I'm not used to living in a cold house, especially not a big one. But now when the heat is on, I look at all of the space that's being heated, and realize that I occupy an extremely small fraction of it (~0.05%). On most days I don't even set foot in the two spare bedrooms. Why heat them? Just heating the rooms I'm in is far better.
But even better than heating fewer rooms is just heating a body. Of course, our bodies produce heat themselves. I now wear flannel pajama pants, a sweater, and warm slippers in the evenings in my house to keep the body heat near me. It sounds like I'm 70 years old, but now I'm comfortable with the house at 66 degrees.
And I now have flannel sheets on my bed, as well as a down comforter, so I don't have to run the heat at all at night.
So that's my system for now. I keep the largest unused bedroom closed off so that it doesn't need to be heated, I dress warmly and have a warm bed. I now only need to heat my house to 66 degrees from 6-11pm, and don't run the heat at all at any other time (at least during the week).
Of course that's the low hanging fruit. Now I need to insulate my house better.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Blower Door Test
I had a home energy audit this morning. It was really educational. Not because the guy was so informative, but because I got to look over his shoulder and see the numbers on his gauges.
The major test he did was a blower door test to measure air infiltration. A blower door is a plastic seal put over your front door, with a large fan on the bottom (see picture to the left). The fan blows air out of the house to create a pressure differential between the inside and outside. This causes air to be sucked into the house via numerous cracks and leaks. While the fan is on, you can go around the house and feel the areas that have obvious leaks. For example, there was air coming out of my light switches - not much, but it was definitely there.
There were several big (and obvious) drafts. First, the chimney flue doesn't really close all the way, so that's a gigantic hole letting my conditioned air escape. Second, I have ten recessed lights that are not sealed, so they're just a bunch of conduits between the living space and the attic (and the attic is likely damn hot during the summer). Third, I have a few holes in the wall where coaxial cable is poking through but there's no cover. So it's just a ~ 1-inch diameter hole where air comes right in.
These were all fairly obvious leaks. What I didn't expect was that my floor leaked. Seriously. I have hardwood floors on a slightly raised foundation and when I put my hand near the floor, there was a very subtle, but real, draft. Apparently, hardwood floors (on raised foundations) are typically more drafty than mine, but still, this opened my eyes a bit.
For the subtle leaks, the guy (inspector?) had a cool contraption that was basically a large plastic hemisphere that you put over something you want to inspect for leaks (a vent, recessed light, etc). The rubber around the edge forms a seal and it reads out the pressure difference between the room and the sealed inside of the hemisphere. The blower door was maintaining 50 Pa (pascals) pressure difference between the inside and outside. If this contraption also measured a large differential between the room and the object of interest, that means it's leaking a lot. For example, he put it over one of my AC vents, and it only read 3 Pa. Not a big difference. However, when he put it over a recessed light, it read 33 Pa. Basically, there was almost nothing holding the air back.
On top of this, you can use an infrared camera to scan the walls and openings to spot obvious places where heat is being transported. It was a very cold morning and the joints between the wall and ceiling were colder than the rest, indicating that some of the cooler air was leaking in there (apparently this is quite common). Unfortunately, the temperature differential between the inside and outside was pretty low, so this stuff was hard to see. I felt a little ripped off because of that.
Anyway, the whole experience was fascinating. But here's the thing - I could have done it myself. I'm a smart guy with basic physics knowledge. I could have figured out how to do this in 5 minutes on the internet. The inspector didn't really have a deep understanding of what he was measuring. When cranking up the blower door fan, he kept saying he was going to crank it up high enough so that there was a "50% difference" between inside and outside, while pointing to the meter. The meter was actually reading the pressure difference in units of pascals, not percentage difference in pressure. A 50% drop in pressure would have been like transporting us to 18,000 ft. elevation in a matter of seconds. That would have done some nasty things to my ears - and it would have really pissed off my cat.
So, yes, I could have done this myself. It looks like it might be possible to rent these blower doors. That would be awesome! It makes so much more sense. Seal up the recessed lights, take the measurement again, seal the fireplace, take the measurement again. You could actually see how much you're improving your home's insulation. The way it works now is, you get the test, they tell you what will help, and then they claim to fix it. But I want to see a before and after. How much have you really helped me out? This is all just making me want to do it myself.
Side note: The inspector was useful in that he helped me realize some quirks about the way my city provides efficiency rebates. That might save me a ton of money.
There were several big (and obvious) drafts. First, the chimney flue doesn't really close all the way, so that's a gigantic hole letting my conditioned air escape. Second, I have ten recessed lights that are not sealed, so they're just a bunch of conduits between the living space and the attic (and the attic is likely damn hot during the summer). Third, I have a few holes in the wall where coaxial cable is poking through but there's no cover. So it's just a ~ 1-inch diameter hole where air comes right in.
These were all fairly obvious leaks. What I didn't expect was that my floor leaked. Seriously. I have hardwood floors on a slightly raised foundation and when I put my hand near the floor, there was a very subtle, but real, draft. Apparently, hardwood floors (on raised foundations) are typically more drafty than mine, but still, this opened my eyes a bit.
For the subtle leaks, the guy (inspector?) had a cool contraption that was basically a large plastic hemisphere that you put over something you want to inspect for leaks (a vent, recessed light, etc). The rubber around the edge forms a seal and it reads out the pressure difference between the room and the sealed inside of the hemisphere. The blower door was maintaining 50 Pa (pascals) pressure difference between the inside and outside. If this contraption also measured a large differential between the room and the object of interest, that means it's leaking a lot. For example, he put it over one of my AC vents, and it only read 3 Pa. Not a big difference. However, when he put it over a recessed light, it read 33 Pa. Basically, there was almost nothing holding the air back.
On top of this, you can use an infrared camera to scan the walls and openings to spot obvious places where heat is being transported. It was a very cold morning and the joints between the wall and ceiling were colder than the rest, indicating that some of the cooler air was leaking in there (apparently this is quite common). Unfortunately, the temperature differential between the inside and outside was pretty low, so this stuff was hard to see. I felt a little ripped off because of that.
Anyway, the whole experience was fascinating. But here's the thing - I could have done it myself. I'm a smart guy with basic physics knowledge. I could have figured out how to do this in 5 minutes on the internet. The inspector didn't really have a deep understanding of what he was measuring. When cranking up the blower door fan, he kept saying he was going to crank it up high enough so that there was a "50% difference" between inside and outside, while pointing to the meter. The meter was actually reading the pressure difference in units of pascals, not percentage difference in pressure. A 50% drop in pressure would have been like transporting us to 18,000 ft. elevation in a matter of seconds. That would have done some nasty things to my ears - and it would have really pissed off my cat.
So, yes, I could have done this myself. It looks like it might be possible to rent these blower doors. That would be awesome! It makes so much more sense. Seal up the recessed lights, take the measurement again, seal the fireplace, take the measurement again. You could actually see how much you're improving your home's insulation. The way it works now is, you get the test, they tell you what will help, and then they claim to fix it. But I want to see a before and after. How much have you really helped me out? This is all just making me want to do it myself.
Side note: The inspector was useful in that he helped me realize some quirks about the way my city provides efficiency rebates. That might save me a ton of money.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The 32 Watt Vampire
In a previous post, I suggested that we should all go around the house and measure our appliances' power consumption. I did this when I first moved in, but I didn't have DIRECTV then. I finally got around to measuring the power used by the DIRECTV digital video recorder (DVR). When the DVR is on, it uses ~26 watts. I thought that was a little high, but it's only on for an hour or so per day. But what does it use when powered off? 24 watts! And worse, the coax cable is plugged into a switch that also uses 8 watts at all times. Great. 32 watts on 24 hours a day.
Last month, my average electricity use was 200 watts at all times. That means this damn DVR accounts for 16% of my electricity use right now. It doesn't have to be that way. I assume it's on all the time so that it can monitor the programs so it knows when to start recording shows. But it knows the show times well in advance. Why can't it power on once a day to update the show times and then only turn on when a show is starting? That would save a huge amount of energy.
What's worse is that this is their newest set-top box and the damn thing is supposedly EnergyStar qualified - says so right on the front. But it's not true. Read for yourself. In "single room" configuration (which is the configuration in my house and probably most houses), it is NOT EnergyStar qualified. The DVR part of the set-top-box just uses too much power for one TV unit to ever get an EnergyStar rating.
On top of all of this, DIRECTV recommends that you do NOT repeatedly power off the box by unplugging it. great.
There's got to be a smarter way - possibly a solid state drive that powers on only when it needs to record a show. I'm sure Apple could design something that uses a factor of three less power. Actually, maybe they are.
Anyway, I'm going to call DIRECTV tomorrow to complain. Maybe if enough people complain, they'll actually do something about it. They probably don't get enough complaints at the moment because electric power is too cheap. At the current rates in my area ($0.1035/kwh), this only amounts to about $2.40/month. Imagine if it were three times higher. You can be damn sure DIRECTV would be hearing about its inefficient set-top boxes then.
Last month, my average electricity use was 200 watts at all times. That means this damn DVR accounts for 16% of my electricity use right now. It doesn't have to be that way. I assume it's on all the time so that it can monitor the programs so it knows when to start recording shows. But it knows the show times well in advance. Why can't it power on once a day to update the show times and then only turn on when a show is starting? That would save a huge amount of energy.
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| Image from Seattle City Light |
On top of all of this, DIRECTV recommends that you do NOT repeatedly power off the box by unplugging it. great.
There's got to be a smarter way - possibly a solid state drive that powers on only when it needs to record a show. I'm sure Apple could design something that uses a factor of three less power. Actually, maybe they are.
Anyway, I'm going to call DIRECTV tomorrow to complain. Maybe if enough people complain, they'll actually do something about it. They probably don't get enough complaints at the moment because electric power is too cheap. At the current rates in my area ($0.1035/kwh), this only amounts to about $2.40/month. Imagine if it were three times higher. You can be damn sure DIRECTV would be hearing about its inefficient set-top boxes then.
Monday, November 21, 2011
New TV!
OK, sometimes saving energy can just be awesome.
My old apartment was very small, and my couch was therefore only ~6 feet from my TV. So my 32" LCD worked just fine. My new living room is pretty large, and a 32" TV is just too small for me.
This new TV has just over double the area of my old TV, so one would naively expect that it would take twice as much power to light it. But LEDs are very efficient, so I had hoped that the power use wouldn't be any higher. I did a test, with the exact same picture and similar brightness levels. The new TV actually uses about 25% less power than my previous TV! (75W vs. 100W). Awesome. In addition, the vampire power is essentially non-existant (0.07W) and it has additional features that can decrease power consumption even further without affecting the picture much (which I'll use when I'm not watching sports).
Check out the Energy Guide sticker that came with it. The estimated energy costs per year is so low ($12) that it's off the range in the sticker ($18-$51). Awesome.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Energy Down the Drain, Literally
In a previous post, I patted myself on the back for replacing my shower head and saving 34% on my water usage during showers. As an aside, I said that it was a "bonus" that I was also saving energy too, because I burned less natural gas to heat less water.
Well, I've been thinking about this - Is the energy savings just a nice little bonus, or is it actually a huge benefit? Here are the numbers, if you're interested:
I don't know the exact temperature of the water being put into the water heater, or the temperature of my shower, but I've estimated 60 F and 105 F, respectively. That 45 F degree difference is exactly a 25 Kelvin difference. To raise the temperature of 1 gallon of water by 25 K takes about 400,000 Joules (heat capacity of water near room temperature: 4.2 J/(g-K)).
That means taking a shower uses energy at a rate of 13,000 joules/second, or 13,000 watts. That is huge! My shower is consuming energy at a faster rate than my whole-house air conditioning unit (see previous post)!
Granted, it's only for 10 minutes, but still. Let's put it in terms of total energy. I'm probably using about 6 kwh/day in electricity at this time of the year. A ten minute shower uses 2 kwh, meaning my shower is 1/4 of all of my energy use in my house. jeeez. So in that respect, using 34% less water is HUGE, a savings of over 8% on my total energy use in my house, just by using a more efficient shower head. awesome.
Note 1: This is probably a lower limit on the amount of energy used because the water loses some energy as it sits in the tank, waiting for me to use it. Thus, it needs some reheating.
Note 2: All of these units of energy are interesting, but the energy to carbon dioxide conversion is not the same for electrical generation (via burning coal) and heating (via natural gas). But that's for another post...
I don't know the exact temperature of the water being put into the water heater, or the temperature of my shower, but I've estimated 60 F and 105 F, respectively. That 45 F degree difference is exactly a 25 Kelvin difference. To raise the temperature of 1 gallon of water by 25 K takes about 400,000 Joules (heat capacity of water near room temperature: 4.2 J/(g-K)).
That means taking a shower uses energy at a rate of 13,000 joules/second, or 13,000 watts. That is huge! My shower is consuming energy at a faster rate than my whole-house air conditioning unit (see previous post)!
Granted, it's only for 10 minutes, but still. Let's put it in terms of total energy. I'm probably using about 6 kwh/day in electricity at this time of the year. A ten minute shower uses 2 kwh, meaning my shower is 1/4 of all of my energy use in my house. jeeez. So in that respect, using 34% less water is HUGE, a savings of over 8% on my total energy use in my house, just by using a more efficient shower head. awesome.
Note 1: This is probably a lower limit on the amount of energy used because the water loses some energy as it sits in the tank, waiting for me to use it. Thus, it needs some reheating.
Note 2: All of these units of energy are interesting, but the energy to carbon dioxide conversion is not the same for electrical generation (via burning coal) and heating (via natural gas). But that's for another post...
Monday, October 24, 2011
Progress!
Last month I reported my monthly electricity and water usage for the mid-August to mid-September time frame. It was atrocious, but it was also the hottest time of the year - when air-conditioning and frequent lawn watering is required. Well, I got the new utility bill for the mid-Sept. to mid-Oct. period... and it is MUCH MUCH better!
Electricity
My electricity use went from 19.84 kwh/day to 7.13 kwh/day, a 64% decrease! And there were several days in Sept. when I still had to use my air conditioner. This new value amounts to about 300 watts being used all the time, though I imagine about half of it is still from the air conditioning needing to be fired up for several hours during the month. It'll be interesting to see how much I use in a month without any air conditioning - which should be this month.
Water
My water usage went from 1.26 CCF/day to 0.75 CCF/day, a 40% decrease. Again, this seems to be almost entirely dictated by how much I water my yard. I've already decreased the watering frequency and duration again for this month, so it should be significantly lower next month.
This conservation saved me $82 this month. Not too shabby.
Observations
1. It's cold here at night now. The average temp has been hovering in the low 50s (F). Even if the temperature gets in the mid-90s outside, my house never goes above 78 or so. Therefore, I don't need air conditioning. This will probably be true until May, when the average temperatures are similar. That means for 7+ months I will not need to use my air conditioner at all, and for another two months it will only sparsely be used. This really does mean that upgrading to a more efficient air conditioning unit will not pay off for a LONG time.
2. I'm still using 560 gallons of water per day. This number is just completely unacceptable to me. I still haven't really pushed the lawn watering to extremes. I'm going to start watering it far less frequently now.
I've been accumulating good blog post ideas. More soon to come.
Electricity
My electricity use went from 19.84 kwh/day to 7.13 kwh/day, a 64% decrease! And there were several days in Sept. when I still had to use my air conditioner. This new value amounts to about 300 watts being used all the time, though I imagine about half of it is still from the air conditioning needing to be fired up for several hours during the month. It'll be interesting to see how much I use in a month without any air conditioning - which should be this month.
Water
My water usage went from 1.26 CCF/day to 0.75 CCF/day, a 40% decrease. Again, this seems to be almost entirely dictated by how much I water my yard. I've already decreased the watering frequency and duration again for this month, so it should be significantly lower next month.
This conservation saved me $82 this month. Not too shabby.
Observations
1. It's cold here at night now. The average temp has been hovering in the low 50s (F). Even if the temperature gets in the mid-90s outside, my house never goes above 78 or so. Therefore, I don't need air conditioning. This will probably be true until May, when the average temperatures are similar. That means for 7+ months I will not need to use my air conditioner at all, and for another two months it will only sparsely be used. This really does mean that upgrading to a more efficient air conditioning unit will not pay off for a LONG time.
2. I'm still using 560 gallons of water per day. This number is just completely unacceptable to me. I still haven't really pushed the lawn watering to extremes. I'm going to start watering it far less frequently now.
I've been accumulating good blog post ideas. More soon to come.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Low Hanging Fruit II: Shower Head
Did you know the US uses 1.7 trillion gallons of water a year just for showering? The EPA estimates that showers comprise 17% of all residential water use.
The shower head in my master bath felt amazing. It had large holes and my house has fantastic water pressure, so there was a lot of water coming out. I figured that I could decrease the water flux by a significant amount without decreasing the experience.
Well, I picked up a new shower head, one that is EPA Watersense certified. It is supposed to offer the same performance, while decreasing water use by 30%. I take this to mean that a good shower is not simply defined by the amount of water, but by its velocity and how evenly it's distributed. When the flow is restricted on a regular shower head, the streams can be weak, and the shower experience sucks. In a water efficient shower head, the exit holes are smaller so the water exits at a higher velocity, mitigating this problem, so you don't end up like Jerry Seinfeld...
Anyway, I got the new shower head and decided to do a test in real life conditions. With both shower heads, I turned the water on full [note: my shower is either all on or all off, but the pressure does change depending upon how much hot/cold water is used so I was sure to use the same "temp" each time]. I measured the time for each shower head to fill up a 2 gallon bucket. Here are the results:
Old: 51 seconds
New: 77 seconds
This translates to 2.35 gallons/minute for the old shower head, and 1.56 gallons/minute for the new shower head. Success! This new shower head uses 34% less water! And it still feels great. It's a no brainer.
I imagine my typical shower to be 8 minutes long (I know, I know, but I love showers). So this shower head switch saves about 6 gallons per shower. Not too shabby. It's comparable to the amount saved by "letting it mellow."
Oh, and this also decreases by 34% the natural gas burned to heat the water. Bonus.
The shower head in my master bath felt amazing. It had large holes and my house has fantastic water pressure, so there was a lot of water coming out. I figured that I could decrease the water flux by a significant amount without decreasing the experience.
Anyway, I got the new shower head and decided to do a test in real life conditions. With both shower heads, I turned the water on full [note: my shower is either all on or all off, but the pressure does change depending upon how much hot/cold water is used so I was sure to use the same "temp" each time]. I measured the time for each shower head to fill up a 2 gallon bucket. Here are the results:
Old: 51 seconds
New: 77 seconds
This translates to 2.35 gallons/minute for the old shower head, and 1.56 gallons/minute for the new shower head. Success! This new shower head uses 34% less water! And it still feels great. It's a no brainer.
I imagine my typical shower to be 8 minutes long (I know, I know, but I love showers). So this shower head switch saves about 6 gallons per shower. Not too shabby. It's comparable to the amount saved by "letting it mellow."
Oh, and this also decreases by 34% the natural gas burned to heat the water. Bonus.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Penitence
Well, I've lived in my home now for a few months and have finally received my first full month's utility bills... and it's not pretty. Of course it's very hot here in the summer, so both my water and electricity usage peak in August (the current billing period). Still, I am shocked. I can't even look the environment in the face any more, I'm so ashamed. This is me, to the environment:
I almost didn't want to post the actual numbers because it's so embarrassing.
Here's why:
Water:
My daily water usage came to 1.26 CCF, or about 940 gallons... per day!!!! This makes my head spin. I'm estimating that 85-90% of this must be from watering my yard alone. And I already reduced the sprinkler watering time from the previous owners' times by 25%. Well, it's time to experiment with just how little water my yard really needs. We've just passed the Autumnal Equinox, the days are getting shorter and cooler, and the sun is less high in the sky. I just reduced the watering times by another 40%. We'll see how that goes. I've got a few other ideas for saving water as well. In the long term, I'm looking at reducing the amount of turf grass in my yard.
Electricity:
I used 615 kilowatt-hours for the month. This comes out to an average rate of 827 watts on all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is atrocious. In fact, it's about 5.6 times more than I used in the same time period last year when I lived in a studio. Once again, I'm guessing that more than 85% of that is air conditioning. I finally figured out what the ton unit is on my air conditioning unit. When my AC is running, it's using 5 kilowatts. That is a huge number. My AC only has to run for 238 minutes every day to account for all of my used energy. I can probably bump up my thermostat another degree (F) during the day, but that's about it. My cat really can't handle more than 82F. I never have the AC set below 80 when I'm home, so I can't increase it that much more. There is one thing I can do. My AC unit is 15 years old. Comparing SEER ratings, I could upgrade to a new, ultra-efficient unit and decrease the energy used by 35-40%. The city of Riverside gives rebates for purchasing efficient air conditioners, but it will only cover 15% or so of the cost. That helps, but it will still be very expensive. Even with these rebates, I estimate that it will take me 20+ years to recoup the costs of the air conditioner with saving on energy bills. Ugh. If it were between buying an efficient versus inefficient air conditioner, the return on investment would actually be pretty quick (5ish years). But when it's between a whole new air conditioner, and not buying one at all, the purchase just doesn't pay off. I will probably be buying a new air conditioner in the next year, but it will be out of the goodness of my own heart, not because it will save me money.
Gas:
The first full month bill of natural gas has not come in yet, but I can tell from the first partial bill that it's going to be extremely low. Most of my appliances (including my stove and oven) are electric. Only my water heater, heater (which I'm obviously not using), and dryer use gas. I'll update the post with actual number when it comes in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. They will come down dramatically on their own, simply because of the changing season. Nonetheless, there is a lot of work to do...
Here's why:
Water:
My daily water usage came to 1.26 CCF, or about 940 gallons... per day!!!! This makes my head spin. I'm estimating that 85-90% of this must be from watering my yard alone. And I already reduced the sprinkler watering time from the previous owners' times by 25%. Well, it's time to experiment with just how little water my yard really needs. We've just passed the Autumnal Equinox, the days are getting shorter and cooler, and the sun is less high in the sky. I just reduced the watering times by another 40%. We'll see how that goes. I've got a few other ideas for saving water as well. In the long term, I'm looking at reducing the amount of turf grass in my yard.
Electricity:
I used 615 kilowatt-hours for the month. This comes out to an average rate of 827 watts on all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is atrocious. In fact, it's about 5.6 times more than I used in the same time period last year when I lived in a studio. Once again, I'm guessing that more than 85% of that is air conditioning. I finally figured out what the ton unit is on my air conditioning unit. When my AC is running, it's using 5 kilowatts. That is a huge number. My AC only has to run for 238 minutes every day to account for all of my used energy. I can probably bump up my thermostat another degree (F) during the day, but that's about it. My cat really can't handle more than 82F. I never have the AC set below 80 when I'm home, so I can't increase it that much more. There is one thing I can do. My AC unit is 15 years old. Comparing SEER ratings, I could upgrade to a new, ultra-efficient unit and decrease the energy used by 35-40%. The city of Riverside gives rebates for purchasing efficient air conditioners, but it will only cover 15% or so of the cost. That helps, but it will still be very expensive. Even with these rebates, I estimate that it will take me 20+ years to recoup the costs of the air conditioner with saving on energy bills. Ugh. If it were between buying an efficient versus inefficient air conditioner, the return on investment would actually be pretty quick (5ish years). But when it's between a whole new air conditioner, and not buying one at all, the purchase just doesn't pay off. I will probably be buying a new air conditioner in the next year, but it will be out of the goodness of my own heart, not because it will save me money.
Gas:
The first full month bill of natural gas has not come in yet, but I can tell from the first partial bill that it's going to be extremely low. Most of my appliances (including my stove and oven) are electric. Only my water heater, heater (which I'm obviously not using), and dryer use gas. I'll update the post with actual number when it comes in.
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All of these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. They will come down dramatically on their own, simply because of the changing season. Nonetheless, there is a lot of work to do...
More Units
I'm not done ranting about stupid units. I'm going over my first utility bills to see how much I'm using, and how easy it'll be to decrease that usage by a significant amount.
Well, I ran into another stupid unit. My water bill gives my usage in CCF. What percentage of Americans actually have any idea what these units mean? I'll bet it's less than 30%. It turns out a CCF is 100 cubic feet. Great. That's something we can all relate to. Can a brother get a number in gallons or liters?
Anyway, 1 CCF is equal to 748 gallons.
Well, I ran into another stupid unit. My water bill gives my usage in CCF. What percentage of Americans actually have any idea what these units mean? I'll bet it's less than 30%. It turns out a CCF is 100 cubic feet. Great. That's something we can all relate to. Can a brother get a number in gallons or liters?
Anyway, 1 CCF is equal to 748 gallons.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Units of Power
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." -Abraham LincolnI've posted before on the importance of understanding where you are using the most power. How can you effectively decrease energy consumption if you don't know where it's being used?
Unfortunately, this is complicated by the absurd and antiquated ways in which we quantify power: electricity in watts, heating in BTUs per hour, cooling in tons, driving in horsepower. With all of these different units, it's difficult to compare them and understand which appliances consume the most power. There are historical reasons for these units, but it would be much simpler if all power was given in kilowatts (kw) and all energy was given in kilowatt-hours (kwh).
At the end of the article, I give the relevant conversions, but here is the typical power consumed by various items, all in kilowatts, so you can directly compare.
Notice the huge range in numbers there. Your air conditioner and car use massive amounts of energy in small amounts of time. A car on the freeway is using the same amount of power as 650 CFL light bulbs. This is the first place to start when cutting your energy usage. If you're cranking the AC or commuting an hour each way to work, turning off a light bulb for an extra hour doesn't make a dent in your total energy consumption.
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Here are the equivalents to 1 kilowatt:
3,412 BTU/hour1.34 horsepower
0.284 tons
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Low Hanging Fruit I: If It's Yellow...
[Prologue: I'll be periodically posting about small, cheap changes that have a relatively large benefit for the environment - the low hanging fruit.]
Southern California is perpetually in drought. Growing up here, we would occasionally hear pleas from local officials to reduce water use in various ways. One common phrase people threw around was, "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down" - meaning, don't flush the toilet after urinating. Despite growing up in SoCal, I never heeded this appeal. I guess I thought there'd be some unseemly, unsanitary downside.
Well, now my damn yard is using a ton of water and I'm trying desperately to think of ways to use less water (working on the yard thing too, but that'll take longer). So, I've started to let it mellow. Basically, I flush only about 1/3 as much as I normally would have. After a few weeks, no drawbacks. Of course, I would only do this in my master bathroom, not the bathroom that guests would use.
It's probably saving about 6 gallons of water per day. It's not a huge amount, but it requires no work at all. In fact it requires doing less. So why not?
Southern California is perpetually in drought. Growing up here, we would occasionally hear pleas from local officials to reduce water use in various ways. One common phrase people threw around was, "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down" - meaning, don't flush the toilet after urinating. Despite growing up in SoCal, I never heeded this appeal. I guess I thought there'd be some unseemly, unsanitary downside.
Well, now my damn yard is using a ton of water and I'm trying desperately to think of ways to use less water (working on the yard thing too, but that'll take longer). So, I've started to let it mellow. Basically, I flush only about 1/3 as much as I normally would have. After a few weeks, no drawbacks. Of course, I would only do this in my master bathroom, not the bathroom that guests would use.
It's probably saving about 6 gallons of water per day. It's not a huge amount, but it requires no work at all. In fact it requires doing less. So why not?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Stop Driving Further to a Cheaper Gas Station
Gas is expensive, and it has been for the last six months or so. Because of this, I've heard several people talk about driving out of their way to pay less for gas. If you're doing this, you're probably not saving money. In my experience, gas prices don't vary all that much. The biggest swings I see in a city are typically 5 cents/gallon, maybe a bit more. So is it worth driving an extra couple of miles to get to that cheap gas station? Probably not.
Here's why. I'll use numbers for average American cars. Let's say you're filling up your tank with 13 gallons of gas, and your car gets 20 mpg in the city, and the gas price at the nearest station is $3.65/gallon. But you know of a station where you can get gas at $3.60/gallon just one mile away.
1. First of all, 5¢/gallon × 13 gallons = 65¢ is what you stand to gain if you didn't have to drive any further for that gas. That's not all that much, compared to the nearly fifty bucks you're about to drop.
2. But what if you have to drive an extra mile to get the cheaper gas? Well, at 20 mpg (in city driving), you burn an extra 1/20th of a gallon just getting to the new station. That extra gas costs you $3.60×(1/20) = 18¢. Now your savings is only 47¢.
3. This gas station was out of your way. So now you've got to get back to where you were before. That wastes another 18¢ worth of fuel, and you're down to just 29¢ in savings.
Put simply, your percentage increase in gas consumption is similar to your percentage decrease in gas price. So you're not saving much.
Congratulations, you've now gone out of your way to save a quarter, which begs the question- How much is your time worth? At 25 mph average speed, the round trip two miles takes about 5 mins, assuming you don't catch a bunch of lights. Optimistically, you spent 5 minutes to save 29¢. That's $3.48/hour, or about half of the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour).
And I've said nothing of the additional mileage put on your car and additional smog and CO2 put into the air.
Long story short, it's got to be a big difference in price, and the cheaper gas station can't be far out of your way. Next time, save some time and just pay the extra quarter.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Public Enemy Number 1
I've identified one of the largest contributors to my environmental footprint. Here's a picture of him:
That's my cat. He's pretty cute, but make no mistake, he is an environmental disaster. Here's why:
1. Litter: I'm pretty good about recycling and reusing, so the actual volume of trash I produce is pretty small - so much so that I'm getting a much smaller trash can for my kitchen. At least in my old apartment, my cat's litter accounted for about half of my trash volume. crazy...
2. Air Conditioning: It gets very hot in the summer where I live. But I'm not at home during the hottest part of the day. Ideally, I'd like to not use the AC at all when I'm not home. Unfortunately, it can get upwards of 90 degrees in my house on the warmest summer days and my cat can't really deal with that. He's a big fur ball (Norwegian Forest Cat), and he just cooks in the heat. So, I keep the temperature set so that the AC runs a little from 4-6 pm. It's still a little warm for him, but I'm not turning it down any more. To help him out a bit I "furminate" him every month or so during the summer.
My cat is a rescue. I'd rather see pets live happy lives than get euthanized, of course. But, we should try to avoid too many unwanted cats and dogs. Spay or neuter your pets, please!
That's my cat. He's pretty cute, but make no mistake, he is an environmental disaster. Here's why:
1. Litter: I'm pretty good about recycling and reusing, so the actual volume of trash I produce is pretty small - so much so that I'm getting a much smaller trash can for my kitchen. At least in my old apartment, my cat's litter accounted for about half of my trash volume. crazy...
2. Air Conditioning: It gets very hot in the summer where I live. But I'm not at home during the hottest part of the day. Ideally, I'd like to not use the AC at all when I'm not home. Unfortunately, it can get upwards of 90 degrees in my house on the warmest summer days and my cat can't really deal with that. He's a big fur ball (Norwegian Forest Cat), and he just cooks in the heat. So, I keep the temperature set so that the AC runs a little from 4-6 pm. It's still a little warm for him, but I'm not turning it down any more. To help him out a bit I "furminate" him every month or so during the summer.
My cat is a rescue. I'd rather see pets live happy lives than get euthanized, of course. But, we should try to avoid too many unwanted cats and dogs. Spay or neuter your pets, please!
I'm in!
Well, I've just moved into my new home. And though the home is in very good condition, there is a ton of work to do. I can tell by the appliances, and the settings on those appliances, that the previous owners were not concerned with energy conservation. So, there's lots of work to do. I'm currently taking it slow, identifying the lowest hanging fruit, so that I spend my first round of cash on the most beneficial projects. It's gonna take a while, as I'm traveling a bit in the next month or so. But after that, it is on!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Unsustainable Diet
Our eating habits have huge impacts on the environment. According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agriculture contributes about 1/8th of all anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gases. Also, it takes a lot of land to grow our food. The IPCC estimates that:
Agricultural lands (lands used for agricultural production,consisting of cropland, managed grassland and permanent cropsincluding agro-forestry and bio-energy crops) occupy about 40-50% of the Earth’s land surface.
Isn't that crazy? Despite all of our efforts - genetically engineering faster-growing crops and mass-producing artificial fertilizers - we still need half of the Earth's surface to feed ourselves. Land that is untouched by humans is now generally confined to mountains, deserts, and dense forest. And that dense forest (eg. the Amazon) is being cut down to make way for still more crops (predominantly soy).
Check out this 100-mile by 300-mile piece of the American Midwest from Google Maps.
Looks pretty green, right? But when you zoom in, what do you see?
It's all a farmland checkerboard, for 500 miles in every direction. The American prairie is gone. It's all now made up of huge lots of one single crop, rather than a rich variety of grasses, fungi, shrubs, worms, birds, rodents, antelope, buffalo, etc. This is not nature, but somehow turning our entire country into this is acceptable.
We all need to eat. So how do we feed ourselves while using fewer resources and lessening the impact on the environment? The short answer is to eat lower on the food chain. Each time an animal eats food, most of the energy and nutrients stored in that food are not directly converted into more meat on that animal (ie. new food). In a sense it is wasted. So if we want to feed nearly 7 billion people, the most efficient method is for all of us to eat from the lowest rung in the food chain. That is, we should all be vegetarians.
Unfortunately, the world is moving in the opposite direction. As wealth increases, the diet shifts toward more meats and fewer vegetables. We're now mowing down the rain forests to grow corn and soy to feed to cattle to feed to us. We'd need far less land, water, energy, etc. if we just ate the soy and corn ourselves.
If the rest of the world were to eat like Americans, we'd be in a world of trouble. And yet they are trying. We're constantly industrializing our production of fruits and vegetables, dairy, poultry, pork, and beef in order to keep up with increasing demand. And the results - for the environment, our health, and the well-being of the animals - is frightening.
Below is footage from our modern farming industry. It is the logical end, when trying to feed billions with limited resources, on the cheap. It's truly awful to watch, but important to be aware of.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Growing Food at Home (and in Season)
One aspect of my new home that I'm very excited about is the ability to grow some of my own food. I eat mostly vegetarian so this is a real possibility for me. Here is the census of fruit trees in my yard.
3 Avocado (1 Hass, 2 maybe Pinkerton, they're HUGE!)
1 Orange (don't know what kind, eg. Valencia or Navel)
1 Blood Orange
1 Lemon
1 Lime
Pretty sweet. I actually eat far more vegetables than fruits, however, so I'm really looking forward to having a small vegetable garden. And the first to be planted? Tomatoes. I love 'em. I probably eat more tomatoes than any other food. And the best part is I don't have to eat the awful tomatoes that are so commonly found in grocery stores. NPR had a nice article today explaining why most tomatoes are so bad. Basically, we insist on eating them year round, which requires growing them in Florida, in nutrient-poor sand, requiring huge amounts of pesticides/fungicides, and then transporting them thousands of miles. As one farmer attested, "I don't get paid a single cent for flavor. I get paid for weight." mmm... tasty, tasty weight.
So, yes, a big part of eating sustainably is eating seasonally. That way we we're not fighting nature and transporting food thousands of miles. Until about five years ago, I had no idea in which seasons different crops were harvested. This changed when I was supposed to make a vegetable dish for Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago and I bought ... wait for it ... asparagus. FAIL! I remember it was the last bunch in the store and they were huge, fibrous, and had little taste. Asparagus is a spring vegetable, and I had bought it in precisely the wrong time of year (I believe it was shipped in from South America, as is much of our out-of-season produce).
Fortunately, if you weren't raised on a farm and don't know when fruits and vegetables are in season, you can easily find out. A quick Google search can get you seasonal harvest charts for your area. Here are some harvest season tables for fruits and vegetables in Southern California. Give them a glance. It might just change a few of your eating habits.
3 Avocado (1 Hass, 2 maybe Pinkerton, they're HUGE!)
1 Orange (don't know what kind, eg. Valencia or Navel)
1 Blood Orange
1 Lemon
1 Lime
Pretty sweet. I actually eat far more vegetables than fruits, however, so I'm really looking forward to having a small vegetable garden. And the first to be planted? Tomatoes. I love 'em. I probably eat more tomatoes than any other food. And the best part is I don't have to eat the awful tomatoes that are so commonly found in grocery stores. NPR had a nice article today explaining why most tomatoes are so bad. Basically, we insist on eating them year round, which requires growing them in Florida, in nutrient-poor sand, requiring huge amounts of pesticides/fungicides, and then transporting them thousands of miles. As one farmer attested, "I don't get paid a single cent for flavor. I get paid for weight." mmm... tasty, tasty weight.
So, yes, a big part of eating sustainably is eating seasonally. That way we we're not fighting nature and transporting food thousands of miles. Until about five years ago, I had no idea in which seasons different crops were harvested. This changed when I was supposed to make a vegetable dish for Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago and I bought ... wait for it ... asparagus. FAIL! I remember it was the last bunch in the store and they were huge, fibrous, and had little taste. Asparagus is a spring vegetable, and I had bought it in precisely the wrong time of year (I believe it was shipped in from South America, as is much of our out-of-season produce).
Fortunately, if you weren't raised on a farm and don't know when fruits and vegetables are in season, you can easily find out. A quick Google search can get you seasonal harvest charts for your area. Here are some harvest season tables for fruits and vegetables in Southern California. Give them a glance. It might just change a few of your eating habits.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Measuring Your Appliances' Energy Use
The NY Times had an article today about the huge amount of energy used by cable boxes and digital video recorders (DVRs). American set-top boxes use more energy than the entire state of Maryland! Yikes! As the article points out, it doesn't have to be this way, set-top boxes in Europe use far less power. The problem is, of course, that energy in the States is far cheaper than in Europe and the $3-5 dollars addition to the monthly electricity bill is probably not even noticed. And companies aren't going to go out of their way to fix something that isn't noticed by their customers. I imagine that many customers would demand more efficient electronics if they were aware of the costs.
In order to understand the costs, you have to know how much power each appliance uses. Fortunately, there are lots of cheap devices that measure just that. You just plug the appliance into the meter, and then plug the meter into the outlet. I've been using the Kill A Watt in my apartment and found a few surprises. For example, my desk speakers (and sub-woofer) which I use maybe once a month, use 10 Watts even when the speakers are completely powered off! Because of this, I now only plug in the speakers when I want to use them.
The Kill A Watt can measure the instantaneous power used, so you can immediately see how different settings affect an appliance's efficiency (does that "Energy Saver" mode on my AC wall unit actually save energy?) Also, you can monitor how much total energy is used since you plugged in the appliance. Your refrigerator may not be running when you first plug it in, but you can use this mode to see how much total energy it uses over an entire day.
So go pick up a power meter! It's less than $20 and could pay for itself very quickly.
In order to understand the costs, you have to know how much power each appliance uses. Fortunately, there are lots of cheap devices that measure just that. You just plug the appliance into the meter, and then plug the meter into the outlet. I've been using the Kill A Watt in my apartment and found a few surprises. For example, my desk speakers (and sub-woofer) which I use maybe once a month, use 10 Watts even when the speakers are completely powered off! Because of this, I now only plug in the speakers when I want to use them.
The Kill A Watt can measure the instantaneous power used, so you can immediately see how different settings affect an appliance's efficiency (does that "Energy Saver" mode on my AC wall unit actually save energy?) Also, you can monitor how much total energy is used since you plugged in the appliance. Your refrigerator may not be running when you first plug it in, but you can use this mode to see how much total energy it uses over an entire day.
So go pick up a power meter! It's less than $20 and could pay for itself very quickly.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
First Post - Motivation
I'm an environmentalist - a self-proclaimed tree hugger. Until this summer I've made a relatively modest income. I've lived a bachelor's life in a small, cheap studio where I could walk to work, shops, restaurants, etc. Until now, it's been easy to point fingers at those with large homes, expansive lawns, big families, and long commutes to work. "How can they live like this? Don't they see that their lifestyles are costing them their money, time, health and, most importantly, destroying the environment?"
Well now I have a real job, I make real money, and I'm old enough that I need to start investing in my future. So I bought a house - a house that is currently bigger than I need, but might suit me nicely in a few years. It's got a pretty big yard with lots of fruit trees, and I like that. So here I am, joining the masses in suburbia, becoming what I've long abhorred.
To be sure, I've done the best I can in purchasing a house that is eco-friendly. Most notably, it's a mile from my office so I won't need to use my car to get to work. However, owning a home in the middle of the desert, with a lot of square footage (at least relative to my former studio) and with a large yard requires a lot of energy and water. I feel guilty about this. Fortunately, I think there are cost-effective ways to own a home in suburbia and still live relatively sustainably.
Thus, the motivation for this blog. My mind is full of ideas for dramatically reducing the amount of energy and water consumed and the amount of waste produced by my house. Seriously, I've got 10 different ideas in my head already. This will take time, but I hope to do at least one small project per month. As I upgrade my home I will post about my experiences, hoping to motivate others to take similar actions. Hopefully, people can learn from my research... and my mistakes.
I'm really excited about this. I haven't even closed on the house! So stay tuned!
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