green washing dirty laundry — my love affair w CHP continues.

So several weeks ago, while doing laundry across the street from my apartment, I tried speaking w the Chinese owners about an Idea.  The idea of using his natural gas to generate electricity before running the dryers.  His english was not so good and my mandarin was non-existent.  He thought I was trying to sell him something.  He thought it was a scam.  He said electricity was too expensive so how could he make it.  He said he already had a private natural gas contract.  He basically flipped me away w his hand.

But hold on.  I live across the street from a pharmacy, a pizza shop, a chinese joint, and a grocery store loaded with refrigerators.  And of course, a laundry and drycleaner that doesn’t seem to do any of its own drycleaning.

Not only that, there are a ton of residential buildings.  And the laundramat is open from 7am to 8pm, hitting both the morning and evening residential peak loads.

Here is the basic flaw in logic.  People know that generating heat from natural gas is >80% efficient.  So why make electricity?  well, bc electricity is being made elsewhere at 35% efficiency and wasting heat all over the place.  What is so great about the stores across the street from my apartment, is that they have diverse energy needs, not all complementary, but certainly, my laudremat would make more money selling its natural gas fueled electricity to its neighbors than burning straight w my 4 quarters to dry my clothes for 28 minutes.

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is appropriate in certain circumstances and city laundry would be one of them.  (Say nothing of the fact that CO2 IS the organic dry-cleaning solvent and why organic drycleaning makes me crazy that it is more expensive – so wouldn’t it be neat if someone captured the exhaust CO2 and compressed it into liquid form to make the solvent).

Good News!  This weekend, I spoke w Llew Wells of Living City Block… an initiative to develop a green neighborhood in the dirtiest community in the 5 borroughs.  He said there was a gigantic laundry facility in the middle of their target block… NYC is going to have CHP and it’s going to be SMART and Very clean.  My kind of green washing.

Local Law 38 – will someone please make an ap?!

To reduce brown-outs, NYC implemented Law 38.

“Local Law No. 38 prohibits commercial establishments from unnecessarily opening their doors while air conditioning is on, in an effort to conserve energy and reduce strain on the electric grid. The legislation provides for escalating civil penalties for successive violations and specifies the Department of Consumer Affairs as the enforcing authority. Intro. 264 was approved by City Council on Aug. 14, 2008 and signed in to law by Mayor Bloomberg on Sept. 3, 2008.” -NY League of Conservation Voters

If you’ve never experienced the sheer insanity of it, here is a great blog post about a person’s walking tour of open door retail stores flooding the street with A/C in 2009. Here is a NYT article 9 stores that were fined $200-$400 for leaving their door open in the summer of 2010.  These are single day incidents of single locations – but it happens everywhere in NYC, summer and winter and it makes me crazy!

Unfortunately, as this is not an energy savings law, it is a ‘let’s keep the grid from unnecessarily failing’ law, this does not apply to retail doors propped open in the winter letting out heat.

Will someone please make a reporting ap – so that next summer w my new i-phone, I can report every door I see propped open and do some citizen surveillance of common sense!

Please?

Combined Heat and Power and Distributed Generation

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is my favorite energy solution.

Large scale electric generation is most often a huge waste of energy resources.  Electric generation needs a kind of energy intensity to spin a turbine to spin an electron flow and as a result roughly half the input BTU’s are released as ‘waste’ heat.  Heat is not a bad thing, the problem is, we often site plants in rural areas where the heat is not used. Second, moving the electron stream over powerlines, another 15% of the input BTUs are lost as friction on the line.  That means, when you plug in an appliance to your wall socket, your one unit of energy pulled required 3 units to make.

There are roughly 60 centralized, large-scale power plants in NYS (coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear) and we are part of a national grid system where we push and pull electricity to and from VT, NJ, PA and Canada across massive powerlines.  That is why, a plant failure in Ohio can cause a brown-out in NY– the inter-state flow was crippled and the demand drained the system.

However, there are wonderful examples of systems that use the waste heat and reduce the losses to the grid lines.  In addition these examples begin building a distributed generation system. Distributed generation is a move away from a few centralized large scale plant toward developing lots of smaller plants along the grid.  Distributed generation diversifies the larger system, making the whole system less vulnerable to human or technical failure, terrorist attack or natural disaster.  That is, distributed generation is a diversified portfolio of scale (small to large), type (hydro to nuclear), timing (daylight solar capture to variable wind patterns) and location (near biomass resources, near particular energy demands) of energy generation.

CHP as part of a distributed generation is generally smaller scale but sized appropriate to the local demands so the electricity and heat are used thus reducing grid friction losses and waste heat losses.  Using the co-products from electricity,  CHP transforms 35% efficient systems to more than 80% for well-designed systems (that means our finite natural resources go twice as far, a great ROI both financially, ethically, and environmentally).

Ex. 1.  Cornell University CHP.  Cornell has just recently moved from a coal based CHP to a natural gas based CHP in order to reduce it’s greenhouse gas footprint.  They generate electricity as the co-product based on the univeristy need for heat. That is, there is little waste heat, bc the plant is scaled to cull the highly priced electricity off the top and direct the ‘waste’ heat to warm campus through a maze of steam tunnels across campus.  Unlike most electric generation in NYS which is only 35% efficient, the Cornell plant is ~80% efficient as the ‘waste’ heat is used on campus and the electricity is used on campus reducing the grid line friction losses.

Ex. 2.  Boston University was heating a gigantic swimming pool.  Heat generation is 80-90% efficient – so why bother putting in CHP?  Well, bc there is waste heat generated all over the place in order to produced electricity.  Why not localized that waste heat at a swimming pool and earn money from the high value electricity.  I believe, BU, is actually making money from their electricity (savings or sales) while they heat their swimming pool.

Ex. 3.  Lyonsdale Biomass in Lyons Falls NY is a wood biomass powerplant that used to be a CHP system.  That is their waste heat used to go to a pulp plant across the way to dry the paper that was being produced.  It is unclear to me why this stopped, but the paper plant is now using natural gas heat and I’m throroughly bummed.  What kind of economic, political, or technical hang-up is involved in this regression of logic?

Ex. 4.  East River Electric Generating Station on 14th St in NYC uses natural gas to generate a large portion of NYC’s electricity, and a lot of the waste heat (no I don’t know how much) is used by neighboring businesses and buildings.

DontFlush.Me

Last weekend, I participated in NYC’s first ever ECOHACK - a room full of well-intentioned geeks that come together to try to integrate environmental data and effect change thru knowledge generation.  It was so much fun.

Besides eating a delicious vietnamese sandwich, I was completely charmed by the incredible and generous atmosphere of cooperation, the diversity of skills and talents, and the innovative spirit.  There were many interesting projects and I chose DontFlush.Me (Information on NYC sewage outflows in this blog come from discussions w Leif Percifield and Liz Barry at the Ecohack event).  Together, our group of almost all strangers, created a web presence to assess how a NY-er can be alerted to minimize their water-use during storm events to help reduce the 27 billion gallons of untreated waste water that enters NYC waters annually. In brief, 70% of the NYC sewage system combines storm water with industrial and domestic sewage. So when NYC has 1/10 inch rain in an hour or 4/10 inch rain in 24 hours, the sewage system gets overloaded and raw sewage is released into NYC waterways.  The objective of our Hack, was to have a user input their home address and be notified when rainfall in their ‘sewage collection shed’ was likely to overload the system and release raw sewage.  That a water user could modify their behavior for a 24 hour period until the storm water passed.  While problematic in many ways in its current state, it is a wonderful first draft.

Innovate on DontFlush.Me

It is ridiculous that NYC still has 8 gallon flush toilets, both on gallons of  drinking water use and volumes of diluted sewage requiring treatment.

So, I’m proposing a ?simple? innovation topic to act as an example group innovation build upon Leif Percifield and Liz Barry’s Don’t Flush Me project.  So please comment and I’ll manually include your comments into this post.

PROPOSAL:  UPGRADING (NYC) TOILET WATER USE EFFICIENCY.

PROBLEM:   27 billion gallons of raw sewage is dumped into NYC water ways every year due to storm events overloading sewage treatment centers. [LP]

Fact – 70% of NYC sewage treatment combines storm water with industrial and domestic sewage. [LP]

Fact – the 14 NYC sewage treatment plants can handle 2x normal day load.  Rain and storm events often exceed the twice normal loading. [LP]

Fact – when NYC receives 1/10 inch in an hour or 4/10 inch in 24 hours, many of the treatment plants are over capacity and untreated sewage is dumped thru 460 Combined Sewage Outflows directly into  the harbor (CSOs are emergency release pipes located below the water line and when the treatment system gets overloaded, monitors open the gate and raw sewage is dumped directly into NYC’s harbor). [LP]

“Fact” – Some NYC toilets use as much as 8 gallons per flush. [LP]

Fact - My toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. [JW]

“Fact” – The average NYC flush uses 5 gallons. [LP] Concern –  I’m surprised at the AVERAGE of 5 gal/flush in NYC. [ML]

“Fact” – Most NYC water (in) and sewage (out) is paid for by landlords. [JW]

PROPOSAL – create 3 documents that give an estimate of cost/benefit for retrofitting NYC apt buildings for installing lower water-use toilets.

Brainstorm a cost analysis:

1. money paid for 1.5, 3, 5, and 8 gallon toilets
2. money paid for water in and sewage out 
3. money paid for labor to change out toilets
4. in 30-unit, 50-unit and 200-unit apartment building (prewar, +/-6 stories)

Potential User: Designed for  tenants (and/or landlords) who want to reduce the cost of rent, reduce the untreated sewage released into NYC waterways, and conserve fresh drinking water use in their building.

GOAL:  Active tenants can choose the appropriate assessment for the toilet type, building composition, etc and present a ready-made cost/benefit argument to their landlord for replacing 5 or more gallon toilets simply on sewage and water use pricing. 

Plumbing Question- Does a 1.5 gallon toilet require different pipes or pumps to achieve a certain flush pressure? ANSWER:  there is no difference in terms of installation between 5 (or 3.5) and 1.6 gallon toilets–it’s the tank size, not the waste pipe size. [ML]

Energy Question- How much energy does one save by pumping 1.5 gallons of water up 1 floor as opposed to pumping 8 gallons of water per floor? ANSWER: unless they are taller than 6 stories (I think), buildings do not pump water up to any floors but instead rely on city water pressure. Therefore, calculating the cost of pumping certain amounts of water up certain numbers of floors depends on how many total floors there are and who’s paying for it. [ML]

Cost Question – How much does one (a home owner, a landlord, and NYC govt )pay per gallon of clean water? ANSWER: The cost of clean/tap water is $3.17 per one hundred cu.ft. (1 cu.ft = ±7.48gal) as of July 2011: But, the minimum charge for service is $0.43 per day per water meter within a Bill Period. So for very small buildings, this might factor in). [ML]

ALSO there is a flat fees per toilet: Ultra low flow toilet, as approved by the Commissioner is $30.40; All other fixtures are $66.52.  So the building saves $30/year/toilet if they go to UTLRA low flow (don’t know if that’s 1.6 gal or not).[ML]

Cost Question - How much does does a homeowner, a landlord, and NYC govt pay for a gallon (cubic foot?) of waste removal?  ANSWER: To calculate the waste water rates, see this:”The wastewater charge for any property supplied with water from the Water Supply System is … 159%…of the charges for water supplied to that property from the system, including any surcharges, unless otherwise provided in this Rate Schedule.” So use the clean water supply cost and multiply by 1.59. [ML]

Labor Question - What kind of contractors, laborers would we need to hire, for an average installation (hours) and estimate of appropriate NYC hourly rates?

Building Type Question – What should we use to make 3 scenarios for a tenant to use as a rough estimate to landlord? (building age, number of units (bathrooms), number of floors (energy), 1.5, 3, 5 and 8 gallons)?

Jeni in Black, Leif in Grey, Meret in Orange, Coburn in blue

Concern – I seem to remember a recent news article about a minimum amount of water being needed to keep the solids moving in the system and low flow toilets were aggravating the situation.  Assuming my recollection is correct, placing high waste water commercial users at the start of each line would be a good fix. [CW]

Tangential Point - Permeable surface parking lots help also [ML]  

Tangential Point - Are grey water systems legal in tenant-occupied buildings?[ML]

Mapping Supply and Demand

I’m looking for a GIS scientist to work with me on a science/art project.

Do you remember, when you were a kid, those layered transparencies of the human  body?  Capillaries, bones, muscles, organs, skin etc.  I’d like to make a layered map of NYS energy resources as a kind of artist book.  Solar maps, forest feedstocks, agricultural land, wind maps, silicon mines for solar panels,etc.  Overlaid with  roadways, waterways, electrical grid, natural gas lines etc.  Then a little energy intensity research, to indicate density of energy use.  Looking at it together, it will look like a colorful abstract painting. Just as we learned about our bodies, layering different subsets of our shared landscape, we will begin to brainstorm more efficient connection between natural resource supply and societal demand.

Deep Thought — (a possible sci fi movie?)

You know, the earth is only so big – but there is sunshine landing on oodles of nothing out there.  Is the sun burning itself to extinction – the very definition of futility? Is earth the only place that uses the light as opportunity for life? What happens to all the sunshine, the huge gigantic arc of light that hits the not-earth area?  Does the sun have an exitential crisis about its own utility?  Where does all that other light go? What does it illuminate and warm and fuel?

Science Fiction Storyline:

What if, we surrounded the sun in a gigantic solar blanket just outside our widest trajectory to capture energy.  We’d be capturing all the light, not just what hits earth.  That would cause the aliens dependent on that light we think is surplus to come and attack the blanket.   A good way to find out if anyone else is using the sunlight that misses earth, or to kill them off completely by depriving them access.  Let me know if this film already exists.  I could use a little humorous perspective on my own idea of utilitarianism.

GovTrack.Us

GovTrack.Us has information on all bills going back to 1993 and follows the status of current pending legislation as it goes through the law-making processs.

My brother Coburn’s idea is that these drafts of legislation could lay a foundation for innovative improvements by citizens.  Here, all the current bills before the House and Senate are posted and could be the basis for pragmatic solutions, writing or rewriting, or just increased citizen awareness to inform other roadblocks or incentives for other innovations.

Warren Buffet and Chain-letter Representation.

So, my mom forwarded me this chain-letter, supposedly initiated by Warren Buffet.  While there may be problems w this whole scenario, in essence, I’m humored to say that this is an example of what this innovation website aspires for.  The agency of an individual, to share an idea, ask for improvements, increase the social capital, expand the audience, and demand representation.

I think collectively we could make it better.  I think if we made it better, we would own it, and it would go viral.  I often wonder if fame, success and unusual talent has beaten down the implicit freedom and agency within each of us to actively drive society.  That someone powerful like Warren Buffet may rally the call as an important move for the collective good is not in doubt here.  That the power of the exponential is in our hands, also, not in doubt.  But most importantly, what this idea lacks is an implementation plan.  It is a chain-letter, and all chain letters do, is give me anxiety, not action.  What do you think, Change.org, want to innovate and propose this as one action for Occupy Wall Street?

An email I received October 30, 2011.  Congressional Reform Act of 2011

“Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.  In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
2. Congress (past, present &future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American  people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!”

NYC Marathon and horsepower.

Last year was the first time I watched a marathon.  I was glib about it, but my mom was visiting, a friend was running, so it all came together and I said, Why not?  Turns out, it made me cry.  In my 1-block area at mile 6, hundreds of people all came out to support the runners.  Runners who had been preparing their muscles, nursing their knees and tendons for months, were now pushing the limits of their being, physically and emotionally.  But that is not what made me cry.  What made me cry, is that the by-standers weren’t just cheering for their one friend, they were cheering everyone on.  I was cheering everyone on. We were invested not only in the success of total strangers, but in their earnest desire to try to meet a personal challenge. If I had seen 10 runners, I would have been non-plussed.  There were 10s of 1000s of runners and even more supporters.  This was real.  Those people were not stuck in some cubicle pushing paper and toner around, they were pursuing something very personal.  En masse, I saw the freedom and willfulness of choiceful agency I long to see daily.

In the background of this experience I noted –with a kind of perverse glee — that the Brooklyn Queens expressway was backed up with traffic.  With all their promise of power, speed and freedom, those 1 and 2-ton EnergyIntensiveSteelAndPlasticGhouls spewing carbon dioxide were at a standstill;  this year’s marathon winner averaged ~13 miles per hour.

This summer, I was home in NH and I went to our famous country fair to watch the horse-pulls – teams of 2 horses collectively weighing less than 3300 lbs.  The winning team pulled 10,900 lbs loaded on a ~6′x10′ sheet of metal across packed dirt (I refused to watch the ox pull bc they incentivize the ox by pulling a nose-ring; the winning ox team pulled 12,600 lbs!).  Including their own body weight, the horses carried more than 14,000 lbs or 7 tons.   Watching their loins is the stuff of legends.  It’s great design.  It’s powerful.  It’s erotic.  The horses prance off – seemingly proud of their accomplishment- when untethered from the massive load.

According to wiki, “horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal ~750 watts. Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the output of piston engines, turbines, electric motors, and other machinery.”

The 2012 Toyota Hybrid Camry boasts its “engine produces 156 horsepower”.  Yes, horses are slower, but horses eat hay.  And not only that, hay grown in the summer and stored in sheds during the non-photosynthetic months.  Like their own personal canning-closet, horses garner calories from high cellulose food that the biochemistry and fauna in our intestinal track can’t even begin to digest.  Years of bleak access to dead grass buried under the snow, has built layers of efficiency mechanisms to make them survive winters and run up to 55mph at their peak.

Humans can run 27mph, but neither horses nor humans can sustain the speed the way the internal combustion engine can.  But it all comes down to how one defines efficiency.  Efficient use of time or efficient use of resources.  How fast one accomplishes work, or how sustainable?  Over thousands of years of evolution (aka biological invention and innovation conjured by the persistent and notorious scientist named Time), horses and man have evolved incredibly efficient systems to capture and thrive on real-time photosynthetic energy.  Cars are neanderthals dragging their knuckles.

Now I am very American and I do love a car ride, but in general driving is overrated and ecologically insane.  I’m certainly not anti-design or anti-machine. The fastest man has gone 83mph (Sam Whittingham) and the fastest woman has gone 75mph (Barbara Bursford) with a regular bicycle on a paved surface.

A human on a bicycle is pure evolutionary genius.  It’s hot.