Save the Date ~ March 17th URE Energy Day @ URE

You’re Invited…March 17th from 9am – 1pm • Energy Day @ URE.

download the flyer and check out the schedule of events:

9:00 – 1:00
Possitivity eWaste drop
ShredDirect documents
Residential members only,
please limit to three boxes

9:15- 10:00
Low-cost/No-cost Ideas & Tips
presented by:
Paul Gillespie
URE energy advisor

10:15- 11:15
Backyard Conservation
presented by:
Gina Zirkle
Scotts Miracle-Gro

11:30- 12:00
Energy Audit Fundamentals
presented by:
Paul Gillespie
URE energy advisor

12:15- 1:00
Renewables – What you
should REALLY know
presented by:
Anthony Smith &
Ron Rockenbaugh
URE engineers

Marvell chip makes appliances and LED lights smart

by Martin LaMonica

Marvell Semiconductor is trying to get in on the ground floor of the smart home.

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company announced a chipset that can add wireless networking to home appliances and LED light fixtures. The gear is designed to make it relatively cheap for manufacturers to make connected versions of common goods, such as thermostats and dishwashers.

A smart home that lets people remotely monitor and control appliances and electronics is likely to be a theme at CES this year as it was last year.

(Credit: Marvell)

One of the technical challenges with making household items network-aware is that they typically don’t have very much computing power. Marvell’s Smart Appliances Platform includes a Wi-Fi wireless networking chip as well as a microcontroller to handle the processing involved in communicating with other devices, such as a smart meter or home control application.

The package also includes software that makes it relatively straightforward to write connected-appliance applications that can run on iOS or Android, said Kishore Manghnani, vice president of the green technology products group at Marvell. A dishwasher manufacturer, for example, could write an application so that a technician could remotely diagnose problems, or to allow a consumer to remotely control it.

Marvell has one appliance manufacturer that is planning on releasing a smart appliance based on the system in the second half of this year. With an added cost of $5, the net increase cost of a connected appliance to consumers is about $10, according to the company.

Marvell has created a similar platform aimed at lighting fixture and controller manufacturers. It’s first targeting commercial lighting and then hopes to address the consumer market.

The system uses Zigbee wireless chips, which would be embedded into a light fixture’s controller, and a small gateway device, which can communicate with 200 individual fixtures or bulbs.

At CES, Marvell plans to demonstrate how the wireless networking can allow a person to manage and schedule lighting from a central point to improve efficiency.

A number of companies, including Daintree Networks and Enlighted, are making wireless lighting systems intended to lower energy consumption. Marvell’s system will add a few dollars of cost to lighting fixtures, which will help drive smart lighting adoption, Manghnani said.

Making Energy Investment Decisions: The Time Value of Money

Key Points

• The principle that the value of money changes over time is important in making investment choices.
• Net present value and internal rate of return are financial analysis tools that account for the time value of money.
• The right tool to use depends on the type of financing, and the scope and nature of the project.

When considering energy efficiency investments, how do you decide whether a project is financially sound? Simple payback is a widely used method that answers the simple question “when do I get my money back?” Payback however, treats money only in its present day value, ignoring the fact that money changes value over time. Net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) are financial analysis tools that account for the time value of money and may provide a more accurate view of the future costs and benefits associated with an energy project.

Net Present Value

NPV measures the financial worth of an energy project over time. It is the difference between the initial cost of the energy project and the present value of the annual savings or cash flows that result from it.

Unlike payback, cash values in NPV are adjusted or discounted so that near-term cash flows have a greater value than those in the more distant future. The discount rate is an interest rate used to adjust future cash flows to present value. The discount factor (DF) is the discount rate compounded annually and is used to calculate the present value based on the number of years. The choice of a discount rate can have a significant impact on an NPV calculation. The interest rate associated with the investment is often used. For example, if an energy project requires financing at 7%, then that could be used as the discount rate.

So, how can you use NPV to help make investment decisions? Let us use a lighting upgrade from T12 fluorescent lamps to more efficient T8 models as an example. You calculate that an initial investment of $12,000 will provide $16,000 in energy savings over four years. As the graphic below shows, the upgrade provides a simple payback in three years and a positive cash flow of $4,000. Using a discount rate of 7% however, the present value of the energy savings is reduced to $13,520, yielding an NPV of $1,520. While the cash flow is still positive, the calculation shows how the changing value of money can influence investments.

Internal Rate of Return

Internal rate of return (IRR) is closely related to NPV. IRR is a percentage figure that estimates the return on an energy-efficiency investment over time. In contrast to calculating NPV (where the discount rate is selected) an IRR calculation starts with the cash flow streams and finds the discount rate where the net present cash outflows and inflows breakeven—in other words, the NPV equals zero. Determining the IRR of an upgrade involves a tedious process of testing different discount rates until finding one where NPV equals zero. Fortunately, the task can be automated using a spreadsheet program or a financial calculator.

In the following calculation—using the lighting upgrade highlighted above—a discount rate of 12.6% would create an NPV of zero in four years. In a choice between multiple investment options, the one with the higher IRR is the better option. When the IRR is higher than the cost of financing, an energy-efficiency project is a financially sound investment.

Internal rate of return is easier to understand the NPV and provides a comparison to the cost of borrowing or the benefits of other investment options. However, IRR calculations are restricted to the initial capital investment and cannot take into account any subsequent financing. Also, IRR is a percentage figure that may provide a limited view of a project’s potential impact on profits.

Which Is the Better Option?

This is a difficult question to answer. The right tool to use depends on the type of financing, and the scope and nature of the project. NPV is useful for comparing projects with a fixed amount of years where multiple cash infusions may be required. It also provides a view of the financial benefits over the entire life of the project. IRR can compare projects with savings that occur over varying time periods. Also, since every investment involves risk, IRR can help compare financial options by establishing a hurdle rate, or the minimum amount of return required on an investment.

Whichever analysis tool you use, understanding the time value of money provides you with the ability to make better financial decisions.

“This article previously appeared in the Union Rural Electric Cooperative newsletter, and is used with permission.”

Useless grass could become the next biofuel

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

BERKELEY –

One day in the not-too-distant future, we might be filling our cars with fuel made from useless grass.

A Berkeley biologist has transferred a gene from a variety of corn into a widespread, fast-growing species of the grass, and transformed it into what could become an important source of biofuel.

In a world of vanishing oil reserves, farmers have been growing more and more high-energy crops like corn and sugar cane to make ethanol as a replacement for gasoline, while scientists are seeking even higher-energy products from other and better crops.

Now George S. Chuck, a UC Berkeley plant geneticist, reports that his experiments with a species of corn called corngrass1 have yielded genetically altered forms of common switchgrass plants that more than doubles their content of starch.

The starch, in turn, creates sugars that when fermented – as in all biofuel plants – produce the ethanol that goes into more and more cars today.

Chuck and his colleagues are working at the Agriculture Department’s Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany.

In a report published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists say that test plots of the altered switchgrass have shown that the gene experiments have improved the starch yield in the plants by “up to 225 percent.” Also important, they report, the gene transfer blocks the switchgrass plants from flowering.

“They’re forever young,” Chuck said – and that means the plants cannot spread pollen containing the new gene beyond the area where the altered plants grow.

Up to now, the fast-growing switchgrass, because of its tough lignin, an organic polymer, has required heavy chemical treatment before it can be turned to ethanol as biofuel. Chuck’s gene transfer experiments have shown that because the improved switchgrass keeps the plants young, the lignin content of their cells is minimal and would need no chemical treatment, he reported.

Edward M. “(Eddy)” Rubin, an internationally noted geneticist and director of the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, called Chuck’s report “both interesting and important.”

“This is an illustration of how manipulating the genome of a plant can make an incredibly useful change in the plant as a source of energy,” Rubin said.

Chuck’s gene-cloning experiments represent five years of work, Chuck said in an interview Tuesday.

Now, larger field tests of the transformed switchgrass are planned, and Chuck said he is starting a new series of genetics experiments to see how other genes from the corngrass1 plant can be “turned on” in response to light and darkness, and to raise the starch content of switchgrass even higher. The goal is a major new source of biofuel from a wild plant that grows throughout the world.

But drivers will have to be patient.

“It won’t all happen tomorrow,” he said.

E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.

Happening this month: The 2011 Solar Decathlon

Students are once again vying to design and build the most cost-effective, energy-efficient and prettiest solar-powered home.

Two must-sees in Washington, DC this fall: one, the newly unveiled (though not officially dedicated due to hurricane upset) monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., designed by Chinese sculptor Master Lei Yixin. The other, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon installation on the National Mall, from September 23-October 2, 2011.

The Decathlon is an award-winning collaborative program that engages teams from colleges across the world to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and pretty. The winner is the team that does it best, mindfully creating according to affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence. It’s a free biennial event totally open to the public, who get to tour homes fathomed in nearby Maryland and as far imagined as New Zealand.

The purpose of the event is to educate student participants and the public at large about using clean-energy, the cost-effectiveness of energy-efficient construction and appliances, and providing students with training for the clean-energy workforce. Since 2002, the first year of the event, 72 houses have competed. Those houses are now dotted throughout the United States and the world serving educational, conservation, and community-oriented functions.

This year, nineteen teams are competing from the United States, Belgium, Canada, China and New Zealand. Here are a few we’re keeping our eye on.

From Middlebury College, “Self-Reliance.” A two-bedroom, 990-ft2 house designed for a family of four.

“First Light,” from Victoria University of Wellington, inspired by the traditional New Zealand holiday home—the “Kiwi bach.”

From the University of Maryland “WaterShed” proposes solutions to water and energy shortages.

CHIP from SCI-Arc is a design motivated by California’s “soaring land costs and urban sprawl.” It’s meant to be a minimal-footprint, affordable dwelling that offers a solution to the challenges of home ownership.

Out of Belgium, Ghent University’s E-Cube aims for simplicity stripped of nonessential components and finishes.

Visit Solar Decathlon for a full list of the participating teams, and tell us…what’s your favorite?

Download Energy Efficient Tip of the Day!

Save Energy, Save Money. Tip of the Day

Central Air Conditioners Why they don’t always live up to expectations.

Ever wonder why some rooms of your home may not be as comfortable as others in the summer? In most cases the culprits are the room return air ductwork. Even if you are exhausting cool air into the room you have to also be extracting the warmer, non-conditioned air. This means that the most important factor for central air conditioning is the return air location and size. Central air conditioning is all about removing heat from a room, period. That is, if the central air has been sized appropriately when spec’d for the home. All home air conditioning systems should be sized based on the Manual J Residential Load Calculation- 8TH edition version two, which is a part of the required CABO Code of Ohio.
A central air system that is sized correctly for cooling the house has to have the ductwork (exhaust and return) sized correctly to each room for the house to have uniform temperatures in each room. To better understand the significance of return air, we will assume the central air is sized correctly for the home in the following example. A two-story home with a central return air in the hallway on the second floor – 30” x 6” grille, will extract about 8,000 to 9,000 BTUS (¾ of a ton.) This may not be enough heat extraction to satisfy the second floor. The first floor may have two or three 30” x 6” return air grilles – causing the heat extraction to be three times greater on the first floor compared to the second floor. The thermostat located on the first floor would be temperature-satisfied significantly sooner than the second floor and would shut off the A.C. system. The second floor continues to build up heat including the heat that was not extracted in the first place. On a real hot day the second floor will never be close to being as cool as the first floor. The second floor should have more return air ductwork than the first floor. Additionally, the attic space builds up more heat than the outdoor temperature so the heat gain on the second floor will be greater. The first floor only has to contend with the heat gain from perimeter walls and windows whereas the second floor has that heat gain as well as from the ceiling.  In most cases, a two-story home has more heat concerns than a one-story. However, even a single-floor home can have the same type of concerns.
The central air returns in a ranch home can cause the same type of concerns depending on the bedroom locations, living room and kitchen arrangement. Each area has a certain amount of heat gain without access to the return air- a closed bedroom door blocking the air flow to the return air grill limits the proper amount of heat extraction and causes the room to heat up. Other factors can cause central air to not cool properly – dirty air filters, the indoor air handler coil can become dirty and return air ductwork can be blocked with grime. Keep the grilles clear of furniture and draperies and realize size and location will make all the difference in heat removal of a particular area of a home or business.

Renewable Greenhouse

Focus On Renewables: Treading Lightly

Co-op Member Breaks New Ground, Blending Renewable Technology and Green Growing for Sustainability

The sun and the wind are free. So is advice, sometimes. Equipment, though, is not. When URE member Barry Adler set out to create a self-sustaining farm, complete with its own energy production, he knew it would require a strong plan to justify his expense — especially to justify support from financing and grants.

At RainFresh Harvests, Adler tied his farm proposal together in a business plan that makes the investment worthwhile. Not only is the farm unique in its use of green energy and ecologically sound practices, RainFresh is designed to cater to the boutique local produce market, another ecologically- minded approach. He has successfully marketed his herbs and leafy vegetables to retailer Whole Foods and the Bon Appetit restaurant among others.

Getting started with his personal experience in horticulture in his back pocket and the kernel of a business plan, Adler sought energy experts. This is an important first step for anyone interested in employing green power, which is still a relatively new field. As Adler advised in Ohio’s Country Journal, “I think you have to get at least three ‘expert’ opinions on things like this and then pick the expert you believe the most.”
The expert advice was to start with the electrical load.

Adler’s greenhouse is engineered first and foremost to use very little energy. In a home or business, the insulation of the building envelope is the most critical component. Adler used soybean foam insulation panels (which is also ecological) with heavy-duty wrap to thermally control walls, floor and roof. The concrete slab in the floor stores passive solar energy. An active solar heating system pumps warm water through tubing in the floor. He minimized the cooling load with solar chimney cupolas, thermal-mechanical ventilation and retractable shades.

Harnessing the weather

Only after the building envelope was engineered could Adler and his experts identify his energy needs and model generation to serve it. Neither sun nor wind on its own is constant enough in Ohio to provide energy that supports living things. While wind is missing in the early morning and in the heat of summer, sun is also notably missing during the winter and at night! The reality is, weather is a complicated source of energy.

Having storage batteries helps, but even scaling back to the minimum, those he’s using will only allow him to operate three to four days starting from a fully charged state.

And everything is connected by a sophisticated control system, designed specifically for his building’s conditions. The complexity of it all makes it obvious, nothing about this system was created on a whim.

The long haul

There are always small issues to resolve, no different than any other farm, just higher technology. “The renewable technologies are relatively new and like any technologies they don’t work all the time,” says Adler. When the ventilation and insulation did not balance, he had to install thermally controlled vents. When lightning struck the wind turbine, it was out of commission until the repair team could visit.
Adler continues to be optimistic. He says, “Technology has to be used in order to be improved. If some of us aren’t willing to take the first steps to try things out, then they’ll never be improved.”

Now, more than two years into the project, Adler is starting to feel it coming together. For him, it is a short-term investment into the long-term energy and ecology issue. “I think the key is to be interdependent. We need to look forward to where we’ll be in another 75 years.”

Glacier Ridge

Since 1968, URE has had one provider for electricity generation – Buckeye Power. That changed on July 3, 2007, and a door opened to the future of alternative power. It was a rainy day, so the solar array was not generating, but the wind turbine was turning in the breeze when the technicians threw the transfer switch and connected Glacier Ridge Metro Park to the URE distribution grid. For Mike Heisey, Glacier Ridge park manager, the wait was finally over.

“It’s been a long process,” Heisey reflects. When Glacier Ridge opened on September 22, 2002, the plans included an alternative-energy education center but it was still conceptual. By October of that year, a wind turbine marked the spot of the eventual location. It would take years of collaboration for the park and URE to make it reality.

Initiating change

To everyone’s best recollection, the Metro Parks were the first to approach any distributive cooperative in Ohio with a serious intent to interconnect. Bernie Woller and Jim Walker of Buckeye Power remember the early conversations “They were certainly among the earliest,” according to Woller.

At the time, URE and Buckeye Power had an all requirements contract. URE and the 24 other Ohio electric cooperatives own Buckeye Power, and agreed to buy all the power they needed from Buckeye. When the Glacier Ridge project was proposed, URE staff and employees believed that interconnection to any other power source technically violated that agreement. Kevin Gregory, URE key accounts manager, was part of the early discussions with Glacier Ridge. Research for the project turned up a 1978 regulation that required interconnection regardless of that all-requirements contract. In fact, URE was already prepared. As Gregory tells it, “It turns out that back in 1980 our Board had approved a policy that complied with the regulations.” Confirming that there were no further barriers at either URE or Buckeye Power, the process to write an interconnect agreement was launched. Today, that agreement is used as the model for agreements in cooperatives statewide.

Building for the future

Meanwhile, the Metro Parks needed funding for their project. Securing an Ohio Department of Development grant in 2003 gave the park the resources for their equipment.

The Glacier Ridge alternative power generation site combines power from a Bergey BWC EXCEL-R/48 wind turbine and Shell SQ150-PC solar arrays through a monitoring and control system. Each generation source charges its own set of batteries that supply power when no power is being generated. A Vanner RE48-4500 inverter converts the power from AC to DC, with an output of 18.75 amps at 240 volts, making it possible to power the park restroom and eventually transmit extra power over distribution lines.
This infrastructure was completed in 2004.

Now that the generation was functional the nagging question was, “when would it be connected to the grid?” Fast forward to 2006. The only barrier between Glacier Ridge and interconnection was the Federal Energy Reliability Council (FERC), the regulating body for the transmission grid. Generation suppliers must be rated as a “qualified facility” before connecting to the grid.

Filing the FERC form was a year-long project (although Heisey does acknowledge that private-sector businesses or residents might not have as much difficulty completing it.) With that underway, Glacier Ridge and URE reached an interconnection agreement in April 2007. The FERC qualifying facility designation was approved in November 2007.

Safety in any interconnection is a primary concern. Any member who connects a generator of any kind runs the risk of feeding power back onto the distribution grid. It is the transfer switch that protects line technicians and URE equipment from harm. As a result, URE was intimately involved in the design and construction of the connection.

Ron Rockenbaugh, URE’s manager of engineering services, oversaw the technical aspects of the Glacier Ridge project. He also answers most of the questions that other URE members pose about interconnects.
“A misconception a lot of people have is that if they have one of these, they’ll have power when our system is out,” says Rockenbaugh. “Unfortunately, they can’t. For safety, they have to agree to shut down during an outage.”

Educating the public

Out of the view of the general public, behind the park restroom facility, a lowly meter in industrial gray displays the results of all the hard work. The bidirectional meter toggles between displays that show both the kwh the park has consumed from grid and the production of the generation station in excess of consumption. And it has been turning in a positive way. Each month, URE and Glacier Ridge settle up the difference between what the park used and what it generated.

At the same time, in the limelight, an educational display explains to park visitors how the system is structured, how alternative energy is generated and how the park is using it. Events at the park draw in visitors and enhance the learning process. Now that the system is complete, Heisey is investing his time in teaching others the intricate details of an interconnected alternative energy generator.

Unlike some members who call Rockenbaugh for advice on how to make money with alternative generation, Heisey is a realist. “We’ll be a long, long time recouping our expenses on this, so for us it’s about education.”

Saving Energy In The Home

The ability to heat and cool is one important accomplishment of modern technology. Our ovens, freezers, and homes can be kept at any temperature we choose, a luxury that wasn’t possible 100 years ago. But keeping our homes comfortable uses a lot of energy.

Lighting is also essential to a modern society. Lights have revolutionized the way we live, work, and play. Most homes still use the traditional incandescent bulbs invented by Thomas Edison. These bulbs convert only about 10% of the electricity they use into light; the other 90% is converted into heat. In 1879, the average bulb produced only 14 lumens (a measure of the quantity of light) per watt, compared to about 17 lumens per watt from modern incandescent bulbs. By adding halogen gases, the efficiency can be increased to 20 lumens per watt.

Compact fluorescent bulbs, or “CFLs,” have made inroads into home lighting systems in the last few years. These bulbs last much longer and use much less energy than incandescent bulbs, producing significant savings over the life of the bulb.

Appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers are also more energy efficient than they used to be. Congress passed the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act in 1990 that requires new appliances to meet strict energy efficiency standards. Learn what it means to be energy efficient.

Types of Energy Used In Homes

Natural gas is the most widely consumed energy source in American homes, followed by electricity, heating oil, and propane. Natural gas and heating oil (fuel oil) are used mainly for home heating. Electricity may also be used for heating and cooling, plus it lights our homes and runs almost all of our appliances including refrigerators, toasters, and computers. Many homes in rural areas use propane for heating, while others use it to fuel their barbecue grills.

About 80% of residential energy use is consumed in single-family homes, while 15% is consumed in multi-family dwellings such as apartments, and 5% is consumed in mobile homes.

More than half of the energy used for heating in single-family homes (either attached or detached) is natural gas, about one-fourth is electricity, and one-tenth is fuel oil (heating oil). Most single-family homes have some type of air conditioning, and almost all single-family homes have a washing machine and a dryer.

Single-Family Dwellings:

In 2005, for main fuel used for heating and operating equipment:

• 56% use natural gas
• 26% use electricity
• 7% use fuel oil
• 6% use liquefied petroleum gases (LPG)
• 1% use kerosene

Eighty-four percent of single-family homes have air conditioning (central system, wall/window units, or both).

For Appliances:

• 95% have a clothes washer
• 92% have a clothes dryer
• 74% have a personal computer
• Multi-Family Dwellings:
• Multi-family dwellings such as apartments use about equal amounts of natural gas and electricity for heating. More than 80% of multi-family homes have air conditioning and more than one-third contain washers and dryers.

In 2005, for main heating fuel and equipment:

• 47% use natural gas
• 41% use electricity
• 7% use fuel oil
• almost no one uses LPG or kerosene

Eighty-two percent of multi-family homes have air conditioning (a central system, wall/window units, or both).

For appliances:

• 40% have a clothes washer
• 35% have a clothes dryer
• 55% have a personal computer
• Mobile Homes:

In 2005, for main heating fuel and equipment:

• 27% use natural gas
• 42% use electricity
• 3% use fuel oil
• 19% use LPG
• 4% use kerosene

Eighty-four percent of mobile homes have air conditioning (central system, wall/window units, or both).

For appliances:

• 87% have a clothes washer
• 78% have a clothes dryer
• 49% have a personal computer

Mobile homes are more likely than the other types of homes to heat with propane (LPG). More than one-third of mobile homes use electricity and about one-third use natural gas for heating. Most mobile homes contain washing machines and dryers.

Gains in Home Energy Efficiency Offset by More Electronics and Appliances

Total residential energy consumption rose approximately 13% over the past quarter century. This was lower than both the rate of population growth (+24%) and new housing starts (+36%) due to energy efficiency improvements in heating and cooling equipment, water heaters, and major appliances. Efficiency gains were offset by increases in the number of homes with clothes washers, dryers, and dishwashers. Additionally, a growing number of U.S. households now have multiple televisions, computers, and refrigerators.

Regional Consumption Data Reflect Population Shifts and Climate

In the late 1990s, homes in the South Census Region surpassed the Midwest in consuming the most energy in the United States. This shift reflects the economic boom in the region, which stimulated U.S. migration to the South and the construction of more and larger homes.

Due to the longer heating seasons, the Northeast and Midwest regions still consume the most energy per household, at 123 and 110 Million Btu per household in 2005, respectively.

All Regions Show an Increase in Homes with Air-Conditioning Equipment

The percentage of homes with central air-conditioning has more than doubled since 1980, with nearly 60% of homes having a central system. All areas of the United States show a significant increase in air-conditioning equipment and use in recent years. Cooling now accounts for 8% of total residential energy consumption in the United States, double its 1980 share.