Microsoft-Hohm is a web-based program (still in beta mode) that helps residents monitor their homes’ energy efficiency. Hohm collects data on users’ homes like square footage, number of rooms, and year of construction (all available through public records and automatically appear on your Hohm profile when you enter an address), and assigns an energy efficiency score based on available data, where a score of 100 means maximum efficiency.

Hohm displays a user’s home energy efficiency as compared to other houses of similar size and construction located in similar climates. The idea is supposedly to show users how much more efficient they could make their homes, and in turn drive them to make conservation changes.

I regsitered to Hohm and entered data for my house. Unfortunately, Hohm did not automatically link to PG&E and Silicon Valley Power so I could not get all my data within their interface.

There is an option to enter it manually though. Based on typical housing data it still can give you some interesting relevant information. It includes a lot of informative graphics and charts. based on your consumption it gives you advice, very much like what Mint.com does to your financial data.

After Google, Oracle, IBM and my neighbor’s startup, everybody seems to want to monitor your and my home utility consumption. I am sure that Microsoft, like all the others, could care less about your or my personal consumption and how I can save on my utility bill so what is their bigger plan?  Why are they all getting into that business?  I would love to have your insight on this one.

It is made from impact-resistant plastic, four solar panels, a replaceable rechargeable battery and five light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It is about the size of a standard light bulb and can withstand tough outdoor conditions.

• Over two hours of light per typical daily charge**
• Up to four hours of light once fully charged**
• Two-plus years of battery life**
• Safety hook for hanging
• Rainproof
• Night-only protection circuit protects from
  accidental daytime usage

Coming from Hong Kong, the world’s first solar-powered LED lightbulb costs about $15. The company’s goal is to go after the kerosene lamps market but the price might be prohibitive to the developing world and for aid agencies in disaster zones.  On the other hand, anyone with a patio or into camping could find the alternative worth it.

I am in for one. I have just installed a gazebo in my backyard and was considering bringing electricity there so I could use some light in the evening.  This might just be the cheaper alternative – and it’s green.

Would you use a solar light bulb and if yes what for?

According to the study, the way LEED certification measures adverse health impacts of building materials gives a false impression of the safety of “environmentally friendly” buildings. A building achieves LEED status based on an aggregate score, with some measurements, such as energy efficiency, weighing more towards the final score than others, like air quality.

So a building can achieve the highest LEED certification – Platinum, even if it makes no improvements in indoor air quality, the study states.

“Although the primary stated purposes of the Green Building Council are to promote both energy efficiency and human health, even the Council’s most prestigious Platinum award does little to ensure that hazardous chemicals are kept out of the certified buildings,” said John Wargo, a professor of Risk Analysis and Environmental Policy at Yale University, and the study’s lead author.

The EHHI study actually finds that more energy efficient buildings may actually increase exposure to toxic chemicals since energy conservation often requires reducing air exchange between indoors and outdoors. Very few of the tens of thousands of chemicals that may be found in a building have been federally tested for toxicity, the study said.

Rather than issuing awards of “platinum,” “gold” and so on, the Green Building Council, which administers LEED certification, should require performance within each category (health, energy, sites, neighborhoods, etc.) on a 0-100 scale, according to the study’s recommendations.

The study also recommends that more health scientists and physicians with formal medical, epidemiological and toxicological training be included on the GBC’s board of directors. Currently only one director out of 25 has such a training.

How important do you think it is for LEED to consider indoor hazardous chemicals? Should that be part of the green building code?

Most businesses can benefit from energy audits, retrocommissioning, and automated benchmarking.  At PG&E analyzing your energy use (a.k.a. Energy Audit) is FREE  and can be done at any time online or simply by setting up an On Site Energy Audit (best for medium or large businesses) through our Business Customer Service Center by calling 1-800-468-4743.

Another method that PG&E offers is Retrocommissioning of your existing business equipment.  Basically, Retrocommissioning is a process of identifying which piece(s) of equipment are not performing at its optimal level.  Rather than replacing outdated equipment retrofitting makes the necessary repairs or upgrades to save energy and costs.  The beauty of that is that it avoids having to purchase new equipment and instead makes use of what you already have and increasing the equipment’s efficiency.  A great way to reap incentives and utilize free resources provided by PG&E to diagnose and estimate engineering costs. There are lots of incentives and rebates that PG&E has to offer.

Next up is Automated Benchmarking:

Benchmarking provides a way to establish an official starting point of energy usage, and as time goes on it provides a good way to track your usage historically and to see or analyze trends in energy usage based upon seasonal changes or changes in the way a business is operated. Once your business has its energy benchmark established your energy usage and data are automatically updated each month. Therefore you also save time since manual data entry of your energy consumption is not necessary.  Another great perk!

For Large Business solutions most of options mentioned above are available however, PG&E provides incentives and programs that are industry specific.  Please visit PG&E’s web site to select the industry that pertains to your business to find out more about how your business can start becoming more energy efficient.

Part of IBM Smarter Planet program, the project follows the Smarter Building initiative. The technology analyzes real-time electricity usage including individual appliances and reports it to consumers. Using IBM’s software, homeowners can view online information that displays their electricity use, figures out the cost, and compares it with usage by other people.

Even though the project is supposedly designed to help consumers make better decisions regarding their power needs, the study’s will definitely help researchers monitor people usage and measure their attitudes toward energy conservation. Through this project, IBM can really demonstrate the capacity of its database technology to handle lots of data.  In a simulation, they were able to get 3 million homes sending readings once a minute and capture nearly 50,000 readings per second.

How do you feel about software companies knowing your exact consumption of energy, down to each appliance?

Rebates will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis until the program runs out of the $35.2 million in stimulus funds awarded to the state by the Department of Energy.

News reports have stated that consumers across the country are snapping up government rebates for energy-efficient appliances so quickly that state programs tap out within days or even hours.

Energy commission spokeswoman Amy Morgan said California chose the mail-in rebate scheme, as opposed to a reservation system, to give consumers who complete purchases a fighting chance to obtain a rebate.

Morgan said the commission will evaluate demand for the rebates next week and will install a fund-tracker on its website so that consumers will know how much, if any, funds remain.

PG&E already offers rebates to recycle functioning old appliances, which is a requirement of the new program. When customers arrange for a recycling pick-up, PG&E will provide $35 for old refrigerators or freezers and $25 for old room air conditioners.

Because appliances have components that can be hazardous or toxic, they should be recycled, rather than thrown out.

Do you have any plans to take advantage of the “Cash for Appliance Rebate Program?”

For building certification, you might be more familiar with the LEED certification. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Initiated in 1999 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), the ENERGY STAR program for buildings was developed to help businesses improve energy management through recognition of energy efficiency and cost-effective measures. Much like LEED, the intent is to spur all parties involved in the design, construction and maintenance of buildings to work together to find energy solutions that are both financially beneficial yet minimize negative impact on the environment.  Offices have been eligible for ENERGY STAR certification since the program began, and since then many commercial facilities and manufacturing plants have been added to the eligibility list, including schools, hospitals, supermarkets and auto assembly plants, to name just a few.

The certification process for an ENERGY STAR certification starts with the use of Portfolio Manager, the EPA’s system helping you track and improve energy efficiency across your entire portfolio of buildings.

Portfolio Manager tracks and assesses energy and water consumption over a 12-month period and determine a building’s level of energy efficiency. The building is then rated by the EPA’s Energy Performance Rating System (EPR) which provides a simple metric to show relative performance based on a 1 to 100 scale. The building is compared to statistically representative models from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), a national survey conducted by the DOE’s Energy Information Administration. Buildings in the upper 25th percentile are eligible for an ENERGY STAR label. The remaining step is to have the building inspected by a third-party, licensed professional engineer, who will verify the building’s energy profile and determine if it meets additional requirements that include air quality, thermal comfort and minimum lighting that meet or surpass current U.S. standards.

By the end of 2009, the number of buildings that have earned the Energy Star label were about 9,000.

Have you or do you know anybody who’s used the Energy Star certification for their building? How long did it take to get certified and how was the process?

Today, TECO, the Tampa Electrical company had some familiar but helpful advice on how to conserve energy during cold weather.  They recommend:

1. Lower your thermostat to 65-68 degrees, no higher than 70 degrees and keep the temperature constant.
2. With a heat pump, limit the activation of the supplemental heat strip by making minor, periodic adjustments to the thermostat.
3. Keep the fan of your central heating unit set to “Auto.”
4. Minimize use of major appliances during cold snaps.
5. Turn off unnecessary lighting. Consider replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s).
6. Lower the thermostat on your electric water heater to 120-140 degrees and limit hot water usage (dishes, laundry, bathing, shaving, etc.).
7. Keep freezer and refrigerator doors closed and make sure they are properly sealed. Check the seals around the perimeter of the doors for cracking or detachment. Set thermostat(s) at proper temperatures to achieve best energy efficiency.
8. Keep fireplace dampers closed when not in use.
9. Inspect air filters regularly (replace them monthly).
10. Reverse your ceiling fans from summer to winter setting.

I would add to that list “insulation.”  Make sure that your home is adequately insulated, especially if it’s an older home.  I recently changed the windows of my 60 year old house and bought high efficiency windows.  I also took advantage of a tax credit for installing energy efficient windows. Insulating walls and the roof/attic are also important to help keep the heat inside the house.  On my end, I went as far as insulating the floor.  With all these changes I experienced a huge difference in my heating (gas) bill – about 40% less during the coldest months compared to the year before.

Have you been able to conserve energy during cold season and if so, what are your tips to save even more energy?

The procedure you should go through to decide if a solar electric system is cost effective for you is the following:

1. Look at your utility bill to find out how much energy you use, and how much it costs you
2. Invest money in energy conservation to get your electric bill as low as possible; every dollar you spend on conservation will save $3 to $5 on the cost of a PV system
3. Find out the energy resources at your location – look at the DOE map below
4. Check the federal, state, local, and utility incentives and laws that may be available to you using the DSIRE website
5. See how much money you’d have to invest in PV to make a difference in your utility bill
6. Then make a decision!

Solar Radiation Map (source Dept of Energy) to help you find out your energy resources.

Figure out what your insolation (Incident Solar Radiations) number is from the map.  For me, it’s 2.7 for Northern California. The number represents kilowatt-hours per square meter per day, often called in the PV industry “full sun-hours” per day. Note: The map above shows the worst-case scenario in December, which is what you would want to plan for if you wanted to power your home entirely from the sun all year.

Now let’s say I’ve installed a 1-kilowatt (1,000 watt) PV array. So, 2.7 hours × 1,000 watts = 2.7 kilowatt-hours (kwh) per day, on average, from your array. Each residential kwh from the utility costs about 11 cents, on average, in the U.S. I’ll be making a little less than 30 cents’ worth of energy every day!

That’s some math.  How do you do your cost analysis?  In any case make sure to check the DSIRE website for current federal, local and utility incentives.

The recommended way to clean up a broken CFL bulb is actually quite simple and safe and NOT costly:

1) Air out the room where the bulb was broken and wait a few minutes for the mercury vapor to dissipate.

2)  Put the broken bulb  into a plastic bag(use a paper towel) or gently sweep up with a dust pan and broom (DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner).

3)  Wipe down the affected area again with a damp paper towel and put the paper towel in the plastic bag.

4)  SEAL the plastic bag.

Put the bag aside in a safe place until garbage day and dispose of it as you would normally do for household hazardous waste like batteries (“AA”, etc.) according to your city’s hazardous waste disposal guidelines.  Disposing of CFL bulbs vary from city to city and can be as simple as placing on top of your recycle cart WITH A NOTE denoting that it is a broken CFL to dropping it off at a designated hazardous waste collection site.  Please check with your city’s garbage collection company for specific instructions.

In essence, CFL bulbs save money, conserve energy and are simple, safe, and not costly to clean up if the bulb is broken.  In the long run there are important cost savings and environmental advantages to using a CFL vs. incandescent light bulbs.

If you are interested in joining the campaign to help spread the word about the benefits of using CFL bulbs, go to the Onebillionbulbs web site for more information.

Together, we can “enlighten” the world…one bulb at a time!!!