Sustainable Insights          

Excerpt from the Society of American Foresters

By Michael Taylor, Wyerhaeuser Company, Diane L. Haase, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources & Management, and Robin L. Rose, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources & Management

Reforestation on harsh, high-elevation sites near the crest of the Cascade Mountains can be challenging because of persistent snowpack and extreme climatic variation. To help find a solution to meet this challenge, the use of tree shelters was investigated with two species, Douglas-fir and western larch on two Yakama nation sites across three fall planting dates.

High-elevation sites in the eastern Cascades of Washington have a short period of favorable spring planting conditions followed by a short growing season. In addition, rapid changes in soil moisture, temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation make plantation establishment on these sites more challenging than on lower-elevation sites Most soil moisture on these sites result from snowmelt with very little additional precipitation from spring through fall. The snowpack insulates the ground and young seedlings from constantly changing and potentially deadly temperatures and winds during the winter months; but once the snowpack melts, the seedling environment changes rapidly from wet and cold to hot and dry.

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New Podcast – Listen as Larry Lesser of Rana Creek Living Architecture explain how HOBO data loggers are being used to monitor different types of green roof designs at the Miami Museum of Science. The data will provide valuable information about which design would work best in South Florida’s subtropical climate.

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When Governor Schwarzenegger signed the landmark Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007, he launched the largest solar water heating program in our nation’s history. The new legislation calls for a 10-year program aimed at installing approximately 200,000 solar water heaters in homes and businesses throughout California. By creating this program, lawmakers hope to see a reduction of harmful emissions, increased energy efficiency and lower utility bills.

A recent study shows that families below the poverty line spend 19% of their income on utility bills. To alleviate this burden and ensure that energy conservation is widely accessible to California residents, the California Department of Community Services and Development and the Southern California Forum for Energy Efficiency, Environmental, and Human Services Providers (SCF) initiated a renewable energy pilot program. As part of the program, solar hot water heating systems have been installed in four of the 22 low-income, single family homes across the state.

Funded by the State Petroleum Violation Escrow Account (PVEA), this program, in particular, will monitor each of the study homes’ energy and gas consumption to determine the efficiency of the solar hot water heating systems.

Arleen Novotney, Executive Director of SCF, is leading the project.

“Our goal is to provide low-income homeowners with access to renewable energy solutions designed to decrease energy consumption and reduce energy bills,” explains Novotney. “For this program, we installed solar hot water systems in various climate zones across the state and will monitor the efficiency of the solar hot water heating systems.”

To monitor systems performance, Novotney chose web-based HOBO® U30 Remote Monitoring Systems manufactured by Massachusetts-based Onset Computer Corporation. The monitoring system consists of a GSM cellular-based data logging unit and sensors that monitor gas usage, cold and hot water supply temperature, solar collector water temperature, and hot water flow.

The HOBO U30 collects data at one minute intervals, 24/7 and the information is accessible via the web.

Novotney and her team can access the data from Onset’s HOBOlink™ website. “With HOBOlink, we can view the data anytime, anywhere we have access to the Internet.” says Novotney. “The ability to view data remotely allows us to see how the hot water heating units are performing without having to go back into the field to manually collect the data.”

According to Novotney, many factors are being considered for this study. The evaluation of these systems will include a snapshot of the costs associated with the homeowners’ gas and electrical usage, as well as the energy costs following the installations. The energy savings will be reflected by the climate zone, the household size, and fuel type.

“Since no one in our state has ever monitored the natural gas usage associated with a solar water heating unit, we wanted to track the consumption of gas when the solar power was on versus when the solar power was turned off,” explains Novotney.

So far, the collected data indicates that the solar hot water heating systems are helping. During daylight hours the system turns off and only turns back on at night. “This is the kind of data we needed to see,” explains Novotney. “We wanted to determine whether or not the systems were performing the way we hoped they would. The data showed us that during the day there is no need for the system’s gas or the electric power to turn on, and this will ultimately save homeowners money.”

According to Novotney, the HOBO U30 systems will continue monitoring the current test homes until October and then she and her team plan to change the location of the loggers to include additional test homes.

“We plan on using the HOBO U30 systems on each of the 22-test homes for the pilot study”, concludes Novotney. “We hope to have comparison data on all of the solar hot water hearing systems by next year.”

Onset recently assembled a roundtable to discuss the current role data loggers play in energy and retro-commissioning applications. Roundtable participants included: Adam Knickelbein, Summit Blue Consulting, Don Gray, US Innovative Green Technologies, and Stephen Pfeiffer, Energy Plus.

How do data loggers play into your overall performance monitoring strategy?

Don: Data loggers allow us to do full baseline testing on a facility before we do any upgrades, changes or modifications. We work with utilities to get Customer Directed Rebates (CDR) for energy-efficient projects that decrease electrical usage at our clients’ facilities – putting money back in their pockets. With the data loggers, we get extremely high quality data.

Adam: We do a lot of evaluation work for gas and electric utilities that implement energy efficiency programs. An important part of doing that is to measure the energy savings that they get from various projects. For example, when we are monitoring lighting runtimes, we often use light on/off loggers or current-activated switches. When we measure motor runtime we use 4-channel loggers with current transducers to monitor the energy usage and estimate energy savings

There is an increased need for precise and reliable data because we need to verify whether the energy savings is really there.

Stephen: Data loggers play a very big role in my job. I use the loggers mainly for retro-commissioning to measure how efficiently an existing HVAC system and other building systems work. I also use the devices to verify whether or not a system is working properly after a retrofit.

What particular challenges do you face with respect to data collection?

Adam: We have a lot of different monitoring projects going on simultaneously and have to go to a number of different sites to download the data. I know that there are a number of web-based loggers that allow you to get real-time data, but right now, we only use stand-alone loggers that don’t have web access.

Don: One of the main challenges we have faced in the past is sending a tech out to a site to collect the data. Historically we collect high-volume samples. Collecting data with a web-based system, like the HOBO U30, saves us time and money. It gives us the ability to access the data anytime without having to go out in the field.

Stephen: I find that at times it’s difficult to put the loggers on older systems. Another challenge I face is bringing a laptop into the field to activate the loggers.

How do you work with the data?

Adam: We usually export the data into a statistics software program. For example, if we are measuring lighting we will often look at a population of retail stores or office buildings to get a snapshot of the energy usage other buildings are using and then we are able to get an average based on the data.

Don: I export the data files into Excel. Our customers want to see a graphical interface of what’s happening with their data. When I prepare a report, I put the data into graphs to show everything that has happened during the entire lifespan of the project.

Stephen: I always export the data into Excel because it helps me get a clear picture about how a system is working and easily helps me identify problems.

Do your monitoring projects typically require trend logging, real-time data, or both?

Don: We need both. I need real-world data for a lot of our projects. However, in general, trending data is more important to us.

Adam: We are looking at trend logging mostly.

Stephen: I only need to look at trend data.

What are the most important product features you look for in a data logger?

Stephen: The most important feature for me is memory since I need to log a lot of data using short- time sampling rates. I also look for a logger that can withstand harsh environmental conditions. They have to be able to take a beating.

Don: For us, its ease- of-use. The more complicated the test equipment, the longer I have to train our techs to go out and collect the data. Data loggers have been historically created for scientific types, and I think that more work-a-day people are going to be looking for products that are easy to use for their monitoring projects.

Adam: Cost is a big one for us as well as ease-of-use.

The word geothermal literally means “earth heat.” We can capture the heat that is stored in the earth and use it to heat our buildings. The top 500 feet of the earth stores heat from solar radiation. Although the top 30 feet of the earth changes temperature with the seasons, below 30 feet, the ground stays fairly stable at the average yearly temperature of the air.

In Maine, for example, the ground remains at nearly-constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit. As the earth absorbs the heat from the sun, that heat is transmitted downward to a depth of approximately 500 feet.

The Chewonki Foundation, a Wiscasset, ME-based nonprofit educational institution and winner of the 2009 GreatNonprofits Green Choice Award, is leveraging the natural phenomenon to lower energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint. The Foundation recently installed a geothermal heating unit that will help heat its largest building on campus – the Center for Environmental Education. The geothermal unit will use heat collected from a deepwater well to warm the building’s radiant floors.

“The geothermal system we installed is expected to be energy efficient,” said Tom Twist, sustainability educator for Chewonki. “In fact, we’ve projected the system will function at one-third the cost of a traditional oil-heat system, and can be expected to pay for itself in 3-5 years.”

To help verify these claims, and determine if geothermal is a viable energy source option to fossil fuels, the Foundation installed a web-based energy logging system from Massachusetts-based Onset to measure the heating system’s performance.

The system, a HOBO U30-ETH, was funded through a grant from the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), which is interested in verifying that our geothermal system will be a more economical energy source over the traditional oil heat source we used previously. If the results look promising, the MPUC may consider incorporating geothermal systems into public housing projects.

The data logging unit, which measures, records and transmits system performance data to the web, is configured with a number of sensors. Two flow meters are connected to the well pump, which measure BTUs the system is producing and flow rates. A kilowatt sensor measures the electric draw of all the system pumps, including a number of tiny circulating pump and the larger heat pump itself. Temperature probes measure air temperatures inside and outside of the building, and well temperatures coming in and going out.

A real-time display of the data is transmitted via Ethernet to the web over HOBOlink®, an Onset-hosted server. Twist configured the webpage with a “public access” feature so faculty and students can log on to see the latest measurements, as well as measurements taken over past week and month.

“The web display of the data is a benefit to us for a number of reasons,” explains Twist. “First, I am not a programmer, and it’s unlikely that I could develop any kind of interesting way to view the data online. Having it published by Onset using their secure and dedicated server makes it easy for us to see what we need to see. Second, it makes the data widely accessible, which is great for our students who can log in and see firsthand how the system is performing.”

The Foundation will be collecting data on the geothermal heating system through the fall and winter seasons, and aims to have cumulative data to present to the MPUC in the spring of 2010.

“We should, however, know fairly quickly this fall if the system seems to be reducing energy costs and shrinking our carbon footprint,” said Twist.

By Elisa Wood
July 23, 2009
A Cisco executive attracted some eye rolling after commenting that smart grid could be “even bigger than the Internet.” http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/energy/smart_grid_solutions.html

But the statement isn’t farfetched when you think about what smart grid encompasses: a convergence of three industry giants: information technology, telecommunications and the electric grid, the world’s biggest machine.

A report this week by Greentech Media made clear just how large an empire this triumvirate can create — and what it will mean to our society if it succeeds and if it fails.

The smart grid – which will cost an estimated $165 billion to build – may constitute the largest single information technology investment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, according to “The Smart Grid in 2010: Market Segments, Applications and Industry Players” by David Leeds. http://www.greentechmedia.com/

It also represents one of the biggest business opportunities of the century, says the report. How big is big? “When you consider that the U.S. electric utility sector, with its annual revenues of roughly $300 billion, is 30% larger than the automobile industry and twice as large as the telecommunications industry, and then bring to mind the craze of dotcom investments and telecom merger & acquisition which occurred in the mid to late 1990s, a reasonable picture starts to emerge of what can be expected of in terms of smart grid investments and M&A in the next five to 10 years,” says the report.

Keep an eye on demand response because it’s likely the first smart grid “killer ap” to capture market penetration, even before smart meters, says Greentech Media. “The demand response market is now being referred to as a gold mine and industry analysts have called for this market to quadruple over the next five years,” says the report. The successful public offerings of demand response leaders, Comverge and EnerNoc, underscore the market’s maturity, according to the report. But what if society loses interest in smart grid? (It would not be the first time we’ve abandoned promising energy innovations.)

Without smart grid, forget about green energy, says the report. Renewables “will remain niche,” “a non-starter.” We need the smart grid to facilitate and integrate renewable energy because of its variable nature. After all, solar, wind and electric cars are nothing new. Photovoltaics have been around since the 1950s and wind and electric cars since the turn of the century. Smart grid offers to take them from “novelty to norm,” says the report. Green energy is “battle ready;” what it needs is smart grid infrastructure to support its introduction on a mass scale.

For all of smart grid’s benefits, it still faces uncertainty: If we build it will they come? Smart grid is premised on the idea that if consumers receive real-time information about their electricity usage, they will consume power more judiciously. That requires “re-imagining and re-engineering” our relationship with energy. “Changing North American consumption habits, especially those related to energy, which historically has been “dirt cheap,” cannot be assumed to be an easy assignment,” Greentech Media warns.

So whether the smart grid becomes an enormous business opportunity or an enormous bust may rest largely with human mindset. The question becomes not, how big is smart grid, but how big will we allow it to be.

Visit Elisa Wood at www.realenergywriters.com and pick up her free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter

By Elisa Wood

July 9, 2009

When it comes to energy efficiency, it used to be the big guys that mattered. Policymakers and market leaders focused on manufacturers, refiners and others that gobbled up lots of kilowatt hours.

It’s not surprising. Manufacturers create bang for the buck. Better motors, refrigeration or combined heat and power can lead to six-digit dollar savings — far more impressive than the $10 per month an aggressive household effort might generate.

An energy attorney once told me an interesting story in this regard. He asked his family to turn down the thermostat to save money; they said they would rather just skip ordering pizza once a month.

Household efficiency often doesn’t seem worth the effort. But a shift is occurring; efficiency efforts are increasingly focused on the residential sector.

In fact, a study released this week by the Electric Power Research Institute shows that homes, in aggregate, offer greater technical potential for energy savings and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions than stores or factories. And it does not require use of refrigerators that talk to the grid, glowing energy orbs, or other cutting edge technologies to significantly reduce emissions. Instead the report finds carbon reductions in switching out common home devices that use fossil fuels with those that use electricity.

EPRI looked at household activities that use energy: clothes drying, heating, cooling, cooking, warming pools. It then found electric technologies that allow us to perform these activities with less fossil fuel use; a heat pump for example might replace a natural gas furnace.

What electric devices did the best job replacing fossil fuel? EPRI’s short list for households includes heat pump clothes dryers, heat pump pool heaters, air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling, heat pump water heaters and in the Northeast, electric instantaneous water heaters.

The report also cites what regions offer the most potential for energy savings. Not surprising (See my July 2 blog, “Energy bill could open Southeast’s EE market” www.realenergywriters.com), the South offers the most potential, followed by the Midwest, Northeast, and the West, when residential, commercial and industrial energy use is considered. For reductions in CO2 emissions, the potential is greatest in the Northeast, followed by the South, the Midwest, and then the West.

Of course, savings achieved by switching from fossil fuels to electricity will be even greater as the nation introduces more renewable energy into its power generation fleet. EPRI says a good next step might be study how great those savings could be.

For years the electric power industry has taken heat for being a polluter. Odd to think it could also be what saves the planet.

For more details see: “The Potential to Reduce CO2 Emissions by Expanding End-Use Applications of Electricity,” www.epri.com.

By Elisa Wood

May 21, 2009

As a society, we’re accused of being too plugged-in, too reliant on our computers, televisions, and charged-up cell phones. Turns out, we are willing to unplug.

A study by SmartPower (http://www.smartpower.org/) found that unplugging unused appliances, those sucking up vampire energy, is an energy savings act people are willing to do. And they don’t just say they will unplug – they do unplug.

This is an important distinction because often people tell researchers that they intend to conserve power or buy renewable energy. But when it comes time to do act, they balk. SmartPower was able to discern where and when people walk-the-walk through a “Living Diary” study, part of a two-year effort in New England to see how the economy, volatile energy prices and environmental concerns motivate consumers.

Smartpower followed the activities of 81 people for two weeks. The participants were given daily questions, homework and tasks, which led to over 1,000 diary entries.

“Unplugging was the most frequent efficiency experience. Panelists reported that it was the easiest to perform, required the least sacrifice and was the most universally relevant to all participants,” SmartPower said in recent comments filed before the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control.

Such research becomes increasingly important as the industry seeks ways to spur consumers to act in a more energy efficient way, an approach known as “residential behavioral strategy.”

In Connecticut, SmartPower and two other companies have proposed an ambitious behavioral strategy program intended to encourage people to cut energy use 20% by 2020. The trio – which also includes Earth Markets (http://earthmarkets.com/), a finance company, and Efficiency 2.0 (http://efficiency20.com/), a software firm – offers consumers several goodies, among them free compact fluorescent lights and software to monitor energy use online.

But that’s not all. The program includes two of the biggest all-time motivators for the US consumer: beating the Jones and earning cash. Communities compete to see who saves the most energy and the results appear on line for all to see. In addition, participants have the chance to earn money through the sale of efficiency certificates or “white tags,” a currency of value in Connecticut. Consumers and businesses can earn a certificate for each megawatthour of energy they save. They sell the white tags to utilities and others who must, under state law, produce or buy a certain number each year to help the state achieve its efficiency goals.

The program must still win regulatory approval (http://www.dpuc.state.ct.us/dockcurr.nsf/(Web+Main+View/Search+Electric)?OpenView&StartKey=05-07-19RE02) . But if it does, its 200,000 customers would not only earn money from white tags but also save money on their energy bills – for a total financial gain estimated to be $100 million.

Not a bad benefit. Definitely worth the time of unplugging the appliances at night.

A vintage home gets a 21st-century energy overhaul

What started out as a relatively straightforward re-siding project on this 80-year-old duplex in Arlington, Mass., ultimately evolved into part of an ambitious superinsulation pilot program for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the regional utility company, NSTAR.

Upon contacting the state for technical advice, homeowner Alex Cheimets learned that the DOER was in the middle of developing standards for net-zero-energy buildings and agreed to include his home in the research. The state brought NSTAR into the project. NSTAR brought in Building Science Corp. to conduct a study of the building and make recommendations on the overall design and details of the insulation retrofit. As the project grew in scale and importance, Alex was able to secure several product sponsors who provided many of the core materials. Read full story.