If you have shade trees on the south or west sides of your home,
those trees reduce your electricity use by five percent (Photo by Jessi Ziegler)
Shade trees can save you
money on your energy bill. Now,
for the first time, researchers
have figured out just how much.
Rebecca Williams has more:
Transcript
Shade trees can save you
money on your energy bill. Now,
for the first time, researchers
have figured out just how much.
Rebecca Williams has more:
Economists looked at utility bills of homes in California on the hottest days
of the year.
Geoffrey Donovan is with the Forest Service Research Station.
He says, if you have shade trees on the south or west sides of your home,
those trees reduce your electricity use by five percent.
“So putting a tree somewhere it’s going to cast shadows at the warmest time
of the day. The other thing you want to think about is winter sunshine.
Particularly on the south side of a house you may want to put a deciduous
tree as opposed to an evergreen tree so in wintertime you’ll get some
sunshine through that.”
Donovan says how close you put those trees to your house matters too. For
the most energy savings, shade trees should be within 40 to 60 feet of your
home.
The light beam changes to blue when it hits a spot of colder temperature (Photo courtesy of Black & Decker)
Soon, you’ll be able to buy
a sort of raygun to detect heating
leaks in your home. Jessi Ziegler reports on a Thermal Leak
Detector:
Transcript
Soon, you’ll be able to buy
a sort of raygun to detect heating
leaks in your home. Jessi Ziegler reports on a Thermal Leak
Detector:
This tool looks like a little toy raygun, and it shines beams of light
that read the temperature around your house.
Scott Pollard is the Senior Product Manager at Black and
Decker, which makes the tool. He says it’s really easy to use.
“Shine it on the wall, it starts off with a green light, and as they
move it from their wall to their window, or door, or around pipes,
or floor, or ceiling, the color will change to red if it hits a hot spot,
or blue if it hits a cold spot.”
And, if you think you the little leaks don’t really matter, well,
Pollard’s research shows that if you add up all the little cracks
and leaks in a typical home, it equals a hole the size of a
basketball.
The EPA says that homeowners can save 20% on their heating
and cooling costs if they seal air leaks and insulate their houses.
For The Environment Report, this is Jessi Ziegler.
31% of low-income people said they kept their home so cold it felt unsafe. 20% said they had their electricity or gas shut off for some amount of
time.
(Photo by Gerald Downing, courtesy of FEMA)
Now that the price of oil has
dropped, the cost of heating your home
won’t be as high as experts were predicting
this summer. But millions of Americans
are still struggling to pay their heating
bills. Rebecca Williams reports in some
rare cases having your heat shut off can
mean being evicted from your home. And,
in the worst case, it can even mean losing
your children:
Transcript
Now that the price of oil has
dropped, the cost of heating your home
won’t be as high as experts were predicting
this summer. But millions of Americans
are still struggling to pay their heating
bills. Rebecca Williams reports in some
rare cases having your heat shut off can
mean being evicted from your home. And,
in the worst case, it can even mean losing
your children:
Demetria Salinas has three kids. Money is tight and she’s worried about
getting through the winter.
“I’m kinda nervous because I mean what if we don’t have enough to pay the
bills, then what do we do?”
She says she tries to save on heat by putting extra sweaters on her kids, and
turning the furnace off.
“Put the gas on for a little bit and turn it off, and when it gets a little bit
colder, put it back on. But it does definitely mean layering up, even in the
house.”
She says that’s hard on her kids.
Many parents are in these impossible situations. The National Energy
Assistance Director’s Association has found low-income people often have
to choose between paying their heating bills and feeding their kids.
31% said they kept their home so cold it felt unsafe. 20% of low income
people said they had their electricity or gas shut off for some amount of
time.
Phil Thompson works for Capital Area Community Services in Lansing,
Michigan. His agency helps people pay their bills and talks with utility
companies to buy people more time. He says usually utilities won’t shut
heat off in the coldest days of winter.
“Most utility companies are sympathetic to the situation of not having heat
in the wintertime. There’s always those horror stories of a senior or
handicapped individual who froze because their utility was turned off.
They’re going to do everything they can to keep that from happening.”
But Thompson says he sees a lot of people get their heat shut off in the
spring, and it can still get cold then.
Now, in some states, if the heat is shut off – even for just a little while – you
can be evicted.
“In some cases where there’s small children it’s very possible that Child
Protective Services would get involved and possibly remove the kids from
the household when there’s no utilities.”
That’s right – the state can take kids away if the utilities are shut off.
We talked with foster care workers in several states, and they all said that
this is rare. They said they do everything they can to keep families together,
and they can sometimes help pay heating bills. But they also said a home
with no heat is often a sign that something else is wrong.
Andrea Yocum is an investigator with Child Protective Services north of
Detroit.
“Typically there’s other reasons why they’re removed for example, if the
family’s just not willing to pay their bills because they’re using the money
for other things like drugs or alcohol.”
But Yocum says sometimes it’s just not the family’s fault.
“I have had families that were evicted as a result of their landlord not paying
their bills, and utilities turned off the same because the landlord’s not taking
care of what’s happening within the home.”
If families are evicted, it can be temporary, maybe just a couple days until
the heat’s back on. But for families living in poverty, having the heat turned
off again can happen as soon as the next bill is late.
There is some good news this year. There’s federal money that states use to
help people pay their heating bills. Because fuel prices were expected to go
up, Congress doubled that pot of money this year. Most states are reporting
they’re in a better position to help people now.
But winter is just beginning and they’re already getting a lot more people
asking for help with their heating bills than in the past.
John Proctor in his workshop (Photo by Amy Standen)
Al Mason and Jeff Scalier with the new air conditioner (Photo by Amy Standen)
It happens every year. Temperatures
get hot, and people crank up the air conditioning.
That means using more electricity from the
power grid. It means creating more greenhouse
gas emissions. And that could lead to global
warming and warmer temperatures. That means,
even more air conditioning! There are a few
ways to halt this vicious cycle, one of which
starts with a makeover for the air conditioner
itself. Amy Standen reports:
Transcript
It happens every year. Temperatures
get hot, and people crank up the air conditioning.
That means using more electricity from the
power grid. It means creating more greenhouse
gas emissions. And that could lead to global
warming and warmer temperatures. That means,
even more air conditioning! There are a few
ways to halt this vicious cycle, one of which
starts with a makeover for the air conditioner
itself. Amy Standen reports:
“Hi there! This is Al.”
Temperatures were expected to hit 105 degrees on the day I visited Al Mason’s Northern
California bungalow. But, standing in his very cool living room, he wasn’t too concerned.
Al Mason: “During the summer without the air, it was miserable.”
Amy Standen: “What’s it like now?”
Mason: “Oh it’s wonderful.”
That’s because Mason just bought himself a $10,000 central AC and heating system.
(sound of motor starting up)
Installer Jeff Scalier of the Blue Star Heating and Air Conditioning Company takes me
outside to show off the motor.
“This particular unit, I call it the Cadillac. It’s an HDL is the name of the unit, it’s side
discharged.”
New units like this are about twice as energy efficient as those sold thirty years ago.
That’s when the 1970s oil embargo inspired a slew of federal efficiency rules.
But Al Mason’s brand-new AC system still uses a lot more electricity than it needs to. At
least, that’s what John Proctor says. He’s an air conditioning entrepreneur in San Rafael,
just north of San Francisco.
“Air conditioners are designed one size fits all for the whole country. So you have a
hammer where you really would like something a little more precise.”
In other words, different climates require different air conditioners. For example, the day
I met John Proctor, it was about 75 degrees outside, maybe 25% humidity.”
“There’s a reason why we live here!” (laughs)
Meanwhile, about 3,000 miles east, residents of Tampa, Florida were wiping their brows
in 80% humidity. In other words, a completely different climate, where air conditioners
have a different job to do.
“In South Florida you have to do a lot of dehumidification, whereas in California, you
don’t have to do any dehumidification at all. So what they’re doing is taking moisture
out of the air and dumping it down the drain.”
In other words, because air conditioners are built for all climates, they don’t work
perfectly in any climate.
That fact inspired Proctor – with funding from the state of California – to design AC
systems for three different climates – the hot dry west, the soggy southeast, and the more
temperate Midwest. So that’s one model for Phoenix, another for Tampa, and a third for
St. Louis. He built them in an attic workshop upstairs from his office.
“So where does that data point show up on the graph?”
Proctor says these climate-specific units can use as much as 20% less electricity than the
one-size fits all models. But that doesn’t mean we can expect manufacturers to start
making them any time soon.
“From a manufacturing perspective, if you can just make lots of one air conditioner,
it’s easier, it’s cheaper. And that’s how they’re set up to do it.”
That’s why Proctor, along with California energy officials, went to Washington earlier
this year. Their goal was to get Congressional support for new, regional AC standards.
And it worked.
But putting these standards into law is another step. That’ll take a ruling from the Federal
Department of Energy – something, Proctor believes, is unlikely to occur until next
administration takes the White House.
Wendell Rice points to the new CFLs in Stephanie Bradford’s home (Photo by Jori Lewis)
The cost of heating your home is going
up this winter. It went up last year. It will
go up next year. For some people it’s an
inconvenience. For others it’s a real problem.
Jori Lewis reports Black communities are hit
especially hard:
Transcript
The cost of heating your home is going
up this winter. It went up last year. It will
go up next year. For some people it’s an
inconvenience. For others it’s a real problem.
Jori Lewis reports Black communities are hit
especially hard:
Like a lot of Americans, Darlene Manswell has been struggling. Her Brooklyn, home is
in foreclosure. And she’s been behind on her electricity bills – almost $3,000 behind.
And so the power company, they came a-knockin.’
“They basically came to shut it off and I’m, you know, just bargaining with people.
They wanted the full amount. I didn’t have the full amount. I gave them whatever I
could afford to give them. And they said that’s not, we’re still going to shut it off.”
The price of energy has become a huge burden for many people, but Black communities,
like Darlene Manswell’s, are especially vulnerable.
Andrew Hoerner researches energy use in minority communities for the sustainability
think tank Redefining Progress and the Environmental Justice and Climate Change
Initiative.
Hoerner says Black people pay more of their incomes on home energy and heating
expenses than other people. He says there are a couple of reasons why. First, Black
people, on average, have lower incomes.
“Energy is like food or shelter. It’s a necessity. And people at lower incomes spend a
higher percentage of their income on necessities.”
But, Hoerner also found that Black people at middle and higher income levels still spend
more of their incomes on energy than non-Blacks in all but the highest income brackets.
“I think we’re safe in saying that it has to do with lower quality housing stock for
African American communities.”
It all goes back to a history of residential segregation has left many Black people in older
areas with less well-maintained houses. Those buildings might have loose windows or
poor insulation. And that means they are leaking heat and wasting energy.
Hoener also notes Black people are more likely to be renters instead of owners. And
renters have less control over repairs or improvements.
All of these factors have forced Black communities to find ways to adjust.
Stephanie Bradford certainly wants to. She owns a home in a traditionally Black
neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“These times are serious. So whatever way you have to do to save money, you have
to save it. This winter was horrible. It was a matter of either heating the house or
eating. And it was really a choice.”
She made it through okay. But she knows she has to do better this winter. And lucky for
her, she found a way.
Bradford qualified for low–income weatherization assistance. She’s been able to install
new windows, add insulation and put in new energy-efficient compact fluorescent light
bulbs.
Wendell Rice is the director of the weatherization program. He says making these
changes can help people like Stephanie Bradford weather the economic the downturn.
“She’s doing the right thing, she’s not dodging the bullet by getting the house
weatherized. And if we do what we’re supposed to do here, her bills got to be
cheaper.”
Rice says he wishes he could help everyone. But these programs have a waiting list a
year or two long.
But Rice notes that if he could help more people lower their energy bills, the money left
over could help them save their homes from the bank and their stuff from the repo man
and just go a long way in healing this systemic bias.
Due to the price of natural gas and crude oil, it is predicted that it will cost you much more to heat your home this winter
(Photo by John Ferguson, courtesy of FEMA)
As summer winds down, you’re
probably not thinking about your
heating bill. But that’s something
market analysts are thinking about
right now. And reporter Kyle Norris
finds the predictions of what it will
cost to heat your home are going up
in a big way:
Transcript
As summer winds down, you’re
probably not thinking about your
heating bill. But that’s something
market analysts are thinking about
right now. And reporter Kyle Norris
finds the predictions of what it will
cost to heat your home are going up
in a big way:
This year the average cost of heating your home is going to cost a good
chunk more than what it did last year.
Doug MacIntyre is an analyst with the US Energy Information
Administration.
“We’re estimating that, on average, the household using natural gas to
heat their home will be spending 24% more than last year. For heating
oil we think the increase will be even higher with house holds spending
about 36% more than they did last year.”
Those predications are made by looking at the cost of things like natural
gas and crude oil. And by analyzing the weather forecast for the up-
coming winter.
MacIntyre says he does not expect these expensive heating costs to go
away anytime in the next few years.
Underground mines that were abandoned long ago are coming back to haunt the people and places above them. The voids and toxic metals left behind are posing new kinds of environmental challenges. But one church that was almost destroyed by a mine is now trying to turn it into a new kind of green resource. Katherine Fink reports:
Transcript
Underground mines that were abandoned long ago are coming back to haunt the people and places above them. The voids and toxic metals left behind are posing new kinds of environmental challenges. But one church that was almost destroyed by a mine is now trying to turn it into a new kind of green resource. Katherine Fink reports:
John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church is on a street where cars don’t stop. Crime rates are high here. A faded sign with graffiti on it indicates where a convenience store used to be. Most of the church’s stained glass windows are either missing or covered with plywood. Pastor Calvin Cash says he remembers when things were different.
“This was once a thriving community. Stores, residential homes, businesses, the whole bit.”
Cash was first assigned to the church in 1996. It had been closed for a couple years. He found 18 inches of orange water in the basement. Moss was growing on the walls. Cash says church leaders had known about the water problem, but thought they had it under control.
“For years, they had sump pumps down in the basement. And when the water reaches a certain level, the sump pumps would come on, and carry it away.”
Meanwhile, state environmental workers were investigating another mysterious pool of water down the street. They suspected an old underground mine had filled with water and was starting to burst. One of those workers, Charles Johnson, noticed the church nearby.
“I left a card inside of the mailbox with my number on it and said if you are having any water problems in your basement, give me a call… so within two days, reverend Cash gave me a call and said, ‘you got to see this.'”
Mine-related issues are not new for the Pittsburgh area, which has one of the largest coal seams in the country. But water problems like these are becoming increasingly common as more and more mine voids fill to capacity. Johnson says in the church’s case, the need for a fix was urgent.
“The pressure on the building from the water; it was just a matter of time before the pressure would just collapse the whole building.”
Workers redirected the water into local storm sewers, relieving the pressure on the church.
Since then, Johnson says they’ve learned that mine water can actually be useful. Its constant 57-degree temperature makes it an attractive candidate for geothermal heating, which uses the earth’s natural warmth.
George Watzlaf with the National Energy Technology Laboratory has studied the idea.
“We could probably reduce their heating and cooling costs 60, 70, maybe 80 percent; the annual cost.”
Geothermal heat is becoming increasingly common as a lower-cost alternative to natural gas. Pipes filled with an antifreeze solution carry heat from deep in the earth up into buildings. Instead of using antifreeze, Watzlaf says he wants to build a system that draws in mine water:
“We’re trying to put together a small project where we price everything out to say, okay, all we need is $10,000 to go out and put in a small system somewhere, heat a shed or something like that. Just to, no pun intended, get our feet wet and just learn some things about some of the potential problems and how we can overcome those problems.”
Reverend Cash wants his church to be that demonstration project. Since learning about geothermal heat and its potential cost savings, Cash is convinced it could save his blighted neighborhood. He’s become a convert to all things green.
“We are responsible for this world, and God expects us to take care of it.”
On this night, Cash is holding a workshop at the church to help residents learn how to make their homes more energy efficient. Only one person came. Trays full of untouched sandwiches, fried chicken and cookies are being wrapped up for another day, but reverend Cash says he’s not discouraged. Sometimes, he says it takes something big to get people’s attention:
“One of the best proofs of it, when they were taking that water out of there, we had all that heavy equipment active out there, and if 10 cars went by, nine of then slowed down or stopped to see what was going on. And I think when we start building back this community, that curiosity will grow, and benefit us. So we’ll hold on and see.”
Cash is hoping to convince the state to have faith in geothermal heat. His church is applying for a grant this year.
Ford Motor Company installs a permanent Fumes to Fuel system at Michigan Truck Plant after a successful pilot program at the Ford Rouge Center last year. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
Another look at the Fumes to Fuel system at Michigan Truck Plant. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
Pollution from factories and other places might be dollars just going up in smoke. But a promising new technology turns these ordinarily troublesome waste products into something that’s especially valuable these days: cheap electricity. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Halpert has this
report:
Transcript
Pollution from factories and other places might be dollars just going up
in smoke, but a promising new technology turns these ordinarily
troublesome waste products into something that’s especially valuable
these days: cheap electricity. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie
Halpert has this report:
Remember the children’s story, where Rumpelstiltskin was able to take
straw, a cheap, abundant material, and magically transform it into
precious gold? Well, these days, cheap energy is like gold, and one
company has found a way to similarly generate power from pollution.
(Sound of engine running)
To see how it works, I’m standing on a roof sixty-five feet above the
ground. This is where Ford Motor Company maintains its pollution
control equipment. There are rectangular gray metal boxes as tall as I am
all over the roof, so many that we can barely walk between them. Under
the roof, they’re painting trucks. The paint emits vapors that Ford is now
capturing with these big boxes of machinery.
Mark Wherrett is Ford’s principal environmental engineer.
“We’re here at the Ford Motor Company Michigan truck plant, where the
paint solvent is collected from the process and used as a fuel to make
electricity in a Stirling Engine.”
The Stirling Engine is key. Here’s how it works. Ford’s using an engine
developed by STM Power. STM is using an old engine style called a
Stirling Engine that was once used in place of a steam engine. Instead of
using coal or wood to heat up water and make steam, STM burns the
paint fumes to heat up hydrogen and power the engine. The fumes will
generate 55 kilowatts of electricity. That’s enough to power 11 homes.
There’s not as much pollution emitted at the end, since burning can be
adjusted to temperatures where pollutants are reduced. Wherrett says
that for Ford, the technology simply has no downsides.
“The fumes to fuel process takes the environmental emissions and turns
them on their head, so instead of them being a waste product that we
have to dispose of, we can then turn it into a commodity where we can
then use that to make electricity and use that in our plant systems.”
And that means Ford doesn’t have to purchase as much power from the
grid.
Dorrance Noonan is CEO of STM Power, the company that’s redesigned
the old engine. Noonan says Ford is a perfect candidate for this
technology.
“We’re really excited about the Ford project because it offers a
tremendous opportunity to manufacturing companies and large paint
operations, who have large VOC problems that they have to deal with in
very expensive ways.”
The Ford plant is just the beginning for the company. They also plan to
deliver their portable on-site generators to landfills and wastewater
treatment plants. In that situation, methane gas is used as the fuel to
generate electricity. Noonan says his company has a bright future.
“Well, in the next couple of years, we see strong penetration in our two focus
markets, which are the landfill markets in the U.S. and the wastewater
treatment markets in the United States, and then we see that expansion
going outside of the United States to Europe and eventually to Asia.”
There are some skeptics.
Dan Rassler, with the Electric Power Research Institute, says STM’s
technology does have the potential to create viable new sources of
energy, but more companies need to actually start using it before he can
know for sure, and he says that right now the technology is still too
expensive for many companies.
“We’d like to see the capitol costs of these systems be lower than where
they are today.”
Right now, an STM unit costs $65,000. Rassler would like to see overall
costs cut by 10 to 20 percent. He says costs could decrease as more of
these units come on line.
STM CEO Dorrance Noonan says the costs are comparable to competing
on-site generators, and these expenses will be offset by using the free
fuel used to generate electricity that his engines provide. Noonan says
that continuing high natural gas prices will be his technology’s best
friend, as companies strive for ways to reduce energy costs.
A new study suggests that air pollution has a significant effect on developing babies. (Photo by Lester Graham)
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns. That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to
air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns.
That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in
life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The expectant mothers were asked to carry air monitors in backpacks to see how much they were exposed to air pollutants. The Columbia University researchers chose 60 mothers in low-income neighborhoods. Dr. Frederica Perera is chief author of the study.
“All of our mothers in the study were non-smokers. So, the primary source of these pollutants in air would be things like motor vehicles, emissions from residential heating units, burning fossil fuel and also from power plants located even fairly far away.”
It’s the fist study to make a connection between air pollutants causing genetic changes in the womb that could increase cancer risk. Earlier studies by the researchers already revealed greater prenatal exposure to air pollution caused lower birth weights and smaller heads in newborns.
From lighter, thinner ski boots and other cold-weather clothing...
(Photo by Adam Fowler)
... to using less lumber in home-building, aerogels are reported to have a multitude of uses. (Photo by Bartlomiej Stroinski)
A new insulating material could cut down on home heating
costs and save on materials in construction. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Katherine Glover tells us about Aerogels:
Transcript
A new insulating material could cut down on home heating costs and save
on construction materials. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Katherine Glover
tells us about Aerogels:
Aerogels look like frozen smoke, and feel like styrofoam. Up to ninety-nine
percent of an aerogel is empty space. This makes it an excellent insulator. Last
year, the first aerogel jacket hit the market. And aerogel footwear inserts are used
by the U.S. military and the Canadian National Ski
Team. Ed Hogan is the marketing manager of Aspen Aerogels.
“Everybody knows how much cold feet can spoil an outing, right? And this stuff
is so thin, you can put it in a shoe or put it in a boot, and you hardly notice it.”
Because they’re new, aerogels are still expensive relative to other materials. The
company says once they gain in popularity and the price goes down, they could be used
as insulation in walls and the clear form could be used in windows. This could cut down
dramatically on heating costs. And, because aerogels are so thin, the company says
houses could be built with less lumber. That’s because less lumber would be needed
to make room for aerogel insulation.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Katherine Glover.
If you have shade trees on the south or west sides of your home, those trees reduce your electricity use by five percent (Photo by Jessi Ziegler)
