Plug-in Meter

If you’ve ever hung around with management types, you’ve probably heard Peter Drucker’s famous saying: “what gets measured gets managed.”  If Drucker were alive today, he’d probably have a home energy monitoring system.

I can testify to the truth of Drucker’s statement from personal experience.  When cars didn’t provide any kind of feedback about gas mileage, I didn’t really think about how the way I drove affected how much gas I had to buy.  But when I got a car with a monitor that showed the MPG I had averaged over the last 30 minutes (in 5 minute increments, no less), that had a big impact on how I drove.  No more jack rabbit starts, and no more driving 80 on the interstate.  I couldn’t ignore it anymore, and I changed my behavior.

I’m sure the same would happen if I got a home energy monitoring system.  I wouldn’t be able to ignore the many thoughtless things I do around the house, like leaving lights on or lowering the AC, if my house had a power consumption display like the one in my car.  Seeing the consequences of what I do at home would almost certainly change my behavior.

Research bears this out.  Studies, mostly done by power companies, show that providing real-time energy usage information can result in real savings.   For these trials, the power companies installed special prototype power meters that could report on energy usage as frequently as every 20 seconds.   What they learned is that this approach is effective: tests of these approaches have shown savings of as much as 20% simply because people see what’s going on and change their behavior.

There’s even a story of how one gadget freak, obsessively checking his home energy usage using his smart phone, discovered that his teenage daughter was throwing a big party while he was traveling overseas.  The dad saw that his home power usage had jumped suddenly even though the house was empty — or so he thought.

But here in Atlanta there’s no easy way to monitor your power usage.  The Georgia Power Company offers what it calls a “Smart Energy Report,” but that averages your usage across an entire month, which is much too slow.  It may help you decide you need better insulation, but it won’t really change your day-to-day behavior.  Google and Microsoft each had opened businesses aimed at home energy management, but both companies decided the market wasn’t ready and shuttered their ventures.

That brings us to DIY solutions.  A few examples are listed below.  They range from the small and easy to the large and expensive (as in requiring an electrician to install), but if you want home energy management at all, you’ll have to do it yourself for now.

Easy:  one-outlet power monitors are widely available, not very expensive, and easy to use.  For example, the Kill-A-Watt meter (love that name!) simply plugs into an individual electrical outlet and monitors appliances and other things plugged into that outlet.  If you want to see how much that old freezer in the basement is costing you, this will do it.  Kill-A-Watt meters come in a variety of flavors (basic, wireless, simple  display, elaborate display, etc.) and are available through Amazon, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and many other retailers.  Prices begin at about $20 and go up from there depending on the features.

Midrange:  there are whole-house power monitors that you can hook up to your electrical panel (we’d recommend hiring an electrician) and which work a little like a Kill-A-Watt meter for your entire house.  Probably the best known of these is TED: The Energy Detective, which hooks up to your breaker panel and provides real-time data such as kilowatts per hour, projected power bill based on usage, monitoring of specific appliances, etc.  Black and Decker has now come out with a power monitor for the entire house as well, which I consider to be a good sign for the future.  Price range: from around $150 to several hundred dollars and up.

High-End:  at the cutting edge are so-called “smart home” systems that monitor power usage, provide remote control of individual outlets, and can automatically run your appliances at off-peak hours for cheaper rates.  If you had solar panels (and if you could sell it back to the power company), these systems would manage that, too.   To see what that kind of future looks like, check out Agilewaves.  Smart home systems are complex, highly customized, and pricewise the sky’s the limit.

Of course, someday we’ll all be connected to a smart grid that will manage all of this for us automatically.  But until that day (which your children’s children might or might not see), you’re more or less on your own.

by Rob Aaron

Jo's Attic Before

Jo's Attic After

She used 9 inches of fiberglass batt insulaton that had an R value of 30.  The insulation was laid between her ceiling joists.  The job took about half a day to finish.

Jo just got her March gas bill.  There were twice as many heating degree days in March 2011 than in March 2012 and when the gas use is adjusted for that, Jo’s gas bill was about 75% of last March’s.

Natural Gas Used in March 2011 Compared to March 2012

If this spring is any indication of what is in store for us temperature-wise this summer, it would be an excellent investment to insulate our attic and save electricity on cooling bills this summer.

Greening Neighborhoods got a contribution of can-light insulation covers from CanCoverIt.  These clever pop-up insulated boxes are designed to be placed over can lights that extend through the ceiling and into attic spaces to be insulated with batt insulation.

CanCoverIt Provides Safe Insulation Above Can Lights

If we cover can-lights over with batt insulation, they risk overheating and catching fire.  If we place insulation so the can-lights poke through the insulation, air leaks are caused limiting the efficacy of the insulation.  The CanCoverIt provides insulation while leaving enough space around the light so a fire hazard is avoided.  As a special incentive, Greening Neighborhoods will give away a limited number of covers on a first come basis for those of us who have can lights and are going to insulate our attics.

Contact george@greeningneighborhoods.com if you can use the CanCoverIt.

Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to prevent the pollution and flooding.  Small, decorative rain gardens that will prevent storm water from leaving our property can be part of our home landscaping .

Rain gardens are inexpensive and relatively easy to install.  There are five steps to follow.

1)   Find a level or moderately sloped area in your yard that is at least 10 feet from your home.  (The 10 feet is so no water seeps into our basements.)

2)   Dig a six inch deep pit and fill it with water.  If water sits in the hole for 24 hours the soil is not suited for a rain garden without putting a layer of sand beneath the garden.  We will assume we have loamy soil that percolates well.

3)   Now we need to figure out how large to make our rain garden.  Determine the roof area drained by the downspout that will conduct rain water to the garden.  The way to do this is measure the foot print of that roof area.  It doesn’t matter what the slope of the roof is.  Take that number and multiply by 0.20.  So, if we have a foot print of 400 square feet, the rain garden will need to be 0.20 x 400 = 80 square feet.  An 8 foot by 10 foot garden will work.

4)  Lay out the area with stakes and a string and dig down about 8 inches.  If the area is sloped we will need to make the bottom nearly flat.  In that case the soil we dig out can form a berm on the low side.  Now add 2 inches of mulch to the bottom of the garden.  Add some compost to the rest of the soil that was dug out and the garden is ready to have the soil replaced.

5)   Now we are ready to plant our garden.  We need to find plants that will survive in wet weather as well as dry.  We need to choose an array of plants that will do well in each season so the garden will look good in summer and winter, in spring and fall.  Our local nursery or landscape expert will be able to advise us. Every state has an agricultural extension agency that has web sites where we can find more suggestions.

Here’s a good site for Georgia Rain Gardens.

If this Saturday is no good, our neighbor Rhonda Rollins sends this information about recycling every second Saturday at the KAtlB Community Recycling Center in the Old Fourth Ward.  Here are the details.  Note that this site accepts styrofoam.

George

SHINE offers up to $3,500 in rebates toward qualified energy saving improvements to our homes.  Here’s how it works.

• Get an energy audit from a City approved contractor.  Receive a 50% rebate on the audit cost.
• A prioritized list of energy saving improvements will be given to you from the audit results.
• When you make improvements suggested by the audit, starting with the ones that will save the most energy, you will receive up to $3,500 in cash rebates for insulation, air leak sealing, and replacement of old, inefficient heating/cooling equipment.

A number of Greening Neighborhoods members have taken advantage of SHINE.  The graph below shows the savings Carolyn, Jane and Dave realized.

Dave and Jane reduced their heating bills be 35% after making recommended improvements.  Carolyn saved a whopping 70%.  During the energy audit a two foot by two foot hole was found behind her refrigerator that was allowing heated air to escape outside.  The hole was properly repaired.

Here’s a way to get an idea of how much gas we are using to heat our homes.  Thanks to prudent energy saving improvements made over the years one of our neighbors lives in a very energy efficient two bed room, two bath, 1,500 square foot home.  His December gas bill was 78 therms.  After deducting an estimated 5 therms for cooking and heating water, he divided 73 therms by the size of his home, 1,500 square feet, to get his gas use per square foot, 0.049 therms.  73/1,500 = 0.049 therms per square foot.

We can do the same for our homes.  Take the December, 2011 gas bill and find out how many therms we used.  Deduct 2.5 therms per family member for cooking and heating water.  Divide that number by the size of the heated rooms in our homes.  Therms/size of home = therms per square foot.  Let us know how your home compares to 0.049 therms per square foot.

If you miss out on the SHINE program, click on the NRG SVRS site for a free energy audit offered to Greening Neighborhoods members.

To do your own energy audit click on Greening Neighborhoods’ “Energy Audit” tab.

On March 24 Livable Buckhead and Live Thrive will team up with City Council Representatives Howard Shook and Yolanda Adrean to sponsor a recycling opportunity at the Passion City Church Parking Lot at 515 Garson Drive.  The event is limited to the first 500 people who register.  Here’s the link for more information and the registration button.  Click on Livable Buckhead

Most of us know the benefits of recycling, but just in case here are the reasons Live Thrive gives:

• Environmental Contamination – Some types of wastes, if disposed of improperly, negatively impact our soil, bodies of water, plants, animals and people. They contaminate drinking water and can emit harmful vapors linked to cancer, birth defects and even death with long term exposure.
• Commerce: It’s Local – Georgia’s paper industry recycles 8% of all the paper consumed in the U.S. What we recycle directly helps Georgia’s economy.
• Water – One ton of paper made from recycled paper conserves 7,000 gallons of water.
• Child Safety – Expired and unused medications lying around the house are asking for trouble with little ones. Getting rid of them reduces risks.
• Identity Theft – 6% of the American adult population is affected by identity theft. 9 million have had their identities stolen. (Source: Better Business Bureau) Shredding old documents instead of simply tossing them in the trash can provide protection against identity theft.
• Landfills – Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. (Source: Earth 911.com)

]]> http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/03/03/heres-a-chance-to-recycle/feed/ 0 http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/02/24/ack-an-800-water-bill/ http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/02/24/ack-an-800-water-bill/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:34:34 +0000 george http://greeningneighborhoods.com/?p=1775 When I went to the mail box Friday night and opened the water bill it said we had use nearly 28,000 gallons of water in January.  With that much water I could safely rule out an indoor toilet leak, but to be sure I shut off the indoor water supply and took the cover off the street-side water meter to have a look at the gauge.  Sure enough, the little indicator arrow was spinning around at the rate of 7 gallons per minute.  Our water line runs from the meter to the house under our concrete driveway.  Our plumber came by and verified that the leak was somewhere between the meter and the house.  Now we had to find out where.

Locating the Water Line

This is a multi-utility procedure because you can’t just start tearing up the concrete and dig until you find the leak.  There are other utility lines including gas, and in our case underground power, cable and phone.  Each had to be located and marked by the respective utility providers who came out with their sounding meters and spray painted different colored dashes on the driveway to mark locations of the buried lines.

Then the water leak technician located the leak by pumping nitrogen gas through the water line.  He had a sensitive microphone that allowed him to hear the underground hiss of escaping gas.  He marked a 4 foot by 4 foot area where he heard the leak.

Digging up the Old Line

Fortunately, our plumber was able to begin work immediately, dig up the driveway, find the leak, repair it and have us with a leak free supply of water in just two days.  Now all we have to worry about is getting the driveway repaired.

Nationally, it is estimated that 14% of residential water is lost through leaks.  We can see the faucets drip and can often hear the toilets leaking water.  More serious indoor leaks like broken hoses to dishwashers, refrigerators and clothes washers are readily evident when leaking water stains walls and ceilings.  Outdoor leaks are another matter.  Our leak, which was through a hole in the pipe about the size of a fork tine, was hidden.

Grass Being Watered by a Leak

Often, if the water line runs under the lawn, greener grass is an indicator of a leak.  The most obvious indicator, of course, is the outrageous water bill.

The good news is that the City will discount the sewage treatment part of the bill since most of the 28,000 gallons of wasted water didn’t make it to the treatment plant.

It’s simple and inexpensive to collect rainwater from our roof and use it to water our lawn or garden.  Here are a couple of set-ups our neighbor Frank McComb installed.  First he got some rain barrels.

stacked 275 gallon totes

50 gallon barrel

Frank uses totes and barrels that had been previously been used to transport juices and concentrates.  He paid $50 each for the 275 gallon totes on the left and $10 for the 50 gallon barrels on the right.

Slotted Inlet w/ Mosquito Screen

Flex pipe from downspout to barrel

A few feet of flex pipe connects the downspout to the top of the barrel.  A simple slotted leaf barrier  with a piece of screening below it keeps unwanted stuff out of the barrel.

Spigot

The last piece of the puzzle is a spigot.  A lot of totes come with a spigot or a threaded outlet where one can be added.

The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper newsletter announced that Headwaters Outreach Manager Bonny Putney, who is certified in rain water collection, hosts a series of rain barrel workshops over the course of the year, and kicks off 2012 with workshops on Wednesday, Feb. 15, and again on March 7 at the City of Atlanta Water Works Lodge (655 Green St., Atlanta, GA 30318). New this year: The $40 fee not only includes a rain barrel, installation kit and instructions, but also is good for a one-year UCR membership. Workshops start at 6 p.m. Register:

https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=RAIN12E

measuring the number of gpm

If it’s a gallon (4 quarts) or more we can install aerators that only allow a half gallon of flow per minute.  They cost less than $4.00 at building supply or hardware stores.  The flow rate is marked on the aerator.

Low Flow .5 gpm Aerator

Unscrew your old aerator from the faucet tip and take it with you to get the low flow one (there are a number of tread types and we need to match the new one with the old).

We can make the same measurement with our shower heads.  Low flow ones are 1.5 gallon per minute (gpm).

The other measurement we need to make is the time it takes for water to get hot.  We already found out how much water is used in one minute (gpm) so all we need to do is multiple the time for the water to get hot enough by the gpm rate and we will know how many gallons of water are wasted.

A simple $7.00 wand-like device called an Instant-off Water Saver (available on-line or at Home Depot) saves water by shutting off immediately after you brush your teeth or fill a water glass.  The other thing it does is to allow hot water to circulate through the  pipes so hot water comes on more quickly.

Instant-Off Water Saver in on position

Instant-Off Water Saver in "off" Mode

These are things to do without changing behavior.  If we want to get real about saving water and money we can take shorter showers.  And we can prompt ourselves to do so by installing a shut-off valve on the shower head.  This means wetting down, shutting off the water with the valve, soaping up, and then switching on the valve to rinse off.

Shutoff Valve

The biggest water waster is our toilets.  Unless we have a new dual flush toilet we are needlessly wasting hundreds of dollars of water every year.  A new dual flush toilet will pay for itself in 18 months.  But first check out the dual flush kits you can get on-line or at the local hardware or home improvement store for around $25.

dual flush kit

If we install these inexpensive devices we can easily our cut our indoor water bills in half.

]]> http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/01/30/how-to-stop-wating-water/feed/ 0 http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/01/10/the-whole-bag/ http://greeningneighborhoods.com/2012/01/10/the-whole-bag/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:30:26 +0000 george http://greeningneighborhoods.com/?p=1709 I thought it would be a good idea, being that we are beginning a new year, to review the categories of conservation that Greening Neighborhoods recommends for saving money, reducing unnecessary waste of our natural resources, and lowering our carbon footprint.

1)  First on the list, and the best way to save money, is by using alternative transportation.

 Take public transportation, ride our bikes for errands, car pool, and when we buy a new car get one  that  gets good mileage.  The average American drives 36 miles a day to and from  work.  By ride sharing with one other person we can save over $4,000 a year  on wear and  fuel.   We would reduce our yearly carbon footprint by 3,600 pounds of CO2.  Resource: Clean Air Campaign

2)  Reduce heating and cooling bills by insulating our attic, cutting off air leaks at doors, windows and pipe holes in the walls.

 Many contractors recommend 16 inches of fiberglass insulation, or R 50.  There are a number of  rebates  available for adding insulation.  Most neighbors who have added at least R 30 insulation  and have sealed air leaks have reported savings from 40 to 60% on their gas and electric bills.  Resource:  NRG SVRS  Resource:  Energy Conservation Solutions

3)  Reduce water consumption.  This is easy and inexpensive to do.

Low flow faucets and shower heads are inexpensive and can cut water use by 1/2 when they are installed.

For $20.00 kits are available at hardware and building supply stores to convert older toilets to water saving duel flush toilets.

 The 300 gallon water container in the background costs around $75 and will capture  roof  runoff for watering our gardens and lawns.  Most homes that water lawns and  gardens  using treated municipal water will double their water bills in summer months.  This water  is free.

An added bonus is by collecting rain water we reduce storm water runoff that enters our  sewers and causes  flooding and pollution.  Resource: lew@greeningneighborhoods.com

4)  We can lower our electric bills by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs or LED lights.

 We can get into the habit of switching off lights when we leave the room.  If that technique  fails we can buy an inexpensive motion detector that does it for you.

We can set the water heater temperature to a lower level.  We can buy Energy Star  appliances that have the best ratings.

5)  Improve indoor air quality.

 We have abundant opportunities to buy toxic chemicals used in commercial cleaning  products, home repair building materials, and even cosmetics.  Federal labeling is  improving so we can see what’s in the products we buy.  To make sure we know what’s in  the  products we use, we can always make our own products like the window cleaner shown  here,  which is made from water, vinegar and a bit of liquid soap.  The benefits are not  immediate  savings, but future savings through lower health costs.  Resource:  Greening Neighborhoods

6)  Buy local, plant a garden.

 Meats and produce bought from farmers’ market are fresher, shipped locally, and the  money we spend stays in the local economy.

And, if the farmer markets are near by, we can walk to market.

Resource: Farmers Markets

7)  Recycle

 Recycling paper, plastic, metal waste means that is not waste at all, but raw material to be  used again.  It means that tons of materials are kept out of landfills reducing the release of  methane gas, a contributor to green house gases and global warming.

Resource: City of Atlanta

 Control solar heat gain

This can be done in a number of ways.  The least expensive is by adding a high quality film on the inside window face.  If it is in your budget replacement windows can be triple pane with the sun blocking film within the glazing itself.

When it time to replace shingles we need to get the kind that reflect sunlight (and heat) so we don’t have to spend extra money cooling the heat absorbed by dark colored shingles.  Resource: Greening Neighborhoods  Resource: Cool Roof Calculator

Greening Neighborhoods wishes you a healthy, prosperous, green new year.