Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

I have been in Connecticut the past two months expanding the markets for Cheetah Power. It’s been an exciting ride and we landed a huge opportunity to organize the Green Pavilion for the NBC Health and Wellness Festival October 16th and 17th at the Hartford Convention Center.

What has been especially exciting is seeing how well Connecticut is doing with respect to setting energy policies and incentives to help individuals and businesses adopt more energy efficient practices. In a recent report issued by the Center for American Progress, shows that Connecticut ranks number one nationwide in adopting progressive measures for energy efficiency.

At Cheetah Power, we don’t just talk sustainability, we live sustainability.   We took the Connecticut corporate retreat center property and have installed a 6kw solar photovoltaic system (we received a $9000 credit from the State of Connecticut to install the system and a 30% tax rebate from the Federal Government reducing the cost to install the system by over 40%).   We reduced the energy consumption of this property by converting the electric hot water tank to instant on propane water heaters.  Replaced the 25 year old air conditioners with high efficiency air conditioners.   Removed an old hot tub that was not being used but had been kept running so it wouldn’t be damaged.   Replaced an aging pump on the pool filter that was drawing far too much electricity than needed to work at less than optimal performance. We replaced the light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs and LED lights (where they made the most sense to use) and put all the systems that were on continually on easy to turn off power strips to turn off when not needed (reduced phantom power loads). In the summer time, when the electrical consumption was the highest on this property, the bills have decreased by 3/4 with these measures in place.

We are also installing sealed gas fireplaces in the two fireplaces that currently exist for the most part to just suck warm air out their stacks in the winter, have a weatherization maintenance plan in place and expect to reduce the heating costs by at least 30%.

Additionally to improve the properties overall sustainability and to increase our contribution to the community’s sustainability, we planted a garden that grows the produce used at the corporate retreat events, and are planning on orchard to contribute to the local CSA’s.

I inherited a 20kw diesel generator with this property I purchased in Alaska as a corporate retreat center. I’ve owned this property for four years now, and have started the generator on several occasions - mostly out of curiousity as it hasn’t been used even as back up power for almost a decade now. It used to be the primary power generation system for the property until the power company brought power out to the property.

Just what these folks needed a 20kw gen set for is beyond me. The previous owner did have some interesting power tools in the garage - a very large compressor probably being the biggest power draw. Other than that, there is no other evidence of large power requirements out here and the home’s electrical requirements are relatively minimal. Inside the house, the largest draw is the electric dryer that at the most requires 4 kw. All cooking appliances are gas and the water and home heating is through a diesel furnace. Here is an electrical power consumption table for common household appliances. When a generator is far bigger than what is needed, it doesn’t run very efficiently.

A few years back a friend who specialized in remote power generation in the Air Force was testing out the generator. A couple local guys working on the property didn’t see why we wanted to fuss around with it since the power never goes out in this small town in Alaska. I wanted it working in case we ever needed it. When the power goes out the pumps don’t run for the water, septic systems, or the diesel boiler. The power went out the other night - for the entire town. Luckily they got the power back online within four hours and according to the long time residents, this was the longest they had ever experienced a power outage.

This gave me ample motivation to look back into my 20kw generator. With a new battery and some new antifreeze, the beast fired right up. We are having the electrician come out to verify the system is ready to cut over to the generator in the event we need it. To find out how expensive is is to generate our electricity with this diesel generator, I need to find out the BSFC for this motor. This number is fuel consumed per brake horse power per hours run. You multiply the BSFC by actual output to see how much fuel you would use. Nearest I can tell is the most this generator will consume is about a half gallon of fuel per hour to meet a peak load demand from this property. To keep this simple, lets say it uses 10 gallons of fuel per day. At $4 per gallon, that is $40 per day and $1200 per month. This makes getting that wind turbine up and operational even more attractive.

What is amazing is how the various states create electricity and who owns the power companies. According to this Nebraska state website:

“Nebraska is the only state that generates electricity entirely by publicly-owned power systems. As of July, 2008, the statewide average price for all sectors from all electric utilities is the eighth-lowest rate in the country, based on the latest federal figures. Nationally, electricity costs 49 percent more than it does in Nebraska. Across all sectors, Hawaii has the highest electricity rate (32 cents), and West Virginia has the lowest electricity rate (5.66 cents).”

Here is a state by state summary of electrical rates. It was gathered from http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html.