Personal Power Production: Solar from Civil Defense to Swadeshi

US and NATO forces have distributed more than 700,000 solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios in Afghanistan since before our invasion of 2001 and that a simple modification to that solar/dynamo adds battery charging capabilities to each of them (circuit diagram at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/12/195518/177 ).

US AID is distributing 250,000 solar/dynamo radios in Sudan over the next few years. Again, those solar/dynamos can not now charge extra AA or other size batteries although with a connection to a battery bay from the cell phone charger output they certainly could. The combination of a few square inches of solar electric, photovoltaic, PV power with a hand-crank or pedal power generator provides a modicum of electric power day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. It also allows battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another. This is practical personal power production and the technology is deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Sudan or available off the shelf right now for $30 from LL Bean and many others, if you are willing to do a little tinkering.

The same technology is also a Solar Civil Defense.

Flashlight, cell phone, radio, and extra set of batteries all can be powered with a couple of square inches of solar electricity (PV) panel. It is also what we are supposed to have on hand in case of a blizzard or hurricane, emergency or disaster. Add a hand crank or pedal power generator and you have reliable production of AA and larger battery electrical power.

This level of survival solar power is a significant rise in the standard of living for the 1.6 to 1.8 billion people in the world who do not now have access to electricity, too. Civil defense preparedness here in the US could be linked to providing services to the poorest of the global poor. I am talking with a Cambridge, MA group which includes city officers and officials about the possibility of promoting Solar IS Civil Defense locally through a buy one, give one exchange with a sister city in the developing world, possibly with Bogolight (http://www.bogolight.com) or Light Haiti Project ( http://lighthaiti.org/donations.html ).

In addition, this combination of small scale solar and human power is an example of swadeshi, local production or self production, a core principle of Gandhian economics:
"Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote."
Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, 1919 ( http://members.tripod.com/~anusandhan/articles/article1.html )

Gandhi would spin thread for an hour each day, usually producing a hundred yards for weaving into cloth, and helped develop a simple spinning wheel (charkha) that allowed many to do the same. He believed that spinning was the foundation of non-violence and that khadi cloth was a means to the local production of economic independence. Gandhi was a middle-aged man when he first asked his wife Kasturba to teach him to use the spinning wheel. Once he had mastered the wheel, he practiced spinning every day for the rest of his life. Home-spinning became a symbol for independence and self-reliance throughout India under his encouragement and direction and a market began in cottage industry and home produced cloth, khadi.

Gandhi used the charkha, the spinning wheel. Today there is an e-charkha available, developed by RS Hiremath ( http://www.flexitron.diytrade.com/sdp/194986/4/pd-699352/5454575-0/e-charkha.html ):

"...spinning on the two-spindle e-charkha for two hours will produce 2,400 meters of yarn and provide a light output for 7.5 hours. According to the innovator, the LED light is of the latest type and has an extremely long life of at least 35 years. The generator in the e-charkha is also custom designed for this application and is of the three-phase AC version with no brushes, which makes it last for over three and a half decades. Hiremath has sold over 1,800 e-charkhas till date, the biggest consumer lot residing in Rajasthan and Gujarat. He says, “The response till now has been overwhelming. Most users are delighted with the prospect of a charkha generating them money and electricity.... The e-charkha, which weighs around 10 to 12 kgs, has two models—a two-spindle one and an eight-spindle one. The universal retrofit kit that can be easily attached to the shaft of any charkha is priced at Rs 1,500, while the two-spindle e-charkha costs Rs 4,500 and the eight-spindle one Rs 11,000. The innovator has applied for a patent for the retrofit kit, which consists of a three-phase AC generator, lead acid battery and intermediate control circuits for charge and discharge. It is currently manufactured at a facility in Bangalore and is mostly produced by disabled employees. The product is currently being marketed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Mumbai."
http://www.dare.co.in/people/featured-innovation/e-charkha.htm

One humanpower is about one sixth horsepower. A healthy person can produce 100 watts of power for hours on end and 300 watts in a sprint.

Returning to Afghanistan, there is the example of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Badshah Khan, who practiced Gandhian non-violence and raised the world's first non-violent army, over 100,000 strong, of Pashtun and other peoples, Muslim, Sikh, and HIndu, in the very areas where the Taliban is now active in Pakistan. They were the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Servants of God, the Red Shirts, who based their non-violence on the Islamic principle of sadr, patience, and the Pashtun custom of melmastia, hospitality. Badshah Khan was educated in a madrassa as well as a missionary school. He began building his own schools in 1910, educating both boys and girls, and formed the Khudai Khidmatgar a decade or so later. That group lasted until 1947 when it was disbanded, forcibly, by the new nation of Pakistan. I wonder if the Taliban learned anything from him.

Could we do with electricity what Gandhi did with cloth, at least for emergencies and disasters? Can hand-made electricity, 21st century khadi cloth, provide real electrical power to the people and a survival level of energy independence and autonomy?

Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/12/195518/177
Solar Swadeshi http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html
Afghanistan Solar http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/27/0353/85056
Solar Tactics in Afghanistan http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/26/01854/3246
Low Level Leverage Points in Afghanistan http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/4/810944/-Low-Level-Leverage-Points-in-Afghanistan
Solar Insurgency http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/8/0317/01605
Solar IS Civil Defense http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/30/142018/700
Islamic Satyagraha Army http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/27/23370/2751

Climate Collaboration Contest

To members of the Climate CoLab community,

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Climate CoLab contest, as well as a major upgrade of our software platform.

The contest will address the question: What international climate agreements should the world community make?

The first round runs through October 31 and the final round through November 26.

In early December, the United Nations and U.S. Congress will be briefed on the winning entries.

We are raising funds in the hope of being able to pay travel expenses for one representative from each winning team to attend one or both of these briefings.

We invite you to form teams and enter the contest--learn more at http://climatecolab.org.

We also encourage you to fill out your profiles and add a picture, so that members of the community can get to know each other.

And please inform anyone you believe might be interested about the contest.

I voted for the 350 alternative, the closest this simulation can get to zero emissions, and entered a zero emissions scenario in the last iteration of Climate Collab. The new program is more detailed than the last but there is still a lot of work to do. Your participation can help make this tool more useful.

cross posted to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/11/909327/-Climate-Collaboration-Contest

How to Change US Energy in One Growing Season

1. Consistently demonstrate practical, affordable energy efficiency and renewable energy ideas, devices, and systems at the over 4000 weekly farmers' markets that take place across the USA from Memorial Day to Halloween or Thanksgiving.

The people who attend farmers' markets are a core constituency for green technology and practical applications that save money, energy, and resources. They are likely to be early adopters who can spread those possibilities into the community. I've done energy demos at my local farmers' market and know that a renewable energy company sometimes participates in the year-long weekly market near Providence, RI. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples out there.

Do energy education weekly at as many of those 4000 weekly markets as possible and over one growing season energy use and attitudes would change significantly. See Mr Franklin's Folks for one vision of how this might work.


Cambridge, MA has been doing monthly weatherization barnraisings since the summer of 2008. Since then, at least 18 other nearby and distant communities have begun their own weatherization parties. Still other groups are doing solar barnraisings in at least four states, that I know of:
Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in NH
Seacoast Area Renewable Energy Initiative in the Piscataqua region on Maine and NH
Coop Power in Western MA
Grid Alternatives in CA

During the last energy crisis in the 1970s, there were groups that did solar barnraisings too. Some of those solar devices are still working.

Personally, I'd like to see a weatherization barnraising on the White House. With the full participation of all the TV carpentry shows, "This Old House," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the HGTV and DIY channels.... It could make for some great PSAs and instructional audio/video and the power of the President's bully pulpit (plus a little of his own sweat equity) would go a long way toward generating the mass movement toward energy efficiency that we should have undertaken thirty years ago.

3. Energy education could also work in conjunction with emergency preparedness and civil defense. Start with the basics - flashlight, cell phone, radio, an extra set of batteries.... all of which can be powered with a couple of square inches of PV. Add a hand crank or pedal power back up and you have reliable production of AA and better electricity day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.

Solar IS Civil Defense, pure and simple.

It is also a significant rise in the standard of living for the 1.6 or so billion people in this world who don't have access to electricity today.

In fact, there are organizations where you can join a buy one give one program and support coordinated development in the developing world with civil defense in the developed world.

4. 350.org's next event is an international climate change work day on 10/10/10. If groups going to farmers' markets weekly and doing monthly energy barnraisings monthly organize with that October 10 in mind, that event could make an even bigger splash and larger impression on the general public.

Weekly energy demos at farmers' markets and monthly energy barnraisings could also continue after that one single international work day so that the work continues and we all change the way we use energy, from wasteful and polluting to efficient and clean.

5. Build an information network so that different groups working on these issues around the world can share experiences and speed innovation.

I'd like to see an online solutions architecture established to make good energy ideas go viral. There are already some sites which are useful resources:
Appropedia
Open E Farm
BuildItSolar
Solar Cooking Archive

It is way past time for the changes we need. We shouldn't wait for politicians or business to change. We should start making the changes we need ourselves. Begin the parade and there will be plenty of "leaders" ready to run to the front of the line.

Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous behaviors that will avoid extinction.
R. Buckminster Fuller

We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at all.
Lew Welch

The only war is the war against imagination.
The only war is the war against imagination.
The only war is the war against imagination....

the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it.

Diane di Prima

Zero Net Energy House Winner Is Positive Net Energy House

At the NESEA Building Energy Conference in March, the winner of the MA Zero Net Energy House contest was announced. It is the Stephens/Clarke Residence in Montague, MA which was built by Bick Corsa. The 1152 square foot, 3 bedroom house cost $180,000, was monitored from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010, and produced two and a half times the energy it consumed. This Zero Net Energy House is actually a Positive Net Energy House.

The house is highly insulated, with R42 walls, R100 ceiling, and stands on an R30 insulated slab. It is powered by 4.94 kW of solar electric panels, solar air and hot water heaters, and passive solar heat gained through U-.17 windows (about R 5.8, according to my calculations). There is a mini-split air source heat pump serving as a furnace and demand hot water heaters as back-up in case it's needed.

The house used 1,959 kilowatts for the entire year with an annual energy bill for heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, appliances, and lighting of $392. They sold 2,933 kilowatt hours worth $586 back to the grid over that same period.

Tina Clarke, a Transitions Town trainer, and her husband, Doug Stephens, moved into their new home in December 2008 and will be using it in conjunction with Greenfield Community College and Franklin Regional Technical High School to educate builders and students in green jobs and green building techniques. Information about these courses can be found at http://www.gcc.mass.edu/media/docs/cg/community_ed.pdf"

In an interview with the Springfield Republican, builder Bick Corsa said the things that are most successful at lowering utility bills in a new home are tried-and-true design techniques.

“People tend to go for glamorous high-tech gadgets. There is nothing wrong with that stuff, but I tell people to go with the things that pay for themselves. A superinsulated shell for the house; put your money into that. It has no maintenance and it will save you on your heating,” he said.

Also, homes that have lots of windows that face toward the sun, called passive solar heating, will reduce heating bills. In this region, facing to the southwest gets you the most sun exposure.

“Those two things together – superinsulation and passive solar heating – are by far the most effective ways to have a really low-energy house. They are simple things that do their job year after year,” Corsa said....

These are also techniques that can be adapted to existing housing as well.


Case Studies of Zero Net Energy Houses and Deep Energy Retrofits
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeeaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Energy%2C+Utilities+%26+Clean+Technologies&L2=Energy+Efficiency&L3=Zero+Net+Energy+Buildings+(ZNEB)&sid=Eoeea&b=terminalcontent&f=doer_Zero_Net_Energy_Buildings_Case_Studies&csid=Eoeea

Zero Energy Intelligence
http://www.zeroenergyintelligence.com/blogspagehtm/?p=1284

Boston Herald article on the Stephens/Clarke residence
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1238366

Solar IS Civil Defense



cross posted to bluemassgroup.com, dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, and greenmassgroup

How to Heal the World

It was probably around thirty years ago that I went to a basement apartment near Harvard Square for a presentation by two people visiting from Auroville, a religious community and ecovillage near Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India. The man and woman talked about their work planting trees and reforesting the area. They showed slides, focusing on a method they derived by trial and error to provide water for their saplings by molding bunds, small catchment basins just downslope from the tree to gather rainwater so that it could soak down into the roots. They talked about following erosion gullies upslope to where they began and using stones and pebbles to stop the erosion at the source. They said that after more than a decade of work, the weather had noticeably changed in the region and the seasonal rains had returned.

How did we get into this mess?
A little bit at a time and because everybody does it.
We get out of it just
that same way.
4/23/01 John Berry, in conversation

I think about this as I plant my garden. I remember John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed; Jean Giono's story of Elzéard Bouffier, "The Man Who Planted Trees;" John Todd's vision to restore the devastated mountains of Appalachia. I think about ecological design instead of geoengineering, the small seeds planted and tended over time with modesty and patience rather than the heroic technology of global scale for immediate results and long-term unintended consequences.

One of my favorite videos is this short piece on Greening the Desert, a permaculture installation in Jordan near the Dead Sea. It reaffirms my faith in the idea that "You Can Fix All the World's Problems in a Garden."

Greening the Desert Follow-Up, Six Years After the Funding Ran Out



"The Man Who Planted Trees" is Jean Giono's allegorical story of a shepherd who plants a forest. It is beautifully written and, unfortunately, fiction. You can read it in English and en Français or watch the Academy Award winning animation.



John Todd's Ecological Design for Appalachia won the first Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge. He proposes using biological waste treatment to clean up coal slurry and tree planting and biomass production to restore the landscape and provide jobs.

One Man Creates a Forest in India shows that what Giono imagined can happen in reality. Abdul Karim is a living Elzéard Bouffier.

Auroville is still planting trees and you can help build their Sadhana Forest.

There is also the Green Belt Movement in Africa founded by Wangari Maathai.

Trees for the Future promotes tree planting all around the world.

Arbor Day varies from state to state but usually happens in April.

crossposted to dailykos.com, eurotrib.com, globalswadeshi.net, bluemassgroup.com, and greenmassgroup.com

Old Solar: 1881

Edward Sylvester Morse patented his air heater in 1881. It is still a great design with a versatile vent system.

A simple glazed box on the south wall with a dark absorber, an air space, and two sets of vents at top and bottom, to the outside air and the inside of the house, this is a basic air heater that can be modified for wall or window.

Edward Sylvester Morse built at least three of these. One was at the Peabody Museum in Salem, MA and used an iron absorber panel. The second had a slate absorber and was on his own home, also in Salem. The last was at the Boston Athenaeum. He also lectured on the topic at MIT and published a pamphlet on his solar air heater findings.

ES Morse was a remarkable gentleman. Not only did he teach at the Essex Institute in Salem, MA but he lived and taught in Japan and traveled to China. His book, _Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings_, is still in print and a great primer on traditional Japanese culture. He was a president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and wrote wonderful reports on topics as diverse as noise pollution, archaeology, and natural science. I especially enjoyed "Fireflies Flashing in Unison."

SolarWall is a modern adaptation of Morse's idea. It is an unglazed perforated absorber. A fan draws outside air through the absorber and into the heated space. It gets up to 75% thermal efficiency they say.

Solarwall uses the air flow pattern shown in the leftmost illustration of Morse's patent. The TAP (Thermosiphon Air Panel) is an example of the middle illustration, cycling room air past the absorber in a closed loop, full heating mode. The third illustration shows an air chimney from the floor of the room to the top of the absorber, a cooling technique.

I'd like to see a Morse collector with modern materials, PV fan assist, and controls that monitor and maximize the vent system. Could be interesting.

Old Solar: Eames Solar Do-Nothing Machine

Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar AIr Heater

Old Solar: Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
More on simple solar devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector

Simple Solar - Parts 4 through 8

From My Basic Solar Advice:

First, reduce your load. Insulate, caulk, seal everything you can. Weatherize everything up the wazoo, even going so far as to get a blower door test - pressurizing your house with a large fan installed in the front door and having a professional go around finding where all the air leaks are. Get the most efficient appliances (refrigerators tend to be the largest electrical load in the house) and lights that you can find and afford and install them. When you've become as efficient and energy-conserving as you can be, then start thinking about solar.

Then, and only then, go solar.

This is my solar backpack. It has three solar lighting systems on it which I use for my lights when riding my bicycle at night. I've been using it for four or five years now, hasn't failed me yet, and cost a little over $60 to put together. Dirty F*ck*ng Solar Hippie Backpack

Minimal solar lights and flashlights, solar is civil defense, and an affordable way to ease into the renewable future. After all, Solar Is Civil Defense

Solar and dynamo power for reliable sources of low voltage DC power: light, radio, cell phone, and anything that uses a battery. The combination of small scale solar and a hand cranked or foot pedaled dynamo provides a reliable source of low voltage DC electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. It is one method to bring useful amounts of electricity to the quarter of the world's population that does not now have access and a good idea to have on hand in the industrialized world in case of emergency and disaster.

Here's the summation of my 30 years of playing with sunlight and demonstrating simple solar devices for a couple hundred thousand of people throughout the Northeast. This short clip reviews all the devices and techniques I presented in the rest of this series.

Simple Solar - Parts 1, 2, and 3

I presented a workshop on Simple Solar at the Boston Skill Share on a windy Sunday, April 19, outside the Stata Center at MIT. Werner and Julie of Videosphere recorded me and I finally got around to doing a rough edit of the first part, the simplest solar devices that anyone can make to disinfect and heat water and cook food.

It's six and a half minutes long, I have the sniffles and say "All right?" a lot but the rest of the information is good. After all, solar heating is remarkably simple:
dark heats up
light reflects
clear keeps out the wind



Boiling water and cooking with the Simple Solar principles and using the basic geometry of the parabolic curve to focus light in a line and a circle with a parabolic trough and parabolic dish.



The late Tim Harkness made the parabolic dish used in the video on that windy April day. There is a Tim Harkness Fund for Invention at Hampshire College which awards grants for innovative work in applied design and invention, especially in areas of sustainability and renewable energy. Students and alumni from the Five Colleges are eligible.

How to Draw a Parabola

Draw a Parabola with pencil and string



Simple solar windowbox air heater for supplemental heating of a single room. This device uses a solar electric fan assist and can be built full scale (2 feet x 4 feet) for about $100 worth of materials.

More on the Windowbox Solar Air Heater

More on simple solar devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector
Your Southernmost Window
Solar IS Civil Defense
Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated

Earlier Diaries:
Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater
Old Solar: Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern
Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
Old Solar: 1881

Under-Utilized Installed Solar Capacity in Afghanistan

By my count, over 700,000 solar/dynamo radios have been distributed throughout Afghanistan by US and NATO forces. As built, they charge only the dedicated, internal, hardwired radio batteries. With an easy modification, they could charge standard size rechargeable batteries. Then people could always charge an extra set of batteries. They would have a reliable source of low voltage DC power, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. Through battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another, they could power LED lights, cell phones, tape and CD players, walkie-talkies, possibly even computers.

Some of our soldiers know how to do these modifications. Are the people of Afghanistan doing them too?



The radios were distributed as part of a psychological warfare program, to bring news of the invasion and the intentions of the coalition forces to the people. You can read more about that program here or here.

Not only the military is interested in this idea of solar/dynamo battery charging. I have had a couple of commercial solar/dynamos modified for my own use and below is a circuit diagram for the battery charging modification Richard Komp of ME Solar Energy Association drew for me.



The solar/dynamo battery charger is a key part of my personal Solar Civil Defense, providing power for the flashlight, radio, cell phone, and extra set of batteries we all should have on hand in case of emergency.

I believe that such devices can be used as a solar swadeshi, a modern adaptation of Gandhi's spinning wheel. In fact, Gandhi's spinning wheel has been adapted to electrical generation so that an hour of spinning thread can provide nearly three hours of LED light. This is the e-charkha. You can see the e-charkha in action here.

Some people are even going farther, Taikkun Li has proposed a Tibetan prayer wheel generator and LED lighting system. Given the current economic, political, and ecological situation, there are some days when I feel we really do need electric prayer.

PS: US AID plans to distribute about 250,000 solar/dynamo radios to Sudan over the next five years or so for a nation-building project. These solar/dynamos also charge only the dedicated, internal, hardwired radio batteries.

Small Scale LED Lighting + Off-Grid Cell Phone Charging in Mali

Matt Berg currently serves as the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project based out of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City and prior to that, was the director of the Geekcorps Mali program in Bamako, Mali.

Inspired by Jan Chipchase, I put together the following photo montage [pdf alert] covering the ever increasing number of cheap Chinese LED lights that are transforming the way people access lighting. There are a lot of amazing NGOs doing work to address the issue of rural household lighting but I think they are at best a fill-gap to an existing market gap. The mass market solution (LED + small rechargeable battery + 1 W solar panel) that will really make a difference will be Chinese and at a price that will encourage extremely fast adoption rates. This is evident from the introduction of LED flashlights in Mali that completely took over the market in less than six months.

I also document the common way most cell phone charging is done in an off-grid environment. While it may not the be the most power efficient or battery safe method it works and is both cheap to the supplier and consumer. Used car batteries you can see are the 'power lines' in a lot of African villages that form the basis of distributed power distribution.

More at http://buildafrica.org/2009/04/28/led-lights-and-12vcell-phone-charging-mali/

Matt Berg is exactly right. LED light, battery, and small solar packages will hit the market within a year or two. LED lights and cell phones bring most if not all of the world's population into the electric (and communication) network. They can also be charged with a hand crank or bicycle generator. Extra 6 volt motorcycle and 12 volt car batteries can be charged in the course of driving a car or truck. Minimum "clean" electricity is affordably feasible in the world today, if only we realize it.

I wish the US government noticed. By my count, there have been over 700,000 solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios distributed in Afghanistan by US and NATO forces since before our 2001 invasion. None of them can charge a cell phone or a standard size battery as currently configured. US AID is sending 16,000 solar/dynamo radios to the Sudan this year and plans to send 250,000 over the next few years as part of a nation-building program. None of them, so far, will charge a cell phone or an extra battery. All of them could.

These techniques can also be useful when the grid goes down, which is one reason why I say:

Solar IS Civil Defense

Solar Fountain at the Farmers' Market

I take my solar fountain out for a walk from time to time at farmers' markets and in the city squares. Around the fountain are posters which display what I think are some of the rules of living within a restorative ecology. The splash of water makes a difference in public and children like to learn that they can turn the fountain on and off with the shadow of a hand.

Solar Fountain at the Farmers Market

More energy demo ideas for farmers' markets at Mr Franklin's Folks.

Weatherization Barnraising: This Old Extreme White House Makeover

Saturday, December 6, between 30 and 40 people came to a house in Cambridge, MA to do a weatherization barnraising. We began checking in at 8 am to start work at 9. There was a blower door and an infrared camera to test our results. This was part of the public access TV series Energy Smackdown, a competition between different towns to see which can reduce their carbon footprint most. Materials were donated by EFI and Home Depot. Byggmeister donated the blower door and infrared camera and the operator, Kerry Koskinen, volunteered his time.

A blower door depressurizes the house by 50 Pascals so that you can see where the air leaks in. You can feel the draft with the back of your hand or see it with a smoke pencil (or a stick of incense or a cigarette). A blower door test costs from $200 to $500 and is well worth it if you are serious about cutting down infiltration. On average, 2 professionals in one day will reduce air leaks by about 250 cfm [cubic feet per minute].



We started at 4500 cfm at 50 pascals and after 3 hours of work and about $500 of materials we ended at 3850 cfm.





The infrared camera gave us a clear view of where the leaks were. The camera records temperature and you can see heat as the lighter colors and coolth as the darker. The temperature scale is registered on the left of the picture. Unfortunately, the battery on the IR camera conked out before Kerry could do the after pictures.









An IR thermometer which costs $70 rather than $7000 for an IR camera will also work but it just ain't as kewl. And there's an infrared "heat seeking ray gun" whose beam changes color in the presence of cooler temperatures that should be available sometime in 2009 for $39.99.

I was working on windows, putting Mortite rope caulk around the window sash. Unfortunately, the windows had plastic cladding and the composition of Mortite has changed since the last time I used it. It wouldn't stick. Very frustrating. I switched to insulated the wall sockets instead. Eventually, we changed to weatherstripping tape, a product I hadn't used before and didn't use that day either as I had a previous engagement and had to leave early. Later reports informed me that most if not all the windows were weatherstripped in record time.

The organizers reported that

With the "blower door" and infra-red camera to guide us, we found that we reduced the air infiltration at Chris and Pam's last weekend by 15%. This will be close to what you can expect in your own home if you decide to weatherize as we all learned to do. That should be worth about $200/year at current fuel prices.

We didn't finish insulating the attic hatch which would have reduced the air infiltration even more.

This is what the crowd looked like as we gathered for our instructions.



A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of the cat who I heard got insulated behind a wall for a day or so.

I'd like to see a weatherization barnraising at the White House. Complete with blower door test and infrared camera.

I'd like to see President Obama kick off the move to green jobs with a weatherization, insulation, and energy efficiency work day on public buildings. There are plenty of repairs and upgrades for government buildings that provide immediate rewards, saving enough money through lower energy costs to pay back in a couple of years. This is exactly where the green job economy starts. Architecture 2030 has a stimulus plan to create millions of jobs by applying energy efficiency methods to existing buildings that would pay for itself in energy savings within five years.

from Architecture 2030 Stimulus Plan - pdf alert:

With a federal investment of $85.56 billion each year for two years, the Plan will:
in just two years,
create at least 8.445 million new jobs and
create a new $1.6 trillion renovation market
and in just five years,
save consumers $142.33 to 200.88 billion,
reduce CO2 emissions by 481.13 Million Metric Tons,
reduce energy consumption by 6.17 Quadrillion Btu,
save 1.83 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and
save 83.35 million barrels of oil.

I'd like to see President Obama bring weatherization barnraisings to the national level but, even if he doesn't, we'll continue to have weatherization barnraisings in Cambridge. The next barnraising is at a local public school and will have the help of the MIT Sustainability Club, a student group. I can imagine weatherization and, later, solar barnraisings on one school building a month, with energy efficiency training building throughout the community. A consistent program of hands on energy education could be significant.

from MIT Sustainability Club:

HEET, a Cambridge-based energy efficiency team, is weatherizing the Cambridgeport Public School. We need someone who can install a few photosensors in classrooms and stairways so when it's bright enough from daylight, the lights turn off. The person should be able to teach a few volunteers how to do this work also (safely).

The Cambridge public school system needs help decreasing its energy use, so more of its budget goes to teachers and books, than to wasting energy. Help us help them.

The event is tentatively planned for January 19th, from 12:30 pm to 5 pm
Cambridgeport Public School, 89 Elm St. Cambridge

If interested, email Audrey@audreyschulman.com

HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) was recently awarded a Climate Superstar by MCAN. Check out the article the Boston Globe wrote about HEET:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/turning_up_heet/

Windowbox Solar Air Heater

This is a demonstration model of a solar windowbox air heater.

You can build it from a sheet of insulation board, some clear glass or plastic, and a furnace air filter painted black.

When the sun shines, the black absorber inside the insulated windowbox gets hot, heating air which rises into the room behind the window, and drawing cooler air from inside that room past the absorber in a thermal loop that lasts until the sun goes down.

At night, the cold air sinks to the bottom of the windowbox and closes off this thermal loop so there is no additional night time heat loss.

Increase the efficiency of the windowbox solar air heater with a solar electric, photovoltaic, PV fan.

This demonstration model uses a repurposed solar car window ventilator. Only when the sun hits the PV panel does the fan move air, an automatic solar circuit thermostatic control.

The windowbox solar air heater is a supplemental heater for one room with a south-facing window and can be modified to provide increased ventilation and cooling in the summer as Edward Sylvester Morse's 1881 solar air heater design did.



Cost for a 2 foot by 3 foot insulation board solar windowbox air heater is around $100. PV fan car vents are available for as little as $5. One recently built windowbox has heated air by at least 20º Fahrenheit, from 65 to 85º, and will do so all winter.

Old Solar: 1980 Barnraised Solar Air Heater

This house has been solar heated for nearly 28 years now, the glazed black box on the south wall pumps heat into the living room whenever the sun shines, consistently and reliably. It was built in the Riverside neighborhood of Cambridge, MA in 1980.

This solar collector is an air heater that takes air from the kitchen,


moves it past the black absorber plate with a fan,


and then exhausts the solar heated air back into the living room.


Sometimes on sunny winter days, the people who live there have to flip the damper and dump the collector's air outside to prevent overheating.


It has worked unfailingly all these years without any major maintenance, even for the fan and the thermostat that turns it on and off.

Unfortunately, this solar air heater will soon be at least partially shaded. The vacant lot next door is being developed for condos and the new construction will shade the sun from the collector for part of the day. The collector's owners bought a part of the property next door so that their collector will still see some sun and received a settlement from the developer to compensate them for the loss of their sun rights. That money will help pay for the new solar electric panels they've installed on the roof.


The panels cost around $26,000 and have supplied as much as 2 kilowatts to the household.


There is a special meter just for the solar array.


Some days they even run the electric meter backwards.


After the state and Federal rebates, the installation will cost around $17,000, less the sun rights settlement. That old solar air heater not only provided reliable space heat for 25 years but will help pay for the new solar electric panels. Not bad.

In the course of this recent solar experience, one of the owners approached the city zoning board and the city council about solar shading and zoning. Now the city manager has a committee examining the issue of sun rights and the hope is that soon we will have a policy that will help Cambridge become more of a solar city.

This solar air heater was barnraised by the Urban Solar Energy Association, now the Boston Area Solar Energy Association, in 1980. It was one of six such projects sponsored by a community development corporation (CDC) called Riverside Cambridgeport Community Corporation. I located another project still around from those days at the Cambridge Community Center in the same neighborhood.



I haven't found out yet whether it's still working but the glazing needs to be replaced (there was a 25 year warranty on Kalwall, as I recall). Solar Barnraisings are beginning to come back into style. Reglazing this old collector would be a great way for the next generation of solar barnraisers to start.

PS: These types of simple air heaters can be modified for summer use to provide solar ventilation and cooling too, as Edward Sylvester Morse's solar air heater from 1881 demonstrated.



More Old Solar:
Old Solar: Keck and Keck Twentieth Century Modern
Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
Old Solar: 1881

More on simple solar devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector

Homefront Advantage

I finally finished a short video (less than two minutes) on WWII posters for the Homefront. These posters exhorted all of us to become part of the war effort. It wasn't about "going shopping" then, it was about energy and resource conservation, rationing ourselves for the benefit of our armed forces, and making the Homefront an effective front for fighting the Axis powers.

In 2004, I tried to contact the Kerry campaign to convince them to use these posters in reminding us of our history. I think they would be just as effective this election year.

I also hand delivered to Al Gore a packet with some of my favorite WWII posters but, again, have seen no results from this attempt.

Links to more of my favorite WWII posters at
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/29/2145/7162
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/22/225321/63/96/425004
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2006/07/its-all-one-war-that-never-ends.html

Solar IS Civil Defense, Illustrated

Solar IS Civil Defense
Like this solar LED light and AA battery charger


or this solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radio, similar to the ones US and NATO forces have distributed in Afghanistan.

Solar IS Civil Defense
and, after all,
we are at war.


Solar IS Civil Defense
a flashlight, radio or cell phone, an extra set of batteries
solar powered
with hand or foot operated dynamo back-up,
emergency lighting and communication
day or night
from sunlight or
muscle power.

One solar component
is an LED flashlight
which also charges AA batteries.
This design allows for
battery switching,
charging a second set of batteries
to use in other devices.

The Bogolight is a charger and light
with an international development
addition:
each light bought
buys another solar LED light and battery charger
for someone who has no access to electricity
in this world.

Solar IS Civil Defense in another way.


US and NATO forces have distributed
solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios
in Afghanistan.

Those solar/dynamos could easily charge
AA batteries
and establish a low power DC grid
through battery switching.
This level of survival electricity
would raise the standard of living
for most Afghanis,
helping to rebuild their lives
as well as their country and economy.

This circuit diagram is one way
to add this capability to the present
solar/dynamo radios now in Afghanistan.



The image I have is of a
solar swadeshi, hand-made electricity.
Instead of turning the handle
of the charkha spinning wheel
making thread
for khadi cloth
an hour a day as Gandhi did,
turning the crank of a dynamo a half hour a day,
the direct production of survival power
for yourself, your family, and your community,
swadeshi, local production.

How did Gandhi's Pashtun colleague,
Badshah Khan practice it?
And could his example
help bring peace back
today?

Lifecycle Costs of Photovoltaics

Treehugger had a squib about a recent Brookhaven Labs analysis of lifecycle cost assessment for photovoltaic panels. There wasn't a direct link so I had to do a little digging to find it but the conclusion alone is worth it:

Using data compiled from the original records of twelve PV manufacturers, we quantified the emissions from the life cycle of four major commercial photovoltaic technologies and showed that they are insignificant in comparison to the emissions that they replace when introduced in average European and U.S. grids. According to our analysis, replacing grid electricity with central PV systems presents significant environmental benefits, which for CdTe PV amounts to 89–98% reductions of GHG emissions, criteria pollutants, heavy metals, and radioactive species. For roof-top dispersed installations, such pollution reductions are expected to be even greater as the loads on the transmission and distribution networks are reduced, and part of the emissions related to the life cycle of these networks are avoided.

It is interesting that emissions of heavy metals are greatly reduced even for the types of PV technologies that make direct use of related compounds. For example the emissions of Cd from the life cycle of CdTe PV are 90−300 times lower than those from coal power plants with optimally functioning particulate control devices. In fact, life-cycle Cd emissions are even lower in CdTe PV than in crystalline Si PV, because the former use less energy in their life cycle than the later. In general, thin-film photovoltaics require less energy in their manufacturing than crystalline Si photovoltaics, and this translates to lower emissions of heavy metals, SOx, NOx, PM, and CO2. In any case, emissions from any type of PV system are expected to be lower than those from conventional energy systems because PV does not require fuel to operate. PV technologies provide the benefits of significantly curbing air emissions harmful to human and ecological health. It is noted that the environmental profiles of photovoltaics are further improving as efficiencies and material utilization rates increase and this kind of analysis needs to be updated periodically. Also, future very large penetrations of PV would alter the grid composition and this has to be accounted for in future analyses.

The four types of PV examined were multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride.

Cadmium telluride was best overall but

At least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid.

The estimated energy payback time (EPBT) for PV ranges from 6 years to 1.1 years, depending upon the type of PV, the insolation, and the installation. PV panels are usually rated to have a lifetime of 25 to 30 years. Now you know what to say when anybody questions whether PV's produce more energy than it takes to make them.

originally posted at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/28/232952/333/722/466075

Solar on the Radio

I was interviewed on the Samantha Clemens show on Saturday, February 16 over Tufts University radio, WMFO. You can listen to the interview at http://www.samanthaclemens.com/Guests.html

We had a good time talking about the fact that Solar IS Civil Defense and other things. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

My Solar Christmas

As a Christmas gift, I donated solar ovens to people in the refugee camps around Darfur. For the people there, who are at risk every time they have to leave the camp to seek scarce fuel, a solar oven can mean survival.

Jewish World Watch sends two solar ovens to the Iridimi and Touloum refugee camps in Chad for $30.

There are other solar oven programs as well.

This video from German CARE is especially close to my heart because it shows a woman in one of the 3 international displaced person camps they run in Easten Chad using a solar oven and a "haybox" or retained heat cooker to prepare a meal.



The haybox is simply an insulated box into which you place a hot pot. The heat has nowhere to go but into the food. You can also use a stone as a heat reservoir: heat the stone, place it in the box with a pot of food, cook. It's an old, old technique updated with solar. I love these ancient solutions to common problems.

Here's another youtube report on a solar cooker workshop held in Nyala, Sudan under the auspices of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization.



I also gave the gift of bees and trees as I do every year through Heifer International. Donate bees, trees, rabbits, geese, chickens, goats, as well as heifers to a project from their catalog somewhere around the world, including the US, in the names of your loved ones.

I like to give bees because they are all about pollination and improving agricultural production. Investment in pollination in these days of colony cluster disease is especially important.

I like trees because they are also a carbon offset. I've given a decade and more's worth of 60 trees a year to Heifer International. That should do something to absorb some of the carbon my energy use has released to the atmosphere.



Last but certainly not least, I also gave a few solar LED flashlights and AA battery chargers to friends and family. These Bogolights are very well designed with one button (on and off) and one screw to secure the battery bay. There's even a phosphorescent band so you can find the flashlight in the dark. They work as reading lights too. I know because I tried them out. They also use standard AA rechargeable batteries and allow for battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another set in a second device.

Bogo means "buy one, give one" by which they mean, you spend $25 to buy one for yourself and the company sends a second to somebody in the developing world. You can even choose where and what program. A good deal.

I gave these solar flashlights because

Solar IS Civil Defense

Solar Fountain Harvard Square

Harvard Square, November 2007

Ecological Design Principles
by Bill McDonough

Waste equals food
Use only available solar income
Respect diversity
Love all the children







Harvard Square, October 2007

This is a Solar IS Civil Defense arrangement.

The posters around the fountain include A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector and reproductions of historic WWII posters:



Ambrose Spencer has a larger solar fountain that he displays from time to time and I just read about Charles Goldman's portable solar fountain that he walked from Brooklyn to the Bronx.

click for movie
Ambrose Spencer and SunToys at AltWheels 2005

Video courtesy of http://energyvison.blogspot.com

For years, I've been recommending that people take these things to the public squares and most especially the farmers' markets, a core constituency of any green movement, as in the story "Mr Franklin's Folks".

It's all part of a Solar Survival Show and the sooner we start performing it the more likely we are to survive.