Covering Your Bases — Refrigerator, Lighting, and Hot Water Base-Load Measures

1. Larry Kinney Synergistic Building Technologies Synertech Systems Corp Sunflower Corp Covering Your Bases — Refrigerator, Lighting, and Hot Water Base-Load Measures

2. Session objectives • Achieve a global sense of the importance of weatherization in general and the key role of baseload measures in particular. • Gain insights on the greatest electric baseload failure and cost-effective measures not taken; • Learn why refrigerators and CFLs sometimes fail prematurely and how to deal with the problem; • Learn how to work with suppliers to receive credit for replacement materials; and • Identify when to select another supplier or manufacturer.

3. Baird Callicott “Ethics and Agenda 21: the Moral Implications of a Global Consensus” Let us by all means think globally and act locally. But let us also think locally as well as act globally, and try to tune our global and local thinking as the several notes of a single and common chord.

4. On the occasion of this weatherization training conference, we plan to invoke the genius of Plato’s ascending and descending dialectic: upwards toward a principle, downwards toward a practice—and back up again.

5. Source: Adbusters

6. Population • 1950– Population 2.5 Billion • 2000– Population 6.1 Billion • 2050– Projected 9.3 Billion • World population increased 48% between 1975 and 2000. • The pattern is that of classic exponential growth (which cannot be sustained).

7. Population

8. Energy and power: cosmic definitions • “I hold that being is merely power.” (The Eleatic Stranger, Plato’s Sophist c 430BC) • “Electricity is actually a fast-moving herd of electrons, which are tiny one-celled animals that can survive in almost any environment except inside a double-A battery, where they die within minutes.” (Dave Barry, Funny TimesMay 2001)

9. What’s a million British Thermal Units? • The amount of energy necessary to heat 100,000 pounds of water 10 degrees Fahrenheit • One billionth of a quadrillion (Quad) • And a Quad is 106 * 109 = 1015 Btu!

10. Some global energy numbers • Worldwide annual energy consumption: 400 Quads, 400 billion person years equivalent. • US annual consumption in 2005: 100+ Quads, 100 billion person years of labor equivalent.

11. We’re number one! • With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the US consumes about 1/4 of the world’s energy and produces almost 1/2 of the world’s garbage. • In 2002, the US used 339 MMBtu/person; Germany and Japan 173, and China 33. • Yet 2.5 billion people have no electricity…and we won’t sign the Kyoto accords!

12. Nighttime from the Space Shuttle

14. World Energy Consumption 1970-2020(EIA 1999)

15. How do we make electricity?

16. Generator basics • Moving a coil of wire in a magnetic field induces a voltage • Output depends on number of turns of wire, strength of magnetic field • Magnetic field may be from a “permanent” magnet or an electromagnet • A wire cutting perpendicular to the magnetic field produces maximal voltage; parallel minimum • Sinusoidal output is a natural consequence

17. Steam Turbine Generator Heat

18. Carnot effect:Qout = Qin[(Tin-Tout)/Tin], where Q is quantity of energy and T is absolute temperature • A fundamental physical limitation applicable to all heat engines • Practical effect is that the efficiency of electricity generated by heat engines < 40%

19. Water use in electric power generation • Thermal power plants use about 0.47 gal/kWh generated in the US • Hydro is 18 gal/kWh! • P. Torcellini, N. Long, and R. Judkoff. NREL/CP-550-35190. November 2003. “Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Production.” Available electronically at http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35190.pdf • So measures that save a kWh of electricity save a half a gallon of water at the power plant.

20. Energy Costs 2008, Oil @ $100/bbl

21. Peak Oil

22. Earth’s Surface Temperature

23. “The Revenge of Gaia" • James Lovelock, who espouses the Gaia Theory, now says that the earth is not an organism (but in some respects can be likened to one). • There are feedback mechanisms on Earth that tend to correct or at least recover from some physical and/or chemical and/or biological imbalances.  • The world has already passed the point of noreturn for climate change, and civilization as weknow it is now is unlikely to survive.

24. Preliminary conclusions: • You may believe in the impossibility of the continued exponential growth of non-renewable resources. • You may believe in the likely painful consequences of our planet having reached its peak in oil production. • You may believe in substantial climate change due to our overly consumptive lifestyles that “require” the burning of enormous quantities of fossil fuels. • But only fools believe in none of the above. • Unhappily a number of our nation’s leaders appear to be included in this class…

25. "We now face the prospect of a kind of global civil war between those who refuse to consider the consequences of civilization's relentless advance and those who refuse to be silent partners in its destruction. The time has come to make this struggle the central organizing principle of world civilization.“ Senator Al Gore, 1992

26. So I see two fundamental choices: • We can wring our hands in anguish and curse the enemy (who may be us!) • Or we can roll up our sleeves and try to reverse the trends of waste, becoming part of the solution instead of part of the problem. • I view weatherization as a very important part of the solution—and I salute you!

27. In hopes of rolling up our sleeves, here are some energy considerations in buildings • Waste is rampant, costs are high, and Mother Nature is not pleased with our wasteful habits! • It’s possible to retrofit most dwellings to achieve much better energy performance cost effectively. • Baseload measures are very important, can save water as well as energy, both locally and at the power plant. • Everyone (including Mother Nature) can win.

28. Intermediate conclusions • Electricity costs more because most of it is produced via heat engines which are inherently wasteful due to the Carnot effect. • Savings electricity saves water at the power plant as well as fossil fuels. • So helping WX clients save electricity a high calling, very much part of the solution. • Key areas: DHW (including pumps), lighting, frig, freezer, plug loads, education.

29. Think globally

30. Water • Only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water. • Two thirds of it is frozen in glaciers. • 1.1 Billion people lack clean water. • 2.4 Billion people lack sanitation. • Americans consume 158 gallons of water per day, Europeans 66, and Africans 8. • By 2025 two thirds of the world may lack clean fresh water.

31. Water 2025 • After 2010, key aquifers in China, India, West Asia and North Africa will begin to fail. • Decreased public investment in crop breeding for rain-fed agriculture will lead to further declines in productivity growth and yields will fall. • Farmers will expand slash-and-burn agriculture and groundwater pumping. Deforestation, erosion, river and reservoir sedimentation, and encroachment on wetlands will increase.

32. Water in 2025

33. The Diary of George Templeton Strong, 1842 There are…ways in which government may provide material remedies for personal and family uncleanliness engendered by the conditions of life in tenements; such as, for example, public baths, or still better, cheap water rates that will encourage house owners to put bathrooms in tenements.

34. Insights from Peter Judd, circa 1993 • NY City didn’t meter water use until the last several decades (that’s cheap!) • Patterns of water use are very interesting. • Peter Judd was Assistant Commissioner, Energy Conservation Division, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

35. Average daily water use from apartments in 40 buildings, outliers removed

36. Average daily water use from apartments in 47 buildings with outliers

37. Patterns of practice illustrate a key principle • The magnitude of savings due to retrofits is a strong function of before-retrofit use. • In short, savings follows waste • The circumstances of water are closely akin to the circumstances of energy. • The policy consequences are clear: -You can’t control what you can’t meter. -It’s cost effective to go after the big stuff first.

38. Act (and think) locally

39. The problem in achieving comfort and efficiency in the shower • Water from shower heads evaporatively cools from nozzle to the shower floor by 10ºF to 25ºF! • Fine droplets and low humidity enhance effect. • High mass shower stalls cause radiant losses from bodies to shower walls. • Moisture from the space is removed by a fan that causes more evaporative cooling of the body. • These problems are routinely solved by higher water rate shower heads with higher temperature hot water at the head—tacky and wasteful!

40. Temp difference over 23F!

41. Solution • Low mass shower heats quickly • Sealed shower stall goes to 100% RH within seconds, eliminates evaporative cooling • Stall closed until shower is over, then damper is opened, evacuates moist air quickly without fan • Result: better comfort, less waste of water, heat, and fan power

42. Shower heads • High flow in the shower wastes energy and water. • This one peaked at about 4 gpm. • Shower heads that produce 1.5 gmp widely available. • Get very good shower heads that look good and work well. Those that mist require higher temp water because of evaporative cooling from shower head to the body (10F or more!) • Investing in the best will still result in paybacks of a month or so. • Experiment with several models (shower with a friend!), then buy in bulk.

43. The economics of low flow showerheads

44. There are excellent low flow shower heads available to weatherization programs. • Case prices are $2.07 for this model, 1.5 gpm. It works well!

45. Installation is usually quite simple • When unscrewing an old showerhead to replace it with a new one, it is possible to unscrew the shower arm instead. • A simple way to prevent this is to put a small pipe wrench on the shower arm, set to turn it clockwise (the tighten direction) • Using a rag under the wrench or putting Teflon tape on its jaws keeps from marring the shower arm.

46. Unscrewing old shower head • Use a pair of pliers to unscrew the shower head (turn it counter clockwise) while putting clockwise pressure on the shower arm.

47. Most pliers will do well • The pliers in the last slide are called “water pumps,” but ordinary pliers work well, too. Use the inner grip instead of the nose of the pliers

48. Clean the shower arm threads • Old Teflon in the threads can usually be taken off easily • If it’s crusty, using a metal brush makes the job easier • Follow with cleaning the threads with a rag. • Hold the rag tight while turning it counter clockwise.

49. Install new Teflon • Be sure to wrap new Teflon in the direction you will screw on the new showerhead, clockwise. • Keep it good and tight and don’t leave any in front of the shower arm, just around the threads. • Two turns will do well.

50. In with the new • Make sure the new showerhead has a washer. This will keep it from leaking. • Start the shower head onto the shower arm by turning it gently clockwise, being sure the threads take.