGAL of Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley reported that some consumers and appliances retailers were disappointed at the rebate program’s exclusion of other appliances like washing machines and refrigerators. The decision to only offer rebates for home heating and water-heating equipment is aimed at making federal dollars go farther, as Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger explained:
This program is going to help as many as 30,000 Pennsylvanians have a lower home heating bill. And when they open that bill up and see that it’s lower, I think that they will appreciate this.
The New Hampshire Home Heating System Rebate Program, like its counterpart in Pennsylvania, offers rebates only for oil- or electricity-powered heaters and water heaters. The maximum rebate under the program is $1,000, awarded to purchasers of the highest-efficiency oil boilers. Program administrators in the Granite State offered a slightly different explanation for focusing on heating equipment, as the Nashua Telegraph reported on Wednesday:
The program says that targeting heating systems, rather than other appliances like washing machines, can save considerably more energy because “only 10 percent of the (house heating) systems installed are energy-efficient” whereas “approximately 70 percent of traditional household appliances sold in New Hampshire are energy efficient.”
Both programs began this week, but since they rely on a predetermined amount of federal funding, they will expire then those funds run out. So if you are in the market for a new heating oil furnace, boiler, or water heater and you live in either state, reserve your rebate ASAP, before making the purchase to be sure you’ll get what’s coming to you. A similar program in Rhode Island saw its funds exhausted in less than 24 hours.
For more details on the programs and to reserve your rebate(s), visit their respective websites for Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
Maine Gets $30 Million for Energy-Efficiency Home Loans
Installation of insulating windows is just one of many home improvements that Mainers can invest in with federally backed loans from the state government. (image: windowswc via flickr.com)
The state of Maine, home to a sizeable portion of the nation’s heating oil users, will soon receive a $30 million grant from the federal government to fund energy-saving home improvements. The grant will come though the Recovery Act, and will be the source of loans to help homeowners pay for energy conservation retrofits like weatherization, installing better windows, and buying more efficient appliances. The loan payments would be added to property taxes, ensuring that the cost of energy improvements would remain tied to homes, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) reported on Wednesday.
The program follows a model outlined last month by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who identified the intimidating up-front cost of many home efficiency upgrades as one of the main impediments to Americans investing in upgrades. According to Chu, rolling loan payments into property taxes eliminates homeowners’ concern that they may have to continue paying for energy-efficiency upgrades even after they have moved out of their house and stopped benefitting from the resulting lower energy bills.
But one analyst interviewed by MPBN said that the incentive to make energy upgrades provided by the loan program would be less influential on Mainers’ decision to invest in energy efficiency than heating oil prices:
John Dorrer, director of the state’s Center for Workforce Research for the state Department of Labor, says experience tends to indicate that it’s the high cost of fuel, rather than the availability of energy programs, that spurs Mainers to weatherize. At least that was what he saw when fuel prices spiked two years ago. “Once that price of home heating oil and gasoline dropped back down to $2.50, $2.70, $2.80, it caused people to sort of slow down in making those kinds of changes and innovations,” he says.
While the price of heating oil might be the most important factor in interest and investment in energy conservation in Maine and the rest of the Northeast, offering major financial incentives certainly couldn’t hurt. David Farmer, a spokesman for Governor John Baldacci, was quick to point out that Maine has been the one of the busiest and most successful states when it comes to energy-saving government initiatives.
“Maine has been recognized on a number of occasions by the U.S. Department of Energy for the groundbreaking work that we’re doing here on weatherization and energy efficiency,” Farmer says. “From the work at MaineHouse to the Efficiency Maine Trust and Efficiency Maine at the Public Utilities Commission, Maine has implemented its own policies that have weatherized more homes, created new jobs and reduced fuel consumption.”
Of course, whether or not the $30 million loan program leads to large-scale job creation and energy savings in Maine, as its proponents predict, remains to be seen. If the program does create jobs for contractors and save consumers money on their heating oil and electricity bills, it will likely spur the creation of similar loan programs around the Northeast and the rest of the country.
Weatherization Yielded Huge Heating Oil Savings, VT Principal Says
Rumney Memorial School principal Adam Rosen (shown reading to third- and fourth-graders) discovered the benefits of energy audits and weatherization first hand. (image: rumney.org)
From President Obama to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, many high-profile individuals and institutions have recently touted the energy-saving benefits of weatherization. The simple and inexpensive process of sealing up a house or other structure to ensure it stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer, if done correctly, can seriously reduce energy use and provide huge cost savings just a year after weatherization improvements are made. But should we take politicians’ and bureaucrats’ word on this issue? What do ordinary Americans have to say about weatherization?
To find out, one need look no further than an opinion piece published Tuesday on the Vermont news blog vtdigger.org. Under the straightforward headline “Rumney School used half as much fuel this year because of weatherization,” Principal Adam Rosen of Rumney Memorial School in Middlesex, VT described how a two-day weatherization project at the school led directly to huge savings on heating oil.
Last summer, the elementary school received a grant from the state’s Department of Natural Resources and began the weatherization process. The first step was an energy audit in which technicians examined the school building and identified the best ways to maximize its energy efficiency. Next, “with help from over a dozen hard working local volunteers, in two long days,” energy technicians installed attic insulation and sealed air leaks throughout the building to ensure that temperature-controlled air would stay inside the building and outside air wouldn’t get in.
Finally, the school (without the aid of a grant from the state government) invested in a comprehensive cleaning and tune-up of its oil-fired boiler and heating system: “[HVAC technicians] made suggestions beyond the routine annual boiler cleaning. We repaired thermostats and cleaned the dust off our radiator fins.”
Nine months later, the result of Rumney School’s investments couldn’t be more positive, as Rosen explained:
I had us bid on 6,500 gallons of home heating oil. Well, if we’d had a bone-chilling cold winter, we might have needed that much—as it was, we purchased less than 4,900 gallons of oil, and are going into the spring with a nearly 3,200 gallons in the 5,000 gallon tank. Air-sealing, followed by insulating and boiler maintenance paid off and the school benefited beyond any of our expectations: this year at Rumney Memorial School we used a little more than half the fuel that we used in previous years!
A school that had previously purchased 10,000 gallons of heating oil for one heating season bought just 4,900 gallons and has several thousand gallons left over for next year.
The lesson for heating oil users (and users of other heating fuels as well) is clear: weatherization works! Investing a few hundred dollars in a professional energy audit and appropriate improvements will save you thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars on heating and cooling bills over the future years and decades you spend in your home. Even if you move out of your energy-efficient home, the improvements you invested in will raise its market value. Plus, federal and state grants, incentives and tax breaks can help reduce up-front investment in audits and home improvements to increase savings even more. And let’s not forget the environmental benefits of home energy efficiency; using less energy means decreased consumption of fossil fuels and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy audits, insulation upgrades, and well-placed caulking are deceptive in their simplicity, but have proven to be astoundingly good investments for those who do them right. So if you’re looking to save some money on your heating oil and electricity bills, the time to invest in a professional energy audit and home energy improvements is now. Given the chance, President Obama, Secretary Chu, and Principal Rosen would all give you a hearty pat on the back for your decision.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Uproar Over Offshore Drilling, Big Macs vs. Oil, and Bill Gates’s Mini-Nukes
President Obama’s energy policies have been attacked from the right and the left. (image: Tom Toles via washingtonpost.com)
When President Obama announced his plan to expand offshore drilling, many environmentalists (like Al Gore) were dismayed. Over at Forbes, energy analyst Michael Economides is upset, too, but that’s because he thinks the promise of offshore drilling is just bait to secure Republican support for a climate bill; once the climate bill passes, Economides says, Obama will have the EPA step in and prevent any drilling from actually taking place.
When comparing the price of a commodity over time, economists have a number of tools to correct for inflation. Energy blogger Gregor Macdonald uses Big Macs. To demonstrate how the price of oil has increased relative to other items, Macdonald created a graph that shows how many Big Macs it would take to buy a barrel of crude oil. It used to be that a barrel of crude oil cost about as much as 10 Big Macs, but oil prices have climbed and Macdonald says we have entered a new era in oil prices: the “era of 20 Big Macs.” A scary thought.
Ecofriend has a list of 12 devices that will help you save energy (and money) by reducing your electricity consumption. They show a variety of power strips, sensors, and plug adapters that will remind you to turn off and unplug appliances that aren’t being used, or even do it automatically for you. Because remembering to turn things off can be hard.
The quest to reduce emissions has led many to take another look at nuclear power, and now the expertise and deep pockets of Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates are at work on the development of small-scale nuclear reactors—or, as Kirsten Korosec of BNET Energy calls them, “mini-nukes.” In addition to being carbon free, Gates thinks the small reactors have the potential to cut energy costs in half. Now let’s see Apple top that.
Heating Oil Surcharge Could be Part of Maine Energy Conservation Program
Michael Stoddard is the newly named president of the young Efficiency Maine Trust, which hopes to seriously reduce Maine’s energy use over the next 10 years. (image: efficiencymainetrust.org)
On Monday, Maine lawmakers considered a plan to significantly reduce energy consumption in the state that would put new emphasis on helping Mainers use less heating oil, The Portland Press-Herald reported on Tuesday. The plan, which includes the “most ambitious energy-saving goal in the nation,” was created by a new, independent state agency called the Efficiency Maine Trust. The trust is funded by a surcharge on electricity bills that generates $14 million per year for the state, and its new energy conservation plan could include a similar surcharge on heating oil to help meet the goal of reducing Maine’s heating oil consumption by 20 percent over the next decade.
The first stages of the conservation plan would be funded primarily by federal stimulus dollars set aside for weatherizing homes—the new plan would expand around Maine’s existing goal of weatherizing all of the state’s homes and half of its businesses over 20 years. Efficiency measures in the plan include weatherization, insulation upgrades, and swapping in more efficient light bulbs and appliances.
The effectiveness of the plan appears to be generally accepted by all those involved—Secretary of Energy Chu recently pointed out that boosting efficiency is the easiest and most effective way to cut down energy consumption and associated costs. Estimates put the Maine plan’s three-year cost at $180 million, with an expected savings of $810 million for heating oil and electric customers during those three years.
The question about the program is the source of its long-term funding. After the initial stimulus monies dry up, the plan would require an increase in the electricity surcharge as well as a new revenue source to fund a $14 million campaign to make homes heating with oil more efficient. The logical source of this additional $14 million would be a heating oil surcharge similar to the existing electricity surcharge. An industry group has yet to take an official position on the issue:
Jamie Py, executive director of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, said oil dealers support the plan’s efficiency goals, but his board hasn’t taken an official position yet on a surcharge. He figures customers would have to pay an extra 2 cents per gallon or so to raise $14 million a year.
Would this plan be good or bad for Maine’s heating oil users? It depends on a couple of factors. While the plan’s aims are certainly positive for all Maine residents including heating oil customers, the question is will it be worth the investment? As described by the Press-Herald, the plan appears to be well worth the up-front costs. For heating oil users, a two-cent per gallon surcharge would amount to $5.50 per fill-up of a typical 275-gallon tank. Assuming two complete fill-ups per year, the ten-year cost would be $110 per oil-heated household. Applying the statewide goal of 20 percent reduction in heating oil consumption to one home would yield a savings of 1,100 gallons over a decade. Using a rough average of today’s retail price of $2.80 per gallon, that would result in savings of $3,080 over ten years. If the ballpark estimate that a $110 investment would bring in savings of $3,080 is even remotely close, the two-cent surcharge would be a fantastic investment for heating oil users.
However, to lock in those savings, heating oil users would have to receive an airtight guarantee from the state government that the money they contribute toward efficiency and conservation efforts will in fact be used for those efforts. State and local governments with budget shortfalls (which are increasingly common in today’s economic climate) often raid funds earmarked for specific initiatives to help close larger funding gaps. In the last year, state governments in both New York and New Jersey drained funds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which were supposed to go toward support of green energy development, to mitigate big state deficits.
If Maine heating oil users’ money is re-appropriated for another cause at the expense of the conservation program, that would obviously constitute a bad investment (not to mention bad manners on the part of the state government). But if funds are collected and distributed according to plan, this program could prove to be the most successful of its kind, with the 80 percent of Maine residents who use heating oil reaping much of the benefits.
Used Cooking Oil Used to Make Energy-Saving “Smart Roofs”
According to the company that invented it, the cooking oil-based roof coating that regulates temperature in all seasons can be applied to all types of roofs. (image: sierrascalemodels.com)
We know that used cooking oil can be used to make renewable heating and transportation fuels like biodiesel. We also know that painting your roof white can help reduce energy costs by keeping your home cooler in the summer. So what do you get when you put them together? “Smart roofs” that reduce your energy bills year-round!
Tgdaily.com reported on Monday that research scientists at United Environment & Energy had developed a used cooking oil-based coating for residential roofs that keeps homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Amazingly, the coating responds when the outside temperature moves above or below a set point to retain or release heat from the home below.
The substance is effective, safe, odorless and can be made in many colors:
The coating is produced by processing waste cooking oil into a liquid polymer that hardens into a plastic after application. It apparently won’t make your house
smell like a burger restaurant, and it can be produced in any shade. It’s non-flammable and nontoxic.
So far, test runs on asphalt shingle roofs have proved successful. According to project leader and VP at United Environment & Energy, Ben Wen, the coating works on any type of roof and should be ready for commercial use in three years’ time.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Daylight Saving, Buying American, and Local Innovation
(image: iastate.edu)
It’s the first week of daylight saving, a practice which was initiated, among other reasons, to save energy. If you’re awake when the sun is out, then you won’t need to turn the lights on, and you’ll use less energy, right? As it turns out, no. Grist has Joseph Romm analyzing the results of a 2008 study that concluded that daylight saving actually wastes energy, as people use more air conditioning on hot afternoons and heating on cool mornings.
If you want to buy American, look no further than insulation. Or caulking, or replacement windows. According to Kate Galbraith of the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog, nearly all such efficiency materials are produced domestically. That helps explain why the push for energy efficiency is also hailed as a vehicle for job creation.
Legislation promoting energy efficiency has sparked another fight. As Jim Snyder at The Hill’s E2 Wire blog reported, it’s not between Republicans and Democrats this time—it’s between environmental groups and window makers. The stimulus package included a tax credit for buying energy-efficient products, like windows, that could go up to $1,500. But it also raised the eligibility requirements that windows would have to meet to qualify as energy efficient, as environmental groups had demanded, and now window makers and business groups are fighting back.
A group of Rhode Islanders took it upon themselves to develop alternative energy sources and founded the Energy Innovation Group to work on small-scale algae, biodiesel, and solar greenhouse projects, Gina Macris of the Providence Journal reported. The group has built a prototype greenhouse powered by sunlight reflected by mirrored panels, where vegetables—and algae that could be converted into biodiesel—can grow during the winter.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Mysteries of Energy Savings, Delahunt Retires, and Crustacean Biofuels
Conserving energy saves money—so why don't we do it? (image: about.com)
There are lots of things we can do to save energy, which means saving money. For example, I could unplug my cell phone charger when I’m not using it, because it continues to drain electricity when it’s plugged in. But I don’t. Why is that? NPR’s Ira Flatow talked with Dr. Hunt Allcott, an economics professor at New York University, about how behavioral economics can help answer that question. Flatow asked if maybe we were “just stupid.” Allcott said we faced “a lot of complex decisions.” Yeah, complex—I’ll go with that answer.
If you’ve made the complex decision to improve the energy efficiency of your home and you want to go beyond weatherstripping, perhaps a “deep energy retrofit” is right for you. At CNET’s Green Tech blog, Martin LaMonica talks about the pioneering efforts of some contractors who have cut energy costs by some 50 to 70 percent. Not for the faint of heart (or bank account), such renovation is extensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars. But it will leave you with “superinsulation,” which I assume means your new insulation will be able to fight crime.
Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) plans to retire, and an editorial in the Boston Globe said he had made a “wise” decision to opt for a long retirement over what would have been a difficult campaign this November. Delahunt is perhaps best known for his role in negotiations with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to get discounted heating oil for low-income residents of Massachusetts. Potential opponents were likely to score points by emphasizing Delahunt’s connections with the anti-American Chavez, but many in Massachusetts remain grateful for his work to secure heating oil for those in need.
Every advance biofuels researchers make seems to bring science fiction closer to life. Now scientists in the United Kingdom have announced that the “Gribble worm” is especially good at converting wood into sugar, which could make the crustacean a key player in producing cellulosic ethanol, reported Joshua Kagan at Greentech Media. That would be more productive than the activity that it’s currently known for, which is eating away the hulls of ships.
Smart Meters Are Coming—Will Savings Follow?
First Utility is distributing smart meters like this to consumers, but it’s up to consumers to make the most of it. (image: first-utility.com)
A British utility is rolling out thousands of smart meters to its customers, but will the move end up saving consumers money?
The UK Guardian reports that First Utility has become the first utility in Britain to distribute smart meters, moving toward fulfillment of the British government’s plan to equip all homes with smart meters by 2020. The meters give consumers an added measure of control over their energy expenses, but by themselves do not guarantee energy savings.
Smart meters could give consumers lower bills simply by lowering the expenses of their utility provider. If enough homes use smart meters, utilities could gain more accurate information about energy usage that could help them make better decisions about their wholesale energy purchases. If utilities manage to cut costs, they could pass those savings on to consumers.
Sinking Heating Oil Demand in US Looks Like Permanent Trend
Higher efficiency burners and boilers, like this model that boasts an AFUE rating of 95.5, have contributed to lower heating oil demand in the US. (image: redmonheating.com)
Stepped-up conservation efforts by US heating oil users, supported by recent government initiatives, have curbed heating oil demand in the last year—a trend that will likely continue permanently, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
In the 35 years leading up to 2008, heating oil demand declined steadily as increasing numbers of heating oil users switched to other fuels like natural gas. But the rate of converting away from heating oil slowed in 2008: according to the US Census, 320,000 US households switched to natural gas in 2005, but only 52,000 converted in 2008.
But that slowing in conversion away from heating oil has recently been compensated for by conservation efforts by heating oil users. Since the recession began, millions of Americans have dialed back their thermostats with the goal of lowering their heating bills. It’s difficult to determine how much this financially-driven conservation trend has contributed to lowering demand in recent years, but Shane Sweet of the New England Fuel Institute, for one, believes the trend is here to stay. “There have been a lot of conservation measures that wiped away gallons. That is demand we will never get back,” Sweet told Reuters. Besides individual conservation, demand for heating oil has also been cut back by increasingly efficient burners and boilers, as well as a federal programs to fund home energy audits and weatherization improvements included in President Obama’s Recovery Act.
Installing a Programmable Thermostat Saves Money on Your Heating Bills
One of our missions at HeatingOil.com is to help heating oil users and all energy consumers conserve energy and save money in the process.
A simple and affordable way to save money on your heating and air conditioning costs is to replace your home’s old analog thermostat with a digital, programmable model. A programmable thermostat will only cost you about $30-$40 at your local hardware store, and you can install it yourself in an hour or less. Once installed, a programmable thermostat allows you to control the temperature of your home more precisely, so you can make sure the heat and/or A/C switch on when you need them and stay off when you don’t.
I recently installed a digital programmable thermostat in my apartment, and invited HeatingOil.com videographer Nicholas Whitaker to document the process so the world can see how easy it really is. So check out the video, follow the basic steps it outlines, and watch your energy savings roll in!
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Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Cyberattacks, States Go Green, and Energy Star Homes
A familiar signature exposes the China-based cyberattackers. (image: Patrick Chappatte via cagle.com.)
Hackers in China made headlines recently when Google was hit, but the search engine giant isn’t the only company being targeted. Mark Clayton of the Christian Science Monitor reported on cyberattacks on three US oil companies—Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips. Like the attack on Google, the hackers seem to be based in China. What Exxon and Conoco have that Google doesn’t is information on the size and location of potential oil fields, which would be very valuable for corporations or nations competing for oil resources.
Since the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka ACES, Waxman-Markey, and the cap and trade bill), climate legislation has moved forward in the Senate at a snail’s pace, if at all. But that doesn’t mean new legislation on energy and the environment isn’t on its way—in many states, it has already arrived. From Hawaii to Maine governors are touting clean energy, electric cars, and energy efficiency as the path to job creation, reports SolveClimate.
Energy Star is the government-approved label of energy efficiency, and it gives customers assurance that they’re buying an energy-efficient refrigerator, washing machine, or other appliance. Or even an energy-efficient new home. Douglas Fischer of The Daily Green tells the story of a Michigan couple that bought an Energy Star home, and they can expect to use one-fifth to one-third less energy than the average home. The higher upfront cost for such a house drives away many potential buyers, but Fischer describes specialized mortgages that might bring Energy Star homes within the reach of more consumers.
It doesn’t sound very high-tech, but the Southern California Public Power Authority expects energy savings from rooftop units that use ice to store energy, reports Matthew Wald at the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog. Rather than powering air conditioners by drawing on the grid at peak hours, energy will be used to make ice at night, and that ice will cool the buildings down during the day. The system costs more to install than a generator, but it doesn’t require the same work of finding a proper site and securing permits, and the power authority believes it will save money in the long run.
Ex-Secretary of California EPA Argues for Poop Power
According to Tamminen, this is a valuable energy source. (image: personal.psu.edu)
One man’s trash is another’s treasure, so the saying goes. According to Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, one man’s poop may be another’s power supply. In an op-ed for CNBC this week, Tamminen argues for a sustainable energy policy that includes making use of waste products of many kinds—including human and animal ones. At issue is the question of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which set legal thresholds for how much alternative energy—wind, solar, geothermal—must be included in the power supply. RPS systems are currently in place in 27 states and D.C, and California’s are the most comprehensive, calling for 33 percent of the state’s total energy consumption to be sustainably generated by 2020. To avoid creating a competitive market based in practices that should really be eliminated, as in energy derived from burning trash or even co-generation using heat from traditional power plants, RPS legislation does not currently allow for waste products of any kind to be included as “renewable” resources. Elimination isn’t going to be eliminated anytime soon, though, which leaves agricultural areas and municipalities overburdened with sewage and manure that currently isn’t worth….well, you know.
The average cow generates 18 gallons of waste per day—that’s just one cow, now think of all the hundreds of thousands of cows (and pigs, and sheep, and chickens) in farms and feedlots all across this country. Many such operations are so oversupplied with manure that they wind up funneling it into fetid ponds that stink up the surrounding countryside, contaminate groundwater, and release pounds of greenhouse gases. So, not only would repurposing all that poop create a steady stream of available energy, but it would also remove a fairly major contributor to climate change. Converting human sewage systems to a no-waste model would also save countless gallons of water every year, as well as the energy required to transport, treat and dispose of it.
Of course, entrepreneurs all over have already realized the potential of this unlikely market. There are scores of projects already underway across the country, many of which we’ve covered here on HeatingOil.com: Some of the most promising technologies include methane capture, fuel made from manure, and sewage used as a growth medium for algae that can be converted into biofuel. There is also the looming possibility of federal EPA regulation of methane from farming, under the EPA’s new endangerment finding that allows for greater policing of gases that contribute to global warming. Tamminen’s argument is that reclassifying human and animal waste as renewable would open up the possibility of tax credits to help develop existing programs, and to generate hundreds of others. Think of it as the fertilizer that will grow our new, greener, energy grid.
