New Energy Star Rules Raise The Question Of How To Make Energy Efficiency Accessible To All | ThinkProgress

EPA's popular Energy Star program wrestles with the balance between efficiency and affordability. The post New Energy Star Rules Raise The Question Of How To Make Energy Efficiency Accessible To All appeared first on ThinkProgress.    
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/13/2447511/energy-efficiency-

Energy Efficiency Can Help Deliver President Obama's Climate Plan | Dale Bryk's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Dale Bryk, Director, Air & Energy Program, New York: As America considers how to ramp up energy efficiency as part of President Obama promising new climate action plan, there much we can learn – and build on – from a wide variety of encouraging energy-saving programs already under way...
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dbryk/energy_efficiency_can_help_del

Daikin McQuay Rebel offers energy saving solar powered HVAC system

Daikin McQuay Rebel is the First to Meet DOE Rooftop Unit Challenge

Rooftop Unit Delivers 60-70 Percent Energy Savings for Commercial Buildings

MINNEAPOLIS, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial building owners take note - it is now possible to save a staggering 60 to 70 percent on HVAC energy costs over traditional rooftop units. HVAC manufacturer, Daikin McQuay, has become the first and only company to meet the Department of Energy's (DOE) Rooftop Unit (RTU) Challenge with its Rebel(TM) commercial rooftop system.

According to the DOE challenge, participating HVAC manufacturers need to satisfy a DOE-issued specification for energy savings and performance. This includes meeting an integrated energy efficiency rating (IEER) of 18 or higher with a 50 to 60 percent reduction in energy use over current standards.

The DOE and independent testing organization Intertek, conducted the performance testing for the challenge. The testing confirmed manufacturer claims that the Rebel commercial rooftop system exceeds the DOE's energy savings and performance specifications with part-load efficiencies of up to 20.6 IEER and energy savings of up to 60 to 70 percent. As a result, the Rebel system offers the lowest total cost of ownership with complete system payback in as little as two years.

As stated by the DOE, the performance and energy savings is important because commercial buildings account for 18 percent of U.S. energy use and could save businesses over $1 billion dollars each year in energy costs if all 10 to 20 ton RTUs met the specifications of the challenge, helping American companies be better able to compete on a global scale.

"If there were ever a time to reevaluate a building's commercial rooftop unit, it's now," said Don Winter, vice president of marketing at Daikin McQuay. "Early applications are showing that Rebel is performing even better in the field than in the lab."

Winter went on to state that comprehensive details on the testing are available through Daikin McQuay for commercial building owners and management teams interested in calculating payback or conducting an energy analysis for their specific buildings.

Daikin McQuay, as part of its parent company Daikin Industries, is the world's largest heating, ventilation, air-condition and refrigeration company in the world. Rebel is now available in unit sizes ranging from 3 to 12 tons. The wide range of features and benefits of Rebel make the energy efficient unit ideal for any low-rise application like schools, retail, offices, or medical buildings.

For more information about the Rebel rooftop system visit www.DaikinMcQuay.com. To view details on the DOE challenge, visithttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/alliances/rooftop_specification.html.

About Daikin Industries Ltd.

Daikin Industries, Ltd. is a Fortune 1000 company with 2011 revenues in excess of $13 billion and more than 40,000 employees worldwide, making it the number one commercial HVAC manufacturer in the world. Daikin is engaged primarily in the development, manufacture, sales and aftermarket support of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) equipment, refrigerants and other chemicals, as well as oil hydraulic products. Daikin was named one of the 100 most sustainable corporations for three years in a row by Corporate Knights, Inc. For more information, visit www.daikin.com

Daikin McQuay

Daikin McQuay, a member of Daikin Group, offers industry-leading HVAC technologies that provide innovation solutions to customers around the world. The Daikin McQuay product line offers energy efficient and environmentally friendly commercial HVAC systems through a global network of dedicated sales, service and parts offices. For more information or the name of your local Daikin McQuay representative, call 800-432-1342, or visit www.DaikinMcQuay.com.

SOURCE Daikin McQuay
Web Site: http://www.daikinmcquay.com

ecoNoon has LED solution to compact fluorescent light bulb controversy

Compact fluorescent light bulb's have mercury in them.  This has some people alarmed because mercury contamination is a global problem.  However CFL's save enough electricity to cause enough less coal to be burnt to reduce mercury emissions from coal fired electricity more than the mercury in the bulb.  This is true but a difficult enough equation to get your head around that perhaps it's better, in some peoples minds, to not have mercury in the bulbs in the first place.

As a 20+ year user of CFL's I'm irritated that some are fighting against adopting CFL's because of this.  But as someone excited over LED light bulbs I'm glad to see advances being made there.

 

Light Bulb Controversy: LEDs from ecoNoon Light the Way

New Startup Invented World's First LED Light Modules Without PCB

PENANG, Malaysia, Oct. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new lighting technology and products from ecoNoon could provide the best LED lighting solutions to meet the world's growing need to save energy on lighting in commercial, industrial, residential and public spaces.

"Consumers who are looking to brighten up the dark days of searching for new products need to look no further than LED lighting solutions provided by ecoNoon. Energy used for lighting is an astronomical cost for businesses and consumers worldwide. If they can cut their energy bills by as much as 90 percent by using LED bulbs, they will do so in great numbers," said Ir Ooi Seoh Lin, Chief Marketing Officer of ecoNoon (http://www.ecoNoon.co).

Nearly 20 percent of the world's energy resources go toward lighting products.

"The United States is already on a path to move away from incandescent light bulbs and move toward fluorescent bulbs. But smart consumers will want to embrace the next technology leap forward, which is LED lighting solutions which offer better lighting with lower costs and power demands," he said. "LEDs have proven to be a successful technology for computer displays, television monitors, billboards and other devices. This trend toward adoption of LEDs will only continue to get stronger. The demand for LED lighting solutions worldwide is strong."

Fluorescent and HID lights contain toxic elements, including mercury and sodium. Hence, governments are beginning to require that consumers and companies adopt alternative lighting sources. The first step has been to move from incandescent to fluorescent, but the real savings come with LEDs.

"Furthermore, LEDs are non-toxic and require low energy, both advantages over the other lighting technologies. Color rendering of LEDs is also excellent," he said.

"ecoNoon's products stand out as saving more energy than most other LED bulbs, provide better environmental stewardship and last longer than other lighting products," he said. Part of the company's business model is to retrofit existing luminaries or lighting fixtures with LED light bulbs or light modules.

The company's energy saving product pipeline is in full swing:

• Globe Bulbs (GL series) are available now.
• HID (High Intensity Discharge Lamp)/Sodium Replacement Bulbs (SB series) is undergoing certification and will be available in October.
• Mini Spot Light Bulbs/Spot Light Bulbs (ML/SL series) will be ready in November.

Each bulb is guaranteed for at least 30K to 50K hours or five years, depending on wattages.

"What sets us apart from all other competitors is the fact that our patent-pending LED light modules have no Printed Circuit Board (PCB) in any of its finished products to power bulbs of all shapes and wattages up to 1,000 watts and higher. In fact, the lighting module's robust thermal solution can keep the temperature of the system well below 100 degrees C in any wattage. Most luminaries have a thermal management issue that does not show up until after a couple of months or years of operation, when the LED chips inside fail due to high operating temperatures. Hence, it's more costly to have ineffective light bulbs," he said.

In addition to providing commercial lighting and household lighting, the company can create LED lighting solutions for different industries and applications.

"We are strong in researching various applications and using our LED lamps to solve energy consumption problems for many different industries. We can customize bulbs to suit various applications and we can create a variety of colors. If there are any new applications, we can work together with the companies to come out with the best solutions. We prefer to work on unique applications that are truly innovative," he said.

"Our flagship product will be HID/Sodium Replacement Bulb which will retrofit all the street lighting without any fixtures required. The bulbs are lighter than existing bulbs and provide more power. They can also be used in factories and buildings and many places," he said.

"All human beings have a responsibility to reduce CO2 to stop global warming of our Mother Earth for the sake of future generations," he said.

About ecoNoon.co

ecoNoon was founded in June 2011 and is based in Penang, Malaysia.

ecoNoon is a true worldwide company. Research and development is conducted in Japan and the United States. Marketing is based in Malaysia. Components are made by several Japanese companies. Assembly is done in Penang.

The company has several patents pending.

To inquire about investment opportunities, go to http://www.econoon.co.

Contact:Ir Ooi Seoh LinChief Marketing Officermarketing@econoon.coMobile: +60 12 482 9263Office: +60 4 264 5928

SOURCE  ecoNoon
Web Site: http://www.ecoNoon.co

The need to reduce energy impact and the nonscalability of off-the-grid living

In this weeks Radio Ecoshock Alex Smith interviewed experts in off-the-grid living and they did their best to present this as a wonderful alternative to the financial, technological and biological doom facing our civilization. There are plenty of dangers facing our society, peak oil leading to an energy supply decline leading to collapse of everything we know, to environmental change destroying our biological ability to continue as a society, to deep financial crisis causing another long running deep depression of the global economy. The solution is a form of personal resilience, where you find a homestead out in the wilderness, put up solar panels and wind turbines, and satisfy yourself with whatever you can grow on your land or trade with your neighbors. The speakers did a great job in demonstrating you can do this without having to revert to a stone age style of living. However I heard a different question than what I think Alex wanted us to hear.

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The first speaker was Cam Mather, the owner of AZTEXT, a publishing house which focuses in books on off-the-grid living using renewable energy and other stuff. Cam himself is living the off-grid live in a homestead a few hours from Toronto. In the show he and Alex had some good reminiscing time with Alex fondly (I suppose) remembering his own homesteading years. Cam's homestead is far enough from wired civilization that it would cost $200,000 for the utility to set up wiring to get them on the grid, so he doesn't do so and instead has solar panels, wind turbine, passive solar, wood he harvests from his own land, chickens he grows for eggs and food, gardening that provides 30% or more of their food, and a job running AZTEXT to provide income to pay for anything they need.

It's a kind of simplicity living in action. Why do we need to have a lifestyle dependent on massive consumption in order to be happy? Well, as one of the voices Alex found later in the show said, a reason for this pattern of massive consumption is that the utility companies worked hard on our society to convince our society to build itself into a pattern of unsustainable growth of consumption. Utility companies make more money the more electricity we consume, and therefore if they encourage us all to be greedy consumers of electricity then they make more money. (Patterns of Unsustainable Growth, Enslavement Economics)

What I heard while Cam was speaking is that as cool as that sounds (I've wanted to do an off-the-grid home since the 1970's) it's not sustainable. He describes it as sustainable, many people think off-the-grid living is the epitome of sustainability, but I think it's not.

Consider:

• A homesteader in the wilderness has to drive more to get to town for socializing or buying stuff
• The land required per person - if every one of the 7 billion of us follow this dream, each with their own 5 acres of off-the-grid nirvana, is there enough land on the planet?
• The factories to build the gizmos his life depends on - they aren't made by people who themselves are living in off-the-grid nirvana. The reason solar panels are so much cheaper today is because production has shifted to Chinese factory cities.

Okay, I could go on a bit ragging on this guy even though he's doing something I think is way cool. In fact, I did, until it broke through my consciousness that what he's doing is demonstrating to us a truth. Perhaps not the direct obvious idea of we should all live as he is. But instead demonstrating the plausibility of living comfortably on a smaller energy and resource footprint.

There are certain kinds of buildings which by their design force you to closely examine resource cost of your lifestyle. Some examples are the live-aboard sailboat lifestyle, the live-aboard recreational vehicle lifestyle, the homeless street bum lifestyle, and the off-grid homesteader lifestyle. In each case your lifestyle isn't subsidized by the grid, and every resource you bring into your life is brought from outside your living arrangement. It makes the cost of resources much more obvious than it is for those of us living in the city hooked up to the grid and everything is available nearby.

That's what Cam and others like him are doing. They're putting their lives into an experimental mode so they can teach others something they've learned about a different lifestyle. That doesn't make their exact lifestyle what all of us should adopt. But it's a useful experimental chamber within which to experiment with the means of living.

Links: 

Your Renewable Energy Path Now

Vice President Biden Launches Home Energy Scoring Program

November 09, 2010
Vice President Biden joined U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today to announce the launch of the Home Energy Score pilot program. The Home Energy Score will offer homeowners straightforward, reliable information about their homes' energy efficiency. A report provides consumers with a home energy score between 1 and 10, and shows them how their home compares to others in their region. The report also includes customized, cost-effective recommendations that will help to reduce their energy costs and improve the comfort of their homes.

DOE today also released the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades, a comprehensive set of guidelines for workers in the residential energy efficiency industry. The guidelines will help develop and expand the skills of the workforce, ensuring the quality of the work performed, while laying the foundation for a more robust worker certification and training program nationwide. Vice President Biden made the announcements today at a Middle Class Task Force event, highlighting the progress that has been made on implementing the recommendations of last year's Recovery through Retrofit report.

"The initiatives announced today are putting the Recovery Through Retrofit report's recommendations into action – giving American families the tools they need to invest in home energy upgrades." said Vice President Biden. "Together, these programs will grow the home retrofit industry and help middle class families save money and energy."

"The Home Energy Score will help make energy efficiency easy and accessible to America's families by providing them with straightforward and reliable information about their homes' energy performance and specific, cost-effective energy efficiency improvements that will save them money on their monthly energy bills," said Secretary Chu.

Under this voluntary program, trained and certified contractors will use a standardized assessment tool developed by DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to quickly evaluate a home and generate useful, actionable information for homeowners or prospective homebuyers. With only about 40 inputs required, the Home Energy Scoring Tool lets a contractor evaluate a home's energy assets, like its heating and cooling systems, insulation levels and more, in generally less than an hour. That means a homeowner can see how their home's systems score, regardless of whether a particular homeowner takes long or short showers or keeps their thermostat set high or low.

A score of "10" represents a home with excellent energy performance, while a "1" represents a home that will benefit from major energy upgrades. Along with the score, the homeowner will receive a list of recommendations for home energy upgrades and other useful tips. For each specific improvement, the estimated utility bill savings, payback period, and greenhouse gas emission reductions are included. To see a sample copy of the Home Energy Score and get more information on how it is calculated, visit the Home Energy Score Web site.

The Home Energy Score initially will be tested with local government, utility, and non-profit partners in ten pilot communities across the country, located in both urban and rural areas that cover a wide range of climates. During this test phase, the Department and its partners will gauge how homeowners respond to the program, and whether the information encourages them to get energy improvements done on their homes. After the pilot tests conclude in late spring 2011, DOE expects to launch the Home Energy Score nationally later next year, based on the findings from the initial programs.

The following states and municipalities are participating in the pilot program: Charlottesville, Virginia; Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Minnesota; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Indiana; Portland, Oregon; South Carolina; Texas; and Eagle County, Colorado. More information on each of the pilot programs and details on how to participate in the Home Energy Score program are available on the Testing Locations Web page.

In addition to launching the Home Energy Score, the Department of Energy announced the release of the new Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades. Energy improvement programs can adopt these guidelines to increase the consistency and effectiveness of energy upgrades, and training providers can use them to improve course curricula and training materials. These guidelines were developed through a collaboration between energy efficiency contractors, building scientists, health and safety experts, technicians and trainers in the weatherization program, and other professionals in the building and home energy upgrade industry.

The Workforce Guidelines include standard work specifications required for high-quality work, a reference guide for technical standards and codes, analyses of the job tasks involved in completing various energy efficiency improvements, and the minimum qualifications workers should possess to perform high quality work. Identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform efficiency upgrades represents an important step in developing a nationwide framework for training program accreditation and worker certification. The guidelines, which can be accessed on the Weatherization Web site, will be available for public comment through January 7, 2011.

Links: 

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=433

Department of Energy - DOE Announces Clean Energy Projects for Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas Initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In support of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas announced by President Obama at the 2009 Summit of the Americas, Secretary Steven Chu announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy has selected three initial projects under the Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas (LCCA) - a program launched in June 2009 to assist countries in Latin America with sustainable energy market transformation initiatives.

“DOE is committed to advancing clean energy technology development and deployment globally,” said Secretary Chu. “The Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas initiative offers an opportunity for the Department to work closely with our neighbors to reduce energy use, increase energy security, and promote a low-carbon future across the Western Hemisphere.”

Through the LCCA program, DOE invited countries to submit proposals for collaboration in areas including renewable energy development and building and industrial energy efficiency. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with other National Laboratories, will provide technical assistance to countries receiving support under the initiative.

Later this year, Secretary Chu will host his counterparts from North and South America at the Energy Ministerial of the Americas to continue developing and expanding joint clean energy and climate efforts. The Energy Ministerial will be held from April 15-16 in Washington, D.C.
DOE and NREL have selected the following three projects under the LCCA:

Energy Efficiency Center in Costa Rica

The government of Costa Rica, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), will create an Energy Efficiency Center in Costa Rica that will train and certify professionals in energy efficient technology and auditing procedures, and help expand the technical knowledge base and capabilities of countries across Central America. Once established, the Center will partner with leading energy efficiency organizations to conduct its own research on efficiency programs and energy savings in tropical areas. The results of this research would benefit the Central American and Caribbean region as a whole, as well as provide important information for other nations with similar climates. The project will bring together DOE, Costa Rica’s electricity and telecommunications group ICE, the NRDC, and the University of Costa Rica to create the program and training materials, train the Center’s future instructors, and run two initial energy efficiency auditor training courses.
At an event earlier this week in San José, Costa Rica, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez joined with DOE officials and representatives of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Energy and Environment, ICE, NRDC and the University of Costa Rica to launch the Center.

Building Low-Carbon Communities in the Caribbean

This proposal from the Organization of American States (OAS) and several Caribbean governments will enable participating countries to expand the development and use of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems, helping to increase the sustainability of their energy supplies while reducing carbon emissions. The project will target local training and technical programs on how to conduct energy efficiency audits and retrofits. There will also be a focus on strengthening communities’ capacity to review and evaluate resource assessments related to indigenous renewable natural resources. This project will engage St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, The Bahamas, Antigua & Barbuda, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

Dominica Wind Project

This project proposed by Dominica aims to prove the viability of smaller, distributed wind generation as an alternative to traditional, megawatt-class, utility-scale turbines. Efforts will take into consideration available technologies, economics, and constructability to identify and model appropriate turbine technologies under 250 kilowatts. The Dominica Wind Project will also model commercialization strategies and the impact on the electrical grid of small distributed wind generation, assess the impact on energy costs for consumers, purchase and install initial pilot turbines, and implement a public information campaign to expand the use of renewable energy.

Article Reference: 

Department of Energy - DOE Announces Clean Energy Projects for Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas Initiative

Virtual Information Bridge to Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

URL: 

Virtual Information Bridge to Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

Description: 

Visualize: Fill your web pages with VIBE "gadgets" — graphical portals displaying energy data, analyses, and tools. Synergize: Visit OpenEI — VIBE's information-sharing counterpart — to become part of the energy conversation.

'Green' lightbulbs poison workers

'Green' lightbulbs poison workers presents a screwball slanted view of a problem arising from the rising use of compact fluorescent lights. It isn't widely known but these lights contain a small amount of mercury to aid the fluorescing process, and of course mercury is a well known poisonous metal that causes damage to the nervous system, lungs, kidneys and more. It poses a particular threat to babies in the womb and young children. The problem is that this article spins it as a problem with the lightbulbs, when the real problem is lax environmental regulations in some countries.

The amount of mercury in each compact fluorescent lightbulb is very small. There is a fearism scare going around about the exposure risk from breaking individual CFL bulbs, but that risk is overhyped. However at the other end of the process, mercury has to be mined and processed in factories in industrial quantities. This means exposing workers to risky work where they may be exposed to mercury. Fortunately in advanced countries there are worker protection and hazardous materials laws that require corporations to maintain safety, keeping workers in advanced countries safe.

Globalism however is involved. Globalism being the process that's undermining industrial production in the advanced countries, and causing industrial production to move to places like India and China where the workforce can be bought for less cost, and where laws are weak or nonexistent. In this case compact fluorescent lights are being built in China, causing a rise in mercury mining in China. Because China has lax environmental laws "hundreds of employees have found dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies and many have required hospital treatment, according to interviews with workers, doctors and local health officials in the cities of Foshan and Guangzhou.... In one case, Foshan city officials intervened to order medical tests on workers at the Nanhai Feiyang lighting factory after receiving a petition alleging dangerous conditions...The tests found 68 out of 72 workers were so badly poisoned they required hospitalisation."

The article describes "medieval" mining conditions with miners lacking any protection gear, and working in toxic dust and vapours. However cinnabar mining has occurred in China for nearly 1000 years and the article has this quote: “Our forefathers had been mining for mercury since the Ming Dynasty [1368-1644] and in olden days there was no pollution from such small mines,” said a 72-year-old farmer, named Shen. “But in modern times thousands of miners came to our land, dug it out and poured chemicals to wash away the waste. Our water buffaloes grew stunted from drinking the water and our crops turned grey. Our people fell sick and didn’t live long. Anybody who could do has left.” Indicating that historically these people mined cinnabar in small quantities without problem, but the modern era has them mining it at a larger scale resulting in medical problems.

Let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Is this a problem of the light bulbs? The referenced article states the CFL's are the problem. Are they? Or is the real problem lax environmental regulations?

Clearly mercury is a known problem material that causes known health problems. It's not like a situation of "I didn't know it would cause that problem" because everybody clearly knows that mercury exposure causes health problems. Therefore if mercury is to be used it must be used safely.

The principle here is to treat materials with the care required to use those materials without negative side effects. One way is to simply not use the material but that's not always an option. So if you do have to use a given material then it must always be used safely.

The Chinese are violating this principle by not applying known best practices to address known problems. But that's not the extent of the diagnosis. Also at issue is the use of mercury in the first place. The best way to mitigate mercury poisoning is by not mining the mercury in the first place. That mercury is perfectly fine where it is, and if left in the ground does not cause problems. The problem comes when it's dug up, refined, and put into use among human beings.

This is not a purely local concern to a few people in a remote part of China. Mercury is among a group of pollutants called persistent bioaccumulative toxins or PBTs. These pollutants "persist" in the environment, meaning that they do not break down or go away. Mercury cannot be destroyed, it cannot be combusted, and it does not degrade. Mercury also "bioacccumulates" in the environment, meaning it builds up in the food chain over time. Because mercury bioaccumulates the mercury released in China will eventually spread elsewhere as animals eat other animals spreading the contents of each others bodies throughout the environment. (Biomagnification of Pops and Mercury in Canadian Freshwater Subsistence Fisheries and Food Webs, Bioconcentration, Bioaccumulation, and Biomagnification in Puget Sound Biota: Assessing the Ecological Risk of Chemical Contaminants in Puget Sound., THE GREAT LAKES TODAY: CONCERNS)

Algae eat up mercury in Chinese lake outlines research into algae blooms in China’s largest natural lake, Lake Baiyangdian. The lake is an important source of fish for the local population and is also heavily poisoned with arsenic and mercury. Algae blooms are resulting from the pollution and are mitigating the arsenic and mercury poisoning. However I can't imagine that is a complete solution, because of bioaccumulation.

zeromercury.org is looking into the mercury problem on a global scale with several projects to educate locals and mitigate mercury problems.

Mercury-free compact fluorescent bulbs? has some interesting answers. First, there are some improvements to reduce mercury use in fluorescent bulbs. Second, LED bulbs do not have mercury. Third, even if you use existing mercury-containing CFL bulbs there is a net decrease in mercury release into the environment. That's because fossil fuels like coal contain many poisons, including mercury, and that decreasing electricity use causes a decrease in coal being burned causing a decrease in the release of these poisons from burning coal.

External Media

Home Energy Saver

URL: 

Home Energy Saver

Description: 

designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy in their homes, and find the resources to make the savings happen. The Home Energy Saver was the first Internet-based tool for calculating energy use in residential buildings. The project has been sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as part of the national ENERGY STAR Program for improving energy efficiency in homes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's PATH program, the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, and Touchstone Electric Cooperatives.

extvideo: 

Building Environmental Science & Technology

URL: 

Building Environmental Science & Technology

Description: 

Provides affordable consulting services to designers, builders, building owners, owner-builders, producers and users of renewable energy, government agencies, and non-profit groups. Helps people implement environmental building projects focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy, green materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

extvideo: 

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: U.S. Dept of Energy

URL: 

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: U.S. Dept of Energy

Description: 

EERE's programs conduct activities in partnership with the private sector, state and local government, DOE national laboratories, and universities. In July 2002, EERE reorganized to strengthen its focus on programs and these partnerships. The EERE mission is to strengthen America's energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality in public-private partnerships that: Enhance energy efficiency and productivity; Bring clean, reliable and affordable energy technologies to the marketplace; and Make a difference in the everyday lives of Americans by enhancing their energy choices and their quality of life.

extvideo: 

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

URL: 

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Description: 

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection.

extvideo: 

The Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University

URL: 

The Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University

Description: 

The Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University seeks new solutions to one of the grand challenges of this century: supplying energy to meet the changing needs of a growing world population in a way that protects the environment.

Our mission is to conduct fundamental research on technologies that will permit the development of global energy systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions.

A unique collaboration of the world's energy experts from research institutions and private industry. The Project's sponsors will invest a total of $225 million over a decade or more as GCEP explores energy technologies that are efficient, environmentally benign, and cost-effective when deployed on a large scale.

Evaporative Coolers, and making your own cool air

Last year there was a popular posting about making your own air conditioner. The idea was to run pipes through a bowl of cold water (perhaps with ice), and weave the pipes inside a normal house fan. Turn on the fan and it blows across the pipes exchanging heat and cold, cooling the air, and voila your house is cool. I started to try the idea myself, wasn't able to get it to work, and I even tried a different version with hanging a cloth in a bowl of water.

A similar idea is the swamp cooler, or evaporative cooler. This is something which does work, in certain climates, and is quite popular in desert areas. It's the same idea, evaporation of water cools air and you can harness that to cool a house.

I live in Silicon Valley, and have bought a low end evaporative cooler, and found that it works fairly well.

I want to go over the principles and resources available on the Internet.

Evaporative cooler (Wikipedia): Gives a good overview of the several types of evaporative coolers. They clearly say the system works best in dry climates, and only so-so in moderately dry climates.

Evaporative Coolers: Whole-house cooling in arid regions at a low first cost Has another in-depth survey of this cooling technique. An advantage they mention is the ability to cool without using refrigerants such as chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), that can harm the ozone layer. They have another page on two stage evaporative coolers. In the first stage of a two-stage cooler, warm air is pre-cooled indirectly without adding humidity ... In the direct stage, the precooled air passes through a water-soaked pad and picks up humidity as it cools. Because the air supply to the second stage evaporator is pre-cooled, less humidity is added to the air

The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Consumers Guide has another good overview of evaporative cooling. As does the Phoenix city government.

Home Energy Magazine has a more technical article, that includes a U.S. map showing the likely areas where evaporative cooling would be best. And there's another at lbl.gov.

Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program

URL: 

Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program

Description: 

U.S. Department of Energy, Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program

Centre for Alternate Technology

URL: 

Centre for Alternate Technology

Description: 

We offer solutions to some of the most serious challenges facing our planet and the human race, such as climate change, pollution and the waste of precious resources.

We demonstrate practical ways of addressing these problems. Leading by example, we aim to show that living more sustainably is not only easy to attain but can provide a better quality of life.

Averting a massive environmental disaster is not out of our reach, although if we continue to treat the early signs with apathy, it soon will be.

We address every aspect of the average lifestyle - the key areas we work in are renewable energy, environmental building, energy efficiency, organic growing and alternative sewage systems.

The Scottish Parliament Renewable energy & Energy efficiency Group (SPREG)

URL: 

The Scottish Parliament Renewable energy & Energy efficiency Group (SPREG)

Description: 

The Scottish Parliament Renewable energy & Energy efficiency Group (SPREG) is an official cross party group of the Scottish Parliament. Its aim is to bring together Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and others with an interest in renewable energy & energy efficiency in Scotland. The group meets regularly to discuss issues of key interest to ensure ongoing development of renewable energy that supports economic, social and environmental gain in Scotland.

Energy Savings Trust

URL: 

Energy Savings Trust

Description: 

We encourage energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy sources into the economic fabric of our society. To achieve this we promote the use of cleaner fuels for transport and better insulation and heating efficiency for buildings and homes and champion small-scale renewable energy, such as solar and wind power.

Energy Efficiency for Scotland

URL: 

Energy Efficiency for Scotland

Description: 

Our aim is simple. If you are a domestic energy user we want to save you money and improve your comfort. If you are a business energy user we want to save you money, improve your profits and competitive position. Yes, and you can do all this and still make a contribution to helping the environment. This is truly a win win situation.