The means to heat and cool your home cheaply is outside in the dirt. Heat pumps provide a home with comfort without emissions and at substantial cost reductions from oil, gas or electric systems. The only requirement is digging and the space to do so. This heat pump technology is variously called ground-source, earth-coupled or geothermal. I’ve written primer which can be found here.
If you’ve been to the Oregon coast at any time between September to August, you know it’s very wet and cloudy. Yes, I do mean September to August! So you would have to be very skeptical if someone told you that there is a residence there that produces as much energy as it owners consumes However, that home is a reality and an inspiration to others like us, looking to build net zero homes outside of the sunbelt.
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Designed by Nathan Good, the Cannon Beach Residence uses solar water heating, a 6kw PV array and a ground-source heat pump system to provide for its energy needs. It is expertly insulated, oriented and all electrical loads have been limited to the most efficient devices available. |
We took an excellent class in Ecological Architecture at Portland Community College this spring which proved very instructive and introduced us to a talented local green building evangelist and architect. Candace Gossen, the instructor, is working on her PhD dissertation while practicing architecture and teaching new designers like ourselves. On her web site, www.solar783.com, you’ll find a collection of work she admires as well as the syllabus for our course.
The main topics covered were:
During the classes, students worked on their own designs for these components with an eye towards use in their own projects.
A cost-effective pilot program which uses aquatic plants and creatures to clean wastewater is now the operational sewage treatment plant for the Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station (MERTS) in Astoria, OR.
This facility, a modified greenhouse, is a valuable component of the MERTS campus and its vision, providing a regional demonstration site. Many representatives from small communities and businesses visited this unique installation to learn how to adapt the technology to their own needs.
Such systems can be found in a number of locations around the world. A company based in Taos, New Mexico, provided the final engineering for installation of the aptly-named “Living Machine®” at the MERTS site. Living Machines Inc., estimates that the Living Machine® costs 50% less than a conventional municipal wastewater system.
The MERTS campus Living Machine® system is split into two treatment trains to facilitate operational flexibility and the support of research initiatives. A series of ecological habitats housed in small fiberglass tanks will serve as the main treatment components in the system. The final polishing of the wastewater takes place in constructed wetlands followed by an ultraviolet disinfection unit. All of these processes take place within greenhouse enclosure. Click the picture below for a condensed look at the step-by-step process.
Next time you hear that the Kyoto accord would decimate the US economy, you can cite this factoid for the sake of discussion.
The United States last paid attention to oil during 1977–85, spurred by the 1979 “second oil shock,” which raised prices even more than the 1973 Arab embargo had done. In those eight years, the United States proved it could boost its oil efficiency faster than OPEC could cut its oil sales: the U.S. had more flexibility on the demand side than OPEC had on the supply side. While U.S. GDP rose by 27%, oil consumption fell by 17%, net oil imports fell by 50%, and net oil imports from the Persian Gulf fell by 87%.
If that sounds interesting, read more about the book it came from, by Amory Lovins, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovations for Profits, Jobs, and Security.
The Economist says in its review:
Amory Lovins has some sharp and sensible ideas. In “Winning the Oil Endgame”, a new book funded partly by America’s Defence Department, this sparky guru sketches out the mix of market-based policies that he thinks will lead to a good life after oil.
First, he argues, America must double the efficiency of its use of oil, through such advances as lighter vehicles. Then, he argues for a big increase in the use of advanced “biofuels”, made from home-grown crops, that can replace petrol. Finally, he shows how the country can greatly increase efficiency in its use of natural gas, so freeing up a lot of gas to make hydrogen. That matters, for hydrogen fuel can be used to power cars that have clean “fuel cells” instead of dirty petrol engines. It would end the century-long reign of the internal-combustion engine fuelled by petrol, ushering in the hydrogen age.
That should catch the interest of conservative skeptics suspecting a treehugger plot. But then they go and save a bunch of trees! The electronic version of the book is free! Download here.