Ceiling Fans

Behold the ceiling fan. That venerable throwback to days before AC, that reminder of lazy days on the verandah. This simple machine may seem like it's outlived its usefulness in today's home filled with complicated temperature-regulating gadgets, but it is still eminently useful, especially in these days of rising fuel and electricity costs. And not only can it help keep you cool in the summer, it can help keep you toasty in the winter! Read on to find out how...

In the summer, ceiling fans turn counterclockwise, which creates a breeze against your skin, creating a wind-chill effect and making you feel cooler. When you are hot, you sweat--simple enough. But it's the actual evaporation of this sweat that pulls heat away from your body. Circulation of the air rapidly increases the rate of evaporation. The more evaporation, the cooler the apparent temperature. This means that the air-conditioner thermostat can be set higher, saving you money!

Of course, it seems obvious to use a ceiling fan in the summer, but--while it may seem strange--they can actually be quite effective at saving you money on your heating bill during the winter. Heat rises. A large amount of heated air can collect by the ceiling before it can even be felt. In a room with 16-foot ceilings and the thermostat set at 68 degrees, the uppermost three feet of the room can reach 90 degrees or more before the heater shuts off--a huge waste of energy! In the winter, a ceiling fan's reverse setting operates the blades in a clockwise motion, producing an updraft, which forces warm air near the ceiling down into the living space. This mild circulation of air (low speed is recommended to avoid drafts) provides a more evenly heated room, shortening the time it takes the heater to work. In addition, the improved airflow in the room gives the thermostat a more accurate reading of temperature, helping you conserve energy.

So if you don't have a ceiling fan (especially in a high-ceilinged room), consider getting one. For a relatively small investment, you can rediscover an old way of saving money and energy!

Green Bills from Albany

If you think that nothing gets done in Albany--well, you're mostly right. But here's something that has been done

On August 5, New York Governor David Paterson signed a series of bills that will encourage people throughout the state to install grid-connected solar and wind power systems, systems that generate power from farm wastes, and green roofs. The legislation will allow homeowners and businesses to earn credit for any excess power that they feed back into the electric grid.

Two of the bills in the package relate to tax abatements for buildings in New York City with solar power systems and green roofs.

• S. 8145 creates a four-year real property tax abatement of up to $62,500 per year for buildings owners that install solar power systems, with a greater tax abatement available for systems installed before 2011, and a lesser tax abatement for systems installed in 2011 or 2012.

• S. 7553 creates a similar tax abatement for buildings that install green roofs. The one-year tax abatement applies to buildings that cover at least half of their rooftop space with vegetation and is equal to $4.50 per square foot of green roof, up to the tax liability on the building or $100,000, whichever is less. The green roof tax abatement is in effect from 2009 through 2013.

In his press release, Governor Paterson says, "There has never been a more important time than right now to significantly invest in renewable sources of energy. New York is home to an abundance of untapped solar, wind and farm waste energy potential. These bills will help improve New York's air quality, curb our dependency on fossil-fuel based energy sources, and create 'green' jobs while simultaneously leading to greater investment by homeowners, farms and businesses in facilities that will generate renewable energy power and allow them to sell their excess power back to the grid."

So take advantage of this green gift from Albany while you can!

Electrochromic Windows

Remember those sunglasses that would turn dark when you went out into the sun? Think of that idea applied to the windows of your home. Sound futuristic? Well, the future is now.

Electrochromic windows can block the glare of the sun with the flip of a switch, helping you save energy. Electrochromic windows are part of a new generation of technologies called switchable glazing or "smart" windows. Switchable glazing changes from transparent to tinted through the application of an electrical current, controlling the amount and kind of light that gets through a window into your home. Electrochromic windows can be set up to respond to sunlight, temperature, or an electrical control. By controlling the amount of light that passes through the window, these windows can reduce the amount of energy needed for cooling. The National Institute of Standards and Technology believes that smart windows can reduce a commercial building's energy use by 30 to 40 percent.

Mike Myser of Sage Electrochromics, makers of SageGlass, talks about electrochromic windows on bobvila.com:

"We're trying to change an industry. People want skylights, they want windows in their homes, the light it brings, but what do they do about the heat? We've solved that. Switchable control means controlling both the light and the heat."

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner features electrochromic windows which replace the pull down window shades on existing aircraft. Better yet, here's an interesting application: There’s a bar in NYC where the bathroom doors are transparent when unlocked, and became opaque when locked.

Electrochromic windows are available from many sources. SageGlass is available to residential window manufacturers for exterior windows, doors, and skylights. While the cost of electrochromic windows can be from two to three times that of a standard window, the cost is expected to decrease significantly as manufacturing techniques improve and quantities increase. They use very little energy: the electricity used for switchable glazing is minimal compared with the energy savings they offer. Some require no energy at all. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed two types of solar-powered electrochromic devices that vary tinting based on the amount of sunlight they receive. The technology shows promise for controlling unwanted heat in skylights and windows without using an external electric source.

So be the first person on your block with the amazing glazing windows…or doors!

Building-Integrated Photovoltaics

With energy prices going through the roof, photovoltaic (PV) systems, which produce electricity from sunlight, are becoming more popular. However, the aesthetics (or lack thereof) of traditional PV systems, which were often free-standing panels on roofs or in yards, were seen as a drawback by many consumers.

Enter the Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system. BIPV systems consist of photovoltaic modules that are integrated into the building envelope, such as the roof or the façade. By simultaneously serving as building envelope material and power generator, BIPV systems can provide savings in materials and electricity costs, reduce use of fossil fuels and emission of ozone depleting gases, and add architectural interest to the building.

BIPVs are in use right here in sunny New York City!

• Millennium Towers (Battery Park City) - Solar cells were integrated into curtain wall solar panels, replacing side building materials. This system, designed and supplied by altPOWER, uses 126 BIPV panels, and was partially funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

• The Conde Nast Building (4 Times Square) - custom-manufactured thin-film PV panels replace mirror glass spandrels from the 37th to 43rd floors on the south and east faces of the tower.

• Whitehall Ferry Terminal - said to be Manhattan's largest BIPV project to date. 288 solar electric glass panels, manufactured by Atlantis Energy Systems, form the exterior of the terminal's facade and canopy. The 40 kW arrays, which cover over 8,000 square feet, will produce 52,000 kW of power annually. The panels also allow sunlight pass through, providing sunlight to interior areas.

• Stillwell Avenue Station (Coney Island) - the 76,000-square-foot solar roof, manufactured by RWE SCHOTT Solar, is expected to produce 250,000 kW hours annually. The roof, which contains 2730 BIPV panels, covers the full width of the station

Other residential buildings in Manhattan incorporating BIPVs include the Helena, the Verdesian, Tribeca Green, and the Solaire (see picture at right).

BIPVs can be integrated into various parts of a building, fulfilling specific aesthetic and structural needs:

• Roof-integrated systems integrate PV modules into each roof tile.

• Facade-integrated system can offset the cost of other facade materials.

• Semi-transparent or transparent installations can allow for some of the light to enter for day-lighting or viewing.

• BIPV can be used as a shading device. This method is highly efficient, depending on the type of PV modules used.

There are two major types of PV modules:

• Crystalline silicon uses wafers of silicon wired together and attached to a module substrate.
  
• Thin film technology, which utilises thin films of crystalline silicon grown on a foreign substrate like glass or steel, while less efficient, is easier to integrate.

While the cost of electricity produced from a BIPV system (when considering initial cost spread over the lifetime of the system, plus maintenance costs) can be more expensive than the average rate for utility supplied power, many states and the federal government have programs to reduce the capital cost and/or the installation cost of PV systems by providing tax credits, tax deductions and rebates. Through NYSERDA, New York State residents can get substantial cost-saving incentives and reduced loan rates for BIPV installation, which can help make such a system cost-effective for a single-family home or smaller multi-family dwellings. Check out the brochure, New York State is Making Solar Energy for Your Home More Affordable, a snippet of which appears below.


The importance of exploring alternative energy sources becomes more apparent every day. BIPVs can be incorporated into a remodeling project (considering redoing your siding?), so you don't even have to wait to build a new home! So, if you've been thinking about using solar energy in your home, BIPVs may be the way to go.

Eco Incentives

So here's a question for our readers: what's the best way to get people to reduce energy consumption at home?

Many economists think that the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is by imposing carbon taxes or other systems that will increase the cost of energy for consumers. But some researchers think that a further incentive is needed, something that will make people directly associate their behavior with the relevant energy costs. They've come up with some creative ideas.

For instance, behavioral scientists say that the vague knowledge that turning down the thermostat will save you money is not enough to make most people significantly decrease their home heating-energy consumption. But if the thermostat were programmed to tell you exactly how much you're spending on each setting, the effect would be much more powerful.

The effect is even more powerful when you can compare your energy consumption to the social norm. A study in California, for example, showed that when people's monthly electric bill listed the average energy consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption. Those cuts were even deeper when the electric bill contained a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that little nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.

Smiley faces may do the trick, but more sophisticated indicators have been suggested. A glowing ball called the Ambient Orb, programmed to change colors as the price of electricity increases at peak periods, has been given to some utility customers in California, who reduced their usage by 40 percent when the ball glowed red in peak periods.

Another indicator, the Wattson, changes colors depending upon how much electricity a household is using and collects data that can be displayed on a website. Clive Thompson, a columnist for Wired, has suggested that people start displaying the Wattson data on their Facebook pages. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Renewable-Energy Tax Credit

First, the good news:

On April 10, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that included a one-year extension of the renewable-energy production tax credit. Under the bill, the tax credit would be extended for one year through 2009 for producing electricity from wind, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal means. Both businesses and homeowners would also be able to offset 30 percent of the cost of installing solar or fuel-cell equipment with a one-time tax credit. Supporters hope it will stimulate $20 billion worth of renewable-energy projects.

The provision also provides for homeowners to get credits for energy-efficient furnaces, windows and insulation; builders to get a deduction for constructing energy-efficient homes; and businesses to get savings for making energy-efficient upgrades.

Now, the not-so-good news:

The bill must still pass the House and be signed by the President, who has not been supportive of it. The House is currently working on a more restricted version. So if you'd like to see tax incentives for residential green energy, call or write your Congressperson and the White House!

In local news:

Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC also contains provisions for a green-roof tax credit. While it has not yet been passed by the State Legislature, it could be effective by July if it passes by the end of June (the last day of the current session). If not, it'll have to wait till 2009 (so call your Legislator!). The tax incentive would amount to $4.50/sq ft.

Green Reads

I thought I'd share some of my favorite books on green living and homemaking. I'll still be giving you all the key tips here, but if you want to get a little more in-depth on a specific topic, try these out. Enjoy!

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REMODELING
Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time
David Johnston and Kim Master

Did you know that Americans spend more money annually on home renovation than on new-home construction? With buildings being responsible for 40 percent of worldwide energy flow and material use, home renovation represents a huge opportunity to decrease your environmental footprint. And if done correctly, green remodeling can, over time, allow you to recoup much of the money invested in the work. Upgrading to a more energy-efficient furnace, for example, can help lower your fuel bill, while installing low-flow toilets can save on water bills. So it pays to think ahead when remodeling, which is why this book is so useful.

Green Remodeling discusses simple green renovation solutions for homeowners, focusing on key aspects of the building including foundations, framing, plumbing, windows, heating and finishes. Room by room, it outlines the intricate connections that make a house work as a system. For example, it explains how new windows may affect the building's mechanical systems, the health of the occupants, and the future of old-growth forests. Then, in an easy-to-read format complete with checklists, personal stories, expert insights and an extensive resource list, it covers ways to save energy, conserve natural resources, and protect your health. This book is a useful resource for homeowners, architects, and remodeling contractors.

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HEALTHY HOUSEHOLD

Creating A Healthy Household: The Ultimate Guide for Healthier, Safer, Less-Toxic Living
Lynn Marie Bower

Lynn Marie Bower is an expert on healthy interior decorating, furnishings, hobbies, and cleaning practices. Her book, Creating A Healthy Household: The Ultimate Guide for Healthier, Safer, Less-Toxic Living, is packed with useful information. A multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) sufferer, Bower writes with deep personal knowledge of the issues. The book includes a comprehensive resource list with full contact information for each reputable company or organization mentioned. With chapters devoted to cleaning products, personal-care, clothing, linens, interior decorating, life-styles, housekeeping, air and water quality, and reducing electromagnetic radiation, no other book matches its thoroughness.

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BIOPHILIC DESIGN

Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection
Stephen R. Kellert

Ecological Design
Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan

The theory of biophilia states that there is an innate bond between humans and nature. The term has recently been the subject of much attention in environmental and design circles. Yale social-ecology professor Stephen Kellert has published a book titled Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection. In this book, Kellert states that a connection with nature is "instrumental in human physical, material, emotional, intellectual, and moral well-being." Kellert also attests that our fractured relationship with nature can be ameliorated through what he calls "restorative environmental design." The benefits of biophilic design are being acknowledged by a growing number of architects, designers, and public health officials, and can be applied to many facets of your home.

For a somewhat more practical read on biophilic design, pick up Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan's book Ecological Design. This book is a thoughtful discussion of the theory and practice of ecological design, covering the following five principles: "solutions grow from place," "ecological accounting informs design," "design with nature," "everyone is a designer," and "make nature visible."

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ENERGY USE

The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart
Paul Scheckel

The Home Energy Diet was designed to help readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably, and help reduce environmental impacts. The book also explores the possibility of using renewable energy for meeting home energy needs.

The crux of the book is a series of lessons on how common household systems (hot water heaters, heating/air conditioning systems, refrigerators and freezers, and other household appliances) use energy, but more importantly, how they lose energy through inefficiency, and what you can do to minimize such losses. The book then spells out a "diet" for each system. For instance, the electrical diet lists 16 tips, including:

• Call your power company and ask if they provide an energy audit service. Older homes can often reduce energy bills by 50% or more by implementing energy audit recommendations.


• Use only compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). For every 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) used by a conventional, incandescent light bulb, a CFL bulb will use only 333 kWh, reducing your lighting costs by one-third.


• Know what is on, when and why.


• Eliminate your phantom loads (phantom loads are energy leaks from appliances, like those with a digital clock display, that draw small amounts of power even when not in use) by using power strips with on/off switches. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that phantom loads add up to nearly 10 percent of U.S. household electricity use, or approximately $4 billion per year.

NYC Makes Big Green Plans

Yesterday, the New York City Council passed legislation to require the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the city. The legislation, which is knows as the Climate Protection Act, is meant to strengthen PlaNYC 2030, the mayor's plan to green New York, by putting the force of law behind its goal to reduce the city's emission of greenhouse gases. The bill establishes benchmarks that the city must reach, including a 30 percent reduction in emissions made by city operations by 2017 and a 30 percent reduction in emissions citywide by 2030. The bill requires annual emission inventories and reports, as well as public education and outreach programs.

PlaNYC 2030, New York City's ambitious plan to green the city in the next two decades, was released by the Office of the Mayor earlier this year. Several components of this plan, including property tax abatement for certain green elements, have direct implications to homeowners in the city. A few things to keep in mind when buying or renovating:

Energy Efficiency
New York City is completing its first major revision
to the building code in nearly 40 years, with adoption expected in this summer. The new code will include a number of green elements, including rebates for some green building features, requirements for cool (white) roofs and energy code certification, and more stringent ventilation standards. The City also plans to create a property tax abatement for solar panel installations.

Air Quality
As part of an initiative to reduce the emissions of greenhouse and other harmful gases, the City plans to waive its sales tax on the cleanest, most efficient vehicles. It will also lower the maximum sulfur content in heating fuel from 2000 ppm (parts per million) to 500 ppm.

Green Roof Incentives
Starting this year, New York City will also begin providing incentives for green roofs. The City is enacting a property tax abatement to off-set 35% of the installation cost of a green roof. Through this program, the City expects to reduce energy use (green roofs are insulating) as well as storm-water runoff. The pilot incentive will sunset in five years, so get those green roofs built!

To learn more about this initiative, go to the PlaNYC2030 website.

Fun with Energy Star

I thought this Energy Star commercial was a good counterpoint to the somewhat more serious video posted earlier (although they both make good points). Enjoy!

Black Balloons Energy Saving Campaign

This is one of the most compelling messages for decreasing energy use in the home that I've seen. Hope you like it.

Photovoltaics: Getting Cheaper

If you thought photovoltaic (PV) panels were too expensive, start making room on your roof, because according to latest news from the Worldwatch and Prometheus Institutes, things are about to change.

Global production of solar PV cells, which turn sunlight into electricity, has risen sixfold since 2000 and grew 41 percent in 2006 alone. Although grid-connected solar capacity still provides less than 1 percent of the world’s electricity, it increased nearly 50 percent in 2006, to 5,000 megawatts, propelled by booming markets in Germany and Japan.

This dramatic growth has actually been constrained by a shortage of manufacturing capacity for purified polysilicon, but that situation will soon be reversed as more than a dozen companies in Europe, China, Japan, and the United States bring on unprecedented new levels of production capacity. In 2006, for the first time, more than half the world’s polysilicon was used to produce solar PV cells. Combined with technology advances, the increase in polysilicon supply is projected to bring costs down by more than 40 percent in the next three years.

The biggest surprise in 2006 was the dramatic growth in PV production in China. Last year, China passed the United States, which first developed modern solar cell technology at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the 1950s, to become the world’s third largest producer of the cells behind Germany and Japan.

China’s leading PV manufacturer, Suntech Power, climbed from the world’s eighth largest producer in 2005 to fourth in 2006. Experts believe that China, with its growing need for energy, large work force, and strong industrial base, could drive dramatic reductions in PV prices in the next few years, helping to make solar competitive with conventional power even without subsidies.

“To say that Chinese PV producers plan to expand production rapidly in the year ahead would be an understatement,” says Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute. “They have raised billions from international IPOs to build capacity and increase scale with the goal of driving down costs.”

Exciting news! The future's looking brighter for solar power!

Where Does All the Energy Go?

If you’re setting out to convert your home to a “zero energy” building standard, then it’s a good idea to know your baseline. In other words, where does the energy go in a typical home?

As you might expect, especially for heating and cooling requirements, it depends on where you live, the age of your home, and to some extent (since the records indicate that higher income seems to produce higher energy usage) how much money you make. However, one thing is clear, the bulk of the energy used in a home is for heating and cooling. According to the DOE Energy Information Administration’s 2001 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, anywhere from 38 percent to 70 percent of a home's energy consumption is spent on heating and cooling. The average values across all home sizes, home ages, and climate zones from that survey are shown in the following pie chart.


The key point of all this data is that heating and cooling consumes the bulk of a home’s energy, and all of that energy is exchanged through the home’s shell or envelope. As a result, the starting point for any attempt to convert an existing home to a zero energy building standard must be an upgrade of the building envelope. In general, energy losses through the envelope are evenly divided between infiltration (air leaks), windows and doors, and conduction through the wall, ceiling, and floor.

So what's a homeowner to do? Luckily, Building Green has a slew of articles and tips on the hows and whys of improving the energy efficiency of your building envelope.

Wind Power to the People

While this isn't about building per se, I just couldn't resist passing this story along. The energy of this young man (and the energy he's producing) is awe-inspiring.

William Kamkwamba, a 19-year-old high-school student from the East African country of Malawi, had to quit school at the age of 14 because his family couldn't afford to send him anymore. William, fortunately, made the best of a bad situation. Using objects like scrap wood and a bicycle, along with information from a book on electricity, William built a windmill. As a result, he was able to supply electric lights for his family, replacing the candles that caused eye irritation and respiratory problems. Soon he was charging batteries for other people in the village.

William was invited to the second biannual TEDGlobal conference (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design), where his three-minute presentation about his windmill won him a standing ovation. At the conference, he was introduced to the internet. Two weeks later, he started his windmill blog. The donations he has received from all over the world have allowed him to start new projects and to finance his return to school. His next goal is to build a solar- or wind-powered water pump to supply water to his home and irrigate the family crops.

While we're not advocating that everyone starts building windmills in their backyards (or the roofs of their apartment buildings!), this story certainly shows wind's potential as a source of power. Although wind power currently accounts for just over 1 percent of world-wide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 20 percent of electricity use in Denmark, 9 percent in Spain, and 7 percent in Germany. Globally, wind power generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.

In New York City, wind power is used to power some high-profile buildings and monuments. Last year, the General Services Administration, the U.S. government agency that oversees management of federal buildings and federal monuments, announced that it will be buying all of the electricity needed to light up and power the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and 22 other federal buildings from windmill farms in western New York, Pennsylvania and three other states.

Wind power still has a long way to go before being an economically viable energy alternative. Despite state and federal tax credits for suppliers and purchasers, many more windmills will have to be built before wind power is cost competitive with coal-burning and other, traditional electricity generation methods. In a bid to add visibility to the issue, BQ Energy, with the encouragement of Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, is investigating the feasibility of installing at least five windmill towers on the tallest mound at the former Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. These turbines could produce enough electricity to power 5,000 homes.

Green Roofs, Cool Cities

As part of its weekly Pulse video podcast, RiverWired has produced a video about green roofs in New York City. The video focuses mainly on the green roof at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, which is the largest green roof in the city. Leslie Hoffman from Earth Pledge (which is overseeing the installation of a green roof at the former Gratz Industries Building in Long Island City) provides details about how her team is tracking the roof’s performance. The podcast also offers a good overview about how a green roof is physically put together.

Green Roofs, Cool Cities
Uploaded by RiverWired

A September 2006 article in Metropolis magazine cites the following green-roof statistics:

Fraction of U.S. energy that goes toward cooling buildings: one-sixth

Temperature of a conventional-roof membrane on a 95° F day: 158° F

Temperature of a green-roof membrane on the same day: 77° F

Heat loss of green roof as compared with conventional roof: 18% less

Stormwater-retention rate of green roof as compared to conventional roofing material: up to six times greater

Increase in sound insulation of a building: up to 8 decibels (ten decibels represent approximately twice-loudness).

And check out this link for the only accepted standards for green roof materials. They're published by FLL, the German Research Society for Landscape Development and Landscape Design (Forschungsgesellschaft Landschaftsentwicklung Landschaftsbau).

Home Energy Audits

New York is one of the most energy efficient cities in the United States. The city's mass transit system, multifamily housing, mixed neighborhoods, and the fact that developments no longer go up on virgin land make building in New York very energy efficient. While New York City has a larger population than all but eleven states, if it were granted statehood it would rank 51st in per-capita energy use. The average New Yorker consumes less than half of the electricity of someone who lives in San Francisco and nearly one-quarter the electricity consumed by someone who lives in Dallas.

Still, there's room for improvement. Many New Yorkers are striving for greater energy efficiency in their homes. A recent article in the New York Times cites several examples of residential buildings and developments that have achieved significant reductions in energy consumption through plans drawn up by energy auditing companies. Examples range from the basic (saving 7 percent on common-area energy costs replacing incandescents with fluorescents) to the more involved. One co-op in Manhattan installed heat sensors and upgraded the computer that regulates the heat. These changes, which cost about $8,000, saved the building $8,500, or almost 16 percent, on fuel bills, from December 2006 to April 2007, despite a spike in heating oil prices. Other changes commonly suggested include replacing old boilers with more efficient units (old boilers can account for more tan 85 percent of a building's energy waste), installing double-paned windows, insulating the roof, and installing motion sensors to common-area lights.

Such efficiency increases have been credited with delaying or offsetting maintenance-fee increases. In addition, much of this type of work can be financed through below-market loans subsidized by the state. Solar panels often qualify for subsidies and tax breaks offered by the state and federal governments, and Mayor Bloomberg has proposed an additional subsidy for installing solar panels on buildings in New York City.

Companies that perform residential energy audits include:
Power Concepts: (212) 419-1900
Association for Energy Affordability
Steven Winter Associates

Top 10 Green Building Products - Part 2

Below are the last five entries in BuildingGreen's top-10 list of environmental building products.

Recycled-Content Interior Molding from Timbron International

Timbron International produces interior molding in a variety of profiles that are made from at least 90% recycled polystyrene: 75% post-consumer and 15% pre-consumer, certified by Scientific Certification Systems. The product is made from both expanded polystyrene packaging foam and high-impact polystyrene (from such sources as compact disc jewel cases), small quantities of a coloring agent, a UV stabilizer, and a foaming agent. Timbron is highly durable, waterproof, termite-proof, paintable (though also suitable unpainted as white), and fully workable with carpentry tools. The manufacturer is planning to have third-party VOC emissions testing conducted and expects Timbron to be certified as non-emitting. While usable anywhere indoors, the product is especially appropriate for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and basements, where moisture or humidity levels may be high. Timbron is available at Home Depot.

What makes this product green?

• Post-consumer recycled content
• Pre-consumer recycled content
• Exceptional durability or low maintenance
• Low emitting

Water-Efficient Showerhead with H2Okinetic Technology from Delta

In April 2006, Delta Faucet Company introduced a revolutionary showerhead that delivers superb performance using just 1.6 gallons of water per minute. Delta worked with Bowles Fluidics Corporation to develop their H2Okinetic Technology, which produces droplets that are fairly large, resulting in good heat retention and body wetting. By comparison, many low-flow showerheads either create very small droplets or aerate the water, either of which can allow the water to cool quickly and make showering less satisfactory.

What makes this product green?

• Fixtures and equipment that conserve water
• Equipment that conserves energy

• 
  

WeatherTRAK Smart Irrigation Controls from HydroPoint Data Systems

The best option for outdoor landscapes is usually native, climate-appropriate plantings that do not require irrigation, but where irrigation is required, efficiency is essential. WeatherTRAK irrigation control systems from HydroPoint create watering schedules based on physical landscape features (soil type, slope, and plantings) as well as weather data that is beamed wirelessly to the controllers each day. According to HydroPoint, 60%-65% of urban water use goes to outdoor irrigation, and 30%-60% of that is wasted. The WeatherTRAK system has been shown to reduce outdoor water use by up to 59% and reduce non-point source runoff pollution by as much as 71%. The company has partnerships with irrigation equipment providers The Toro Company and Irritrol Systems.

What makes this product green?

• Fixtures and equipment that conserve water
• Reduces stormwater pollution

Coolerado Cooler Advanced, Indirect Evaporative Air Conditioner

The Coolerado Cooler is a revolutionary air conditioning system that relies on the evaporation of water to cool a space. While, conventional (direct) evaporative coolers cool the air that is blown into the living space by evaporating water into that air, raising the humidity, the Coolerado is an all-indirect system that does not add any moisture. It can be used in series or parallel with conventional compression-cycle air conditioning, because it won't add moisture and make the conventional system work harder. The cooling output depends on the temperature and humidity of the outside air; in Las Vegas the cooling output in tons will be much greater than in Boston. According to the company, it is two to three times as efficient as the best compression-cycle air conditioners. Water consumption is comparable to or slightly lower than that of direct evaporative coolers—as much as 12 gallons per hour at peak load, but typically averaging about 4 gallons per hour over the cooling season.

What makes this product green?

• Energy savings

Renewable Energy Credits from Community Energy, Inc.

Renewable energy credits (RECs), often referred to as "green tags," provide a way for building owners who are unable to install their own renewable energy systems to buy conventional grid power, while also buying the environmental attributes of electricity produced from renewable energy. Buyers of RECs aren't actually getting electrons derived from wind, solar, or other renewable energy sources, but by paying extra for their power—from a fraction of a cent to several cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh)—they are helping to displace conventional grid power and subsidize the further development of renewables. Community Energy, founded in 1999, is one of the leading North American providers of RECs and one of the few that develops its own renewable energy generation capacity. Community Energy jointly owns the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm and the Bear Creek Wind Farm, and has additional wind projects under development in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Rocky Mountains. To date the company, which provides RECs under the brand name NewWind Energy, has sold more than 4 billion kWh of wind energy to 100,000 residential customers and wholesale through marketing arrangements with 18 investor-owned and municipal utility companies.

What makes this product green?

• Renewable Energy

Build It Green!

If you're looking for building materials and want to do your part to reduce waste, look up Build It Green! NYC. Build It Green, New York City's only non-profit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials, has over 75 tons of materials for sale, including doors, flooring, sinks and toilets, lighting, windows, trim, cabinets, and metal studs. Build It Green gets its salvaged materials from a variety of buildings about to be demolished in New York City. Surplus materials are donated by building suppliers and contractors interested in protecting the environment and reducing their waste.

Build It Green is sponsored by the Community Environmental Center (CEC), a non-profit organization that provides energy, building performance, green building, and environmental services for 1-4 family homes and residential, commercial, and institutional complexes. All proceeds help support CEC's environmental education programs at Solar One, the City's first solar-powered “Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center.”

If you're looking to donate materials, check out Build It Green's list of accepted items. Build It Green provides limited pick-up service for high quality kitchen cabinets sets and appliances with total original cost of over $3000 and for other high-value donations.

ConEdison Goes Green

ConEdison, the supplier of electricity for almost all of New York City, now offers green power. Customers of ConEd subsidiary ConEdison Solutions can purchase electricity generated from pollution-free, renewable energy, like wind, solar, and small-scale, “run of the river” (no dams) hydropower. ConEdison Solutions sells electricity that comes from a mix of wind and run-of-the-river hydroelectric, at a mix of 25 percent wind and 75 percent hydroelectric. Another energy company, 1st Rochdale Cooperative of New York City offers a similar wind/hydroelectric package and, in the future, hopes to offer even better green power packages, including one with a five-percent solar component, sourced from roof-top solar-panel installations in New York City.

Business is booming for both companies, which sends a very real and meaningful signal to the developers of renewable energy projects, not to mention energy planners and politicians, that there is a market for their products, and that they can confidently build new renewable generators to meet the energy demands of the future.

Josh Radoff of GreenHomeNYC explains how it works on the supply side:

[E]ach unit of green electricity generated results in a “renewable energy credit” or “green tag.” The credit itself is only a piece of paper; a legal certificate that merely states that a given amount of electricity is indeed “green,” or from the renewable source that it claims to be from. These credits are stamped by a third party so it’s all on the up-and-up and there’s no double counting, and are then purchased on the wholesale market by green power marketers. Con Ed Solutions has partnered with a company called Community Energy to be its supplier of green credits, while 1st Rochdale uses a company called Sterling Planet. In fact, if you wanted to, you could keep your regular Con Ed electricity service and buy the credits directly from the wholesalers. ("Renewable Energy, Now Available for Delivery in NYC")

Compared to regular ConEd energy prices, the premium for green energy has ranged from seven cents to less than one cent per kilowatt-hour, with an average premium of around two to four cents. The average monthly usage for most families is about 400 kilowatt-hours per month, for which the monthly green premium would average out at around ten dollars; or about 30 cents a day. Moving forward, the actual premium may turn out to be much less, and eventually even be negative, as wind power gets cheaper and oil and gas get more expensive.

For more information or to switch to green power, go to ConEd Solutions residential page.

Green Roofs

This Earth Day, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled PlaNYC, a multifaceted, long-term framework for the greening of New York City. Some elements of the plan involve the promotion of green building practices, including green roofs. The following excerpt is taken from the Water Quality section of the report:

Starting in 2007, the City will begin providing incentives for green roofs ... New York City will support the installation of extensive green roofs by enacting a property tax abatement to off-set 35% of the installation cost of a green roof. The pilot incentive will sunset in five years, when it will be reassessed for extension and inclusion of other technologies.

The City has good reason to promote green roofs in the five boroughs. Besides their aesthetic advantages, green roofs have several environmental benefits. For individual buildings, they provide insulation against cold and act as a shield against the sun's rays, decreasing the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling. On a larger scale, they can reduce the urban heat-island effect, which often makes Manhattan a few degrees hotter than outlying areas. They absorb rainwater, alleviating pressure on the city's sewer system. They reduce air pollution by absorbing carbon dioxide and filtering out particulate matter.

Green roofs come in two types: extensive and intensive. Extensive roofs, which require only one to five inches of soil, can support grasses and flowers. Intensive roofs, which require deeper soil, can support larger plants like trees and shrubs.

Several companies in the New York City area offer green roof design and build services. Balmori Associates, based in Manhattan, and Greener by Design, based in Pelham, designed and built the green roof at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens. At 30,000 square feet, this is the largest green roof installation in the city. Manhattan-based Mingo Design also has green-roof experience, as does Green Engineering Project Construction (GEPC), which has offices in New York, New Jersey, and Miami, and which recently participated in the New York Botanical Garden Second Annual Green Roof Conference.

Green roofs typically cost about $8 to $10 more per square foot than regular roofs, and maintenance costs are higher, but the money saved through lower energy costs and the new city tax incentive will help offset this extra cost. Hopefully, in the near future, we'll be seeing a lot more green on the skyline.

Green House at the International Builders' Show

This year's International Builders' Show features a green home built on an infill site near downtown Orlando. The house, which has been certified "green" by the Florida Green Building Coalition, features low-solar-gain windows, which reduce heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Heat gain is further minimized by vegetated overhangs over the south- and west-facing windows. The house also has a green roof and rooftop solar panels.

Not everyone was impressed. Treehugger, commenting on the energy efficiency of the house, said, "They are off to a poor start with this--4309 square feet of air conditioned house out of concrete and stryrofoam is hardly a model of energy efficiency, even if it is covered with photovoltaics and sod." Drama!