I like to go after “low hanging” fruit - that is those opportunities that are easy to grab. I’ve been evaluating where is the best location for me to use wind power and here is what I have found so far:

Interesting Wind Mill Design that Can Handle High Gusts and Wind Coming from All Directions.

1. You can do “small” (very small”) wind applications in residential developments IF you can make it look like it’s a hobby.  The restrictions are:

• It can’t disturb your neighbors - think barking dog here from a nuisance perspective.
• It can’t exceed 30 feet in height - think TV antenna here.
• You may not be able to tie it into the electrical grid.
• This will limit the amount of electricity you can generate from wind power - most likely less than 1 kw.

2.  On larger lots (over 5 acres) you may be able to put up a residential wind mill,  but you have to:

• Comply with all local zoning laws (this mean getting the proper permits).
• Make sure you site the windmill in a location that gets the most consistent wind.  (I am on my way to a property in Alaska to put up a web-based weather station to evaluate the consistency of the wind speed over several months).
• Evaluate the stability of the ground where you will be mounting the wind mill structure.
• You will likely be able to generate most if not all of your electrical power from a windmill if you have a good consistent wind flow and it may be up to 1/2 the cost of doing a solar array that would put out the same power.

Of the three property locations I manage,  I am considering wind power on two properties that are consistently windy - one in Nevada and one in Alaska.   The property in Connecticut is unsuitable for wind power as is not windy there - it is Connecticut after all - peaceful tranquil, bucolic.

In Nevada, my primary concern is the permitting process as no one in my neighborhood yet has a wind mill and it is a pretty tight home owners association to contend with.

In Alaska, several of my neighbors already have wind mills.   My main concern is large wind gusts.  The lot routinely sees gusts over 50 MPH.   I have to get a fairly robust wind mill to withstand large gusts.   Additionally, the electrical company up there does not do net metering yet.   So I will have to have a battery back up system.

Because of the gusting wind issue, I found the Helix Windspire 5 KW system may work for the property in Alaska.   They offered to do a site assessment for $1500.  From preliminary conversations that did not include putting up the weather station.    Prior to comitting to their “remote” site assessment, I wanted to collect my own wind data with a web-based weather station.

I did find a very good resource for a summary of small residential wind mills - http://www.allsmallwindturbines.com/. Having earned my first engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering, I tend to prefer the more high tech designs. But there are some inexpensive “DIY” designs as well for those that like to tinker - check out www.earth4energy.com if you are interested in a do it yourself application.

Power Power Power - 360 Panels of Power Producing Mania

That solar awning post stimulated this contribution by photographer Jody Kasch - a solar carport.  This is at the Patagonia Company in Ventura, California.  On Renewable Energy.com, it says the carport uses 360 Sharp Panels each producing 185 watts of power and produces 66.6 kw of power.  However, that did not adjust for panel or inverter efficiency.   Adjusting for panel and inverter efficiencies, this provides about 55 KW of power.   This is enough to power about 55 homes.

What does that mean?   Lets say you turn on a 40 watt light bulb.   This means it takes 40 watts of electricity to make that light bulb light up.   If you had one solar panel on your house that was rated at 185 Watts - you would lose about 30 watts because most solar panels are 88% efficient and most power invertors (so you convert the DC power from the panel to AC power to run your home lights and appliances) are 95% efficient.   This leaves you with 155 watts of power you can use to turn on those light bulbs.  That is three 40 watt bulbs and one 15 watt bulb.

And It Shades the Cars To Boot

Now you need to be continuously providing those light bulbs with the 155 watts of power to keep them running.   This happens as long as the sun is shining on the solar panels.  When the sun goes down, the solar panels stop producing electricity.

So what is Patagonia doing with their 55KW of power?   How are they storing any excess they create?   What are they doing at night?  These are all things you need to consider when creating your own solar energy electrical system.

As part of my drive to become energy self-sufficient (and to help others do the same), I get google alerts for a number of terms, and stumbled into this website by Design Pedia from the term “Energy Independence.”

I won’t google alert the term “green” as that is way overused. And having spent part of my engineering career studying the environmental life cycle of products, most “green” applications with respect to energy self-sufficiency might not be “green” at all - but still make sense to do from the stand point of long term sustainability AND economics. For example, those compact florescent bulbs - quite toxic on disposal because of the mercury. Likewise with solar panels. And many other materials that go into creating sustainable energy solutions - they need to be properly disposed of. So, from a life cycle environmental perspective, I’m not sure we really have enough information yet to know enough about the long term ramifications of the more sustainable energy producing options to make claims that one is more “green” than another.

But these designs, literally are “green.” Amongst the many fantastic design concepts, something about these three images were really charming. And just how did the little square house with four sides and white picket fence become the aspirational norm?

Would you like to come over to my hovel for a nice cup of tea?

What if I invite over my neighbor, a former NBA star?

What if the roof was covered with mint and there were sheep up there?

Geothermal heat pump application will reduce heating costs and reduce risks of monopolistic pricing practices by the only diesel supplier in town.

I’m evaluating using a geothermal heat pump to heat a property I manage in Southeast Alaska. The drivers for considering this application are:

1. Presently the property is heated using a diesel oil powered furnace for radiant in floor heating. The price of diesel oil is controlled by one monopolistic company in town and the prices go up but not down.

2. The property is vacant about 30% of the time - primarily during the coldest winter months. The heat pump will keep the house warm enough to prevent damage from freezing if no one is on site. The property has a large central chimney with a large wood stove that would suffice as the heating back up on days where the heat pump system may not provide sufficient heat when people are present.

3. There are numerous options for the geothermal heat source of water - the property is on a large body of water that never freezes.

The best site I have found so far that succinctly defines how geothermal heat pumps work is by the California Energy Commission - http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/geothermal.html

I recently spent $200 to swap out all the high wattage incandescent light bulbs in my home with low wattage compact florescent and LED task lights. I used 60% less electricity and saved $380 per year on my electric bill.

I was reading the Time Magazine article on January 12, 2009 about reducing energy usage and they cited that one of the main reasons people did not want to switch to compact florescent bulbs was because of the “cost.” The reality is that low wattage compact florescent bulbs last 5 times longer than incandescent light bulbs and even lower wattage LED lights last 10 times longer. So the cost savings are not just with reduced electrical costs - there are also significant savings in having to purchase and replace low life, high wattage incandescent bulbs.

How many people reducing their energy use does it take to change a light bulb? None, their light bulbs never wear out.

Click here to calculate your own cost savings with switching to compact florescent bulbs.

I am working on a corporate retreat center in Northern Nevada that is on a south facing hill. The entire south side of the house is a bank of windows and the original design of the house was passive solar. While the design worked well in the winter to reduce the heating requirements, in the summer, the house’s heating loads were extreme.

We replaced the windows with low-e windows to reduce the solar load, but needed a more aggressive solar blocking strategy in the summer. Putting on an awning to reduce the solar load in the summer was mandatory to make the space habitable without excessive air conditioning. I saw a solar awning design several months ago so had the designer draft a concept of putting solar panel awnings over the south facing windows.

What I like about this design is how she has applied the sun angles for this specific location. In the winter the sun still gets in and in the summer, the awnings prevent exposure AND collect the solar energy. This is a triple whammy - passive heat gain in the winter, shading and energy creation year round.

Solar Awning Design for South Facing Windows

This old fridge costs a pretty penny to keep alive.

Well yes it is - to the utility company. My friend Jean was telling me she had this old fridge in her garage that she used for storing the over capacity groceries she purchased from those large warehouse club stores, beer, and other party incidentals. She got the old fridge from a rental house they were renovating. We had an interesting discussion on how much that old fridge was really costing to maintain. If she replaced the old fridge with a new, more energy efficient fridge, she would save $238 per year. For a garage fridge, she really doesn’t need anything fancy, and can pick up a more energy efficient fridge for under $500. The payback on this fridge is a little over two years. If Jean gets an extra $500, say as a bonus from work, or from her husband selling a couple loads of firewood, it would make sense to apply it toward a new garage fridge.

If you want to see what those old refrigerators are really costing you - check out http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=refrig.calculator&screen=1

Gas Fireplace Insert uses half the natural gas of the open hearth and stopped heat loss up the chimney

I was inspired to become more energy self-sufficient after experiencing one 20% price increase after another with my local utility company, living through $5 per gallon gas prices, watching the tundra around my brother’s house in Fairbanks, Alaska turn to swampland because of warming global temperatures and watching my retirement savings take a nose dive in late 2008. Just from the financial perspective alone, I figure if I can reduce my recurring expenses then I can live on far less income in my “golden” years. PLUS, it makes far more sense to me to invest in things that will give me a solid return on investment than investing in a very volatile securities industry. Additionally with the prospect of looming inflation because of the US Treasury having less than 1% of assets in reserve vs. what they are loaning out, I figure the more I can reduce my monthly bills, the more resistant I will be to economic instability.

To get started, I first evaluated all my options (see blog post below). Next I created my first project plan, and then started by reducing the energy needed to heat the house and the water. I am eventually going to be creating my own electricity with solar and maybe wind power, but I learned that for every dollar I could save in energy usage, that was $5 less I’d have to spend with creating my own energy to power and heat my home. So I figured I would start with reducing my energy usage first.

Tankless Hot Water Heater Uses Half the Natural Gas as the Old Water Heater and 75% of the Natural Gas of a New Water Heater.

I started with the heavy hitters first - the natural gas I was using to heat the house and the water. I had a very old natural gas water heater and with my travel schedule, I was paying to keep a lot of water hot that I was never around to use. I also had this open natural gas fireplace that used 40,000 BTUs of natural gas and let a lot of heat out through the chimney. I replaced the water heater with an instant on tankless water heater that uses half the natural gas of my old water heater and 75% of the natural gas of a new hot water heater. But with my travel schedule, it just made no sense for me to keep a tank of water, no matter how well insulated, heated. For the fire place, that is easier, I installed a natural gas fireplace insert that uses half the BTUs, and is rated to heat the entire space of my house. Plus the insert is very well insulated so I won’t have the heat rushing up the chimney when it’s not on. By my back of the envelope estimates, I cut my natural gas use by at least 50%. This means I am saving $70 per month. I’ll have the upgrades paid back in less than five years. Click here to see the pay back analysis for making these improvements. payback-analysis-for-tankless-water-heater1

For more information on energy efficient appliances - visit - http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/procurement/eep_gas_waterheaters.html

Next I am making warm window shades to reduce the heat loss through my windows, improving the insulation under the house, and swapping out light bulbs with LED bulbs as they burn out.

Click here to see the project plan for becoming energy self-sufficient with this house. project_plan_energy-improvements-house-carson-city

The easy answer is - “it depends.”   Overall, I’m pursuing energy self-sufficiency for three reason:

1. As a hedge against inflation and world instability.  The less I have to pay to utility company’s and for foreign oil to power my life, the more I can weather any future economic and/or political turmoil.

2. As a way to generate a better and lower risk return on investment than I can currently get in any other investment vehicle.

3. As a way to learn how to make long term decisions that will create improved security for all and give me more financial independence - this is especially important as I have to cover the cost of college for my children AND prepare for retirement.

But I realized as I got into this drive to become energy self-sufficient, that some efforts would generate much faster paybacks, far more savings, for a lot less effort and costs.   Not every action you can take to become energy self-sufficient creates an equal and opposite reaction   I developed a pay back analysis template to understand the benefits for pursuing one energy self-sufficient effort vs. another.

Click here to access the payback analysis template for energy self-sufficient investments.

What I discovered was that efforts to reduce my energy consumption gave me a much faster and larger return on investment than those to create my own energy.   I’m still pursuing the efforts to create my own energy on the multiple properties I manage in three states as my goal is energy self-sufficiency.   But before I install those systems, it makes more sense to reduce those properties need for energy first.   For every $1 saved in energy use, you save $5 in the cost of installing an alternative energy solution.

Special Note - sustainability is incredibly important in the pursuit of energy self-sufficiency. HOWEVER, I don’t pretend to have all the answers to save the planet from climate changes that are either part of a cycle or man made from fossil fuel pollution. Being “green” or being energy self-sufficient for economic reasons - the end result is the same - less fossil fuel pollution. For whatever reasons people have to motivate energy self-sufficiency, the reality is that this is not a hole that the government and/or big business are going to dig us out of any time soon. It’s is far safer, and a more sure bet for the individual to become energy self-sufficient and the economic reasons justify it. Yes the government and big business need to create their own sustainable energy infrastructure, but energy self-sufficiency is a highly desirable and attainable state for individuals. We need both to address the multi-faceted problems of being dependent on monopolistic utility companies AND foreign fossil fuels.