Worth the 3 minutes to watch it….
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From the category archives:
Power and Energy Conservation
This Saturday at 8:30 PM is Earth Hour – one of those global call to action things….interesting note on this is that it traces its history to San Francisco (all good things begin in San Francisco) when “Lights out SF” in 2007 pushed people to turn out their lights in solidarity with the energy conservation movement. You know what, its a freakin good idea. How hard is it to turn out your lights for an hour? Not too hard, and it sends a message that people give a flying fart about the world. Want to go one step further? Check your outdoor light after you turn it off, if it’s an incandescent, and I will bet two pig tails and a sack of corn that it is, change it to a CFL (Compact Flourescent Light). Then when you turn it back on, you have accomplished something long lasting, something Sustainable, out of the whole thing.
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That’s the view from the roof of 2139 39th Ave, my Sustainable Project out in the Sunset District. And lest some of you start making cracks about how the Sunset is Foggy – there have been more than enough sunny days this last year to justify the installation of the 2.3 Kilowatt solar photovoltaic system you see here: we are generating over 1,100 watts right now at 9:27 AM, and by the afternoon we will be cranking out well over 2,000 watts.
One thing most folks do not understand about a solar system is how the light is transformed into electrical energy. Well, the photons (light) hits those panels above (they are black to absorb more light) and they create a direct current. Your house uses alternating current electricity to power your ipod and microwave, so that direct current (DC) has to be inverted into an alternating current (AC) using one of these things…
That’s an inverter in the garage that changes the DC into AC….like the band. Except they are AC/DC because, well, oh never mind.
I received a $4,000 rebate check from PG&E for the panels, and if I ever get off my lazy ass and finish the paperwork I have another $3,000 due from the city and county of SF. That plus the cost of the installation does not get added to your property tax basis around here, which is cool. Plus the savings off energy – I still pay the taxes and such, but the electrical line on the bill is zero. And I produce no carbon.
Win, win, win and win.
H
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A reader sent me an email the other day asking for a site or calculation that could help him determine how much money he would save if he installed higher R factor insulation. It is a damn good question, and while I referred him to SustainableSpaces for bids and/or an energy audit, it got me thinking about cost savings. Exactly specifically to the dollar and cent how much do we save when we install energy & water saving systems into our homes? It is a personal question as it relates to your baseline usage, and savings will flow from each person differently – my wife likes to point out that I take very long showers, so if I were not so much of a water pig, how many dollars would that add up to over the course of a year? There is this great article on Energy Use from National Geographic that has be inspired to go on an energy diet…I think I will get some baseline costs up, and track how changes in behavior and the installation of new systems impact actual costs, and report back on the savings. I haven’t a clue how to do it, and I should probably let my wife know also, but I will figure it out and post as I go.
H
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I am a big fan of FSC Certified wood and wood products. The Forest Stewardship Council oversees the management and production of wood, ensures that forests are not clear cut, that the rights of indigenous people are respected, that proper forest management protocols are observed, and that the wood that you buy has not been swapped out with other, poorly sourced product. The FSC has a chain of custody process that is in my opinion a model for other sustainable building materials.
Here are some highlights(Taken from the FSC Site):
- More than 100 million ha forest worldwide were certified to FSC standards in April 2008, distributed over 79 countries.
- FSC certified forests represent the equivalent of 7% of the world’s productive forests.
- FSC is the fastest growing forest certification system in the world (UN FAO, 2007)
- With over 7’500 certificates, the number of companies along the forest product supply chain committing to FSC certification peaked at 40% in 2007.
- The value of FSC labeled sales is estimated at over 20 billion USD.
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