Step One to Energy Addiction Recovery

Know the difference between “Energy Efficiency” and “Energy Conservation” and you will have taken the first step to energy addiction recovery. Plus, you may find joy and happiness.

Last year, energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins wrote this in an email to me and I assume, to many others.

“Fear of specific and avoidable dangers has evolutionary value. Nobody has ancestors who weren’t mindful of saber-toothed tigers. But pervasive dread, currently in fashion and sometimes purposely promoted, is numbing and de-motivating. When I give a talk, sometimes a questioner details the many bad things happening in the world and asks how dare I propose solutions: isn’t resistance futile? The only response I’ve found is to ask, as gently as I can, “Does feeling that way make you more effective?”To be sure, mood does matter. The last three decades of the twentieth century reportedly saw 46,000 new psychological papers on despair and grief, but only 400 on joy and happiness. If psychologists want to help people find joy and happiness, they’re looking in the wrong places. Empathy, humor, and reversing both inner and outer poverty are all vital. But the most solid foundation we know for feeling better about the future is to improve it—tangibly, durably, reproducibly, and scaleably.

This year you can feel better about the world and yourself by learning more about energy efficiency and energy conservation. When you do this the future improves.

There is a lot of hype centered on the terms “energy conservation” and “energy efficiency” and most consumers seem clueless when it comes to knowing the difference and asking the right questions at the right time.

In over twenty years of dealing with electric utility consumers I believe that only about one in nine knows what they are saying when they ask, “which one is more efficient”? They don’t really care which one is more efficient. What they really care about is which one is cheaper.

So the difficult questions become, cheaper for whom and efficient in which way?

The answer for “which one is more efficient" is easy. It’s the solution that uses less energy to produce the same amount of work. This work could be light, heat, refrigeration, air conditioning etc.

The answer for “which one is less expensive” is never easy.

Everyone knows that a cheaper purchase price is often a dead give away for a product that will actually be more expensive over the product’s life of operation. The simple life cycle comparison of a fifty cent incandescent light bulb compared to its more “efficient” product, the three dollar compact fluorescent bulb, can be replicated with even higher costs savings when comparing refrigerators, pumps, water heaters, furnaces, windows, insulation and houses just to name a few.

Each fuel and each appliance has variables that are hard to compare. Certain fuels cost more up front like solar photovoltaic energy. Certain fuels and products traditionally avoid external costs and come in looking cheaper until you factor in the costs for healthcare, environmental degradation, and tax payer subsidies, like coal and nuclear power. The challenge is to define and quantify those external costs. This is hard to do and the producers of these energy products don’t really want you to figure out or factor in, those external costs. Just like the tobacco industry doesn’t want you to factor in the costs of treating lung diseases with the cost of a pack of cigarettes.

Here are the variables that go into the answer for the question, “which one is cheaper?”

What is the cost and efficiency to get the product (useful energy) to your house?

What is the true life cycle cost including operating costs and purchase price of the appliances that use the energy?

What are the operating habits and skills of the people using the appliance?

What is the quality of the building envelope or location in which the appliance is used?

In its simplest definition, energy conservation means those actions that cause you to use less energy. This could be as simple as keeping the thermostat lower and wearing a sweater on a cold day or as silly as trying to read in the dark. Sure you are saving energy and reducing your bill, but you have to suffer to do it. Americans don’t like to suffer. Consequently, most energy conservation programs do little to actually reduce energy use.

Energy Efficiency on the other hand means getting your beer just as cold or our home just as warm with efficient systems or products that use less energy. Like the compact fluorescent light bulb that produces the same light output for less than half the energy use of an incandescent bulb, or the better insulated house that uses less energy to heat the same square footage.

I am not a big fan of Wikipedia because it’s too easy for facts and sources to be questionable. Yet, I often start there for an overview of a topic and then check facts with other websites I consider more reputable or scientific. Their energy efficiency section seems factual and actually helpful. I recommend that you visit and read it all. It will give you some ideas about the possibilities for energy efficient products that can maintain your lifestyle without suffering more than a little higher purchase price. In most cases the life cycle cost of an energy efficient product or system will be cheaper than the “cheaper” product to purchase.

By understanding your options and understanding the language used to talk about energy and energy issues, you can take a big step to your own energy independence, cut your utility bills in the process and find joy and happiness. Wow, this is going to be a great year.

Hey, don’t be sticking your big sausage in my daughter’s face, buddy

I walked into a grocery store in Bozeman Montana with my daughter several years ago and came face to face with a large man wearing a large cowboy hat. He was standing behind a large table filled with large plates of sausage. Yep, you guessed it – large sausage.

He poked a smoky looking link in my daughter’s face and said, ‘try some of the best sausage in the west”. My daughter responded in an icy monotone, “no thanks, I’m a vegetarian”. The large man tipped his large hat politely and said, “I heard there was a vegetarian in Montana, I’m really glad to meet you ma’am”.

While beef’s for dinner in Montana, coal is still king. I have no idea if, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is a vegetarian, but I know for sure he likes coal. It’s fine to like coal. I like coal. Without it many of us in the USA would be paying lots more for our electricity today. Over fifty percent of our electricity comes from coal. If you live in the Midwest or West it’s more like sixty percent. Yet, the cost of electricity may not accurately reflect the true cost to the planet as we all now know from listening to the climate change debate.

Yet, as any smoker knows, old habits are hard to break and Governor Schweitzer doesn’t seem to understand the addiction. In a recent Christian Science Monitor article (12/29/08) the Governor said. " ..unless you are willing to live naked in a tree and eat nuts for the next thirty years, coal's going to be part of the portfolio”.

So much for Al Gore’s Repower America with “100% clean electricity within 10 years”.

The wide gap between the Governor’s assertion and Al’s cheerful optimism can’t help but make you feel like turning on the TV to another mind numbing program. What’s the point any way, either Brian or Al is crazy. They both could be crazy, it’s a sure bet that one of them can’t be sane.

Meanwhile thousands, yes thousands of people are living fully clothed in nice homes, eating beef and sausage off the grid. A quick scan of off the grid systems finds thousands of single family homes across the USA with normal people, fully clothed and well feed that have jsut decided to delare thier own energy independance.

Find a Solar professional to get started and we’ll make Governor’s, Ex-senators and electric distribution companies irrelevant.

I know you have heard it from me before, but I am going to keep saying it for the rest of my life; or until the opposing sides in the climate change and energy generation debates stop calling each other names; and get down to the business of agreeing on facts, plans and actions that we can all get behind. If this is the moral equivalent of war as some argue, we have at least got to agree on which enemy we are fighting and stop shooting each other.

We must learn to play nicely in the sand box and quit calling each other names. I think every policy-maker, every politician and every business executive in the world should read, understand and pledge to follow Adam Kahane’s steps for Changing the World by Changing How We Talk and Listen. If we don’t stop downloading, we will continue to waste valuable time and resources shooting at each other and dying from friendly fire. It doesn’t matter what you wear or what you eat, you have got to see the wasteful stupidity in continuing that way.
© 2009 Mark R. Daily

Slow Economic Times Mean Time to Re-Tool Alternate Energy and Energy Conservation Policies and Regulations

Falling energy demand could soften the incentive to implement energy conservation programs and initiatives across the USA. As fossil fuel prices fall, renewable energy advocates expect declining support for expensive renewable energy projects. Yet, this could be just the right time to develop the national energy policy needed to guide us when demand roars back after economic recovery.

The Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy says, “Total electricity consumption during 2008 is projected to be flat at about 2007 levels, as slight growth in the commercial and industrial sectors is balanced by decline in the residential sector, primarily as a result of milder summer temperatures (U.S. Total Electricity Consumption). Total electricity consumption is expected to decline in 2009 due to the slow growth in new housing construction and reduced demand in the industrial sector.”

Declining prices always mean declining excitement and support for alternate energy programs. We’ve been through this before. Yet despite the slow-down in demand, prices for residential electricity do not appear to be falling. Again according to the Official Energy Statistics from the US Government, “Spot prices for power generation fuels continue to decline from their peak summer levels. Residential electricity prices are expected to rise by 6 percent this year and by 5 percent in 2009 (U.S. Residential Electricity Prices). Still these price increases pale compared to the national average of 10 percent residential rate increases between 2005 and 2006.

This lull is just the right time for policy makers, utilities and consumers to take action; adopt a national energy policy and put into place uniform local energy and distributed generation policies. If we do it now, these regulations will be in place when we all get too busy putting out our own brush fires when the economy gets back into full swing.

Cutting the Red Tape Out features ideas for better uniformity of regulations and permitting for distributed generation equipment. Now is the time to contact your federal, states and local elected representatives to tell them what you want in the way of distributed renewable energy systems. This also the time to tell them to review their regulations pertaining to building, energy efficiency, and alternate energy systems. It won’t matter how great your utility incentives are for wind and solar power if local building codes impose unreasonable and outdated requirements. Or, worse yet, if they have no regulations pertaining to wind towers , photovoltaic systems on roofs etc., advocates for these systems will end up triggering moratoriums on these “new” developments that could take years to unravel.

If you want to save the world and promote alternate energy development, you cannot wait until you’re in the building permit office filling out construction permit forms to find out what the requirements are in your area. If you do, you deserve to spend lots of time, twice as much money and three times the patience getting your project completed.

In May 2000 all of the world's science academies created the Inter-Academy Council to mobilize the best scientists and engineers worldwide to provide high quality advice to international bodies - such as the United Nations and the World Bank - as well as to other institutions. They recognize that barriers to adopting new technologies are not always financial. In their report Barriers to realizing cost-effective energy savings they describe institutional and personal barriers to adopting energy efficient systems including alternate energy systems.

Now is the time to make that call and tell your elected representatives where you stand on renewable energy. It also the time to do your home work and find out what the regulations and policies are in your area to make sure that state and local governments and local utilities are ready to do alternate energy business.

© 2009 Mark R. Daily

Steps to Cut Your Utility Bill

Why spend any more money than necessary on your utility bills? Most people continue doing it because they just can’t get motivated to do anything about energy efficiency or energy conservation. They don’t know where to start or which steps to take to save the most off their utility bills. Many people want to “go solar” or be “off the grid” without really knowing what those terms mean.

We all like the idea of energy independence. The recent election reminds me that there has not been a presidential candidate since before Jim Carter that hasn’t promised “energy independence”. Yet, our dependence on energy grows everyday and only a handful of homes provide “off-grid” energy and 21st century western world comforts at the same time.

Where do you start? Whether you plan to “go solar” or just cut your utility bill, the steps are the same.

Step one; find out what energy you use and why you use it. This is harder than it sounds but not as hard as you might think. By using a combination of your own utility bill’s energy use history, a $40.00 appliance meter and the gas or electric meter on your property, you will be able to figure it out.

The EPA’s Power Profiler can get you started with some basic information. They claim “Power Profiler will:
- Determine your power grid region based on your ZIP code and electric utility
- Compare the fuel mix and air emissions rates of the electricity in your region to the national average
- Determine the air emissions impacts of electricity use in your home or business

“Power Profiler is very easy to use and takes about 5 minutes. To start, all you need is your ZIP code.”

Its true and it seems fairly accurate, although you may not be able to pick the exact power company supplying your home. Still it’s a fun exercise and it’s educational. By clicking on the My Emmisions you will see how your house contributes to the issue of global climate change. You‘ll get the most detailed answer if you can fill in your monthly kWh use from your monthly electric bill. That’s another good reason to keep track of your personal energy impact by reading your bill and writing down the monthly kWh. You can get this data from your local utility too. If you do this, ask for the monthly data for the last three years so you can average out weird weather or unusually visitor impacts – like your brother-in-law leaving the refrigerator door open the whole week he was house sitting.

While you are at this site you should click the other two options as well, “Be More Energy Efficient” and “ Buy Green Power”. These links get you to information that can save you money and help you learn how and why you use energy.

The main step in the “How and Why I use Energy” investigation is to do an “Energy Audit”. Some people don’t get this, but you have to do this. I once worked on a video production that filmed one of my energy audits for a consenting customer and the videographer wrote “Energy Odd It” on the cover. I wish a different term had been coined for this, like “List of Energy Using Crap in your House”, because “Energy Audit” sounds so….. mathematical. Sixth grade math is all you need for this.

If you can’t do sixth grade math try the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Consumers Guide to Home Energy Audits. For some reason they do not include appliance energy use as part of their “Home Energy Audit” so you will have to go to their separate Appliance and Home Electronics section. Do your Audit on a room by room search. This will point to rooms that you will want to focus on to get the most energy savings.

Once you have your List of Energy Using Crap in Your House (LOEUCIYH), assign an energy use unit to it like kWh or CCF for the month. This is the only way to motivate a reduction in your energy use which is the only way you are going to actually save money off your utility bill.

By adding up all of the monthly Energy Use numbers in each room from your LOEUCIYH , you will see patterns of use that you might be able to change. No you are ready to compare your Energy Audit, I mean LOEUCIYH results with your unit price per kWh or CCF to get actual dollars spend on your energy. You really should come within about 5% of your actual bill- don’t forget to subtract tax and minimum monthly charges.

Saving money off your utility and saving the planet are important actions we should all take. Hey, if it was easy, we would have already done it, right? Now you know where to start, so what are you waiting for? You could be saving money.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has". - Margaret Mead

© 2008 Mark R. Daily

Utility Bill Paying 101

Nationwide there is a certain frustration about paying utility bills. So much so that people jokingly refer to the experience as paying “futility bills”. These jokers probably view their electric and gas bill as something someone does to them rather than something that they do to themselves, but in all cases it is true that if you do not have a meter you will not have a bill. It’s easy right? Just call those bastards up today and say, come and get this thing out of my yard- or off my house or whatever; then, no bill. Some frustrated bill payers have actually done this and gone “off the grid” with generators or alternate energy systems that include wind and solar. Being your own power company sounds cool, but if it was that easy, more people would do it.

The first thing that you need to know about utility bill paying, is that you are going to be paying one for the rest of your life – one way or another. You may be off the grid and get all your energy from wind and photovoltaic power, but unless you paid cash for that system, you are making loan payments that amount to a “utility bill”. Once you pay off the loan there may be minimal maintenance expenses, but it won’t be zero. And, if you have batteries, in seven to ten years they’ll need to be replaced – so there will always be some type of “utility bill” in time, effort or cash to keep your lights on and beer cold. Even if you get a rental deal where the landlord pays the utilities, a portion of your rent payment covers the utilities. The only way out of paying for utilities is to not have a meter and to not use any electricity or gas of any kind, period.

Why do I make a point of saying “not have a meter and not use any electricity or gas”? Aren’t they the same thing? No. Electric and gas meter costs are coming down, but they are not free. No utility is going to give you a free meter. You will be paying for your meter through a minimum monthly fee on your bill or the meter expense will be built into your energy use fee.

Your Load - In utility language, your house or business is a “load”. This means that your building needs electricity or gas and depending on a long list of variables you either need a little electricity or gas or a lot of electricity or gas. So you are either a little load or a big load or something in between – but in all cases, if you need electricity or gas, you are a load. You will sometimes hear the term “demand”. This is a synonym for “load” because you – or at least your building is “demanding” electricity or gas. This is the source of the term “demand side management” or DSM. If your utility has DSM programs, they are trying to manage the demand, usually downward, to reduce the supply that they have to come up with.

Residential electricity is billed by the kilowatt hour (kWh). The “W” in the abbreviation is capitalized in reference to James Watt. One kilowatt hour is the energy used by a 1,000 watt load in one hour. For example, if you turn on ten 100 watt bulbs for an hour, you use 1 kWh of electricity.

Propane gas is generally billed by the gallon. Natural gas is generally billed by the Therm, or 100 cubic feet (CCF).

It seems elementary, but utilities are businesses. They have to make money to cover their expenses just like any other business. If they are an investor owned utility, they must be concerned about share holder profits. If they are a municipal utility they must be concerned about the needs of the citizens in their city and if they are cooperative utilities, they must meet the expectations of their members. All utilities cover most of the expense of getting the power to you by charging a rate per unit (kWh or CCF). The more you use the more you pay.

All utilities buy wholesale energy, electricity or gas and “distribute” it to customers like you; hence the term “distribution utility”. All utilities have wholesale power expenses and distribution expenses. In most cases the wholesale expense is fifty to eighty percent of the retail rate. All utilities have fixed expenses and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are those expenses that occur whether or not there is a load or demand; like the cost of insurance, depreciation, equipment, billing and administration. There are literally billions of dollars of power poles, wires, pipelines, transformers and meters sitting there across the nation ready to spring into action when you flip the switch or turn the knob. Those expenses don’t go way just because you don’t need electricity or gas this month. Variable expenses are those expenses that change with the load or demand placed on the utility’s supply. The more you use the more your utility has to buy.

Your Bill - In addition to the unit of energy billed, there is usually a minimum monthly charge. Some utilities call this charge an availability of service fee. This fee generally tries to recover the fixed operating expenses mentioned above. If you don’t have a minimum monthly charge on your bill, those fixed charges are rolled into your unit rate. There are pros and cons beyond the scope of this week’s blog for both ways of billing. The more your bill is based on a per unit rate the more control you have over the size of your bill.

Every utility bill payer should know the price per unit (kWh or CCF) and the minimum monthly charge that they are paying. You don’t buy gas for your car without looking at the price per gallon so don’t buy electricity or heating fuel without knowing the price. The number of kWh or CCF used during your billing period will be on your bill. Really, it is there so keep looking. The price per unit is not always on your bill. We are back to that pesky sixth grade math.
You can calculate your rates by simply dividing your total bill by the total units that you used during that billing period. See Table 5.6.A. Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State, August 2008 and 2007(Cents per kilowatthour) on the Energy Information Administration website to find local average kWh rates.

Natural gas bills may have a confusing list of other charges that make it hard to find a per unit cost. And, while most residential bills come in units of hundred cubic feet increments (CCF or Therms), statistics a generally listed in thousand cubic feet (MCF). The Energy Information Administration statistics on the average price for natural gas make it harder to compare with your bill.

Every utility payer should also know the billing period for your bill. If you are billed one month for thirty days of use and the next month for 20 days of use, the size of your bill will be different even if you use the same kWh of electricity or the same CCF of gas every day.

The main thing to realize about your utility bill is that it is all under your control. You can elect to never use any electricity or gas or you can pick and choose the appliances and equipment that you buy which directly affects the size of your utility bill.

Deposits – Unlike the gas station, when you buy natural gas or electricity, you don’t pay until after you use it. This means that by the time you pay your first utility bill after moving, the utility has given you at least a month and a half worth of their expensive product without getting paid. And, if you drop dead after seeing your first bill they are out a lot of money. So, most utilities will either check your credit history or require a deposit.

How to complain about your bill - Before you call, look at the meter reading dates. Maybe your son or daughter invited the whole high school football or volley team to spend the weekend during this time and you just forgot about it. Maybe you had the flu and cranked the thermostat to fight the chills.

Stay calm; screaming, or profanity will not serve you well when dealing with utility employees. They have heard it all. They have already heard whatever question, complaint, excuse or threat you are about to tell them, so just chill. Make sure you have your bill in front of you so you can give them your account number. This also helps you stay focused on your complaint and way from inappropriate comments about their relatives or anatomy.

If you think your bill is too high, ask them to help you determine if this is an actual or estimated bill. There should be a code on your bill that will tell you this, but sometimes it’s hard to find.

Next, ask for help verifying the number of billing days. I once thought I had a big bill only to find that last month’s bill was for 22 days and this month’s bill was for 33 days. Sometimes holidays or personnel scheduling screws up the meter reading schedule.

Other things you can ask about include the weather. Some utilities keep track of the weather during billing periods as a service to their customers. Colder or hotter weather usually mean higher utility bills.

If you still can’t come up with a reason that your bill is higher than expected you can ask to have your meter tested, but be careful what you ask for. Meter testing is performed on a meter test board in the meter shop. This means that you are getting a new or refurbished meter if you ask for a test. Most meters are simple mechanical devices. And, like your car, they don’t speed up when they are having trouble. Most utilities have a testing and replacement schedule set by state law. Once in a while you can catch them with a meter that has been in the field too long, but if you do, chances are your bill is going to be higher, not lower after the change. All meter exchanges have to be carefully documented so don’t assume that there is any monkey business going on. Deliberate discrepancies are easy to catch and most utility employees like their jobs.

If none of your questions or requests result in a lower bill, it’s time to tour your house. Obvious problems like leaky hot water faucets, well pumps that never turn off due to line leaks, broken thermostats, stuck valves and things that were left “on” when you thought they were “off”, often trigger more energy use. My favorite discovery during an energy audit for an angry customer was the space heater, plugged into a tool shed with the door left open in January. It’s less embarrassing to take that tour by yourself.

Phantom loads have gotten a lot of press lately and can increase your electric bill by several dollars a month. Phantom loads get their name from the fact that the energy used doesn’t give you anything immediately tangible, like light or toast. These loads result from those remote control devices that are always on. You should have a handle on this problem after you get that appliance meter mentioned in last week’s blog.

Thank you for completing Utility Bill Paying 101. If there is ever anything about your utility bill that you don’t understand, let me know. I’d be glad to help, for free. No I won’t pay your bill for you. Nice try. I will do my best to take the confusion out of what it is you are paying as well as help you wade through a bill interpretation. Just email me. ( mrdaily@markricharddaily.com)

If it’s something you have to do every month for the rest of your life, you might as well get good at it. Understanding what you get from your gas and electric utility gives you one less thing to worry about and makes it less like paying for gas and electric futilities.
© Mark Daily, 2008

Energy Conservation- A Life Style You Can’t Afford To Ignore

You may not be a gourmet chef but, I’ll bet you have equipment for cooking and eating – you know- plates and pots and skillets and knives. You may not be a professional painter, but even if you are a renter, I imagine you have a paintbrush and some old paint.. You may not be a professional writer or author, but somewhere in your house I could probably find paper and pen or computer and printer. You may not be a specialist in sewage treatment but I’m guessing you have some toilet paper and a bathroom in your place.

So if you believe in saving energy and reducing utility bills, what kind of equipment do you have to help you create energy savings without just freezing in the dark?

You didn’t give up eating, just because you don’t care to cook. You probably paint something once in a while, even if your brush is in bad shape. And, you probably won’t give up going to the bathroom, just because of the…. well you know. So, why haven’t you done anything lately about energy conservation? If the experts are right, money spent cutting utility bills was a better investment than the stock market even before the credit crunch and stock market tumble.
Here is a thought. You don’t work on energy conservation with the same regularity as preparing meals or going to the bathroom because you don’t have the right equipment.

In fact, energy conservation takes equipment that most people don’t know about and that may not be staring you in the face every time you go to the grocery store. It might not even be sold at Wal-Mart (gasp).

The best tool to use for energy conservation is your electric or gas meter. That’s right. You don’t have to go to the store at all. You just have to find it in your yard or attached to the side of your house. You are already paying for it every month on your gas or electric bill, so use it. Go out with a note pad and jot down the reading – gas and electric. Write down the date and time you took the reading and stick that note right by the spot where you usually sit down to pay your utility bills.

When the next bill comes, look for the meter reading number on the bill. If you can’t find that number, call the toll free number on your bill and ask them where it is. The number on your bill should be larger than the number on your note unless you are into net-metering (see previous blogs if you’re not sure what net-metering is). By counting the total number of billing days shown on your bill and comparing it with the date on your note, you know the number of days between your reading and the end of the month reading from your utility. Gas utilities typically sell their product in units of one hundred Cubic Feet (CCF) or in therms. One therm=100,000 Btu, which is the heat content of about 100 cubic feet of gas. Electric Utilities sell their product in kilo-watt hours (kWh). By comparing the days to the CCF or kWh reading and a little sixth grade math, you can figure the number of CCF of gas or the number of kWh of electricity that you used per day.

You can do that every month if you want to, but try to at least do it in the middle of every season. Make it an appointment, in whatever it is that you make appointments in, so you don’t forget. Just repeat after me, “what gets measured gets managed”.
If any of this is “Greek” to you, visit next week’s Blog for Utility Billing 101. I’ll help you dissect your bill and touch on phantom loads.

Now that you know the big picture, how do you find out what’s making that meter spin? You need a fork. No silly, not like a real fork, a figurative fork. You have a fork to eat with right? Well, you can’t dine on energy savings without the right utensil. You need a meter. I’m not aware of any gas meters for individual appliances that are reasonable to buy, but there are starting to be a host of affordable appliance meters for electric appliances.

With an appliance meter, you can find out how your equipment really performs, sniff out phantom loads, and find small energy hogs that you might be able to butcher (unplug) so you can stop paying for piggies or kilowatt hours you don’t really need.

The holidays are a perfect time to spring for an appliance meter. Get one for yourself with grandma’s thoughtful check, or buy one for the greenie in your house.

If you search for “Power Monitors” or meters on-line, you will find a confusing list of products that are mostly designed for professional utility use. Unless you have specific training and state of the industry protective equipment, these monitors are not for you. There are, however, a couple of safe alternatives for home owners.

I still use my tried and true, P3Kill A Watt model P4400 . The easier to use but slightly more expensive model P4460 also looks useful. At around $30 to $50 dollars, you can almost imagine these as stocking stuffers. With these monitors, you will only be able to check appliances that plug into the wall. I used my P4400 and by standing on my head, (read Paul’s P4400 review) I discovered that buying a new dehumidifier would pay for itself in a couple of years; learned that my old television was a huge phantom load, and; found out that my computer equipment was costing pennies a month.

One of the newer monitors looks promising and lets you check appliances that might be hard to monitor individually, like your dishwasher or air conditioning equipment. The Black and Decker EM 100B Power Monitor straps to your electric meter and with a little data entry based on your own electric bill, you can see what happens when you turn on different pieces of equipment in your house. It works with a wireless transmitter that communicates between the device clamped to your meter and the hand held display that you can carry around to different rooms. When you flip the switch on your equipment and start using electricity, the monitor interprets the change in your meter to give you information that shows what that equipments’ energy use will be. At around $100 you need a serious “greenie” in the house to make this gift appropriate.

Hey, no one said it would be easy. Success as a cook isn’t easy either, but there is nothing like the satisfied feeling you get when you see your utility bill drop. By monitoring your equipment you can choose better management strategies, like turning it down or off, or getting an appliance timer to limit the on time. Good luck saving energy and cutting your utility bills. I hope you will get the right tools to enjoy it. Remember that energy conservation is a life style and like just like the process of going to the bathroom, you really can’t afford to skip it. Who would want to?
© Mark Daily, 2008

Let's Make a big Alternate Electricity Generation Plan

In the early 1900’s American architect and urban planner Daniel H. Burnham said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans. Aim high in hope and work. Remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.”

What’s your Energy Plan? Don’t have one? If you don’t have one why should your local, state or national government have one? Don’t have an energy plan? Why should your electric utility have one? I’ll bet you have an emergency plan for bailing out of your house if it catches on fire. I’ll bet you have a planned route to get to work. Most of us these days have a retirement plan. You probably have some plan for dinner tonight. You have a plan to educate yourself and your children. You may have a plan for what to wear to the office tomorrow. A plan. Hmm.

How would you like it if your local state or national government planned your dinner for you, or your route to work, or your wardrobe? Those of you standing in bread lines after the recent round of employment cut backs may think government planned dinners are a great idea. But let’s take it a step farther. How would you like it if your local government decided that all the people in your neighborhood had to do without electricity every Wednesday? It’s just one day a week for Pete’s sake, what’s the big deal?

Right now stop reading this and walk through your house. Don’t take paper and pen with you but just walk into each room and notice what uses electricity. I have gas heat so I’m all set you might think. Me too, but unless you have a gas powered fan or pump or a gas powered ignition switch, Wednesday means long underwear and winter parka day for both of us.

Ten years ago I did an energy audit for a guy that wanted to really cut his electric bill. My cursory investigation of his billing history showed a very low bill even in subzero high mountain valley January. I was intrigued. How was I going to help this guy save energy, he wasn’t using any. I pulled into the drive-way on the appointed day and as I pulled out my blower door and other equipment this quiet retired school teacher came out of the house wearing a winter parka, gloves with the fingers cut out, a wool watch cap pulled down over his ears, wool pants, insulated boots and a friendly smile. I discovered during my home owner’s interview that he was not dressed for the outdoors. He was dressed the way he always dressed in the winter – inside. He kept thermostats in back rooms at 40 degrees and his main living area thermostats were set at 50 degrees. His other energy saving tips included pulling every other light bulb out of any double bulb fixtures and replacing all remaining bulbs (except one reading lamp) with 25 watt incandescent bulbs. He thought those compact fluorescents were a little pricey. Every drape and curtain that wasn’t in full sun was closed tight. In a perfectly normal American home, I felt like I was creeping through a medieval mountian top monastery instead of a split level ranch house 50 yards off the highway.

Is this what is in store for everyone? Is this what Randy Udall meant when he said, “the challenge in president-elect Obama’s energy plan will be to maintain prosperity”? “We have to be very smart about what kind of investments we make in a new energy supply”. (Dawson, Crested Butte News, November 21, 2008)

Dean Kamen is very smart. The inventor of the Segway and expensive medical equipment, Kamen rules a three acre island off the coast of Connecticut that proclaimed energy independence. He has a plan. It includes the elimination of all incandescent lighting and the installation of wind and solar power.

Samso, Denmark is an island community that’s 40 square miles and a two hour boat ride from the main land. After ten years of community and government collaboration they are closing in on their goal, 100% energy independence. They have a plan. A summary of their plan includes a section on implementation appropriately titled, project design and planning. Their plan included every citizen, and every agency on the island.

“No man is an island, no man is an island…..he’s a peninsula” – Jefferson Airplane

Could your community make an energy plan? Sure it could. But, let’s not make the same mistake we did in the 70’s with our energy planning. OK gas prices are going down and Jim Carter lost the election – problem solved.

Recent headlines blarred, “World Publics Strongly Favor Requiring More Wind and Solar Energy, More Efficiency, Even If It Increases Costs. Most Think It Will Save Money in the Long Run". While some may have cheered the recent findings of the World Public Opinion.org survey I was not impressed. As you read the details of their findings you discover that most people think their government or utility companies should solve the problem.

This problem will never be solved as long as people think the solution is up to someone else.

The solution to meet the growing demands for electricity is not a problem to solve; it’s an ethic to be lived. It should be as much a part of our national ethos as “family values”. In fact it should be a family value. Can you make a difference in all of this? Of course you can. And, you don’t have to freeze in the dark to do it …. at least not yet. Let’s make better choices and better plans about using energy before it comes to that.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has". - Margaret Mead

Energy Conservation Makes Me Panic

When I hear the phrase “energy conservation” my eyes glaze over; my pulse quickens and my stomach starts doing flip flops. When I hear that phrase, I know I am in for hours of boring lectures that might cover everything from how to drive my car to how to compost my vegetable waste. So, instead of talking about energy conservation, which can cover an infinite number of ways for me to feel bad about my behavior, I want to focus on saving money in two areas that mean something to me -my home electric bill and my home heating bill. I almost always feel better when I spend less money

I am not trying to dis the fine people working on the other parts of energy conservation, but to me, that phrase is too big. Its like have to wade through someone’s entire DNA genome description when all I want to know is, “what color is her hair?” A simple photo or a quick peak would do, right?

So, how do I get that photo or quick peak? Don’t Goggle “energy conservation”. You’ll spend hours looking at stuff that is really interesting but covers too much ground. You have to find a way to focus.

Adding the word “Home” to your goggle search helps focus the field of possibilities. Here is what I found from the first six choices searching for "Home Energy Conservation".

The first choice is powered by Chevron and it got really confusing for me. It went right into MPG and stuff that has nothing to do with my electric or heating bill.

The second choice must have happened because I’m in Indiana. It’s more about donating money than it is about saving money.

The third choice from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association gets me a little closer to what I want but it’s more about how to build an energy efficient home and I am stuck with the one I have for now – so again, not real helpful.

Finally with the fourth, fifth and sixth choices, I got what I wanted.

Home Energy Saver claims it’s the “first web-based do-it-yourself energy audit tool”. Type in your zip code and start learning what it takes to save utility expenses right away. I liked it and there were lots of other links to get more information on remodeling ideas, “no/low cost” conservation actions and more.

The Home Energy Saver site above is run by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which sponsors the fifth choice in the Goggle search, the EERE: Energy Savers Home Page. The side bar on the left takes you to details about your house that can help you get a handle on actions you can take to cut your utility bills.

The sixth choice takes you to HOME ENERGY MAGAZINE ONLINE. At first glance it looks like one more request for a subscription, but dig deeper. If you click on the Magazine link at the bottom of the masthead, you get into articles about specific topics utility saving steps. I clicked on the November/December 2008 Thermostat Setbacks- Do they really work and found coverage of a detailed study from Canada that answered every question I ever had about setback thermostats.

I think it’s great that so much attention is landing on the idea of reducing my carbon footprint. But, if ‘m going to make foot prints anywhere, I need some traveling cash. I get my travel money by reducing my utility bill payment footprint. And, I help save the world at the save time.

© 2008 Mark R. Daily

DO IT! (conserve energy & money) Scenerios of the Revolution (the energy revolution)

The Energy Revolution

This is a new revolution. A revolution that lets you tune in to savings and drop out of your energy dependence. No, it won't be televised. But, you will remember it. So, unlike the saying, "if you can remember the 60's, you weren't there", you, will be there to save the planet.

The challenge of energy conservation is in the minute and boring details of everyday living. As with any chronic bad habit (eg. alcoholism, drug addiction, frivolous energy waste, etc.) the first step to a cure is awareness. Nothing goes quicker to the heart of energy waste awareness than two fairly easy steps. One, keep track of the kilowatt hours you use and two, monitor your house appliances and systems to calculate your energy footprint.

Step One: Keep track of your kWh Use

There are several meaningful ways to do this. This easiest way is to set up a computer spreadsheet with columns for months and rows for years. When you get your electric bill, plug in the total kWh from your bill. In less than a year you will start to see patterns in your energy use that can help you make management decisions about energy use. After one year of record keeping you can compare with previous years. This is a great and easy way to see how your energy conservation actions translate into dollar savings, which is the real point of this effort. In three years of record keeping you’ll gain a great understanding of how your house works and document your energy conservation results.

I know a guy that made a form to keep track of his energy use every day. With morning, coffee in hand, he takes a short walk to his electric meter and records the reading. If you were ever suspicious of your electric utility (“no way did I use that much electricity last month - is this bill an estimate?”) this will help reduce those fears. It will also quickly show the impact of energy management decisions in your house. A whole host of energy wasters can be recognized quickly this way. Leaky hot water faucets, stuck thermostats, underground water pipe leaks and failing electric motors have all been some of the things caught early by doing this. So, the effort can save you future headaches by fixing these problems before they turn into bigger problems.

Step Two: Monitor your Stuff

This sounds like a lot of work but really it’s not too bad and the feeling you get from being in control of your energy consumption destiny is well worth the effort. With your Kill-a-watt meter in hand, take turns plugging in different appliances. This is a real eye opener. Plug in each appliance like refrigerators, freezers, television systems, sound systems, computer systems, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, hair dryers, electric blankets, lamps, anything with a cord that plugs into a regular wall outlet. Keep each appliance plugged in for a week. Note the kWh used at the end of the week, divide by seven and multiply by 365 and you have the cost to run that appliance for a year. If you only use that freezer or humidifier for part of the year, adjust your calculations accordingly.

Here’s how to make this easy. Get a calendar that you can write on and hang it in the kitchen. Get a Kill-o-watt Meter and leave it on your kitchen counter. Just leave it there. Then, the next time you head for the refrigerator, before you open the door, unplug the fridge and plug it back in with the Kill-o-watt meter in place. Leave it for a week. (Mark the day and time you set up the meter on your calendar.)In a week pick a new appliance to monitor. Retrieve your meter after recording the kWh used and time elapsed on the previous appliance. Keep going until you have documented energy use on each plug in appliance in your house.

The main point of doing this is to save the planet of course, but the best part of doing this is to save money. Are you freaking out about the world financial turmoil? Are you trying to find that finance vehicle that is secure, gives great returns for your dollars invested and won’t disappear with the latest dip in the DOW? Energy Conservation is it. Money invested in home improvements geared to saving energy shows returns that far exceed anything you can do on Wall Street. If you want a safe place to stick your investment funds, stick them in energy conservation.

DO IT !
What’s stopping you? I know. Just like the anxiety of picking the right stock in today’s market, you’re afraid to make the wrong energy conservation decision. You don’t want to waste money or plunk down big bucks for small savings.

BUILDITSOLAR.COM shows you where to start. While this website sounds like it’s just geared to solar energy enthusiasts, there is a wealth of information about energy conservation. Not only do they cover great ideas on energy conservation, they offer ways to help you pick projects that give the best bang for the buck.

The combination of taking control of your energy use by monitoring and taking action based on a do-able plan for energy conservation will make you feel better about the economy and the environment all at the same time.

Consumerism and Energy Conservation

I had quite a surprise this morning. Actually it was more like an epiphany, really.

For over fifteen years I have struggled with energy conservation in the electric utility industry. I’m a trained energy auditor and was a certified Home Energy Rating System technician. I visited with electric customers to answer the question, “Why is my energy bill so damned high and what can I do about it?”

I did detailed inventories and spit out detailed reports showing the source of the culprits contributing to high energy bills. I offered suggestions for how these customers could save money. Most of the time, I got a polite thank you. Sometimes I got a reference to another customer wanting to know, “Why is my energy bill so damned high and what can I do about it?” But, only a few cases out of hundreds brought any action on the customer’s part. One customer really loves me. He saved over three hundred dollars on propane the first month after he actually performed the measures I recommended, but, that was the exception.

Generally, customers just kept on doing what they had done before, yelling at family members to “turn off those lights” and “close the damned door – what were you – born in a barn”, and; they kept sending their money to the utility companies.

My epiphany was the result of reading a recent report by a group called ECOALIGN. Their mission is to” .. align corporate and consumer behavior with the future of energy and environment via innovative marketing and communications strategies”.

The report titled Project Energy Code, told me exactly why I couldn’t get any traction with most customers to implement the energy conservation measures I recommended. Maybe this explains why you haven’t taken action either.

The “problem” is a combination of three issues, visibility, ambivalence, and trust, as explained in the report prepared by Pippa Chenevix Trench. Here is my take on what they are getting at.

Visibility- Many of us won’t implement energy saving actions because even if we do, no one will know. Appraisers won’t increase the home’s value. Neighbors won’t make encouraging comments and no one will really be able to tell that we’re going green and saving the planet. It’s hard to brag about something you didn’t use –like energy.

Ambivalence- My dictionary defines Ambivalence as the “existence of mutually conflicting feelings or thoughts such as love or hate about some person (maybe energy auditors), object (like set back thermostats) or idea (like energy conservation). Some people might be thinking, “what’s the use, the planets going down the tubes anyway, why bother”. Or maybe they’re faced with the conflicting choice of paying for a great vacation versus installing more attic insulation. If you read the report you might conclude that the problem could even be deeper and more subtle than that. It could be anthropological.

Trust – This one really got me. Although I had a good working relationship with many customers, I was working for the utility. This fact alone made people wonder why I was recommending actions that would cut the profits from my employer. I talked about how we cared about energy conservation as well as the need to reduce the company’s cost to buy power. The report referenced a piece of research from Arizona that showed that when customers got energy saving ideas from a government agency, 17% of the recipients took energy saving actions. While 0% of recipients that got the same advice from a utility took any action. I guess I should be glad I got as many positive results as I did.

Yet, to save the planet, really save customers money and reduce the growing demand for electricity, we are all going to have to get a lot more successful at selling energy conservation.

I hope you will take the time to read the report yourself. It’s free. I didn’t even have to register or give away any personal information. Reading this report showed me that customer choices are complicated and go way beyond the typical environmentalist accusations that we are all just thoughtless consumers. EcoAlign concludes that our “consumption [is] not out of mindless greed but in response to a complex web of culture and belonging” influences. Wow, if I’d only known.

The Project Energy Code concludes with the call to arms for more research into human behavior as it applies to energy conservation. They say, “there are three areas for future research that stems from the hypotheses described in this essay”:

1. Understanding better how energy consumption and environmental issues are “bundled” within the broader context of people’s day to day lives.

2. Understanding the ways in which information surrounding energy use and decisions over consumer practices flows within and between households and social networks.

3. Identifying ways in which energy efficient behavior can be made more visible and the impacts of different media in communicating this information.

I’ll be thinking a lot about this report and its importance to saving money and the planet at the same time. In the mean time, I hope someone gets working on those three additional areas of research. If the experts are right, energy conservation is still the best bang for the buck and “negawatts” are still worth bragging about to your neighbors.

© 2008 Mark R. Daily

Solve the Electricity Generation Crisis with Smarts

“A group won't be smart if its members imitate one another, slavishly follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do. When a group is being intelligent, whether it's made up of ants or attorneys, it relies on its members to do their own part. For those of us who sometimes wonder if it's really worth recycling that extra bottle to lighten our impact on the planet, the bottom line is that our actions matter, even if we don't see how.” – Swarm Theory by Pete Miller, National Geographic.

Swam Theory may be one method to solve the growing crisis for electricity generation in the USA. The concept demonstrates two key features that could bring meaningful results to the challenge of meeting our energy needs.

First, experts and cynics a like seem to agree that our energy needs will be best met by a combination of energy conservation, renewable energy growth and cultivation of existing energy generation systems like coal and nuclear power. This means that we all have a role to play in reducing our energy demands and a role to play in encouraging energy generation diversity. In short your actions at home to conserve energy and your actions in the political arena to encourage wise decision making are very important.

Second, we all must participate in the discussion in order to make the most out of our “smart swarm” of ideas and actions.

How do you get Smart?

Can you live without electricity? Of course you could, but your life would change dramatically for the worse. You would spend more of your time doing mundane chores and less time doing things that make your life what it is today. So, if you can’t live without it, shouldn’t you know something about it? Yet, I frequently get blank stares from smart people when I ask, “how much electricity does your house or business use and what is your cost per kWh”? I use between 300 and 602 kWh per month, lowest in the summer and highest in the winter – in case you wonder if I’ve done my homework. Yes, I know. I could do better, but the national average according to U.S. Energy Information Administration is 888 kWh per month. (thanks Power - Save for setting me straight on this). Oh and I pay $0.13 per kilowatt hour. If you live in Hawaii you pay about $0.22. The nation average in June 2008 was about $0.12 per kWh and rising.

Once you know your energy appetite, find out why you eat what you eat. Everyone is reading grocery product labels these days. Consumers want to know if the product they are buying might come from a tainted batch of garlic from China or the neighborhood organic farm. They want to know if what they are buying is mostly sugar or substance. So it should be with your energy bill. Find out how much energy each appliance eats at your house. Its different for everyone so don’t use your mother-in-laws numbers, get your own. Buy a Kill-A-Watt meter or ask for one for a holiday gift. Start tracking down what you require for energy at your house. Don’t just take the utility companies month meter reading total.

Get smart. Get active. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. Do your own part. It’s not that hard. No one knows your house better than you do.
© Mark Daily, 2008

I can say that word, “NUCLEAR”

"The true essence of humankind is kindness. There are other qualities which come from education or knowledge, but it is essential, if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one's existence, to have a good heart."- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

In the energy debate, clever quips and well placed personal barbs seem to prevail over kindness. I think that is one reason why we haven’t gotten farther along with our energy planning in the USA.

This stumbling block to reasoned discussion is especially vitriolic in the nuclear energy debate where both sides frequently resort to a combination of name calling and bewildering statistics. Doing this makes it hard for the consumer on the street to sort out the facts. It makes most of us reluctant to even enter the debate.

Energy Central is a website that has offered news and commentary on the Electric Utility industry for many years. I believe their aim is to provide as much objective information as possible about this industry and its issues. It’s a great way to hear all sides of the debate on many different utility topics.

One regular contributor, John K. Sutherland, seems to have a pretty good handle on issues relating to Nuclear Energy production in the USA. Sadly, he seems so angry about those opposed to nuclear energy that it is hard to read much of his material. His most recent piece on nuclear energy includes this:

“Nuclear waste, despite the ignorant half-truths and inventions of those who fear it, and despite the fact that we would rather not have it, is one of the best reasons for developing nuclear power relative to any other major reliable source of energy other than hydro. When you add its minimal pollution contributions; its much better safety record than any large energy source; and its improving cost advantages at this time, there should be no contest, yet the emotionally slanted nuclear mythologies keep rearing their heads.”

In his article he includes interesting and helpful numbers that show that nuclear energy wins hands down when it comes to its safety record, waste stream volume reduction and health impacts compared to coal and natural gas. The trouble is, I am usually so pissed off by the time I get to his numbers, I don’t really care if he’s right.

In contrast Amory Lovins has long been an opponent of nuclear energy, until recently Mr. Lovins has tried to gain converts by bludgeoning them with statistics, but a recent piece of his from the Rocky Mountain Institute entitled “Forget Nuclear” does offer a summary that leaves out the laborious numbers and footnote references long enough to let the average person on the street understand a little about what he has been getting at. Yet he too cannot resist that Saturday Night Live jab like, “Jane you ignorant slut” when he concludes his summary opposition with the following comments;
“So why do otherwise well-informed people still consider nuclear power a key element of a sound climate strategy? Not because that belief can withstand analytic scrutiny. Rather, it seems, because of a superficially attractive story, an immensely powerful and effective lobby, a new generation who forgot or never knew why nuclear power failed previously (almost nothing has changed), sympathetic leaders of nearly all main governments, deeply rooted habits and rules that favor giant power plants over distributed solutions and enlarged supply over efficient use, the market winners’ absence from many official databases (which often count only big plants owned by utilities), and lazy reporting by an unduly credulous press.”

It’s really a shame we can’t be more polite to each other when it comes to talking about energy issues. Yet we persist in making sure we spend more time attacking opposing views than trying to understand them.

"Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result," said Werner Erhart.

And, in the debate about energy planning for the USA, I think both sides are pretty much insane if they think their approach to this complicated issue is the way to develop a sound energy policy.

© Mark Daily, 2008

Save the Planet Save Your money- This book helps you do both

Looking for a great tax free investment? Wishing for an operating manual for your house? Longing to know how to evaluate your energy using appliances and home heating systems? Puzzled why your electric bill was so high? Frustrated trying to learn what to do about it? Now there are solutions to your problems with a new book by Godo Stoyke.

Energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins has said it for decades. When it comes to electricity generation, saving energy equals constructing energy supply. Now we have a tool to help us reduce the need for more power plants and save cash at home, all at the same time. And, the best part is that if you pick the right energy conservation efforts, you’ll have a better return on investment then anything you can do in the stock market even when the stock market was doing well.

The Carbon Buster’s Home Energy Handbook by Godo Stoyke (New Society Publishers) is the next best thing to an owner’s manual for your home. Chapter by chapter, step by step, this easy to read book lays out choices that you can make in your home to live better, reduce your impact on the globe and keep more money in your pocket and out of the utility company’s cash register.

The best part about saving energy with this book is that it’s short. In only 131 pages, LEED accredited graduate of the University of Alberta Master of Science program, lays out a clear picture of concrete steps you can take to identify your home’s energy appetite, search for unwanted energy hogs and quickly learn what can and can’t save you money.

“The purpose of this book is to show you the most effective and most cost effective ways to reduce your carbon emissions and the best ways to reduce your family’s energy bills.” Stoyke goes on to describe products and technologies that do just that. He explains the way of the Carbon Miser, whose only mission is to get the best return on investment (ROI) versus the Carbon Buster whose emphasis is reducing negative environmental consequences.

In nicely designed appendices Stoyke provides tables that list Efficiency measures with their corresponding carbon reductions, cost savings and payback years. He even lists energy conservation steps according to best return on investment.

This should be one book that everyone has in the house.

© Mark Daily, 2008

Clear Skies is a Lie

I can’t figure out why the public isn’t outraged over the obvious disregard for human health that comes with provisions of President Bushes’ Clear Skies Act. This is just one in a long list of legislation proposed by the Bush administration that does the exact opposite of its title. The Clear Skies Act makes our skies less clear by so many measurable standards that the title could only have been selected by a room full of comedians. Clear Skies? I don’t think so.

According the National Resource Defense Counsel, “The Clear Skies legislation sets new targets for emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury, and nitrogen oxides from U.S. power plants. But these targets are weaker than those that would be put in place if the Bush administration simply implemented and enforced the existing law! Compared to current law, the Clear Skies plan would allow three times more toxic mercury emissions, 50 percent more sulfur emissions, and hundreds of thousands more tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides. It would also delay cleaning up this pollution by up to a decade compared to current law and force residents of heavily-polluted areas to wait years longer for clean air compared to the existing Clean Air Act.”

Zachary Roth writing for the Columbia Journalism Review put it this way, “It’s not just that the Clear Skies reduction targets are “little different” from what would be achieved by simply enforcing the Clean Air Act. It’s that Clear Skies, despite its name, would actually lead to more pollution than the existing Clean Air Act, because current law calls for further reductions over time.

In other words, either Clear Skies or strict enforcement of the Clean Air Act would make the air cleaner than it is today. But enforcing current law will achieve greater reductions than would Clear Skies”.

According to Energy Central Ken Silverstien “In February, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had violated the Clean Air Act by refusing to make mercury reductions mandatory. Instead, the Bush administration had proposed a voluntary cap-and-trade system that it says would have reduced mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2018.”

Yet cap and trade means that those that can trade, create hot zones of mercury pollution that may exceed responsible mercury pollution standards.

The NRDC says that “Mercury can cause serious neurological and developmental damage, including birth defects, subtle losses of sensory or cognitive ability, and delays in developmental milestones such as walking and talking. Power plants are responsible for 34 percent of all mercury emissions, which settle into our waters, where they accumulate in fish. In 41 states, officials warn against eating fish from mercury-contaminated lakes and rivers.”

Are people really so busy that they can’t rally enough vocal opposition to this blatant attempt to court irresponsible industries? Are we so strapped financially that we can’t keep our air clean enough to avoid health problems?

If this is all about money why aren’t the taxpayers outraged at the expense of treating air pollution related illnesses and diseases. It has to be less expensive to prevent the pollution than it is to treat all of the health problems associated with dirty air. Yet, people remain focused on complaints about the high cost of electricity without realizing that they are going to have to pay more money for health problems than they would for prevention programs.

I just don’t get it. Can someone out there explain it to me?

Alternate Energy Advocates need to Get Real

Electricity is today, by almost any standard, a requirement for modern life.

A nation-wide system of unrelated companies makes electricity, a product that cannot be seen, stored or stockpiled and gets it delivered to every corner of the nation through a series of wires connected by thousands of different companies, 24 hours a day for 365 days a year.

This product reaches the customer at the exact moment that the customer wants it- even when the customer doesn’t know they want it. If too much electricity is delivered, things start melting. If too little electricity is delivered, things start melting. This is not like gas for your car. There is no gauge showing a low tank so you can head to the filling station. This is a product that most homeowners only think about when it isn’t there or when the price goes up.

The back bone of the electric power generation system consists of thousands of power plants spread across the country. Most are located strategically near urban load centers or sources of fuel. Usually, sources of fuel, like coal or wind or hydro power, are nowhere near urban load centers.

Base-load fossil fuel is stockpiled allowing power plants to schedule power production to meet anticipated loads. When power plant schedulers get it right, nobody notices. When they get it wrong, rolling brown-outs or black-outs inspire months of government investigation and reams of customer hate mail focused on those utilities that left them in the dark or melted their ice cream. Wholesale power suppliers pay various contract penalties for being short on generation delivery if they under produce or waste electricity and ratepayer’s money if they produce more than is needed.

Because of the ability to schedule these base-load fossil fuel systems, they are called “dispatch-able”. Schedulers dispatch power at varying levels targeted every thirty minutes to meet your electricity demands. They do it based on formulas that consider historic loads, predicted weather conditions and anticipated load growth. Wind and solar energy are not “dispatch-able”.

Based load power plants have an excellent track record of meeting the nation’s needs. As a whole, they achieve an astounding 80% production output that combines with back-up power generation and regional inter-connections to provide electricity at your house almost 100 percent of the time.

Renewable power production facilities have a track record of 25% output. As renewables become more plentiful and spread over wider geographic areas, this “production” factor will improve. Increased reliability through diversity has long been a goal of renewable energy advocates. The Rocky Mountain Institute is one group supporting this concept. Their recent research in the July 2008 issue of their Solution Journal describes how that might come about.

Utilities, have historically appeared to drag their feet about including wind and solar power into their generation portfolio. This is not because they dislike clean power, but because they feel like a 25 % production track record does not meet the needs of their customers. From their perspective, every kilowatt of wind or solar power generation must be backed up with equal base load generation to cover the 75% of the time renewable resources fail to deliver power. In a business dedicated to reliable power at the least cost, the expense of supporting renewable energy means building redundant base-load coverage.

Until customers get “real” about alternate energy expectations there will always be conflict between customer expectations and utility’s ability to deliver.

Make the Global Climate Change Debate Irrelevant

If you are having trouble sleeping, one cure that works for me on those rare occasions is reading dueling opinions about climate change. Try this one from Energy Pulse . It’s a real dozy, not because of the various and conflicting opinions and not because of the demeaning and sarcastic tone of several of the authors.

The discussion is a dozy because most of us really don’t see how we can make sense out of the debate. How many scientists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just two, but I can’t figure out how they get in there. If higher math skills were the only requirement for solving the world’s problems, I suspect solutions would be in place. There are lots of really smart people in this world. What’s missing is a reasoned and universally agreeable way to talk about these issues.
So, I’ll stop making jokes and offer this prayer for a better world; a world where people that disagree can work together on agreeable facts that make a foundation for future discussions. We should be long past the point of arguing about what makes up green house gases. We should be over the discussion about whether climate change is a natural or manmade phenomenon. Just as we can all agree that two times two equals four there must be a definitive answer to the question, “what causes destructive impacts to our atmosphere”? Just as we can all agree that zero times anything is still zero, there must be an answer about the causes of these impacts that isn’t clouded by suspicious industry related sources.

Refusing to take any action to reduce climate change whether it is real or not is like refusing to buy home owner’s insurance because you don’t know how hot the fire will be if your house burns down. Come on, if we can’t figure out the science and explain it so the public can understand it, the least we can do is buy some insurance.

The only social change that has ever been successful came about from individuals taking individual actions in open environment of honest debate and factual argument. Let’s get back to that.

Most of us are too busy trying to keep up with jobs and family to care about this debate, but all of us care about the financial health of our families. Who doesn’t like to live better for less? If I have extra time or money, I am going to spend it on better appliances, windows, doors, more insulation, and other systems that will help me keep more of the money I earn, rather than giving it to businesses and corporations that use profits to argue about the facts. The beauty of this is that it could make scientific debate about climate change irrelevant while it saves me money all at the same time.

In the next few months, almost every family is going to get a small windfall or tax rebate money. You can do what George asks and spend it on disposable items that will end up in some landfill. You can do what many fear - put it in savings. Or, you can put it to work by improving some part of the building envelope where you live or work. When you do this, you get to keep more of the money you earn in the future.

One person at a time; one house at a time, one energy saving project at a time. The money and time you invest today will save you money tomorrow. Just think what your life would be like today if you had spent another 10% on better windows, or better doors or more insulation ten years ago. Today your family would be spending less for energy to run your homes and businesses. It’s better than the value of compounding interest and you get to feel its warmth and see its benefits every month in lower utility bills.

Why Utility Executives Think Environmentalists are a Pain in the Ass

Utility Executives think environmentalists are a pain in the ass for many reasons, but the main reason is because the language that environmentalists use to talk about utilities and utility executives hurts their feelings. Oh you won’t get them to admit it. Utility executives often have engineering or accounting backgrounds and these professions are not exactly known for their warm and fuzzy emotional types. But, still, environmentalists create immediate walls of distrust and antagonism just by choosing annoying words to frame their points of view.

Think of your own profession or job. Would you like it if people referred to what you were doing with words like “toxic”, “destruction”, “degradation”, “waste”, “monopoly”, “cancer” or my favorite derogatory word “spew”. What have you been spewing today? Did you spew your product on anyone?

How about degradation? Have you degraded anything today?

While most businesses secretly wish they were monopolies, no one likes to be accused of being one. It just isn’t the American way.

So, imagine recent headlines referring to the electric utility industry. Oh, I know, I am going to exaggerate a little for effect, but still you can imagine a headline like this in your local newspaper.
“Electric Monopoly Spews Toxic Destruction Degrading Air quality linked to Cancer”.

It’s like the old conundrum “when did you stop beating your wife”? Environmentalists lead with a verbal left hook. And, it seems like the only reason they would do that is to get headlines or make someone angry. If you had a neighbor with a barking dog or a messy yard, you wouldn’t storm over there demanding and accusing, unless you just like fist fighting. You’d get to know them first and find out if there were extenuating reasons for their behavior. Chances are there is more to the story. You know that. And the Electric Utility industry is in the same spot, there is more to the story. In fact, all of us that love our computers, televisions, cold beer, toast, light after dark, and inexpensive consumer goods, are all – the rest of the story.

Today we are stuck in what peace activist Adam Kahane calls “debating”. We have each side shouting their view of the facts hoping to drown out the other’s argument. One side says, “We can power the economy with a combination of wind, solar and conservation”. The other side shouts back, “No we cannot, the load growth is too large, we must use fossil fuels and expand nuclear power”.

What can we do about all of this? We can and must do two things. Stop wasting electricity and stop wasting words about solving environmental problems. I did not say stop using electricity (we can’t). Nor did I say stop having conversations about environmental problems. I said stop wasting energy and stop wasting words.

Study the work of Adam Kahane and learn how to talk to each other about difficult issues. If Adam can do it with people that have been killing each other for decades, we can do it with the inflammatory dialogue of the environment and electricity generation debate. The so called choice between the economy and the environment is a false choice. The environment is the economy (and I am tempted to violate my own beliefs and add “stupid”, but I won’t).

We must develop a generative dialogue to realize that we all agree that the earth is our only home. We must make collective decisions about how and what we spew. We should decide together when, where and why we degrade. We must face and answer the question about what we do about waste. In the long run we must reduce even the distant potential to harm our health and the health of our children through toxins, climate change and reduced air quality. Our very lives depend on it. It will not serve the future well to stay in divisive arguments. We must come together and agree on mutually understood facts. We must take decisive steps to make this world the kind of earth on which we can all live healthy and productive lives for all eternity. We cannot keep borrowing the future from our children and hope new technology bails us out. We cannot keep ignoring the elephant in the living room without catastrophic impacts to our homes. We cannot keep calling each other names and expect to ever have the kind of world that we know in our hearts is possible.

Please, let’s all do something today to take action on those two things that we can do. Stop wasting energy and stop wasting words. We could call it Vision Power Generation. Make it all count.

Next time in the interests of fair play, I‘ll explain why environmentalists think Utility Executives are a pain in the ass.
©Mark Richard Daily, 2008

Why Electric Utility Executives Hate Net-Metering

Net- Metering is a specific utility term used to describe the way utilities may allow small home generators to feed electricity back onto their electric distribution wire grids.

The DSIRE database, (Data base of State Incentives for Renewable & Efficiency) lists each state’s renewable programs. They define net- metering like this:

“Net Metering Rules For those consumers who have their own electricity generating units, net metering allows for the flow of electricity both to and from the customer through a single, bi-directional meter. With net metering, during times when the customer's generation exceeds his or her use, electricity from the customer to the utility offsets electricity consumed at another time. In effect, the customer is using the excess generation to offset electricity that would have been purchased at the retail rate. Under most state rules, residential, commercial, and industrial customers are eligible for net metering, but some states restrict eligibility to particular customer classes.”

This is a widely accepted definition but gets confused by some utility programs that don’t really offer net-metering. Instead they offer wholesale or avoided cost metering. This often requires two meters installed at the customer’s expense. One meter records the kWh flowing into their house from the utility grid and the other meter records the flow of electricity from the home’s power generation sources like a PV array or small wind turbine. The market drives the cost of electricity just like it does other commodities and the price we all pay on our electric bill reflects market value as well as actual costs for delivery. In the case of small alternate energy generators, utilities typically pay a wholesale rate for any energy that they buy directly.

One myth that is often used to oppose net-metering is the myth that meters go forward more accurately than they go backwards. Eletromechanical meters have no physical reason to run any differently more or less accurately no matter which way the current is going. Yet, this is the reason that many utilities require two meters. Two meters doubles your minimum monthly service charge and throws an un-necessary obstacle into the net-metering road.
Utilities that offer true net-metering, allow one meter that goes both directions. With this arrangement, consumer’s gain by having any energy that they generate going back to cancel the incoming kWh hours.

Once the meter hits zero on the register the price changes. Now you are making a net contribution to the grid instead of just canceling out your utility company generated power. So, the price you make on each kWh goes down to the wholesale rate which is typically 40 to 60 percent less than the retail rate. So, if you are going to run payback numbers for your project, you need to find out the average retail rate per kWh when you calculate the financial benefits of installing your own net-metering equipment.

Safety has always been very important to electric utilities and rightfully so. You can’t make any mistakes handling 14,000 volts of electricity without serious – usually fatal consequences. So, may utilities require a long list of lock out safety requirements and a hefty insurance liability policy from homeowners interested in installing net metering equipment.

Some utilities require a physical lock out device accessible to utility personnel; all day every day so that they can isolate your system from the grid while they are working on distribution circuits effected by your system.

I heard a good talk several years ago by a knowledgeable engineer about the potential danger from net-metering facilities. He seemed to think that the likely hood of a 12 or 24 volt 1.5 to 3.0KW net-metering system back feeding enough voltage to injury a line worker was a remote possibility and said it really was not scientifically supportable. Yet many utilities still persist in adding this substantial obstacle to net- metering installations from home owners.

Today, there are several alternate energy system inverters that take care of most of the legitimate interconnection and safety issues raised by utility regulations.

The main problem with net metering relates to the way you get billed for electricity. In most locations there are two parts to your bill. One part is a kWh charge that is supposed to cover all of the costs of getting each kWh to your house from the generation facility. The other part of your bill has a fixed minimum monthly charge or availability of service fee that is supposed to cover those expenses that a distribution utility incurs whether you use any electricity or not. If you leave town and throw your main breaker to the off position, you will not use any kWh. But, your meter is still sitting there ready for action and the wires coming to your house are still in the air or under the ground waiting for something to do and the utility company still needs to send a meter reader or use software to read your meter remotely just in case you use some juice that month. These fixed costs, like property taxes, accounting expenses and administrative expenses continue whether you use electricity or not. Also these expenses are often so high that utilities bundle a portion of the fixed expense into your kWh charge. So, if you are a net-metering customer whose meter hits zero or generates a lot of your own power that displaces the utility grid power , you are cutting into their revenue, without making a meaningful contribution to cutting the costs for buying power during the night and on cloudy days.

What may change utility attitudes toward net-metering is the growing need for additional generation resources and the clamor over fossil fuel generation. Utility executives maybe looking for net-metering resources to fill in peak daytime loads when the sun is shining, thus taking some of the pressure off financing new fossil fuel resources.

Do you have a question about how your electricity gets to your house? Ask me. I'll try to find out? GOt any other questions about electric energy generation? Ask me. I'll get some answers.

Alternate Electric Generation Systems need Facts

It happened again Saturday. I was in a room of about thirty people eager to hear about the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities program. These thirty people appeared to be well educated. We were all certainly well feed because the meeting was at an Irish Pub. I thought about speaking up. Maybe it was the pint of Guinness. Maybe it was the weekend. At any rate, I bit my tongue and sat on my hands to avoid climbing on my soap box and alienating the few remaining friends I have.

Well meaning speakers got on the subject of net metering, wind power and hydro-electric energy generation. They were making the kind of statements that make uneducated crowds cheer and utility executives barf.

Here are some of the comments. “We have wind resources that should be used to replace dirty coal fired power plants”. “Solar energy systems are available that can be built into your house and power your home without the need for dirty coal fired power plants”.

Man, if it were only that simple.

Yes, there are wind resources throughout the United States that could be developed to provide power into the grid. Yes, there are integrated solar photo-voltaic systems that can be built into your house to provide clean energy. Yes, there are low head and small hydro-electric opportunities across the USA that contribute power to the nationwide electric grid. These things exist today and people are actually doing them, but there is more to the story. I believe that blindly repeating these cheer leader statements creates a climate of distrust between utilities and consumers that destroys the working relationships needed to really solve our electric energy problems.

The future of all of these technologies is exiting and optimistic. Yet, there are some very valid reasons that utilities might balk at massive expenditures to bring these technologies into the system today.

Wind Power- Wind power has seen exponential growth in construction and development, but it is still a small portion of the generating resource that keeps all of our lights on. In many areas the wind blows hard enough to get your attention but not hard enough to make a financially viable resource. The obvious limitation is that we expect electricity all the time, but the wind doesn’t blow all the time even in the Dakotas. Yes, some day there may be enough wind generation equipment well connected and spread out over a big enough area that system managers can “schedule” reliable power to load centers (like your neighborhood). Today however, utilities know that you will not wait to have electricity until the wind is blowing. This means that while wind can make a growing contribution to the grid, utilities feel that they must have base load reliable power generation that they can schedule to meet your power needs. So now, they are building and paying for wind facilities and coal fired facilities at the same time. This is part of the reason that generation utilities grimace in a crowd that’s screaming for more wind power. The other limitation to wind power is that people don’t usually like to live in a good wind resource area. While Chicago may be an exception, wind resources aren’t located near major population centers. So now we are talking major transmission facility construction and the people that are usually pro- wind, seem to be Not in My Back Yard (NIMBYS) when it comes to building transmission systems. Studying your wind resource for a full 12 months is the only way to find out what the wind power potential is for your site. You can get a rough idea about wind resources national wide from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Solar Power-New developments in thin film construction for solar panels promise to make collectors that will turn 50 percent of the light that hits them into power instead of the 10 to 25 percent efficiency of panels in service today. Today you can buy solar roofing materials that do double duty. These new products have been commercially available for years and protect your roof like shingles while making electricity at the same time. Thousands of homes across the nation are using solar panels called photo-voltaic systems to power their homes. So why not just go solar now? -Two reasons. First they aren’t going to power my home unless I make major (read expensive) changes to my home’s building envelope (walls, attic insulation, windows) and appliances (refrigerator, well pump, stock tank heater, etc). Second, no one wants to be in the dark when the sun goes down, so making central station solar generation, puts us in the dark just when we get home and want the power. The exception to that is business and air conditioning loads. Here again we run into a “disconnect” between wishful thinking and reality. A simple Photo voltaic system with controls and equipment will set you back $10,000 to $20,000 for a modest system capable of generating 1.5 KW (kilo-Watts) and every five to seven years you get to replace batteries at about $4- 5 K a wack. When I go through my house and add up the load demands my appliances and equipment require, I’m in trouble and I’ll bet your home and business is in the same situation. It takes a very large and very expensive system to supply the 500 kWh per month average energy demand of homes in the USA. If you are serious about going solar you have to get a copy of the Real Goods Source book. It’s a product catalogue and a how to manual rolled into one book.

Hydroelectric power- Big dams have gotten a lot of bad press lately. Never mind that customers in big dam areas have some of the lowest power bills in the nation. Big dams create a host of other environmental problems that have their own opponents. Small hydro facilities in the 500 KW range are springing up nation-wide MARK FIND OUT FACTS. These facilities have real potential to contribute to the electric grid in regions that have the resource. So why aren’t utilities knocking down the doors to license and build these facilities? Well, there are two reasons, licensing and building. Each permit to build generation equipment requires a long drawn out battle because of all of the conflicting issues. Why go through multiple battles 500 to 1000 KW at a time when you can fight one 100 or 500 Megawatt battle and build the facility closer to the load demanding the power?

Even the smallest hydroelectric system can use more water and more water fall than you think. If you think you have a small hydroelectric resource you must do the research and study of your water resource to find out the potential to make electricity. The Real goods catalogue can help, but other hydroelectric education resources are available.

So, there you have it. I know it’s confusing. I know that in one sentence I sound like a democrat and the next sounds more republican. I had one women read my stuff and get real confused about which side I was on, and that is the problem today. It seems we have to pick sides and one side is for dirty coal and the other side is for clean renewable energy. The truth is both sides want electricity 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Utilities are mandated by law to do two things. First they have to supply the amount of power you want when you want it. Second, they have to do it at the least possible expense. If that wasn’t hard enough, they have to get permits and design approval ten years before you want the power. No wonder some of those executives are cranky.

My next blog will explain why most utility executives hate net-metering.