energy savings

While as a Nation, we celebrate October as national energy awareness month, did you know that year-around trees provide energy savings?

Research conduct by land-grant university Virginia Tech indicates proper placement of shrubs and trees around your home or office building can reduce utility bills and conserve energy while creating a healthy environment. In fact, this research reveals

• Proper selection and placement of plant material can lower heating and cooling costs by as much as 20 percent.
• During summer months, one large tree can absorb as much heat as several window air conditioners and can lower temperatures by 10 degrees.
• In climates with cold winters, the goal is to block the winter wind with trees and shrubs while capturing the winter sun (solar heat). In warmer climates, the goal is to block the summer sun while channeling in the summer breezes. In temperate climates, both strategies are employed.
• A dense row of evergreens to the north and northwest works effectively for extreme and temperate climates. Deciduous trees and shrubs should be planted to the east and west.
• A semi-circular row of deciduous trees and shrubs planted from southeast to southwest, with a break to the south, funnels in summer breezes.
• There are three ways in which trees and shrubs cool the air: by providing shade from solar radiation, by cutting wind speed and by reducing air temperature through evaporation and transpiration. Trees also absorb heat, thus reducing the need for air conditioning and allowing for less carbon dioxide to be emitted from electric generating facilities.
• Plants absorb pollutants and block noise levels. For instance, a cypress hedge planted 2 ft. thick along the front of a property will reduce street noise by 5 decibels.
• Growth rates and hardiness of plant materials in your geographic region should be factored in. Healthy plants that are able to adapt to your region work the hardest for you.
Virginia Tech’s research further identified that one tree alone annually removes 26 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, equaling 11,000 miles of car emissions. Another study revealed a space that consists of 1 acre of trees has the ability to annually remove 13 tons of particles and gases.

Although there are definitely advantages to creating energy efficient design structures, most landscape gardeners tend to focus on aesthetic, not eco contribution of plants. To learn more about strategies related to creating eco-efficient landscapes, link to my newly published book - From Eco-weak to Eco-chic, landscape green, http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/from-eco-weak-to-eco-chic-lan.... Help turn America's landscape from eco-weak to eco-chic - be aware that trees are nature's eco-savings!

Although intuitively it would make sense that green buildings are better investments than normal buildings, until now there has not been a lot of data that back this up. The Co-Star Group recently released a report (download here) that analyzed approximately 1,300 LEED and Energy Star buildings. The verdict? Both types of buildings significantly outperform their non-LEED and Energy Star counterparts.

For example, on average LEED buildings sell for $171 more per square foot, while Energy Star buildings sell for $61 more per square foot. Similarly LEED buildings rent for more than $11.25 per square foot while Energy Star buildings rent for more than $2.38 per square foot. Both have an approximately 4% higher occupancy rate than regular buildings. The report also stated that Energy Star buildings had 10-20% lower operating costs compared to regular buildings (it did not offer a similar analysis for LEED buildings).

The report doesn't offer reasons for this difference, but it's reasonable to infer that there is a greater demand from consumers for these buildings and they are in relatively short supply. While LEED is by no means perfect, it's encouraging to know that there are measurable economic benefits to achieving LEED certification.

Some more SIPs cheering... here's an excellent 3 minute video showing you the benefits of building with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) from a non-sales biased point of view (HGTV Pro's website). It also shows how they are put together, saving you time, money and the planet!

http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/pac_ctnt/text/0,2595,HPRO_20196_55073,00.html?c=484&videoid=66936

As you can see from our green features list, we are going to use a geothermal heat pump for the heating and cooling of our house, as well as for our swimming pool. It is an extremely effective system that can be up to 2.5 times more efficient than a normal HVAC 12 seer system and uses very little electric. Add that to an air tight, well insulated SIP home, and you'll save yet even more money on cooling your home, probably 75-80% of what a stick frame/batt insulated/regular HVAC home would do.

There is one guy we talked to, J.D. Holt, who owns a 1650 sf SIP home in Austin, TX with a geothermal system to cool his house. In the summertime he pays about $60/month without being conservative with airconditioning. That is rather significant!

In Austin, there are only a handful of geothermal subs that can install geothermal. It is also a very effective system in cold weather climates. In Sweden, it is commonly used for heating, especially large apartment complexes.

At first, I had a hard time truly understanding the science behind a geothermal system and even harder to time to explain it to other people. :-) I copied a Geothermal FAQ from one of the subs we're considering as well as included a link to a video presentation... MORE HERE

Power consumption has always been relatively invisible to us as consumers. We learn of our usage after the fact, and are usually barely aware of the shadowy figure who flits into the back yard once in a blue moon to read the meter. And because of this, our attempts to reduce consumption always smack a bit of faith healing--we trust that buying EnergyStar appliances and CFLs are bringing our useage down, but the evidence of our success is highly interpretive--we're never really sure which action has had the most impact on our habits. This is where the Watts Up? meter can help.

A device that allows you to "accurately and quickly determine the cost of everything you plug in," the Watt's Up unit comes in two flavors, the standard unit for around $100, and the deluxe $200+ model, which allows you to monitor your useage live, via wifi, from anywhere in the world. You can use the Watts Up to identify sources of power leakage, ferret out phantom loads, and to calculate the payback on energy saving appliances, and to experiment with which energy saving practices yeild the most savings for the least effort or sacrifice.

If you're building a home, Watt's Up? can be used during the installation of your electrical system, preventing waste based on miscalculations and design errors. Come to think of it, Kevin could have used one of these in Episode Nine, when he was troubleshooting his own electrical installation.

Thanks to the Alternative Consumer for the tip.

Surprise surprise, reforestation begins at home--and it can even save you money. Green Options has publsihed an article by Paul Pruefrock today on landscaping for reduced home energy consumption. Ever notice how farmhouses in the middle of hot, dry fields are always surrounded by a ring of shade trees? Before there was air-conditioning, there was good, old-fashioned shade.

Pruefrock writes that planting trees can greatly reduce energy consumption in both summer and winter:

"In the summertime, steps you take to keep the outside of the house cooler can help lower (or maybe even eliminate) the amount of air conditioning you need to run. And providing evergreen plants to buffer the north walls, as well as the direction of the prevailing winter winds (often, but not always, to the west), can help stop drafts and help keep the house warmer in the winter."

You can find tree-planting instructions here, and at arborday.org. To learn more about trees that will grow quickly to provide shade and insulation, visit Fast Growing Trees, and if you want to feed your family in the bargain, you can find more information at the Fruit Tree Planting Society.

This object may look like a bit of light sculpture you'd pick up at Ikea, but it's actually an energy-saving device. According to Inhabitat, "Southern California Edison power station manager Mark Martinez was looking for a way to get his customers to use less energy, and repeated automated text messages, emails and phone calls were not doing the trick. Then he hit upon the Ambient Orb, a glowing globe that changes color to represents changes in streaming data (weather, stock prices, etc). With a simple hack, Mark hooked the Ambient Orb up to his local grid, and created the Energy Orb, a device to visualize current grid load, and the relative price of electricity at any given moment."

We love the combination of artistry, ingenuity and economy here. Martinex apparently tried and discarded the use of text to alert customers, as verbal reminders quickly became intrusive. The orb, by contrast, is both subliminal and highly effective: customers who use it reduced their peak energy usage by 40%.

Alas, we see no way for you to buy the Energy Orb directly, though you could certainly hack an Ambient Orb the way Martinez did if you have mad DIY skills. You can, however, pick up the Energy Joule, which plugs into a wall socket and displays helpful information (including a color-coded usage indicator) to help you accomplish the same thing, albeit with less artistic elan.

If you're building a new home, upgrading to EnergyStar appliances is standard practice in this day and age. But why not take it one step further, and shop for appliances on the bleeding-edge of the technological frontier--Europe, that is? Conservationists from a-way back, Europeans are decidedly ahead of the curve when it comes to energy saving household appliances.

Bosch has announced two new lines of dishwashers that it claims are the quietest and most energy-efficient in the country. We like the sound of that--or rather, the lack of sound.

Or how about a detergentless washing machine? According to the FreshHome blog, the Haier WashH20 "works by breaking water molecules into its OH- and H=+ ions components. OH- acts as the cleaning agent by attracting and retaining stains while the H+ ions sterilizes the clothes." It's currently available only in Europe, but hopefully not for long.

In the meantime, why not make do with an EcoBalls Wash Kit, good for 1000 washes, or more exotically, use Sopods Soap Nuts, both British products available from Nigel's Eco Store.

Then try out this low-tech solar and wind-powered clothes drying apparatus: the whimsical Alberto clothesline--perhaps the most energy-saving appliance of all!