Less oil, more courage: Energy and Art

Hard to admit, but I'm not all fun-facts all the time. Sometimes I even pay attention to things that aren't energy related. So, rather engineering geek-speak that dominates the energy efficiency professional’s lexicon, today’s post is about “energy art” as a counterbalance to the usual “art of energy” commentary. This is a subject I've been following for many years and it's inspiring to see what artists can do with solar panels, radiators, and flame.

Today, I'm particularly intrigued with a story of how the turn of a phrase can mean one thing to one artist, and inspire another to flip the words around and send a message to the world. Oil paint on a brush makes art. A good artist uses just the right measure of oil on the canvas. A good writer needs few words to convey the message. A good car needs less gas. A good building in Vermont needs little heating energy.

As inspiration for his 2007 art opening, Thai artist RirkritTiravanija mentions an invitation to an exhibit from another artist named Peter Cain. Cain's message to himself was “More Courage, Less Oil”. Tiravanija says of this “Taken in context, that message was clearly a note to himself about the dilemma of being a painter and the moral choices one faces in executing a painting.”

Tiravanija then turned the phrase around to create his own message: “Less Oil, More Courage.” He comments: “Today, in the present context, we face a different dilemma altogether. The question of courage and the thoughts facing our present condition come ironically from the turn of Peter Cain’s inspired message. Less oil more courage asks us to face our own desires in the making, and to confront and question them, even as we try to achieve them. How do we, as a society and a community, face our weakness with courage and find the place in our consciousness to redirect the course and path we have been traveling? We will travel to our moral end, but while we are on this road, perhaps a small detour off course can bring us closer, to face the facts and be inspired enough to change.”

It's been a few years since we've had a real winter, and we’re all enjoying a well-deserved respite from loading the wood stove or filling the oil tank. Don’t put off preparing for next winter for too long, though. The end of this past heating season was punctuated with a milestone for the world as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels crossed the 400 ppm threshold - the highest level in human history.

Don’t just take the message from me or the climate and energy activists, take it from science, take it from art, but take it to heart. There is only one Earth and the balance of life as we know it depends on keeping atmospheric CO2 levels fairly low. Lower than it is today. We are rapidly and uncomfortably approaching our “moral end”, but only if you think of it that way – otherwise it’s just “the end” and we let it happen.

My own “moral end” seems to be a moving target. I think I’m heading in the right direction, reach a road block, feel dis-empowered  then catch my breath and move ahead with new understanding. We do what we need to do to get by every day, every minute, and detours are always inconvenient.

Our planetary life support system is in trouble. We’re stealing our own future by maintaining the status-quo, and that’s an uncomfortable place to be.

It takes courage to stop a thief — it’s time out of my day, and it’s scary. But many of us gain the greatest feeling of freedom by pushing excuses and adversity aside to confront the things we most fear.

The small detour? Act on those things you've been putting off. Carpool, bicycle, fix the old thing before buying a new one, go solar. Put aside desire, starting with small things like the second cup of coffee. Consider, then reconsider, your habits seven generations into the future. Decide how you personally can use less material and live with greater conviction.

What we gain will be greater than what we give. Give it with courage.

Take it personally. Take action!

What a difference a decade makes!

My son recently celebrated his tenth birthday with three of his best friends spending the night for a “sleepover” (a euphemism for staying up late, chatting). Collecting the boys after school on Friday afternoon, they struck up a surprising conversation in the car. To be honest, any conversation that didn't have to do with Legos or farting would have been surprising. But there they were, discussing the future of energy and transportation. Based on this brief conversation, I thought it might be interesting to interview them about their thoughts on energy and the environment.

Leo is into cars. He suggested that all cars in the future would be electric. Alex is really into science and the outdoors. He wants a car that he can plug in to charge, but saw a problem with the fact that making electricity causes pollution, and quickly came to the conclusion that all electric cars should come with a solar powered charging station. Gus is a nature buff and avid reader. He’s concerned about the effects of pollution on the rain forests which, he knows, produce huge amounts of oxygen for our planet. Silas, my off-grid kid, thinks all of this is incredibly obvious since he’s lived his whole life (so far) with an energy geek dad and environmentalist mom, though he seems none the worse for it.

Alex is pretty clear that he intends to live off grid with solar power someday. Leo mentioned the solar farms he’s seen along the highway, while Gus and Silas were quick to add that any solar power produced at home or at those farms, feeds into “the grid” and helps to reduce pollution. Here are a few more of their questions and comments. It was hard to keep my mouth shut and listen.

“Can you put solar panels on a car?” (YES! When I was in the 1991 Tour de Sol electric car race…)

“We get more power from our solar panels than from the wind generator.” (our small wind generator provides more power in the winter, so it depends…)

“Solar is better because people don’t like that wind is noisy and looks bad” (does it look worse than a smoggy sky or a dead rain forest? Kids get the controversy around big wind and the simplicity of solar.)

“ Couldn't we build a floating power station?” (Like off-shore wind?)

“I read about a car that has no exhaust, only water.” (That’s called a fuel cell and…)

“Why aren't there any commercials for solar power?” (Good question!)

“We should just bribe people to be more efficient.” (Those are called “incentives”…)

“When we’re extinct, another species will evolve and use our pollution as food.” (Wow!)

Where did they learn all of this? Self-directed reading at home and school. Television shows like NOVA and Myth Busters. Direct observation at home and on the road. Teachers telling stories about how asthma was less prevalent when they were kids.

Today’s youngsters are not just getting it about the environment; they've absorbed it into their sub-conscious. They’re thinking about the future world they will live in. They’re worried, but they’re empowered with knowledge and they know that tools and role models are available to help. I’m encouraged by this. These kids will not have trouble discerning the truth amidst all the “green-washing” we see in advertising. They’re smart, they’re savvy, they know what’s real when they see it, and aren't afraid to say what they think.

Ten years ago, I had just started writing my first book on home energy efficiency. Research at the time indicated that few Americans were “energy literate”. Most didn't know where their power came from or what the environmental impacts were. We knew about the ozone layer, but politicians were still arguing about whether or not climate change was real.

Fast forward to the present, and to another book covering both efficiency and renewables. Throughout the process of writing, the issue of relevancy was in the forefront. Nobody needs a list of fifty things to do to save energy or “green up” anymore. Any ten year old can give you that. 

“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy--sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” 

Thomas Edison

Solar hot water alert: Make sure you get what you pay for!

Its great to see so many renewable energy systems installed in homes. During the course of my home efficiency and renewable energy consultations, I’ve discovered a number of home energy systems that do not perform well for a variety of reasons. Unless properly installed and tested, your renewable energy system may not be giving you all that it can. One such problem with certain solar water heater kits is that a mixing valve is sometimes placed at the output of the solar storage tank in order to satisfy a plumbing code requirement that such a valve exists in the hot water delivery system. The mixing valve is designed to protect against scalding by mixing hot and cold water to provide warm water to the faucets.
There are two problems with a mixing valve at the outlet side of a solar storage tank, each reducing the contribution and value of your solar hot water heater:

  1.It’s in the wrong place. The mixing valve should be on the output of the primary water heater, the one that heats water by electricity or fossil fuel (when the solar hot water is not hot enough), and ultimately provides hot water to your faucets. The result is that warm water (not hot) feeds the primary water heater, reducing the contribution of the solar heated water.
  2.The valve may be set improperly. Your solar water heater can heat water to 140F or higher. The mixing valve can be adjusted to provide water between about 80 and 120 degrees. Some valves do allow for higher temperatures.

How to remedy the situation:
  1.Temporary fix. Be sure the valve is set to its maximum temperature setting by adjusting the temperature control knob.
  2.Permanent fix. Have a plumber remove the valve from the solar storage tank completely, and put it where it belongs – on the output of the primary water heater.

If you suspect a problem, first contact the installer and ask them to check the system for proper operation on a sunny day. I would add that the system may be performing “as-designed”, so your plumber may not want to make a change out of concern for voiding the warranty. I suggest that if you find yourself in this situation, call the manufacturer's technical support line and request a "commissioning" of the system to ensure that it provides you the maximum solar benefit you paid for. It will be helpful if you have the serial number and installation date of the system.

If you’d like an unbiased, “third party” energy evaluation of your home, feel free to contact me at paul@nrgrev.com. I can help you reduce your energy costs, increase comfort, and ensure you get the performance you pay for. Soon, I will be providing on-line and phone consultations to meet growing requests for unbiased, expert assistance from around the country.

Energy Planning, Energy Action

Vermont has a new comprehensive energy plan that is full of thoughtful - though non-binding and unfunded - ideas. The plan calls for meeting 90% of the stat'es energy needs through renewables by 2050.
I’ve written here in the past about dramatically reducing the energy requirements of homes and meeting a large portion of remaining needs with renewables. We know how to do the work, what we don’t know is how to pay for it – solar panels and insulation are just too expensive. Really?
Let’s put cost into context. It might cost $40,000 to reduce the energy requirements of an average home by 75%. That’s around 20 year’s worth of home energy bills. You could also spend that much on a solar power system to meet most of your home’s electric needs; an investment that might save you about half as much in annual energy costs as the same investment in efficiency. The value of energy is weighted towards efficiency over generation. In this respect, investing in efficiency first makes renewables more affordable.
I hear you – “where do I get $40,000? L-o-a-n is a 4-letter word!” One argument suggests that your energy savings will cover loan payments, but this isn’t always true. Often, when substantial efficiency improvements are financed, banks make more money in interest than the homeowner realizes in savings. Housing is a long term social resource, and the burden of maintaining that resource should not fall entirely on the shoulders of its current, temporary, custodians.
To broaden the context, the US spends about $800 billion a year on military funding and Middle East “stabilization”. A substantial amount of that sum is spent in an attempt to secure foreign energy resources. What if we took half of that $800 billion and spent it on reducing the need to spend it on securing the resources that we wouldn’t need if we were more efficient? That much money would allow us to substantially reduce the energy requirements of about 10 million homes. In just over twelve years, they’d all be done and we’d need 75% less fuel oil, natural gas, and coal, to meet our home energy needs.
If that’s not fast enough, or you don’t like that particular funding plan, perhaps we can use the same approach used to bail out Wall Street. I don’t know how they did it, but somehow the government was able to cooperate and work at breakneck speed to find and spend over $5 trillion dollars in just a couple of years to keep the financial world on life support after they mortally wounded their own selves. Five trillion is pretty much exactly what we need to retrofit every home in the country for maximum efficiency. How about the feds step in to pay the interest down to 0% on homeowner loans that reduce energy consumption by 75% or more? That way, we reap the benefits of our investment - not the banks - in an energy independence “bail out” that actually has meaningful, long term effects. And five trillion represents a lot of jobs!
Like most of us, I’ve no shortage of ideas that will never work because they make too much sense to the 99%. The unfortunate fact is that the 1% pull the strings and make the decisions no matter how much input they ask us for in order to make us feel part of the process. Nothing short of a large scale tax revolt will change the way things work in Washington, and I’ll get on that band wagon right after you do. So in the meantime, take it personally and take action!

Global land temperature anomaly

What’s Next?

I've been a hands-on energy geek for over 20 years. I like to think I've done it all – from basements to board rooms. I've done thousands of energy audits and ratings, investigated hot smelly attics and cold, smelly basements. I pointed fingers at insulation contractors and told them to “fix that and don't charge the customer". I’ve broken water pipes in customer’s basements, found silver bullets of savings, metered hundreds of appliances, and invented thousands of spreadsheets to support predicted savings. I’ve provided program design and analysis to utility managers, installed solar panels and wind generators, converted gasoline cars to electric, made thousands of gallons of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil, and (unfortunately) built my house before I knew what efficiency was. And then I wrote a book about it called The Home Energy Diet. I like to think I've done it all, but new things keep happening and I won't ever have learned enough.

I live off grid with my family using solar and wind for electricity and wood for heat. We have a backup (bio)diesel generator for those rare occasions when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow - usually it's one or the other. Recently we upgraded our solar electric system so that nearly 100% of our electrical needs are met with renewables throughout cloudy northern New England winters. We use 6 to 8 kWh a day, with all electricity monitored at the circuit level through my Powerhouse Dynamics E-monitor. Our 4 kW PV system keeps 50 kWh of battery storage charged quite well when the sun shines, with wind as an added bonus when it's cloudy. Solar power generation is monitored through the Outback Power MX80 charge controller, and wind data is collected with an anemometer feeding and NRG systems data logger. Happily, when we compare annual power production graphs of both solar and wind, they are nearly opposite each other, with wind providing more power in the winter and sun taking over in the summer.

A couple of months ago, shortly after feeling quite smug about having too much electricity, I received a propane bill for over $1000. Most of that propane is used to heat water, some is used for cooking, and some as a source of backup heat if we go away and can't load the wood stove. This presented a challenge that I could not resist: how to get off the propane “grid”. I knew that part of the answer was in efficiency and conservation, part in harnessing excess summertime PV production, but perhaps another piece lay in biogas production.

You can read about my efforts to generate biogas on my blog. It's quite an exciting process, and much simpler than I had thought. It will be a good hobby someday when I'm not so busy. To conserve hot water I took out my 10-year-old, 40 gallon, Bradford White sealed-combustion water heater and replaced it with a Navien NR180 on-demand, condensing water heater. While I was at it, I had my plumber install a GFX drain water heat recovery unit from Waterfilm Energy. I've known about DWHR for years and was thrilled to feel firsthand the 20° temperature rise in the water circulating through the coil. Now the cold water entering the water heater is 75°F instead of 55°F.

But I didn't stop there. I did something I would not generally recommend anyone else do, simply because it is not terribly cost-effective. However, in my case (off-grid with too much power production) the numbers worked a little bit differently. Admittedly, I will do things that get me off the fossil fuel mainline even if they aren’t cost effective - I can’t help myself, and I won’t try to talk anybody into trying this at home.

I needed a dump load for excess electricity generation. I considered a mini split air source heat pump but decided against it because most of my excess power is in the summer and it doesn't really get too hot here in central Vermont. I next considered a heat pump water heater but my off-grid power system limits me to 120 V and I could not see how to retrofit an HPWH to 240 V without losing efficiency through a transformer. So I bought the most efficient electric hot water heater I could find, a 40 gallon Marathon, and swapped out the heating elements for something that was suitable for the low voltage DC power that would feed them. If you want to try this approach, you will need some custom machining done. Call first, I can save you some time.

Finally I had to put together a control system that uses a signal from the charge controller to activate a solid-state relay that connects the battery output to the heating elements once the batteries are fully charged. Did I say finally? Since I know how much propane gas I've used for the past 15 years, and I will of course want to see the effects of the changes I've made, the only choice (really, it couldn’t be helped) was to install a data monitoring system. This is not such a difficult or expensive thing anymore with high-speed Internet, practically free online data storage, and some neat innovative tech products.

An Itron whole house gas meter with a pulse output allows me to see when and how much gas is being used, delivering one pulse for every half cubic foot (0.0278 gallons) of propane. Cooking energy is almost negligible so most of the gas used in summertime is for water heating. From this I can establish a baseline to which winter gas consumption for the propane heater can be added to determine its consumption. To monitor how much hot water the family is using, I installed an Omega in-line water meter with a pulse output (75.7 pulses per gallon). Half a dozen temperature sensors complete the water monitor sensor array. All these sensors are plugged into a WEL data logger that uses a web interface allowing the user to see real-time and cumulative data. So far it looks like gas used is less than half of what it was last month.

As of this writing, this is all pretty new and there are a few bugs to work out – such is the life of an early adopter. In terms of satisfaction, though, the payback was immediate. On a sunny day, the batteries are charged before noon and the water overheats before dinner. Nice to see the electrons going to good use. I may soon be looking for a dump load excess hot water. Perhaps a hot tub is in the future and I'll become a profligate energy waster of the sort I've been complaining about for the past 20 years - but at least it's all renewable sourced, so it's “green”, right?