Green Office meets Dilbert (+ interesting tidbits on HVAC design)

The fact that Scott Adam’s Dilbert is making fun of office greening is a major milestone!  It signal that business are starting to adjust (see note below).  It’s interesting that the justification is business legitimate sounding “to reduce expenses” instead of Pointy Haired green washing.

Personally, my office has both a causal dress code (engineers can/do wear shorts, black socks optional) and very cold air conditioning.

Note: My experience with office HVAC is that most systems are simply NOT setup to save energy by raising the temperature because they have to run a single massive chiller anyway.  My building is only 3 years old, but these “pre-energy cost spike” design dinosaurs are ubiquitous.  Adding a small “pony” chiller to handle most of the load could make a HUGE (really, HUGE) savings.

Building owners generally do not care about energy waste in their properties because the costs are PASSED THROUGH to the tenants.  The tenants could object, but they have very little awareness of their choice or influence.  This is exactly the type of broken anti-virtuous cycle that requires government / utility company intervention to fix!

Dead horse or just proving the point? alt energy = cheap oil

Several people have sited this New York Times article by Thomas Friedman about Dutch energy independence recently.  The basic theme is that their response to the 70s embargo was to purse energy independence as a national strategy.  Their methods are not 21th century sunshine and light green tech – they are a mix of innovation, stewardship, and smart efficiency improvements.

We can’t just hope that radical innovations solve the energy problem, we need a multifaceted approach with a sound economic model.  Dutch Treat?

Added Note: Another dead horse?  Read Friedman’s call for a national energy independence plan.  He compares our President’s mistaken push to drill more oil to his post-9/11 “go shopping” directive.  Now that was a moment of shining leadership!

Solar update…12 volt A/C?!

I thought it was worth amending my disparging comment about residential solar based on new information.

The AustinEV thread continues (and grows) about residential solar and 12 volt DC air conditioning.  DC A/C powered by solar would match peak generation (hot days) with the primary consumption (hot days).  Very interesting – why aren’t new home using this?!?

I think that residential solar is a bad fit for home given our current power loads, but would be excellent if we were more sustainable in our consumption (read: efficient).

I’ll go farther – I believe that houses should be switching to DC power instead of AC.  Most items in my house are DC and require converter bricks that waste power.  If we can have DC options for primary big consumers (A/C, refrigerator, water heater, dryer) than we could actually store power locally!

Solar so far so so

An interesting quote from the AustinEV (off topic) discussion on solar. Bruce J from Madison WI has an array that cost $13k to install. Like my EV, it’s not a profit center. His says he did it “because it is SOMETHING. And if *everybody* does *something* then great things will happen.”

Solar is Austin is subsidized by the local power company, but still have very long pay back. California has demand (time-of-day) billing so their solar arrays produce power at peak (3 x $). Since home use is mainly off-peak, the California arrays can reduce utility bills dramatically.

The big problem with solar for US homes is that WE USE TOO MUCH POWER to make an array practical.  An off-the-grid array is either really expensive, requires a life style change, or uninvented technology.  I don’t think that it makes sense to turn roof-tops into solar farms because most individuals are not equipped to maintain them.   Parking lots, however, could be excellent solar sites!

Developing countries like Africa are a stark contrast to the US.  Their current power demand is near zero.  A tiny solar array can make a life changing difference.  For example, the BOGO light initiative sends solar LED flashlights to Africa and allows people there to have lights on a night.  THEY ARE SO POOR – THEY DON”T HAVE LIGHTS AT NIGHT.   They don’t care about air conditioning, dryers, or plasma TVs.  In these places, solar is a huge wind fall.

Buy One, Give On (BoGo) Light

Mssing Icon? Maybe just another metaphor?

This week’s A.Word.A.Day is about metaphores.  Wordsmith Anu Garg said that the metaphor “carbon footprint” immediately displaced “energy hog” when it was coined because it was a better metaphor.  An green icon would be nice, but maybe a handful of better metaphor would work just as well.

Anyone want to help build a green metaphor list?

Carbon Footprint, Greenwashing, …

Energy Analog: 60s Litter?

I had an interesting conversation over breakfast with MetroNetIQ.com blogger and fellow Green Geek, John C.  We were comparing the social paradigm shift about litter that occurred in the 60s to the needed change about energy.  In the last 60s, litter was a massive free rider problem where people felt totally OK throwing trash everywhere.  Industrial pollution and dumping were also rampant.

I still vividly remember the anti-pollution adds (albeit from the 1970s).  Through a combination of laws and social change we have radically altered society’s opinion about pollution and litter.  They are simply not accepted – they have become social taboos.  We need the same change for sustainability.

An enduring icon for anti-pollution

The change took huge political will power.  It was an major economic burden on the businesses.  People individually took action and changed their behavior.  So what happened to change us? Why is this different than the nascent energy paradigm shift?

I believe that the pollution problem was directly in people’s back yards and visible.  Water and air quality in-your-face disasters.  It also fit with the culture of the era.  So far, our energy problem has been growing silently – terrorism and climate change are hard to link to daily actions.  The recent surge in prices is motivating people to change, but I don’t see a paradigm shift.

What icon will emerge for sustainability?  How bad will it have to get before we have a universal icon?

Electrolysis 2.0

According to “Solar Energy, All Night Long“ on Forbes, Professor Daniel G. Nocera at MIT has figured out a catalyst that fundamentally improves the efficiency of electrolysis.  The title is misleading because the work is more general and could have many impacts and even make the often proposed “Hydrogen Economy” practical.

The chemistry uses cobalt and phosphate to improve the generally difficult O2 side of the electrolysis equation.

Service announcement over:  please disengage your “over optimistic world changing bull shit” meter

Oxygen Bubble

Want to lower gas prices? Advocate for energy independence!

It’s not a shock that reductions in supply or increases in demand will increase prices.  The strange thing about our current oil price is that supply is stable and demand increases are moderate (or at least predictable).  So what is driving the price up?

I don’t agree with this as a complete picture, but let’s blame “market speculation” just for the fun of it.  There is some justification for blaming speculation – when China removed price controls, oil fell because demand would drop.  Oil falls on news about major car makers converting from trucks to cars.  Fundamentally, the THREAT of reducing demand is enough make the price of oil drop.

If the US takes decisive action to reduce our demand for oil then the price would drop.  I believe that oil rich countries would then be forced to take equally decisive measures to maintain our addition on oil.  Unfortunately, with low prices we would again lose our conservation drive.  There is a strong historical pattern of this type of behavior.

Do we have the will power to finally break free of the Oil cycle?

Beef high in fat and Oil

About 10 years ago I stopped eating beef because it was high in fat and that’s not healthy for me.

Now I have a second reason.  Beef is a huge energy waster.  Here’s the chain:

• Beef comes from cows.
• Cows from feed lots are fattened up with corn.
• Corn takes a lot of oil to produce (plus corn for ethanol competes with oil)

Cows also use lots of energy in transport and processing.

Source Federico Mena Quintero

Rising tide lifts all prices

I heard from a friend that coal is now 100% more expensive than last year and that increase is going to show up in our electric bills.  I heard yesterday that wheat is now 200% more expensive than last year because corn prices have skyrocketed based on ethanol demand.

The price of oil has a direct impact on ALL OTHER forms of energy.  Energy is fungable and there are substitutes for oil.

From Jan-Baker.com: "There is no end to the sky and sea."