Do You Have Trespassers in Your Home?

- Removing Unwanted Guests- what is or could be crawling or spreading in your home, and how to best prevent or remove these unwanted trespassers

Tips to Help Reduce Allergens, and Keep Rodents and Other Creatures from Invading the Home

1. Remove the Rodents: Rats can squeeze through an opening the size of a quarter! To help prevent these intruders from ever entering, seal up all exterior openings, as well as openings around kitchen and bathroom piping with steel wool. Rodents tend to inhabit areas that are conducive to their survival, so keep water from accumulating under and around the home, and store any pet food in sealed containers.

2. Move Out Mold: Mold requires food, warmth and moisture to grow in the home. Regular dusting can decrease the organic materials that make up most dust particles, thereby reducing the food source for mold. Poor ventilation can also be a culprit by allowing moisture to seep into the home. Check your bath and kitchen fans for proper operation, and ensure that the vents are discharging to the exterior of the home. Finally, reduce condensation in the home and the resulting mold growth by ensuring that the walls, ceilings and floors are properly insulated. 3. Forget Four- and Eight-Legged Friends: Ants and spiders tend to be travel companions – when you have one, you're likely to have the other. The key to helping control spiders is eliminating the ants, since spiders eat them as food. Treating the perimeter of your home with a safe, non-toxic insecticide may help with ant control and force spiders to search of food and reside elsewhere. 4. Beware of Bats: Bat droppings are toxic, and this can become a big problem when bats decide to take up residence in your attic. To help keep bats from roosting in your home deny them access in the first place by placing screens over the chimney and attic vent openings. 5. Clear Common Allergens: Allergens such as dust mite debris, pet dander, pollen and mold spores can become airborne throughout the home. While dusting and cleaning can help remove particles from surfaces, you shouldn't forget about removing these allergens from the air. Install a high performance filter, such as a Filtrete Elite Allergen Reduction Filter from 3M to help capture up to 94 percent of these large airborne particles from the air passing through the filter. Be sure to change the filter every three months. 6. Defeat Wood Destroying Insects: Carpenter ants and termites can gain access to the home through siding and decking, so keep at least six to eight inches of wood clearance near the ground. Since these insects like to chew on wet wood, inspect for and correct any plumbing leaks as needed. 7. So Long Surface Bacteria and Viruses: Regularly cleaning and sanitizing hard surfaces, such as counters and floors, can help control bacteria and viruses from spreading in the home. 8. Look Out for Lead Paint: Lead paint was common in homes that were built before 1980, but can also be found in newly constructed homes. Before conducting any type of remodeling project, it's recommended to have your paint tested for lead, as you don't want anyone, especially small children, ingesting lead paint chips. Also, remediation projects where sanding is involved can create lead dust, so always be sure to use the proper respiratory protection.

Article by Steve Ramos

Besides your family, what else may be living in your home? Certified Home Inspector and former host of HGTV's House Detective Steve Ramos says that many people don't even realize the creatures, organisms and allergens that can lurk in the home. Scotts Contracting is available to assist with your Home Issues- Large or Small Email: scottscontracting@gmail.com for a free estimate

Smart Meters Controversy

Controlling Energy Spend-How Smart Meters Will Benefit Commercial Customers

By Matthew Kim, Prenova
We've all heard that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. We in the power industry can add one more: Customers will resist smart meters without powerful and immediate cost benefits.
We're already seeing things happen in California and Texas, and it's likely that customers in other markets will follow. While most protests thus far have come from residential customers, it's vital to watch how commercial customers react. If the business community thinks smart meters drive up energy costs, they will react just as quickly and negatively as the residential sector.

With technology advancing quickly and customers looking for information, the utility industry must effectively communicate the benefits of smart meters and other smart grid technology. Although homeowners have cited information security and personal privacy as major concerns, the biggest protests come from those who say they are being overcharged for electricity. Side-by-side tests to confirm meter accuracy are still under way, but higher costs are more likely to be the result of an unusually cold winter. Had winter temperatures been closer to normal, fewer people would have been shocked by their electricity bills.

A similar problem is approaching as a result of improving economic conditions. Natural gas prices are significantly lower than normal, meaning gas-fired generation is cheaper than it has been in several years. In summer 2008, a contract for 1,000 cubic feet was hovering above $13, while in summer 2009 it was less than $4. As the economy begins to recover, increasing demand and depleted reserves for natural gas will drive costs up again. Electricity rates will rise particularly in areas dependent on natural gas for generation. Customers must understand that these inevitable rate increases are results of market forces and are not because of smart meter technology implementation.

Smart meter technology enables utilities to communicate pricing information directly to end customers, making it possible to implement broad-scale dynamic pricing. This is good for the utility industry, but it might present a challenge for commercial customers. Consider a commercial office building. Unlike many industrial facilities, few commercial buildings are occupied 24/7. Rather, they are generally busiest from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Therefore, the majority of their energy use occurs during peak hours. Moving to a time-of-use rate structure could result in higher energy costs than a fixed-rate structure.

If you accept that dynamic pricing is the future of the utility industry, then you'll see why this could pose a problem for commercial customers. The technology holds the solution: Smart meters, in combination with other readily available applications and technologies, make it possible for building operators to proactively manage their property to use less energy when rates are highest.

While this might sound time-consuming, many smart meters already communicate energy prices and allow customers to monitor consumption in real time. More advanced solutions generate alerts when cost, consumption or both rise above defined thresholds so action can be taken. There are even applications that can model future energy requirements based on weather forecasts. This allows a building operator to plan an energy management strategy in advance if energy use is projected to exceed targets in coming days, such as when exceptionally high temperatures are likely. By providing tools like these to customers and helping them develop consumption management plans, the utility industry can ensure that the commercial sector achieves the benefits of smart meters. And demonstrating how smart meters can help a business increase its bottom line will squelch opposition.

Matt Kim is director of product management, solutions and technology for Prenova, a company that buys more than $2 billion in energy each year for dozens of brands, including Crate and Barrel, Dollar Tree, Costco and other national chains.


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http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com

EPA+BP Oil Spill

EPA Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

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• Federal Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

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• Data Reports
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• Understanding EPA's sediment data
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News releases related to the oil spill | Congressional Testimony
Dispersants Questions and Answers What You Can Do Photos of EPA's Response to the BP Spill		Air Air Data >> EPA has observed odor-causing pollutants associated with oil on the shore in the gulf region at low levels. Some of these chemicals may cause short-lived effects like headache, eye, nose and throat irritation, or nausea. Some people may be able to smell several of these chemicals at levels well below those that would cause short-term health problems. EPA is also conducting additional air monitoring for ozone and airborne particulate matter. The air monitoring conducted through June 22 has found levels of ozone and particulates ranging from the "good" to "unhealthy for sensitive groups" levels on EPA's Air Quality Index. Water Water Data >> EPA's surface water results collected on June 15 and 17, 2010 along the Gulf Coast did not reveal elevated levels of chemicals usually found in oil. Sediment Sediment Data >> Sediment samples collected June 13, 2010 along the Gulf coast did not reveal elevated levels for chemicals that are usually found in oil. Waste Management Waste Information >> EPA deployed field teams to collect a small number of samples of oily debris, tar balls, mousse oil and other petroleum waste products that have washed up on the shore along the Gulf Coast. Preliminary results have only shown chemical constituents that are usually found in petroleum products and typical health precautions should be taken.

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Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com
scotty@stlouisrenewableenergy.com

Lazy Nations Guide to reducing Green House Gases

The lazy nation's guide to reducing greenhouse gases

By John Kerastas, President, JK Marketing Consulting

When one of the most popular TV shows in the nation is "The Biggest Loser," watched by millions of Americans lying around on sofas, you have a great metaphor for the country's national character.

So, let me tell you something you already know: as a nation, we're lazy. That description applies to our energy policy, too.

Maybe "lazy" is the wrong word. Maybe we're just plain incapable of making touch decisions and taking action on the big issues, like reducing greenhouse gases.

Tough Decisions

Here are some tough GHG issues that we just can't seem to get our national arms around (you can add the ones I forgot):

* Imposing a national carbon tax or cap-and-trade program

* Making it easier to build nuclear power plants and safely store nuclear waste

* Creating a national renewable portfolio standard

* Building a super transmission line to transfer renewable energy to parts of the country that don't have good renewable assets (i.e. the Deep South)

* Coming to grips with the real price of oil (i.e. the price of GHG and the cost of putting dollars into the pockets of people who don't like us very much)

All these issues seem too expensive, too divisive and, well, just too hard.

Knowing our national character, I think it's time to propose a strategy I'm calling "The Lazy Nation's Strategy for Reducing GHG." Since the program doesn't call for any really tough decisions, we might decide to actually do something.

Not-So-Tough Decisions

A key requirement of the lazy strategy is to realize that, on a national level, we're pretty lazy. So this strategy doesn't expect us to a) build anything really new big and expensive, or b) create any groundbreaking, New-Deal-like laws or policies.

In spite of those requirements, and after a really good nap, I want to say that there are a couple of comparatively easy-to-implement programs that would make a difference in GHG emissions almost immediately.

1. Dial up our use of natural gas and dial down our use of coal.

2. Make energy efficiency a national imperative.

Are these my own remarkable insights into a short-term program the GHG problem? No, these are the conclusions of a variety of experts who actually know something.

Dialing up Natural Gas

I recently attended a speech by Clarence Cazalot, President and CEO, Marathon Oil at the Executive Club of Chicago.

In that speech he said:

"Because natural gas emits half the CO² of coal, our nation could, in the near term, reduce GHG's emissions with relatively small investment by maximizing the utilization of our installed gas-fired generation capacity to a higher level while retaining peaking capacity and not risking reserve margin."

Cazalot gave me another important fact to chew on: "…our natural gas fired generation capacity exceeds that of our coal fired capacity, but we operate the gas fired plants at 25 percent utilization, on average, versus over 70 percent utilization for coal."

That's a great lazy strategy — make better use of something we already have (and make less use of coal). While we don't have natural gas plants in all the right places, we do have a lot of plants that are nicely located.

But, do we have enough natural gas? Won't we quickly run out of natural gas and be back in the same mess? The short answer is "no."

Cazalot said it is estimated that "…the U.S. is now sitting on between 50 and 100 years of natural gas resources at current rates of consumption."

Now, can we just wave our hands and increase natural gas consumption while decreasing coal usage?

No. (I already tried that.)

But we can have the Energy Secretary Steven Chu sit down with the utility companies and explain that if the industry doesn't take immediate steps, the federal government will. I'd be happy to loan Chu my 44 oz. Louisville Slugger for the meeting.

Now the "Greenie" in me is not too crazy about this — improving our GHG emissions by doing something less bad. In the GHG race, though, we only get points for making a difference, and this would make a big, big difference in a relatively short time.

Making Energy Efficiency a National Imperative

Now I know that efficiency is out of character for us Americans — we're known for being wasteful, not efficient. But I'm convinced that we can become much more energy efficient without a lot of work. Why? Because it's cheap, and, as a country, we Americans love cheap solutions.

* Efficiency is the lowest-cost GHG reduction option, according to the Pew Center for Global Warming's recent study, titled "From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency." The study asserts that "On a levelized lifecycle cost basis, efficiency costs less than conventional energy suppliers."

* A research study from McKenzie quantifies the fact that efficiency programs are cost effective investments even if GHG issues are ignored (see below)

* Cazalot asserts that "…the greatest source of near-term GHG emissions reductions come from energy efficiency, which is the least expensive and fast means of doing so."

Here's another couple of reasons to race down the efficiency path:

* We already have the technologies in hand to become much more efficient: insulation, advanced control systems, super-efficient lighting systems and the like.

* We have money to finance a lot of efficiency programs — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helps many companies afford these programs.

* We've found out that efficiency programs are sound investments even if GHG are not a factor (again, see above and really look at it this time).

So are we as a nation aggressively ratcheting up our investments in energy efficiency programs?

Of course not (we're too lazy).

The folks at Johnson Controls track this (click here). As shown below, national investments in efficiency programs — the quickest way to reduce GHG — have leveled off.

This brings me to somewhat of a dilemma: if efficiency programs are already relatively easy to implement and financially rewarding, how do we motivate ourselves to do the easy work of installing them?

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking of writing a TV show about muscular blue-collar efficiency studs that make house calls on lonely American housewives.

Working title? "The Biggest Winners."

Author: John Kerastas is the President of JK Marketing Consulting and a consultant to the energy industry. Previously he has worked at UPC Solar and SmartSignal Corp. He has also co-chaired the 2009 solar energy track of the Electric Power conference, participated in two CarbonConnect.com web-streaming videos, and has written six industry articles over the past year. You can reach him at jkerastas@gmail.com.