280 not 350

Understating the magnitude of a problem isn't a new thing. In this case it is not paper profits at stake. It's life. By now you've heard that climate change is happening, and happening faster that previously predicted. The evidence for this comes from many sources and the rapidity with which scientific concern has escalated is alarming. James Hansen and a huge pile of coauthors just chopped their recommendation for a stabilized atmospheric CO2 concentration from 450ppm to 350 ppm -- or less!

If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that.

doi: 10.2174/1874282300802010217

350ppm is well above Holocene CO2 levels, which were at or below 280ppm prior to the industrial age. 

Streetlights

Do you go to town meeting, dutifully listen to the proceedings, and, every time a vote is called, revel in the democracy of it all? Why not take the next step in participation by asking some questions? The streetlight issue is the perfect opportunity.

Physics, chronobiology and health concerns are involved in the streetlight issue. On top of all that, democracy itself has been offended by streetlights in Underhill, which should trouble everyone, regardless of how they feel about the lights themselves.

What happened...

Through months of discussion about Green Mountain Power and Efficiency Vermont's streetlight campaign, the Energy Committee learned about GMPs program to install LED streetlights, LED blue light, health implications of lighting and street lighting, dark sky policy, and Underhill's past work to remove unnecessary streetlights. We learned that many cities have chosen to install warm lights, and some had removed lights of the cool white type that GMP wanted to install. The American Medical Association warns against installing lights of the type that GMP offers. (volt.org, IDA)

At the February 8, 2017 Energy Committee meeting (minutes) I made a motion to reject the new LED streetlights, and instead recommend removing some existing streetlights, while waiting for the technology to mature and for GMP to offer better equipment. The wording of the motion was "to recommend that the town wait for better lights before accepting to change streetlights, and authorize PB to point out good candidate lights for removal, and perhaps one addition at Park Street and River Road. PASSED UNANIMOUSLY".  (audio) Committee members Jerry Adams, Peter Bennett, Nicole Bourassa, and Peter Duval all voted in favor. The meat of this motion concerned the removal of streetlights.

This is where things started to go wrong...

Peter Bennett, the Energy Committee's chair, did not relay this recommendation at the February 14, 2017 Selectboard meeting (minutes;video). The Selectboard went ahead with leasing 4000k LED streetlights from GMP, even without knowing all of the costs associated with the project.

And then democracy really took a hit...

At the March 8, 2017 Energy Committee meeting, Peter Bennett altered the meaning motion of the new streetlights for the  February 8, 2017 final minutes.  This is further discussed in a  May 10, 2017 letter to the Energy Committee and copied to the Selectboard. The Selectboard authorized signing the lease agreement May 23, 2017.

The revision of the minutes is not acceptable for a public body. It undermines confidence in decision making and democracy.

It gets worse...

Zoning and the ULUDR

GMP and the Town made no effort to comply with the town's Unified Land-Use and Development Regulations, which require that "Lighting, if deemed necessary by the DRB in accordance with state and federal regulations, shall be restricted to the minimum required for security and safe operation." (ULUDR, 3.6.B.9) GMP and the Town did not obtain a zoning permit.

Efficiency Vermont wrote a street lighting guide, Improving Efficiency in Municipal Street and Public Space Lighting, which reminds us that the first, "most cost-effective step you can take to improve the efficiency of municipal outdoor lighting is to eliminate unnecessary lighting." (p. 5) And, "[i]n the past when energy was relatively cheap, municipalities erred on the side of more lighting rather than less. However, it is time to re-evaluate municipal outdoor lighting needs due to the higher costs of power, the carbon footprint of electricity production, and the value of making a more dark-sky-friendly environment." (p. 2) Efficiency Vermont did not to follow their own process for evaluating the street lighting in Underhill. (case examples, Shelburne removed half of its streetlights, p. 17)

There is no ambiguity about the regulation of outdoor lighting, as the "standards apply to all outdoor lighting installations in the Town of Underhill, with the exception of temporary holiday light displays..." (ULUDR, 3.11.B)

Indeed, the regulations could hardly be more specific when it comes to street lighting. "Street lighting shall not be provided except in the Underhill Flats Village Center District or where it is deemed necessary by the DRB..."(ULUDR, 3.11.C.5)

To review...

Many errors were made:
* Not transmitting the Energy Committee recommendation to the Selectboard;
* Altering the Energy Committee minutes;
* Not following the Efficiency Vermont guidelines;
* Not complying with the ULUDR;
* Not obtaining a zoning permit.

The result is more glare and more blue light, all night long in Underhill. To find out more about this problem, start by googling "intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells", "melanopic lighting", and "dark sky" There is also a distinct issue with LEDs, "blue light hazard", which is about intense point sources of blue light, similar to the hazard of watching an electric arc or looking at the sun. Concerned about screens, f.lux is a good place to begin.

Some questions that could be asked...
What steps will be taken to ensure that accurate minutes are recorded?
Why did the Selectboard continue with the lease agreement, after learning of the Energy Committee's objection?
What was the undepreciated value of the old leased streetlights?
What was the Efficiency Vermont incentive?
What is the undepreciated value of the new leased streetlights?
What is the annual cost of the streetlights?
How long would it take to pay down the undepreciated value of the new lights?
When will the lights that have not been approved by the Development Review Board be removed?

Permaculture MOOC

Oregon State University is providing free access to the knowledge and tools needed to help combat climate change and other world issues in a massive open online course, or MOOC, on sustainable landscape design this spring.The four-week course, Intro to Permaculture, is a public education project that will enable students worldwide to learn about and design sustainable landscapes and ecosystems in a highly interactive way.

The class runs May 1-27, 2017, and registration begins Nov. 28, 2016.

Learn more here:
http://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/

IAQ

May 1-3: Every spring, the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council puts on a well-organized Maine Indoor Air Quality Conference  which focuses on healthy buildings. It's never more important than in the age of tight construction with new materials. This year's keynote is about the health implications of fragrances.

You don't have to go all of the way to Portland to get a taste of their conference. They have online workshops and courses.  If you are on their email list, they will send links to free samples of past presentations. Here is one that will be available until about April 20:  High-Performance, Passive Buildings: Comfort Indoor Air Quality in Airtight Construction

Solar Fest

One of my professors, JC Oppenlander, wrote the book (well, an edition of the book) on traffic engineering studies. He was all about the fundamentals and the details. "PIEV," he would say, is an essential process that affects all aspects of driver (of course, also biker and walker) behavior. Perception, Intellection, Emotion, Volition... there is more to hazard perception-reaction than a stop watch.

What if we used the PIEV process as a lens on the hazards to civilization? Just as with drivers, would it not seem like nothing was happening for a long time, then -- suddenly -- volition happens.

There are no anti-lock brakes for civilization, so imagine what happens to a civilization that has to pump the brakes while it tries to avoid a hazard once it has perceived-intellectioned-emotioned.

But Underhill is not at volition yet. Energy Committee members are frustrated that piles of information, assistance, evidence, and testimony are not converting to action on energy conservation and efficiency. There is plenty of perception and intellection. Other than that Energy Committee frustration, there is no emotion in the process. As Oppenlander said, emotion is essential. It comes before volition.

Art is emotion. http://www.solarfest.org/

New Regular Meeting: 2nd Wednesdays

The Energy Committee  will move its regular meeting to 6:30pm on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning March 9, 2016.

My New Car is a lot like the Old Car

I recently bought a used 2001 Honda Insight, the highest fuel economy production car ever made. It augments my fleet, and will substitute for many miles on my 2002 Honda Odyssey. I am not being ecological in buying a second car, according to a set of tips (1) from the New York Times.

And my choice of cars doesn't matter so much:

In a 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study, researchers used a lifecycle approach to compare the costs, energy use, and GHG emissions of eleven combinations of fuels and vehicle technologies for a mid-size passenger car that could be made commercially available by 2020 (Weiss et al. 2000). That study examined the use of a lightweight, aluminumintensive body and chassis to improve fuel economy and reduce GHG emissions. The results showed that a steel-intensive gasoline ICEV, aluminum-intensive gasoline ICEV, and aluminumintensive gasoline HEV had nearly the same vehicle-cycle energy use and emissions when assuming a 95% recycling rate for all metals and a 50% recycling rate for all plastics. On the other hand, an aluminum-intensive hydrogen FCV had a 14% increase in vehicle-cycle energy use and a 19% increase in CO2 emissions. (2)

Ultimately, I have to go with the wisdom that the dollar is a good proxy for damage. I paid a few hundred dollars for the car. It will have higher maintenance and repair costs, but I still expect it to cost less to own and operate than any other vehicle I have had so far. That's a tough challenge, because I have driven some true beaters. I am confident that the "aluminumintensive" Insight will last longer and amortize its ownership costs better than an old Saab I once owned, but the Odyssey will be much closer competition because it was cheap and has been driven a long way, so far, with many miles to go. That's how I get half of the way to saying that the 61 mpg, 1887 lbs  Insight is a lot like the 18mpg, 4354 lbs Odyssey.

The other half: All cars require infrastructure -- about $205 billion (3) nationally in 2010. For the Insight and the Odyssey, there is also a garage bay for each one, a driveway, and a parking space at the other end of whatever journey they take. Then there are the repair shops and their technicians. There is significant economic turnover regardless of how *efficiently* the vehicle consumes fuel.

Consider, too, the issue of vehicle occupancy. (4) When my last van was sold, it went to Africa. This is not uncommon for old vans. Why don't they take old Insights? First generation Insights only carry two people and, low slung, they require excellent paved roads. The Odyssey can carry 7 seat-belted, air-bag protected passengers in North America, which at full on a passenger-mile basis means that it is more energy efficient than the Insight. It is lucrative (5) to export a van to Africa, it can be crammed full of stuff, and once there it can be used as a truck or a bus, with one driver and maybe 10 passengers. Even though the van is way, way more resource-efficient than the Insight, they are both doing more damage (6) than the planet can handle.

(1) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/03/upshot/what-you-can-do-about-climate-change.html
(2) https://greet.es.anl.gov/files/lkldbrwj
(3) https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/2013cpr/pdfs/littlebook.pdf
(4) http://nhts.ornl.gov/tables09/fatcat/2009/avo_TRPTRANS_WHYTRP1S.html

(5) http://www.economist.com/node/719514
(5) https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-23-the-curse-of-cars-going-cheap

Blog Reorganization

At the 11 February 2015 regular meeting, we decided to scrap the correspondence blog and switch to using a Google Group for administrative and informational communication.

CY2014 Annual Report

Underhill Energy Committee Annual Report, CY 2014

The Underhill Energy Committee was awarded a $10,000 grant from Efficiency Vermont for its involvement in the Vermont Home Energy Challenge in 2013.  Using the funds from this grant and some labor provided by Energy Committee members, the following improvements to reduce energy usage, save money, and increase the comfort level for certain Town-owned buildings were accomplished 

Post Office

o   Removed old rock wool insulation from the attic of the Post Office

o   Removed the old 12” ventilation duct, that ran from the basement to the roof.

o   Repaired and patched the roof, ceiling and floor of the Post Office.

o   Extended the sewer stack from the attic through the roof.

o   Building Energy sprayed a 2” flash coat of foam over the entire attic floor

o   Building Energy blew in 16” of loose fill cellulose

o   Building Energy made and installed a new attic hatch

o   Building Energy sprayed 4” of spray foam from the basement band sill down to the floor

o   Building Energy then sprayed the foam with an intumescent paint.

o   New R-21 Basement Hatch door and weather-stripped the entire door assembly fabricated and installed.

o   Air leakage reduced by 35%.

o   15K BTU Fujitsu Cold Climate Heat Pump installed by Maheux Heating 

o   Vermont Heating and Contracting moved the existing Mitsubishi Mini Split off the ground and mounted it on the wall, allowing it to provide heat down to 15 degrees.

o   Town Personnel to be trained how to operate and balance this with the existing boiler.

(The Post Office building is owned by the Town and leased to the United States Postal Service.)

Town Hall

o   LED daylight/motion sensor fixture for the entryway.

·         Underhill Town Hall

Town Garage

o   The Energy Committee purchased 16 new T-5 Hi-Bay lighting fixtures.

o   These still need to be installed, per agreement with the Selectboard.

o   Cost savings for this simple project would be over $1300 per annum. Benefits include improved light output, instant on, and less maintenance (bulb replacement and bulb cost, $50.versus $6).

The Underhill Energy Committee sponsored 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.

On Tuesday, October 28^th, the Energy Committee hosted an “Energy Options for Today” public program at the Town Hall.  The focus was on four state-of-the-art energy technologies—
(1) photovoltaic systems (solar electric systems) which currently can generate electricity at a cost competitive with the retail price of electricity; (2) solar hot water systems that can cost-effectively provide about 2/3 of a household’s annual hot water from the sun; (3) heat pump water heaters that extract heat from the air to heat water more efficiently than standard electric or oil water heaters; and (4) cold climate heat pumps—a rather amazing technology that works both as a heater in winter (by harvesting heat from outside air down to as low as 15°F below 0) and an air conditioner in the summer (by removing heat from inside the house).  Seven local companies shared their products in brief presentations and then met with attendees informally to discuss how the companies might help them reduce their energy bills and their impact on the environment.

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.  Legislative improvements have been made since creation in 2009. A PACE reserve fund is established to cover 90% of losses due to defaults not covered by the reserve account. A more competitive financing rate (1.99%) was announced in 2014.

The Energy Committee was created by the Underhill Selectboard in 2007 to accomplish the following:

1/ To study, and thereby make recommendations which reduce energy consumption in all Town assets, building, equipment etc.

2/ To provide public forum/education for Underhill Citizenry to reduce energy consumption in their homes/buildings/motorized equipment/lifestyles.

3/ To seek Grants, and engage in fundraising to support the activities of the Energy Committee.

4/ To be available to study/implement any related energy projects so designated by Selectboard.

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

Chair: Chris Miller

Vice-Chair: Jerry Adams

Secretary: Peter Duval

Members: Peter Bennett, Peter Duval, Bob Murphy, Tom Moore, Steve Webster

Web site: tiny.cc/uenergy  or  https://sites.google.com/site/juvtenergy

Blog: http://underhillenergycommittee.blogspot.com

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

Regular Meeting Moves to Second Thursday

From this day forward, the Underhill Energy Committee's regular meeting will be on the second Thursday of every month at 6:30pm in the Underhill Town Hall kitchen.