Smart Energy Management

What I learned - by Jim Wylie

• One 9-pound bag of charcoal equals, in solid form, the CO2 emitted by using 1¼ gallons of gasoline or by 18 hours of electricity consumption in a typical household. In a single day, emissions in West Chester Borough amount to 48,840 bags of briquettes, enough to make a wall 220 feet long and 222 feet high.
• Mayor Comitta claims she is not old enough to remember the first Earth Day.
• State and Federal incentives make solar projects very appealing these days. Payback can be as short as 3 years. But government subsidies won’t last forever. There is no commitment past the end of this year.
• Geothermal HVAC systems can cut energy bills (heating and AC) by as much as 55%.
• Community Energy is a leader in marketing wind RECs to municipalities, schools and even residential applications through the PECO-Wind program. CE is now also getting into development of large scale solar projects.
• GSHP (ground source heat pumps or geothermal) have a better SEER than the best air to air heat pumps on the market. Investment costs vary from site to site.
• Saving energy, and money, can be as easy as inspecting the set-points on the various thermostats in my facility. Often different zones are fighting with each other to keep the environment cooler/warmer or dryer/more humid within the building.
• There are several solar panels that are made in the US. The Evergreen project uses panels made in Germany.
• There is virtually no maintenance required with solar (PV) installations – there are no moving parts. An array will last 20 to 25 years. Usually normal rainfall is enough to wash away any dust that collects.
• The technology for solar is improving all the time. Some experts predict that solar will be “cost competitive” with conventional power sources without the need for subsidies in about 7 years. Of course “cost” in this case does not take into account the external costs of conventional power sources – like pollution (air and water), national defense expenses, safety issues, and transportation needed for coal and oil mining and drilling.
• PA electric utility rates will be changing at the end of this year. Special rates, like RH, will go away. Generation charges will fluctuate based on market demand. Some think this will cause a 10% to 30% increase, others think the increase in competition will keep the increase below 10%.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) are much more expensive than Wind RECs because the state mandates the amount of wind and solar separately that the utilities need to supply year to year. There is more supply of wind RECs available to the utilities than solar RECs, so the price of SRECs is higher.
• With wind RECs, the marketing entity, like Community Energy, incurs the liability risk for the wind power generation.

David Mazzocco's Closing Remarks

Good morning, my name is David Mazzocco and I am the green building advisor for the BLUER committee.

Thank you again for taking the time this morning to attend this event. It means a lot to our panelists and exhibitors, but most of all to our community.

I hope we can take away from here today the knowledge that the building and construction industry has an enormous impact on our natural environment. This includes not only the construction of our built environment but also building operations and maintenance.

Similarly, and related, the world is witnessing enormous technological achievements, population growth and a corresponding increase in resource use. As this trend continues, we are seeing the result of human kind’s activities: pollution, landfills at capacity, toxic waste, increased greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion as well as the effects on everything that inhabits our planet.

I would like to leave you with a couple of startling facts re: the building industry. Did you know the construction, operations and maintenance of buildings:

• Represents 72% of U.S energy consumption?
• Accounts for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. In the U.S., buildings account for 38% of all CO2 emissions, ranking them #1 in greenhouse gas emissions over transportation and industry.
• In West Chester Borough alone, commercial and industrial buildings account for 54% of the CO2 emissions.

We all can do our part to reduce that impact – no matter how insignificant it may seem. We heard a lot of good information here today and we hope that our area businesses see this as a call to action. Following thru with implementing some of the information presented today doesn’t just help the Borough and the environment, but ultimately helps your business. Saving energy saves you money and with that we all win.

With that in mind, BLUER is here to help serve the business community, so please use us as a resource to assist in any way we can.

BLUER MEMBERS RAISE THEIR HANDS – look for us, talk to us.

Start with visiting WWW.WCBLUER.ORG

PLEASE Come to our monthly meetings – held on the first Friday of every month, FROM 1 -3P HERE IN BORO HALL, ROOM 240.

OUR NEXT MEETING IS 7 MAY, 1 – 3P

If you have something specific to discuss or present, LET US KNOW and we will put you on the agenda to block out time specifically for you. We would love to hear from you to see how your business progresses on saving energy. Contact Dianne Herrin - dherrin@wcbluer.org which can also be found on the bluer website.

We would like to continue these types of outreach events.

• SHOW OF HANDS how many people would like to see us HAVE MORE EVENTS LIKE THESE?
• SHOW OF HANDS how many people would ATTEND AN EVENT SPECIFICALLY ABOUT ENERGY AUDITS?

Before we wrap things up here, I would like to offer few thank you's.

First, thank you again to our panelists:

• Paul Spiegel – Practical Energy Solutions
• Bill Ronayne – Brandywine Valley HVAC
• Rich Potocek - Mainliine Solar
• Byron Woodman – Community Energy

Thank you also to the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce for their assistance with this event.

Thank you to the BLUER members who put in a lot of their volunteer time to organize this event:

• Scott Tornek
• Courtney Finneran
• Bryan Hutchinson
• Jim Wylie

We would also like to thank our exhibitors. Please make sure you take a moment to visit our exhibitors outside and talk with them about their products.

As well as mingle with the panelists and other attendees to share ideas and make further contacts.

AND THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!

Lastly, if you have any questions or comments stemming from the discussions today, feel free to contact Scott Tornek at stornek@wcbluer.org which can also be found on the bluer website.