Getting off the energy grid

One of the greatest contributors to pollution is due to commercial buildings. A good chunk of this pollution is in the form of energy consumption of which a large majority of utilities are employing coal as a source of power. Although many states have adopted requirements for utilities to provide some of the energy they produce through renewable resources like wind and solar, utilities only do so under the threat of legal action or financial penalties. It is far easier for them to continue business as usual than it is to invest in newer sources of energy.

For years, the cost of solar has been prohibitive for home owners and businesses. Thanks to investments by private firms and educational powerhouses like MIT, the cost of solar is becoming cheaper due to advances in efficiencies of solar panels. Solar panels by nature are not very efficient; in fact, only about 15% of the sun's energy can be converted into useful electrical power by solar panels and until recent advancements the panels had to be optimally placed to cash in on the sun's rays.

But because of some advances in understanding in nanotechnologies, carbon-nanotubes and restructuring of how a solar panel captures the light that it is exposed to, in the next few years solar panels will be far more efficient and capable of making the ROI of any solar project more feasible.

Imagine the roof of any commercial building. Nearly all of that area is wasted space with only the occasional vent or A/C unit. Yet the roofs of buildings are exposed nearly every day to the sun. By using the roof of a commercial building as a solar farm, a company can actually not only capture enough solar energy to power their business on any given day, but can potentially be capturing and generating enough electricity to sell back to the utility company they were once slaves to. Combine a solar farm with a solar heating system and suddenly you're generating electricity as well as providing hot water for your building, even in the dead of winter.

There are areas of the U.S. where this approach may not work as well due to persistent or consistent cloud cover. Despite this, solar panels can still gather enough energy to at least power 75-85% of an office building's power needs. There are alternatives to solar, however; wind.

These days when we think wind power, we automatically think of large wind farms out on the plains churning away in the breeze, or out at sea on floating wind platforms capturing the ocean breeze. These work well for uninhabited areas, but the problem is that our electric grid was designed around early 20th century power needs and it isn't up to the task of long-distance transmission of energy. At the same time, many larger towns and cities don't want a large wind turbine on the outskirts of the town because of the large footprint these units occupy, not to mention the danger of bird impacts or potential aircraft accidents.

Thankfully, there is a potential solution that is far smaller, is far less dangerous to animal life, and can be used by either home or business. A company called Clarian (www.clariantechnologies.com) has been working on developing the Jellyfish Wind Appliance. Small enough to fit on a roof of a home or business, the company claims that one unit can generate up to 40kW of power a month and can be plugged directly into an outlet to deliver the energy it generates. By installing many units at once, much like the White House that will install 14 units later this year, your home or business can easily reduce or eliminate the amount of energy you rely on utilities for. As an added incentive, the cost is much lower than solar at around $400 a unit once they're available to the public in 2010.

Of course, with all of this energy generation, there is still the question of how to store it. Unless you're using electricity at full capacity 24 hours a day, you will have low demand times where the solar or wind units you've installed are generating electricity even when there isn't a demand. Up until this point, lead-acid companies such as Trojan Battery or U.S. Battery have provided a solution in the form of deep-discharge 6V or 12V batteries that can be wired in series to store a fair bit of energy. However, these types of batteries only last on average of 3 - 4 years before needing replacing. But compared to some of the other alternatives, such as Li-Ion batteries, the cost of replacement is relatively low and still seems like the best option available.

There are signs of change, however. These come in the form of some novel storage ideas. One idea being tested currently involves compressed air that is compressed by a generator when excess energy is available. When electric demand is higher but the source of power, like solar panels at night, are no longer viable, the compressed air then powers a turbine which in turn creates electricity until the original power source, wind or solar, is once again producing energy.

Another idea being floated (no pun intended) is the idea of using electricity generated by the solar or wind appliances to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then storing them. Once needed, the oxygen and hydrogen would be recombined and the energy that they generate could then be used to power the system.

A final idea that might prove to be popular is the ultra-capacitor. Those that are familiar with computers recognize that capacitors store energy quickly and release it as needed when called for. With an ultra-capacitor, this process can be brought to a macro scale instead of a micro scale. Unlike the capacitors that live on silicon boards inside of your computer and are measured in microvolts, ultra-capacitors can store and generate power on the scale of a 120 V or 210 V power system such as those found in homes and businesses.

Further, these ultra-capacitors have the added advantage of getting charged very quickly, on the order of minutes instead of hours like lead-acid batteries (and even Li-Ion batteries) require. Several firms, like Maxwell Technologies (www.maxwell.com) and EEStor (no website available at time of press) are researching novel ways to make ultra-capacitors more useful in everyday settings. Many expect these new nano-driven technologies to be widely available to the public and industry within the next few years.

Unlike a few years ago, there are alternatives out there that companies can invest in that involve some cost for implementation but a relatively short term ROI that can justify the cost. With the added potential benefit of generating enough power to sell back to the utility (and in the process, get paid for excess energy generation) a company can quickly re-coup any up front costs that may be involved with installing alternative sources of energy on their premises.

Finally, just keep in mind that there are a lot of incentives for companies and individuals out there. Many localities, utility companies, states and even the Federal government will provide tax incentives or refunds to customers that install these types of devices. It may not be enough to cover the entire cost of install, but it does make the idea easier to accept for the cost-conscious CEOs and COOs of the world.

Saving Money by Saving Energy

In business, just as at home, there are always ways to save energy. This is especially true for the business environment since commercial buildings account for 30-40% of the U.S. consumption of energy. Finding easy ways to manage energy useage will save your company money without expensive alternatives.

Consider for a moment a report issued in July 1998 by the Energy Information Administration. Of the energy consumed by a typical commercial building or business:


As we can see, there are some easy ways we can impact our energy usage in offices by simply adjusting where, how and when we use items. This survey, although published in 1998, was actually conducted in 1995 by the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). As we think back to 1995, the way offices were set up is not the same way as they are set up now in 2009.

For example, not every desk in 1995 had a computer. In 2009, it is a job necessity. When you consider how much energy a computer uses, even when put into standby mode or shut off (the computer will continue to draw "phantom loads" when plugged into the wall, despite it being shut off), the amount of energy a typical office uses well exceeds the 16% quoted in the 1995 survey.

Let us discuss ways we can impact our energy bills, and thus the impact to the environment by using less energy.

Swap Out Incadescent Lightbulbs for Florescent Lightbulbs

This makes good sense whether you're at work or at home. Although there are plenty of businesses that use florescent bulbs, if you look around you'll undoubtedly come across the older type of bulbs. Using florescent bulbs not only reduces the amount of energy used to light the same size area, but your cooling bill as well. Incadescent lightbulbs are notorious for emitting high amounts of heat which just serve to heat the immediate environment. By switching to the smaller compact florescent bulbs, you eliminate that area of energy consumption.

For those wanting to do this at home, keep this in mind: About three years ago my wife and I counted up all the lightbulbs in our house and went out to buy an equal number of the compact florescant bulbs. We spent just over $120 for the entire house. Since then, we've had a total of only two bulbs burn out on us requiring us to spend an additional $6 to replace them.

If you consider how often an incadescent bulb burns out (if you're lucky you can get by for a year without replacing one, but we were replacing each bulb on average twice a year) and how much heat they produced requiring us to increase our A/C usage during the summer months, we actually saved money. We calculated over the same period had we kept our incadescent bulbs we would have spent close to $240.

On top of the savings over a three year life of the florescent bulbs, we also noticed an immediate drop in our utilities bill. During the summer months our electric bill ran around $75. Within the first full month of us installing the bulbs, our electric bill dropped to $55, and that was at a time of the year that is typically the hottest and when we tended to use our A/C more frequently.

Make Sure Heating and Cooling Vents are Clear

This is a perfect example of how a simple thing like making vents have clear access to a room can reduce costs. Cleaning filters on a regular basis or removing objects from in front of air returns or exit vents means that the fans, air conditioning units or heating units do not have to work harder or longer. Allowing air to circulate freely in an office or home can easily cut down on your electric bill. In addition, make sure your maintainence department has a regular schedule of checking for leaks in the ductwork behind walls or in ceilings and to check the drain pans on the heaters and cooling equipment. Clogged drain pans or leaks just mean the equipment has to work harder which translates into more electricity.

In addition, your company should be doing a checkup of the HVAC system at least twice a year; once in the spring and once in the fall. This ensures that the equipment is tuned correctly and that it isn't causing problems in the form of too much or too little air into the building. The same thing should be done at home. It may seem like it is an expense you can live without, but think about how much dust, dirt and general disrepair and abuse your heating and air conditioning units take during the year. Over time this can cause more energy useage leading to higher and higher utility bills.

Is Your Thermostat Your Enemy?

Look around your office or home...do you happen to have one of those older manual dial thermostats to control your heating and cooling? Replace them with digital programmable monitors. If you're in an office, lock them up or place a cover over them. This prevents people from tampering with the settings and you can avoid the scenario of competing interests in the office where first the heater kicks on followed immediately by the A/C unit.

As a rule of thumb, plan on setting your winter daytime temperature at around 68 degrees and your nighttime temperature at around 55 degrees. For the summertime, your daytime temperature should be around 75 degrees.

This may result in complaints from the staff, but when it comes to the temperature you've never had a perfect temperature to appease everyone. If its too cold they can wear layers, if they're too hot they'll dress appropriately. Having a programmable thermostat means you can reliably control your energy useage.

Who in the World Cleans at Night?

Think about it. At home, do you typically decide that you're going to do your cleaning of the house from 10 PM to 2 AM? Why are businesses across the country doing it? Chances are, they've set it up in such a way so that the cleaning crew doesn't interfere with the employees during daytime hours.

But consider the fact that if you have a cleaning crew at the office late at night, more than likely you're spending additional energy costs by lighting the building. Drive past any major city with skyscrapers at around 10 or 11 at night and you'll definitely see lights on several floors despite the late hour.

By shifting the cleaning to during the day, or at least towards the end of the work day, you save energy costs by being able to shut all the lights off in the building at night. Take it one step further by getting all the lights in the building on a timer so that they go off at the same time every night.

Install Lighting Sensors in Rooms

Replacing the standard light switch with a sensor in rooms that don't see a lot of traffic, such as conference rooms, has the added benefit of shutting off the lights for the careless employee that leaves them on after they are done with the room. In homes it can be even more effective if you have children. Not only do you avoid the risk of kids leaving lights on, you don't have to juggle that pile of toys, clothes or groceries to reach for a light switch.

Phantom Loads

As mentioned earlier, even when shut off many appliances continue to draw power from the grid. The biggest energy hogs in your home or office tend to be your computer(s) or television(s). At work and at home you should adopt policies that require these sorts of appliances to be plugged into power strips. When done using them, require your employees or family members to shut the power strips down. Better yet, place them on a timer.

If you do the math, a typical LCD flat screen monitor for your computer, if plugged in all the time (even when its turned off) uses around $95 a year in electricity. That may not seem like a lot, but when you consider most medium sized businesses have anywhere from 100 to 200 computer monitors for their staff, that can add up.

If you have a policy that requires users to put their equipment on a power strip and shut it off every day at the end of the work day, that cost drops nearly 50% to around $50 a year.

As you can see there are a variety of quick and easy steps you can take to start saving money, whether you are at home or at work. Since we are all concerned about protecting our cash flows it should be no surprise that the subject of saving energy can actually help save money. Not only that, you're reducing your carbon footprint by using less energy generated by power stations across the country.

In my next post, I'll discuss ways you can implement energy generating devices at your home or work that allow you reduce, or completely eliminate, your dependence on the power grid.

The Business World's Responsibility to the Environment

More and more, public pressure is mounting across different cultures and demographics that demands that those that hold the public interest at heart need to do more to enhance their positive impact on the environment, natural resources and the communities that they serve.

This usually means that politically motivated groups will go directly to government entities to enact legislation that will effectively force businesses and individuals to make changes whether they want to or not. This approach, however, really should be seen as a last-ditch approach. Instead, reaching out to local community leaders and businesses often makes results far more apparent and quicker than any legislation ever could.

As a business owner, you are often looking for ways to save money to maximize returns. But did you realize that by making minor changes in how your business operates can actually give you savings that add to your bottom line? Not a lot of businesses seem to be aware of it, but implementing several "green" initiatives in your work environment actually can lead to increased profits due to the fact that they're low cost to implement and the employees that work for you typically have improved morale and fewer sick days.

Over the next few postings, I will explore ideas of what you can do as a business owner or operator that can streamline your operations while reducing your impact on the environment.