Recycling is not all that tricky, but some people waste a lot of time doing stuff they shouldn’t. For example, below are some surefire ways to recycle incorrectly…

Recycle Wrong

ways to recycle

1. Crush all cans carefully – waste o’ time. Nowadays you don’t need to do this step. Recycling centers take un-crushed cans happily and is one of their ways to recycle.

2. Toss greasy and food ridden cardboard into the recycling bin. Sadly, this can mess up an entire load of recyclables. Recycling center machines are not fit to take on grease and grime. If you’ve got sticky, messy, greasy paper you need to toss it not recycle it.

3. Don’t sort the recycling – some recycling centers will sort if you don’t but others will just toss bins full of mixed goods which does no one any good. Set up a home recycling center and sort your recyclables.

4. Be a perfectionist about food in jars – the machinery at the recycling center will zap that excess mayo or peanut butter out of a jar. In fact, if a lemon is stuck in a beer bottle or you can’t remove food from inside a narrow container you can still recycle it.

5. Fail to recycle glossy paper – most recycling facilities do take old magazines and other glossy paper now. Ch

eck to be sure, but don’t just assume you can’t recycle it.

6. Recycle before you re-purpose – recycling actually uses a fair amount of energy. IF you can re-purpose

an item first, you should as one of the better ways to recycle.

7. Toss anything into the bins – many items need to be recycled in a different manner than your recycling center can deal with. For example, toys and dishes and the like should go to the thrift store, CFLs need to go to a CFL specific center, hazardous waste is a whole other issue, and food can be composted. Don’t recycle willy nilly.

8. And the number one best way to recycle wrong – don’t bother at all – who cares if you trash the planet?

This has been:

              ways to recycle: everything wrong,

I hope you got a few ideas of how to recycle right.

Recycling is one of the ways we save energy and protect the environment. Recycling can lower you homes power bill and even has the possibility of lowering your water consumption. When you recycle correctly, you use less water and you use less hot water and that means energy and money savings.  Now, go pour the rest of that unfinished glass of water in the doggy bowl. Comment by Don Ames

Money and the environment, there used to be a time when these two forces were opposed; in 2011 they go hand in hand. Some of the best ways to save energy and money is through environmental savings, eight of which we have listed below, so let’s take a look…

Switching to a green energy tariff

Almost all the major energy suppliers are now offer green tariffs to their consumers, which pledge to customers they help to a certain level with sustainability. The green tariff might help in different, they won’t all conform the same way, some will donate a portion of your tariff to an environmental fund or research project, others will make sure some or all your energy comes from renewable sources, such as tidal, wind or solar power for example.

As you can guess, it’s not just saving energy and the environment, but green tariffs will also save you money. A green tariff will cost the same as a duel fuel tariff at worst, plus different companies will be competing trying to offer the best green tariff, so it would be the perfect cover to change energy supplier at the same time.

When driving, be more careful

While not many people do it, or realize it, certain driving techniques can help conserve petrol or diesel. Drive within the speed limit for starters, accelerating and breaking hard requires more energy than a steady and slow increase. You will also find that using electronics in the car siphon off fuel, such as air conditioning, finally, if you need a roof rack, make sure it is a removable one, as the drag it creates wastes consumption. Small changes like these will see your fuel needs decrease and keep your wallet in healthy shape.

Energy saving at work and home

This one couldn’t be simpler or more obvious really. Simple but effective saving energy tips around the house include all the classics, turn the lights off when not in the room, turn on the heating as and when you need it and to round off, make sure all appliances are switched off and not just on standby.

Make use of your library

Why spend a small fortune on entertainment such as books, music and DVD’s when you can rent a large selection from your local library? Libraries have gone out of their way to expand into CD’s and DVD’s in recent years, also making it cheaper than going to Blockbusters. As for the environment, well, you’re saving more paper and plastic finding its way to landfill sites for starters.

Readjust your computer settings

The standard settings of your Laptop or PC are not set for energy efficiency. With this in mind tweaking and then using the ‘sleep’ and ‘hibernate’ options for maximum energy savings, also turn off your PC if it is not going to be used for an hour at least.

Grow your own

Growing your own doesn’t have to be a hassle, special gardening equipment does not have to brought, nor does much precious garden space have to be sacrificed to make room. Ask other growers, such as friends or neighbours for cuttings or seeds to plant instead of buying packets and by summertime you’ll be shaving costs off your food bill and saving environmentally on the ‘food miles’ and packaging of supermarket bought produce.

Save Paper

Again, a pretty simple and well known and used method of cutting stationary bills and saving a few more trees from the chop, use both sides of the paper and scrap paper for the odd notes, shopping lists etc. As with PC’s, printers are not optimized for energy efficiency so again a tweak here and there will be needed, lastly never forget to recycle where possible.

Use rechargeable batteries

Battery prices are always rising, not that they were cheap in the first place, so rechargeable batteries can represent a significant yearly saving. They do cost much more to buy, but it’s one off payment compared to paying constantly for standard batteries, as for the environment factor, seeming batteries are a big polluter and toxic if discarded any old way, the less used is always a major plus point.

That concludes our round up of saving the environment and your bank balance. Don’t make the mistake that these are the only good ways available, there are hundreds of other options to save cash and a few trees if you have a flick through the internet. We just aimed to give the starting point, if the above helped, notch it up to eleven and continue saving money and the environment at the same time.

Clothes Dryer Energy Efficiency – “Guess What’s in the Picture”

by Don Ames,  www.detectenergy.com

These are pictures that I took while out on the job, thought you might enjoy them. We don’t often think about the clothes dryer and energy efficiency, but in some homes, the clothes dryer is the number two energy user right behind the furnace/air conditioner. What can be done to a clothes dryer to make sure its at it’s energy efficiency best? Click on the screen cast to find out.

Thanks for stopping by Detect Energy, hope you stop by again real soon, but I won’t leave a light on for you…

energy audit base playing

Today’s Energy Savings is my way of sharing my day-to-day adventures in home energy savings, I am a Home Energy Auditor and I enjoy sharing my day with you. Here on Detect Energy, I hope you will find both the inspiration and the information that you need to conserve power and lower your energy bills.

My e-Newsletter, the Energy Spy Insider, hits the emailing air waves about three times a week and brings you the latest news, tips, methods, and stories concerning home energy savings, energy conservation, energy politics, and renewable energy. If you found this “Power Trip” and have not signed-up for my eNewsletter, just look around, there is a sign-up form here somewhere, just add your email address and hit submit.

I really appreciate your comments and ideas, so be sure and leave me some of your wisdom at the end of every article. Follow me on twitter and facebook @detectenergy.

I would like to share with you the fact that Detect Energy will be up-grading the old website once again. Visitors will still be able to access all the great “energy saving” articles, but, in addition, there will be a wealth of “How To” checklists and ebooks to choose from. Perhaps you would be interested in being a contributing writer – just let me know.

Somewhere in the Big City

I had made the appointment about a week earlier. This morning I drove and hour and a half to be on time at 10 AM. Plenty of vehicles in the driveway so I feel I am in pretty good shape for a successful home energy audit. I step up on the front porch and knock on the door.

I get a little uneasy when it takes several minutes for someone to come to the door. After all, I am only 6 minutes late, it’s 10:06 and they should be near the front door eagerly expecting my arrival. Finally, I hear footsteps coming near the door and hear the deadbolt slide open. The door opens about 6 inches and a shy voice says, “Hello”.

I proceed with my normal hello, introduction, and friendly greeting and then wait to see what happens. The person says, “Is it today?” And I respond, “yes, sorry if I surprised you.” the response from the other side of the door is, “Just a minute, I need to get my son off the couch.”

There is little doubt at this point that these people have forgotten the appointment. Usually people will take the opportunity to straighten the house a bit and straighten themselves from a bit to a lot before I arrive. In the case of the forgotten appointment, I am more likely to face a grumpy homeowner who looks very much like a grumpy homeowner. People aren’t to thrilled to learn that a stranger is standing on the porch with a wagon full of equipment that would like to spend the next three hours looking and testing their home. Sometimes a re-schedule is in order.

I hate to waste a hour and a half drive, so I promise to be as quick as possible.

This home was constructed in 1956 and is a ranch style home with a full basement. The basement is finished and the entrance to the basement is from inside the garage. A little unusual.

There is a wood fireplace in the living room next to the big flat screen T.V. The home has been upgraded and repainted inside to the point that it makes the kitchen cabinets look really bad. The cabinets date the home, there is no place for a dishwasher.

Here are a few things that are “Energy Right” about this home:

• The furnace filters are properly installed and have been changed recently.
• The attic sports a newer layer of blown cellulose about 10 inches deep that’s nice, even and smooth.
• The windows and doors have been up-graded. The windows are vinyl double pane, U-35, low-E. Very nice.
• The fireplace damper has been securely closed and a nice picture placed where the fire usually goes.
• The supply heating ducts are inside the home between the basement and main floor.
• The plumbing penetrations under the kitchen sink have been filled with Great Stuff insulating foam.

Here are a few things that are “Energy-Not-So-Good” about this home.

• The gas furnace is 28 years old. Running well, but there are far more efficient furnaces available.
• There are two refrigerators and one freezer in the garage and they all look like they came across on the Oregon Trail.
• The refrigerator in the kitchen is not Energy Star efficient and it has a hole in the door seal that is big enough to slide three quarters through at once.
• The water heater is about 14 years old and the water temperature is set at 132 degrees.
• The return air ducts in the attic are solid round pipe, not sealed and not insulated.
• The plumbing penetrations under the two bathroom sinks have not been sealed.
• The washing machine is a old top load.
• The dryer is a match to the washing machine and the homeowner says she has to run a load in the dryer twice to get the clothes dry.

While I was taping off the heat registers for the duct blaster test, I found grandpa, a very nice man, sitting in his bedroom playing the base guitar. Kind of caught me by surprise.

This household has $3,500 to spent on energy repairs and up-grades. The question becomes, what should be done with the money so it does the most good for energy savings.

Energy Saving Recommendations.

I recommend to the homeowners that they first look at up-grading their 80% efficient gas furnace to a new condensing 95% efficient model.

Here’s why.

• The furnace is their main heat source and currently uses as much as 3.1 therms per day in the winter.
• The furnace is 28 years old and the heat exchanger may become a problem anytime. With a cracked heat exchanger, there is a possibility of getting Carbon Monoxide into the home.
• If the furnace goes out, you have a major expense all at once. Use the additional funds while you have them.
• The other energy saving items are less expensive and can be dealt with one at a time with out breaking the bank.
• There is a rebate from the gas company for upgrading an older furnace.

The next step for this home is to get three, gas company approved, rebate qualified Heating Contractors to take a look at the furnace and provide bids for a new one. Price is important, efficiency rating is important, and always take into account the contractor and equipment warranties.

Thanks for stopping by Detect Energy, hope you will come back soon, but I won’t leave a light on for you…

Sustainable Manufacturing

GreenHouse Factory Generates 15 Pounds of Landfill Waste Per Month

by Lloyd Alter, treehugger.com

This doesn’t look like any factory I have ever been in. The interior street (curved, because architect William McDonough wanted the experience to change as it unfolded before you) is full of plants and amenities; there are no doors separating it from the factory floor. But as attractive as the pictures of Herman Miller’s GreenHouse are, the real story is in the numbers, which are mind-boggling.

• •An Aeron Chair pops of the Herman Miller assembly line every 21 seconds, every 13 seconds when they have a lot of orders.
• •Each one takes 268 seconds to assemble. Every one is made to order; there is no inventory.
• •The “store” contains two hours worth of parts; each assembly line has a couple of minutes worth of parts. Trucks arrive from some suppliers as many as six times a day.
• •50% of the parts used are manufactured within 30 miles of the factory in Zeeland, Michigan.
• •Every employee changes his station on the line every hour, and through different zones every month so that they can operate every station on the line, and not get stuck in the same job forever.
• •Last week when the snowstorms reduced deliveries and people stayed home, everyone was reassigned onto the most important line and they still turned out forty percent of their normal output.
• •About 45 million pounds of parts, materials and packaging come into the plant every year. Amount of waste sent to landfill every month: fifteen pounds.

These are the kinds of numbers that come from the “development of a culture, based on removing waste from the system.” They don’t waste time, they don’t waste materials, they don’t waste energy, they don’t waste anything.

Inventory is Waste

Production is based on the Herman Miller Performance System,, a just-in-time lean manufacturing system adapted from Toyota. Anything sitting around in inventory has to be housed, taking up space and burning energy to heat and move. So they develop a system where the factories supplying parts are close, reducing logistics costs, chances of delays, and fuel waste.

The system is fast, everything timed down to the second, every tool placed where it can be most effective, everything designed for efficiency.

An example is this stack of Aeron chair bases. The worker connects one to the next part every 21 seconds, so the pile on the rack, at the very start of the line, is shrinking before my eyes. I ask what happens if she runs out of bases; Eric says the line shuts down, and that we will know in 1:21. I think even he was getting a bit nervous as the pile shrank to two bases. Then a guy with a cart appears around the corner and with a push, fills the whole thing in about a second and the line continues.

There is a story behind that tilted rack, too; engineers had proposed a complicated device with motors, moving belts and sensors to deliver the bases; Agustin Coronado, a worker on the Aeron line, came up with a simpler idea based on gravity. He tells the Herman Miller Discover Blog:

Agustin says he began with an idea in his head, made a simple drawing, and created prototypes. Like many designers, Agustin observed, “You don’t succeed every time. You just build it and you improve. And you can’t be afraid to fail. You get tired today, but tomorrow is a fresh start.”

Where it is a big order, the whole thing goes straight from the line into the truck, with a reusable cover instead of a box.

But one really walks away from this building with the impression that going green and doing the right thing isn’t tacked on for public relations or greenwashing, but is built into the system and produces real benefits. That big skylight connects workers with the outside and improves working conditions, but one can also see in this photo how few electric lights are on; they are tied to sensors and turn off when there is enough natural light. They save a fortune on electricity, productivity is higher and absenteeism is lower.

I am having a tough time finishing this post; I usually like to be critical of something, somewhere, but my critical faculties have deserted me. Oh wait, here’s one: I’m shocked, shocked that you are still generating fifteen pounds of landfill waste every month. What ever happened to zero waste?

Keep the kid in the garage.

Don Ames Daily

Guess the son had a greater need for my economical ford focus than I did, so I got stuck driving the 1 ton to work. Filled both tanks on the pickup the other day, $2.81 cents a gallon ( had 10 cents off a gallon because I had purchased over $100 dollars at the grocery store ) still cost me $92 dollars to fill up. The best place for the F350 is in the garage.

Number of years age I thought about having the power package added to the engine - headers, blower, etc. - because it would supposedly add noticeable horsepower and actually, when not horsepowering around, add fuel economy. Still thinking about it.

Visited a home yesterday where the homeowner was looking to spend about $3,500 on energy saving measures to their home. They wanted to install a new programmable thermostat and a new efficient electric furnace. They pointed out that 2 years earlier they had the furnace blower replaced when it refused to blow. Since the blower had to be replaced, the homeowner felt it was only a matter of time before the rest of the furnace gave out. Anyway, they wanted a newer furnace which would have to be more efficient.

Need to understand a couple things about an electric furnace:

• An electric furnace never really wears out, it is all components and the components can be replaced as needed.
• ( A gas furnace can wear out and need to be replaced because of the heat exchanger compartment. )
• An electric furnace is considered to be 100% efficient, period. An electric furnace built in 1975 or 1989, or 2008, all are 100% efficient.
• ( A gas furnace constructed in 1975 was 70 % efficient, 1985 was 80% efficient, 1995 was 90% efficient, 2005 was 95% efficient. )

If the electric furnace is working and all heating strips are functioning, there is little reason to replace it.

To increase the efficiency of an electric furnace, add a heat pump. A heat pump comes in a variety of efficiency levels. Of course, the higher the efficiency, the higher the cost. The higher efficiency models often qualify for tax credits and rebates.

To keep things in perspective, my F350 1 ton is an electric furnace, my 2.0 Focus is a heat pump. They both get you down the road where you want to go, but one takes a lot less energy and money.

Of course, a kid is a lot more expensive than a vehicle, ought to just keep both of them in the garage…Don Ames

New Federal Program will Support Retrofit Energy Improvements

News Report

Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a new federal program to make it easier for Americans to make their homes more energy efficient, saying it will help people save money and create new jobs for contractors.

The three-step program, called Recovery Through Retrofit, will offer new software for contractors to easily show people how much they can save, offer low-cost financing to help people pay for home improvements and set new guidelines for contractors to assure the public the work is done right.

Biden, who announced the plan at the White House, said that it will give families “the tools they need to invest in home energy upgrades. Together, these programs will grow the home retrofit industry and help middle-class families save money and energy.”

The Obama administration didn’t immediately release estimates of either the costs of the program or how many jobs it could create.

The Home Energy Score Program will provide new software that will produce a score of 1 to 10 in a graphic that will compare the efficiency of someone’s home compared to other homes in the same area and climate.

It will offer an estimate of how much money could be saved with energy retrofits, a list of recommended improvements and an estimate of annual savings.

White House aides said the availability of simple, trustworthy information should help more people invest in making their homes more energy efficient.

“Most consumers do not have access to straightforward and reliable information about their home’s energy use,” said a White House information sheet. “Without this information, homeowners are less likely to invest in home energy upgrades.”

The software will be offered to trained and certified contractors to use during a one-hour walkthrough of people’s homes.

“The Home Energy Score will help make energy efficiency easy and accessible to America’s families by providing them with straightforward and reliable information about their homes’ energy performance and specific, cost-effective energy efficiency improvements that will save them money on their monthly energy bills,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

To help people pay for the work, the administration will unveil the PowerSaver loan program, which will offer low-rate loans that could be repaid over periods as long as 20 years.

“PowerSaver will help more homeowners afford common sense, cost saving improvements to their homes, and will create jobs for contractors, installers and energy auditors across the country,” said Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The billboard along the highway says the Frederal Tax Credit program for energy savings measures is ending. I think there will be other federal programs coming along to take over – if we get a chance, we should tickle our congressmans ear to support federal tax credit programs.  Don Ames

Home Energy Audit – Better Air Seal the Dryer Vent!

by Don Ames

A home energy audit that includes a blower door and a duct blaster will provide valuable information when your working to save power and lower your power bills.

I prefer a cold clear day to a warm rainy day. Just moving the audit equipment from the vehicle to the home can be stressful in the rain. If I forget my hat and my nearly bald head is exposed, the rainy day is even more stressful. This home is a double wide manufactured home built in 1996 with about 1404 sq ft of living area. It’s an all electric home, electric furnace with a heat pump. No natural gas in sight.

A Mother with a school age child live here, the living room, kitchen, master bedroom and bathrooms are neat and clean. The kids room is hurricane Matilda. Unfortunately, the water heater is in the closet in the kids room.

1. After a quick look around, I notice a few things about this home:
2. The whole house fan in the ceiling of the hallway is running.
3. Four windows are foggy and have moisture between the panes of glass.
4. Several floor heat register covers are missing.
5. Has a nice Honeywell thermostat that is not programmable.

The water heater was replaced several years ago, appears new and the water lines that go down through the floor have been well sealed. The water temperature is a little high at 131 degrees. Appliances are all newer and all energy star rated. The range hood is also newer but is not vented outside. Mounted on an interior wall, the range hood simply sucks air in the bottom side over the range and then blows the air back into the kitchen just over your head. A great fake range hood. Nicely mounted but it does not take the moisture created by cooking and put that moisture outside.

The blower door and duct blaster is set up and put to the test.

Home air ventilation rate is 680 cfm ( cubic feet per minute ). This is actually a little low, a cfm per sq ft is a rule-of-thumb. A rate around 1,400 is going to be closer to a healthy air exchange rate.

Total duct leakage is 540 cfm. Total duct leakage is all the air that leaks out of the heating ducts. Includes the air that leaks back into the home and the air that leaks to outside of the home.

Duct leakage to the outside is 190 cfm. This is just the air that leaks to the outside of the home. Interesting, more of the air that leaks out of the heating ducts is leaking back into the house than out into the great outdoors.

Leaving the blower door fan running and then walking around the house is a good way to identify places where outside air is leaking into the home. I have my infrared camera fired up and start looking at the usual infiltration places. Around the front door and the light switch by the door are guilty. Windows that are sliders and the plumbing pipe penetrations under the sinks are guilty. The surprise finding is where the dryer duct cuts through the wall on it’s way outside. A nice big square hole was cut for a small round duct. Big air problem.

The homeowner actually trusted me in her house. She let me in and then went back to work. Hope I didn’t take anything. I have all the gear packed up and then turn to leaving her the paperwork that has the recommpendations for her and her home.

• Teach daughter that a clean room can really be the way to go. A clean room takes very little energy and is definitely more efficient.
• Turn down the water heater temperature to 120 degrees.
• Install a fresh furnace filter and change filters every month.
• Install a programmable  thermostat.
• Have the heat pump and furnace serviced once a year.
• Air seal the plumbing penetrations under the sinks and air seal the dryer vent hole.
• Replace four windows. In this case, I would choose to replace the whole window instead of just the window glass.
• Have a duct sealing contractor seal the heating ducts. If they can reduce the leakage by 50% to the outside, the local power company will pay for the work.
• Suggest that the whole house ventilation fan in the hallway be turned off. If they need fresh air, open a window.

I will guess that all these measures and a slight lifestyle adjustment will result in a 10% savings on the old power bill. Throw-in a reduction in carbon production and a more comfortable home and you have a winner. And really folks, I don’t care how long it takes you to pay for the new windows with your power bill savings. Really I don’t. Instead of return-on-investment, I think of it as more of a gift – a gift for us, a gift for the earth, and a gift for everybody’s future.

Happy New Year…Don Ames

Two Birds With One Stone (But No Birds Actually Harmed)

Solar water heaters make a lot of sense. Solar photovoltaic panels make a lot of sense too. But why choose between them? Startup Cogenra is combining the two solar technologies in its solar arrays, increasing the total amount of solar energy that can be captured (and thus reducing reliance on other sources of energy that aren’t as clean). It’s a very clever system, and if it works well, I hope most solar arrays that are close enough to a user of hot water will be like that in the future (obviously, it wouldn’t work if the array is in the middle of the desert).

Traditional photovoltaic (PV) systems convert approximately 16% of the sun’s energy into usable electricity, discarding the remaining energy as waste, mostly in the form of heat. Solar cogeneration captures this waste heat and transforms it into real value–hot water. This cogenerative solution has the added benefit of cooling the PV components, which boosts the system’s electric generation.

Solar cogeneration translates the sun’s wasted thermal energy into an asset that generates further savings.

Cogenra has developed an extensive intellectual property portfolio covering its solar cogeneration technology. Cogenra Solar’s proprietary technology captures up to 80 percent of the sun’s delivered energy and produces five times the energy of traditional PV systems. To achieve these dramatic efficiency gains, Cogenra integrates advanced silicon PV cells, concentrating optics with single-axis tracking and an innovative thermal transfer system in a low-cost and scalable design.

Vinod Khosla has invested $10.5 million in the project via Khosla Ventures. He says that the technology is remarkably cost-effective, which is exactly what it needs to compete the energy market, not only against other solar vendors, but also against other sources that have unfair advantages (coal is cheap because of ‘externalities’ like air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions).

So far Cogenra has installed one solar array at a winery in California. It can produce 50 kilowatts of electricity and the equivalent of 222 kilowatts of thermal energy.

Seems that winery’s install a lot of solar systems, either the winery is making good money or they simply need a lot of electricity or both. This hybrid solar system is just another look at the future of energy. Watch out folks, before you know it, you will be getting your electricity from an efficient and compact energy source that is part of your home. Built right in and included with the other amenities, like a good wine cellar.  Comment by Don Ames

I recently had a heat pump added to a 20 kW electric furnace in a triple wide manufactured home. The homeowners have reported an approximate $150.00 a month reduction in their electric bill during the months of November and December. This home is in Oregon, so November and December are heating days. When your electric bill goes from $350 a month to $200 you feel pretty good and warm all over.

I will admit, that during the previous summer, air sealing was done to this home to close gaps in the exterior siding and to close openings around the belly band and block foundation. Cost of the air sealing by a licensed contractor was $514.00.

Cost of the heat pump, including electrical drop and permits, was about $3,850.00. The heat pump was a 2 ton, 15 SEER ( seasonal energy efficiency rating ) 8.5 HSPF ( heating seasonal performance factor ) unit that qualified for an incentive payment by the local electric company.

Oh yea, we should not forget, another nice return on the heat pump will be the summertime air conditioning. In the summer, they will feel pretty good and cool all over!

Thanks for stopping by Detect Energy, hope you will come back soon, but I won’t leave the light on for you…