As politicians play blame game over power outages, local consortium is already implementing solutions

The birthplace of modern electricity, as viewed from space

If you could see your breath indoors last week, you might have guessed that a political blood bath would ensue after rolling blackouts left thousands of Texans shivering in their unheated homes, offices, and schools, many for hours at a time.  This unusually severe blast of winter weather has exposed several chinks in the armor of our power delivery industry here in the great state of Texas (the only contiguous state with its very own independent, deregulated power grid).

As this article in last Thursday’s Austin American Statesman explains, there is certainly no single cause for the failure of such a complex system.  After all, the unforeseen nature of the recent weather conditions in Texas revealed weaknesses up and down the chain, from fragile generating capacity at the power plant level to poor communication between local utilities and their customers.  Ostensibly indignant politicians from the State Senate, the Lieutenant Governor’s office, and local city councils (including Austin’s) nevertheless feel obligated to identify a culprit to take the fall.

The list of potential scapegoats mentioned so far include power plant owners like Luminant (a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp), local electric companies and utility coops such as Austin Energy and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and the Texas Railroad Commission.  Some energy experts like Texas Tech’s Dr. Michael Giberson believe the problem lies with ERCOT’s electrical isolation from America’s two other main “grids”, the Eastern and Western Interconnections (here is his argument).

UPDATE: The Dallas Morning News ran this piece over the weekend, offering more details into last week’s break-down in Texas’ energy supply chain.

But while the the regulators and politicians duke it out over what needs to change on the supply side of the energy equation, a local consortium of public and private interests called The Pecan Street Project has already begun to tackle demand.  Their organizational model and current progress are impressive.  One of our favorite columnists neatly encapsulates the vision behind the Pecan Street Project:

Now that the smart grid is in place, though, we can control demand.  Because either the utility or the customer is able to optimize when power is used, so many more people automatically run things later at night when rates are cheapest and fewer things in the daytime when they are more expensive.  The Energy Internet has become so smart about when you want to use power or when it would have to sell you power or when it could buy power off your car battery or home solar system that the load has become much more constant 365 days of the year.  The “flatter” that any utility grid can make its load profile throughout the day for all its customers – so that its peaks are not very high or are eliminated altogether – the fewer backup power plants it needs to build or operate.  It is, in effect, substituting energy efficiency for new power generation.

–Thomas Friedman, from his 2008 book Hot, Flat, and Crowded

What Friedman describes is, in a nutshell, the electricity delivery system of the very near future.  People call it the Energy Internet, or the Smart Grid.  If this all sounds like something from Back to the Future II, you’ll be excited to know that the Pecan Street Project is already busy turning Austin into a smart grid prototype for the rest of the world to watch and learn from.  From pecanstreetproject.org:

Headquartered at the University of Texas at Austin, Pecan Street Project Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) smart grid and clean energy research and development organization. Incorporated in 2009, the organization’s board includes representatives from The University of Texas, Austin Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, the Austin Technology Incubator, the City of Austin and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

In September 2009, it received funding from the University of Texas and a grant from the Capital Area Council of Governments through an award from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. In November 2009, the organization received a U.S. Department of Energy stimulus grant for a Smart Grid Demonstration Project at Austin’s Mueller community.

This is not just an exercise in academic curiosity either folks; hover boards notwithstanding, the future is NOW.  Last week the Pecan Street Project announced that it has already gone live with the first phase of Austin’s smart grid deployment.  Very soon customers throughout Austin will for the first time be able to monitor and manage their home or office energy consumption, down to the individual appliance level, with a swipe and a tap on their iPhone/iPad or other smart mobile device.  Living and working in more efficient homes and buildings, and armed with greater awareness and control of our own usage patterns, we as electron consumers will be able to greatly improve the stability of our electric grid and minimize the impact of severe weather events like we saw last week.

In the meantime, you don’t have to wait for your fancy new smart meter to arrive to get a head start transitioning your family or workplace onto the smart grid.  You may be relieved to find out that, contrary to popular opinion, getting a handle on your energy use doesn’t  require a $20k solar panel installation.

Let’s make it easy: just post a comment or shoot us an email, and we’ll put together a free personalized plan of attack to eliminate the energy wasters in your home and/or office.  No strings attached, no spam.  Just Austinites helping Austinites.

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Major Breakthrough in “Micro” Wind Power

SkyStream 600: The World’s First Fully Smart Grid-Enabled Wind Turbine

by Timon Singh

SouthWest Wind Power showed off their latest turbine – the Skystream 600 – this week at CES 2011, and we’re impressed. The latest in SouthWest’s long line of turbines, the Skystream 600 is equipped with a unique Skyview system that can be accessed via the internet to provide users with information about how much energy it is producing in real time. In fact, the turbine is said to be so efficient that it produces 74% more energy than its  predecessor – the Skystream 3.7.

The SkyStream 600 is estimated to average about 7,500 kWhs of energy per year with an average wind speed of 12 mph. However it is the fact that the turbine provides ‘real time’ information that is most interesting. This feature makes it the first “fully smart grid-enabled wind turbine” and it is expected to be popular when released in April.

While the price has yet to be announced, households that are interested in diversifying their energy supply would do well to consider this item. Not only is it expected to be cheaper than solar panels, but wind power efficiency is growing each year and anticipated to become the leading form of domestic renewable energy.

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Austin Energy Ups Rebates For Efficiency Upgrades

Austin Energy has again upped their rebates for residents that make efficiency improvements to their homes. The previous rebates offered by Austin Energy were to reimburse customers for about $1300 in improvements, but between Jan. 1st and March 15th, AE has announced they will throw an additional $200 in for customers, bringing the total reimbursement up to an amount near $1550.

Austin Energy’s Power Saver Program offers local residents the Home Performance with Energy Star Rebate. The rebate covers up to 20% of the cost of specific improvements that will reduce stress on the grid by saving energy and save you money as a result of the lowered usage. Because of the reduced usage, these improvements can significantly lower the carbon footprint of a home. The improvements included in this particular rebate can be found on the website and are as follows:

• Air conditioner or heat pump (14 SEER/12.0 EER or greater)
• Duct repair and sealing
• Additional attic insulation
• Solar screens, window film, and Low-E glass
• Caulking and weather stripping
• Attic radiant barrier/reflective material

There are currently many rebates offered by local, state, and federal entities, but many of them expire quickly. The State of Texas is currently offering a rebate for appliance upgrades you can read more about here. It would be a smart move to take advantage of these rebates now and start off 2011 committed to making simple home improvements that quickly pay themselves back and help out the environment. Take some time to respond to our poll and help us gauge awareness and interest in rebates offered around the country.

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Reclaimed Floor Installed By GreenTex in Austin Remodel

Installing a reclaimed floor in your house or business is a great way to build sustainably. It doesn’t require the use of fresh cut trees and it saves waste that often is unnecessarily directed to the landfill. Reclaimed floors usually offer greater durability than a new floor. This may seem strange, but it is often that the wood from a reclaimed floor is made of old-growth wood that came from forests hundreds of years old. New floors are made from new-growth wood coming from trees in young agricultural forests. The old-growth wood is much denser and harder from growing years longer and creates a floor that is more resistant to scratches and dents. In addition to being stronger, reclaimed floors have a striking look that cannot be reproduced. New products try, but there is simply nothing that can mimic the character reclaimed floors have acquired from years of use and because of their origin from old-growth trees.

We wanted to show you a very cool reclaimed wood floor that GreenTex is currently installing in one of our current projects. This floor came to us via House+Earth. The floor is thin strip oak that came from a project in Naperville, Illinois. Though the floor had to travel a long way to get to Texas (the greenest way to install a reclaimed floor is by sourcing it as locally as possible), it is very unique and very tough. The wood came from a building dating back to the 1920’s. Here it is during installation, and it looks fantastic. This is the floor before sanding takes place.

As the floor is finished we will post pictures of the finished product and some short videos of the installation process. For more information about installing reclaimed floors, contact us. If you would like information about some of the reclaimed wood available at this time in the Central Texas area, contact Scott Kuryak or Zach House at House+Earth.

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FLOR Modular Carpet: Unique Designs From Sustainable Minds

If you are considering new carpet anytime soon, you may find that the advantages and versatility of modular carpet best meet your needs and desires . Modular carpet tiles are steadily rising in popularity as people are beginning to discover their practical advantages, as well as the unique designs they offer.

Rather than being rolled during installation from a single roll, modular carpeting comes in pre-cut squares that you place down and piece together using non-toxic stickers. The most common tile size is usually around 19 in. X 19 in. For your floor’s design, modular carpet offers a huge variety of creative opportunities not available to single roll carpet simply because you can easily mix and match varying colors and patterns. Most of the companies that produce and distribute the carpet sqaures have a wide range of patterns and colors to choose from that offer appearances from a simple look to the way far-out.

Because of the relative ease of piecing modular carpet together, many homeowners are also using modular carpet to create their own unique area rugs.

The last project GreenTex installed modular carpet, we went with a pattern provided by FLOR. FLOR is a modular product sold under Interface, Inc. The company is run by environmentally-minded people who have committed to a Mission Zero goal: completely eliminate any negative impact the company has on the environment by 2020. FLOR products are made from renewable and recyclable materials and installed using nontoxic adhesive stickers called FLORDots. The dots are placed on the ground, adhesive side up. The dots only stick to the bottom of the carpet tiles themselves, meaning that there is no use of toxic carpet glues. The FLOR tiles off-gas significantly less VOCs than conventional carpet (because of the materials they are made of and the reduced use of adhesives) and therefore achieve a healthier indoor air quality.

On this GreenTex project, the homeowner decided to go with the same pattern on every tile, but by alternating the direction in which they were installed, the FLOR tiles produced a checkered appearance.

Probably the biggest way in which modular carpet helps us out is by eliminating the need to replace huge rolls of carpet as a result of a few stains or damaged areas. If an area of the carpet becomes unsightly because of wear-and-tear or accidents, one or two tiles can be lifted and replaced very easily by the homeowner. Instead of having to replace 130 sq. ft of carpet, everything can look as good as new by replacing only 6 sq. ft. of material. This is the primary reason that most businesses and hotels have switched to modular carpet in their new buildings. Using renewable and recyclable materials is extremely important in today’s construction world, but being able to cut down on the material that enters the waste stream is equally important, and modular flooring presents opportunities for the homeowner to meet green criteria in multiple areas.

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Prioritizing The Green Remodel: The First Step

When many think of a green home, the first thing that comes to some minds is a roof covered in solar panels. While solar panels are very cool, they represent only a small aspect of sustainable building practices, and in terms of a remodel are a much lower priority than you might think. With all of the amazing new efficient/alternative energy/environmentally-friendly technologies available to us today, the less flashy and most basic aspects of a high-performing sustainable home are frequently overlooked.

The first, and most obvious necessity in a remodel is to ensure that your home has aged well and maintained its structural integrity. This is the case for all builders and remodelers, whether they practice sustainable building methods or not. After it has been assured that you aren’t going to be spending thousands of dollars superficially remodeling a home that will potentially fall down in a few years, then the planning can move forward. In a remodel, the first priority should always be an assessment of your home’s envelope. In most cases anywhere from 35% to 50% of a homes annual energy use is dedicated to heating and cooling. A huge chunk of this percentage can be eliminated with a tighter envelope. A solar panel addition meant to generate on-site energy will do a homeowner little good if they don’t first “stop the bleeding” of air in and out of the house. One of the best ways to lower the carbon footprint of your home, thus making it greener,  is to get the lifetime energy use of the house as low is it can possibly be.

Ideally, you should hire a specialist to come to your house and get a clear picture of the envelope through a series of tests. Professionals with experience using blower door tests, thermal imagery, and their knowledge of building science can provide very accurate information about how and where your house is leaking air. Air can enter the house from a number of places, and insulation won’t always catch some of these entry points, but running accurate tests on the house will find these trouble spots and give the best opportunity to appropriately seal them.

A tight envelope can be achieved a number of ways, but in most remodels it means by checking out the insulation. Homeowners should be insulating everything from the basement to the ceiling, using the best performing insulation the budget allows. Different types of insulations work better for various applications (spray foam may be great for your attic and basements, while you may decide you want cellulose for other places). Doors and windows should be evaluated, and if the budget allows, should be upgraded to the highest performing product available.

Once every effort is made to control the airflow in and out of the house, and ensure that the flow is planned in such a way that allows the super-tight home to breathe appropriately to stop mold from building in the walls, then you can move on to other aspects of the remodel, but the first step should be to assess the performance of your home’s shell and build it to its highest potential.

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LED Christmas Lights: Efficient Holiday Lighting

If you are looking to save money and energy with your holiday decor this season, you should check out the wide selection of LED Christmas lights that are on the shelves this year. If you are only lighting up an outside lamp post, or if you’re the type that lights the house in a way that it can be seen from space, LED lights are sure to offer many advantages to your holiday light display.

The benefits of using LED holiday lighting are much the same as using LED lights anywhere in your home. Because of the long lasting nature of LED lights, you will be saving much money and time in the long run because your strands will last longer and the need to replace burnt out bulbs will be much less commonplace. A Department of Energy study found that the best white LEDs have a life somewhere around 35,000 hrs, or 4 years of continuous light. Many of the strands are 90% more efficient than old-style incandescent lighting, and the LEDs stay cool when lit, so they are much safer and pose a lower risk of fire.

I went out this week searching for a few strands of lights that I could put up to add some holiday flavor to my windows and outside balcony. I knew that I was searching for LEDs, because I was already well aware of their amazing efficiency when compared to incandescent lights, but I thought I was going to be limited to the strands of Cool White that I have seen on some homes around the neighborhood. When I found the aisle of holiday lights, I was greeted with some pleasant surprises.

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The first great thing I noticed was that LED Christmas lights were not out-of-this world expensive. Because they are not yet as widely produced and because they contain more advanced technologies than older standards, one will often find EnergyStar labeled products (like LED Christmas lights) carry a significantly higher cost premium when compared with the inefficient standard form of the same product. I found that with Christmas lights, this was not the case. The LED lights were usually just a couple of dollars more, or the same price, when compared to incandescent lights of the same style. I was not going to be breaking the bank by purchasing LEDs as opposed to incandescents, and I will actually get those dollars back in the first month, plus much more due to the lower operating and replacement costs.

The other thing I was delighted to see was the wide variety of colors and styles that LED lights came in. Indeed it seemed to be the case that with just about any style of incandescent light (icicle lights, ceramic lights, white, multi-color, blue) was also offered in LED. This means that with just about any creative lighting scheme you can come up with, there will be LED options for you.

I ended up going with old-style multi-colored ceramic lights on my back porch (the kind with the colorful fat glass bulbs that were a common sight on houses and trees years ago), and Cool White mixed with Blue icicle lights in my front windows (producing a very cool color mixture that creates an icy appearance). Total I spent just under $30 for a modest, but very hip and striking light display. If you haven’t already considered them or shopped around, I highly encourage you to do so.

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Join Us At The House+Earth Christmas Party This Evening!

What better way to kick-off your holiday festivities than by throwing on your tackiest holiday sweaters and hats and gathering together with friends and colleagues for holiday parties?! House+Earth and Kreiss Furniture will be hosting a holiday party tonight from 6 p.m.- 9p.m. at their stores located at 1214 West 6th Street. Those attending should bring lots of holiday cheer and a new and unwrapped toy to benefit underpriviledged children through the US Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Foundation.

There will be great food provided by Manuel’s, cocktails provided by Grey Goose Vodka and Republic Tequila (it’s organic!), and cold beer provided by Thirsty Planet. The evening is sure to be a good time and we hope to see you there!

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Structural Insulated Panels At A Glance

Structural Insulated Panels (or SIPs) are one of many alternative framing options available to us today. SIPs are manufactured by taking a rigid foam core and placing two sheets of OSB on both sides. They are versatile and function as energy efficient exterior walls, floors, and roofs.

Taking the place of standard stick framing, SIPs have very high R-values and are often made from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified products. The FSC is a non profit organization that certifies wood products coming from sustainably managed forests that minimize habitat destruction and water pollution. FSC products also won’t contribute to violence or conflict by displacing indigenous peoples. In simple terms, an FSC certification represents a wood product that comes from a tree that can be replaced with minimal environmental impact.

While SIPs do come with a much higher initial cost than using standard stick framing, most or all of these costs can be offset by reduced labor, less cleanup fees, and a shorter construction time frame. SIPs come to the job site built to the specifications of the project, and are assembled by experienced SIP crews. After the panels arrive at a site, the crew can set them up very quickly. After the walls are put up, SIP crews are able to place the roof panels and install them much faster than could be done with standard roofing practices. An experienced SIP crew can have the bulk of a house exterior up in just a few days.

SIP panels also offer clients superior noise reduction.  The foam core and tightness of the overall structure provide the homeowner with higher Sound Transmission Class than brick or block walls. Indoor air quality in a SIP home is generally extraordinary because air leakage in a SIP structure is practically non-existent. This results in the elimination of hot and cold pockets in the home and has the additional benefit of making it much harder for pests and insects to enter the home. In terms of safety against fire and natural disasters, SIP structures also perform much higher than other building materials. Most of the panels can withstand wind speeds of 140 mph and are much more flame resistant than standard wood framed buildings.

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The Christmas Tree: A Green Holiday Tradition

It is the holiday season again and for many of us that means it’s time to put up the Christmas tree! The Christmas tree is a holiday tradition with a very long and somewhat obscure history. The celebratory decorating of trees has been documented as far back as the ancient Egyptians. Exactly where the Christmas tree tradition came from is not known, and it has gone through many evolutionary changes to get to the ornament clad tree we put up today, but we do know that Christmas trees have been going up since Martin Luther used one to symbolize the Tree of Life and instances of holiday tree erecting date well back to the 15th and 16th centuries in Northern Germany and Livonia. Probably the most popular example of today’s Christmas tree is the massive holiday spectacle that sits outside the Rockefeller Center in New York, NY each holiday season.

But did you know that the holiday tradition of chopping down a tree and placing it in your home is one of the greenest and more environmentally friendly traditions we celebrate during the holiday season each year? While it may seem wildly counter-intuitive, it’s true! Here are some do’s and don’ts that will help make your Christmas tree as environmentally sound as possible.

• DON’T purchase an artificial Christmas tree! Most of them are made of PVC and other plastics that will sit in the land fill for hundreds of years after they are eventually discarded. Most buy these trees out of convenience because they “make less of a mess” or “save the trip of going to get a new tree every year”, but they take up tons of space in landfills and will still be sitting in the ground contaminating the soil for the next several generations of your family’s Christmas. The average artificial Christmas tree stays in a family’s home for only 6-7 years.

• DO purchase a REAL Christmas tree! How, you may ask, is the practice of cutting down a tree EVERY year in any form or fashion “green”?! Interestingly enough, there are several reasons….

1. Most real Christmas trees come from tree farms that inherently practice sustainability as part of their business. In order to stay in business, every time they cut a tree down another has to be planted. Tree farms are an agricultural endeavour and do not contribute to deforestation. They are not clearing out forests and leaving barren waste land like many of the operations that are depleting the rain forests.
2. Tree farms are often planted on soils that won’t easily support other crops. Evergreen trees are relatively tough, and as a result can grow many places other types of agriculture would never thrive. Therefore, most tree farms are placed in areas  that provide additional habitats for wildlife, preserve topsoil, and help water retention.
3. Christmas tree farms help reduce global warming. Again, because they are generally located in areas that would not have acres of trees otherwise, these farms soak up atmospherically harmful CO2 and produce oxygen for us to breathe.

• DON’T spray your real tree with artificial snow! While it may look cool, most artificial snows will keep you from being able to recycle your tree in January, so if you can help it, lay off the artificial stuff.
• DO your research! The absolute best option (and most traditionally fun) is to take the family out to a local tree farm that allows you to select a tree and cut it down yourself. For fellow Texas residents the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association has a website to help you locate the closest tree farm to your home for a great holiday outing. Nationally, the National Christmas Tree Association’s website may be able to help. Often, even real Christmas trees in your area are sent from tree farms across the nation (which means CO2 emissions due to shipping). Buying from a local farm can help the local environment and the local economy. Call before you head out to purchase your real Christmas tree. Ideally you should cut one down from a sustainable farm that uses limited pesticides.

And when all is said and done, MAKE SURE TO RECYCLE YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE! There are thousands of programs nationwide that offer curbside pick up of your tree after the holiday season. The City of Austin has been recycling Christmas trees for over 25 years. Just like other yard trimmings, the city will pick up your tree and recycle it into Dillo Dirt and mulch. The mulch is available to Austin residents free of charge during the month of January.

The greenest way to practice this holiday tradition is to buy a tree with a rootball and plant it after the holiday. Most trees can only survive indoors for about a week, but you can plant it in your yard and decorate it for years to come. We hope you will find these tips helpful in making this holiday season your greenest yet.

Happy Holidays to you and your family from the GreenTex team!

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