03 April 2009

An Energy Revolution by the People

 

John Petersen, standing at left, works with students on tracking campus energy use, as recorded by the Energy Orb, at bottom right.

John Petersen, standing at left, works with students on tracking campus energy use, as recorded by the Energy Orb, at bottom right.

By Elisa Wood

Government policies can only go so far to bring about greater energy efficiency. Real gains must be made by consumers, one at a time. Growing awareness of profligate energy use has spurred citizens to a variety of creative efficiency measures in different spheres of American life.

Elisa Wood is a U.S.-based writer who specializes in energy issues. Her articles are available at www.RealEnergyWriters.com.

High prices motivate consumers to reduce energy use more than any other factor. So how do you inspire them to conserve when they are not responsible for the bill?

John Petersen, director of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College, faced this dilemma when he embarked on a project to reduce electricity use in the Ohio college’s dormitories. He found the answer in a crystal ball.

Petersen set up a contest to see which student dormitories could reduce energy consumption the most. Initially, the college offered a Web site where students monitored their dorm’s energy use by analyzing colorful charts and graphs. But Petersen realized the approach was “techno-geeky” and not for all students. So he designed an Energy Orb, a crystal ball-styled object that glows different colors to show building energy use at any given time. He placed the orbs in dorm lobbies. With just a quick glance, students knew their dorm was consuming a lot of energy when the ball was red, and less when it was green.

 “They certainly were conversation starters,” he says. “People would just gather around the orb and talk about it.” Moreover, the students pursued energy efficiency in earnest; winners reduced consumption by more than 50 percent.

“Students in winning dorms did things like unplug vending machines,” Petersen says. “You have students who walk by these vending machines every single day, probably multiple times a day. Before this competition, I bet you none of those students stopped to think about the parasitic consumption of electricity by this vending machine.”

Students became aware “that they are walking through a world of energy-consuming devices,” he says. “That’s what I hope we are doing with this — making people aware of the flow of resources that are necessary to support their lives.”

In doing so, Petersen, an environmental scientist, cultivates a growing recognition among Americans that conservation is an act of personal responsibility. By replacing incandescent lights, caulking windows, and installing smart meters, conservation-minded Americans help stoke a $1 trillion energy efficiency boom in the United States that generates more than 8.6 million jobs, according to the American Solar Energy Society.

In the Right Spirit

For Sara Spoonheim, energy efficiency goes beyond technical achievement; it is a spiritual act. Spoonheim is a deputy director at Faith in Place, an organization that believes two great responsibilities are common to all religions: to love one another and to care for creation. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the organization helps Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Baha’i, and Unitarian congregations improve their energy use.

Funded by foundation grants, religious groups, and individuals, the program seeks cost-effective efficiency for cash-strapped congregations. To that end, Spoonheim helped begin a national online store, ShopIPL.org [http://www.shopipl.org], where churches can purchase discounted energy-efficient products. The store is sponsored by Interfaith Power & Light, a multistate organization affiliated with Faith in Place, which encourages religious communities to take action against global warming.

Spoonheim’s latest project at Faith in Place assists Lutheran churches as they try to reduce their carbon footprint. Through a program called Cool Congregations, she helps the churches replace energy-draining appliances, install LED exit lights, and undertake other measures to cut energy use. “They have agreed to be guinea pigs, letting us experiment with them, to see what all churches will need,” she says.

Places of worship offer unique challenges for energy efficiency. For one thing, a sanctuary is used typically just once a week and may contain musical instruments that cannot be exposed to extremes in temperature and humidity. Spoonheim focuses energy efficiency efforts on parts of buildings used frequently, such as homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and schools, where efficiency measures have greatest impact.

Faith in Place sees such work as primary to the more conventional efforts of religious organizations: providing food, clothing, and shelter. “Even if we do all those things, and love our brothers and sisters with our whole heart, it will not matter if we neglect the ecological conditions of our beautiful and fragile planet,” says the organization.

 

Cathy Clites, a community advocate for efficiency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shops for efficiency light bulbs.

Cathy Clites, a community advocate for efficiency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shops for efficiency light bulbs.

Car Drives House

When an ice storm knocked out power in Harvard, Massachusetts, for four days in December 2008, electrical engineer John Sweeney brought new meaning to the phrase “energy independence.”

While neighbors huddled in cold houses, Sweeney and his family stayed warm because he turned his hybrid car into an emergency home generator.

Sweeney says his feat was no big deal. But then he likes to tinker with energy devices, going back to his college days in the 1970s when he drew plans for a hybrid car as his senior project.

Today, Sweeney’s summer vacation spot is a sailboat with two windmills that charge large batteries to run the boat’s refrigerator, lights, computer, and navigation electronics. At home, a whole-house electric meter sits on the kitchen counter. Several smaller “kill-a-watt” meters measure the power use of appliances, hour by hour. Watching the meters inspired his family to cut their energy bill by about $50 per month.

So, as heavy ice dragged down miles of electrical transmission lines in New England, Sweeney began to tinker. He realized he had a “simple and cost-effective” solution to the power outage, right outside his door.

He knew from online forums that the Toyota Prius can generate more wattage than it needs. To use the excess electricity, he needed an inverter — and happened to have one in his basement. He wired the inverter directly to the car’s battery and ran a long extension cord from the car to the house. He connected the refrigerator and freezer, woodstove fan, television, and several lights.

Because the car is a hybrid, it burned 18 liters of gasoline over the four days. A conventional car, wired in a similar fashion, would use more than 150 liters of gasoline.

“This use of a car will seem normal in five to 10 years when we have plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars for sale to the general public,” Sweeney says.

Time Constraints Are No Excuse

Cathy Clites apologizes for scrubbing the kitchen floor as she is interviewed by telephone. The Louisiana mother and grandmother makes the most of every moment because she is chief caretaker for her family of nine, which includes her husband, Charlie, wheelchair-bound and no longer able to support his family after a stroke six years ago.

Somehow between the cooking, the dishes, the laundry, and the shopping, Clites finds time to be an energy efficiency advocate. “It’s just about being a good citizen in today’s time. It is a courtesy. We are considering what will be there when our kids and our grandkids need it,” she says.

She first learned about energy efficiency when she won a contest for an energy efficiency home makeover offered by NBC Universal’s SCI FI Channel and the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE).

As she watched the contractors install the new appliances, lighting, and insulation, and then saw her utility bill drop, Clites was sold on energy efficiency — and decided to sell others. ASE says Clites has become “a grassroots ambassador for energy efficiency,” creating a drumbeat of support. She chats up neighbors, friends, family, and church members. When the mayor of Baton Rouge declared an energy efficiency day for the city, Clites participated in a news conference to rally the city to the cause. She brings reporters through her house to view the makeover, and she takes time to design bookmarks with energy savings tips, which she distributes to anyone interested. At night, when chores are done and the house is quiet, she wanders about with an eye to stamp out “vampires” – appliances and electric gadgets no longer in use but sucking up electricity just because they are plugged into an outlet.

“In today’s world we all have to look at ways of being penny pinchers. This is an easy way to do it. I wish others would try – they’d all feel like they had won something,” she says.

These stories — Oberlin’s orb, Faith in Place’s spiritual mission, Sweeney’s tinkering, and Clites’s volunteerism — are just a few examples of the hard work by Americans intent on reducing energy use. Will this dedication continue? Some analysts worry that if energy prices fall, Americans will forget about efficiency. Others say price shocks have been too great in recent years for the nation to retreat. Moreover, advanced meters, Oberlin’s orbs, and other measuring technologies serve as motivators.

 “The electronic revolution which created personal computers and the Internet will probably also change how we generate, store, and use energy,” Sweeney wrote in an article for his local paper. “Please support these changes through the political system, and encourage your kids to pursue science and engineering. This country needs to start thinking ‘outside the box,’ and we will need all the technical talent we can muster to solve our current energy issues in an environmentally friendly way.”

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.