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The science of conserving energy with low-tech applications

Steve Stevens figures that if Thomas Edison could see the need for energy conservation in the future, it would be wise for all of us to become practitioners today.

Stevens, a resident of Golden, Colo., has made sustainability studies his life’s pursuit after retiring from a long career at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 2000. His home in Colorado also serves as a bicycling history museum (his other passion), but one that is considered a “net power plant,” meaning it generates more energy than it uses.

In briefing a group recently at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Wheaton, Ill., Stevens reminded attendees of what Edison saw in the future.

In 1931, Edison said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy, and I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Stevens also points to George W. Bush, who as president was considered an ally of big oil companies and “a great oil salesman.”

“But it was George Bush who said ‘we are addicted to oil,’” Stevens noted. “And after two wars over Mideast oil, he has changed his tune and now has a ‘green’ ranch in Texas and is a huge proponent of conservation.”

Stevens said that “retrofitting” homes to be more energy efficient is an up-and-coming industry that is going to create jobs.

“The key components are sun, sealing and super insulation,” Stevens said, pointing to examples of homes in Taos, N.M., that are so energy efficient that they are called “earth ships” or “energy-free homes.”

“The easiest way to look at this is by considering your house as a bucket with leaks in it, and you have to plug those leaks,” Stevens explained. “Energy slips out of every seam in your house.”

Stevens goes further than most in his pursuit of energy conservation. He kept Excel spreadsheets of his bill payments, monitoring his electricity and natural gas payments, and coming to conclusions on where he needed to concentrate his efforts.

“I took out the incandescent lights and replaced them with CFLs, but then I noticed my gas bill went up, because I didn’t have the incandescent lights generating heat,” Stevens said. “I went to LED lights and an energy-saving furnace, in addition to plugging leaks, and then my bills went down.”

Stevens has charted the “source energy factor,” or what it costs to deliver electricity to a home, and concluded that a single-family home in the Midwest uses 65,000 BTUs per square foot for an entire year of energy use. By comparison, a new EPA home, or LEED Gold home, would use 40,000 BTUs, while a “net zero home” would generate as many BTUs as it consumes.

“How do you make heat and how do you contain it?” Stevens asks.  “By making your heating its most efficient, you are saving money right away. A condensing furnace, and then sealing up the house so no outside air comes in during cold weather, is the key.”

Stevens recommends using a product called Mastic on the gaps on heat duct joints, while also making use of solar panels to capture solar heat. While wood burning stoves are effective, Stevens recommends getting rid of fireplaces, which don’t heat the house and are generally the biggest draw of warm air out of the house.

“Simple stuff, the low-technology applications, can have the highest returns,” Stevens said in encouraging that every crack in the house should be calked or foamed, starting with doors and windows.

An energy audit of the home is also helpful, along with a temperature gauge that indicates the temperature level at each wall or area in a home.

“The doors to a garage are usually a big culprit for bringing in cold air,” Stevens said. “And you should seal electrical outlets on the inside of the outlet box. The rim joists in the basement need to be caulked along the edges to stop air leaks.”

Stevens is also a big proponent of blowing insulation into attics, and also using fiberglass to fill up wall cavities in a basement.

“It’s also important to insulate any overhangs in your homes,” Stevens said. “Most of the time, with those overhangs, you have an inch of plywood and two inches of air between the air duct inside your home and the outside cold air. When it gets to be below zero outside, how much cold air do you think can make it through an inch of plywood and two inches of air?”


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