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.
iPhone App Measures Carbon Intensity of UK Electric Grid
The GridCarbon app as it appears on the iPhone. (image: alphagalileo.org)
Engineers at the University of Southampton in the U.K. have developed an application for Apple’s iPhone that allows users to monitor the U.K.’s electricity grid, the site alphagalileo.org reported on Thursday. The app, called GridCarbon, was developed by Drs. Alex Rogers and Perukrishnen Vytelingum, and Prof. Nick Jennings at the university’s School of Electronics and Computer Science. When downloaded to an iPhone, GridCarbon enables users to monitor the grid’s carbon intensity—the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when one unit (1 kilowatt hour) of electricity is used by a consumer.
Rogers said that, “The app shows people how using appliances and machinery at different times of the day can reduce their carbon footprint.” For example, running washing machines and dishwashers overnight rather than at peak evening hours can reduce carbon emissions by as much as 40 percent, depending on the time of year.
Whirlpool, Best Buy, and Others Collaborate on Energy Information Display
A previous energy information display from OpenPeak could provide a model for the new HEM. (image: openpeak.com)
In case you don’t have enough high-tech gadgets, next year you’ll be able to buy one that offers an interesting array of information, reports earth2tech. Whirlpool, Best Buy, energy reseller Direct Energy, and developer OpenPeak are planning to launch an energy information display, called the Home Energy Management (HEM) center. The HEM will be unveiled at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show on January 7.
The HEM will use an open platform that uses smart meter data, and it will be compatible with Whirlpool smart energy dryers and Lennox smart thermostats. In an effort to consumers who might ignore a simple energy device, the HEM will also be able to interact with social networks like Facebook.
Survey: 85% of Americans Will Conserve Energy Next Year
Looking toward a greener and happier 2010. (image: timeinc.net)
The “somewhat likely” is a bit underwhelming but the overall direction represents progress. In a recent poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, 85 percent said it was “at least somewhat likely that they would reduce household energy consumption in 2010,” reports Treehugger.
The 85 percent who will try to improve household energy conservation was followed by 84 percent who said they would recycle more frequently, and 76 percent who will buy from more environmentally responsible companies. The poll, taken by Tiller, LLC, one of the nation’s leading consultancies on the design and implementation of advocacy marketing programs, also found 72 percent of those surveyed plan on carrying their own bag into the grocery store. Two years ago, just 42 percent of Americans were willing to do this.
Reducing Environmental Impact and Saving Money by Living Off the Grid
The community of Scoraig gets its energy, in part, from wind turbines like the one above. (image: africanwindpower.com)
Living off the grid isn’t just for “hippies and environmental mavericks,” CNN reports. The news service, in a piece filed from England, says thousands of people across the pond have unhitched themselves from the power grid, generating their own electricity (through the use of things like home-installed solar panels) and water. While some say it’s a green effort, others are doing it for financial reasons, seeing it as “an antidote to rocketing energy prices and fears of economic collapse.”
Relying predominantly on wind and solar energy, the off-the-grid lifestyle isn’t just being adopted by pioneering individuals, either. A number of communities are, as CNN puts it, opting to “live unplugged.” Scoraig, a small peninsula town on the northwest coast of Scotland, is such a community. And as one local explains, the impression that residents there live a tech-free lifestyle because they’re off the grid is off base. Fifty-seven-year-old resident Hugh Piggott told CNN: “We have the same sort of facilities as everybody else—televisions, computers, fridges and washing machines. The difference is that we’re doing it with renewable energy rather than connecting to the national grid.”
Energy-Efficient LED Christmas Lights Gain Popularity
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is decorated with LED lights. (image: inhabitat.com)
As the old adage has it, Christmas is a time for giving. But considering the doleful state of the economy, one might well argue that, at least this year, Christmas ought to be a time for saving as well. As December 25 approaches, thousands of Americans have decided to replace their old incandescent holiday lights with energy-efficient, money-saving light-emitting diode (LED) lights, suggesting that, even during the season of abundance, one can be frugal as well as festive.
Sales data show that Americans are buying more LED lights than ever before. Jagdish Rebello, an electronics market analyst for iSuppli, says that LEDs will account for 25 to 50 percent of total holiday lights sales this year, despite the fact that LEDs can cost twice as much as traditional incandescent holiday lights. Indeed, Home Depot has announced a triple-digit increase in LED holiday-light sales over 2008, while Christmas Lights Etc., an online retailer, predicts a 200 percent increase in LED sales over 2008. Perhaps most telling is the fact that the nation’s most iconic Christmas trees—the humongous White House and Rockefeller trees—are decorated with LEDs.
Forward to the Past: Online Contest Participants Brave Cold to Conserve Heat
(image: imagecache2.allposters.com)
Conservation is good. That’s why we provide helpful tips on how to insulate your home; how to maintain your heating system for maximum efficiency; energy audits and how they can help you save; even how roof color can reduce your carbon footprint and energy consumption.
However, there may be taking a good thing too far. As USA Today reported Tuesday, across the nation, many people are challenging themselves and others to see how long they can go without heat this winter. There’re going back to the pre-central heat past and living—at least temperature-wise—like our ancestors did. (Obviously, northern and western residents only need apply—no boasting about not needing heat in the winter, Floridians!)
Overall, the goal is two-fold: save money and help the environment by reducing fuel usage and carbon emissions. Of course, for any one person or family, one or the other goal may predominate. For example, Laura Nichol of Maplewood, New Jersey, who won a trophy last year for going without heat, is focused on saving money, which she certainly did—she received a $1,000 credit on her utility bill. On the other hand, Deanna Duke, creator of the environmentally focused blog Crunchy Chicken, gladly takes any monetary savings, but puts helping the environment first.
Cash for Caulkers Co-Author Offers Plan’s Details, Wants Name Change
Stephen L. Cowell, energy conservation executive. (image: csgrp.com)
As President Obama’s “cash for caulkers” program remains in limbo, notably left out of a just-presented $75 billion job-creation package by House Democrats, one of the initiative’s authors defended it, saying the real issue might be more about an unfortunate nickname than anything else.
In a blog published Tuesday on the Huffington Post, Stephen L. Cowell, executive officer of the Massachusetts-based Conservation Services Group, said Shakespeare’s famous rhetorical question—‘What’s in a name?’—isn’t being applied to “cash for caulkers”…even though it should be.
