:::it IS easy being green:::

The 12 Step Program - for Energy Abusers who want to make a change!

2011-01-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

I recently posted on Facebook that my dad's energy bills are 1/3 the cost of those of his neighbors thanks to the suggestions of mine he implemented this past year. I had HUGE outpouring of interest from friends and family who saw the update and was asked to send a note compiling a bunch of suggestions. Well, be prepared folks. I introduce you now to 100 pointers across 12 different categories: The 12 Step Program for Energy Abusers. (*Please note: Energy efficiency measures are not limited to what is on this list. These are just easiest and most common applications.)

If you want to save some cash, make your home perform at its best, maintain the longevity of your home's mechanical and electronic equipment, and/or do a little bit to help save the planet... read this through and implement as much as you can as quickly as you can. Most of these suggestions are no cost adjustments, many are low-cost, and only a handful are investment-grade.

Please feel free to get in touch if you want further suggestions or help with anything in this note. I am a trained energy professional with a MAJOR obsession for helping any/all with energy saving measures.

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Heating System

Set your thermostat as low as possible while still maintaining comfort

A sweatshirt or an extra blanket at night can keep you warm for free!

A programmable thermostat helps you automatically regulate your energy usage

65-68 degrees when you're home
62-65 when you're away briefly
55-58 when you're gone more than five hours at a time or when you’re sleeping

Keep your basement, attic and garage doors closed to keep in heat
Keep registers and doors closed to spare rooms or second bathrooms that aren’t used often
A ceiling fan kept at low speed will spread heat evenly around the room
Move your couch or other furniture away from registers

They just absorb the heat and don’t allow it to spread around the room

Insulated drapes or quilted curtains keep more heat inside your home
Close the chimney flue and/or seal unused fireplaces
Have your furnace inspected and cleaned once a year
Have your heating system professionally tuned at the start of the cold season
Check your duct work annually to make sure all connections are tight and sealed – duct tape is magical for a reason!

Water Heater

Use cold water instead of hot whenever possible
Don’t run the hot water before a shower for any longer than it takes to get warm
Keep the water off while you shave, brush your teeth, etc
Set the water heater's temperature at 120 degrees
Take showers instead of baths
Installing a low-flow shower head will help you use less hot water

Low-flow myth debunked: Low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators do provide as much water pressure, if not more, than the traditional equipment

Put an insulating blanket around the water heater
Fix dripping faucets quickly

A dripping water faucet wastes 212 gallons a month!

Insulation

Seal your home's envelope!! This includes walls, floors, ceilings and the roof
Seal cracks in the basement floor to keep heat in
Weather-strip around windows and doors
Check under sinks to see if plumbing cuts have been made much larger than what your plumbing requires. If so, stuff them with fiberglass batting so the cool air of a basement or crawl space does not leak into the livable space of the home
Add foam outlet gaskets under the plastic outlet covers on your exterior walls

You would be amazed how much heat is lost here!

Insulating pipes can keep hot water hot, allowing you to lower the temperature on your water heater

Pipe insulation is super cheap and easy to apply!

Double-pane or triple-pane windows cut heat loss

Select windows with air leakage ratings of 0.3 cubic feet per minute or less

Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows to reduce solar gain
Most homes should have 6-7 inches of attic insulation minimum

Air Conditioning

Use fans when possible instead of AC

A few carefully placed fans can create a cross-breeze that will cool down a room quickly

Close your curtains and shades at night and re-open them during the day
Make sure the "fresh air" vent on the air conditioner is closed so you are not cooling outside air
Clean leaves and debris from the unit and clean the filter often, this makes the equipment run at its peak efficiency
Buy an air conditioner with a high Energy Efficiency Rating (EER)

And make sure your HVAC contractor sizes it right for your home
An air conditioner generally needs 20 BTU for every square foot of living space

Install your air conditioner in a shady place as the sun will heat it up and make it work harder than it needs to
Install an attic fan

Hot air trapped in the attic can make your whole house warmer

Consider installing a whole-house evaporative cooler

Same results, with 75% less energy used than an air conditioner

EnergyStar® Appliances

This guide from the U.S. Department of Energy can help you decide whether or not to invest in a more energy-efficient appliance
Check for products bearing the Energy Star logo, which have been determined by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to increase efficiency and save money
Talk to your local retailer to get more information about potential savings from an EnergyStar® appliance purchase – they are very knowledge more often than not!

Refrigerator and Freezer

Old refrigerators are less efficient; consider an upgrade, if possible.
Get ridge of the ‘beer fridge’ in the basement or the extra deep freeze you don’t use much

MI utility companies offer $30-$50 to you for letting them pick up your old fridge or deep freezer
You could save $15/month on your electric bill by doing this!

Make sure the door seal is tight, so cold air can't escape
Avoid repeatedly opening the fridge just to look around
Set the thermometer for 38 degrees on the fridge and 0-5 degrees on the freezer
Let hot foods cool before putting them in the fridge
Don't overstuff the freezer
Clean the coils that cool your refrigerator regularly (that’s right.. get behind the fridge!)

You can save yourself some effort by investing in a refrigerator coil brush

Stove and Oven

When cooking, keep the lids on pots to get the most bang for your buck
Cook with a full oven
Prepare dishes together when possible. (i.e. chicken in the oven with rice on the stove)
Thaw foods before cooking to reduce the amount of energy needed to cook
Keep your stove's reflector pans shiny to maximize efficiency

Caked on gunk absorbs heat and makes cooking time longer

If the flames on your stovetop are yellow, it needs to be cleaned!
Don't open the oven door while cooking; instead, look through the window if you have one
Crockpots, toaster ovens, frying pans and pressure cookers all use less energy than an electric stove
Only boil as much water as you're going to need
Using a small pan on a large-sized burner wastes energy; move it to the small burner
Choose a stove range with multiple burner sizes

Dishwasher (these steps will reduce your water bill and your heating bill)

59. Load dishes in their proper locations to ensure maximum cleaning efficiency

Martha Stewart has written a helpful guide to "Dishwasher Strategy"

Set to 120 degrees or the "low" setting
Scrape, don't rinse, dishes before loading the dishwasher
Only wash full loads and use the shortest wash cycle
Avoid using the "rinse hold" setting on your dishwasher

This wasteful cycle uses up 3-7 gallons of hot water

Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle
Keep the drain unclogged and clean

Laundry

Presoak or use the soak cycle when washing heavily soiled garments
Wash and rinse clothes in cold water
Wait until you have a full load to do a wash
Be stingy with the detergent

Too much detergent forces the machine to work harder

On sunny days, hang clothes outside to dry if you have the yard/space to do it
Don't overload the dryer as it may result in running it twice to get things dry
Clean the dryer's lint trap after each load
Dry towels and heavier cottons in a separate load from lighter-weight clothes
Dry two or more loads in a row, to take advantage of the dryer's retained heat
Look for a dryer with a cool-down period, or "perma-press," cycle

These employ cool air at the end of the cycle rather than hot

Buying a new washer or dryer?

Look for a dryer with a moisture sensor that automatically shuts off the machine when your clothes are dry
Choose a clothes washer with a "mini-basket," allowing you to do very small loads without wasting water and power
Place your dryer in a warm space for maximum efficiency
Make sure your dryer is vented properly

Lighting

Open blinds and shades for natural lighting during the day
Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) use 1/4 the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs and last six times longer
Disconnect or remove bulbs in multiple lamp fixtures
Putting a lamp in the corner gives off more light than the ceiling light in the center of a room
Place security lights on a timer
Use LED nightlights – they use far less energy than a regular incandescent nightlight
Use "task lighting” at the desk or for reading; that big ceiling light uses way more energy

Direct light to the areas in a room where it's needed rather than keeping the entire room bright

87. Check the "lumens" setting when buying a new bulb

a. A 23w CFL can very in lumens depending on the brand

The higher the lumens, the brighter the bulb

Install dimmer switches on lights when possible

Most CFLs unfortunately can't use dimmer switches so look carefully when purchasing!

Painting your walls light colors keeps your whole house or apartment brighter

Home Electronics

Turn off your TV, VCR and DVD player when they're not in use

There are new surge protectors called “Smart Strips” that can do this for you! Check your local retailer for ‘intelligent surge protectors’ that utilize occupancy sensors and/or amp draw sensors that can cut all power to your electronics while you’re not using them
75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off

When an appliance isn't being used, make sure it is turned completely off

Unplug it if necessary

Turn off your coffee machine after the second cup of coffee

Store any remaining cups in an insulated container to keep them warm

Make sure that your computer is set to enter sleep after a few minutes of non-use
You can save 80% of your computer's electrical use through this small step
Buy EnergyStar® electronics when purchasing computers, laptops, and other gadgets

Make your utility company PAY YOU!

Utility companies across the country are implementing rebate programs for their energy-saving customers
Check your utility website to see which programs you might be able to benefit from
Michigan residents may get rebates for these items:

Pick-up of spare refrigerators and freezers (if they still work)
Buying an EnergyStar® window AC unit or dehumidifier
Turning in an old window AC unit or dehumidifier at a local recycling event
Purchasing a central AC system of 14 SEER or higher
Purchasing a furnace with 95% combustion efficiency and/or an ECM blower fan motor

Michigan residents can get FREE or discounted price CFLs through their utility programs
Most utilities offer an interactive home energy audit screening on their website – visit it to see where you can cut back and how you rank compared to average consumers

There you have it: you have your arsenal of energy efficiency pointers. Now get out there and SAVE SAVE SAVE! :)

Girl Loves Google

2010-01-09T16:23:00.001-08:00

I officially have a crush on Google. I know that sounds strange but let me tell you why and I'd be hard-pressed to believe that you don't have a crush on Google by the time you finish reading this post.

First and foremost, Google is THE go-to company for great applications that make the hi-tech life easier and more streamlined. I use Gmail for managing my many scholastic, personal, and professional network communications. I use Google Desktop to keep my favorite and most important web-based items (email, to do list, dictionary.com, wikipedia search bar, and weather) in my line of vision at all times. I use Google SketchUp for my interior design plans and tinkerings. I've just recently been invited to Google Wave to manage my many projects and collaborations in a super simplified, efficient manner. (I am a Google ADDICT!) ... Now, I also use Google Reader to keep up on all my favorite blogrolls regarding the energy industry. And that, my lovely readers, is how I came upon the last and final straw that has initiated my company-crush on Google.

Martin LaMonica @ CNET's Green Tech blog announced Wednesday, January 6, 2010 that Google has requested permission to buy and sell electricity on the wholesale market from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In doing so, they hope to be able to buy and sell the greenest, yet most affordable, renewable energy available and redistribute it amongst the grid. Google is hoping that this stategery can help them in their goals to achieve a carbon-neutral status.

Being a data/search/info company, it seems obvious that Google would use an immense amount of electricity to manage their data centers (where they keep all of their gajillions of server computers). As it stands, Google claims to already have super efficient data centers but they strive to do even more by becoming their own "utility" company, Google Energy. Once they are able to buy and sell their own green energy as utility companies do, they will be able to continue to offset their carbon footprint on a larger scale.

Bill Weihl, Google's Green Energy Czar, states that by May of 2009 Google had already offset their 2007 emissions in their entirety and, additionally, a portion of their 2008 emissions. This strategic, yet peculiar, move into the FERC-regulated utility field will help them offset their previous, current, and future emissions in a greener, more effective and flexible manner.

This is an amazing milestone in the green energy movement of the 21st century. With large scale, popular companies like Google taking leaps and bounds into the green economy, the proverbial bar of green standards has been risen a notch and these types of ambitions in the business world will become par for the course in no time. Please visit the Official Google Blog to hear more updates about their eco-ambitions and join me in my school-girl crush!

I love you, Google! Marry me!

Making the Case for On Farm Anaerobic Digesters

2009-12-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

http://greeneconomypost.com/farm-anaerobic-digesters-5919.htm

On farm anaerobic digesters can transform noxious polluting waste streams of farming operations into useful products like biogas and high quality fertilizer, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and helping to combat global warming.

by Chris de Morsella, Green Economy Post

Anaerobic Digestion is one of the more promising biological technologies for sustainable waste management and has the potential to turn a large and worsening agro-headache into a growing opportunity for sustainable farming. It can extract useful biogas energy and high quality fertilizer from manure and other problematic agro waste products while also reducing the air and water pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases from a farming operation. Anaerobic Digestion harnesses natural living biological processes to maintain the natural carbon cycle and extract useful energy and fertilizer byproducts from what had been problematic waste streams. It is well suited for many types of farming operations and is an important sustainable farming practice.
UPDATE: Anaerobic Digesters to Help Cut Dairy Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 25% by 2020

The Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agreement with U.S. dairy producers to accelerate adoption of innovative manure to energy projects on American dairy farms. This will lead to a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 while also extracting electricity from the raw manure using anaerobic digesters. Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy , the USDA, and dairy producers, the groups agreed to work together — in a public/private partnership — to reach this target. USDA will contribute by undertaking research initiatives, allowing implementation flexibility, and enhancing efforts to market anaerobic digesters to dairy producers.

Currently, only about 2% of U.S. dairies that could support a profitable digester are using the technology. This in spite of the fat that dairy operations that do operate anaerobic digesters routinely generate enough electricity to power 200 homes. Through the agreement, USDA and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy will increase the number of anaerobic digesters supported by USDA programs. Beyond promoting the digesters, the agreement will encourage the research and development of new technologies to help dairies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. See the USDA press release and the DOE description of anaerobic digesters on DOE’s Energy Savers Web site.
Current Agro Practices Waste Energy and Nutrients, Pollute and Contribute to Global Warming

Currently the byproducts of many farming operations are poorly and only partially utilized and often become part of an unexploited polluting waste stream. Furthermore the scale of this pollution problem is very large. A single large scale feedlot operation generates the waste equivalent of a small city, which is pretty amazing and cause for concern.

Farming operations produce byproducts such as manure, animal bedding, feed waste, and runoff from silos that in many cases contribute to pollution of waterways, smell bad, attract rodents and flies and can carry dangerous pathogens within them posing a public health risk. As anyone who has ever been in the general vicinity of a feedlot or other type of animal farming operation knows the smell of rank manure can become overpowering.

On most animal farming operations, the animals that are being raised are crowded into small areas and their manure and urine are funneled into massive noxious waste lagoons. These animal waste cesspits can and often do break, leak or overflow, sending dangerous pathogenic microbes, including Salmonella, E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and fecal coliform; nitrate pollution and drug-resistant bacteria into waterways and aquifers. These foul lagoons also emit toxic gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane into the air, polluting the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

One of the principle current practices is to spray the manure onto land, ostensibly as fertilizer — these “sprayfields” as they are called have the downstream consequence of bringing still more of these harmful substances into our air and water.

Clearly the current way of doing things is not an example of sustainable agriculture and is very damaging for the environment as well as wasteful of both energy and other inputs such as fertilizer. Anaerobic digesters can help mitigate this problem while producing renewable energy as well
What Is an On Farm Anaerobic Digestion System?

A farm-based anaerobic digester (AD) —also known as a biodigester— is essentially an air tight sealed, and heated container, located on a farm in which organic waste materials are broken down to produce biogas, effluent and solid remnants. They are shaped like silos, troughs, basins or ponds, and may be placed underground or on the surface. The biogas produced by the AD is approximately 60% methane with the most of the rest being comprised of CO2.

AD systems are either batch type systems, which are simpler to build and maintain and are more suitable for most on farm scenarios, or they are continuous types. In a continuous digester, organic material is constantly or regularly fed into the digester.

All biodigesters share the following basic components: A pre-mixing area or tank, which mixes the feedstock into a properly dilute slurry; A digester vessel or series of specialized vessels designed to each provide optimum environments for the specialized microorganisms required for each stage of the complex digestion process; a system for collecting, storing and using the biogas produced in the digester and a system as well as a system for storing and using the effluent and solid residue that is produced by the anaerobic digestion process.
What is Anaerobic Digestion?

Anaerobic digestion is a biological process similar in many ways to composting. Like composting it relies on microorganisms to decompose agricultural waste such as manure, processing by-products, and other materials that are being digested into effluent and biogas. Anaerobic bacteria are some of the oldest forms of life on earth. They evolved before the photosynthesis of green plants released large quantities of oxygen into the atmosphere. Anaerobic bacteria break down or “digest” organic material in the absence of oxygen and produce “biogas” as a waste product.

Anaerobic decomposition is a process that occurs naturally in swamps, water-logged soils and other anaerobic environments such as the guts of large animals. It can be managed and promoted in a “digester”, which is basically an airtight tank to process manure and other waste. It is a complex process, occurring in three basic stages as the result of the activity of a variety of different types of microorganisms. Initially, a group of microorganisms converts organic material to a form that a second group of organisms utilizes to form organic acids. Finally methane-producing (methanogenic) anaerobic bacteria utilize these organic acids to complete the decomposition process.
The Many Benefits of On Farm Anaerobic Digesters

The primary benefits of anaerobic digestion are: on farm nutrient recycling, waste treatment, and odor control. In addition biogas is produced and can be use to provide energy and heat for on farm use and for selling surplus electricity onto the grid. Each of these beneficial outcomes contributes towards making the farming operation become more sustainable. It promotes sustainability by significantly increasing the energy efficiency of the operation; retaining nutrients that are currently largely being lost and re-using them on the farm; reducing the environmental impact of the operation and its potential for spreading disease and by promoting re-use and useful extraction of energy and nutrient content from the waste stream enabling the operation to significantly reduce its reliance upon external energy and fertilizer and feed inputs.
Effluent from Digesters Is a Lot More Beneficial than the Word Makes it Sound

The material drawn from the anaerobic digester often called sludge, or effluent is a mix of solids suspended in a thick liquid solution. It is rich in nutrients (ammonia, phosphorus, potassium, and more than a dozen trace elements) and is an excellent soil conditioner.

The solid residue or effluent that is produced in the digester is a stable, odorless, and depending on the retention time and operating temperature is a largely pathogen-free fertilizer, which can be stored much more easily than raw manure and does not attract flies and rodents.

In the process of anaerobic digestion, the organic nitrogen in the manure is largely converted to ammonium, which is readily available and taken up by plants and the ease of storage allows the fertilizer to be applied onto fields when they are most needed. It is important to note that any toxic compounds (pesticides, etc.) that are in the digester feedstock material will become concentrated in this effluent and in the solid co-products; so care must be taken to minimize pesticides or other toxic compounds from the feedstock that is feeding the AD reactors.

The separated, digested solids contain most of the phosphorus in the manure, and operators may choose to export those solids or continue to apply them to their land, depending on their available acreage for manure application. The solid digested manure co-products may also be used for animal bedding, composted on-farm or exported from the farm for use as compost. These fibrous solids can also be used to fabricate low grade fiber boards.
Less Smell, Less Pollution, less Global Warming and Fewer Pathogens

Anaerobic digesters allow a greater portion of odor-causing volatile acids to be converted to biogas, resulting in less odor-causing compounds than would be present in manure in a typical liquid storage system. The overpowering odor of animal raising operations is one of the more immediately apparent forms of pollution that these operations cause and bioreactors can go a long way to eliminating these noxious odors that can lay over the land for miles around a large feedlot operation.

The potential for pollution of ground and surface water sources is also reduced due to several co-factors. Firstly, the digester extracts much of the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium nutrient load out of the feedstock as easily re-cycled co-products i.e. the liquid and solid components of the effluent and by doing so greatly reduces the potential for this type of water pollution – currently a major issue causing eutrophication of lakes, rivers and waterways and dead zones in the river fan zones in the oceans – for example the famous and growing dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi river delta. Secondly the heat in the reactor significantly reduces the number of pathogens existing in the effluent effectively acting to sterilize it to a pretty high degree, making it easier to handle, store and posing less of a pollution liability than untreated sludge.

Anaerobic digesters also work to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in a farming operation and in this manner increase the sustainability of the practice. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9 to 15 years. By capturing methane and converting it to heat or electricity, methane digesters reduce greenhouse gas emissions from manure produced by farming operations.
Bioreactors Promote Greater Overall Energy Efficiency and Can Generate Electricity

Anaerobic digestion reduces a farming operations overall energy throughput by combining manure with other high energy waste streams that might otherwise be landfilled and processing them through the AD system. The bioreactor produced biogas that can be used on farm to generate electricity as well as co-generating heat required for the anaerobic digesters themselves and that can be used wherever heat is needed on the farm. This co-generation both saves energy on the farm and produces electricity for on farm use and potentially a surplus that can be sold onto the grid. The biogas can be stored on site so that electric generation can be timed for periods of peak demand when it is most valuable.

Many farms have the potential to create sufficient energy to run their operations (power and heat) and also provide power onto the local grid.
Incentives, Grants and Certification Programs for On Farm Anaerobic Digesters

Financial institutions are generally well disposed to finance projects that help to diversify an operations revenue stream while at the same time reducing the operations costs and mitigating risk exposure. It is a win win situation and is the case with anaerobic digester systems.
In addition to these systems being a relatively easy sell to raise money on the private capital market or to borrow money from lending institutions many states and federal programs exist, which can help to defray the capital costs to build these systems.

Some examples of these incentive programs are:

The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy projects, including anaerobic digesters.

The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service may have cost-share funding available for digesters through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center.

Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) provides a 50 percent credit for the capital costs of biofuels and bioenergy projects and anaerobic digester systems qualify. Oregon also offers 5 to 20 year loans of up to $20 million for these systems.

North of the border Ontario, Canada provides a feed-in tariff for renewable energy that allows farms to sell electricity to the grid at a premium price, and the farming ministry provides construction grants. There are consequently quite a few systems under construction. Perhaps US government agencies including the DOE, EPA, and the USDA should study the success of this program and model programs for the US based on their experience.

Anaerobic digester operator certification is becoming increasingly common. For example Michigan Department of Agriculture offers an Agricultural Anaerobic Digester Operator Training Program
Conclusion

Systems to make better use of manure do not have the same sex appeal as say solar power or wind energy, but it does not mean that the problems are not important and in need of a solution or that the contributions these systems can make towards promoting a new green sustainable agriculture are not as vital as say the renewable energy sector or the smart grid for our future.

Reducing the energy throughput and other external resource requirements – such as fertilizers and water — of farming systems is going to be as important and as vital to building the new green economy as other better known icons of this new paradigm. The electric car or the solar array may capture the loin’s share of public attention, but the humble bioreactor processing manure and other high nitrogen containing agro waste may be as important although unsung.

Of course it is really really hard to sex up a song singing the praises of digesting manure, but it is a song… a message… that is important to get out there. A sustainable green economy will require us to become much better at how we handle our crap…. literally.

Read more: http://greeneconomypost.com/farm-anaerobic-digesters-5919.htm#ixzz0alP2vPa8

Girl Bleeds Green goes a'blogging!

2009-12-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome all. This is the official, virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony for the e-space debut of Girl Bleeds Green. Here, we will discuss all things eco-friendly like:

Green building standards
Green jobs
Green economics
Green technology
Green legislation

Shall I continue? I think you get the drift. Follow along and learn with me!