Electric Jeep Article Featured in the Island Packet on Hilton Head Island

Tonight, we found out that we were published in the Island Packet with our electric vehicle but when I attempted to drive it into the resort where I was staying I was not permitted to stay at the resort. How many obstacles does one have to go through to start a new chapter in American manufacturing and ingenuity?

Here is a link to the article that was in today's Island Packet (http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/09/17/1796374/hilton-head-hopes-to-tap-into.html).

Tomorrow is a big day for the Ecotourism conference and I'm looking forward to a busy schedule. Let's hope I can change some hearts and minds about sustainable living.

Another "Stump the Chump" Solution to a Building Performance Issue

Let's play stump the chump!

Joel Key (pictured right), General Manager of Healthy Home Diagnostics, was quick on the draw for last month’s game – he hit 'send' on the right answer within 20 minutes of newsletter publication! Readers will recall the problem was with a newly built house that didn't pass the building airflow standard. The blower door test revealed that the band joist area between the first and second floors, which by rights should have been inside the house, was directly connected to the outdoors. Joel’s answer: “My thoughts would be that the heated garage is below a vented attic and the plywood sheathing, while going below the insulation, is not extending all the way to the bottom of the band joist and or blocking was not added to each joist bay. Air was being pulled in thru the attic vents (eve, soffit, ridge, etc) through the insulation and gap under the sheathing right into the interstitial space between the floors.”

Thanks also to Macon Parker of Charlotte, NC, who sent us his solution to the problem: “Install a pressure boundary (with plywood or rigid foam) and air seal with spray foam. Additionally we have found that the insulation beneath the floor is often falling down and inadequate and we have dense packed this area with cellulose to act as a partial barrier, as it is often very cost prohibitive to remove drywall, air seal the band joist and install adequate supports for the insulation in the floor above the garage.”

Here is the link: http://www.bpi.org/news_pm_september_2011.aspx#article1

Catawba County EcoComplex/Biofuels Processing Facility Opens

I had a wonderful time at the grand opening of the Catawba County EcoComplex (http://www.catawbacountync.gov/ecocomplex/ecocomplex.asp). This facility currently uses methane from the landfill to provide power for up to 600 homes and will soon be processing 100,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel each year. It was a big celebration for a lot of groups and individuals there who were involved in this project for a long time for the large organizations Appalachian State, UNC Charlotte, Motorola Solutions, Catawba County, the GoldenLeaf Foundation, the Biofuels Center of NC, and Piedmont Biofuels to the various other smaller individuals and organizations including the architect, the contractor and even the building inspector. All of these wonderful individuals had to come together and continue work on a project that will help bring some degree of energy independence to their region and provide a vehicle for research and development and, hopefully, employment to those working at the facility and farmer supplying the facility with virgin feedstock or a lonely entrepreneur interested in waste vegetable oil collection.

After the ribbon cutting and as we were standing in line to get some barbecue from Judge's, I spoke with Chris Jude of Piedmont Biofuels, who was involved in building the reactor for the facility, about the difficulty of getting people involved in energy projects like this. I mentioned to him that it always seem that in a large scale, innovative project like this there are so many individuals who have a reason to say "No" to why a project should not get off the ground and very few seem to say "Yes." Well, in this case, it seems that everyone said "Yes" and they all had the same vision - to be innovators in a private and public endeavor for energy independence.

In addition, I'd like to say thanks to all the wonderful conversations I had with Shane Reese of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina about his organization, Rob Howard of Home Energy Solutions about the future of energy efficiency and energy auditing in North Carolina, and David Thornton, the official Campus Biodiesel Guru of Clemson University, about his research in biosystems engineering. It was a wonderful day and I'd like to add a great place for anyone to visit and catch the bug for energy independence.

Ecotourism Conference and the electric Jeep

This past week has been hectic but exciting. I've finally got everyone to confirm to showcase an electric Jeep that was manufactured in Charlotte, North Carolina in Hilton Head, SC in advance of the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference on August 19 - 21, 2011. Working with so many different individuals, groups, and companies has been exciting yet challenging. Recently we discovered that a resort in Hilton Head was the first to have electric cars on the island to be used by resort guests in 1974 (the article is presented below). Will it be possible to get people on board to use an all-electric Jeep on the island that has a 40-50 mile range, can run up to 55 miles per hour, and is made in America? I don't know right now but what I can tell you is that we have a lot of momentum and right now I am just running to keep up.

How much money does it take to keep or make a "green economy" job?

Today I was reading a press release from the North Carolina Green Business Fund that was released on April 27, 2011 (http://www.ncscitech.com/PDF/gbf/NCGBF%202010%20awards%20press%20release.pdf) (Note: In full disclosure I would like to say that I've also submitted a grant application but did not make the cut.) In the press release they announced that awards were given totaling "$4,580,686.45" that would "result in a total of 35 jobs being created or retained." By my calculation that is a total of $130,876.76 invested to create or retain each job.

In my opinion, I believe that the individuals behind the North Carolina Green Business Fund get that it takes investment in research and development to implement changes in consumer and institutional behavior to make energy and water conservation a priority in North Carolina. They realize that to create a green economy takes hard work, a lot of investment, and a little luck. It should also be pointed out that many of the small businesses that have received these grants have a great deal of technical expertise and have procured matching funds to obtain these grants (which probably makes the total investment per job closer to $200,000 per job if I were to conservatively estimate).

As I see it there are four primary areas and one miscellaneous category of investment in this round of grant funding: 1) generating energy from hog lagoon waste, 2) education about energy conservation and renewable energy technologies, and 3) conducting energy audits of residential and commercial buildings and 4) installing renewable energy technologies/fuel cell generators/electric vehicle charging stations. Although these categories are not mutually exclusive I will sum up the totals for each category based on which category I feel the group most likely fits into but I encourage everyone to read the press release for themselves( press release: http://www.ncscitech.com/PDF/gbf/NCGBF%202010%20awards%20press%20release.pdf).

1. Generating Energy from Hog Lagoon Waste (a major byproduct of the large scale hog farms in NC)
• Black Farms (Bunnlevel, Harnett County) -- $295,130.00
• Butler Farms (Lillington, Harnett County) –$373,780.00
• Storms Farms (Bladenboro, Bladen County) – $500,000.00
• Vestal Farms (Kenansville, Duplin County) - $369,050.00
• Total - $1,537,960.00
2. Education about Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Technologies 
• Cape Fear Green Building Alliance (Wilmington, New Hanover) – $155,000.00
• Go Green Lighting (Chapel Hill, Orange County) – $300,000.00
• Total - $455,000.00
3. Conducting Energy Audits of Residential and Commercial Buildings
• Southern Energy Management, Inc. (Raleigh, Wake County) – $374,129.00
• Energy Tight (Charlotte, Mecklenburg County) -- $222,466.00
• Total - $596,595.00
4. Installing Renewable Energy Technologies/Fuel Cell Generators/Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
• Biowheels, Inc (Asheville, Buncombe County) – $375,852.56
• Community Development Specialists Incorporated (Asheville, Buncombe County) --$149,480.00
• Kyma Technologies (Raleigh, Wake County) –$427,760.00
• North Carolina State University, Center for Marine Sciences and Tech (Morehead City, Carteret County) – $228,519.0
• Praxis Technologies Inc. (Raleigh, Wake County) – $247,304.00
• Onslow County Farmers Market Inc (Jacksonville, Onslow County) – $24,095.89
• Microcell Corporation (Raleigh, Wake County) – $484,120.00
• Total - $1,937,131.45
5. Miscellaneous Category
• Essential Energy Efficiency Technologies & Services (Charlotte, Mecklenburg County) --$55,000.00
• Total - $55,000.00

Note: My total for the entire funding comes out to be $4,581,686.45 which is $1,000 more than what is listed in the press release so there might have been an error somewhere in the press release or my calculations (If anyone has a moment feel free to double check me.)

The real question is how effective will this be for creating a green economy? Where will the materials be sourced for this project? As far as we know there are not many areas of manufacturing in North Carolina? The other piece of information that we do not know is how many secondary jobs will be created from the investment made in North Carolina's green economy?

Lastly, the one area that I would love to see a follow up on is how effective are the programs that received small scale investments (i.e. Essential Energy Efficiency Technologies & Services (Charlotte, Mecklenburg County) --$55,000.00 and Onslow County Farmers Market Inc (Jacksonville, Onslow County) – $24,095.89) versus the hundreds of thousands of dollars thrown into other endeavors? Which ones conserve or generate the most energy? These will be the questions that the American taxpayer and future generations have invested approximately 4.6 million dollars to answer. Let's hope its worth it.

Are Estimated Energy Savings Really Savings?

In an earlier post ("Changing Perceptions about the true cost of energy and water conservation" - July 16, 2011) I asked how can we change the perception of the value of energy and water conservation if the money saved can only be shown to have been saved by showing that the reality of the situation is that they would have spent more if they had not had the energy or water conservation measure installed?

Our most recent experience with this has been with the pilot project where we have been attempting to measure the energy savings associated with spray foaming half of the roof deck with open cell spray foam and creating an unvented attic while leaving the other half vented and exposed to the hot, humid weather (Although I would add that when I've measured the humidity of both the vented and unvented attic they were both at around 60% relative humidity). A simple analysis of the utility bills from the same months last year would show that the electric cost increased by $389.80 for both April and May. This has resulted in a bit of a conundrum in that we are not trying to show that there were energy savings but it was more of an exercise to determine if we can show energy savings.

Thankfully this is a common problem in the energy management field and there is a great resource located at http://www.degreedays.net/ and http://www.abraxasenergy.com/weather-normalization/. To keep it short the end result has been that to accurately estimate energy savings one needs several things:

1. Accurate utility information concerning kilowatt consumption and electric costs (ideally weekly instead of monthly utility data)
2. A determination of the baseline temperature that the building has to heat to in the winter, taking into account, albeit indirectly, heat gain from individuals, electronics, solar radiation, etc..., and the baseline temperature that the building has to cool to in the summer taking into account, indirectly, the effects of shading, etc... This baseline temperature is determined by comparing the average outdoor temperature per month to the number of kilowatt hours used each month and finding the intersection of three distinct lines in a temperate climate where we are working (as far as I can tell from the resources above).
3. Using this baseline information one can calculate the number of heating and cooling degree days which can be used to perform a linear regression on the number of kilowatt hours to estimate how the heating and cooling loads of the building, as a function of temperature, affect electrical consumption.

Below are the tables showing energy consumption by kilowatt hours and electric costs for 2009 to 2011.





As you can see above the most difficult thing has been finding complete utility bill information and obtaining the exact costs per month considering the actual rate for energy consumption as several of the earlier months in 2009 are missing. Based on the information presented above the average cost is $1.17 per kilowatt hour.

Using this information I created a scatterplot comparing the number of kilowatt hours per month by the average monthly outdoor temperature. This is presented in the figure below:

For a general overview of calculating the baseline temperature of a building or the building's balance point please see the following website http://www.abraxasenergy.com/weather-normalization/. A building's baseline temperature or balance point indicates at what temperature the building no longer has to heat or cool taking into account the internal heat gain (in winter) and shading (in summer) for example. Based on the data available it was determined that the baseline temperature during the heating season, or the temperature the building needed to maintain during the heating season, was 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the baseline temperature during the cooling season was 71 degrees Fahrenheit. What is interesting is that since we are in a temperate climate there is no predominance for heating or cooling so it was necessary to obtain both the heating and cooling degree days to analyze the energy bills. Using this information I obtained the heating and cooling degree days using this baseline temperature from January 2009 to June 2011. Below are graphs for the heating and cooling degree days.

What is interesting is to compare how the number of heating and cooling degree days per month varied each year depending on the local weather conditions. This is the primary reason why one should use heating and cooling degree days that have been calculated relative to the baseline temperature to compare how energy conservation projects measure up to calculate estimated energy savings. However this is not the only indication of increased energy consumption that should be accounted for and may also include energy consumption associated with increased productivity, such as an increased number of guests at a hotel.

The next step is to use this information to run a linear regression which will be in part two of "Are Estimated Energy Savings Really Savings?"

Changing Perceptions about the true cost of energy and water conservation

Today we were discussing our normal barrage of ideas for reducing our energy consumption including test driving an all electric Jeep for our recycling operations and a recent experiment where we spray foamed the underside of the roof deck of a 24,000 square foot building with open-cell icynene foam. In both instances the same question arose - how much was the investment and what were the savings?

Even though the electric jeep is made in America, has a 40-50 mile range, a max towing capacity of 3,120 lbs., and costs about 11 cents to charge 10 - 12V batteries - there was still a concern that the estimated $15,000 price tag was to high because other individuals would argue that they could buy a used F-150 for the same price with 29,000 miles on it. We debated back and forth about the reduced maintenance costs (the electric Jeep does not have an energy recovery system and uses regular disc brakes), reduced fueling costs, and reduced state inspection fees (no emissions test required) but the bottom line was how much can this really save me? If it is only $50 dollars a week then how much did I really save?

We were also having the same problem with the icynene spray foam on half of the underside of the roof decking for the 24,000 square foot building. This project was completed in February and we have finally tracked down the information for the energy usage, cost, and energy rate charged by the electric cooperative. The only problem is that we have not seen the dramatic energy savings we were expecting. I said it was because it is impossible to compare one month this year to another last year without controlling for the number of heating and cooling degree days (for a great explanation of this check out this website: http://www.degreedays.net/) and that one can show energy savings by comparing to what the energy costs would have been without the improvements. To which a very smart gentleman replied that many people do not look at it that way. The amount that they paid is the amount that they paid and if it is not less than last year than there has not been an improvement.

This got me to thinking about my lack of understanding of the true cost of what I purchase? While my kilowatt hour cost might only be 10 cents on the dollar and my total bill is less than $60 per month, what hidden cost am I not incurring? This was partially the recent interest in a carbon tax to pass on those hidden costs to individuals and possibly give renewable energy a competitive place in the marketplace but alas it has not passed yet.

Meanwhile I am continuing in my endeavors with or without a stimulus package or large grants or setting myself up as a non-profit. Things may change but for now I am attempting to Johnny Appleseed the cause for energy and water conservation by developing relationships with like-minded individuals and businesses, attempting to create a marketplace for energy and water conservation, and changing peoples' perceptions one person at a time.

However, my work may not be as hard as I once thought because I spoke with a diesel trolley driver, we'll call her Petunia, about our interest in using the waste vegetable oil and converting it to biodiesel. When I started proselytizing the benefits of biodiesel - reduced emissions, cleaner air, etc... - when she said that she had been reading up about biodiesel on the internet and might be interested in helping out with the project. Maybe this thing has more of a chance of taking off than I thought.

Lessons learned from the first installation of a solar-powered irrigation system

Well this is official...I've decided to stop being a consumer of vast amounts of information about energy and water conservation and start sharing some of my triumphs and pitfalls in the hope that I can inspire others by showing them that with a little passion, initiative, creativity, and of course some bling (aka - money) one can make a difference in the world.

Before I begin I would like to add that most of my experience has been through trial and error and any faulty assumptions in my reasoning are the result of trying to reason my own involvement out of these said errors so please be critical of the information I am presenting but keep it within reason.

Recently, I've been working on some water conservation projects in Hilton Head, SC. This particular project was not developed by myself but was the brainchild of a local industrial engineer turned operations guru whose name shall not be named to protect him (but I bet he'll love to see that I mentioned him in this blog).
This gentleman noticed that an open-looped water-cooled ice maker was discharging large amounts of water down the drain and might be better utilized as a source of water for irrigation. His idea was simple: Collect the discharge water in a rain barrel and connect it to a solar-powered pump to produce a self-contained irrigation system.

The water collection system beside the
ice machine with booster pump and
12V power supply with inverter (Note:
the pump will soon be placed on the floor.)

The single solar panel that is not
permanently affixed to the roof and
will be counter weighted with
concrete blocks (like a satellite dish).

The pump below the power supply which is below the charge controller.

For those of us that have no interest in the beautiful thermodynamic cycle of refrigeration then I will provide you with a simple explanation and illustration of how efficient and yet wasteful open-looped water-cooled refrigeration units can be below.

Most air conditioners and refrigeration units work by the principle that expanding gases cool and compressing gases warm by cycling refrigerant (such as R410A or in the old days, Ammonia) through a condensor and an evaporator. The evaporator is responsible for pulling heat out of what is intended to be cooled (i.e. water or air) by using the heat in what is intended to be cooled to change the refrigerant from a liquid to a gas (this is known as a phase change or latent heat exchange). This vaporized refrigerant is then cycled to a condensor where this vapor is condensed back down to it's liquid phase which results in a heat release. This is best observed by noticing that the food in your refrigerator remains cold while the excess heat is released out of the top, back, or bottom.

For most refrigeration cycles (i.e. our refrigerators and air conditioners) this excess heat is transferred between the hot condensor and the ambient temperature but water is a much more efficient means of collecting, storing, and transferring heat (this partially explains why hydronic (or water) heating systems have been so popular over the years). Therefore, if you want to make large amounts of ice in a hurry a water cooled refrigeration unit is ideal but the downside is that with an open-looped water cooled refrigeration unit that excess water is lost down the drain. (Note: There are closed-loop water cooled ice makers that send this warmed water to a storage tank, like your hot water heater, to preheat water.)

For our project we used a 350 gallon Graf Top Tank, Leader EBS 3/4 HP Booster Pump, a collection of PVC pipe and fittings, and we powered the irrigation pump with 127 Watt, 7.3 Amp BP Solar panel (that was just laying around the shop) that stored the power in a Xantrec XPower Powerpack 1500 (which was also just laying around the shop and the pack itself has a modified sine wave inverter for converting DC power to AC). We also had a few other items including a charge controller for the battery pack and miscellaneous tools for plumbing, drilling holes, etc...

We learned a lot from our first endeavor and I've listed those below:

1) The more parts you have the more you have to lose.
2) The water collection tank that you choose was never intended for your purpose so you will have to modify it.
3) A hole saw kit is an ideal investment for drilling holes into your water collection tank
4) The use of an exterior marine grade sealant is an excellent fail safe for when you do not tighten your fittings properly and your tank is already put together.
5) Never ever connect the leads from your charge controller to the wrong side of the battery (I burned out our first charge controller this way.).
6) A check valve (used to prevent backflow in a well water system) is ideal to prevent the static pressure caused by the height of the water from turning your pump and causing a slow drain on your system and this should be placed on the outgoing water portion of the pump.
7) Never damage the threads on the housing of your pump as it is made in Italy and it is impossible to get a new one or a replacement part.
8) And lastly, your pump should be placed as close to or below the outlet on your water collection tank as instructed in the manual of the booster pump.

Besides the steep learning curve, and after some help connecting it to the unused irrigation system, we now have an irrigation system that is solar powered and provides, according to my calculations and the limitations of the storage capacity of the single 12V battery, approximately 200 gallons of irrigation for something that would have just gone down the drain (10 min. of power at 20 gallons per minute).

This is only the beginning and we are just starting other projects which include the collection of condensation produced from two HVAC systems to provide water for another 50 gallon water collection system, scraping together a solar hot water heating system, starting a compost project, growing an herb garden, purchasing an electric vehicle that is made in the USA, and more importantly...having fun.