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Empower Yourself!

BP disaster, Horizon geyser solution

I just posted this idea to BP’s idea submission web site.

Brief Description of Technology (200 words or less)

Cut the pipe to a short undamaged section as you are doing now. Weld an open ball valve onto the pipe. Welding an open valve will be relatively easy because there will be no pressure or material flow at the weld. The valve could have a significant riser pre-installed on it to keep the flow a good distance from the welding area. The riser should not be long enough to cause problems forcing the valve onto the pipe. Once the weld is complete slowly close the valve.

Materials Required

One giant ball valve with riser.

Equipment Required

Cutting tools. Robotic arm capable of forcing the valve onto the pipe through the flow of oil and gas. Underwater welding equipment.

Expertise Required – including description and numbers

Underwater cutting and welding should be routine for you guys.

I can’t think of any reason this could not be made to work.

Dan Michelsen

Renewable Energy Issue Makes Front Page of Wausau Daily Herald

We’ve been pointing out for ages that when it comes to fossil fuel, Wisconsin is dead in the water.  Every lump of  coal, drop of oil,  and therm of natural gas we burn has to be imported from out of state – thus exporting dollars that could be used to bolster our state’s economy.

Well, it finally made front page news.

Today’s Wausau Daily Herald featured an article penned by Gannett News Service staff writer Larry Bivens, entitled Coal costs Wis. $853 million each year.

The article covers a recent report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) entitled “Burning Coal, Burning Cash: Ranking the States that Import the Most Coal.”

Coal is one of the dirtiest ways to get electricity.  Burning it brings consequences not only for global climate change but for Wisconsin’s air quality and thus the health of its citizens.

In addition, switching to renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind will keep more dollars circulating in our state’s economy.

“Wisconsin has the technical potential to generate 4.2 times its electricity needs from renewable power,” Biven quotes Barbara Freese, a senior analyst with UCS and a co-author of the report, as saying during a recent teleconference.

Want to be part of the solution?  Call us to find out how we can help you generate your own clean, local electricity from the sun!  715-218-8654

Performance Energy, Inc. Earns BBB Approval

After a several-weeks-long approval process, we just received notice of Performance Energy’s approval as an Accredited Business by the Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin.

We’re very proud.  But it’s just the beginning.  We pledge to continue to put forth our best effort to live up to the honor by providing quality service and honest information to all our customers.

Action needed against global warming

A few posts ago I shared the letter I wrote that was published last November in the Wausau Daily Herald.  They asked me to comment on what inspired me to write.  this is what I told them:

I’ve been following science on global warming since I was 14 years old.  (I’m 52 now.)  I understand the science underpinning global warming inside out backward and forward.

It is as counter-intuitive to think you can add carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere and not raise the temperature as it is to think you could throw a down comforter on someone and think you’re not going to make them warm.

(To combat global warming), the first thing we need to do is to stop building stupid boxes.  That’s what I call modern houses (which lose a lot of energy.)  the building code needs a radical remake.  We need to change the code for housing construction.  Second thing we need to do is make funding available for upgrading existing homes,  And the third thing is to get serious about electric vehicles.

We can make electricity domestically, but we can’t produce more oil domestically.  We simply cannot drill our way out of this.  There’s not enough oil on the planet to meet future demand.  We can make electricity from a wide variety of sources, but we can only get oil from the Saudis and the Venezuelas of the world.

People aren’t taking this seriously.  My generation and I are leaving a legacy for my children and grandchildren.  I believe we have to live by the saying:  We do not inherit the earth from our parents; we’re borrowing it from our children.

-Dan Michelsen

Energy Fair Booth 2010

Just registered to reserve a booth for the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, 2010.  Seems like a long way away still, but it’ll be here before we know it!

Growing Green Congregations

Kudos to St. Anne’s Parish of Wausau, WI for their recent decision to become a Green congregation.  It’s a responsible choice and a natural one for a community that wishes to honor God’s creation.

This Saturday, Jan. 9th from 10:30-3:30, St. Anne’s will be hosting an interdenominational workshop on eco-spirituality.  The key speaker, former professor Sister Lucy Slinger, has worked with indigenous peoples of Australia and Africa.  Her passion for the sacred dimension of all Creation helps lead people to a deeper understanding of the relationship between self, others, God and Earth.

Performance Energy, Inc. is delighted and honored to be a part of this important event.  We will have equipment and informational displays on sustainable home energy available for viewing during the workshop and during and after the next morning’s service.   We will also be offering a drawing for a solar site assessment at the event.

Don’t Trust the R-value (Why some insulation may not work as well as you think.)

A few weeks ago we posted a little primer on R-value and how understanding it can help you make intelligent value choices for your home. (If you missed it and aren’t sure what R-value is, take a minute and read What the Heck is R-Value, Anyway?)

Now we’re going to tell you why R-value is overrated.

Heat flow vs. air flow

When it comes to keeping your home comfortable, there are three “flow systems” you need to be aware of: air flow, heat flow and moisture flow. A material’s R-value, or resistance to heat, only applies to one of them. (I think you can guess which one!)

The problem with rating an insulating material only according to R-value is that heat flow is only part of the picture. One of the major ways you lose energy is because of air flow – all the little cracks and gaps and crevices in your walls. Preventing heat from escaping is good, but you also want to make sure your walls aren’t allowing air to flow through them.

That’s one of the issues with fiberglass insulation. It’s light and fluffy and air flows right through it. If your home is tight it may not be an issue, but if you have cracks and fissures in your building envelope you’ll feel it in the form of drafts and higher energy bills.

Board insulation and foam insulation (like any of the expanding foams on the market or non-expanding foam like Insulsmart), on the other hand, let virtually no air through. Try this experiment: take a piece of cotton or polyester stuffing and hold it to your mouth. Now plug your nose and breathe. No problem, right? (Don’t do this with real fiberglass unless you really enjoy irritated skin.)

Now, do the same thing with a hunk of Styrofoam and see how fast you turn blue. Which do you think makes better draft protection?

Funny Numbers

The other problem with R-value is one of temperature.  R-value testing on insulation is done at – get this – 75°F.  With no air flow.

Now who needs insulation when it’s 75 degrees out?  I don’t know about you, but at 75 degrees I’m opening my windows and enjoying the breeze.   Insulation?  Who needs it?

Insulation only matters when there’s an appreciable difference in temperature between what Mother Nature wants to throw at us and where we have our thermostat set. 

If materials behaved the same regardless of temperature it wouldn’t matter.  But they don’t.  Some materials actually perform better as the temperature drops. 

And some perform worse.  Way worse.

Let’s pick on fiberglass again.  Fiberglass is usually rated at about R-3.1 or so per inch.  Not too bad, considering how cheap it is.  But did you know that the R-value of fiberglass can shrink by as much as 50% when temperatures dip below zero?  Its effectiveness tanks like a rock when it gets cold.  In subzero temperatures, fiberglass is only half again better per inch than plywood sheathing.  (Or worse – at least wood doesn’t settle and makes a pretty decent air barrier.)

In contrast, some materials work harder for you as the temperature drops.  For instance, Insulsmart improves from R-4.6 at 75° to a toasty R-5.1 at 25°. 

Need to insulate your home?

If you’re thinking of insulating your home don’t be fooled by funny numbers.  Make sure you know the whole story about the product you install.  A more expensive product often turns out to be the best value in the long run. 

What’s your experience?

 

To find out more about how you can take charge of your home energy profile, visit us at http://www.Performanceenergyinc.com/.

Performance Energy to Offer Home Performance Testing

Dan completed his Home Rater training last week in Madison.  Passed the exam with the highest score in the class.  Next week he’ll go back down for more specific training in the various home rater programs through Focus on Energy.   We’re looking forward to providing the Wausau area with home performance services.

Installing solar thermal panels for space heating

Yesterday was a busy Sunday.  We were supposed to install thermal panels for a solar space heating job last Friday, but pouring rain and a very steep metal roof don’t equate to a safety green light.  Since the roofing crew was willing to come in on Sunday, we decided to postpone.

The weather Sunday was a mixed blessing.  We did experience intermittent light rain, but on the bright side – it wasn’t bright!  Solar hot water installers pray for overcast conditions on installation days.  Otherwise the thermal panels heat up in the sun too much and you have to find some way to cover them.

This particular system is going onto a new home being built in rural Marathon.  The home is designed for extreme thermal efficiency.  We’ll tell you more about it in future posts.

Yesterday we were able to get two of the four panels up on the roof before the rain cut loose again and brought work to a standstill.  You can see more photos of the solar panel installation on our Facebook page.  Also, stay tuned – videos ahead!

Visit our website for more information on solar hot water.

Retro-Commissioning

September 22, 2009

I just got back from a seminar in Madison, offered by the Energy Center of Wisconsin,  on building retro-commissioning.   It was absolutely fascinating.   Commissioning a building involves measuring mechanical system performance under real-world operating conditions to verify that they are functioning as intended.   Retro-commissioning is simply doing this on an existing building after the original design and construction crew are no longer on the job.   Documenting system componenets and their operation is also part of the process.  Often times retro-commissioning is done because the building is not performing as intended.   At other times it is done simply to verify and optimize system performance in order to save energy.

I joked with the instructor that the workshop would be more appropriately titled forensic HVAC.   This is really what commissioning the building is all about.  Mechanical systems in large commercial buildings are so vast and complex that understnding what is really going on takes more knowlege and investigation than the typical maintenen crew is trained to provide.

The instructor, Rebecca Ellis,  a seasoned building retro-commissioner, shared many real-world examples of problems with HVAC systems.   In many cases the performance was normal from the occupant’s point of view. However energy was being wasted on a massive scale.   Although more subtle and complex problems exist, the most easily understood and common example was heating and air conditioning running simultaneously fighting each other. This turns out to be way more common than one would expect in large commercial buildings.   In many instances, these types of problems turn up when graphing multiple variables on the same graph.   A good example would be valve position for the air-conditioning plotted on the same graph with valve position for the heating and the ambient room temperature.   The ambient room temperature may be just fine, but the heat and air conditioning keep triggering each other in a  seesaw cycle that wastes an amazing amount of energy.

In many cases building retro-commissioning can turn up problems that cost little or nothing to remediate, but save tens of thousands of dollars a year in energy costs.

The biggest eye-opener for me, with a background primarily in residential structures, was that this type of investigative recording of system performance has not already been a routine part of building operation and maintenance.   Much of the presentation seemed like just good common sense.  Unfortunately, common sense has not often beeen applied to observation of system performance. 

In many cases the benefits of retro-commissioning a building are substantial.  In cases where buildings have been extremely well maintained, there could be very little benefit to the retro-commissioning process.  The vast majority of buildings are not this well maintained.    Focus on Energy offers incentives for retro-commissioning buildings larger than 100,000 ft.²  This incentive can cover more than half the cost of the process.  For more information on incentives visit the Focus on Energy website at www.focusonenergy.com.  For more information on Rebecca Ellis’s firm, Questions & Solutions Engineering, or the services they offer visit her company’s website at www.qseng.com. 

Dan Michelsen

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