tagged w/ Energy Efficiency
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Say what you will about climate change – and even at this late date, divergent opinions abound – for those whose livelihood is rooted in the ground and for whom terroir is everything, the debate ended a long time ago. Several wineries around the world are turning to renewables energy and energy efficiency to fight the good fight, while others are rapidly moving in this direction.
http://bit.ly/vtKMjOSay what you will about climate change – and even at this late date, divergent... more
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Cold weather is on it’s way! And in addition to snow and holiday celebrations, higher energy bills are coming along with it.
Thanks to the high cost of traditional energy, staying warm and comfortable during the colder months usually means accepting painfully high energy bills. What most people don’t realize is that much of this extra cost comes from inefficient heating and insulation systems.
If you want to avoid cranking the heat and save home energy, this post has some great low-cost, low-effort tips to keeping the warmth in and the cold out.
Keep Reading: http://tinyurl.com/5sem93uCold weather is on it’s way! And in addition to snow and holiday celebrations,... more
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The UK has formally joined forces with a US laser lab in a bid to develop clean energy from nuclear fusion.
Unlike fission plants, the process uses lasers to compress atomic nuclei until they join, releasing energy.
The National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US is drawing closer to producing a surplus of energy from the idea.
The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have now joined with Nif to help make laser fusion a viable commercial energy source.
At a meeting this week sponsored by the Institute of Physics and held at London's Royal Society, a memorandum of understanding was announced between the three facilities.
The meeting attracted scientists and industry members in an effort to promote wider UK involvement with the technology that would be required to make laser fusion energy plants possible.
"This is an absolutely classic example of the connections between really high-grade theoretical scientific research, business and commercial opportunities, and of course a fundamental human need: tackling pressures that we're all familiar with on our energy supply," said David Willetts, the UK's science minister.
The idea of harvesting energy from nuclear fusion is an old one.
The UK has a long heritage in a different approach to accomplishing the same goal, which uses magnetic fields; it is home to the Joint European Torus (Jet), the largest such magnetic facility in the world and a testing ground for Iter, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.
But magnetic fusion attempts have in recent years met more and more constricting budget concerns, just as Nif was nearing completion.
Part of the problem has been that the technical ability to reach "breakeven" - the point at which more energy is produced than is consumed - has always seemed distant. Detractors of the idea have asserted that "fusion energy is 50 years away, no matter what year you ask".
But Mr Willetts told the meeting that was changing.
"I think that what's going on both in the UK and in the US shows that we are now making significant progress on this technology," he said. "It can't any longer be dismissed as something on the far distant horizon."
The Rutherford Appleton Lab is where the idea of fusion energy was first proved, and both that laboratory and the AWE play host to high-intensity lasers that can act as proving grounds for future technology.
Ignition keys
The laser fusion idea uses pellets of fuel made of isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. A number of lasers are fired at the pellets in order to compress the fuel to just hundredths of its starting size.
In the process, the hydrogen nuclei fuse to create helium and fast-moving subatomic particles called neutrons whose energy, in the form of heat, can be captured and used for the comparatively old-fashioned idea of driving a steam turbine.
The aim is to achieve "ignition" of the fuel for which Nif is named - a self-sustaining fusion reaction that would far surpass breakeven.
Nif's director Ed Moses told the meeting that ignition was drawing ever nearer.
"Our goal is to have ignition within the next couple of years," he said.
"We've done fusion at fairly high levels already. Even on Sunday night, we did the highest fusion yield that has ever been done."
Dr Moses said that a single shot from the Nif's laser - the largest in the world - released a million billion neutrons and produced for a tiny fraction of a second more power than the world was consuming.
But for ignition, that number would need to rise by about a factor of 1,000.
The UK leads the High-Power Laser Energy Research (Hiper), a pan-European project begun in 2005 to move laser fusion technology toward a commercial plant.
"We recognised several years ago with Nif... and the ignition that was likely to occur, that the profile of fusion would be raised," said John Collier, the director of Hiper.
"We were thinking: 'what would be a way forward, how could Europe define a strategic route for laser power production to take advantage of these developments?' And that was the kernel of Hiper."
Both Hiper and Life, a similar effort at Nif, estimate that a functioning laser power plant would need to cycle through more than 10 fuel pellets each second - a million each day. Nif, since its completion in 2009, has undertaken only 305 such shots in its quest for ignition.
Professor Collier said the technological challenges that presented were incredible opportunities.
"The BMW plant in Oxford is producing one Mini a minute - you think of the complexity of that and you wouldn't think that's possible," he said.
"But these are tractable things; Lego bricks, bullets - these things are made in huge quantities and there are huge intellectual property opportunities for those people, those industries that get in."The UK has formally joined forces with a US laser lab in a bid to develop clean energy... more
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pdy
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added this
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5 months ago
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End Thirst.
End Hunger.
End Droughts.
End Crop Failure.
End Disease Epidemics.
End World Wide Pollutions.
End Human Misery and Poverty.
End Heat-Provoked Earthquakes!
Provide Potable Drinking~Crop Water
to all Third World Countries & their people...
by eliminate all crude oil combustion engines by
converting Combustion Engines into Steam Engines.
Problem is pollution is finishing off humans and their planet. Problem: the number of World Engines horsepower equals 37 BILLION OXYGEN-BURNING HORSES. Problem: Childhood Obesity from low O2 = fewer calories burned. Are humans stupid? No, we need a major Paradigm Shift (change course helmsman). We love big engines under the hood!!! => http://www.proformanceunlimited.com/PC081628.png
Actually there's nothing wrong with wanting the best, best clothes, best homes, best lives, nothing wrong with that. We prefer riding to walking long distances. Our engines are wonderful to have our servants that free us to live without 18 hours a day working the fields or flour mills or cotton fields back home. Working our lives away so much there's no time left to live the life with a family, learn to play instruments, study flowers and butterflies and astronomy and trips to the Moon.
We spend our whole life working deep in some coal mine... for ENERGY. That big beautiful V-8 engine can easily be converted to being a steam engine, but unlike the steam engines of old in locomotives, cars and trucks, even ocean liners and cotton mills, and weaving factories, THE COMBUSTION ENGINE CAN RUN ON WATER ALONE. Our engines are made Backwards. Here's how it is done =>
#1: Get rid of the sparkplugs, put in straight nozzle injectors.
#2. Take out the radiators & replace with TANKLESS WATER HEATERS.
#3. FILL THE GAS TANK WITH WATER.
#4. Fill the engine cooling system and tankless water heater with a dense, heat-retaining fluid that circulates into the engine "cooling jacket" except it is so super hot it flashes the injected water into steam. Hello 21st Century Good-bye World Poverty!End Thirst.
End Hunger.
End Droughts.
End Crop Failure.
End Disease Epidemics.... more
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Barton’s bill got 233 votes Tuesday, but fell well short of the two-thirds needed to pass under expedited floor rules. Burgess would only need majority support for his amendment.
Only five Democrats voted for Barton’s bill after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi whipped Democrats against the bill. Ten Republicans opposed the measure on the floor.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58964.html#ixzz1S5PyX5JJ
I don't know why this is even an issue, given the state of affairs in this country. But anyway, the rethuglcans brought this bill to the floor, then voted it down. 4 years ago, they approved this. WTF????
Follow the link for the rest of the story.Barton’s bill got 233 votes Tuesday, but fell well short of the two-thirds... more
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http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/house-to-vote-on-light-bulb-repeal/?smid=tw-nytimesscience&seid=auto
The House is expected to vote as early as Monday night on a measure to repeal efficiency standards for light bulbs that are scheduled to take effect at the beginning of next year.
5:55 p.m. | Updated The vote is now anticipated on Tuesday.
Click here to see vote results: http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/563
The Republican-sponsored repeal bill, H.R. 2417, would undo part of a 2007 energy bill that passed with broad Republican support and was signed into law by former President George W. Bush. The primary author of the light bulb provision in the 2007 law was Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, now the chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee and the scourge of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mr. Upton reversed his position on light bulb efficiency late last year while campaigning for the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce committee. The bulb standard, which does not ban incandescent bulbs but requires them to be more energy-efficient, was opposed by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and other conservatives as an assault on personal choice.
Mr. Upton said that his support for the original measure had been misinterpreted.
“It was never my goal for Washington to decide what type of light bulbs Americans should use,” he said in a statement. “The public response on this issue is a clear signal that markets – not governments – should be driving technological advancements. I will join my colleagues to vote yes on a bill to protect consumer choice and guard against federal overreach.”
The sponsor of the measure to repeal the bulb law, Representative Joe Barton, Republican of Texas, argues that the new incandescent bulbs, as well as compact fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes, will be far more expensive than traditional bulbs. “We don’t think the federal government should tell people what kind of lighting to use in their homes,” he said on Fox News last month.
The repeal measure will be brought up under a House rule that requires a two-thirds vote for passage, and it is far from clear that enough Democrats will join a near-unanimous Republican caucus to ensure its passage. But even if the House approves the measure, its prospects in the Democratic-run Senate are dim.
Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, said that consumer choice would be preserved and households would see considerable savings in their electric bills when the new bulbs are fully in use.
“These standards do not ban incandescent bulbs,” Mr. Chu said in a conference call with reporters on Friday. He said the new bulbs look like current bulbs, turn on instantly and can be used with dimmers, unlike some compact fluorescents.
“The only difference is they will help American consumers save more money,” he said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, said that the average American family’s energy costs would be reduced by 7 percent or about $85 a year when the new light bulb standards are fully in place.
In a study released last week, the group said that replacing inefficient old bulbs with new units would eliminate the need for 33 large power plants, lowering electricity costs and harmful pollution.
“Clearly, consumers, the economy and the environment will suffer if these standards are repealed,” said Jim Presswood, the group’s federal energy director. “It also will send the wrong signal to the lighting industry, which has already started making better bulbs.”
One manufacturer of LED lighting systems vigorously defended the new bulb standards, saying they would help create jobs, lower electricity costs and keep the United States competitive with other nations.
“Improvements in energy efficiency can reduce the need for investment in energy infrastructure, cut fuel costs, increase competitiveness, improve consumer welfare, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jim Haworth, chief executive of Lighting Science Group, a Florida based manufacturer.
“Lighting is the low-hanging fruit in reducing energy consumption: it accounts for 19% of the world’s energy use,” he added. “There are 4.4 billion traditional light sockets in the United States alone offering a rapid and practical path for billions of dollars in energy savings through the installation of more efficient lighting.”http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/house-to-vote-on-light-bulb-repeal/?smid=tw-n... more
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Millions of people in industrialized nations live in suburban and rural areas with limited access to public transportation. Those who have to commute outside of their communities rely on cars to get to and from work, school and shopping. With more than 250 million vehicles on the road in America the need for alternative-fuel cars is becoming increasingly important. Currently, our options are limited when it comes to mass-produced vehicles and how we fuel them. How do our existing options add up?
When talking fuel, the average full-size sedan gets 24.7 miles per gallon (mpg), whereas the average hybrid gets 41. However, the cost difference between the two vehicles doesn’t always even out. Experts now argue that to get your money’s worth you must own a hybrid vehicle between 10 to 15 years to recoup the energy savings cost. Flex-fuel vehicles, on the other hand, run on both standard petrol and a cleaner burning ethanol blend called E85. Flex-fuel vehicles have been produced since the 1980s, however the major barrier toward widespread adoption of these vehicles has been the limited number of fueling stations across the U.S., with less than 3,000 fueling stations nationwide in May 2011. Another disadvantage to the flex-fuel vehicle is its fuel efficiency, getting 25 to 30 percent fewer mpg than a standard-fuel vehicle.
The electric car seems to be the best investment, by far, in terms of energy costs, as it requires no fossil fuel, just plug-in, charge up and drive off. The major caveat to owning one of these cars, though, is exactly what makes them desirable: the battery charging process. Currently, the top electric car designs on the market can only go a maximum distance of 100 miles on a single charge, and reaching a maximum charge takes six hours from your home 220-volt outlet (which is too bad if you live in an apartment or park in the street) or 25 minutes for a “rapid charge” at a charging station which only gets you an 80% charge.
In the Loop City design, the Bjarke Ingles Group incorporate electric car charging stations into the communities. Stations like these set in urban and suburban areas would be beneficial to drivers of electric cars who can leave their vehicles for an extended period of time to charge while shopping, working or eating. But what about those people who work in more rural settings? What is their best option? How would you change the ways we currently address fueling our vehicles?
Millions of people in industrialized nations live in suburban and rural areas with... more
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BY TXCHNOLOGIST The mission: defeat the enemy while preserving Uncle Sam’s pocketbook. Saving the Earth is a worthy, but secondary, objective. The Department of Defense last week rolled out its plan to consume less, and find new ways to source, energy. The need has become particularly pressing as operations in Afghanistan and Iraq last year led U.S. forces to consume 5 billion gallons of fuel. The military’s insatiable thirst for energy puts troops in danger as they transport fuel through hostile territory — the Marines estimate one service member is killed for every 24 convoys. It also exposes the Pentagon budget to price shocks in volatile energy markets. The “Operational Energy Strategy,” called for a three-pronged pincer movement: reduce energy demand and improve efficiency; expand energy options beyond petroleum, including biofuels and renewable energy; make energy security a priority for future plans. Here are nine ways that the military is trying to cut down its energy use.BY TXCHNOLOGIST The mission: defeat the enemy while preserving Uncle Sam’s... more
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Analysts with no field experience can paint a very bleak picture of the green job market and related training programs. In reality, hard numbers on employment post training are hard to come by. A handful of eager media representatives characterized green training programs as ineffective, drains on the economy, and in the worst reports as adding more to the problem than the solution. The benefits of these programs for individuals, communities, and the potential growth of the US’s renewables market is rarely quantified in numbers. The reality experienced by actual trainees is quite different.
Green job training programs typically focus on energy efficiency and renewables education for low-income and/or blue collar communities. The objective is simple: to educate the working class of America for jobs in one of the most stable sectors in the US market. Since the majority of work previously done by the working class has been exported to countries with cheap labor, the United States has struggled to create industries to employ its population without college-level degrees. This sector of the population typically works hourly jobs without benefits, pensions, or significant opportunities for advancement. Green job training programs were originally designed to provide these individuals with relevant training in a growing field.
Admittedly, the field has not grown fast enough to provide work for all of the newly trained individuals, yet this trend is similar to all sectors of the economy including finance and technology. With renewables making up 7% of the nation’s energy mix, the opportunities in the field are limited. Yet the growth of small to medium businesses that are providing home energy audits, energy efficiency programs, and other services that address the energy sector are seeing significant growth. Traditionally, the United States invests in various job training programs dependent on the potential of future markets. Renewables has garnered international respect, and in many cases necessity, as a market that will grow and continue to evolve into the foreseeable future.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/real-payback-green-job-training-programs/Analysts with no field experience can paint a very bleak picture of the green job... more
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This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here.
By Joey Christiano
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is a mechanism that allows renewable energy, water conservation, and energy efficiency projects to be financed at reasonable rates. PACE works by attaching a senior lien to the property, not the installed equipment. The lien is usually repaid over the life of the installed equipment, anywhere from 5 – 20 years. Using a senior property lien has many benefits:
The senior position of the lien allows lenders to offer low interest rates because the property is collateral, not the installed equipment.
Adoption of energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations have been hampered by high up-front costs. Using PACE financing spreads the cost over the useful life of the equipment, which typically generates savings that exceed cost on an annual basis.
The lien is attached to the property, not the person. Making it easy to invest in energy efficiency or renewable energy projects even if the owner plans on selling the property.
PACE sounds great – why isn’t everyone doing it?
Residential PACE financing froze up on July 6, 2010 when the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA), released guidance advising Fannie May and Freddie Mac not to work with loans that took advantage of PACE financing because of the risk associated with senior property liens. Several groups, including the State of California, are fighting to reverse the ruling. These groups are fighting for residential PACE financing because they see it as a catalyst to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, promoting renewable energy investments, and creating green jobs.
Commercial markets were not affected
While residential PACE is at a standstill, commercial PACE was not affected by the FHFA statement because the majority of commercial real estate mortgages are not owned by Fannie May or Freddie Mac. Commercial PACE has been developing slowly over the past year due to concern that a statement from a governing body could freeze commercial PACE, but since nearly a year has passed since the FHFA statement, commercial PACE markets are starting to pick up.
A report co-authored by the Clinton Climate Initiative states that several commercial PACE programs are in development, in markets such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, MI, and Washington D.C. Some programs are expected to launch as early as the second quarter of 2011.
In June 2010, prior to the FHFA ruling, Pike Research estimated that the commercial PACE market could reach $2.5 billion by 2015. That estimate seems a little high, given that as of March 23, 2011 only $9.69M had been approved for commercial PACE funding according to the Clinton Climate Initiative co-authored report referenced above.
Post Source: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/commercial-pace-financing-drive-25-billion-energy-efficiency-investments/This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate... more
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Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in California, MIT professor Daniel Nocera claims to have created an artificial leaf made from stable and inexpensive materials that mimics nature’s photosynthesis process.
The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.
Nocera’s leaf is stable — operating continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity in preliminary tests — and made of widely available, inexpensive materials — like silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. It’s also powerful, as much as 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.
With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14-terrawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.
Those are impressive claims, but they’re also not just pie-in-the-sky, conceptual thoughts. Nocera has already signed a contract with a global megafirm to commercialize his groundbreaking idea. The mammoth Indian conglomerate, Tata Group has forged a deal with the MIT professor to build a small power plant, the size of a refrigerator, in about a year and a half.
This isn’t the first ever artificial leaf, of course. The concept of emulating nature’s energy-generating process has been around for decades and many scientists have tried to create leaves in that time. The first, built more than 10 years ago by John Turner of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was efficient at faking photosynthesis but was made of rare and hugely expensive materials. It was also highly unstable, and had a lifespan of barely one day.
For now, Nocera is setting his sights on developing countries. “Our goal is to make each home its own power station,” he said. “One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology.”
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/artificial-leaf/Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in California, MIT... more
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In the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's new online modelling tool My 2050, users can decide what they want the UK to be like in 39 years' time. The only caveat? Carbon emissions must drop 80% while keeping the lights on.
Try it out for yourself at:
http://my2050.decc.gov.uk/
For more info on the story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12606943In the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's new online modelling tool My... more
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pdy
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added this
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12 months ago
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See the light! 40,000 to 50,000 bulb life. Up to 90% energy reduction. No Mercury or harmful substances. Average payback of less than 1.5 years. Being better stewards of our environment.
http://www.eco-story.com/See the light! 40,000 to 50,000 bulb life. Up to 90% energy reduction. No Mercury or... more
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When the snow begins to fall and temperatures drop, many of us are tempted to crank up our thermostats to take away the winter chill. That might be an easy way to stay warm, but it also is a surefire way to boost your heating bills and burn energy.
Next time, try a greener approach. You can stay comfortable in the cold without wasting fuel and money by following these simple ideas:
Turn down your thermostat
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that consumers save about 10 percent a year on home heating costs if they turn the thermostat down 10 to 15 degrees for eight hours a day. So turn down the temperature when you go to bed at night or go to work in the morning. Consider investing in a digital thermostat that can be programmed to adjust the temperature up and down at the same time every day. If you don’t like waking up to a cold house, a programmable thermostat can even turn the heat up an hour before you awake.
Take advantage of Mother Nature
Open the blinds and curtains on your windows during the day to let Mother Nature bathe your rooms in sunshine. Then close the blinds at night to keep heat from being lost. You’ll stay warmer without using energy. Choose insulated window treatments for a better barrier from the cold. Eco-friendly shades and drapes made of recycled fibers also are available in stores, along with window coverings that haven’t been chemically treated. Windows facing south or north will bring in the most sunlight, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Continue reading here: http://www.enviralment.ca/2011/01/25/5-green-ways-to-save-money-on-heating/When the snow begins to fall and temperatures drop, many of us are tempted to crank up... more
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Weemz
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added this
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1 year ago
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Nobody said saving the world is always a pretty job.
A borough council in England is proposing a plan to save money and energy by heating a public pool with warmth generated at a crematorium next door. Proponents on the Redditch council say the crematorium heat would be wasted otherwise, and diverting it to the pool could save the city £14,000 a year in energy costs.
Council leader Carole Gandy defended the plans, saying it would save money and energy. "I'd much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky. It will make absolutely no difference to the people who are using the crematorium for services. It's only a proposal at the moment but personally I'm supportive of it because I think it will save the authority money and, in the long-term, save energy which is what we're all being told we should do."
Some Redditch residents are calling the plan "strange and eerie," and the council will hold briefings with faith groups later this week to gauge the religious community's reaction. But as for now, it seems like a pretty ingenious idea to us. What better way to cap off a life well-lived than by literally keeping your neighbors warm?
http://www.good.is/post/idea-heating-a-pool-with-cremated-bodies/Nobody said saving the world is always a pretty job.
A borough council in England... more
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For Hunter Duplantier, the futuristic-looking house that went up last winter on the edge of the University of Louisiana campus in Lafayette stood out among its traditional-looking neighbors. It’s built like a loft, tall and boxy, with a flat roof and oddly placed narrow windows. But the most unusual attributes of the home were the ones he couldn’t see.
The building is the first in the southern U.S. to achieve official certification as a “passive house.” As such, it needs a mere fraction of the electricity it takes to run a conventional home of comparable size. Once it was completed last spring, Duplantier and two other architecture students enthusiastically volunteered to rent the place and monitor its performance. They moved in during finals week, embarking on an experiment in low-energy living that simultaneously harkens back to the super-insulated-house movement of the ’70s and provides a look at how we all might live in a peak-energy future.
“We were just in awe, just overwhelmed with information at first,” Duplantier says. After spending a record-breaking hot summer there, he reports, the home has “held up pretty well so far.”
The 1,200-square-foot home is one of a growing number of passive houses being built around the country in sizes and architectural styles as varied as the climates where they’re situated. A Maryland developer is putting up a 4,400 square-foot McMansion designed to perform like a passive house but look like an American foursquare, those faux farmhouses popularized a century ago thanks to mail-order construction kits sold in the Sears catalogue. In New York City, meanwhile, another architect has embarked on the first-ever passive retrofit of a genuine century-old townhouse.
“It was a challenge,” says Jeremy Shannon, the vice president of Prospect Architecture, P.C., who convinced a couple of Brooklyn homeowners to go passive instead of doing a run-of-the-mill retrofit of their Park Slope brownstone. “We both agreed,” he says of the owners, who want to remain anonymous, “This is going to be a real extreme challenge. Let’s see if we can do it.’”
A Passive Home Primer
Conventional buildings lose inside heat and air-conditioned air via ill-fitting windows and doors and allow outdoor temperatures to seep inside through leaky walls, ceilings and floors. That ratchets up a home’s carbon footprint—and the household energy bills. Builders typically use insulation and tighter-fitting windows to cut down on such air leakage, and increasingly employ one or more of the much ballyhooed stars of today’s rapidly growing U.S. green building marketplace: solar panels, geothermal heating systems, windmills and other so-called “green bling” that reduce a house’s carbon footprint by generating homemade renewable energy.
A passive house offers a different approach—and philosophy—about how to achieve the same low-carbon lifestyle. Instead of reducing emissions by generating alternative power, these buildings simply don’t require much electricity. They are so airtight that it takes little more than the inhabitants’ body heat to warm them up in cold climates, while in hot ones like Louisiana, the emphasis is on not letting the sticky outside air permeate the building’s “envelope,” industry parlance for the four walls, roof and ceiling.
Considering that nearly half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes (48%, to be exact, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration), and that roughly half of the nation’s electricity comes from dirty coal-fired power plants, the passive house building system is a major step forward in the fight against global warming. A certified passive house uses about 90% less energy for heating and cooling than the average home, reducing total energy consumption to between 60% and 70% less than a conventional home, according to the Passive House Institute U.S., an Illinois-based nonprofit group that promotes the building system and certifies U.S. buildings.
“It’s the most aggressive standard in the world for energy efficiency,” says California builder Rick Milburn, contrasting it with U.S. initiatives such as the federal Energy Star program, which requires buildings to perform just 15% more efficiently than conventional homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code.
“It’s a serious commitment,” agrees University of Louisiana Professor Corey Saft, who built the house where Duplantier lives. “You have to be really clear that it’s what you want.” The commitment begins before the foundation is poured, which, for starters, must be sealed off and insulated from the ground below.
Saft says he spent about 30% more on insulation than he would have in a standard construction project but saved on the passive home’s heating and cooling system, which is smaller and less costly than ones used in conventional homes. These houses are so tightly wrapped that they conserve indoor temperatures much better, which means equipment doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain a constant, comfortable environment.
Instead of the standard central air or furnace, the key component of a passive house is its heat-recovery system. As the name implies, heat from the home’s outgoing polluted air is captured via a heat exchanger inside the home’s ventilation units; incoming air is warmed by this exchanger as it enters. The home’s heat is preserved, while still allowing a constant circulation of fresh outdoor air for improved indoor air quality. In parts of the U.S. where cooling and dehumidifying are as much of a challenge as heating, Energy Recovery Ventilators, or ERVs, are being used. Unlike straight heat-exchangers, ERVs also transfer water vapor, which prevents the air from drying out in winter months, and removes indoor humidity during summer months. ERVs allow for one-third of the building’s air to be replaced with fresh air every hour.
Passive house proponents rave not only about the energy savings but also about the fresh air and quietude. “As soon as the windows went in, the house became warm and quiet and peaceful,” says Catherine O’Neill, whose new home in Sonoma, California, built by Milburn, became the first in that state to earn passive house certification earlier this year. She says what really impressed her was that the entire mechanical system fits into a space that she thought would be her linen closet.
Katrin Klingenberg, executive director of the Passive House Institute U.S., who built the first U.S. passive house in 2003 and has lived in it ever since, says her electric bills come to just $25 a month in the summer and $60 to $94 a month in the winter at her 1,000-square-foot home in Urbana, Illinois.
cont.For Hunter Duplantier, the futuristic-looking house that went up last winter on the... more
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Irish oil and gas explorer Circle Oil has discovered gas in the KSR-10 exploration well at Sebou Permit in the Rharb Basin, Morocco.
The well, encountered gas in both the Main Hoot target and a secondary Mid Hoot target, has been drilled, logged and successfully tested at the permit.
The well first tested gas at a sustained rate of 10.6mmscf/d on a 26/64" choke from the Main Hoot.
The perforated Main Hoot zone of 8.4m at 1,736.6m-1,728.2m measured depth (MD) and a 1.5m zone at 1,720.0m-1,718.5m MD has a calculated net gas pay of 9.9m.
The Mid Hoot zone was then perforated and flowed gas at a sustained rate of 2.39mmscf/d on a 16/64" choke.
The perforated Mid Hoot zone of 1,650.5m-1,649.7m MD plus 1,647.6m-1,646.8m MD has a calculated net gas pay of 1.6m.
Additional gas pay zones of 4.4m, 3.1m and 1.4m in the Lower, Middle and Upper Guebbas were also logged.
The company said that the well is being completed as a potential producer.
A full technical evaluation of all the results of the well is underway that will allow for forward planning as a precursor to further assessment of the resource.Irish oil and gas explorer Circle Oil has discovered gas in the KSR-10 exploration... more
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Tap Oil said that the Kan Tan IV semi-submersible drilling rig has begun the drilling of the Craigow-1 well in T/47P permit, offshore Bass Basin in Australia.
The Craigow prospect is an anticlinal trap defined on 3D seismic data, in a good location for both reservoir quality and oil charge, according to the company.
Craigow is estimated to contain mean recoverable oil volumes of 28 million barrels with upside potential for 50 million barrels.
A number of follow up prospects have also been defined on 3D seismic with total potential of over 100 million barrels of recoverable oil in the permit.
Craigow-1 is planned to take approximately 19 days in total, and the final total depth will be around 1,826m measured depth.
Tap Oil managing director Troy Hayden said that success at Craigow, being an oil target, could be a lucrative development for Tap.
"In addition, this would confirm the current geological model and pave the way for the drilling of the Tolpuddle and Glenbothy prospects in the future," Hayden said.Tap Oil said that the Kan Tan IV semi-submersible drilling rig has begun the drilling... more
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Engineering and project management firm AMEC has acquired a majority shareholding in S2V Consulting, a consultancy to the oil and gas industry, to form a new partnership in Australia.Engineering and project management firm AMEC has acquired a majority shareholding in... more
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