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Q. How Should I Finish an Existing Basement Wall?
I am about to start a basement remodel project in a cold climate. I plan to apply a waterproofing product to the inside of the basement wall, then stick a sheet of polyethylene directly to the basement wall over the waterproof coating. Once that is in place, I'll frame a 2x4 wood-frame wall on the inside, insulate it with fiberglass batts, and staple a poly vapor barrier to the inside face of the studs. Does this seem like a good approach?
A. Paul Fisette, director of Building Materials and Wood Technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a JLC contributing editor, responds: For the typical basement remodel, this is probably not a good plan. In fact, I think that in most cases it's a recipe for collecting moisture, and it has the potential to create an unhealthy level of mold and mildew. The first question to ask is: What moisture are you trying to control? The answer may be slightly confusing, because your wall assembly needs to control moisture moving from the outside to the inside as well as from inside to outside.
Unless you can verify that the basement was built with good moisture protection, I would proceed with caution. Your approach places an impermeable plastic vapor barrier on the both the warm and the cold side of the 2x4 wall you want to build.
Insulating the 2x4 cavities with fiberglass batts will cause the space between the wood-frame wall and the foundation wall to stay much colder than the indoor space. This means that any warm air that leaks through the 2x4 wall from the tempered basement space will cool as it reaches the cold basement wall and condense on the plastic sheet. Also, if even a small amount of water finds its way in from the outside through the foundation waterproofing coating and the poly, that moisture will be trapped inside the 2x4 wall. There is virtually no drying potential.
Instead, I would apply a coating of waterproofing to the inside surface of the basement wall, followed by a continuous layer of rigid foam insulation. Caulk the perimeter of the foam boards and tape the seams. Then build your 2x4 wall on the inside, leaving a 1-inch space between the studs and the insulation board. Don't insulate the 2x4 wall cavities and don't install a poly vapor retarder.
The waterproof coating will minimize moisture transfer from the outside into the basement, and any moisture that does get into the foundation wall from outside will be able to dry to the outside. If a small amount of exterior moisture does migrate through the waterproofing into the basement area, it will be able to dry to the inside living space through the open-frame construction.
And let's not forget the water vapor contained in the indoor air. Installed carefully, this method reduces the potential for condensation because the indoor air is not exposed to cold condensing surfaces. The uninsulated stud wall allows the face of the foam insulation to remain at roughly the same temperature as the indoor air. With little or no condensation, the likelihood of mold and mildew growth is very low.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – The Obama appointee managing BP's oil spill disaster fund said there's "not enough money in the world" to pay all claims and suggested home owners with plunging property values could lose out.
The warning from prominent US lawyer Kenneth Feinberg came as Hurricane Alex disrupted clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico and pushed oil deeper into fragile coastal wetlands and once-pristine beaches.
The storm made landfall late Wednesday south of the US border with Mexico as a Category Two hurricane, with 100-mile-per-hour winds and heavy rains lashing the coast, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
The NHC said at 0600 GMT Thursday that Alex's winds extended outward up to 35 miles (55 kilometers) from the eye, and tropical storm force winds extended out to 205 miles (335 kilometers), well into Texas.
While the hurricane made landfall far from the epicenter of the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, rough seas forced a halt to skimming operations in the spill area.
Efforts to permanently plug the leak by drilling relief wells continued, and two containment ships are still capturing the oil at a rate of about 25,000 barrels per day despite seven-foot (two-meter) swells.
But the rough seas have delayed the deployment of a third ship aimed at doubling the containment capacity.
Senior government officials were set to meet with President Barack Obama Thursday to discuss whether a new containment system should be installed in the interim.
That system would further raise capacity, but would require the current cap to be removed and involve careful manipulation some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface.
An estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day has been gushing out of the ruptured well since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank on April 22 some 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Some 423 miles (681 kilometers) of US shorelines have now been oiled as crude gushes into the sea at an alarming rate, 10 weeks into the worst environmental disaster in US history.
Feinberg, who Obama named to administer the 20-billion-dollar claims fund, insisted that BP will "pay every eligible claim," but cautioned that many perceived damages may not qualify.
"I use that famous example of a restaurant in Boston that says, 'I can't get shrimp from Louisiana, and my menu suffers and my business is off,'" Feinberg told the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on Wednesday.
"Well, no law is going to recognize that claim."
Feinberg said he was still sorting out how to deal with indirect claims like hotels that lose bookings because tourists think the beaches are covered in oil, or people who see their property values decline but live several blocks away from an oiled beach.
"There's no question that the property value has diminished as a result of the spill. That doesn't mean that every property is entitled to compensation," he said.
"There's not enough money in the world to pay everybody who'd like to have money," he said.
Feinberg, who headed a compensation fund for victims of the September 11 attacks, assured lawmakers the fund would be "totally independent" and said BP had agreed to top up the escrow account as needed to meet proper claims.
The British energy giant has already disbursed over 130 million dollars in emergency payments to fishermen and others affected by the slick. Feinberg said lump sum payments would be offered to claimants once the true extent of the damage is assessed.
"It sure would help if the oil would stop," he told the committee.
Obama on Wednesday ordered the development of a long-term plan to "restore the unique beauty and bounty" of the Gulf Coast.
The Long-Term Gulf Restoration Support Plan aims to "ensure economic recovery, community planning, science-based restoration of the ecosystem and environment, public health and safety efforts, and support of individuals and businesses who suffered losses due to the spill," a White House memo said.
How did the U.S. small wind turbine industry continue to dominate the world market throughout the recession?Washington, DC, United States –
- The number of Americans generating their own electricity with small-scale wind turbines (those with rated capacities of 100 kilowatts and under) increased by just under 10,000 last year despite an economic downturn that impacted the heart of the small wind market: homeowners and small-business owners.
Credit a cocktail of new and improved federal and state policies, optimistic equity investors, and determined consumers.
Sound Investments
The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the economic stimulus bill) expanded the federal investment tax credit for small wind turbines, allowing consumers to take fully 30% of the total cost of a small wind system as a tax credit. These few short lines of text breathed new life into a U.S.-born industry, and just in time to help stave off the effects of the flagging economy.
A growing number of states also offer incentives to help consumers overcome the still-steep cost hurdle of owning a turbine, which for a homeowner can range from $10,000 to $60,000. Governments at all levels are recognizing small wind's economic potential and are paying closer attention. New Jersey, for example, this year joined eight other states (CA, WI, DE, VT, NV, MI, OR, and NH) in streamlining small-wind permitting procedures. Many industry members have come to view streamlined permitting as the single largest factor in the small wind market's growth.
But government is not the only actor. Over the past five years an infusion of private equity investment of $250 million into 20 manufacturers worldwide (most of them U.S.-based) provided companies with the capital to ramp up production to meet a strong demand. Of that $250 million, $80 million was pumped into manufacturers during the economic gloom of 2009.
According to a 2010 survey by AWEA, these manufacturers were able to parlay this investment into sales. Even many of the companies without equity funding were able to sell more turbines than in 2008.
Consumers: The Ultimate Investors
Of course, the ultimate investor is the consumer, who has been relentless in seeking ways to cut electricity bills, become "personally energy-independent" and fight global warming in a tangible way. To 30,000 of these pioneers over the past three years, the solution has been owning a small wind turbine. In just a short amount of time, the base of small-wind consumers has diversified, evolving from green-hearted environmentalists and farmers to Home Depots and suburbanites. One consumer trait, however, has remained constant over the past 80 years: Americans buy from American companies, which dominate the global market.
Just 10 years ago no more than 50 companies in the world manufactured small wind systems. Today, 26 countries are home to more than 250 manufacturers, of which 95 are based in the U.S., and foreign companies are looking to position their operations on economically fertile American soil. In fact, 95% of all small wind turbines sold in the U.S. last year were made by U.S. manufacturers. The vast majority of these 95 U.S. companies are in start-up phase, but the leaders command roughly half the world's market share.
Can this growth be sustained? Can small wind keep up with price-plummeting solar photovoltaic technology? Small-wind lags behind photovoltaics by around 10 years, in terms of U.S. sales volumes, but that may allow small wind to learn from solar's growing pains. The annual 2010 AWEA Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study aims to address these and other questions about the market.
by By Ron Stimmel, AWEA,AWEA Windletter,Published: June 29, 2010 Ron Stimmel is manager of legislative affairs and small systems at AWEA.This article first appeared in the June 2010 issue of Windletter and was republished with permission from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
Reducing Electrical Use in the Home-Smart Meters may not be enough. As the following article points out: Real Time Data for Monitoring Electrical use is needed for people to monitor-Home Electrical Use. This will enable the User to Alter their Electrical Usage and Make the Needed Changes to save $money$.ACEEE Study Finds 'Smart Meters' Not Smart Enough to Slash Residential Power Use and Significantly Reduce Consumer Electric BillsWASHINGTON, June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
ACEEE based its findings on a review of 57 different residential sector feedback programs between 1974 and 2010. The new report concludes: "Advanced metering initiatives alone are neither necessary nor sufficient for providing households with the feedback that they need to achieve energy saving; however, they do offer important opportunities. To realize potential feedback-induced savings, advanced meters must be used in conjunction with in-home (or on-line) displays and well-designed programs that successfully inform, engage, empower, and motivate people."
ACEEE found that three of the most promising approaches in the short- to medium-term include enhanced billing, daily/weekly feedback, and "off line" and Web-based real-time feedback. However, far-reaching programs that go beyond "smart meters" are few and far between. According to ACEEE, no U.S. utilities are currently providing the full range of needed services.
John A. "Skip" Laitner, director, Economic and Social Analysis, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said: "The bottom line here is very simple: Smart meters in and of themselves are just not 'smart' enough to get the job done for consumers and our economy. While advanced metering provides a useful tool, to save energy, cut consumer electric bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, utilities need to use these advanced meters to provide consumers with information on their consumption in ways that grab consumers attention and encourage them to take action."
Lead report author Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, formerly with ACEEE and now a senior research associate, University of Colorado's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, Boulder, CO., said: "Rather than simply presenting consumers with information about the amount of energy consumed during the past month, enhanced billing programs in the short-term can provide a context in which consumers can evaluate their consumption levels and give expert recommendations about the best approaches for reducing energy consumption. People may be unhappy to get an electricity bill for $200, but it's even worse to find out that your neighbors' energy bills are half what you're paying even though their homes are the same size. Through enhanced billing consumers can better evaluate their energy consumption practices, determine how energy is being wasted, and take action."
Steven Nadel, executive director, American Council for an Energy- Efficient Economy, said: "We now know promising approaches for using feedback in ways that motivate consumers to reduce energy use, but we also know that the best approaches are not in widespread use. While the benefits of feedback are substantial, few households have yet to benefit. Instead of receiving useful feedback, most of today's households simply receive the standard monthly energy bill. Making the potential energy savings a reality at both the household and national levels will require action on the part of utilities, policymakers, and individual consumers. In short, utilities must be made aware of the importance of sharing this information and sharing it in ways that are meaningful to energy consumers." Beyond a short-term move to enhanced billing programs, households could see even greater levels of savings through the application of more sophisticated programs that integrate utility-based advanced metering initiatives with on-line or in-home energy displays and tailored guidance regarding the highest-impact means of reducing energy waste. Utilities across the country are investing in new electricity meters that provide two-way communications between the meter and the utility, and that monitor and collect household energy use data on an hourly basis (or even more frequently).
When paired with an on-line program, households can increase their knowledge about how they are using energy. When combined with an in-home display, electricity consumers can witness the amount of energy that they are consuming in real-time, calculate the month- end impact of their current consumption patterns, and assess the impact of adopting new practices and more energy-efficient technologies. The average electricity savings associated with online services providing daily/weekly feedback (the Google PowerMeter is one example) is about 8 percent while real-time feedback has witnessed an average savings about 9 percent per participating household. STUDY HIGHLIGHTS
Key findings of the ACEEE report are as follows:
Energy-use feedback can help households gain control over their energy use practices, reduce the amount of wasted energy, and reduce electricity consumption by 4 to 12 percent.
Depending on how feedback programs are implemented by all of the nation's electric utilities, consumers might enjoy a cumulative net savings of $2 to $35 billion or more over the next 20 years.
Advanced (or "smart") metering initiatives alone are neither necessary nor sufficient for providing households with the feedback that they need to achieve energy savings, however they do offer important opportunities. To realize potential feedback-induced savings, advanced meters must be used in conjunction with in-home (or on-line) displays and well-designed programs that successfully inform, engage, empower, and motivate people.
Utilities and policymakers should act now to ensure that U.S. households receive needed feedback by providing all households with: enhanced billing in the short term and real-time feedback (in conjunction with smart meter deployment) in the medium term. Providing households with persistent feedback has resulted in sustained savings over time. Since 1995, feedback-induced savings have been higher in Europe than in the United States suggesting important differences in European policies and culture. For the full text of the report, go to http://aceee.org/pubs/ e105.htm on the Web. ABOUT ACEEE
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (http:// www.aceee.org) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection. ACEEE was founded in 1980 by leading researchers in the energy field. Since then the organization has grown to a staff of more than 40. Projects are carried out by ACEEE staff and collaborators from government, the private sector, research institutions, and other nonprofit organizations. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit http://www.aceee.org. SOURCE The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Washington, D.C. Originally published by The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Washington, D.C.. (c) 2010 PRNewswire. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. |
How many renewable energy facilities covering how much area are required to meet the electrical energy demand of the United States? The following will identify some critical issues along with a possible solution, while demonstrating that renewable energy resource installations could be available to meet the required demand, should sufficient will be exerted to actually install. One of the major dilemmas facing the widespread implementation of renewable energy resources is resolution of how to distribute the newly installed resources. The existing grid is predicated on the use of very large centralized generation sources, e.g., dams, power plants; while most renewable energy, e.g., photovoltaic, wind, is very conducive for distributed generation.
The existing very large generators are large in the sense of the amount of power they produce per unit area. Renewable sources require much more land area for a comparable power production. A major benefit of this conundrum could be the installation of a large number of small generation sources at existing sites, e.g., houses, businesses, ranches, farms with no requirements to install additional distribution capacity. The downside is how to plan for the transfer of energy from where generated to where needed when the renewable energy generators are not firm, i.e., the amount generated is neither constant nor predictable. This is exacerbated by the financial consideration that nonrenewable generators are generally most efficient and cost effective when operated at full capacity. A model for solving the problem or more accurately, debugging the solution, is to initiate the widespread use of renewable energy generation in rural areas. Although eventually the largest market will be in urban areas, virtually all problems could be resolved on a small scale by implementation in rural areas first. Rural areas have a small fraction of the total population; however, this fraction is highly independent and well skilled in solving problems. Unfortunately, this is also the segment of the population that has the least disposable income to invest in anything, much less energy with a long term payback. Thus, some sort of cash flow assistance will be required, noting tax credits are of little benefit to those whose income is not sufficient to pay much in taxes. In order to understand the magnitude of the task, one must consider how much electrical energy is going to be required to be converted from nonrenewable to renewable sources. The United States consumes ~ 4.1 trillion-kWh per year (4.1x1012 kWh/year), note this does not include fossil fuel energy consumption for transportation, heating, and other uses. Since a significant fraction is required for industrial use, which requires large concentrated sources, e.g., existing power plant dams will still be operational for 100 or more years depending on location, one could then reasonably expect the want to generate ~ 3 trillion-kWh per year with renewable sources. There are 5 primary sources of renewable energy generators in operation today; four sources can be used for large commercial (e.g., utility scale, light industry, or towns) generation and three sources that are primarily for residential use. Depending on size of the installation, two of the sources can be in either category.
For wind, assume that 0.99 trillion-kWh/year are produced by commercial size wind generators and the rest with residential. Assume that each 5 MW wind generator operates 12 hours per day for 300 days per year (allowing time for maintenance and variations in wind velocity and duration). Each wind generator then provides 18 Mega-kWh/year. Thus, approximately commercial 55,000 wind generators are needed. If each wind generator occupies ~ 1 square mile, then ~ 55,000 square miles are needed, noting that almost all the land near a wind generator can be used for ranching or farming purposes. This represents a small fraction of the land under cultivation in the western USA, where much of the wind resources are. Also, wind generators can be place off-shore. For residential wind generators, assume that each 15 kW windmill operates 6 hours per day for 250 days per year (allowing for conversion efficiency, time for maintenance, and variations in wind velocity and duration). Each wind generator then provides 22.5 kilo-kWh/year. Thus, approximately residential 450,000 wind generators are required, which is significantly lower than the total number of small businesses, farms, ranches, and rural residences in the USA. With larger residential windmills, especially for farms and ranches, not so many windmills would be required. A 25 to 50 kW windmill is much more appropriate for farm or ranch use, noting some farms that use well irrigation would need several wind generators or larger, e.g., 150-200 kW wind generators. For residential PV, assume a module conversion efficiency of 15% from the nominal solar radiance of 1000 W/m2. Assume a DC to AC conversion efficiency of 85% and operation for 6 hours per day for 300 days per year (allowing for variations for systems installed at a wide variety of locations). Thus each m2 of solar module area will produce 230 kWh/year. In order to generate, 0.5 trillion-kWh/year, there needs to be ~2,175,000,000 m2 of PV modules. This is about 840 square miles of solar PV modules, smaller than most Western state counties. Assuming that the majority, say 1,500,000,000 m2, are directly used on single family dwellings, with the availability of 75 m2 per dwelling (still allowing room for solar hot water heating collectors on the south facing roof), then ~20,000,000 homes are necessary. The remaining PV generation (~ 0.16 trillion-kWh/year) would come from commercial PV facilities. Assuming a capacity of 200 kW operating 8 hours per day (use of at least ground mount single-axis trackers) for 320 days per year (allowing for variations for systems installed at a wide variety of locations) each location would generate 512,000 kWh/year. There would need to be at least 312,500 such installations, with each installation having about 1,570 m2 of PV modules and assuming an area efficiency of 10% (for trackers and mounting) so occupying ~ 4 acres. For solar thermal generation, assume each 100 MW of power capacity requires 1000 acres, including all support structures. Since solar thermal requires significant water usage for cooling (up to 1000 acre-feet/year per 100 MW), not all locations are suitable. Assuming a 500 MW plant produces 8 hours per day for 300 days per year, each location produces 1.2 billion-kWh/year. For the 1 trillion-kWh/year, then ~850 plants, occupying 4.25 million acres or 6,640 square miles (the size of larger Western state counties) All of these estimations are just that, estimations; however, the numbers clearly show that renewable energy resources can provide the majority of the electrical energy needs of the USA. As renewable energy resources are installed, no new fossil fuel power plants need be built. Eventually, all fossil fuel plants can be allowed to retire, starting with the least efficient first. The transition cannot be smooth, since both nonrenewable and renewable energy sources are only available in discrete units; however, by starting with implementation in rural areas the methods and techniques can be fully developed, which will ease large scale implementation in urban areas. Reference | ||||||||||||||
