Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog

Electricity is fundamental to modern life. It fuels our government, the military, our hospitals, businesses, and homes. In the future it may power significant parts of our transportation fleet. Glancing at the figure, it's hard to imagine social continuity without a reliable supply of electricity.

Concern about grid security is nothing new. There has long been a danger from terrorists blowing up key substations and taking out large blocks of electricity consumers. The US federal government admits that the legacy grid is also susceptible to electronic attacks from cyberspace. In 2009, reports surfaced that unidentified assailants had infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind programs that could be used to disrupt the system.

The vulnerability of the grid represents a threat to national security and business continuity. Maintaining electrical service in the event of a crisis is crucial. Major military bases can isolate themselves from the grid and run off their own private generators and microgrids. But even the military would experience disruptions from civilian supply breakdowns in the event of regional blackouts. Businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and need to be able to continue operations. The economic impact of a grid failure can be enormous. The economic losses attributed to the 2003 blackout were at least $10 billion.

Given its reliance on digital networks, there is concern that smart grid will be even more vulnerable to cyber attack. Massive power outages caused by a cyber attack, could disrupt the economy, camouflage a military attack, or spread fear and panic. Bruce Willis' movie Die Hard 4 brought the specter of grid hijacking to the mass Hollywood audience. When designed properly, nothing like the movie will ever happen.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directs federal agencies to support the modernization of the grid, including cyber security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works with the utility industry to identify and minimize grid vulnerabilities. They are also working to ensure that security is built into the smart grid as it develops. The top-level regulator, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), coordinates work across agencies. The Department of Energy (DOE) specifically requires all smart grid projects funded with stimulus dollars to include privacy and security measures in their proposals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is working with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to set standards for smart grid development. Together, they are responsible for leading the effort to establish electronic security standards.

AMI ties together the meters on the smart grid for a given utility and a given service territory. One of the things that makes a new digital meters “smart” is the ability to transmit and receive information from its (private) digital network connection. The network connection is used to read the meter remotely. In older designs, utility meter readers would drive down the street with a digital receiver automatically recording data from each meter. In the smart grid, these readings will be sent upstream through the grid's digital overlay network for permanent recording at the utility operation center. Data capture, transmission, and recording leads to concerns about privacy.

Privacy. Smart Grid technology potentially lets your utility know who, what, when, where, how much electrical stuff you are doing inside your home. Instead of simply logging a running total for electricity usage, smart meters will log data with a date, time, and usage every 15 to 60 minutes. They will also collect power quality data such as voltage, phase, and frequency. They can also gather detailed operating information from networked thermostats, smart appliances, vehicle chargers, and anything else on the home area network.

This is all for the good. The utility can use this information to help its customers reduce their energy use and save money. Appliance manufacturers will be able to remotely diagnose problems so they can send a repair professional with the right parts. Medical device manufacturers will do the same. Over time, the scope and scale of organizations wanting access to meter data will grow (think law enforcement, public safety, social services, insurance companies, etc.). But where there is light, there is dark. And it's the bad guys we worry about.

Smart grid surveillance will be a concern to consumers wishing to maintain a high degree of privacy. But it should be a concern to anyone who might not want the bad guys to know when they are away from home. Access to meter data gives potential burglars an electronic profile of daily activities otherwise hidden inside the home. The bad guys would be able to “case the joint” remotely. In competitive electricity markets, competing utilities could try to get this data for industrial espionage to attract and retain the most profitable customers. Just as the Internet enabled new threats such as identity-theft, the future will bring new ways to exploit meter data.

Security. Going beyond privacy, the current generation of smart meters have much more functionality than old ones. Burglars, terrorists, and others with political agendas could use unauthorized access to AMI command and control systems to disrupt the delivery of services, create blackouts, disrupt load balancing commands, or create fear and panic. Crackers may be interested in breaking into command and control systems for personal satisfaction and/or bragging rights.

Some utilities will use the meter network connection to connect and disconnect electrical service. It's a money-saving extension to meter reading. This leads to speculation about the potential for “drive-by blackouts” in which a vehicle-mounted device could break into a wireless meter network and send commands to shut-off service. Since the meter network is localized at the neighborhood level, these would be relatively small-scale problems. If the attackers were to break into the network at the utility operations center, disconnect commands could (theoretically) be issued system-wide. Even still, electricity distribution is highly decentralized across thousands of utilities. So an attack on one utility will not necessarily take out other utilities.

With proper security in place, smart meter deployments and grid optimization should make the grid stronger and more resilient. Much of the grid is already automated but with older technology that may not be able to withstand new types of electronic threats. The smart grid's advanced capabilities will allow utilities to anticipate problems and mitigate its effects on the system. It will support broad use of distributed generation and storage. These will give some customers the capability to operate in island mode, isolating themselves from the public grid.

There is a lot of work to do in the area of grid security and privacy. It is crucial to confront and solve problems during the development phase. It won't be easy, but given that we successfully run our government, the military, our hospitals, and businesses on computer and communications technology, we have the intelligence and the technology to surmount similar challenges on the smart grid.

Stay tuned for continuing in-depth analysis of grid security. Carbon-Pros is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Securosis for in-depth security research on the smart grid. These guys are good! This is an exciting collaboration, details will be announced soon. Meanwhile check out their blog at securosis.com/blog.

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ZigBee is a registered trademark of the ZigBee Alliance, the industry association and standards body which guides definition of the protocols and promotes applications. For example, it publishes technical application profiles to assist suppliers in creating interoperable products. To give you and idea of the range of ZigBee applications, current profiles include:

• Home Automation
• ZigBee Smart Energy
• Commercial Building Automation
• Telecommunication Applications
• Personal, Home, and Hospital Care

ZigBee operates in the ISM radio bands of 915MHz in the US, 868MHz in Europe, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. New designs placing all functionality on one chip reduce ZigBee's footprint and increase its reliability. The cost of this system-on-chip (SoC) is expected to fall to a few dollars at volume.

ZigBee's role in the smart grid will be to power the home area network (HAN) and related networks for commercial and industrial buildings. In the residential sector, this includes in-home displays, thermostats, plugs, appliances, electric vehicle chargers, and utility meter(s). ZigBee will also support home automation, home health monitoring, and security systems but those applications should not be confused with smart grid applications.

The ZigBee Smart Energy Profile defines the standard behaviors of smart grid devices. Utilities could potentially use it as their primary standard for AMI-HAN communication. Tendril Networks, GridPoint, Itron, and many other smart grid suppliers employ ZigBee in their customer premise equipment. Due to its broad scope, ZigBee could become the defacto global standard for sensor and control networks.

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Some of the major telephone companies are rebuilding their copper networks with fiber to the home (FTTH). Telcos justify the investment as a way to retain telephone customers, attract and retain internet customers, and sell new services such as high-definition video on demand. The telcos aging infrastructure based on twisted-pair copper wire is no match for their future bandwidth requirements.

Here are the fiber deployments (FTTH) in North America as of 1Q2009 (source FTTH Council):

• 15.2 million homes passed
• 4.4 million homes connected (~3.3M by telcos, mostly Verizon)
• 2.7 million homes receive video over fiber
• connections growing at 1.5 million homes per year
• “take rate” is an impressive 32%
• annual growth rate is 52%

By contrast, BPL is used in about 5,000 homes. Clearly fiber optics has succeeded in the competitive market where BPL has not. 

Fiber can be used as the backhaul network for BPL. In that case, fiber is brought to a location near each electrical transformer, which blocks BPL signals. If the fiber is close enough, a single device can be used to bridge directly to the customer's electrical service. This potentially makes gigabit speeds available at every AC outlet in the home (or office) using the soon to be available G.hn.

G.hn is the next generation standard for legacy-wire home networking. It achieves gigabit per second sppeds and operates over existing wires for telephone, cable TV and electrical power. This new technology specifies the physical layer for the connection. It contains optimization algorithms that maximize performance when operating over each type of wire. Analysts believe that G.hn-compliant chips will be available during 2010 with equipment available before 2011.

While it will be expensive for utilities to install any type of dedicated line, at least fiber optics poses no bandwidth limitations for the foreseeable future. It is future proof. FTTH will be difficult to cost-justify solely for smart grid applications because most smart grid applications do not currently require high bandwidth. Yet, with utilities accustomed to building infrastructure with 50-year life cycles, fiber fits with their long-range strategic thrust to “build once and build well.” At least in urban areas, you can count on the more farsighted utilities to use fiber as part of their grid overlay.

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My local utility was looking to backslide into old ways of thinking about distributed electricity such as rooftop solar. Xcel had proposed a “capacity tax” on customers with solar panels such that net-metered customers would pay additional charges for generating their own power. The new minimum charges would have been determined by the highest monthly usage during the year.

Once the Colorado solar community spread the word about the proposal, it generated a storm of protest from customers. "We made this proposal in good faith," said Karen Hyde, vice president, rates and regulatory affairs for Xcel Energy in Colorado. "However, we appreciate that the proposed rate mechanism has caused significant customer confusion."

Um, sorry. Solar owners were not the ones confused. Xcel may have been confused by thinking they could get away with this new tax on distributed solar. The proposed charges provided a clear disincentive to invest in solar.

I am a big believer in Xcel Energy. They are among the national leaders in wind and renewables. They are experimenting with grid technologies including two-way digital communication, wind-farm energy storage, grid optimization, demand response, and other energy saving features. Xcel like so many other utilities, operates in a mixed environment of regulation and deregulation. In the regulated part of their operating environment, it is easy to fall back on old ways of thinking. I am pleased that Xcel responded to customer complaints and has withdrawn their proposal.

The lesson for consumers is simple. If you want to see increased use of renewable energy sources in the United States, then keep an eye on your local utility and your state utilities commission. They will listen to you, and in time, they will change. --JCB

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Stage four represents the long-term view. Yesterday we covered stage three, utility-scale power storage systems. Today, we cover two additional advanced components of the smart grid: 1) using electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the grid's storage infrastructure and 2) supporting energy trading markets with real-time pricing.

Globally, every major car manufacturer is developing EVs or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Next year Nissan, will bring to market an EV named "Leaf." Nissan estimates that 10% of all vehicles will be electric by 2020. Germany aims to have a million plug-ins by that time. If automotive analysts are correct, we will put tens of millions of PHEVs and EVs on the road in the next two decades. This makes the batteries in these vehicles potentially available for buffering peak electrical demand. Most EVs will be charged at night and will store enough power to let the utilities draw on battery power during peak demand.

A challenge will be the development of smart charging stations that balance the customer's need for driving range with the utility's desire to borrow power during peak periods. It may seem futuristic but in less than 18 months, Nissan's Leaf will have many of the components needed for connection to the smart grid. The car includes network connectivity so that drivers can use their smart phones to modify charging preferences, reset the air conditioning temperature, or ask Nissan to run remote diagnostics. Ideally, EVs will be topped off with power during the day, say by plugging them into solar panels in a parking lot. Theoretically, these cars can charge themselves in the morning and then sell some of the power to the utility during its afternoon peak. If you are wondering what difference a car battery can make, you may not realize the power packed into electric cars. We're not talking about today's car batteries. By 2020, EV battery packs could store 100kWh. That's enough juice to power the electrical needs of several of your neighbors' homes for 24 hours. Since the utilities will draw only to cover peak demand, the power stored in one EV can go a long ways.

The final elements in smart grid stage four are real-time pricing and energy trading. With pervasive high-speed digital communications in place and real-time pricing available, localized energy supply and demand imbalances will become more transparent. Real-time pricing includes an advanced form of demand response where consumers can "program" their electrical loads to take advantage of such things as the low cost electricity available during a wind storm. In initial testing, consumers see real-time pricing as too complicated. They more readily adapt to time-of-day pricing with the general understanding that power is cheaper at night than during the day. Energy trading markets would allow all participants, including the consumer, who may own distributed generating assets, to sell power to the highest bidder. Such markets are admittedly far off. They are impossible in our current regulatory scheme. But consider that market forces will push electricity towards a much more efficient system. Open source supply and demand will reveal many inefficiencies. The opportunity to profit will lure capital towards whatever means and methods cost effectively eliminate these inefficiencies.

Stage four is almost two decades into the future, i.e. the 2025-2030 timeframe. At this point the grid may appear to be growing into a “big brother” phenomena with tentacles reaching deep into our personal lives. Keep in mind that none of the demand-side efficiency programs will be forced on consumers. Consumers will opt-in or opt-out of these programs based on their relative merits. Utilities who effectively market the smart grid's energy-saving features will find many customers willing to accept the incentives offered and become a partner with their utility.

My own household is already in the early stages of this transition. We generate about 90% of the electricity we consume. We fully expect to become a net-producer of electricity by 2010. We will achieve that without giving up our modern lifestyle and its many conveniences. As many pioneers have done before us, we have educated ourselves and become smart electrical consumers. The smart grid will make us even more so. More important, it will enable the mass market of 100M households to do the same while requiring very little of their time or attention.

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Stage one was built on a foundation of smart meters and two-way communications (AMI-advanced metering infrastructure). On top of AMI we added a limited amount of demand-response (DR) capability. We called this “DR-lite” and it allowed your utility to control a small but important part of your electrical demand. In stage two, we added many more options for DR (e.g. appliances and other grid-aware devices). Demand response is so important it has been called the “killer app” for the smart grid. Stage two also introduced grid optimization (GO) and supported better integration of distributed renewable energy sources. Stage three and represents a  fully developed view of smart grid. Stage three includes integrating utility-scale power storage systems, while stage four includes using large-scale electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the grid's storage infrastructure and supporting energy trading markets. Let's take a look at grid-attached energy storage.

The amount of storage in the legacy grid is very close to zero. This is because it is very expensive to store energy. You may have experienced this if you recently bought a new battery for your laptop. In some cases the costs approach the value of the entire computer. Because storage is one of those “silver bullets” that solves many problems, a lot of money has gone into R&D. Energy storage can simultaneously 1) reduce peak demand, 2) smooth out production from wind and solar, and 3) power a low-carbon transportation system. Today, long-term research programs are finally starting to show promise. The idea behind grid storage systems is to use the low cost energy available at night for charging and then draw on that stored power during the day to cover peak demand. Twenty years out, storage systems will eventually replace peaking power plants.

Right now, pumped hydro is our most cost-effective system. Coming up fast are compressed air energy storage (CAES) and massive batteries (flow and sodium sulfur). In CAES, night-time power is used to spin a turbine that pumps compressed air into underground caverns and porous rock strata. When power is needed, the system is reversed and compressed air is used to spin the same turbine to generate electricity. Large-scale batteries store power as chemical energy similar to the way your car battery works but on a massive scale (see picture on right). Flow batteries, for example, are the size of a small building and can release megawatt-level power with the flick of a switch. When attached to the grid, these storage systems will act like power plants to cover peak demand for a few hours per day.

Storage systems also compensate for the intermittent nature of renewables. They can absorb the energy whenever it is generated and store it until needed. On the North American plains, the wind most often blows at night when there is minimal demand for energy. If this energy can be stored until the next afternoon, it has far higher value. All utilities pay a premium for power that can be dispatched on demand, i.e. throttled up or down as needed. Thus storage systems will raise the investment value of wind and solar. Smoothing out electrical peaks and valleys may not require massive storage capacity because the highest costs are at the peaks. These peaks can be short duration. Whatever its form, there is no doubt that energy storage will be a critical component of the smart grid.

We will continue this discussion in the next post.

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Even though I am traveling this week, I wanted to keep the blog moving. A couple of weeks ago, I covered the Arizona Community Power Solar Program. In response to that post, Bob Monet, a solar industry advocate, reminded me about a similar but different approach being taken in Brighton Colorado (north of Denver). The project is a cooperative solar farm dubbed Sol Partners. Here is an an excerpt from the June 15, 2009 issue of High Country News:

Last month, a new type of farm sprouted in Brighton, Colo. United Power, the rural electric cooperative that serves the town and a large swath of communities and agricultural lands on the state's northern Front Range, unveiled what's been touted as the nation's first cooperative solar farm. Customers can "rent" one or more of the 48 panels in the 10-kilowatt array for $1,050 apiece, for a 25-year period. In return, United Power credits their monthly utility bills for the power their panels generate. Other electric co-ops see this project as a possible prototype: a way to distribute local renewable energy without forcing customers to pay for the equipment or its installation. "People can even come visit their solar panels," says Troy Whitmore, United Power's director of external affairs. "And the sky's the limit as to how many modules we can have, depending on demand."

Program details:

• 25 year lease contract
• $1,050 investment per 210 watt panel
• Panels are located on United Power's property
• Receive credit on electric bill for energy generated by your panel(s)
• Monitor the farm's production via United Power's website

This is exciting because it allows all electric customers invest in solar. The customer need not own a house suitable for placement of solar panels. Many urban and rural locations have unavoidable shading that makes solar impractical. It also means that renters can invest as little as $1000 and start generating solar energy. Let's face it, homeowners with south-facing roofs are not the only people interested in reducing their carbon footprint through distributed generation. The advantage of this program over the purchase of general carbon offsets is the local, hands-on nature of the investment. Customers know their money is being plowed right back into the community. They know their investment will be managed in a sustainable way. Kudos to United Power for pioneering yet another approach for distributed solar.

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As we head into stage two, let say you like what was happening in stage one: (check all that apply)

• Reducing your carbon footprint.
  
• Lowering your impact on the environment.
• Lowering your monthly utility bill.
• Getting an annual check from your utility for lets say $100.

After rolling out a million smart meters and 50,000 smart thermostats, a few years has gone by and your utility has its enterprise (software) applications in place to control all these devices. Your utility is ready for stage two and offers a you a variety of devices that can be used to reduce your electrical demand. You quickly sign up, because you are keen on the idea of (see checklist above). Plus you would not be reading this if you were not an early adopter.

Here's what the utility offers:

• In-home display with readouts on your energy use
• Web interface to see the same information on your PC and smart phone
• Smart plugs that go between your larger appliances and the outlet
• A $500 rebate on smart appliances such as a fridge, dishwasher, and dryer.

At your request, the home display gets mounted on the kitchen wall where your phone used to be, back when you still had a landline. The display does not need the phone line, but it covers up the scar left from the old wall jack. Your installer inserts a chip-card into your dishwasher authorizing it to communicate with the utility. And one of the smart plugs gets inserted between your old electric dryer and its 240V outlet. The plug automatically connects to your home network, just like the new dishwasher. The installer also leaves behind a handout giving you the web address for a customized energy portal where you can monitor and control your electrical usage from any PC or smart phone.

On the dog days of summer and the icy days of winter, you are more than a customer. You have become a valued partner for your utility as it attempts to reduce both its costs and its carbon emissions. On that hot summer afternoon during a “super peak” when your utility is running out of megawatts, it sends the command to 1) raise your thermostat by two degrees, 2) delay your dryer for a couple of hours, and 3) put the dishwasher on hold. And you don't mind because 1) you barely notice the changes, 2) you are being paid for your flexibility, and 3) and on the rare occasion when these subtle changes do matter, you can push a button to override the utility's DR request. If your grandmother is at the house and you are away, you'll be able to push the override button from the convenience of your iPhone. Back at the utility, they just saved a bundle by not needing to buy super peak power on the spot market.

Our scenario focuses on the smart home, but in stages one and two, demand response may see its biggest payoff with commercial and industrial customers. Even though the long-term energy savings might be split equally between residential and commercial demand. It will be easier to implement demand response for a few hundred thousand commercial customers than it will be to implement it for a hundred million residential customers. 

Time goes by and demand response is providing your utility with better load control each year. At the same time, another revolution is sweeping across the grid. During stage one, while your utility was installing two-way meters, it was also installing sensors, relays, voltage regulators, circuit breakers, and other grid devices. And each one of these is connected to the utility's digital network. As the utility's enterprise software capabilities have matured, its operations staff now has a real-time view of where the power is flowing, at what voltages, where the bottlenecks are building, and which lines are getting overheated (and therefore in danger of sagging into nearby trees). They know where power is needed and where an excess is being generated from rooftop solar systems. This so called “grid optimization” lets your utility:

• respond to peak demand loads more efficiently
• identify outages more precisely
• restore power more quickly
• switch generation to cost-effective and low-carbon fuels
  
• re-route energy to avoid bottlenecks and unnecessary strain
• eliminate “truck-rolls” with automated disconnects, reconnects, and troubleshooting

This part of the revolution will lack fanfare, but it will make the grid more responsive and more manageable. It represents a big change from the past. On the legacy grid, a bird flying around town might have had a better idea about what was going on inside the grid than your utility. In Boulder Colorado, Xcel Energy was so bullish on the benefits of grid optimization, that it built the business case for the smart grid investments primarily on the economics of optimization (rather than demand-response). In contrast to demand-response which helps utilities get through peak periods, grid optimization benefits accrue 24 hours/day, 7/days week, 365/days per year. At scale, the resulting savings will be in the tens of billions of dollars over the life of the equipment. To the extent that blackouts and brownouts can be avoided the long term savings are greater. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimates power outages and disruptions cost the US more than $100B per year... that's PER YEAR.

During the several years of stage one, renewable energy generation was also growing rapidly. New wind farms were put into place, concentrating solar thermal plants are operating in sunny regions. More important, millions of homes have rooftop solar PV and thousands of commercial buildings and warehouses have rooftop wind and solar. When wind and solar represented a few percent of total generation, it was relatively easy for your utility to use this capacity whenever it became available. But with penetration pushing past 10% and needing to get to 20%, the legacy grid had no way to handle these large intermittent sources. Utilities had no way to know how much power these distributed sources were generating and little idea whether they were ramping up or down.

The smart grid's ability to let utilities absorb and use low-carbon renewable sources of power is the other big success in stage two. Only time will tell how soon this will become a major factor. A great deal depends on the declining cost curves for solar and its overall economics. But without a smart grid in place, we will be forever stuck with a low level of renewable integration. Geeks want to know a lot more about this, but most people won't care if they see their costs going down AND their electrical carbon footprint shrinking. Stage three is still a few more years down the road past stage two, but we can't wait so we'll talk about it next week. Stay tuned.

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The first stage of smart grid deployment arrives when the utility installs a “smart meter” on your house. Your new meter will establish two-way communication with the utility. Depending on the technology (and this is a big decision point for utilities), meter communication could be over the power line itself, via cell phone network, via radio-frequency network, or several other alternatives. The choice matters greatly to the utility, but not much to you. The main point is that the utility will now be able to “read” your meter on a continuous basis. Instead of just monthly, data can flow hourly, daily, or on whatever schedule the utility determines. The meter will also log your electrical use by the hour of the day and the day of the week. That's because in the future, just like riding public transport, the rate you pay for a kilowatt-hour will vary depending whether use it at peak or off-peak periods.

This gigantic step toward the smart grid (your shiny new smart meter) might come and go with very little fanfare. Your bill will still come monthly and your electrical service will be the same as before. Back at the utility however, good things are happening. They will know within seconds if you have a power outage. They will also know the extent of the outage and very likely what caused it. With the other sensors and controls the utility has installed on the grid, they may not even need a truck-roll to restore your power. Smart meters, when deployed in mass and in parallel with sensors on the electric distribution network, provide the utility with a capability called grid optimization. Instead of flying blind, they will know where the power is, what the voltages are, where bottlenecks are building, and where faults are happening. Over time, this will be revolutionary for the utility... but let's get back to our smart house.

The second gigantic step toward becoming a smart home is when your utility offers, and you opt-in, to a demand-response program. Hopefully they won't call it by that name. These programs will be infinitely more marketable if they have a catchy name like eco-power-saver or super-moms-home-efficiency-program or sooper-smart-consumers or you get the idea. Marketers will do their thing. At this stage, the utility will send someone out to your home to install one or more devices. The major reason people will join these programs is because utilities will open their pocketbooks and pay you to join. They will give you a rebate, a monthly discount, or some other incentive. That's right, they will pay YOU.

At this stage, the utility might offer you several devices ranging from thermostats, to energy monitoring displays, to switches for your electric dryer or dishwasher. To keep it simple, let's say your utility only installs one device, a “smart thermostat.” Like your new meter, your new thermostat will have two-way digital communication built-in. It will send and receive signals from the utility. That means your utility will be able to “read” your thermostat. Those signals might use the same communications technology as the meter uses, or the signal might take a different path. You won't really care unless you are a geek who needs to know “how things work.” The technical term “demand-response” is appropriate because your new thermostat gives the utility a tiny bit of control over your electrical demand. On hot summer afternoons, when electrical loads are peaking and the utility needs to fire-up expensive natural gas turbines, or buy extra power on the spot market, they will instead, send a signal to your thermostat to turn it up a couple of degrees.

The utility did the heavy-lifting when it installed the smart meter and its network (AMI for advanced metering infrastructure) and the thermostat and its network link (HAN for home area network). With a robust network in place (robust is the operative term), the data flow is relatively simple as illustrated in the diagram. At 2PM on that hot summer weekday when the utility is “running out of power” they'll send a signal to their smart homes requesting a 2-degree reduction in cooling. At 6PM when other loads are dropping, they will send another signal to restore your thermostat to its initial setting.

By tweaking your thermostat, your AC unit will skip a few cycles and your house will slowly warm up to the new set point of 78º. The net effect to you will be negligible. The net effect for the utility will be huge when they can make these slight reductions in demand to millions of homes. When demand-response is implemented at scale, whole new power plants won't be needed and that will bring reductions in air pollution and carbon emissions. The real selling point: will save money for both you and your utility. That's two giant steps for the smart grid. But there's much more of course. So stay tuned.

For more information on the chart, see Smart grid ecosystem, part 4. 

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Paper bags (believe it or not) have higher carbon intensity than plastic bags, so using them increases your shopping footprint. Paper bags leave their black mark during pulp processing and manufacturing. They kill trees, use a lot of water, and pollute the air with nasty volatile sulfur compounds. Choose paper bags and you are supporting clear cutting and habitat destruction. We tend to think well of paper because unless we live next to a pulp mill, or the (formerly beautiful) forest, we don't see all the problems. The good news is that paper bags are biodegradable and have less impact during disposal. Reuse your paper bags at least once, then compost them at end-of-life. Recycling uses a lot of energy and chemicals so it's not benign. If you can't compost them, recycling (after reuse) is better than sending them to the landfill.

Plastic bags are made from oil. Need I say more? Plastic bags are not good for the environment or for energy security. But plastic has lower energy requirements than paper and a lower carbon footprint. Surprisingly, production of plastic bags creates less pollution as well. Plastic bags leave their black mark in the disposal phase. Reuse your plastic bags at least once. Recycle them if possible. Realize that recycling plastic really means downcycling it into something less functional. There is not much else you can do once you've brought the plastic bag home from the store. Almost a trillion plastic bags go to landfills every year. We can do better than that.

Reusable bags are the only eco-friendly choice. It's no contest. Use any bag at least three or four times and your average “bag footprint” goes down with each use.

Me? I try to remember to bring my reusable bags. I keep them in my car. When I forget, I ask for plastic (if available) and make sure I reuse them at least once. They become trash bags, doggie bags, lunch bags, and a dozen other things. I need to get better at remembering my reusable bags, however, because I never seem to run low on plastic bags.

Bottom line: Don't sweat this one too much. Combine your errands and drive fewer miles or ride your bike when possible. Weatherstrip your windows and doors and adjust your thermostat. Those changes will have far greater impact on bringing down your carbon footprint. But it's true that small things add up. So don't forget your reusable bags. I'll try to remember too! --JCB

If you want details, Treehugger.com has an in-depth analysis.

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Arizona Public Service (APS) is the largest electric utility in Arizona, serving nearly a million customers. APS has launched a pilot project to install, own, operate, and maintain solar panels on customer rooftops at no upfront cost to qualified customers.

• Eligible customers must be served by a specific part of the APS distribution system (the Sandvig 4 feeder).

• The customer's home must meet technical requirements such as roof direction, building age, and structural integrity.

• An on-site assessment of the home will verify engineering and eligibility requirements.

• Customers will sign an easement, allowing APS access for installation and maintenance.

• After installation is complete the customer will be eligible to receive a reduced rate for the power generated on their rooftop.

Community Power programs are based on the same concept as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) where an independent company “rents” rooftop space on commercial buildings, installs a renewable energy system, and sells the power back to the building owner (see Wiki). ESCOs typically split their profits with the building owner through revenue sharing agreements. Due to the capital-intensive nature of renewable energy investments, this approach to energy service provisioning will play a larger role in our future.

Even as renewable energy costs decline, new systems still require a large upfront investment. Let's face it, most people don't have the needed $10,000-$15,000 to prepay their electric bill for 30 years. Credit markets remain tight and few loans are available. The homeowners who do have cash might not have the optimal south-facing pitch.

Projects such as APS' will put distributed solar on the best rooftops in the most grid-accessible parts of the community. This helps utilities meet regulatory mandates. For example, Arizona’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires that 30 percent of its renewable energy be generated from distributed sources. Utilities are well positioned to make these long-term investments. Power plants, for example, can be amortized over 50 years. Plus utilities have access to the necessary capital and expertise. These projects won't solve all our problems, but they provide invaluable support for developing the renewable energy industry and educating consumers. The costs are reasonable when spread across the rate base. It's hard to see a downside for Community Solar projects. They are win-win-win: good for the homeowner, good for the community, good for the environment.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The world is moving from a fossil-fuel economy to an electricity economy based on nuclear and renewables (see previous post). There are  major obstacles to overcome including rapid technology change, a fragmented regulatory landscape, and the conservative nature of utilities. The grid will collect information about energy use and display it for the consumer and their utilities. Consumers win if they use the information to save money. Utilities win by providing opt-in incentives for shaving peak loads and avoiding the cost of new power plants at $500M to $1B each, with nuclear at $10B. The home energy management system (EMS) might appear to take center stage, but it's just one element in the digital home (see Smart Grid News). You can view the full-size map.

If the smart grid represents the future of electricity, then it also represents the future of home technology. Consider that the digital home already includes a combination of broadband, PCs and Macs, iPods, smart cell phones, digital televisions, media centers, game players, music controllers, and more. Consider that these devices are becoming more interoperable year-by-year. Smart phones are becoming as capable as PCs, iPods run home stereo systems, digital televisions record and playback TV on demand with recordings controlled from PCs or smart phones, media controllers connect to computer downloads, etc. Yet the potential of all these devices has not been realized. Synergies have not been achieved.

Both the digital home and smart grid will be based on open standards which embrace and extend those that power the web today. In a mere 15 years, the web has completely redefined the global landscape of communication and business technology. In the next 15 years, the smart grid (in concert with the digital home) will again redefine our technology experience. This won't be restricted to residential digital homes, it will grow even faster in commercial buildings. Together they use almost 70% of US electricity. The focus in commercial buildings will center on building automation and energy management.

With the emphasis on digital networking and standardized technologies, tech giants are being sucked in like steel to a magnet. The grid is pulling in top companies from information technology, consumer electronics, telecoms, and the web. Not to mention the industrial giants such as GE and Seimens. In upcoming posts we will profile the giants and work our way down to the focused players who are making the needed technological breakthroughs. I don't believe this is hype. Capital is pouring in, standards are being set, and infrastructure is being deployed. I've written about the city-wide project in Boulder, CO. More projects are starting up every quarter. Sure, it's going to take longer than everyone wants. But look at what happened in 15 years of commercial internet development. Tech change builds on itself and accelerates over time. Therefore the 15 years of internet-time could easily shrink to 10 years. And these next 5 years will set the stage for the next 50. Fasten your tech seat-belts. We live in interesting times.

See related posts on the smart grid.

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• 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend
• 5 percent of US air pollution comes from gas lawn mowers
• 80 pounds of CO2 is released each year by the average mower
• 800 million gallons of gas are consumed each year by lawn mowers

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

• Energy efficiency – The smart grid includes digital tools for managing demand. We've not had these before on a widespread basis. We're talking about an array of monitoring and control tools for utilities, residential customers, and commercial consumers. Demand-response tools help shave (or shift) peak electrical loads. With comprehensive data available, the smart grid supports variable pricing, incentives for load shifting, sub-metering, smart appliances, and household energy dashboards. When the right incentives are provided, consumers will reduce their energy use. Reduced energy use means fewer carbon emissions (climate mitigation) and fewer imported fuels such as liquid natural gas (LNG) and the remaining oil-fired plants (energy security).
  
  
• Renewable energy – The smart grid also includes digital tools for managing supply. This allows utilities to make greater use of renewable and distributed energy sources. Because wind and solar power fluctuate unexpectedly, the legacy grid can only accommodate a small share of renewables. Even when wind or solar is available, utilities are required to have spinning reserves based on more stable sources such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas. A coal plant produces CO2 whether we are using the power or not. Greater integration of renewables will radically reduce carbon emissions (climate mitigation). Nuclear will also support renewables, but let's cover that in a different post.
  
  
• Low-carbon Transportation - Biofuels will play a supporting role. Clearly we can grow fuel inside the US. But biofuels can't play a major role because they won't radically reduce carbon emissions. In the long run, electric vehicles (EVs) will play the major role because they allow substitution of imported oil for renewable sources of electricity. EVs and renewables go together. EVs make no sense if they are running on coal power. With the smart grid more renewables will come online and some of that will power our transportation fleet. For example, the smart grid will let utilities delay the full charge of a EV until excess power is available such as after midnight or when the wind is blowing. So the smart grid supports EVs in a major way (energy security + climate mitigation).

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Shortly after we installed solar PV, we bought a data monitor. Our system has a centralized inverter, typical of most installations. The inverter takes DC power generated by the solar array and converts it to AC power for use inside our home. The data monitor measures and records the kilowatt-hours (kWh) generated on the roof. The inverter a good place for monitoring because the solar power flows though it before joining the electrical service panel. Data logging occurs at frequent intervals whenever the sun is shining. Our inverter manufacturer, SMA, offered several options for receiving data feeds including direct-to-PC, wireless-to-countertop display, and Ethernet-to-Internet for capture on SMA's web portal. We chose the latter option because it was the most flexible approach. From the web portal, we can see real-time and cumulative statistics. And we can view it on any device from our PCs and Macs to our iPhones. Therefore we know what's going on whether we are at home or traveling. Data monitoring has been more valuable than we anticipated. If not for the data monitor, we'd have no idea how much power is coming off the roof. Solar PV is totally silent and because our panels are installed flat to the roof, they are virtually out of sight. The SMA web portal sends us a daily email with production statistics and provides web access to accumulated data. Last May, we had a defective breaker shut off the power feed from the roof. Fortunately, our installer receives the same daily emails, noticed that our production had dropped to zero, and quickly fixed the problem. Without monitoring, we may not have noticed the outage until our month-end utility statement. In the future, several components in the "smart grid" will perform a more complete monitoring function including energy production (if any) and energy consumption by circuit. Even though SMA's monitor only provides production data (not consumption) it has become a daily reminder of our electrical usage. This has led to an ongoing effort to reduce usage through better lighting, more efficient appliances, and reduction of phantom loads. With a year of minor tweaking behind us, we have shaved about 10% off our annual power use. This year, we estimate that our solar array will produce about 90% of our electricity. We last paid for electric usage in February 2009. With the meter running backwards every week of the summer, we don't expect to pay any more usage fees until November 2009 when the days are short and the snow is flying. Now that's a happy thought. --JCB

Start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 09:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We hired a local company, Flatiron Solar, to design and install a 5,250 watt system. It was designed to maximize production from our second-floor south-facing roof while being aesthetically beautiful. We chose an all-black system from BP Solar consisting of 30 panels along with a centralized inverter from SMA. The array blends perfectly with the house. The system was sized to provide about 80% of our electrical needs annually with the expectation that we might be able to reduce our future electrical usage through additional energy efficiency improvements. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 6 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We are fortunate to work in Colorado in a community that supports carbon reduction through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart grid technology. Yesterday, Rebecca Johnson from the University of Colorado, and Craig Eicher from Xcel Energy gave us an update on the the roll-out of the smart grid in Boulder. Xcel Energy, the Minneapolis-based, investor-owned utility, has been deploying smart grid infrastructure since April 2008. To date, Xcel has laid more than 200 miles of fiber-optic cable. They are ready to deploy broadband-over-power-line (BPL) communications to 40,000 households. Xcel has installed 10,000 devices on the network with real-time monitoring and are ramping up for broad deployment in 2010. Xcel and its partners will use this pilot project as a test-bed to experiment with various demand-response tools including variable pricing, incentives for load shifting, sub-metering, smart appliances, and household energy dashboards. No one really knows how consumers will change their behavior when given real-time information about their energy consumption and costs. The few studies with real data have found that consumers reduce energy use an average of 10% just by having information readily available. This may be an early-adopter effect that won't prove true for the mainstream, but most people like to save money so we will likely see energy savings just from the information feed. More important, smart grid technologies give the utility flexibility to more pro-actively manage both supply and demand. This supports the integration of renewable and distributed energy sources since wind and solar production can fluctuate unexpectedly. Integration of renewables will help reduce carbon emissions. Utilities are required to have ‘spinning’ reserve capacity of approximately 7% of anticipated load. Spinning reserve is generation that is synchronized to the system and is available to come online within minutes should demand spike, equipment fail, or wind power decrease unexpectedly. In other words, they have a regulatory requirement to overbuild. As customers, we are required to pay for that spare capacity just so we don't run out of power for a few minutes on a hot afternoon. The demand-side management tools on the smart grid give Xcel the ability to reduce its peak load. They could shut off a percentage of central air conditioners for five minutes at a time, or they could temporarily lower the temperature setting on electric hot water heaters on a hot afternoon, or they could delay the full charge of a plug-in hybrid until after midnight. This won't be an invasion of privacy. It will apply to customers who give permission and join the program. The smart grid represents the future of electricity. There are hundreds of unknowns. Therein lies the importance of city-wide pilots such the Boulder project. Soon, Xcel and its partners will be able to test the thousands of interconnections required and experiment with a wide range of technologies and incentive packages. The lessons learned will be invaluable for mass-deployment. The federal stimulus package set aside $4.5 billion for smart grid projects. That's a lot of money, but we have even more at stake considering the twin goals of energy security and carbon mitigation. Smart grid projects will pay for themselves over time. The US DOE estimates that modernizing the national electrical grid could save between 46 and 117 billion dollars over the next 20 years. It's good to see us moving on this important front.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The term “smart grid” refers to a set of related technologies based on common technical standards. It's not one specific technology but rather it's made up of many components (Wiki), most of which do not exist in the legacy transmission-distribution system. Key components include:

• Two-way digital communication network – this runs alongside existing power lines to provide detailed information about operations including the status of millions of components along with dynamic data about supply and demand.
  
• Real-time monitors – to be installed at generating plants, transmission and distribution lines, and substations to report operational status and to respond to changing conditions.
• Smart meters – to do more than just track lump-sum monthly usage; they also track usage by time of day and day of week, they automatically report outages and can monitor usage on multiple circuits.
• Home automation network – this lets the smart meter transmit control information to major load centers (such as air conditioners and plug-in hybrids) and major appliances.
• Smart appliances and thermostats – these must adhere to the same technical standards so they can receive signals requesting temporary load reductions or informing them that electrical costs are at peak levels.

It's the combination of all these (and more) that we refer to as the smart grid. It's always difficult to change existing infrastructure on a mass-scale, and the grid is truly a mass-scale infrastructure. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 09:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says that making roofs and roads a lighter color could have the equivalent effect of taking every car in the world off the road for 11 years. Eleven years? That's a long time without cars spewing CO2. By replacing dark-colored roofs and pavement with lighter colored, reflective alternatives, we can offset 44 metric gigatons of GHGs annually. Massive changes to roofs and roads are not going to happen right away but it helps explains why the market for “green roofs” is a growth segment within the energy efficiency market. There are two types of green roofs. One type carries sufficient soil to grow grasses and green plants but that's not what Secretay Chu is talking about. The other type of "green roof" is white or silver. In warm climates they keep the conditioned space below from soaking up heat from the sun. If the space is air conditioned, they save electricity by reducing the cooling load. Similarly, black asphalt roads soak up 10-15% more heat than paler concrete. But more important to climate change, "green" roofs and roads reflect more of the sun's radiant heat back into space and out of our atmosphere.

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My wife and I completed our major remodel in 2002 without a single thought about getting to NZE. After all, we live in a 1977 home which leaked like a sieve in 1988 when we bought it. It took several years for us to realize the possibilities. In my case, three events took me to a mental tipping point: 1) the Solar Decathlon, 2) Boulder Green Building Guild workshops, and 3) the Boulder Solar Home Tour. At the 2007 Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C., I toured homes designed by the finalists of this international competition among university students. Each team of architects, engineers, and business students designs and builds a fully modern home that functions entirely off the grid and produces enough surplus energy to power an electric car. I remember being impressed by the level of systems integration in these homes. They typically employed passive solar, solar PV, solar thermal, daylighting, green walls, and lots of innovation. I loved it. On the down side, these homes were purpose-built and tiny. They did not instill confidence that I could achieve the similar results in my own home. There is a Decathlon every other year including October 2009; I highly recommend checking it out. Due to my positive experience at the Decathlon, I began attending workshops organized by the Boulder Green Building Guild. The BGBG offers bi-weekly workshops covering green building design and technologies. I learned a lot and came away with many ideas for making my home more sustainable. Finally in October 2008 at the Boulder Solar Home Tour, I got to see many of the same concepts and technologies, but they were implemented in houses I could relate to. About half the homes on the tour were net-zero and all of those used a combination of efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. Some of these homes were million-dollar beauties, but a few were remodels of standard housing stock. The newly constructed homes were spectacular, but the remodels attracted most of my attention. Essentially, I got to walk through houses very similar to mine, whose owners had invested in and succeeded in getting to net-zero. I became convinced that getting to net-zero was not the exclusive domain of newly constructed million-dollar homes. If someone else could achieve NZE with a reasonable investment of time and money, I figured I could too. The very idea was inspiring. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 5 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It's not as sexy as adding solar panels, but caulking leaks, weatherstripping doors, and adding insulation are among the fastest, cheapest, and most important steps on the way to NZE. At our house, the three most important tasks coming out of the energy audit were 1) topping-off the cellulose attic insulation, 2) caulking the recessed lights in the cathedral ceiling, and 3) weatherstripping the attic access hatch. After some procrastination, I finally did the work myself as winter was getting underway. Much to our surprise, my wife and I immediately felt the difference, especially on windy days. And because the house was less chilly each morning, we used our gas fireplace less frequently. On cold mornings we often take our morning tea next to the gas fireplace. Maybe not doing so was a lifestyle change, but the house actually felt warmer. We're a little different than most people in winter climates because we shut off our furnace each night before going to bed and turn it back on in the morning. Therefore the morning chill depends totally on the amount of heat loss during the night. Through that winter, our natural gas consumption dropped several more percentage points. But it was the increased comfort that had the most noticeable effect. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 4 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 02:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A general rule of sustainability is to reduce consumption and minimize waste. In creating a sustainable home, energy efficiency is paramount. In the green mantra of reduce-reuse-recycle-replenish; REDUCE comes first for a reason. Saving a kilowatt is preferable to, and costs a lot less than generating a kilowatt from renewable sources. Therefore, even though we had tightened the building envelope several years before, a follow-up energy audit was crucial for finding the remaining energy leaks. Essential measurements in a professional energy audit include a blower-door test to measure the amount of air leakage and infrared imaging to show the location of the leaks. The Department of Energy provides a useful overview of energy audits along with suggestions for finding a qualified professional. It's worth checking to see if you are eligible for a federal tax credit. In our case, the audit gave us a top-ten list of tasks to to fine-tune our building efficiency. The results of our audit led to NZE Step 3. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 3 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

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Can you believe it? Solar seems to be perceived as the fix for all our problems. Intuitively, it feels right. A lot of people think so, governments, media, corporations, countries, utilities, voters, and your neighbor. Solar has never been lower in cost. Rebates, tax credits, and tax waivers take us back to late-70's Carter-era incentives and better. The motivation for solar is tremendous, whether it's in your heart and you want to directly reduce your carbon footprint, or you think solar is geeky-cool and sexy, or maybe you just like the idea of investing $5-10,000 now to have 20-30 years of free electricity, immune from energy shocks and utility rate increases. The last six months have seen the cost of solar drop precipitously. Here are some of the reasons why the momentum for solar is as big and hot as the sun:

• The national Wall Street bailout included an extension to the federal tax credit (30%)
• Colorado's statewide vote on renewable energy led to rebates from the state's largest utilities
• The governor's office partners with smaller utilities to support rebates in areas not covered by the RPS
• The State passed a state sales tax waiver for solar purchases
• As of 2008, Boulder County requires a very high standard of energy efficiency in new construction, all but requiring solar for large homes and office buildings
  
• Boulder County offers financing for residential and commercial solar installations through through a 2009 bond issue
  
• United Power Rural Elecric Association (REA) customers can "buy" solar panels for about $1000 each and enjoy the financial and environmental benefits without hassle; the utility will use the money to locate and maintain a field of solar panels for their customers
• The Federal government keeps sweetening its incentives for the commercial market: allowing 50% 1st year depreciation, accelerated depreciation schedule, and a 30% tax grant
• Payback periods are declining rapidly and are well below ten years in many cases
• Carbon cap and trade legislation will further stimulate the commercial market
• National security concerns and terrorist threats are driving interest in US energy security
• The US military is investing in solar for both battlefield operations (think desert sun) and domestic use
• The LOHAS, sustainability, and “buy local” movements fit perfectly with distributed energy generation (think rooftop solar)
• The idea of being independent from the utility grid appeals to the rebellious child in many
• The data on climate change are getting worse, scientists are telling us that atmospheric temperatures are accelerating faster than anticipated

There's a lot more, but I am way over my alloted space! --Bob Monnet, Boulder CO, Flatiron Solar

Posted by Guest at 08:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

One of the projects I took on during my sabbatical was a low density condo complex in northern Michigan (theBirchesCondos.com). It's by no means a LEED accredited project, but we got a lot of the details right. The project is located in a retirement community surrounded by lakes, golf courses, and open space. Our site plan emphasized open space over developed land with 15 acres developed and 22 acres untouched and permanently protected. The duplex design has a common wall to increase energy efficiency while still giving the feeling of a stand-alone home. The building envelope is tight and most of the units face south. The walls are insulated to R-24 with better than R-36 in the ceiling. We used low-E glass with fixed and casement openings, minimizing air infiltration. Every unit included a 90% efficiency gas furnace with central air conditioning, programmable thermostats, 100% Energy Star appliances, fully insulated and drywalled garages with insulated overhead doors. Perhaps most important, we used local builders who gave us great craftsmanship and tightened up the project at every step. We added many so-called “green features” at standard construction costs. We absolutely had to keep the costs down since we were targeting the $200K market for 2-4 bedroom condos. The residents absolutely love their homes. Even in the tough Michigan market, the condos are still selling. This project proved to me that if you start with a good design and get the details right, you can build a green product at or below standard construction costs. --JCB

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As much as I'd like to get our condo in Crested Butte Colorado to NZE (net zero energy); it's not going to happen. For starters, our roof orientation and structure is not suitable for the production of solar or wind power. Our property lines are too tight to fit ground-mount solar. And the homeowners association does not allow solar panels on our decks. The condo was built in 1980 and suffers from the weak energy efficiency requirements in building codes back in the bad old days. Luckily for me, the condo has some positives we can work with. It is situated on the ground floor with the north and east walls below grade, the west wall and ceiling are warmed by adjacent units, and the south wall is fully exposed to radiant heat from the sun. Therefore heat-loss is minimized compared to having fully exposed walls and roof. Still, this little 1200SF all-electric home consumes 16,000 kWh/year in a locale with 14,000 heating degree days. My home in Boulder is twice the size and uses half the energy (but only 6,000 heating degree days). The condo's energy situation is not good, but there are many things I have done to slash my energy usage: 1) switch most of the lighting to CFLs (cost $150), 2) weatherstrip any and all leaks including electrical outlets (cost $50), 3) insulate the crawl space (cost $100), 4) buy 100% green power from my electrical provider; 90% wind and 10% solar (incremental monthly cost $7), 5) wrap the hot water heater with insulation blanket (cost $20), 6) install a switch on the electric hot water heater so it can be turned off when the unit is vacant (electrician cost $120), 7) replace the room thermostats with digital ones with manual setbacks (cost for 9, $100), 8) put a few well-placed signs out reminding guests to conserve energy (cost $0), and eventually, the biggie I will tackle in the future 9) replace the aging windows and doors with new high-efficiency ones (cost $14,000). You might be in a similar situation, where NZE is not going to happen without moving into a new purpose-built house. But you can still make a big difference and slash your energy bills saving money, helping the planet and improving our energy security. With 100% green power, I can say I'm “carbon neutral” on electricity, but more important, I've reduced my electrical load by 25% with an investment of $550 and a modicum of time and attention. The payback period on my investment is less than two years. The feeling of making a small difference is immeasurable. --JCB

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Back in 1977 my wife and I were living in Fairbanks. I was working on the University of Alaska campus on one of the most advanced computer networks in the world. The "UACN" linked Alaska's three universities and ten community colleges via landlines, microwave, and satellite links into a unified computer network. I was a young computer scientist and loved living in the far north and working on state-of-the-art technology. My wife and I decided to make our home in Alaska. Even though we didn't know much about building, many of our friends had “owner-built” homes and we were intrigued with the idea of building our own. We bought some south-facing acreage a few miles from campus. Our plan was to build a log cabin; it would be so charming in the woods. WRONG! I took some building classes at the university extension service, one of which covered super-insulated home construction. This was a new concept in 1977, but in Fairbanks, a climate with 14,000 heating degree days, it was compelling. I learned everything I could about passive-solar, double-wall construction, triple glazing, radiant barriers, vapor barriers, heat-exchangers, and the like. It was difficult to find green-building information back then. Working weekends and summer evenings, it took us (and our friends) two years to hand-build the 1600 SF, 3 BR house. The walls were just over a foot thick with multiple layers of insulation and barriers. We achieved approximately R-60 in the walls and R-68 in the floor and ceiling (the house was built on pilings to keep the permafrost frozen). We bought the smallest wood stove offered by Vermont Castings and heated the house in 50-below winters with 1-2 cords of elder and aspen. That house was incredibly efficient and comfortable. The home heating index (HHI), a measure of energy used in heating normalized for square footage and degree days, was 1.50 with anything below 2.00 considered highly efficient. In our sub-arctic climate, it was so comfortable sitting in the living room for hours with the temperature never varying by more than one degree. Thirty years later, I've learned so much more about green building. But one thing has not changed despite our new knowledge and advanced technologies. To get to NZE in cold climates, your best strategy is to build a super-insulated envelope and put in a very small heater. In contrast, my current home in Boulder (also built in 1977), was constructed with 2x4 walls (R-11) and minimal concern for energy-efficiency. This has left me with a real challenge in retrofitting it to NZE! --JCB

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Back in 2002 we took our first significant step in creating a net zero energy (NZE) home without even realizing that NZE was to be a future goal. We were remodeling our 1977 conventionally built home in Boulder Colorado (a location with about 6000 heating degree days and 700 cooling degree days). We simply wanted to make sure that our remodeling resulted in more comfortable living and lower utility bills. It turns out that tightening the building envelope is the best place to start your efficiency improvements. It's generally the most cost effective way to shrink your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. In our case, we replaced our leaky 1977 aluminum windows with low-E, wood-clad casement windows. And since our siding needed to be replaced, we added 1” foam panels between the old siding and the new. The foam added R-4 to the walls giving us a total of R-16 which gave us the performance of a 2x6 wall. Let's face it, we were not going to rebuild the house with 2x6s. The foam provides a thermal break in the 2x4 framing eliminating the “cold spots” where the framing comes through the wall. Rather than installing a separate infiltration barrier, we taped the foam panels together and taped the panels to the window frames. This cut air infiltration by 90% and increased comfort levels inside the house. Much to our delight it also cut down on outside noise. Finally, we replced our aging gas forced-air furnace with a 95% efficient model with sealed combustion, variable speed blower, and a programmable thermostat. The net effect of these changes was a tight, comfortable, and efficient home. The home heating index (an efficiency factor) is down to 2.31 which is pretty good for a 1977 home. We have saved a lot of money on energy bills since the 2002 remodel. Plus it made our house much more comfortable in winter and in summer. We thought we were done making changes. In 2006, however, we took another, this time conscious, step toward NZE. I'll cover it in an upcoming post. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 2.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 02:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Over the weekend, I was visiting a condo in Crested Butte Colorado. It was a nice place: ski-in, ski-out with great views. It also had a wood fireplace, which I love. So many fireplaces have been converted to natural gas that it was a pleasure to be warmed by the radiant heat of a real wood fire. Unlike natural gas, wood is a renewal resource, a source of renewable energy. Unfortunately, this particular fireplace was the typical American design where 90% of the heat goes right up the chimney. Fireplaces do not have to be built that way. Rumford fireplaces, for example, have been around for a couple of hundred years. They are built tall and shallow to reflect most of the heat into the room. They have streamlined throats to eliminate turbulence and carry away smoke with minimal loss of heated air inside the house. As a builder, I have incorporated Rumfords into several of my Colorado and California homes. The costs are usually no more than a conventional masonry fireplace; at most they might run 5% over a conventional design. If you are reducing your carbon footprint and want to get rid of your natural gas (fossil fuel) fireplace, don't eliminate wood from consideration. The Rumford is old technology but still offers beauty, renewable fuel, high efficiency and cost effectiveness. If permitted in your municipality, modern wood stoves and old fashioned Rumford's are highly efficient heating systems. They are worthy of consideration in green building projects. --JS  Jim Shugart Builders

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Carbon-Pros is in the business of sustainability, but what we do at work is also our personal passion. My wife and I are trying make a difference right inside our home in Boulder, Colorado. We have been making small upgrades to our house for the past 20 years. Some changes were made for purely aesthetic reasons, but many changes were done with energy efficiency (and comfort) in mind. It turns out that a lot of small changes can really add up over time. Our house, built in 1977, used to leak cold air in the winter and suck in attic heat in the summer. The west wind blew right through every room. It was a typical build for those days; I'm sure the builder never once thought about “going green." A few years ago we decided we were going to stay in our house for a long time and therefore we decided to get serious about going green. Our goal is to make it a net zero energy (NZE) home. In other words, we are making changes that both reduce our energy loads and increase our power generation. The house eventually will produce as much power as it consumes. In our case, the most important steps include tightening the building envelop, being more efficient with lights and appliances, adding solar PV, tweaking the envelope again, and finally adding a high-efficiency geothermal system for heating and cooling. Believe me, we weren't operating our household from a top-down strategy. It's a place where we like to hang out and relax. We didn't always do things the right way or in the right order, but it's all adding up to a great result. I want to share our experience because there is never enough published information for people who want to improve their home a little at time. Where should you start? What is a cost-effective sequence? How far can you go? When should you stop? Over the next month, I will outline what we've done so far and what we've learned that might be helpful. --JCB

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