MakeHeat

Low Enough to Keep Competition Away
The Atlantic has a good piece about OPEC, everybody’s least-favorite cartel. It shows pretty clearly why OPEC is probably the most effective enemy of renewable energy. The way they do it is by going against their short-term interests and keeping oil prices relatively low (at least low compared to the kind of prices they could create if they choked off supply more) to assure their long-term market-share and keep alternatives to oil down….Read the full story on TreeHugger

This could be a far easier retrofit than putting piping in the floor, and repair would be easier too!  The heating factor is a little difficult to fathom for the northeast, where in-floor heating makes more sense.  In the south, where the cool will travel naturally down and into the living area, this makes the most sense.  Still – I might like to try it in a small room.

Oikos: ESB: Hydronic Cooling.

Cutting his energy usage to 1/4 for heating, cooling, and electrical, now he’s reinvesting the savings into solar electricity:

Older Canadian Home Approaches New Standard of Energy Efficiency with Input from Renewables.ca (we C.a.r.e.) – PR.com.

Yes, it snowed here last night, and the heater is pumping warm air to make up for the cold weather outside – but I ran across this and now is the time to start planning.  If you have enough room, you might also want to build a well insulated shed, put a good sized coil of copper in the bottom and fill it with snow for the first hot seasons next year (it worked for the “ice man” back in the day – he’d go out, cut blocks of ice and store them with layers of sawdust between them for insulation and for keeping them separated, but i digress…). See the post at:

Solar Air Conditioning Guide : Planet Green.

“…– Receipts and other documents: You’ll need copies of purchase and installation receipts, as well as the manufacturer certification statement, which is a signed document from the manufacturer certifying that the product or component you have installed qualifies for the tax credit. If your installer doesn’t provide a copy of the statement, it often can be found on the manufacturer’s Web site. Taxpayers should keep a copy of the statement in their records, even though they are not required to submit it with their tax returns. …”

Guess this knocks out my sump-pump effluent to air-cooler Rube Goldberg device. Ah well, I wanted to make a fish farm in the cellar anyway.

via How to qualify for a energy-efficiency tax credit – washingtonpost.com.

Penn State Live – Video: Natural Fusion, Penn State’s Solar Decathlon Team 2009.

Ahhh, sunny California.  If we all had that weather, there’d be no reason to move there.  They are taking advantage of the sunny weather – and keeping their parking lots cooler now too at the West Campus.  Read on…

via Solar panels to generate school’s energy – News.

Thorough, lengthly explanation of passive solar design.  Worth printing out and saving!  Excellent articles (so far there are five articles!)

The Oil Drum: Campfire | Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 1.
The Oil Drum: Campfire | Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 2
The Oil Drum: Campfire | Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 3
The Oil Drum: Campfire | Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 4
The Oil Drum: Campfire | Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 5

“… The Lumenhaus home is an 800-square-foot, 1-bedroom residence with an open floor plan that can be extended to the outside decks. The house integrates an innovative Eclipsis System developed by the same institute that uses advanced weather monitoring systems to automatically open or close the shading system. …”

Virginia Tech designs zero-energy Lumenhaus home for Solar Decathlon | Solar Feeds News and Commentary Blog Network.

Green roofs are the rage, but green walls are up and coming.  ”…The benefits of green walls are not only for aesthetics’ sake, but can also provide shade and cooling for solar heating.  Over time there has emerged a number of products for green walls – some consist of simple trays hanging with soil and others work with hanging textiles (nonwoven, etc.).  I will not evaluate these methods, but only describe the basic technique in my proposal for a vertical planting technique. …”

Greenroofs.com: In the Shadow of the Vertical Garden, By Lars Kronborg Bak.