Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The do-it-yourself endless hot shower: never have to fight over water again

 Low-flow shower heads?  Nice idea, old paradigm.

No more "low flow" shower heads for this bad boy! No more 5 minute showers! I just took a 10 minute hot shower at a delivery rate of 3 gallons per minute and used only 5 gallons for the whole shower. What?!! That's 18 liters, less than the average for the Cairo poor who heat a 20 liter bastila on the stove and must pour it over themselves in less than 3 minutes. Do the math: with a federally recommended low flow shower head delivering 2.2 gpm you would use 22 gallons for a 10 minute shower. The best available low flow shower head delivers 1.5 gpm, which would use 15 gallons (56 l). The ultra ultra efficient low flow heads deliver 0.8 gpm and that measly shower still uses 8 gal (30 l) in 10 minutes. By using my water recycling pump I used only 5 gal , with a normal shower head that has three settings -- massage, pulse and flow. Try that with a low flow shower head! Annual US family of 4 H2O cost for 5 minute showers w/1.5 gpm head is $44. Ours: $14, and we get 10 minutes! 

What we're interested in at Solar CITIES is providing "the other 90%" (the have nots) with the same luxuries the 10% haves have, WITHOUT increasing our ecological footprint, without using substantially more energy or water or other resources than the world's "poor" already use. The idea is to raise the standard of living world-wide, not lower it.

How do we do it?  Read on below! 

______________________________________________________

HERE IS AN ENERGY AND WATER CONSUMPTION TABLE FOR CALIFORNIA. NOTE THAT IT REFLECTS EXCESSIVE USE AND RIDICULOUSLY LOW PRICES.


Source: www.fypower.org
The Flex Your Power website is a comprehensive statewide resource for energy efficiency, providing information and tools to help California consumers and businesses save energy and money.

Cost-Effectiveness Example
Performance Base Modela Recommended Level Best Available
Water Use Only
Gallons per minute/cycle 2.5 gpm 2.2 gpm 1.5 gpm
Annual Water Use 18.250 gallons 16,060 gallons 10,950 gallons
Annual Water Cost $73 $64 $44
Lifetime Water Cost $590 $520 $350
Electric Water Heating
Annual Energy Use 2,370 kWh 2,120 kWh 1,540 kWh
Annual Energy Cost $142 $127 $92
Lifetime Energy Costb $1,070 $960 $690
Lifetime Energy and Water Cost Savings - $200 $600
Gas Water Heating
Annual Energy Use 131 therms 120 therms 94 therms
Annual Energy Cost $53 $48 $38
Lifetime Energy and Water Cost Savings - $100 $350
aThe flow rate of the base model just meets the current Federal standards for showerheads.
bLifetime energy cost is the sum of the discounted value of annual energy or water costs, based on average usage and an assumed showerhead life of 10 years. Future energy price trends and a discount rate of 4.1% are based on Federal guidelines (effective from April, 1998 to March, 1999). Future water and wastewater treatment costs are conservatively assumed to increase only at the rate of inflation.
Note: Metric Conversions: 1 gallon = 3.8 liters By reducing the demand for hot water, a household reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the water. In this way, a low-flow showerhead helps to cut the emission of 376 pounds of climate-changing carbon dioxide each year and a faucet aerator helps to prevent the release of 83 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. 

In Germany we pay 3 Euro for every cubic meter of water, about 4 times more than Americans. And our energy costs are 4 times higher too.  But this doesn't stop us from living a quality life style and paying LESS for each "unit of satisfaction". The trick is always to "do more with less".  The idea is to achieve high efficiencies and Pareto optimality wherever possible.

The Culhane Endless Shower:

I've finally created an easy easy easy way to take almost "endless" hot showers using hardly any water or energy.  Recycling 25  liters (6 gal) to 50 liters (12 gallons) of solar or biogas heated bath water is enough to luxuriate in  a half an hour long shower using a simple 12 volt RV water pump and a 12 volt 7 amp hour hobbyist battery. Imagine never having anybody tell you to "get out of the shower -- you are going to cost us an arm and a leg" or "you are using all the hot water, get out so someone else can take a shower" again.  Imagine if we could stop the regional and international conflicts over water! The 12 volt Flojet (or Surflo) 3.5 gallons per minute water pump is run by a 12v battery charged by a 200 dollar 55 watt solar panel each day for over an hour of showering.  When I finish the housing the unit will be portable and can be taken to countries that experience water stress and life-threatening water wars to supplement our Solar CITIES Solar and Biogas water heating  systems.  As for me, I'll never go back to using a regular shower again...




Back when I was a kid in the  late 1960s and early 70s, before the OPEC Oil embargo, we didn't think much  about water and energy costs (they were heavily subsidized and thus appeared cheap), but that doesn't mean we weren't conservative.  My grandmother, Isabel Culhane, who raised our parents during the depression and the rationing of World War II, was a paragon of recycling, victory gardening, second hand shopping, do-it-yourself pride and conservation.


Every summer  Grammie would hold a "grandchildren's camp" at "the house that Jack Built" on Montague Road amidst the cornfields of rural Rockford Illinois.  She would invite her 16 grandchildren to fly, drive or bus in to her midwest country abode  from all over the U.S. (as far away as New York and San Francisco) where she would instill in us frontier survival values and the American can-do ethic.  We would visit Maury Patrick's farm and  spend two or three months learning how to sheer sheep, card and spin their wool, gather berries and bark and make our own dyes  and pies, and learn weaving, wood carving and other pioneer day skills.  Occassionally a mid-west storm would knock out the electricity and we'd be forced to "rough it"; like my hero, naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-1788) ,  I used to gather lightening bugs ("fireflies") in mason jars to make my own disaster proof lanterns to read by under the covers. We thought it was grand fun.


What we didn't like, however, was the limited amount of hot water.  Imagine: 16 grandchildren, a grandmother, and a guitar playing, prank playing and  sometimes irascible Uncle Mark all sharing ONE bathroom for an entire summer, every summer for years, and a mere 80 gallon hot water tank for all those guests. The rule of the house was "you must take short showers and use as little hot water as possible".  Otherwise -- no hot water for anybody.


It never occured to us in those days to build a solar hot water heater.  It never occurred to us to install a tankless hot water heater (instant on-instant on-demand).  America didn't offer up such consumer goods in those days (it would take 40 years and the end of a series of  oil administrations before we would see these things become marginally common place in the good old U.S.A).  Instead we would fight.


Uncle Mark would boom to my brother (who had a penchant then, and still does, for languid daydreaming in the shower) "Michael, get the hell out of the shower, your time is up!".  Grammie would intone "girls, please take shorter showers so the boys can get in" (girls got first dibs of the hot water tank at grandchildren's camp -- common courtesy, women and the little children first).

I remember vowing that one day, "when I grow up -- I'm going to be able to take endless hot showers. Nobody will EVER tell me to cut my shower short again."

Fast forward to Egypt in 2005 when Sybille and I moved in to an unfurnished apartment in  Cairo, and found that we could not afford to put in the four electric hot water heaters that the plumbing of the building demanded.  We spent a miserable  month heating water on the stove and pouring it in the bath until we learned enough and were able to use social capital to construct a solar hot water system.  Once that was done the rest of our time was quite enjoyable, providing we stayed within the limits of the 200 liters (55 gallons) of hot water that we could heat each day.

We went on to form Solar CITIES and build and install three dozen solar hot water systems and 5 urban biogas systems  in poor communities in Cairo, a feat that earned us a National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award in 2009. You would think we had the hot shower thing licked.

But for all our success in do-it-yourself hot water goodness, two things kept gnawing at me. 1) The idea that when taking a hot shower, all the heat you have expended so much money, time and effort capturing falls on your body for mere seconds before tumbling down the drain -- a huge and unconscionable waste that belies our efforts to help "the other 90%". 2) the sheer amount of water used, hot or cold, just to stand there and feel a waterfall on your body can not be justified in an era when fresh water is in short supply and people are fighting water wars in India and other nations that are claiming lives.

How to construct an endless hot shower that allows the luxury we crave without the resource wastage we decry?

I had done some experiments on the subject when I was a resident of the Los Angeles Eco-Village from 1999 to 2003, but hadn't put them into long-term effect.  In Germany, where water costs over 3 Euro per cubic meter (the most expensive in the world), even though we have a fancy vacuum tube solar hot water heater, I was feeling miserable because of the sheer amount of water we were wasting every day (we could see it because we collect all of our gray water in a tank outside the bathroom window to flush the toilet and irrigate the rooftop garden).  Between me and my wife and our baby son we were using up 1000 liters every two days.  The water bill at the end of the month was a shocker. So it was back to taking short showers, solar heater or no.

Tonight I decided enough is enough.   Frank DiMassa and I drove to RV specialists in Santa Rosa (on Yolanda) where Curtis, the owner, sold me a Flojet Premium Quiet Quad  Model 4406-143 Type IV 12 Volt self-priming RV water pump (3.2 gallons per minute, consuming 3.3 amps). It cost $95 dollars. I also bought an in-line filter for it.  The rational (which I used when I took my L.A. Eco-Village apartment off-grid for three years):  Imagine your home to be a mobile-home without wheels.  An RV that you use for living instead of recreation (an LV?).

By outfitting my static  home with solar panels and a 12 volt water pump run off of a 12 volt 7 amp-hour sealed hobbiest battery (you can find them at Home Depot for security gates), just like you would in a mobile home, I have finally achieved the holy grail of an endless hot shower.


Well, not quite endless, but at least a half an hour to 40 minutes of hot water, without using more than 50 liters (13 gallons) per shower. I can even get it down to 25 liters if I want to, and still get about 30 minutes out of it.  I've found that after 30 minutes I'm sick of being in the shower anyway. So for my purposes, the shower is endless.  25 liters can be recycled through a slow sand filter water purifier and used again the next day, so it is in some sense endless if you use recycled water.

The set-up is very very simple (see picture).  The pump (which is very very quiet) sits on a table in the bathroom. it is connected to a little 12 volt battery which will be recharged by the solar panel.  It has an on off switch and a 10 amp fuse in line with the positive wire.  The water intake is fitted with a 1/2 inch hose adapter and 10 feet of hose. At the end of the hose is the in-line water filter that Flojet makes for the pump. This prevents hair from getting into the pump.   The water outflow is a 1/2 " thread connector connected to two flexible shower hose for length (joined by a male-male 1/2 " nipple).  Before the shower head itself I put a fixture that lets me turn the water on or off; this also turns on and shuts off the pump automatically without having to get out of the tub to flick the switch on the battery until I'm nice and dry (the pump senses a lack of water flow and shuts off by itself).

And that is it.  Now I fill the bathtub with just enough hot water to cover the in-line filter (which sits at the bottom of the tub where the soap bubbles don't hang out) and then start showering. Since the pump is self-priming I don't have to do anything. The water stays warm far longer than I care to stay in, and I can just forget myself, daydreaming, shampooing, shaving, massaging sore muscles.  Nobody can EVER yell "get out of the shower, you are using too much water" or "too much electricity" or "too much gas"  or "you are using up all the hot water, leave some for somebody else." That 25 to 50 liters is MINE to use for as long as it stays warm.  And you can actually get two or three showers out of it if you keep each shower to 15 minutes or less.

Improvements:  I will build a nice water-tight, vibration proof housing for the pump and the battery with the switch on the outside so it can be easily carried to any bathroom anywhere and instantly set up, and will make it a portable endless hot shower to be taken to arid countries where people are fighting wars for a resource that should never be in short supply.

We live on a water planet. As Silvia Earle said, "we should call this the planet Ocean, the planet Water".  There is so much of it!
Wouldn't it be nice if we no longer had to fight to use it?


Comments:
Kabir liked this on facebook.

Culhane replies:
Thanks for liking, Kabir. I was galvanized into action when IYCN (was it you?) posted the link about the water wars in India that were claiming so many lives. I can't any longer take long showers without thinking about all the people who not only "have not" but are dying in the struggle to have very little. This is National Geographic's Water Focus year. So between the Shmutzdecke slow sand water purifier we built on our porch and this little water recycler we have new projects to bring to Cairo this October and hopefully around the world. Try this out -- it really is simple and effective. Cheers, T

Mustafa liked this on facebook.

Culhane replies:
Thanks for liking Mustafa -- I will hope to bring a working model to Cairo in October. Meantime, check and see what the price of a 12 volt water pump is in Egypt. What is happening with your house that collapsed? Are you moved into your new place in Darb Al Ahmar? Have you been able to put up the solar hot water system? How is your family? What a  tragedy you faced! If you get in touch with Omar Nagi and Hanna Fathy (who is about to have a baby) and with Hussein Al Farag this week you might be able to connect with Kimberly from National Public Radio who is there looking at Solar Hot water and biogas and the Solar CITIES initiative. It would be great for you to connect with everyone! I will facebook friend suggest them to you.

Elisa commented:
5 minutes is plenty of time for a shower - why should anybody take a longer shower unless it is a medical/life sustaining measure. great for large families where 5 minutes of hot water per person may be a luxury - to the others of us who want to 'luxuriate' under hot running water i say 'suck it up'. get clean & get out:-)

Culhane replied:
Good point Elisa, but old paradigm. Since my energy costs are nil to null (solar heating and PV for the 12v battery) and my water use over 10 minutes is lower than the lowest ultra low-flow shower-head using 5 minute shower taker (i.e. about half of what the miser would use), what would the objection be? Everyone else is simply throwing water and heat down the drain that only passed over their body for mere seconds. That is the travesty. With my recycling shower the same water and heat is used over and over again until the heat is gone. And then the water is used to irrigate the garden and flush the toilet.

Amanda liked the link on Facebook.

Culhane replied:
Thanks for liking Amanda! One thing I neglected to mention is that if the bathroom is well insulated (double pane glass windows etc.) the same 5 gallons can last even longer than 10 minutes -- it is all about delta T -- the temp difference between the water and the air.  If the bathroom (or shower stall) is warm and steamy the hot water just cycles around and around and around without losing heat to the air. So a 10 minute shower can turn into a 20 minute shower without using any more water or heat energy (and just about 30 watts for the pump, easily supplied by solar).

Sybille liked the link on Facebook.

Culhane replied:
Thanks for liking the link Sybille. We should be able to cut our expensive German water bill (where water costs us 3 euro every 1000 liters, which is currently every couple of days, the most expensive water in the world!) down to a fraction of what we are now spending. I know that our greywater is recycled into the rooftop garden and the downstairs garden and flushes our toilet, so we don't waste it, but now imagine that a 10 minute shower won't use more water than two toilet flushes! That is gong to be amazing, huh? The idea for our Solar CITIES project should be to provide the same luxuries to the 'have nots' that the 'haves' have, WITHOUT raising the ecological footprint at all! I think it is achievable if we rethink the way we do things.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Landfills? Let them eat cake...

 
Source: www.latimes.com
Food waste from 2,300 restaurants is collected and taken to the East Bay Municipal Utility District's wastewater facility. The food decomposes in a digestive tank for 20 days, and the resulting methane gas is harvested and converted into energy. (Peter DaSilva / For The Times / August 19, 2009)
I knew we were in a progressive area working in Northern California! Many thanks to Oscar Chavez of Community Action Partnership for passing this our way -- as the Bay Area utilities increasingly implement successful biomethane models it should becom...e easier and easier for us to get acceptance for our home scale biomethane solutions -- after all, the act of collecting and transporting the food scraps consumes energy (often fossil fuel derived) decreasing your net gains. "Methanogising" (I just made that word up!) on site (in situ gasification) will increase yields. And what should we do with all the landfills you ask? Let them eat cake.

Sonoma County Water Agency RGEEP Educational Video Script Transcription

This is the script for the 10 minute version of the Regional Geo-Thermal Exchange Energy Program Video created by T.H. Culhane and Frank DiMassa at Utility Consulting Multimedia Productions.
SCWA Video Transcription
Time is displayed in minutes:seconds:frames
The video is 10:25:00 long (10 minutes, 25 seconds, 00 frames)
(note: There are 30 frames in one second (but 60 seconds in each minute))
Chapter 1:Intro video (Russian River, SCWA logo with hand page turn) (14 seconds)
Title “Regional Geoexchange Energy Efficiency Program (water agency logo upper left)
00:00:00 to 00:14:14
Chapter 2: Paul Kelley, Sonoma County Supervisor, with 404 entrance and oak tree background
(25 seconds)
Medium shot Paul
00:14:14 to 00: 39:02
Sonoma County is on the leading edge of energy independence, energy efficiency and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and our carbon footprint.
That's why we're able to attract grant fundings both in the state level but also on the federal level and we're going to be competitive now and into the future
bringing in those resources to make these projects a reality for our community.
Chapter 3: A Radical Idea (1 minute 2 seconds)
Title:
00:24:20 to 00:42:13
Larry Wassem, Medium shot , Airport Business Park (geese pond willow tree background)
00:42:13 to 01:26:18
Airport Business Center originally started working with the Sonoma County Water Agency talking about doing some kind of geo-thermal heating and cooling system, um.
.. geo-thermal heating and cooling is old technology, very efficient technology but old technology
but the truly radical idea, the one that the water agency invented, was using secondary treated waste water as the basic heating and cooling unit. It otherwise sits there without being used. And now we've got a real possibility of taking a valuable commodity in its own right and doubling its use as a heating and cooling source.
Chapter 4: Building a zero-net-energy community (38 seconds)
Title:
01:26:18 to 01:29:26
Medium shot Amy Christopherson Bolten. Sonoma County Water Agency (RGEEP google earth background)
01:29:26 to 2:04:12
The regional geo-exchange project is a project that was conceived around the idea of building zero net energy communities that can be replicated all throughout the united states and preferably the world. The backbone is a geothermal loop system that runs through the community that can pipe waste water,
(Insert 8 second animation of RGEEP loop at 01:46:10)
which can act as a heating and cooling sink, to lower the energy needs of the buildings to the point where the balance can be made up through a combination of
(back to Amy at 01:53:19)
energy efficiency measures, to bring down the energy use of the building and then that remainder
(insert graphic of pond and PV at 1:58:25)
can be brought up using renewable energy such as solar and wind power.
Chapter 5: Where to Start (51 seconds)
Title:
02:04:12 to 02:07:05
Amy medium shot (404 graphic background)
02:07:05 to 02:55:05)
Well we knew we had to start somewhere. So we decided to take this building 404 Aviation Boulevard
(insert graphic 404 Aviation at 02:12:21)
and make it a test case for the energy project as a whole.
(back to Amy at 02:17:08)
We had already reduced our energy use down using efficiency measures with a combination of lighting retrofits throughout the building, and solar.
(insert graphic aerial of 404 roof at 02:25:08)
We have half a megawatt of solar facilities on our building; that pretty much takes our
(insert graphic PV parking canopy at 02:30:00)
electricity use to zero.
(back to Amy at 02:32:23)
Now we have to address heating and cooling. So in order to emulate what we are trying to build out there, we went and drilled our own
(insert graphics, parking lot shots with plug in hybrids at 02:37:16)
geothermal system out in the parking lot,
and we are going to hook it up to the building using heat pumps,
exactly like we plan to do throughout the whole business park.
(back to Amy at 02:46:07)
Once we do that we'll have our lessons learned and we'll be able to take those lessons and make very smart decisions economically about how we approach the community project.
Chapter 6: How it Works (58 seconds)
SCWA card hand turns
02:55:05 to 03:00:06
Lisa Meline, Geothermal Engineer, Medium shot (heating loop schematic background)
03:00:06 to 03:53:29
The existing equipment here at 404 aviation boulevard is all rooftop equipment. So we have airconditioners, we have boilers;
(insert graphics: AC and boilers on roof at 03:09:27)
they are all up on the roof, they are exposed to the elements, when it is hot in the summertime
(back to Lisa at 03:13:19)
the heat is pounding down on that equipment, um, and in the winter time when it is cold the same thing ; the difference is with this system we are bringing everything within the building or under... ground;
(insert graphic heat pump schematic at 03:25:21)
all of the heat pumps are going to go up in the cieling space... it's within the conditioned space essentially of the building...
(back to Lisa at 03:31:10)
which is going to ... um... help with the lifetime of that equipment but more than that
(insert animation of ground loop Summer 65 degrees at 03:36:19)
we're actually coupled to the ground heat exchanger... all that pipe out under the parking lot ... that, um,
(insert animation of ground loop Winter 65 degrees at 03:45:22)
provides us that constant tempered water source for operating those heat pumps. So the result is energy efficiency and longer lifetime of that equipment...
Chapter 7: James Bond Interlude with Lisa Meline (22 second animation)
(03:54:09 to 04:16:00)
Chapter 8: ...and another thing... (26 seconds)
(04:16:00 to 04:42:07)
Medium shot Lisa (water treatment pump room background)
...another benefit that I particularly like is that the controls for these systems can be very simple ...
(insert thermostat graphic and schematic at 04:25:04)
you just need a thermostat on the wall to control the therm... the heat pump when it should come on or off, and that's all there is to it;
(insert graphic of Dale at control computer at 04:30 :14)
you don't have to measure pressure differences and temperature differences and flow rates ...
(back to Lisa at 04:34:23)
it's on or it's off! And that is not just easy for the users but easy for the people have to maintain those systems.
Chapter 9: Broadening the vision (2 minutes 20 seconds)
Title:
04:42:07 to 04:44:27
Dale Roberts, Project Engineer SCWA, Medium shot (404 building entrance with tree background):
04:44:27 to 05:29:07
We're taking the renewable energy technique for heating and cooling this building at 404 Aviation and broadening that technology to the entire business park .
(Insert graphics of Waste Treatment plant and filtration at 04:55:25)
At our Airport-Larkfield-Wickiup Santitation Zone Wastewater treatment plant we process 1 million gallons a day of tertiary treated micro-filtered water. That water is stored in two one hundred million gallon storage ponds.
(Back to Dale at 05:11:12)
We're going to take that water, pump it throughout the business park,
(Insert graphic of close up of schematic at 05:14:02)
the buildings within the business park could tie into that loop and use that water to heat and cool their buildings
(back to Dale at 05:20:07)
they could also use that recycled water to
(insert graphic close up of color drawing of irrigation and non-potable use at 05:23:08)
irrigate their landscapes and for... non-potable uses within their building such as for toilet water.
Chapter 10: AB 811 the sonoma county energy independence program (27 seconds )
Title
05:29:07 to 05:33:20
Larry, close up shot (HVAC background)
05:33:20 to 05:56:13
“...the county's AB 811 program
(Insert graphic Energy Indpendence fair 05:36:18)
could very easily help existing owners and tenants
(back to Larry with changing HVAC backgrounds, 05:41:18)
replace their outdated air conditioning systems with modern heat pumps that use this projects' water to heat and cool their buildings. It could be a very valuable program to make that transition much more painless for a lot of the owners.
Chapter 11: The distribution system (47 seconds)
Dale, medium shot, treatment plant pumps background.
05:56:13 to 06:41:10
Typical district energy systems have heating and cooling machines back at the central energy plant; we'll use our wastewater treatment plant as the energy plant. The typical system has four insulated pipes, two for chilled water, two for hot water.
(insert video at 06:12:14: engineers hands on RGEEP loop document,
We'll only need two pipes and those pipes will not need to be insulated.
(insert video at 06:17:07) engineers discuss plans)
It should save a lot of materials and construction costs and should be much less capital cost to construct.
(insert 8 second animation of color loop diagram at 06:20:21)
One of the pipes will distribute recycled water into the business park the other pipe will return the recycled water back to the treatment plant.
(Insert video of storage ponds at 06:28:18)
that energy can then be dissipated into the earth on the banks and on the floor of the storage pond, and the mass of water within the storage pond
(back to Dale with aerial shot of storage pond in background at 06:38:13)
provides additional attenuation of that heating and cooling from the business park.
Chapter 12: Diversity is the key (39 seconds)
Title
06:41:10 to 06:44:17
Amy, medium shot, Airport Business Park sign in background
06:44:17 to 07:20:18
The airport business center has been developed over the past 20 years out here in the north end of Sonoma County. It's kind of geographically isolated which makes it actually a really good test location to try these new technologies. It has approximately 82 buildings; we have a mix of large office buildings, we have industrial uses, we have laser factories, tortilla factories,
(insert graphics of airport, winery, movie theatre, health club, bank and school at 07:09:15)
we have an airport, we have wine facilities, gas stations, movie theatres, we've got it all out here...
...It is the great diversity of building types that we have out here
(back to Amy at 07:18:10)
that make it such a great test case for the entire world.
Chapter 13: think globally, act locally (31seconds)
Title
07:20:18 to 07:23:10

Larry, medium shot, solar canopy Prius charging in background.
07:23:25 to 07:51:25
Airport Business Center is obviously in the real estate development business, but in the real estate development business it's very competitive; we compete with all sectors of the country and frankly most every part of the country is cheaper than here. So for airport business center to compete effectively, we have to provide something to our customers that not everybody else has.
(insert video: beauty shot of ducks in pond with fountain and mountain at 07:45:11)
And one of those things is a sustainable green unique environment. And that's truly one of the reasons we're very excited about this.
Chapter 14: hooking up to stub outs (41 seconds)
Dale, Medium shot, water treatment rows in background
07:53:16 to 08:34:10
As a business owner in the area, and your business has been
(insert video, Dale at old HVAC system, rooftop old HVAC systems at 07:56:29)
10 or 15 years and you're HVAC equipment is ready to be retrofitted, its... you've got your money's worth out of it, you're a good candidate to hook up to
(back to Dale at 08:05:25)
our recycled water system and our geoexchange system;
(Dissolve to Dale at 08:08:26)
In the recycled water distribution loops we would have stub-outs to every single building so every building would have
(insert graphic, schematic of the loopfield from 99% at 08:17:11)
the opportunity to hook up;
… they'll realize the energy savings on site, they don't have to dig up their parking lot,
(insert graphic treatment pond at 08:21:28)
they don't have to put a pond in to dissipate that heat...
(back to Dale at 08:25:17)
they can stay in business and just hook up, save months of time and months of capital costs. They'll buy into the communal heat sink which is at the treatment plant.
Chapter 15: The big picture (34 seconds)
Title
08:34:10 to 08:36:23
Dale, medium shot, solar field as background
(08:36:23 to 09:08:22)
The bigger picture is we're looking to have this whole business park be net-zero energy
(Insert graphic of “We're solar powered” at 08:41:25)
we lower our energy demand with ground source heat pumps
(back to Dale at 08:44:17)
primarily which is
(insert graphic roof HVAC system at 08:47:03)
typically 50% of a buildings energy use
(back to Dale at 08:48:24)
the rest of the energy demand which will always be there, we want to meet that with renewables.
(insert video of 404 roof solar panels at 08:52:14)
we have a lot of roof area... a lot of flat buildings in this area...
(insert graphic, aerial shot of rooftop of 404 Aviation at 08:58:25)
perfect for solar, they get a lot of sunlight
(insert video of roof panels at 08:59:25)
If we can meet that with renewables then in the business park we hope to be the first business park in the U.S.,
(back to Dale at 09:05:14)
certainly in Sonoma County, to be net zero energy.
Chapter 16: Green economics (18 seconds)
Title:
09:08:22 to 09:10:03
Larry, close up, Sonoma County valley and mountains in background
09:14:11 to 09:26:21
...we believe all of these programs that are kind of under this, uh, umbrella of sustainability... will not only lower our costs but will also attract new businesses and... for us yes it nice to help the environment, but bottom line you've got to make money doing it; we think this will do that.

Chapter 17: Final words (48 seconds)
Shot of Russian river, music up, rushing water and bird sounds
09:26:21 to 09:32:22
Paul medium shot, oak trees and front of 404 aviation in background
09:32:22 to 10:14:04
The reason why we're committed to the geo-energy exchange program here locally, is that we know that this is something that can be replicated throughout the state, and throughout the country, and globally. One thing that's common in the United States...
(emotional music swells at 09:50:01)
and throughout the world, is that there are a lot of business parks and a lot of those business parks are big energy users and one of the things that we know is using recycled water , using solar and other kinds of projects locally, you can create zero net energy communities in all the businesses throughout the world. That is something that we're excited about and we know we can make it happen.
Chapter 18: SCWA logo cards, hands pull away, dissolve to web address.(7 seconds)
10:14:14 to 10:21:11
Fade to Black (10:25:00)

(R) Evolution, the television series



The Lil' Jams crew put this flattering piece together for a pitch to the Discovery Channel of our TV concept for (R) Evolution, a high concept travel show that takes viewers with me around the world seeing the fantastic hopeful technologies available to you and me and "the other 90%", turning "green" from a utopian fantasy fit only for the wealthy to something practical we can all do. We got to the final round though the project eventually got shelved. Thanks to Colin Filkow for working so hard to put us on the plate. Next time we're up at bat we're looking at a home run!
________________________________________________________________________________
(PS, I'm not really "fluent" in six languages, as the trailer states, merely "conversant" (i.e. I can read and write at at least the 1st to 3rd grade level, reading popular magazines, comic books and watch movies and have street conversations in English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic and Indonesian; Sybille and I are also coming along in American Sign Language as we teach our German-American baby son Kilian enough ASL to have a common reference language word for things that he must learn in at least two spoken languages. Neither of us speak Elven or Klingon).

Extreme Efficiency in your Eco-Home


 which has a must-read article called

Extreme Efficiency

Originally published in Home Power #112
April & May 2006
Written by Larry Schlusser PhD, Owner of Sun Frost


As we continue to develop the 460 Lucas Santa Rosa foreclosure property as a a green-retrofit eco-home demonstration model for "Joe the Plumber" and the rest of us average Americans who believe green is the new red white and blue, it helps ...to not have to re-invent the wheel (or the heliostat, or the macerating toilet or...). This site is excellent if you want to go for "extreme efficiency" (Pareto optimality in both engineering and economics) in you home.

Larry Schlusser lives not too far from Santa Rosa, so we hope we can get him down to the 460 Lucas green collar jobs training site eco-home and get his advice on how we might take things "to the next level", for the "other 90%".

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ground Loop Geo-Thermal Heat Pump



This is a concept drawing of the ground loop geo-thermal heat pump system being installed at the Sonoma County Water Agency at the Airport Business Park.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Do-it-yourself Teleprompters "for the other 90%".





















In an effort to empower "the other 90%" (see Paul Polack et al.'s "Design for the Other 90% for other ideas about this!) Al Silva and I innovated this simple do-it-yourself teleprompter. Rather than spend over a thousand dollars on a teleprompter, this adjustable unit can be built for 40 dollars in lumber and screws, a 20 dollar computer table, a 3 dollar piece of glass and a used LCD monitor. The laptop running the software is the expensive part (but you can get them now for about 300 bucks) and the software is a free download from the internet. The idea is to allow the disenfranchised to speak with their authentic voice, without having to memorize or edit.


But what about out in the field, off the grid, in villages and urban slums and shanty towns. For this we need a "porta-prompter" that is battery powered. It turns out to be much much easier than you think:



This prototype of the Culhane "hand-held field prompter" or "porta-prompter" (TM) is probably the least expensive teleprompter money can't buy: An Acer One Mini Laptop ($339 after tax from Radio Shack), an 8 x 11 plexiglass angled picture frame from Office Depot ($6.95) and some black construction paper with a hole cut out at the top for the camera lens (5 cents?). The software is a freeware program called UltraPrompt off the web. Works great!




The advantage of the Culhane "portaprompter" is that you can shoot almost anywhere. The plexiglass will be velcro'd onto the computer. With this set up one can shoot indoors and follow the subject around the room. The next phase is to build a "black box" around the set up so that it can be used outside (otherwise sunlight makes the screen hard to read) and to make a shoulder mount so one can free up both hands. Stay tuned!






Frank DiMassa tries out the "anyone can make this" Culhane PortaPrompter, assessing it for the 460 Lucas Green Retrofit Training Videos we are making for the website that will help low to moderate income families learn how they too can "go green" and save the green paper in their wallets..




I will also figure out a good way to stick the camera to the plexiglass so it lines up with the hole perfectly, and make a way to mount the whole thing on a light tripod. Hope to have it all ready to work by the time we go to Cairo to make youtube and blog reports.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Using "waste water" for energy independence: Transcriptions III

Paul Kelley

Take 1 (stage right; screen left)

The regional geo-energy exchange project is a key component to working with all the businesses in a business park and the main genesis of this is to use recycled water as a way to bring down energy use and make us more efficient here in Sonoma County and in this ener... and in this business park.

Take 2 (stage left, screen right)

The regional geo-energy exchange project is a key project here in Sonoma County and at the airport business park area. It uses recycled water throughout the park as a way to create and use energy more efficiently and most importantly reduce the energy use, here at the park. It's a great use of recycled water, which is a resource that's local and necessary for our use. It's also a really interesting component of how we use the Sonoma County energy independence program to tie in to using all the businesses as a way for them to access resources to create more energy efficiency within their own businesses, more water use efficiency within their businesses and it's a way to finance it on a local level.

Take 3:

The geo-exchange project is a key project here in Sonoma County and in the airport business park area. It's the use of recycled water circulating throughout the park that reduces energy usage but more importantly it uses a very valuable resource which is recycled water. I'm very excited about it because it not only makes our business park more efficient but it uses recycled water and it uses it in a way that is very effective in our area. It also really dovetails well with our energy independence program that we have here in Sonoma County, which is a funding source that helps businesses and home owners do energy efficiency projects reduce their carbon footprint and do water efficiency projects but also use... reduces their energy usage. And that is why we are excited about combining both the geo-energy exchange project as well with the Sonoma County energy independence program.

Take 4:

The geo-energy exchange project is something that you can do within a business park but one of the things we look at is regionally you can replicate it in other business parks. We've looked at three key areas here in Sonoma County that we could replicate this kind of project that uses recycled water and uses other energy efficiency types of programs that creates a zero-net-energy community that is of benefit to the community, but more importantly it's good for our economy here in Sonoma County.
It provides jobs, not only to install these kinds of projects, but the ongoing efficiency for the business allows them to be more effective and competitive and keep the jobs local.

Take 5:

The geo-energy exchange project is really key to this business park here at the airport business park area but is something that you can replicate in other business parks not only in this county but throughout the country. We're looking at two other business parks that are possibilities here in Sonoma County, and one of the things that we like about it is that it uses recycled water to not only reduce the energy usage within a park, uh, but it's also good for the jobs that are created by doing this kind of projects . It's good for the jobs that are created through the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program, which is a financing mechanism to help businesses finance their energy improvement projects, their water efficiency projects, and it also provides jobs on-going because it really increases the competitiveness for those businesses that are in a zero-net-energy community because they are better financed... they have more efficient resources, but it also makes them competitive not only locally but nationally.

Take 6:

Sonoma County is on the leading edge of energy independence, energy efficiency and reducing our greenhouse gas emmissions and our carbon footprint. That's why we're able with the California Energy Commission to attract grant fundings both in the state level but also on the federal level and we're going to be competitive now and into the future bringing in those resources to make these projects a reality for our community.

Take 7:

The geo-exchange project is really valuable in our community here at this business park at the airport business park its the opportunity to use recycled water throughout the community, which is a very valuable resource. It reduces the energy usage within the park but more importantly it makes it efficient use of our resources which we think is key here, its also a great opportunity to combine another program that we have which is the Sonoma County energy independence program, which is a resourcing device that allows businesses to use finances to actually put energy efficiency projects on their buildings, water use efficiency projects reduces their carbon footprint and their energy usage throughout the park.

Take 8:

The Geoexchange project is very important to us, that's why we feel it's important to actually prove it and be a pilot project right here at our own offices. We feel that we can take that technology, test it out, implement it here on our own buildings and then replicate it throughout the business park here locally and throughout other business parks that we're looking to be part of this program. And that's why we think that the pilot project is so important, because we know that there is going to be little things that happen... during the installation, during its operation, that'll give us those kind of, uh, lead ins on what how, uh, what and how most effectively to install it in other places.

Take 9:

We're so committed to this project that we're willing to actually use our own buildings as a pilot; we're committed to making it happen, using the resources locally but really using it so that we can show other people how best to install it and how best to use it.

Take 10:

As your county supervisor and director of the Sonoma County Water Agency, I'm committed to having the best business park that we could possibly have. And I'm committed to making sure that you as a business owner and we as a community, have a community that's a zero net energy community. That's why I'm committed to making sure that this geo-energy exchange project is a success that's why we're committed to making it work on our own buildings but also using it to replicate throughout the park. Using recycled water as such a good resource to reduce our energy usage, make us more energy efficient, is going to be good for your business, it's going to be good for the community, its going to be good for jobs throughout this wonderful county.

Take 11:

As your county supervisor and director of the Sonoma County Water Agency, I'm committed to making sure that we have the best business park in Sonoma County. That's why we at the Sonoma County Water agency are committed to the geo-exchange project, because we're committed to making us more energy efficient and using recycled water which is a valuable resource. By making those resources available, reducing your energy usage, we know that we will be the best business park in the community, we will be good for your business, and keep the jobs here in Sonoma County, beneficial to all of us, but competitive, here and nationally.

Take 12:

The reason why we're committed to the geo-energy exchange program here locally, is that we know that this is something that can be replicated throughout the state, and throughout the country, and globally. One thing that's common in the United States and throughout the world, is that there are a lot of business parks and a lot of those buisness parks are big energy users and one of the things that we know is that using recycled water , using solar and other kinds of projects locally, you can create zero net energy communities in all the businesses throughout the world. That is something that we're excited about and we know we can make it happen.

Larry:

Take 1:

Airport business center is very pleased to be working with Paul Kelley, supervisor Paul Kelley and with the Sonoma county Water Agency, in a very exciting project to make the airport business area a sustainable and green, uh, business center, perhaps one of the first in the country and, uh, we really look forward to continuing the long work and, uh, good process that we've done.

Take 2:

Airport Business Center is very excited about the possibility of not only providing a more sustainable business park but also providing a business park that is economically viable to its tenants, to its owners and attracts people who are also interested in doing sustainable projects.

Take 3:

It can be attracted not only for the region but for a lot tenants that want that kind of park.

Take 4:

Absolutely, I think that the overall project in any project of its type ultimately has to, for a business, to adopt it, or for a business park to adopt it, uh, has to make economic sense and this project, uh, which is a series of projects, truly appears to be something that can be viable economically, and if its not it's not going to work, but in this case there's a really good chance that not only can we do something sustainable with resources that we're currently not using but we could attract business and we can lower their operating costs.

Take 5:

Yeah, I'm not really... it's not alot... there are some things, some water re-use that the airport health club does, some... you know, there's a few solar, but it's still pretty much... in its infancy.

Take 6:

The use of recycled water, particularly for irrigation, is obviously a huge plus, uh, there's a fair amount of infrastructure required to re-use it, there's a fair amount of learning, but it is just an amazing resource that, uh, once we have the infrastructure in, would benefit the park, would benefit everyone... would save a lot of water obviously.

Take 7:

This is... This is a business investment that really encompasses both; I anticipate that there very well could be some, uh, some programs that will allow an immediate return, that will also, uh, allow immediate savings of energy, but there is clearly a much longer term project here, that will require substantial amounts of capital, substantial amounts of investment, but over a very very long term will really produce I think both goals, I mean, that's a more sustainable enterprise and something that does save and make money.

Take 8:

I believe there are going to be some programs that... where green actually makes economic sense, and of course those are going to have to be what ultimately happens uh... otherwise I don't think you change economics, but the economics are finally reaching a point on green projects where they truly are viable, make economic sense, and then... obviously also help the environment. When all of those things get together then it is a true postive for everyone, and I think that's what we're working on is to show that they can be economically viable.

Take 9:

A thing that has slowly been coming about, I will not say that that's a huge item right now, but clearly becoming something of importance with certain companies and as I think we see more of the so-called "green tech" companies, companies that do produce solar panels, or companies that produce solar connectors, uh... more of those questions will be asked and certainly we'd like to be on the forefront to be able to ... to say "yes we are addressing those issues."

Take 10:

Airport Business Center has a very long and very good relationship with Sonoma County Water Agency; historically they've merely provided our water but the water agency has been a very dynamic force in understanding that they are an enormous producer or user of energy , uh, it takes a lot of energy to move water around, so the water agency and the board of supervisors has truly been on the forefront, absolute leaders in trying to conserve water, save energy and otherwise do projects that are sustainable. So the water agency is remarkable and, and we're very happy that they've moved their offices to Airport Business Center a couple of years ago so we're right next door to each other and, uh, they've been a real leader in the industry.

Take 11:

Airport Business Center's interest in a sustainable project, a green project like, uh, that we're working on now, uh, is really fairly simple. Yes we do like to... uh, think we are helping the environment, but the bottom line for all business people if they want to stay in business is... business. And... these things had better help business. We think they will... uh, we think they will provide savings for energy, savings for water use, uh... and they will also help entice other users, other tenants to come to the business park. So, in the relatively near... range we believe all of these programs that are kind of under this, uh, umbrella of sustainability will not only lower our costs but will also attract new businesses and for us yes it nice to help the environment, but bottom line you've got to make money doing it; we think this will do that.

Take 12:

I just want to show it's a return.

Take 13:

The expectations of... I really think of any business, but Airport Business Center certainly, expectations is... uh... are that we want to see a return on our investment no matter what the investment and that return can take a number of forms but ultimately it still has to be an economic return. Obviously part of that could just be a knowledge that you're helping the environment but bottom line the return has to be an economic return, it has to make economic sense and we think this kind of project is going to do that.

Take 14:

The Sonoma County Energy Independence Program is a very interesting, very new tool recently allowed by some legislative acts that basically allows consumers and businesses to, uh, borrow at very low, almost governmental rates, to put projects into their homes or businesses. Projects that save water, projects that uh... solar energy. And it's an extremely program; again, Sonoma County: way ahead of the curve for the rest of the, uh, State of California, uh... adopted this very early, and, uh, even to... right now it's been very very successful, particularly with home owners; and it will allow in the future some very major solar projects, some very major conservation projects, to be done, and at a very affordable way for all businesses and home owners in the county.

Take 15:

The Sonoma County Energy Independence Program could also potentially help, uh, when we finally do get this huge body of water that we have on the western side of the business center, into the streets, being used for heating and cooling and then potentially also being used for irrigation; the county's AB 811 program could very easily help existing owners and tenants replace their outdated airconditioning systems with modern heat pumps that use this projects' water to heat and cool their buildings. It could be a very valuable program to make that transition much more painless for a lot of the owners.

Take 16:

Well, airport business center has been here for 25 years. My partners and I and most of them have been my partners for 25 years, have been developing this area since 1984, and what we're doing in conjunction with the water agency now is, to the best of our knowlege, almost unique in the whole United States. And truly an exciting proposition for all of us in the, uh, Business Center area, to not only do good, something good for the county, for the state, for the country, but also to do something that proves that you can make MONEY being green. And we're going to do everything we can at the Airport Area... the area that we have lived and breathed for 25 years, to see if we can't make a sustainable project, one that's also, uh, economic.

Take 17:

Airport Business Center is obviously in the real estate development business, but in the real estate development business it's very competitive; we compete with all sectors of the country and frankly most every part of the country is cheaper than here. So for airport business center to compete effectively, we have to provide something to our customers that not everybody else has. And one of those things is a sustainable green unique environment. And that's truly one of the reasons we're very excited about this.

Take 18:

... in different places we have, I mean at the Petaluma Marina the entire Marina project runs off heat pumps. But you have to have a pretty big project.

Take 19:

Airport Business Center originally started working with the Sonoma County Water Agency talking about doing some kind of geo-thermal heating and cooling system, um... geo-thermal heating and cooling is old technology, very efficient technology but old technology but the truly radical idea, the one that the water agency invented, was using secondary treated waste water as the basic heating and cooling unit. It otherwise sits there without being used. And now we've got a real possibility of taking a valuable commodity in its own right and doubling its use as a heating and cooling source.

Take 20:

Who'd every heard of using treated waste water as heating and cooling source. It was a brilliant idea... one which we hope comes to fruition.




Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Using "waste-water" for energy independence: Transcriptions II

Amy:

Take 1:

The regional geo-exchange project is a project that was conceived around the idea of building zero net energy communities that can be replicated all throughout the united states and preferably the world. The backbone is a geothermal loop system that runs through the community that can pipe waste water, which can act as a heating and cooling sink, to lower the energy needs of the buildings to the point where the balance can be made up through a combination of energy efficiency measures, to bring down the energy use of the building and then that remainder can be brought up using renewable energy such as solar and wind power. The idea is to be able to build a template that can then be replicated all throughout the United States. The project was called "regional geo-exchange" because we initially had three different locations in Sonoma county that we want to do this. One was out at the airport treatment center, which surrounds a mostly office building industrial park; another location was over in Geyserville, which is a very residential area, and lastly over in Sonoma Valley is much more of a manufacturing industrial facility. So the idea was to be able to form three distinct land community building use types of these zero net energy communities so whenever we try to go into a different location throughout the country, we would have a template that was really tailored for that area.

Take 2:

The regional geo-exchange energy efficiency program is a program designed to create zero net energy communities that we can then replicate throughout the country and hopefully throughout the world. The idea is to form a backbone using a geothermal loop system that can provide heating and cooling offsets for buildings in the community. Once you've reduced the heating and cooling loads for that, for those buildings, you can then make up the balance using a combination of energy efficiency and then renewable energy such as solar or wind energy to get as close to possible to zero net energy. And the idea is, once you have this wonderful community template you can then replicate it.

Take 3:

The great thing is that once you have this template already created with these zero-net-energy communities, you can then take this and replicate it throughout the country and throughout the world.

Take 4:

The regional geo-exchange energy efficiency project is a concept that develops zero net energy communities that hopefully can be replicated throughout the country and then throughout the world. The idea for these communities are based upon a geo-thermal loop backbone that runs throughout the community which can then lower the heating and cooling needs of the buildings to the point where you have only a little bit left and you can make up that little bit left of energy using a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energies such as solar and wind to create as close as possible to a zero net energy community.

Take 5:

The regional geo-exchange energy efficiency project is a project that's developed to create zero net energy communities that can hopefully be replicated throughout the country and then throughout the world.

Take 6:

The regional geo-exchange energy efficiency project is a project that's developed to try to create zero net energy communities throughout the nation...

Take 7:

The regional geo-exchange energy efficiency project is a program designed to help create zero net energy communities that can then be replicated throughout the country and then hopefully throughout the world. The backbone of these communities is a geothermal loop system that runs throughout the community carrying waste water from waste water treatment plants that otherwise would just be discharged. This wastewater can then be run through the buildings to offset the heating and cooling loads; the idea is once you can bring a buildings heating and cooling loads down you're left with just a little bit left to get to zero net energy. You can then make up that little bit amount using a combination of energy efficiency measures such as reduced lighting, adjusting HVAC, and then making up the balance with renewable energy such as solar or wind power. Using these combinations of technologies you can then get as close to zero net energies as possible in a community fashion. And then once you have this technique developed, replicate it all throughout the country and hopefully throughout the world.

Take 8:

Well these regional geo-exchange energy efficiency projects that we're developing also bring in a transportation component. So you are hitting all four legs of sustainability enterprise. If you have all of these buildings partially powered with solar energy, and you can then install an, um, electric vehicle plugs throughout all of them and you can not only hit the energy efficiency and energy use in the buildings, you can then take that to the transportation and fuel offset and create a truly zero net energy community.

Take 9:

Another aspect to these geo-exchange energy efficiency projects that we're developing on a community scale is once you have the rooftop solar or the solar fields providing electricity, clean electricity, we can then start building plug-in stations to charge electric vehicles that employees can then use for commuting so you not only can address the building's energy use on a community scale, you can then start to address the transportation and reducing the fossil fuels and really becoming a clean zero net energy community.

Take 10:

The airport business center has been developed over the past 20 years out here in the north end of Sonoma County. It's kind of geographically isolated which makes it actually a really good test location to try these new technologies. It has approximately 82 buildings; we have a mix of large office buildings, we have industrial uses, we have laser factories, tortilla factories, we have an airport, we have wine facilities, gas stations, movie theatres, we've got it all out here, and a school. So it makes a really really good wide mix of...

Take 11:

The diversity of the buildings out here make it a really good test case to try this technology on a wide range of building types and uses.

Take 12:

It is the great diversity of building types that we have out here that make it such a great test case for the entire world.

Take 1 3:

One of the great things about this project that's going to make it a real success is that it truly is a public-private partnership. We've partnered up with the building owners here, we have the airport green business community that has come together to form a coalition to help further this project along on the private side, so it's a perfect marriage, a partnership here.

Take 14:

One of the great things about this project is that it truly is a public-private partnership. The building owners and property owners in the area have come together to form the airport green business community who work with us and their sole purpose is to help move this project forward, and educate the building owners on how they can address energy use reduction.

Take 15:

It is the great diversity of building types we have out here that make it such a great test case for the entire world.

Take 16:

One of the great things about this project that is going to make it a real success is that it truly is a public private partnership. We've partnered up with the building owners here; we have the airport green business community that has come together to form a coalition to help further this project along on the private side so it is a perfect marriage or partnership here.

Take 17:

One of the great things about this project is that it truly is a public private partnership. The building owners and property owners in the area have come together to form the airport green business community who work with us. And our sole purpose is to help move this project forward, and educate the building owners on how they can address energy use reduction.

Take 18:

One of the great things about this project that's going to make it a real success is that it truly is a public private partnership. We've partnered up with the building owners here. We have the airport green business community that has come together to form a coalition to help further this project along on the private side . So it's a perfect marriage of partnership here.

Take 19:

One of the great things about this project is that it truly is a public-private partnership. The building owners and property owners in the area come together to form the airport green business community, who work with us, and their sole purpose is to help move this project forward and educate the building owners on how they can address energy use reduction...

Take 20:

Well this project, it's big, it's new, it's a great wonderful visionary idea, but we new that it would be irresponsible to just go and start building out this community-wide project with no test case. So what we decided to do was to take our office building here at 404 Aviation Boulevard and do a little mini-geo-exchange project on it. So we're dr... we drilled our own wells out there and we're going to be hooking up this building to its own heat pump system and basically create a mini-version of what we're going to try to do out there in the community. So once we take it and we learn and see how it works on our 404 Aviation building we'll take those lessons and we'll go out and we'll make very smart decisions about how we approach the region wide project.

Take 21:

This project, our regional geo-exchange energy efficiency project, it's big, it's innovative, it's new. So we knew we couldn't just go out there and build out this big project with nothing to base it on. So what we decided to do was to use our building, 404 Aviation boulevard, as a test case, we already had previously reduced our energy use using energy efficiency measures throughout the building, and reduced all of our lighting systems to as low as possible then we also added rooftop solar; we are now providing half a megawatt of solar which actually pretty much takes the electricity of the building off the grid.

Take 22:

Well we knew we had to start somewhere. So we decided to take this building 404 Aviation Boulevard and make it a test case for the energy project as a whole. We had already reduced our energy use down using efficiency measures with a combination of lighting retrofits throughout the building, and solar. We have half a megawatt of solar facilities on our building; that pretty much takes our zero net electricity use to zero. Now we have to address heating and cooling. So in order to emulate what we are trying to build out there, we went and drilled our own geothermal system out in the parking lot, and we are going to hook it up to the building using heat pumps, exactly like we plan to do throughout the whole business park. Once we do that we'll have our lessons learned and we'll be able to take those lessons and make very smart decisions economically about how we approach the community project.

Take 23:

This project is new, but it's great and it's innovative, and we're so convinced that it's going to be a success that we're trying it out here on our very own building at 404 Aviation before we go out and do the whole business park.

Take 24:

This is new. This is innovative. But we're so convinced that this is going to be a success that we're trying it out on our own building first.

District 9: Could extraterrestrial Zabaleen make spaceships out of recycled scrap materials? Can we?

The raw materials for creating sophisticated hi-tech, high value items need not come from tantalum and niobium mines in African rain forests, or from uranium mines in India or Australia, Bauxite/Aluminum mines in the Amazon, or from lithium salts in the Atacama desert. Most of the materials we need for a great future can be found in our "waste streams" -- in our so-called "garbage". Zabaleen understand this, and apparently so do the film-makers who made "District 9".


Solar CITES associate and Di Massa Utility Consulting team member Alvaro Silva and I went to see Dsitrict 9 the other night after working on the Sonoma County Water Agency Regional Geothermal Energy Exchange promotional video. We went to see this important film at the Sonoma County Airport Cinema, next door to the SCWA, delighting in the fact that this movieplex will soon be on the waste-water cooled regional geo-thermal energy exchange network. The Airport Cinimea has a visionary owner and will soon be a best practice demonstration movie complex that will air condition and heat its theaters in a revolutionary climate friendly way using renewables. Even the parking lots at this business park are wonderful; next door they have a PV powered parking lot with electric vehicle charging stations! . I told my Solar CITIES partner and wife Sybille about the ideas in District 9 and she said, "definitely not an American film, very sophisticated."

It is indeed an important film; interesting to see it through the optic of working with trash recyclers and knowing the prejudice those who turn what we call garbage into value added items face. Perhaps our next step in Solar CITIES should be to build a spaceship out of recycled materials, like the "prawns"...

Using "waste-water" for energy independence: Transcriptions I

A. Lisa Meline

Take 1:

The existing equipment here at 404 aviation boulevard is all rooftop equipment. So we have airconditioners, we have boilers; they are all up on the roof, they are exposed to the elements, when it is hot in the summertime the heat is pounding down on that equipment, um, and in the winter time when it is cold the same thing ; the difference is with this system we are bringing everything within the building or under... ground; all of the heat pumps are going to go up in the cieling space... it's within the conditioned space essentially of the building... which is going to ... um... help with the lifetime of that equipment but more than that we're actually coupled to the ground heat exchanger... all that pipe out under the parking lot ... that, um, provides us that constant tempered water source for operating those heat pumps. So the result is energy efficiency and longer lifetime of that equipment...

Take 2:

So there are very... there are many benefits to geothermal heat pump systems. Some of the benefits include that it is an all electric system, so there's no gas... required for heating; the same heat pumps that do heating also do cooling... the controls for operating those geothermal heat pumps are very simple, they are simple thermostatic controls in most cases that simply respond to the needs of the people in that particular zone ... um... ... we have the ability to both heat and cool at the same time so an example... a good example is right here in this building ... in the morning the east side of the building ... now let's talk summertime, the east side of the building gets warm, the air conditioning comes on ... with the conventional system the whole building is getting air conditioning at whatever the hottest part of the building is wanting, and in reality the people on the other side of the building are now cool... are... are too cold. So with heat pumps we're able to turn down that airconditioning when we don't need it... we're able to simultaneously heat and cool , which is important, to provide good comfort for the building occupants ... um... and ... it... um... is more efficient use of energy ... so ... the.. we gain by moving those BTUs if you will around to where they are needed instead of just wasting them because we don't need them.


Take 3:


So there are several advantages to using a geothermal heat pump system. First of all it is a sustainable technology... we're ... using heat from the earth and we're rejecting heat to the earth so over the course of a year it's kind of a net zero on the earth... we're using that heat... you know... where we need it, when we need it. It's an all electric system ... so... we don't need any natural gas or any other petroleum based products on the site ... um... in the particular case of this building we already have solar panels on the roof so we take advantage of using that electric source for the building. All electric system. We have... um... individual heat pump control. Each of the heat pumps throughout the building have been located in the cieling space rather than up on the roof where the current equipment is... it... it... allows that equipment to be accessed, it allows us to provide the local people within those spaces with the temperature that they require... and because we're able to do that we're... (cut)


Take 4:


So one of the advantages of a geothermal heat pump system is that it is a sustainable technology. In the case of this project at 404 Aviation boulevard... um... we're going to this system that is all electric which is an added benefit to us because we have solar panels already existing on the roof! And that is a renewable technology, something that we can use right now... we also have the advantage of not requiring any petroleum based products now on the site so we're ... ah... our carbon footprint has therefore been reduced. And then another benefit that I particularly like is that the controls for these systems can be very simple ... you just need a thermostat on the wall to control the therm... the heat pump when it should come on or off, and that's all there is to it; you don't have to measure pressure differences and temperature differences and flow rates ... it's on or it's off! And that is not just easy for the users but easy for the people have to maintain those systems.



B: Dale

Take 1:

"We're taking the renewable energy concept of heating and cooling buildings that we are doing at this building here ... and... broadening it to the entire business park.

Take 2:


"We're taking the renewable energy concept of heating and cooling buildings that we're doing at this particular building and we're broadening it to the entire business park "


Take 3:


At the Airport-Larkfield-Wickiup Santitations own wastewater treatment plant we process 100... 1 million gallons per day ... let me start that over...


Take 4:

We're taking the renewable energy technique for heating and cooling this building at 404 Aviation and broadening that technology to the entire business park . At our Airport-Larkfield-Wickiup Santitation Zone Wastewater treatment plant we process 1 million gallons a day of tertiary treated micro-filtered water. That water is stored in two one hundred million gallon storage ponds. We're going to take that water, pump it throughout the business park, the people in the business park will use that water to pass through heating and cooling equipment at their buildings, typically water cooled heat pumps to provide both heating and cooling... they can also use that recycled water for irrigation ... as a non-potable source on their... on their landscapes... and also for... non-potable uses within their building such as for toilet water..

Take 5:

The pipes in the ground, unlike other District energy systems, they don't need to be insulated... its much cheaper to put pipes in the ground that are uninsulated... that adds to the heat exchange between the water system and the earth itself...

Take 6:

The renewable energy concept of heating and cooling buildings....

Take 7:

The renewable energy concept that we are using here at this building at 404 Aviation where we heat and cool our building with ... geothermal energy to the whole business park... what we're gonna do .. is take recycled water from our waste treatment plant... our Airport-Larkfield-Wickiup Santitation Zone Wastewater Treatment Plant processes 1 million gallons per day of tertiary treated micro-filtered water. That water... ah... which we would pump from the treatment plant would go in a loop throughout the business park... the buildings within the business park could tie into that loop and use that water to heat and cool their buildings they could also use that recycled water to irrigate their landscapes and to be used in non-potable sources such as toilets within their buildings.

Take 8:

Typical district energy systems have heating and cooling machines back at the central energy plant; we'll use our wastewater treatment plant as the energy plant. The typical system has four insulated pipes, two for chilled water, two for hot water. We'll only need two pipes and those pipes will not need to be insulated. The content of those pipes in OUR system will be recycled water. That recycled wat --- one of the pipes will distribute recycled water into the business park the other pipe will return the recycled water back to the treatment plant. At the treatment plant where it is stored in the two one-hundred million gallon storage ponds, that energy can then be dissipated into the earth on the banks and on the floor of the storage pond, and the mass of water within the storage pond provides additional attenuation of that heating and cooling from the business park.

Take 9:

It should save a lot of materials and construction costs, should be much less capital cost to construct, uh... the water cooled distributing the water cooled technology to the buildings what... rather than centralizing it and allowing different uh, uh, machinery out at the uh business park buildings to... to perform that function should save a lot of energy

Take 10:

Within the business park with everybody using a similar technology the local mechanics will become well versed... they'll be stocked in the appropriate parts, turn around time should be very quick in whether its parts or the capability of a mechanic to be in the area... keeps the economy local, keeps the jobs local... that's what we want that's what we're trying to do partly with this program. Uh... the building owners within the business park can use the Sonoma county energy independence program to fund their retrofits of their buildings; the recycled water loop... we're looking at California Energy Commission, Department of Energy, and Clean Water Act, State Revolving Fund Monies to fund that... which we can get at a much cheaper rate than any private utility, private entity would be able to... to get.

Take 11:

The more people we have participate, in the regional energy exchange program...

Take 12:

As more and more business owners and tenants within the business park participate in the program ... more and more participants in the program ... uh... will help us realize the economies of scale and...

Take 13:

Typically recycled water can be used in business parks; it's been done before, uh... the doubling up of using recycled water for landscaping irrigation and for heating and cooling and non-potable uses and buildings hasn't been done yet. We're embarking on this new idea of sharing these resources and by sharing the ... the physical properties of water, both its ability to irrigate and its abilities to transfer heating and cooling...heat sink to a centralized location ... that concept hasn't been done before. Doubling up those systems allows us to not have a recycled water pipeline, chilled water pipelines and and heating water pair of pipelines. We can do all of that with just two pipelines, one supply of recycled water, one return, and all that's returning is either the hot or the cold water, dissipated from the... from the energy systems on the buildings. The other water can be used, it's useful water. And that water that we're providing that's recycled is offsetting the, the potable water used which typically has to be pumped three, four times farther than the recycled water. The recycled water treatment plant is within a mile or two of most of these buildings. Getting that water for a... a beneficial use within the business parks allows the business park owners to save money both on their potable water costs which comes from the local municipalities which draw it from the Russian River which is three or four times the distance therefore three or four times the cost... allows them to realize that savings. So not only in potable water use and water use but also in energy savings by using water cooled equipment in the business park they should be expected to save... up to 50% of their heating and cooling costs for their buildings and eliminate their natural gas costs, thereby eliminating greenhouse gases and lower greenhouse gases for our use as well.

Take 14:

The people that participate... sooner... the more it allows us to realize the economies of scale... uh... and help us to pay back the infrastructure that's put in place... by having a larger resource base, it's just like in water and wastewater systems... the larger the resource base is that's using that, the lower the per unit cost is for all those users. The cost to put the pipe in the ground is the same, regardless of who's participating. The more people we get to participate in the program the more we can make the unit rate that everyone is paying to use that water be lowered such that everyone in the business park benefits.

Take 15:

Most pipelines in the ground have a life of 50 years; most HVAC systems have a 10 to 20 year life ; this pipeline will be in the ground 50 years, we expect to even more than that so people do not need to jump on board right away; we would like them to... it would help us move forward and get the availability for people to save energy sooner, uh... however the pipe's gonna be there for a long time; that pipeline in the ground will still be able to de... to deliver water so this this won't just be part of a given building's energy saving retrofits today... it will be there for their energy saving retrofits 15, 20 years from now and 15, 20 years after that as well they'll realize future savings, not just savings now but long term savings down the road.

Take 16:

In the recycled water distribution loops we would have stub-outs to every single building so every building would have the opportunity to hook up; every building would need some sort of water meter to document how much water they're taking and temperature in and out so we can document how much energy they are using; we would probably have a co-op or an assessment district where they would be charged not only on how much recycled water they're consuming but on how much energy they're consuming as determined by temperature in temperature out, and flow rate through the system. Ah... they would prob... we don't have this figured out just yet but they would be charged based on those two uses: consumption and energy use.

Take 17:

In this particular building we'll have, uh, as a demonstration project we'll show the ... how our recycled water pumps , or, our water pumps that pump water through the HVAC systems within the cieling space ... and go through the ... uh... ground source loop in the parking lot... the building owners in the business park can come here, see that... they would realize they don't have to do what we have in the business park... they can hook up to the recycled water line, they would just need pumps and piping in their cieling space of whatever; it will be different for every building... but generally that's what it would take. So they would just draw water off of our two pipes in the ground...one to supply water to their building, one to return the water that's passed through; we'll take that water back tot he treatment plant, we'll dissipate the heat or the coldness that they've, that we've drawn from their building; they'll realize the energy savings on site, they don't have to dig up their parking lot, they don't have to put a pond in to dissipate that heat, they don't have to disrupt their parking lots such that... and park somewhere else and they can stay in business and just hook up, save months of time and months of capital costs. They'll buy into the communal heat sink which is at the treatment plant.

Take 18:

The bigger picture is we're looking to have this whole business park be net-zero energy. As other people have said, maybe Amy or Paul Kelley said, we're trying to... we're trying to make this business park go net zero energy wherein we lower our energy demand with ground source heat pumps primarily which is typically 50% of a buildings energy use; we can reduce that significantly and do other energy star lighting systems and other energy efficiency measures within the building to lower the overall energy use within the building. Within the business park. Then, the rest of the energy demand which will always be there, we want to meet that with renewables. If we can meet that with renewables then in the business park we hope to be the first business park in the U.S., certainly in Sonoma County, to be net zero energy.
Now whether we use the grid as sort of a storage buffer and sometimes we're producing more energy than we are drawing in, and whether we actually store it on site... store that renewable energy generated on site, that's less likely to happen, that gets pretty expensive but... it will probably be just net zero, not cut us off from the grid... approach.

Take 19:

We envision using solar, photovoltaic solar cells on top of most of the buildings, we have a lot of roof area... a lot of flat buildings in this area... perfect for solar, they get a lot of sunlight, they're not sloped in the wrong direction, they can all get plenty of sunlight on them, um, that's a wasted resource; if we can form sort of a co-op, we all buy into that renewable energy, and a smaller building happens to use more energy because they are a data center or what have you, a bigger building that is a warehouse is going to have more roof space on it; if we can buy in as a co-op to that renewable energy consumer choice aggregation collective... co-op, whatever you want to call it, that's one way, that's one concept we're pushing to.. to make this a zero net energy business park. But the first step is to form the assessment district and charge people for recycled water such that they are, that that recycled water cost that they are paying is less than their current energy cost. So by forming that assessment district that's the first step in providing the energy assessment district or co-op whatever you want... whatever it's going to be when it's developed. Then add renewables to that... uh... mechanism, such that, uh, everyone can share not only in the recycled water use and lower energies but in the renewable energy production and use... and do it on... if you supply more to the system you get credits, if you deduct more you pay a little more. Something like that.

Take 20:

Transportation factors into this as well. Uh... we have... uh, electric plug-in stations, 10 of them here at... I think it's ten... ten or more here at the water agency, we envision having more at our wastewater treatment plant; we'd like to use renewables to charge those cars and even use those electric vehicles as storage for some of that energy as well. So we've got the renewable energy component, we can store some of that energy when the cars are not being used, perhaps at night, and have the re.... solar power or wind power, whatever it may be, as they become developed and flourish a little more, not fluorish... as they... mature in this area and become better accepted.

Take 21:

We've been talking with a few small wind energy producers in... or, manufacturers in the area; we believe and we are looking towards, with some of the RESCO California Energy Commission Money, of putting in a... approximately a 10 Kilowatt turbine, either at the treatment plant or at this facility. More likely at the treatment plant because we know we could use the energy there, and although some of the studies by... uh.. by USGS or whoever, the, uh, National Wind Energy Association, shows the wind in this area to be moderate, not, not fair or good, more on the low end, we see the wind blowing all the time in here, every afternoon I ride my bike into the wind, just about every day, and I know its there, I think we can... high up, you know, 40 meters or whatever, we feel we can extract it without being an imposition on the airport, just nearbye, and you know that in, uh, Sonoma County there's more stringent regulations for larger wind turbines because a long time ago a couple of business owners said, uh... large property owners, I don't know if it was vineyards or what they said, uh, "I don't want you putting that in, it obstructs my view.. there's an aesthetics issue". So uh... yeah, we have the airport there, so there's a 10 Kilowatt max.

Take 22:

As a business owner in the area, and your business has been 10 or 15 years and you're HVAC equipment is ready to be retrofitted, its... you've got your money's worth out of it, you're a good candidate, one of the better candidates to hook up to our recycled water system and our geoexchange system; there will be... it'll be... you would need an engineering firm to evaluate what would need to be done to do that... you would, its probably easier just to swap out what you have in place, however, I can't guarantee, but I think I can save you a lot of money if you just use a water cooled system with the recycled water system. Uh... that's what we're banking on, that's what we're... if I had Johnson Control's feasibility study I would have an explicit answer for you... so I'm a little uncomfortable promising anything on that but...

Take 23:

There's usually going to be more disruption to put in ground source heat pumps because you're going to, you may have some existing duct work in your building and it could be that you can't just swap out what's in place; most heat pumps are made to be stored inside, not outside, because they can be, you know, whereas other equipment, because it's air cooled and just uses a fan to blow across condenser coils... they're usually loud, because fans are loud, and, um...

Take 24:

When we analyzed whether to go with Ground Source Heat Pumps in this building, we looked at it... how to go with ground source heat pumps at this building, we had a couple of choices. We could swap the one's on the roof out with three large units -- the 50 ton units on the roof could be replaced with three 20 ton units... tons being tons of cooling... tons of... you know, amount of energy required to melt a ton of ice basically, or cool, freeze a ton of water into ice. Um... we looked at that and that would have had less disruptions to the building and would have, uh, had less disruption to the tenants, however we would have still had the boiler which re-heats all the water, um... so it gave us less control... by going with the distributed heat pump system we saw an energy savings... I can't remember the payback but the payback was quicker on the approach we are using which is 46 ground source heat pumps surrounded throughout the building... uh... versus... uh, what would it be... six heat pumps up on the roof... uh... just didn't pay for itself. (end tape Dale 2)

Take 25: (Tape Engineers)

We're taking the concept that we are demonstrating here at 404 Aviation, the concept of geothermal renewable energy to heat and cool buildings, and scaling it up to the whole business park.

Take 26:
We're taking the concept that we are demonstrating here of providing heating and cooling with geothermal power using solar power for the balance of electricity and broadening that to the entire business park.

Take 27:

We're taking our demonstration project here at 404 Aviation which is to use solar power, a renewable energy, to run another renewable energy which is geothermal heat pumps and we are scaling that up to the entire business park.

Take 28:

We're taking the concept we are using here at 404 Aviation which is to use an all electric heating and cooling system powered by solar to run the equipment and powered also powered by geothermal energy; we're scaling that up to the entire business park.

Take 29:

We're taking the concept that we are using here at 404 Aviation which is to use solar powered HVAC equipment...

Take 30:

What's going on is we're taking the building specific concept that we're using here which is to use solar power to power equipment, we're using geothermal power, to run the HVAC system, we're scaling that up to the entire business park. (It's renewable power either way; even if we used biofuel it would be renewable power.)

Take 31:
We're taking the building specific concept that we're using here at 404 ... We're taking the building specific concept that we're using here at 404 to use an all electric, solar powered and geothermal powered HVAC heating and cooling system, broadening that, scaling it up to the entire business park by using recycled water.

Take 32: (VO only)
At the Airport Lakefield Wickiup Sanitation Zone Wastewater treatment plant we produce approximately 1 million gallons per day of micro-filtered tertiary treated water. That clean, recycled water is stored in two one hundred million gallon storage ponds; the solar arrays mounted on the banks of these storage ponds provide energy to run the treatment plant. For the regional geo-exchange project we'll pump the recycled water out into the business park where it will be used to provide a heating and cooling sink for water source heat pumps. The water will also be used for landscape irrigation and for non potable uses such as toilet water.