Category Archives: Energy Efficiency

The Monster in the Basement- converting old boilers to modern HE models.

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Coal Fed Monster

I have a story to tell, a scary story. A story of a monster living in a basement, a monster with a ravenous appetite. But don’t worry, there is a happy ending.

The monster wasn’t always a monster. When it first moved into the old Victorian home in 1905 it was loved as a modern marvel. It provided warmth for its family throughout the coldest winters and all it needed was to be fed with a shovel full of coal a few times a day.

But as time moved on the monster consumed more and more coal and spit out a dirty, belching breath that polluted and scarred and nobody liked it anymore, except Arthur Scargill, who was a bit odd.

Arthur Scargill

So the monster changed. It started eating Natural Gas. Around 1970, a lot of things that liked coal became full of gas (again, Arthur Scargill comes to mind). And the family were happy again. For a bit.

For gas became expensive and the monster just could not get enough of it. The family were cold in the winter and this made them cross. They started to complain about the monster and wondered if anything could be done about it.

And the answer was, “yes”. Continue reading →

RETRO-FIT UNDER FLOOR HEATING, AKA “Staple-Up”.

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retro fit under floor heating

Under floor heating "staple-up"

Yes, even with existing hard-wood, you can have radiant floor heating!  There are a great deal of misconceptions around radiant floor heating and, in particular “staple-up”.   The comfort of under-floor heating can be retro-fitted to existing floors, the process is often referred to as Staple-up as the tubing or, more often, the insulation is attached with staples.   It is a very effective way to get the comfort and efficiency of a radiant heating system into an older home.

I once had a customer complain that he had a problem with his staple-up system, “When my in-laws visit, they take off there shoes and socks to enjoy the warm floor, I hate looking at their feet!!”.

Continue reading →

High Efficiency Water Heater- The alternative to Tankless.

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We are all aware by now that the standard storage tank water heater is out-dated technology that does not meet our needs for fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.  We know that 45% of the gas used in our homes is attributed to our Domestic Hot Water needs.   Many people have researched tankless water heaters, also known as Flash water heaters or on-demand water heaters and found that they can increase efficiency dramatically and produce endless hot water with reduced carbon emissions.  This same research may have led them to the conclusion that there are some draw backs to tankless technology- long delays in hot water delivery to fixture with increased water wastage and high cost of installation in some cases.

There is another solution to the Water Heater problem, High Efficiency Condensing Water Heaters.

Continue reading →

Zeta Communities- Net Zero Modular Green Building

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Modular Green Building Oakland

Who moved my cheese?

Zeta communities is a new type of construction company. ZETA  is building modular homes in a factory in Sam Leandro CA. that are net zero, that means over the course of a year ZETA buildings’ energy production and occupant consumption of energy nets to zero. It does this by combining advanced energy efficiency technology with grid-tied photovoltaics and other clean energy sources.  Affordable, good quality construction, stylish and green.  Could this be the future of construction?

This Flagship home is certainly a very interesting concept and for a green plumber, its a treasure trove of new technology.

Continue reading →

Guest Blog- Fully Sustainable Green Pipe Finally in California

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Aquatherm replaces copper for hydronics and potable water systems.

Aquatherm replaces copper for hydronics and potable water systems.

Engineered in Germany and used throughout Europe for over 35 years, a completely sustainable plastic piping system for potable water use has finally hit California.

100% recyclable, less than 1/3 of the energy to produce and completely non-toxic, Aquatherm Green Pipe is the most environmentally friendly pipe in the world!  Aquatherm is the only pipe approved by Greenpeace and applies to nine different LEED categories Continue reading →

Solar Hot Water Installation with Wi-Fi

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Bay Area Hot Water From The Sun

Capturing the suns energy for pre-heating a homes hot water has been with us since man started bathing.  In recent years the solar hot water industry has had a new lease of life with increasing energy costs and concern for climate change. The government has given home owners added incentives with tax credits.

The very latest advancement in solar hot water technology is the introduction of web based performance monitoring.  The Helio-Pak Pro from Heliodyne, a local solar manufacturer based in Richmond CA., has a built in wi-fi transmitter that the installer or home owner can access from there PC. , lap-top or smart phone.  This allows for performance monitoring  and trouble shooting from, well, anywhere. Continue reading →

PG&E Rebates for Solar Hot Water

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Solar Thermal Array

Solar Thermal Array

C.S.I. San Francisco is not a new spin off crime show featuring computer generated imagery of gruesome murder scenes, it is in fact the California Solar Initiative program from the California Public utilities Commission (CPUC) which, in our neck of the woods is PG&E.   While Tax Credits have been around for a while and utilities rebates for Photo-Voltaic systems are well known, the Rebates for Solar Hot Water systems have been a little slow getting off the ground.

Rebates are here and there is around $350,000,000 available for incentives on Solar Thermal Hot Water systems. That is on top of the 30% federal Tax credit!

To get the rebates which could yield up to $1850, the installer must complete a training class from the utility company.

Today, August 9th 2010, I completed that class and can officially apply for said rebate incentives. Continue reading →

Comfort you can feel. Comments from homeowners with radiant heating.

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Solar Thermal- hydronics mechanical room

Solar Thermal- hydronics mechanical room

A selection of clients give their comments on their radiant heating systems.

Dan and Liz, Piedmont California.

Boiler: Baxi Luna HT1.330

Heat:  Radiant slab on the ground floor with radiators on the second floor.

Zones: Four zones Taco ZVC zone control and ESP zone valves, Taco zone circulator.

Hot water:  In-direct storage tank with Helio-dyne solar heat exchanger (2 4×6 black paint solar collectors) with hydronic back-up.

Comments:  “It doesn’t feel like a heating system, the house just stays nice, its perfect.  We came back from a vacation, the house was cold, but by the time we finished our burritos, the whole house was toasty warm”- Liz

“We have 1800 square feet and we pay $200 per month in gas. Our neighbor has a smaller house and pays $300 per month”- Dan

“We love it” Liz

“Its very good”- Dan. Continue reading →

Hybrid Water Heater- The Best Of Both Worlds

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Eternal hybrid Water Heater

Eternal hybrid Water Heater

The old storage tank water heater is a monster!  This monster comes from the primeval swamps of the last century, when gas was free, climate change had no meaning beyond,”looks like its going to rain this afternoon..” and people only took showers for about three seconds a week.

But then, a ray of sunshine pierced the darkness of water heating technology- the tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters are a vast improvement over traditional storage tanks.  They are vastly more efficient, they provide endless hot water and take  up very little space.  Fabulous!  Tankless water heaters slay the beast and all is well on the western front!

Errrr, not quite.  There are some serious performance considerations around on-demand water heaters.  Because there is no stored water with a tankless water heater, there is a considerable wait time while you run the faucet waiting for the unit to heat up. Water running down the drain while you wait.  And then there is the “cold water sandwich”, a phenomenon perculiar to tankless water heaters which is not that big of a deal unless you are in the shower when it occurs.

So, the storage tank is not quite dead and re-emerges in a shiny plastic coating with improved performance- the High Efficiency Storage Tank. 96% efficiency, super high recovery rate and PVC venting.   Well, just look at you go storage tank, all grown up.  But silver bullet you are not.  High efficiency tanks are good but they are no smaller than the old tanks, bigger in fact and cost an arm and a leg.

So, where is our night in shining armor to put these issues in the watery grave they belong in?    Is the Eternal Hybrid water heater the best of all worlds?

Continue reading →