ellen's blog

6 reasons to weatherize your home.

ellen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:55:36 -0500

Several of my friends and neighbors commented that after reading the previous post about the cost of weatherizing my house, they considered proceeding with the improvements but then wrote it off as too expensive or couldn't convince their Co-Op partners to spend the money.

Another interesting phenomenon I noticed is that when there is a government incentive involved, there is this immediate psychological desire to game the system somehow to get something for free. I feel it too but I also realize that there is no "free" in construction (there aren't even an bargains in construction but that's another post entirely). When I asked Jimmy how busy they were, expecting them to be booked for months ahead, he mentioned that a lot of people only do the work covered by the incentives, sometimes ignoring safety measures and doing fewer measures than would lead to maximum efficiency (for example, insulating the roof but not replacing single-pane windows).

I'm neither judging nor criticizing those who decide not to weatherize for cost reasons but here's one last attempt to change your mind.

Here are my top 6 reasons to weatherize.

Weatherization adds value to the house.
Close your eyes and imagine all the heat and air conditioning that you pay for just wandering out of the house. Imagine dollars just floating out the window and through the roof.
While your eyes are closed, imagine your house during the winter, now imagine it with a sweater on. Doesn't that feel better? A well-insulated house is more comfortable.
The improvements will be paid back eventually via lower heating and cooling bills. The payback period will probably be less than anticipated because energy costs will only rise over time.
The incentives are in place now. Government incentives are a moving target. Who knows how long they will last?
Our electricity comes mostly from coal. Look at these great graphics if you want more detailed information. The less energy we consume, the fewer greenhouse gases and pollutants we emit and the less money we'll have to pay as a society for new power plants. Conservation can be our newest source of cheap energy!

Greenest house in America

ellen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:13:00 -0500

As the LEED for Homes Advocate for the USGBC-New York Chapter, I receive a LOT of mail and press releases about LEED certified projects.

This one is particularly exciting - The Gottfried Home, which received the highest score ever received since LEED for Homes launched early this year.

I'm not particularly excited by the high score (106.5 points of 136 possible points - Platinum threshold is 80 points). What excites me is that this is an example of a very small existing home that was fully renovated unlike the vast majority of LEED for Homes projects which are new buildings and the few that aim to be green McMansions by attaining LEED for Homes certification.

From the press release:

The 1,500-square-foot home in the Oakland neighborhood of Rockridge is half as large as the Gottfrieds’ previous home in the Berkeley Hills. Gottfried specifically wanted the home to be small to reduce the home’s footprint and show that a family of four can live happily in a smaller space, as humans historically have.

“We hoped to showcase how to green an old historic home and still achieve LEED Platinum, as well as downsize 50% for a family of four,” David Gottfried said.

The restored 1915 craftsman bungalow further reduces its impact on the environment because, as a restoration, it enables reuse of many materials and doesn’t eliminate open space on a previously home-free site.

Gottfried works in a regenerative “Lifepod” in the back yard of the home, cutting out the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with a commute to the office. It is built in an extremely walkable neighborhood, with most amenities available to the family without their needing to drive. The home is designed to be a net-zero energy home, meaning that with its solar photovoltaic power generation and its solar- and hydronic-powered water-heating systems, the home strives to produce all the energy it needs to operate without drawing from the power grid.

Rainwater is captured and diverted for use in one of the home’s toilets, reducing reliance on potable water supplies. “Graywater” – used water from the home’s two showers, bathtub and two sinks – is used to water the landscaping. And the family plans to grow its own vegetables.

And the home manages to conserve resources without scrimping on style. Some 27 colors make up the décor, including beautiful recycled abalone tile. The Gottfrieds call it “eco-bling”. And the renovation process engaged the neighborhood, teaching the community about the ways a green home can be beautiful and livable.

The renovation was funded in part by a green construction loan from New Resource Bank and an interest rate break for its use of solar power and LEED.

Learn more about the Gottfrieds’ home at www.gottfriedhome.com. Also, visit the popular environmental Web site Planet Green, at planetgreen.discovery.com, to view David Gottfried’s video blog documenting the renovation process and the home’s green features.

Challenges
• The cost and slow pace of custom construction.
• Finishing and getting subcontractors out of the house.
• Small is noisy – need to work more on acoustics with young kids.
• Getting graywater permitted.

About LEED®
The LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification system is a feature-oriented certification program that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria. The six major environmental categories of review include: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED green building certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each LEED category. LEED can be applied to all building types including new construction, commercial interiors, core & shell developments, existing buildings, homes, neighborhood developments, schools and retail facilities. LEED for Healthcare is currently under development and is expected to be released in early 2008.

Visit www.gottfriedhome.com.
Also visit planetgreen.discovery.com, to view David Gottfried’s video blog.

LOCATION: Oakland, Calif.
SIZE: 1,440 square feet
BEDROOMS: 4
YEAR BUILT: 1915
STYLE: Craftsman bungalow

LEED Points
• Innovation & Design: 8 of 11 possible
• Locations & Linkages: 10 of 10 possible
• Sustainable Sites: 19 of 22 possible
• Water Efficiency: 13 of 15 possible
• Energy & Atmosphere: 31 of 38 possible
• Materials & Resources: 12.5 of 16 possible
• Indoor Environmental Quality: 11 of 21 possible
• Awareness & Education: 2 of 3 possible
• Total: 106.5 of 136 possible (Platinum threshold: 80 points)

Some of the Home’s Green Features
• Small physical footprint – less than 1,500 square feet for a family of four.
• Reuse and restoration – giving 1915 craftsman bungalow new life.
• Incredibly walkable neighborhood, with everything just outside doorstep.
• David Gottfried works in a regenerative “Lifepod” (120-square-foot steel building with 50% flyash floor) in the back yard – no commute.
• A net-zero-energy goal, using solar photovoltaic power generation, solar-heated water and hydronic water heating; off-sets if necessary.
• All landscape water from graywater.
• Rainwater capture for toilet use and vegetable garden.
• “Eco-bling” beauty throughout – 27 colors, beautiful abalone recycled tile.
• Incredible interest and support of neighbors.

What happens at a Home Energy Audit?

ellen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:57:00 -0500

Jimmy and John from ASK Construction came over to do a Home Performance Energy Audit (a comprehensive energy and safety inspection) of my home.

First they did a fairly quick survey inside and out to determine the overall volume of the house, including the size of all the windows and doors.

The Audit was divided into 2 parts: Energy Efficiency and Health|Safety.

The items they looked for in the Health|Safety category are fairly obvious but are often overlooked including:

Adequate Carbon Monoxide (CO) coverage: in addition to having a sufficient number of detectors, each needs to be located such that if one of them is activated, all the occupants will hear the alarm, no matter where they are in the house. Suggested locations are: at the top of the Basement stairs in case there is a problem with the mechanical equipment and just outside the kitchen because when you turn on your oven, carbon monoxide levels of 700-2000 parts per million can accumulate until they are vented away by your hood exhaust.

They checked all the mechanical equipment in the house to see if there was any carbon monoxide (CO) leakage (there wasn't any), and that there is adequate fresh air intake and exhaust (there's plenty).

They checked to make sure all mechanical gas-fired equipment was enclosed in a fire-rated room (this item needs a little work).

They checked that the bathroom exhaust fans were working properly. An adequate bathroom exhaust fan should run for 20 minutes after a shower to remove the moisture from the room. (Ours are pretty good - loud but powerful).

At the Basement, where we have a de-humidifier running all year round, they tried to determine where the moisture was entering from (I think it's from along the side garden wall - more difficult to fix than if it was just the rear wall at the backyard) and we had a long discussion about what kind of exhaust fan to install.

Now for Energy Efficiency (!)

Heating/Cooling system: First they had me turn the thermostats for the furnace way up so they could check if there was any leakage in the air ducts. Turns out that there was a 50% drop in pressure when they added up the measured supply of air in each room. Unfortunately, these ducts are concealed in the ceiling - this wastes a lot of energy in both the heating and cooling seasons because a lot of conditioned air is wasted heating and cooling the duct enclosure so expect to see big holes in the ceiling sometime soon so we can get in there and repair the ducts.

Air Infiltration: Jimmy and John tested all the windows to make sure they were operational and then closed up all the doors and windows for the blower door test - that's what is going on in the picture above. The idea is to close up the house and then measure the volume of air that leaks in from openings in the building envelope and locate the source of those air leaks so that they can be corrected. The red fabric shown in the picture is stretched over a temporary frame in the door (you can sort of see the digital gauge attached to the edge of the door that measures the air flow). Jimmy said the air leakage in the house didn't seem so bad but he wanted to do the calculations back in his office to confirm.

We have an opening in the ceiling in one of the bedroom closets in order to access some valves and it was totally screwing up the test so they taped the door closed to get the proper seal. Apparently, it's openings like this that can suck out your heat in the winter and conditioned air in the summer. Closing up this opening will be a high priority.

Windows: John mentioned that our aluminum windows with double-pane glass, circa 1990's could be improved. I know that vinyl or wood windows are more efficient (vinyl and wood are better insulators than aluminum) and new double-pane glass comes with Low-E coatings and can be filled with argon glass for added efficiency but these types of new windows are VERY expensive and I don't think they will fit in our budget for a while. In the meantime, we will invest in high-efficiency double-honeycomb shades to better insulate at the windows.

Insulation: John made a small hole in the wall adjacent to the garden and found that it was PACKED with fiberglass insulation. This is very good news.

Costs:

As for costs, the audit cost $350 which I believe will be refundable by New York State's Home Performance with Energy Star Program if we do more than $2,000 worth of weatherization work (which seems likely).

Having completed the audit, we will now be eligible to take advantage of the incentives offered by the program which can be up to 20 per cent cash back on the total amount of eligible measures, plus federal and state tax credits. The whole point of this exercise is to improve the efficiency of our home so we should also expect to see a large cost savings in our heating and cooling costs.

I expect the full report in about 10 days, after which we will start the corrective work to repair all deficient conditions.

This was a very interesting experience and I would highly recommend others to investigate the efficiency of their home.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Is zero waste possible in this consumer culture?

ellen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:30:03 -0400

I'm reading Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte.

It's an amazing book although it's now a bit outdated (it was written during the period of time in the early 2000's when the Bloomberg Administration stopped the recycling programs for a while.) I can't put it down. The author (measured/weighed) her kitchen trash and tracked its route "away" from her house. A major theme throughout the book is that there is no "away". Another major theme is how secretive landfill managers are (I haven't finished the book yet, I hope she gets to see a landfill close up).

When we throw things out, there is a huge amount of energy, labor and thought put into how to make these things inert so as to not cause damage as they become a part of our environment. Unfortunately, when it comes to fixing the world, most people just don't want to talk about garbage.

One of my favorite chapters is the one about the solid waste treatment plant and the bio-solids created from New York sludge which is then shipped all over the country. In graduate school I helped a friend photograph the West Side Sewage Treatment Plant just after it opened and Ms. Royte actually managed to capture the smell in written form.

This book is transformative. What I previously just thought of as "crap", I am now clearly thinking of in terms of their component pieces and will do my best to avoid creating more crap to be thrown out. If you liked Cradle to Cradle, read Garbage Land.

This post from Reactions discusses about the false sense of biodegradability you get with compostable garbage bags. I bought these bio bags for our countertop compost pail because it gets slimy, smelly and a bit hard to clean after a few days. However, when I pulled the bag out of the pail to drop it into the compost bin, it almost fell apart. I guess it started to biodegrade before it even left the pail. I'll have to check the compost bin in a few days to see how the plastic is doing.

Garbage Land taught me how truly evil plastic is because it is practically impossible to upcycle it. However, thanks to our friends at Brooklyn Green Team, we now learn about a company called Recycline who makes new products of out old #5 plastics. You will recall how much I couldn't stand having old yogurt containers on the countertop awaiting recycling so we started making our own yogurt. Now I'll just stack them in a box until I have 5 pounds worth.

I'll re-print the requirements for sending the plastic to Recycline because the BGT's blog seems to cut off some of the information.

Many common food containers – yogurt cups, sour cream containers, hummus tubs, ketchup bottles – are #5 plastics.
We accept any CLEAN plastic item with a #5 stamp on the bottom. Please check to make sure that there are no other materials (paper, screws, other number plastics) on the items that you send to us.
Make sure that the #5 plastics are clean – the cleaner the plastic, the cleaner the recycling process.
To help make this program a win for the environment, it is important that you send your plastics back to us via ground shipping (as opposed to air). Reuse a box if you can!
Shipments should weigh at least 5 pounds and no more than 50 pounds. Any package greater than 50 pounds must be pre-approved by Recycline.
Make sure to include your return address on the box and add your name and email address inside the box so we can thank you for your good work.

Send Gimme 5 shipments to:
Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland NY 13045

If you have any questions about the Gimme 5 program or need to get a shipment approved, call us at 888-354-7296.

yay garbage.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Teen Green

ellen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:15:48 -0400

We asked our 16-year-old Summer Intern Izzie to post about what she thought was important in the world of sustainability. Her posts were thoughtful, interesting and informative. They were so great that we asked her to continue posting throughout the year (as homework, studying and extra-curricular activities allow of course).

Check them out:

and if you want to stay up to date with Izzie's posts click here.

Ellen

We used wind power for 1 year

ellen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:03:41 -0400

We received this certificate from Con Ed the other day certifying that we purchased wind power for the year January - December 2007 (I can't imagine why we are receiving this in October but I digress).

The first thing I did was log into Con Ed's website to download our usage for the past 2 years so I could see how much the premium was but only Con Ed's delivery charges were shown, not the actual cost of power so there is no real analysis possible.

However, I recall that I agreed to a premium of $.09/kWh for wind power so the premium for 450 kWh is $40.50. Not a bad price to pay to ensure clean emission-free power for the future.

If you want to sign up for green power, there are 2 options in New York, hydro (65%) /wind (35%) and 100% wind which is what we signed up for. Both are eligible to avoid NYS sales tax, which offsets some of the premium. Be advised, though that the prices quoted do NOT include Con Ed's delivery charges and other taxes and surcharges. This is from Con Ed Solutions:

ConEdison Solutions is leading the way in promoting pollution-free electricity by offering WIND and GREEN Power - clean, 100% renewable power. Instead of drawing on traditional power sources, such as nuclear power and fossil fuel sources, GREEN Power is generated from regional wind and low-impact hydropower sources. GREEN Power is composed of 65% run-of-the-river hydro and 35% wind power. See content label WIND Power is composed of electricity exclusively generated from 100% wind power. The benefit of clean energy is that it produces none of the detrimental environmental effects associated with electricity production that results in air emissions..

If you are a NYS customer of Con Ed, go to Con Ed Solutions and sign up.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Remote Energy Monitors

ellen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:40:54 -0400

I have posted about remote energy monitors before (click here and here). Several studies have shown that average energy users can reduce their consumption by at least 15% if they can be made aware of their usage in real time.

In addition to the Power Cost Monitor, I have recently come across 2 additional models with various features. Please note that I haven't test driven these yet. I'm comparing based on available information.

The Energy Detective (TED)

and the

Power Cost Monitor

both cost approx. $140 and can interface with a computer to allow you chart your usage over time.

A new model by Black and Decker (pictured above) costs less than $100 but does not allow interface with a computer so the information is available but a little harder to analyze.

None of these models require an electrician to install them, you just install them at the glass cover of your meter (if it's the kind that has the spinning disks) or you can plug them into newer electrical meters which have a port for this kind of device.

While initially I was really excited that this kind of device could be used for anyone who pays their own electric bill, it seems that folks who live in big apartment buildings may have a harder time with these because of the long distance between the apartment and the meter. I plan to install a few of these on projects in the next few months. I'll keep you posted.

If you have used one and have comments, please let us know!

Ellen

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

How Green is Green?

ellen — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:51:03 -0400

Recently David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a great column called The Bottom Line of the Eco Balance Sheet, in which he talks about how difficult it is to accurately calculate the environmental impact of a product. As we move into the future, with all the talk about sustainability, it is critical that we as consumers and end users have a tool to qualify claims of green.

About 50 posts ago, I posted about the Pharos Project, an exciting matrix that was going to value products according to various criteria but it didn't seem to get off the ground.

Sharing my search for this holy grail, a friend recommended a blog called swissmiss by a designer named Tina Roth Eisenberg who I think shares my neighborhood if not my building. She posted about an attempt to codify what makes a product sustainable called the Designer's Field Guide to Sustainability developed by Lunar. Rather than spewing commandments, it's a beautifully crafted document that asks 4 questions:

1. What is it trying to accomplish?

2. How is it brought to life?

3. How is it used?

4. Where does it end up?

It is a working document whose authors invite contributions. I'm posting it above my desk.

Ellen

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Portland Gym Uses Human-Powered Electricity

ellen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:50:28 -0400

Portland, OR, one of our nation's greenest cities has recently opened a new workout gym. This gym isn't your ordinary New York City Sports Clubs though - it partly uses human power generated from members' workouts (in addition to solar power) to supply a portion of the electrical power.

The Green MicroGym offers a workout room, classes, and most of your typical gym equipment. This gym however also offers green consulting for other human powered gyms, outdoor workouts, orientations on how the gym works, and no minimums for memberships (or year-long commitments!) One other difference: There are no public showers at this gym, in attempts to decrease water usage for the building.

This gym uses all the energy exerted during members' normal gym workouts, to fuel part of the power needed to operate the building - a simple, yet brilliant idea (why hasn't anyone done this before?) .

I wonder if the act of creating alternative energy works as an incentive to go a little bit faster or pick up that extra 5 pounds - this concept gives a whole new meaning to "going that extra mile!"

Free Energy Audit

ellen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:13:44 -0400

At our request, an experienced and knowledgeable auditor from National Grid (formerly Keyspan) came over to do a free energy audit. We walked through my entire house and reviewed all the potential for saving money through weatherization. I learned a few interesting things.

Basically NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Association) has money available for very low-interest loans (they'll write down up to 6% of the loan) and rebates up to $750 for weatherization work. The problem is that not enough New Yorkers are taking advantage of these programs so they launched this free energy audit program to promote participation. You can find out more information at www.getenergysmart.com

The general principle of weatherization is: Seal up air leaks and insulate the entire house. Start from the top and work your way down. Based on the visit, I changed the plan of the work I want to do in our house.

The original plan was 4-fold:

1. Roof: The area below the roof and above the 2nd floor ceiling is called a cock-loft. It is currently uninsulated and unvented. I want to blow in insulation and vent it to prevent mold build-up and heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. The Auditor confirmed that this is definitely the highest priority. I want to get this work done soon before the heating season arrives.

2. Exterior Wall: We have an approximately 800 SF of North-Facing wall which faces a community garden. It is brick construction with a layer of stucco, now cracked in many places. There are 3 windows on the wall which will need to be dealt with carefully. Our idea is to insulate the wall and paint it so that it can receive a mural painted by a community group. Surprisingly, the Auditor said that this was much less important in terms of heat loss and heat gain. Good thing because this work would be the most expensive of the bunch.

3. Basement ventilation: We installed a fan a few years ago to ventilate the Basement. Unfortunately, due to a mis-communication with the contractor, we ended up with the kind of vent that has a cover manually controlled by a chain which basically means we have an 8 inch diameter hole in the Basement wall. Yes, this is something the Auditor agreed we should do. It is important to remove moisture to prevent mold and mildew build-up year round. He also pointed out that we need better Fresh Air Intake for our boiler.

4. Boiler Room: The boiler room is located adjacent to the exterior wall and is completely uninsulated. The plan is to insulate the room as well as the boiler, hot water heater and all exposed pipes. The Auditor said that the amount of heat we are losing through the wall to the outside is negligible and since the Boiler Room is located at the Basement, most of the heat migrates out to the occupied rooms in the Basement or up to the main living floor and can be used. It would be somewhat difficult to install sheetrock at this wall anyway because there are pipes and valves adjacent to the wall which would interfere with the studs and there really isn't any available insulation you can install in a boiler room that is fire resistant without being enclosed in sheetrock.

Remember how excited I was when we installed a jacket at our hot water heater? Turns out we didn't really need it. If you put your hand on top of the hot water heater and it feels cool, you don't need to add insulation, it is internally insulated.

5. When we ask the contractor to install the insulation at the attic space, I'll also ask him to insulate the walls and ceiling of our front room and kitchen which were built years ago as additions to the original house and are really cold and uncomfortable in the winter.

One very interesting thing I learned is that it is extremely inefficient to install high-hats (recessed lighting fixtures) at the top floor of a house because each one acts as a little chimney, pulling heat away from the living spaces and into the attic or directly out of the house, even if you have CFL's in them.

In all it was a great visit, and we got 2 free compact fluorescent bulbs to boot!

For all the posts about the Insulation Project, click here.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com