Category Archives: Environment

Nov 11 1 comments
Electrical, Environment, Solar Energy, yard

Installing our Photovoltaic Solar System, Part I

I have had a pretty good year with the solar business thus far.  Therefore, I decided to roll some of this year’s profits into our own Photovoltaic (PV) system.  This idea has been batted about before, including as a battery back up for the sump pumps, however, a few things have developed since then.

First of all, as technology often does, newer things are available these days that make a solar system in the North East a better proposition.  Secondly, the solar business has done better than I expected.  As a result, I don’t often have much time to work on household projects.  That means that this years “capital improvement” budget has gone unspent for the most part.  Finally, I would like to offset some of the extra income tax from the profits.  What better way than to invest in the technology myself.  The Federal Government offers a 30% income tax incentive and the NY State government offers a 25% tax income incentive up to $5,000.00.  This will cut the overall cost of the installed system by almost 50%.

There are a number of considerations:

  1. How large of a system should be installed.  I decided that I wanted to offset 70-80% of my annual electrical use.  In this climate and environment, that equates to about 4.1 KW DC PV system.  This leaves a little downward room in case I decide to replace the electric stove with a gas unit.
  2. Where can it be installed.  Since the south facing roof has the solar hot water system, the PV system needs to be mounted on a sun shade type structure in the yard.
  3. What type of technology.  I was initially looking at a grid tied with battery back up, however, after I looked into the newest type of inverter, the Enphase microverter, I decided that this was the way to go.  A battery backup can be added at a later date.

The Enphase microverters are really cool.  The way this system works is every solar panel has its own small inverter instead of one large inverter for many panels.   The advantages of this type of system are thus:  In conventional system, shading of one panel can cause the entire solar array to turn off, making it ineffective.  With the microverters, the shaded panel may turn off, but the rest of the unshaded panels still put out full power.  In the Northeast, trees grow everywhere, it is nearly impossible to have a completely shade free site, nor should home owner’s be expected to clear cut their lots to accommodate a PV system.  The Enphase microverters mitigate some of those concerns.

Also, multiple inverters create redundancy.  Any one inverter can fail, leaving the other nineteen still operational.  There is automatic web monitoring for a small annual fee, or the modules can be monitored manually.  I may write a small web based program to monitor and post my energy output here.  The inverters themselves carry a 15 year warranty, whereas most other inverters carry a 5 year warranty.

Finally, there are no DC voltage losses to account for, making the entire system operate much more efficiently.

In anycase, the order has been signed, checks have been written and the excavator has been reserved for this weekend.  The first step is to dig and poor the footings for the sun shade.

More to follow.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun 13 4 comments
Environment, General

Degradable plastic bags

I was reading something this morning about how the City of Philadelphia is considering baning plastic bags completely. It seems that those thin plastic bags you get from the grocery store are public enemy number 1 when it comes to the battle over the protection of the environment. It is truly fascinating to see the things that people focus on, anybody up for re-arranging some deck chairs?

So why not, there is little else going on these days. I mentioned the above to my lovely and talented wife, who stated that she got a “degradable” plastic bag from the local organic grocery store. So I examined said bag and found the statement “This bag will degrade into many small pieces when exposed to sunlight.”

explaination on plastic bag about why this bag is "green"

explanation on plastic bag about why this bag is "green"

I don’t know if you can read that or not.

Many people might call these bags “biodegradable” which they are not. “Bio” would indicate that some living thing could act on the structure of the plastic, breaking apart into different compounds and base elements. I would call these bags oxi-degradable, which means that sunlight will oxidize the carbon chains into CO2 thus breaking apart the structure of the plastic. It also mean in an non-oxygen environment, such as being buried in a land fill, or under water somewhere, these bags will be every bit as resilient as their non-degradable counterparts.

The other question is time period. Anything will degrade over time, the question is how long? One day, one week, a year, a decade… To answer this question, I staked the degradable plastic bag out in full sun light.

degradeable plastic bag in full sunlight

degradable plastic bag in full sunlight

I’ll post a follow up when it dissolves into many small pieces.

Update: July 1, 2009.  No noticeable degradation.

Update 2: July 13, 2009. No noticeable degradation.

Update 3: July 31, 2009.  Bag is falling apart:

degradeable plactic back after 6 weeks in the sun

degradeable plactic back after 6 weeks in the sun

After 48 days, the bag is disintegrating rapidly.  I will also admit that we have had a wet rainy summer and the sunlight has not been as intense as it normally is.  That being said, I stand by my assertion that if these bags are buried in a land fill or in an anoxic environment, they will not degrade at all.

Still, it did do what the manufacture said it would, so I’d say they are an improvement in plastic bag technology.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jan 16 3 comments
Electrical, Environment

Smart outlet strip

I did some research a while back on the standby loads around Casa de Catskill. The findings are in the post titled  “Kill-A-Watt meter results.“  The worst offender seemed to be the laptop charger and associated accessories.  The TV and other equipment was the second worst offender.

Smart Outlet Strip

Smart Outlet Strip

Enter the Smart Outlet Strip. These units can detect when current is being drawn by a “control” outlet and turn on or off all the other devices plugged into it accordingly. As a little experiment, I purchased two of them, one for the computer equipment and the other for the TV/VCR/DVD player.

According to my Kill-A-Watt meter results, I should save $14.56 a year on the TV stuff and $79.13 on the computer equipment . Each outlet strip cost $25.00, therefore, my payback should be about 7 months.

I will post a follow up in a few months to see if these assumptions are valid.

One thing to note, this is a fun experiment, but perhaps I am taking this energy saving stuff too far.  I don’t know,  saving $93.69 a year is nice, but there are bigger fish to fry, so to speak.  Still, every little bit helps in some way.  We all do what we can and certainly practicing what you preach is an important part of being environmentally aware.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Jan 13 2 comments
Environment, Heating

Clean burning woodstove

I took this picture of our wood stove chimney. Once the little Jotul F100 wood stove gets hot  this is the way it looks:

wood stove chimney with fire going

wood stove chimney with fire going

Clear.  According to the US EPA certification sheet, (large .pdf file) the Jotul F100 Nordic QT puts out less than 3 grams of particulate matter an hour.

non catalytic wood stove diagram

non catalytic wood stove diagram

Very little particulate matter is released from this stove because it has a baffle. When the fire box is above 400 degrees or so, all of the smoke is burned in a secondary combustion because the baffle mixes the wood smoke with fresh air at a combustible temperature.  This means that the stove is much more efficient, safer, and better for the environment.    If the smoke were not burned it would condense as creosote on the inside of the chimney.

Jotul F100 Nordic QT wood stove at operating temperature

Jotul F100 Nordic QT wood stove at operating temperature

Wood creosote is a brownish yellow sticky substance that is essentially condensed wood smoke.  Since wood smoke is combustible, wood creosote is also combustible.  In fact, it is a bad hombre, leading to chimney fires that can burn down a structure.  It is the reason why every wood burning appliance needs to have it’s chimney cleaned and inspected annually.

A properly installed, clean burning, UL listed, EPA certified woodstove is good for the environment as they produce no nitrates or sulfates while operating.  They are a great way to save some money on heating, especially if the wood source is free.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Jan 10 4 comments
Electrical, Environment

Where does your electricity come from?

I posted about this once before. The US EPA has a web site called “How clean is the electricity I use,” complete with a place to fill in your zip code and find out.

We pay a lot for electric, it peaked at ¢17.8 per kWh last summer, now down to ¢12.5/kWh.  As it turns out, there is a reason for this, we are also well below average in power plant emissions:

FUEL MIX COMPARISON
1
What Is
My Fuel Mix?
This chart compares fuel mix (%) of sources used to generate electricity in your region to the fuel mix (%) for the entire United States.
Legend explaining that green represents National Fuel Mix and blue represents Your Region's Fuel Mix
1.3
 2.1
chart		 26.4
 6.5
chart		 27.0
chart		 19.3
chart		 7.8
chart		 3.0
chart		 15.5
chart		 18.8
chart		 21.5
chart		 49.6
chart		 %
Non-Hydro Renewables Hydro Nuclear Oil Gas Coal

EMISSIONS RATE COMPARISON
2
What Are the Emissions in My Area?
This chart compares the average emissions rates (lbs/MWh) in your geographical region to the national average emissions rates (lbs/MWh) for nitgrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide.
Legend explaining that green represents National Emissions Rates and blue represents Your Region's Emissions Rates
chart 0.83
chart		 1.94
chart		 3.00
chart		 5.26
chart		 chart 700
chart		 1314
chart

Mainly because our power company purchases a lot of hydro energy from Quebec, our electricity is fairly clean compared to the rest of the country. That does not mean that there is not room to improve because there certainly is.  Looking at the non-hydro renewable line, we are well below the rest of the country.

Stop by the EPA clean electricity site and see how your region is compared to the rest of the country.  It might be interesting.

H/T mother earth news

Popularity: 5% [?]