Make Me Greener, Please

By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: June 10, 2009

NYTimes.com

GEORGE BRYSON and Alina Sanchez flunked the test on water consumption.

They had hired a consultant to tell them how they could do better at home in helping the environment, and although they did very well on energy use, water was another matter.

“I do a lot of thinking in the shower,” Ms. Sanchez offered as a possible explanation. (The culprit turned out to be the sprinklers.)

Environmental savings can be elusive, and the benefits and costs confusing. To help households wade through the information, consultants armed with stepladders and gadgets are selling advice on energy efficiency, indoor air quality and even methods for creating an eco-conscious wardrobe.

The field of personal and home eco-consultants is relatively new. GenGreen, a Colorado company that offers a national directory of businesses marketing themselves as green at gengreenlife.com, says it has just over 3,000 listings under the umbrella term environmental consultants, up from 657 when the database was started in 2007. They include energy auditors, health and wellness experts, interior designers and “eco-brokers,” real estate agents who specialize in green homes. While real estate agents can get training and certification as “eco” or “green” by trade organizations, and states like New York run energy audit programs with accreditation rules, there are no industry standards for most eco-consultants, who can range from environmental engineers to the self-taught.

READ MORE http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/garden/11consult.html?_r=5

Acting locally, in the local manner - Energy conservation, local innovation | TerraPass: Fight global warming, reduce your carbon footprint

Erin Craig June 8, 2009

http://www.terrapass.com/
From Japan to Australia, regionally appropriate tricks for conserving energy

I was chatting with a friend in Sydney, Australia not long ago and came away with an enhanced appreciation of what it means to act locally.

My Bay Area was suffering an unseasonable heat wave while hers was unusually rainy, so we talked about how the weather affected our households. “At least I get my water heated for free,” I noted, explaining that we installed a solar-heated hot water system. While she was duly impressed, she replied that systems like that weren’t very practical in her neighborhood because she, like most of her neighbors, has on-demand gas water heating and no hot water tank. Without a tank, solar hot water is problematic because you can’t moderate its temperature.

On the other hand, she wasn’t complaining about the rain. “We have a rooftop rainwater cistern directly plumbed to the clothes washer,” she said. “It rains about the same amount here as there, but it’s distributed all year-round instead of dumping it all in the winter. We almost never need to supplement the cistern.” I found this idea quite enchanting, but such a system would only be useful to me five months of the year.

As we discussed our efforts to save electricity, she reminded me that in Australia, all outlets have switches built in so saving on stand-by power is a little easier. Her challenge is to make the switches more convenient: the ones in the kitchen are fine as they’re at counter height, but the switches behind the TV cabinet are too hard to reach.

These local flavors reminded me of a lecture given by a university professor known for his energy conservation ethic. He had recently visited Japan armed with energy management and measurement devices. When visiting traditional Japanese homes, he had expected to find them horribly inefficient, as they do not feature much insulation. What he found instead is that Japanese approach heating very differently than American. Some rely on micro-heat located where needed instead of central heat. When he joined a family for dinner, he basked in the warmth of a small heater attached to the bottom of the dining table.

In a similar way, I discovered one of my favorite “appliances” in a bed and breakfast kept fairly cool during a New Zealand winter: a mattress pad heater, perfect for a room where sleeping comprised 90% of the room’s use.

Which leads me to wonder what else I might be missing in my immersion in the American version of living lightly, and a West Coast version, at that. Any local practices employed which people would like to share? CLICK LINK BELOW
Image by Flickr user tomsaint11.

Acting locally, in the local manner - Energy conservation, local innovation TerraPass: Fight global warming, reduce your carbon footprint

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Purify Air - Surprising Sources of Indoor Air Pollution

The most widely quoted statistic about air quality is this: The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that indoor air can be two- to five-times more polluted than the air outdoors. And while the EPA is responsible for cracking down on outdoor pollution -- the smog, ozone and other chemicals that spew from tailpipes and smokestacks -- protecting the air indoors is largely the responsibility of homeowners.

While many sources of indoor air are fairly obvious and well-known -- second-hand smoke, carbon monoxide and radon, to name the most prominent, and deadly -- there are more insidious, secret sources of pollution that any concerned homeowner or parent should consider. Below are some of the most surprising. For tips on reducing indoor air pollution from these and other sources, see 25 Indoor Air Quality Tips from the American Lung Association. (www.thedailygreen.com/indoor-air)

Purify Air - Surprising Sources of Indoor Air Pollution - thedailygreen.com

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Federal money helps Fairfield go green

By Genevieve Reilly
staff writer- Connecticut Post

FAIRFIELD -- More than one-half million dollars in federal money will be used to save the town some green when it comes to conserving energy.

The Board of Selectmen on Wednesday authorized First Selectman Kenneth Flatto to accept a $545,100 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant awarded through the federal stimulus and energy independence acts.

Projects the town is looking to fund with the grant money include two reciprocating natural gas generators for the main library and police headquarters; financial incentives and public awareness programs; a geothermal study of Stratfield School; and a $23,000 hybrid vehicle for the town car pool.

The generators, budgeted at $360,000, generate electricity and use waste heat to warm the buildings, according to Ed Boman, assistant public works director. The equipment would save the town about $70,000 yearly for each building in heating and electrical costs.

"This is a home run," Flatto said of the proposed projects and the grant funding. There is no town match required for the grant money.

Another $115,100 will be used for the financial incentives and public awareness programs. Uses for this money will include reimbursements to residents and small business owners for purchases of energy-efficient equipment, reusable bags and 10 new bike racks around town. READ MORE......

Solar in the News

A fellow EcoBroker Certified real estate agent, Simone Healey, had an exceptionally informative interview on CNBC recently. Simone is an agent with Vikki Healey Properties in Maywoood, NJ. In this interview she speaks about a rennovation of an antique home c.1767.

The home is having an addition built as well as an energy-efficiency upgrade to the older part of the home. The energy-efficieny measures include added insulation, heating and cooling equipment upgrades and solar panels to generate electricity.

The interview centers around the associated costs of the "green" upgrades. It demonstrates how quickly those upgrades can provide a return on your investment. It also talks about solar incentives from the government to make the payoff sooner and longer lasting.

The video is 3 minutes as 45 seconds.

Connecticut's First LEED Gold Home

By Rob Wotzak

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/

An Efficient Design and a Carefully Detailed Envelope Add up to Big Energy Savings

Craftsman bungalows are celebrated for being comfortable, practical and carefully crafted from local natural materials. This LEEDGold home in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, incorporates all of these qualities and more. To meet the home owners' goal of creating an enjoyable and economical place to retire, CK Architects penned an attractive, efficient, and adaptable plan. A meticulously detailed building envelope, a discretely mounted photovoltaic array, and a geothermal HVAC system keep the home affordable.

Let nature work for you. Beneficial natural conditions paired with good design choices helped maximize the project's sustainable features. An L-shaped house plan and a central screened porch let cooling breezes pass right through the house. An existing clearing made it easy to install the geothermal loop and then cover it with a meadow of wildflowers. The landscaped portions of the site contain large beds of noninvasive, drought-tolerant plants, minimizing the need for irrigation and yard work.

Designed for easy living. Farmed white cedar shingles, fiber-cement siding, and cellular PVC trim ensure that the house is equally maintenance free. CK Architects left the core living area open with plenty of south-facing windows, creating a bright, functional, and efficient space. Less frequently used, the guest rooms are deliberately isolated from the rest of the house, allowing John and Karen to reduce their heating demands when visitors aren't around.

Early actions pay off. The build team's commitment to environmental responsibility made joining the LEED for Homes pilot program an easy decision. Doing this early in the process guided smart choices on everything from initial site preparations to interior finishes. Architect Russell Campaigne estimated that the green building methods added about a 5% premium over a comparable home built to code. With utility bills for the first year averaging less than $100 a month (pretty good considering Connecticut has some of the highest electric rates in the country), it seems that the investment is paying off.

CLICK HERE to read full article

Photo and story courtesy of Green Building Advisor

Awesome Solar Options in Connecticut

By Jeffrey Clonts

In an effort to reduce my electricity bills and to promote clean alternative energies, I decided to look into the Connecticut Solar Lease program. The program, one of the leading solar programs in the country, is brought to us by The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and CT Solar Leasing, LLC.

Combining the power of CCEF’s innovative Solar Rebate program with a leasing option creates an unbelievable opportunity for qualifying homeowners who are customers of CL&P and UI. If you qualify, this program helps you add solar energy to your home at the lowest possible cost. Qualification is based on where you live and your annual gross income. For Fairfield, the AGI limits are $162,000 for a family of 4. For Westport the AGI limit is $235,600 for a family of 4. Click here to see if you qualify.

What the program really does is reduce your monthly utility costs. You save money and the planet at the same time. Trinity Solar, my solar installer of choice for the program, came to my house to do an evaluation. The goal was to see if my home had solar potential.

Ken Nastri took me through the evaluation process and the results were shocking to say the least. It was not shocked to hear that a few trees would have to come down around my place before solar was practical. The real slap in the face was the total cost of my electric bill over the next 20 years.

Using my current annual electric usage and the assumption that electric rates will continue to grow at the rate of 8% per year, my total electric utility costs for the 20 year period would be $157,275.00. I felt sick to my stomach once I saw that number. That is just my electric bill!!!!!!! Yikes.

The good news was that with the removal of a few trees and the CT Solar Lease program I could save $47,345.00 over that 20 year period. In addition to the dollar savings I would be reducing my CO2 consumption by 15,510 lbs. and conserving 5,598 gallons of water. All of this has the same effect on the planet as planting 776 trees. Who new?

Unfortunately the trees that need to be removed to make my home solar friendly are on my neighbor’s property. I have a good relationship with them so we’ll see how eco-neighborly they are feeling. The end result…Solar or not, I have to reduce my energy consumption. My next step is a home weatherization audit through the HES program. More to come…..

If you want to know more about the program or have me arrange for a consultation at your home by Trinity Solar (authorized provider for the CT Solar Lease progam) email me at http://www.AskJeff@prudentialct.com