Green Building Expo

We checked out a green building expo “Built Green Conference 2010″  http://www.builtgreenconference.com/1/home.html today to see what is going on.  It was offered by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.  The cost to get in was $15.00 per person, so for the fiancée and I $30 plus $5 to park for the 1/2 hour it took to walk the whole expo.  The expo was geared towards builders, but open to the public for a few hours in the afternoon.  My personal opinion is that if these companies and associations want to get people to attend these type of things, free is a really good way to start.  I think there may have been 5 or 6 people at this thing that were paid visitors, not a very high traffic turnout.  If I had a booth at this show and paid what was probably a pretty steep expo fee, I would be a little upset and not looking at coming back in the future.  Just my thoughts on this subject of expos.

As for the actual exhibitors, there was a good mix of companies.  I think one of the most interesting things at the expo for me was a group called the Stewardship Partners  www.stewardshippartners.org and their affiliation with Salmon Safe http://www.salmonsafe.org/ This group does a pretty intensive certification of farms, properties, golf courses, etc. From what I can see, they look like  a good group to support.  There were many other exhibitors selling things such as building panel systems, windows, other “green” things.  I will probably get in touch with the only solar company that was at this show, Northwest Mechanical Inc. www.nwmechanical.com, to have them come out and quote a solar system.  Not sure if it will be PV or hot water, but I think it is time to take the next step.  There were also a couple there that may or may not be so green, but you can look at the list on the website and decide for yourself.

I think it is great that these things “Green Expos” have shown up and are becoming more common.

Random Thoughts

It has been a while since I posted, actually over a month.  I was on a roll with the led lighting, but I am kind of waiting and looking at things for a while.  I continue to use the bulbs that I have bought and the one over the sink at my fiancees house is working good so far.

There are a couple of websites that I wanted to direct people to:

http://www.thegatesnotes.com

Bill Gates has given some talks about energy and is looking at the world of sustainable and renewable energy.  His site has some very good links.  The other site is a book that was recommended by Bill Gates.  The book was written by David MacKay, Sustainable Energy – without the hot air.  It is a free book that can be read online (found at http://www.withouthotair.com/)  and it is a very good way of looking at energy usage.  I particularly like the way he boils down personal energy usage to the equivalent of kilowatt hours which he explains can be visualized as the following:

1 kilowatt-hour = one 40 watt light bulb turned on for one year

In my job, I travel quite a bit by air.  In looking at air travel and the energy usage that I use per year, it is quite scary and not sustainable. I think the most amazing thing from the book and air travel is the following paragraph, which I have copied directly:

A Boeing 747-400 with 240 000 litres of fuel carries 416 passengers about
8 800 miles (14 200 km). And fuel’s calorific value is 10 kWh per litre. (We
learned that in Chapter 3.) So the energy cost of one full-distance roundtrip
on such a plane, if divided equally among the passengers, is

2 × 240 000 litre ______________________	× 10 kWh/litre ≈ 12 000 kWh per passenger
416 passengers

If you make one such trip per year, then your average energy consumption
per day is

12 000 kWh	≈ 33 kWh/day
_____________________ 365 days

So based on what the author of the book says and if I kind of work out a recent flight that I took, Seattle to Oakland, CA a little over 600 miles, and the plane was probably 80% full, a 737-700 gets a little over 40 mpg per passenger or about 0.43 mpg for the plane. So to move me to Oakland and back I used about 1100 kilowatt hours, or I turned on 3 40 watt light bulbs for a year.  Doesn’t look like much until you consider that there are thousands of flights a day all over the world.

Even more amazing and scary, we recently went to an event at Boeing and one of the displays showed all of the airplanes in the sky during different hours of the day around the world.  At one point, there were over 13,000 commercial big planes in the air at one time.  Makes you wonder how long we can continue like this.  I guess that is enough for now, more to come.

Sustainable Carpet for an Office

Sustainable carpet is the next topic.  I am going to make an office at my fiancée’s house, to do this, we have decided to remodel a room.  The existing carpet is white and isn’t really practical for rolling chairs.  We decided to go with carpet from www.flor.com for a couple of reasons.  The main reason is the carpet is a sustainable product.  The company uses recycled materials to produce the carpet and they will take the carpet back at the end of its life.  The tiles 19.7″ by 19.7″ are available in lots of different colors and patterns.  They will supply samples at $5.00 per three samples.  What I really liked about these tiles are they are not that typical cheap home center carpet tile.  The backing is a heavy rubber material and they give “dots” to fasten the tiles together (basically a piece of tape).  The installation looks easy, so I went ahead and ordered samples, which we received today.  My fiancée liked the pewter color and we went with a pattern.  I’ll post more when we get the real thing.

The other thing I am going to look for now is a FSC (Forest Stewardship Council http://www.fsc.org/) certified particle board to raise the floor height a little to match the existing entry way floor. I have emailed a local place to see if they have something that I can buy retail.  Finally, we are going to paint and replace blinds in this room.  More updates to come as the project moves forward.

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Now, back to the lighting.  We installed the remote control LED bulb (PAR 30) from LED Homeplace above the kitchen sink.  The light is very similar to daylight (even though it was listed as soft white).  Here are the photos of this.  Note that the light that is put out is very similar to daylight, so when we have the bulb on during a cloudy day, it just doesn’t seem to be as cloudy near the sink.

Remote control light bulb

My remote control light bulb arrived today.  A Par 30 bulb with a small infrared remote control included, all for about $70.  I put the bulb in a can light to see what it looked like, the light is pretty good.  Still a little harsh, but better than I was expecting.  This bulb is from LED homeplace http://www.ledhomeplace.com/led-par-lights.html . The remote has different percentages of dimming available, plus it can turn the light on and off, even cause it to flash.  The dimming function is very good.  There is no buzz or noise during dimming.  I am going to find somewhere to install the bulb and try it out in an area that gets high use.  I’ll update you when I figure that out.  Some photos below.

Company with good customer service

My replacement bulb arrived today, I am happy with the new bulb.  I tried it out in my girlfriends dining room light(not my girlfriend anymore as she is now my fiancee).  We replaced a 13 watt cfl bulb with the bulb from priorityled which I had sent back to them due to the kelvin rating.  The company promptly replaced the bulb with a new one, actually sent it by DHL.  I still think the color or light we are getting out of this bulb is a little off, so we switched back to the CFL.  I am going to try and find a place to use this bulb, I am thinking of using it in a lamp with a colored glass shade.  13 to 7 watts is not much of a change, but a little is good.  I will update you when I find something.

An interesting thing I found on the internet, actually my fiancee found it:

http://www.seesmartled.com/parlight.asp

I think a lot of the LED lights are more in the 3000K range and often I have been seeing 2700 to 3200K as the bulb rating.

Rainy Days and Light Bulbs

Sometimes in Seattle we have rainy days and sometimes we have really rainy days, today is one of the latter.  I thought I would update where things are on the first LED bulb I bought

and where I got it.  Below are some photos of this light:

So this was supposed to be comparable to a 90 watt bulb.  The light that comes out is very blue.  The bulb is really cool looking, but I think the LEDs (114 of them) are not very high quality or the light color that comes from them is not a warm white.  They were advertised at 3000 kelvin, which the company says is comparable to warm white.  I bought this bulb on Amazon and left fairly negative feedback.  To this companies credit, almost immediately after leaving the feedback, I received a phone call from the president of the company saying that this should not have been my experience.  He asked that I send the light back to him and they will send me another.  I think that is great customer service, so I am going to give them another try and send the light back.

The website for this company is www.priorityled.com

This company also supplies PAR bulbs, 30 and 38, also advertised at 3000K.  I was thinking about ordering one of these to try from this company, but due to the color of the other bulb, I went a different route.  I haven’t received that bulb yet, still waiting for it.

Also, one update on the track lighting, the light output of the four bulbs I bought is not comparable to the halogen bulbs they replaced.  The bulb website for those is:

http://www.eaglelight.com/product/MR16-GU53W3-CREE-DIM/Dimmable_LED_MR16_35_watt_replacement_bulbconsumes_only_3_watts_of_energy.html

So, as of now, I am waiting on the dimmable PAR 30 bulb, sending the priorityled bulb above back for a replacement and testing the track lights.

Solar University

I now know that I don’t know all that much about solar power.  I thought I knew enough and that it would be a good idea to jump in and start looking at installing a solar system on my girlfriends house/townhouse.  Well, after going to a one hour class, which I think was a great class, I think there is a lot more to learn and think about.  The class was held at Sunergy Systems in Seattle, where one wouldn’t think solar power is very useful.  It actually may be a pretty good thing.  Seattle gets around 3.8 solar hours per day average per year, Las Vegas is a little over 6 hours.  I think for a retrofit in Seattle on an existing house the industry is not there yet, very close but not yet.  On a big remodel or a new house, I think it is the thing to do, so for now I am going to wait.

From the class, there were some of the interesting tidbits:

Solar costs about $7 to 9 per watt installed for a house.  A typical house uses about a 3.5 kilowatt system.  The panels are about 200 watts each and are about in the 4 foot by 5 or 6 foot square size.  You would need 16 panels to get the 3.5 kw system due to losses in the inverter and wiring.

The tax credits are pretty good, 30% credit federal taxes and Washington state has a program called 6170 which pays 15 cents for every KW produced, so that includes stuff you use at your house without sending it into the grid.  For power going into the grid, there is net metering, so your power meter runs backwards and you get utility credits.  Also WA state has no sales tax on solar power for now.  The 6170 program is kind of like the program Germany has, they pay for every KW produced also.  WA state has incentives for in state manufacturers, but there is only one panel maker and one inverter maker and both are much more expensive, so it is not cost effective to use in state production right now.

On hot water solar systems, there are two types, the old flat panels everyone has seen and the newer evacuated tube systems.  These are pretty cool, they are a double wall tube that is evacuated, ie: there is a vacuum between the two walls.  The inside of the inner wall is painted black so it absorbs heat.  There is a metal plate inside that collects this heat and in turn heats a copper tube that has a liquid under a slight vacuum in the tube.  This liquid boils at around 85 degrees.  The steam from this liquid goes up into a bulb at the end of the tube (tube is on an incline) and heats a liquid which is piped to your water heater.

The systems cost between $8200 and $11,000 for up to a family of 4, less Fed tax credit and other credits you can find.

One of the interesting things that I learned about the solar systems is that the heated water tank, which also acts as the water heater when there is no solar heating are mostly electric.  My girlfriends house has a gas water heater system and the electrical service would have to be upgraded to be able to use the electric water tank system.

In Washington state, we would probably be able to heat the water and use solar for about 20% of the energy in the winter and 100% in the summer.  So having the supplemental heater is needed here.

The outside temperature doesn’t have much effect on heating water, clouds and sun hours are the most important factors.  Even clouds are not a great barrier, since infra red radiation gets through the clouds.

All in all, I think it will make more sense to wait for the pricing to come down a bit and for more manufacturers to show up in the world to do this for a retrofit on an existing house.  The tax credits will probably be around for a while, so I am not too worried about those going away right now.

More on dimmable CFL bulbs and some photos of LED Track Lights

So I thought maybe a green company would know something about dimming a CFL and would test the bulbs and dimmers.  I received the following response to my question:

“I’m sorry to hear that the dimmers you bought do not work with the GE bulbs. We sell a wide variety of products and it is not feasible to test all of them. So, we do not guarantee that any of these products work with each other.”

I will keep checking with other companies, it seems Lutron is the only one who is saying there is a problem.  I guess I should also mention that what I was trying to do was install the CFL bulbs in 6 in cans in the ceiling.  The bulbs I bought were GE R30 dimmable bulbs and the were connected to a Lutron Maestro dimmer switch.  In reading a little more, the bulb may work if there is only one bulb on the dimmer switch (like anyone actually does that).  I guess the dimmer switch thinks there is a short in the line because of the electronics in the bulbs and by having several bulbs it is all too much for what is going on.  Anyway, I think I am going to give up on dimmable CFL bulbs and continue down the LED road, while watching what happens in the world of CFL.

Back to the LED track lights  On the left, the bulb style that I replaced.  These are the two pin bulbs.  The new bulbs are shown to the right.  So now we will see how these go for a while.  Right now, they are on at full power and with the normal background noise in the room (computer, etc.) I don’t really hear them.  So far so good.

Hello

I am embarking on the adventure of changing my lifestyle to a sustainable lifestyle.  I have an idea what that means, but I am going to learn what I can and talk about what I learn on this blog.  This kind of started after a few recent experiences I had with some of the green lifestyle changes everyone is being encouraged to go through.

A little background about me, I am a marine engineer and I have remodeled a couple of houses, so I have a fairly good understanding of electrical things, building practices and how things work.  I have been shopping at organic grocery stores for the past year.  My girlfriend works for a sustainability company, which we may get into later, if she lets me.

So to start, my experiences so far this year have been the following:

1.  Bought an led light bulb from a company on the internet, it was through amazon about $40.  I didn’t do much research.  The bulb showed up (it was a Christmas gift for my girlfriend).  She opened it on Christmas and we put it in a lamp, a horrible bright blue light came out of the bulb, it went back in the box.  I am not sure where it is now, on a shelf somewhere.

2.  My girlfriend has a nice place and she has switched most of her light bulbs over to compact florescent lights (CFL).  They are much better than they used to be, but sometimes too bright.  I immediately thought dimmers.  Off we went to our local home center, where I bought 6 new dimmable CFL bulbs and a single pole single throw dimmer switch.  Total cost about $100.00.  I installed the dimmer and the bulbs, turned on the power and nothing.   I had no light whatsoever.  Now you would think maybe I didn’t get the right stuff, but actually I asked the guy in the electrical department which bulb and which dimmer just because I figured they might have an idea since they sell the stuff.  Well, GE dimmable CFL bulbs and Lutron Maestro electronic dimmer switch which is what the home center sell actually don’t work together.  It took a call to Lutron’s customer service to find out that there is no standard for dimmable florescent lights, in other words, Lutron makes dimmers and GE makes bulbs, but the dimmers and bulbs don’t work together.  Lutron did say that they had one model of dimmer switch that works with one model of bulb.  I couldn’t find either of them on the internet or at the home center, so that idea was a bust.  I ended up taking the bulbs back out and putting the old switches back in and was able to return everything.  So total cost was $0 and about 4 hours of running around and changing the switches.

3.  Today, I also received 4 new 3 watt LED MR16 track light bulbs from http://www.eaglelight.com/ .  These are the 12 volt ones that work on the track lights that have the small power supply or the little rectangular box that twists onto the track. They are supposed to replace the 35 watt bulb.   On this one, I did a little bit of research and found a company that advertises the Kelvin rating of the bulbs.  Now in researching the Kelvin ratings, it appears that this number is a little bit arbitrary as there is no national standard.  Undeterred, I bought these 4 bulbs at a total of about $180 including shipping.  I have installed them at my house in the track lights, they are not as bright and the color is a little blue, but I am going to use them for a while and see what happens.  These lights are on a dimmer switch and one of the things I noticed is that when they are dimmed down, they start to flicker.  Also, there is a slight buzzing noise coming from the bulbs.

I will be continuing this with everything I think is a switch in my lifestyle to sustainability.  I hope you enjoy and comment on things as this goes forward.