Energy Options for Today

There have been a couple recent developments in the energy field that can help you simultaneously reduce your energy bill and reduce your impact on the environment. Specifically, with increases in the efficiency of and decreases in the price of solar electric (photovoltaic) panels and solar water heating systems, and with innovative financing options, many Vermonters can now produce their own electricity or hot water at costs at or below what they are currently paying. In fact, it is often possible to install a photovoltaic system for zero money down and to pay the same amount for electricity as your current electricity bill for 15 years – i.e., while all your neighbors’ electricity bills are increasing year to year, you can pay the same amount you’re currently paying. And after 15 years, you will own the system and will have virtually free electricity for another 15 years or so!

Another major development has been the commercialization of cold weather heat pumps that can “harvest” heat from the air outside your house to heat it. Cold weather heat pumps can cost-effectively provide around 80% of your heating needs, typically providing useful heat down to around 0°F. Similarly, heat pump water heaters can provide hot water for your home at a cost less than oil, propane, or electricity.

If you would like to learn more about these energy- and money-saving technologies, please attend the free public Energy Options for Today workshop, sponsored by the Underhill Energy Committee. The session will be on Tuesday, October 28, from 7:00 – 9:00 PM, upstairs in the Underhill Town Hall in Underhill Center. The evening will begin with brief presentations by several local installers of solar and heat pump systems describing their products and their expertise. Next, we’ll open the floor to general questions. Following that, attendees will have an opportunity to visit each of the installers at tables set up around the hall.

Soooo Smooth

In the New York Times's Dot Earth blog, Andrew Revkin writes 13 March 2013 about a new study, Examining the Feasibility of Converting New York State’s All-Purpose Energy Infrastructure to One Using Wind, Water, and Sunlight.





This graphic comes from the report. It reminds me of the Socolow and Pacala wedges. What's wrong with the wedges and this picture? It's soooo smooth, which gives the viewer the notion that all that is required is a gentle transition in policy and technology. What's actually required to make the transition is to make every single decision to be the most deliberate and dramatically effective. That's because -- as Revkin points out in arguing against rapid action -- in New York City "80 percent of the buildings that will exist in 2050 are already here today." A similar issue exists for of cars, and their infrastructure of roads, water, sewer, energy. etc.

Revkin strikes a skeptical stance and challenges the authors in an email exchange.

A couple of items standout in a reply:

1) Instead of upgrading, maintaining, and replacing deteriorating existing infrastructure, invest in new infrastructure. If we don’t appreciably accelerate retirement, there is no “extra” (early-retirement) cost to consider.
2) Retrofit and rebuild for maximum efficiency and minimum environmental impact. The correct basis for evaluating this economically is a full social lifetime cost-benefit analysis with a near-zero discount rate. On this basis, I believe that most improvements will be economical.

It is a goal-oriented way of thinking, "What will it need to be like?", not back-looking, "Where can we go from here?"

Ditching the discount rate is necessary. It inhibits good decision-making.

Meeting Agenda 20141008

TOWN OF UNDERHILL

ENERGY COMMITTEE AGENDA

Underhill Town Hall

6:30PM Wednesday, October 8, 2014

6:30 p.m. Call Meeting to Order/Adjustments to Agenda

6:35 p.m. Public Comment Period on Items not on the Agenda

6:40 p.m. Renewable Energy Vendor Public Presentation

6:55 p.m. Revised Energy Chapter

7:10 p.m. Post Office Project Update

7:25 p.m. Member Recruiting to Vacancy

7:35 p.m. Minutes

Review/Approve Previous Minutes

7:40 p.m. Member Items, Correspondence, Announcements, Schedule

Next regularly scheduled meeting November 12, 2014

7:45 p.m. Adjourn Energy Committee Meeting (tentative)

Meeting Agenda 20140910

TOWN OF UNDERHILL 

ENERGY COMMITTEE AGENDA 

Underhill Town Hall 

6:30PM 

Wednesday, September 10, 2014 

6:30 p.m. Call Meeting to Order/Adjustments to Agenda 

6:35 p.m. Public Comment Period on Items not on the Agenda 

6:40 p.m. Harvest Market Energy Committee Booth 

6:55 p.m. Open Meeting Law Follow up 

7:10 p.m. Post Office Project Update 

7:25 p.m. Tentative Renewable Energy Vendor Public Presentation 

7:40 p.m. Member Recruiting to Vacancy 

7:50 p.m. Minutes 

Review/Approve Previous Minutes 

7:55 p.m. Member Items, Correspondence, Announcements, Schedule 

Next regularly scheduled meeting October 8, 2014 

8:00 p.m. Adjourn Energy Committee Meeting (tentative) 

Dig into the reports and models

I spent a few minutes poking around in the EPA carbon footprint calculator. I filled in some online forms. In the end, everything about our family's emissions is below the U.S. average, but not by a lot: about 1/4 lower non-embodied, non-travel emissions. We have not altered our lifestyle, only substituting new technology a bit faster than most. Our current emissions are estimated at 45,205lb/yr and after instituting suggested improvements it's still 45,205lb/yr. That's because we already did that -- we've already picked the low hanging fruit: replaced all incandescent bulbs with LED or fluorescent tube lamp, compost and recycle according to CSWD best practices (about 1/2 ton reduction in emissions) -- and still we are nowhere near the orders of magnitude reduction that is required.

Estimated Household CO2 Emissions

One thing that caught my attention was the emissions from electrical service. The online calculator estimates our rate of 731lb/MWh, or 0.731lb/kWh. This seemed high, and since the EPA calculator invites users to dig deeper into the model, I did. The whole thing can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. Looking at the data tables and the footnotes, it is clear that their emission estimates are exactly that, estimates.

I was confident that our Vermont utilities have actual historical data for the emissions. Indeed, a Google search quickly yielded a 2011 integrated resource plan for Green Mountain Power.

Green Mountain Power's 2011 Integrated Resource Plan, p.131

Vermont electric utilities cause significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than the regional average. The more you dig, the more you know.

Meeting Agenda 20140813

TOWN OF UNDERHILL

ENERGY COMMITTEE AGENDA 

Underhill Town Hall 

6:30PM Wednesday, August 13, 2014 

 

6:30 p.m. Call Meeting to Order/Adjustments to Agenda 

6:35 p.m. Public Comment Period on Items not on the Agenda 

6:40 p.m. Harvest Market Energy Committee Booth 

6:55 p.m. Open Meeting Law Changes 

7:10 p.m. Presentation of VHEC Grant Proposal to Selectboard 

7:25 p.m. Heat Pump Vendor Public Presentation 

7:40 p.m. Minutes 

           * Review/Approve Previous Minutes 

7:55 p.m. Member Items, Correspondence, Announcements, Schedule 

Next regularly scheduled meeting September 10, 2014 

8:00 p.m. Adjourn Energy Committee Meeting (tentative) 

May 14 Underhill Energy Committee Agenda

May 14 Underhill Energy Committee Agenda

Underhill Energy Committee Meeting

May 14 Agenda:

1)Proposal discussion for VHEC award grant

2) Underhill Town Plan Chapter 8 - Energy 

3) New Business

4) Close meeting

April 9 Underhill Energy Committee Agenda

Underhill Energy Committee Meeting

April 9 Agenda:

1) Open meeting

2) LEAP Energy Fair report - Bob

3)Proposal discussion for VHEC award grant - all

4) Underhill Town Plan Chapter 8 - Energy - Jerry

5) USGBC Upper Northeast Regional Summit - Tom 

6) New Business

7) Close meeting

Meeting Returns to Second Wednesday

From this day forward, the Underhill Energy Committee will meet on the second Wednesday of each month in the Underhill Town Hall Kitchen at 6:30 p.m.

CY2013 Annual Report

Underhill Energy Committee Annual Report, CY 2013 [.pdf here]

The Underhill Energy Committee organized Underhill’s participation in the Vermont Home Energy Challenge (VHEC). Sponsored by Efficiency Vermont and the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network (VECAN) the VHEC is a program designed to increase the number of comprehensive home energy efficiency improvement projects in the state. Under the Challenge, town energy committees and other local partners compete with other towns to see which town can get the most homes weatherized within a one-year period.

To date, Underhill has 25 pledges to take steps to improve home energy efficiency, 9 home energy audits to identify opportunities to save energy and money, and 6 energy efficiency projects. We also have had 18 households sign up for home “energy walkthroughs”—not full energy audits conducted by a trained technician, but a visit by energy committee members to identify obvious energy saving opportunities and to help homeowners decide whether investing in an audit is worthwhile. Committee member Peter Bennett wrote an article in the November 7th Mountain Gazette (p. 2) about this program.

On February 2nd, the Committee passed the following motion in support of smart meters: “Recognizing the potential benefits of smart meters to monitor and manage electricity use, the Underhill Energy Committee endorses the use of smart meters for residential metering.”
Peter Bennett wrote an article discussing smart meters and why we chose to endorse them for the Mountain Gazette (2/21/2013, p 12).

The Committee recommended that we have an energy audit of the Town Garage. The Selectboard approved $600 for this purpose and an audit was conducted by Building Energy in late June. The Committee reviewed the audit report and will make recommendations for improvements that could save the town energy and money.

In conjunction with Jericho Energy Task Force the Committee had an informational booth at Harvest Market in September. Many area residents visited the booth over the course of the two days and learned about a variety of energy-saving options.

Representatives from Vermont Electric Co-op (VEC), a member-owned electric utility that provides electricity for some Underhill residents, attended the August meeting and shared information about projects they are working on. Key points from the discussion include:

• VEC would like to partner with Underhill Energy Committee on energy education.
  
• VEC has installed smart meters for their customers this meters record hourly data which
  could help customers monitor and optimize their electricity usage.
  
• VEC is engaged in a two-year pilot study exploring variable peak pricing, a system in
  which variable rates are used to encourage members to modify their electrical usage to save money and help VEC reduce its peak demand, which can result in significant savings. About 2,000 VEC members are taking part in the pilot.
  
• Electricity production from about 360 VEC customers’ net-metered systems reached 4% of VEC’s peak electricity demand in July—the maximum amount allowed under current law. Future net-metering projects are currently on hold. (Net-metered systems provide power to buildings when they are generating electricity (e.g., solar systems on sunny days) and consume power when the demand exceeds generation. Customers pay the “net”—the amount of power they use minus what they produce.)
  

The PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program, a funding mechanism to help homeowners finance energy improvements, is now operational. Underhill will monitor the experience of other towns and consider reviewing Underhill’s participation in PACE in the future.

The Committee continued its energy improvement work on the Underhill Center Post Office. The Selectboard approved foaming the box sills in the basement and rebuilding/insulating the exterior basement door. This work will be done when the temperature rises. It is designed to reduce energy usage, save money, and increase the comfort level. (The building is owned by the Town and leased to the United States Postal Service.)

The Committee passed a motion encouraging Efficiency Vermont to promote LEDs instead of CFLs. Several local stores now sell LEDs at subsidized prices, including Jerihill Home Center, Walsh Electric, CED Twinstate, Home Depot, ACE Hardware, True Value Hardware, and Lowe’s. LEDs are more efficient and longer lasting than CFLs and they do not contain mercury.

The Committee meets in the kitchen upstairs in the Town Hall at 6:30 on the second Wednesday of most months.

Chair: Bob Murphy
Vice-Chair: Chuck Weger
Secretary: Steve Webster
Members: Jerry Adams, Peter Bennett, Peter Duval, Chris Miller, Tom Moore
Web site: tiny.cc/uenergy or https://sites.google.com/site/juvtenergy 
Blog: http://underhillenergycommittee.blogspot.com