The Energy Show

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

California was the first state to set aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Senate bill 32, AKA Cap and Trade, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. We are well on our way to meeting these goals, and happily a dozen other states are pursuing similar paths. In 2018 Governor Brown issued an executive order to go even further: achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 and negative greenhouse gas emissions afterwards. The Governor and Legislature have allocated more than $6 billion dollars — collected from the Cap and Trade Program -- to fund the transition away from polluting fossil fuels.

Greenhouse gas emissions come from a variety of sources: 40.6% transportation, 25.8% industrial processes, 12.6% commercial (mostly buildings), 11.9% residential, and 9.2% from agricultural and forestry. As a result of previous policies, most significantly renewable portfolios standards, solar and wind — we have hit most of our goals in the electricity generating sector. Excellent progress is also being made in transportation, most notably with electric cars. California is also making progress in the commercial vehicle segment by incentivizing electric buses and trucks.

Nevertheless, almost 25% of our GHG emissions still come from buildings: natural gas for space heating, hot water heating, clothes washing and drying, cooking, and pool heating. New construction standards, both for commercial buildings and residences, will almost completely eliminate natural gas in new buildings. However, natural gas appliances are embedded in our existing homes and commercial buildings, and many of these buildings will be with us for another hundred years (if they are not under water by then).

It’s a big job to change out the appliances in our current building infrastructure. To learn more about these challenges and realistic solutions, please Listen Up to This Week’s Energy Show as we speak with Jeff Byron. Jeff served as the Commissioner at the California Energy Commission for 5 years and more recently a member of the Cleantech Open and Band of Angels. Jeff actually walks the talk, and currently lives in a net zero carbon emission home.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The 2020 presidential election has been in full swing for months, even though it’s still only 2019. Are things going faster as I get older, or are we in a constant stage of electioneering? Hmm, don’t answer that.

With one notable exception, all of the presidential candidates have positions on climate change – AKA Global Warming. President Trump’s position is basically to deny climate change, mock renewable energy, pull out of the Paris climate accords (signed by every other country in the world except the U.S. … perhaps they know something that we do not), brag about the U.S.’s oil production, and futility try to resuscitate the coal industry. Sometimes I feel as if I’m watching the Twilight Zone on my parent’s Magnavox black and white TV.

The Green New Deal has been proposed by a number of Democratic members of Congress. This plan is aspirational – the Green part is what we really need to address climate change, but the New Deal part is painfully lacking in specifics and realistic funding mechanisms. Jay Inslee’s “Evergreen Economy for America” is a well thought out plan that has a chance to meet our global warming targets. Joe Biden’s “Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice” is a little more political than practical, and may not provide enough funding fast enough.

Listen Up to The Energy Show as we cover the politics of energy and the environment, ranging from the Trump administration’s environmental agenda (some would characterize this as oxymoronic), the Green New Deal, Jay Inslee’s Climate Plan, and what it will take for our next president to get us on the path of limiting global warming to 1.5 C.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

California utility companies recently announced their Public Safety Power Shutoff programs across the state. Bloomberg News said “California May Go Dark This Summer and Most People Aren’t Ready” California’s Governor Gavin Newsom was quoted as saying “I’m worried. We are all worried about it for the elderly. We are worried about it because we can see people’s power turned off for not just for a day or two but potentially for a week."

These public safety power shutoff events are already happening around the state. Utilities turn off the power if there is the possibility of danger imposed by things such as high winds or wildfire, dry vegetation, low humidity, observations of dangerous conditions by field personnel and red flag warnings from the National Weather Service. The Paradise fire in 2018 was started when PG&E decided NOT to shut power off in a fire prone area. Now all utilities are erring on the side of caution, shutting off power when there may only be a remote chance of a fire - certainly better than burning down a town.

Unfortunately, looking back over the past fifty years, the reliability of our power grid is not getting better. The weather is getting hotter, there is more housing in forested areas, we need electricity more than ever, and some utilities have been skimping on maintenance to maximize their profits. Electricity has become the most important fuel for our society. So when the lights go out, our 21st century lifestyle reverts to the 19th century.

To learn more about these Public Safety Power Shutoff programs, what the utility companies suggest (buy a gas generator!), plus better solutions (hint: solar with battery backup), Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

We’re talking about VAMPIRES on this week’s show — energy vampires.

I know, it’s not Halloween yet, but these little energy suckers are insidious. I guarantee that you have dozens of little devices plugged into your home that are using a small amount of standby power, sucking energy all day and night. It really adds up, and causes nightmares for energy geeks like me.

Research shows that these “plug loads” are about 1/3 of a home’s total energy consumption. We’re not talking about big appliances or lighting – but sneaky little things plugged in or wired in all around your home.

Think about what you have. Obvious vampire loads are devices like computers, routers, Wi-Fi repeaters, phone chargers, TVs, cable boxes, cable modems, and entertainment consoles. Less obvious vampires are things like security systems, motion detectors, appliances (anything with a clock and an illuminated LED). The really sneaky devices that you might not see include doorbell and thermostat transformers, WiFi thermostats (Nest), hot water and furnace ignitors, garage door openers, irrigation systems, outdoor lighting control systems, cordless vacuum cleaners, and pool timers.

To get a handle on this infestation, I went to every room with a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure the power consumption of each device. It added up to over 250 watts of 24×7 power — over $500 per year.

To learn more about these energy vampires — how to identify them, calculate their costs, and stamp them out — tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to electrify all of our buildings. New electric appliances — such as heat pumps and induction stoves — are often less expensive to operate than conventional natural gas appliances. For example, at $2/therm for natural gas and $0.30/kwh for electricity, it costs about $1 to heat up a 65 gallon hot water tank for both gas and electricity. Add in rooftop solar and you can heat that tank for less than $0.25!

So from both an economic and environmental standpoint it absolutely makes sense to replace old gas appliances with new electric appliances. Except for one big problem: many older homes have a 100 or 125 amp electrical service — which is insufficient to run most domestic hot water heat pumps, heat pump HVAC systems (heating and cooling), induction electric stoves and level 2 electric vehicle chargers. Not to mention anything other than a relatively small (< 5 kw) rooftop solar power system.

The solution is to contact your electric utility to get an electric panel upgrade to a 200 amp system. Unfortunately, an electric panel upgrade is complicated. Every house is different — some homes have overhead wiring which is relatively easy to replace, and some homes are powered by underground wiring which can take many months and dollars to upgrade.

Navigating the utility and city regulations for electric service upgrades can be a nightmare. To help us understand these issues — as well as the shortcuts and rebates that are available from some utilities — our guest on this week’s show is Sue Kateley. Sue is the former Executive Director of CALSEIA (now known as CALSSA), and has also worked as the Chief of Staff for California State Senator Bradford.

Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as Sue walks us through her personal experience with PG&E and her electrician as she cost-effectively completed an electric panel upgrade — and took advantage of some of the little-known incentives and procedures that can make this process much faster and cheaper.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Every time I fly into a city I’m amazed at the number of naked, white, empty flat commercial rooftops that should be producing megawatts of power. Even in solar friendly cities such as San Jose there are only a few blue rooftops that one can see from the air. On this week’s Energy Show we’ll be talking about the tremendous opportunity for installing solar on flat roof commercial buildings.

There are three reasons why commercial solar hasn’t grown as quickly as residential and utility solar. The first is customer economics: most commercial buildings are occupied by tenants who pay the electric bills, so the building owner does not have a compelling financial motivation to invest in solar to reduce the tenant’s operating costs. The second reason is that many building owners do not have the up-front capital for installing solar, nor do they have the long-term credit viability for a PPA or lease. The third reason is that, even with the ITC and low solar panel prices, the payback is still three to five years -- too long for businesses making shorter term investments.

Fortunately, technology for installing solar on flat roof commercial buildings has continued to improve, reducing the mounting system and labor costs substantially. These new mounting systems are able to maintain the roof’s structural integrity, while at the same time addressing seismic and water intrusion issues.

My special guest on this week’s Energy Show is Costa Nicalaou, CEO of PanelClaw. They have completed nearly 10,000 flat roof projects in 30 countries and over 2,000 permit offices. Please listen up as Costa explains PanelClaw’s newest products, and how they provide supporting engineering and permitting services to their network of commercial rooftop installers.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Cities and states all over the country are making a big push to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in both new and existing buildings. Not only are these changes a necessity to slow down global warming trends, but in many cases building energy costs are also dramatically reduced.

Whole House Electrification (WHE), my latest favorite TLA (three letter acroynum) is accomplished by replacing all gas appliances (including your car) with cleaner and more efficient electric appliances such as heat pumps, EV chargers and electric induction stoves. LED lighting, better HVAC controls and upgraded insulation also help reduce building energy consumption.

But starting a WHE project can be daunting -- even for an energy geek like me. Conventional wisdom recommends a home energy audit. When I did my energy audit using the DOE’s Home Energy Advisor program it recommended adding insulation to my stucco walls (almost impossible), sealing my ducts (they were really old), upgrading my old furnace and replacing my noisy air conditioner. None of these recommendations were really right for me.

The reason is that traditional energy audits do not take into account the dizzying array of electric appliances, toys and embedded devices that power our 21st century lifestyle. Most of these energy audits are flat out wrong -- ignoring rooftop solar, battery storage, heat pumps and time-of-use electric rates. Combined, these new technologies provide significant savings for an electric home.

Luckily, I found a kindred soul, Steve Schmidt, a pioneer in the new energy analysis industry. Steve founded Home Energy Analytics, which uses smart utility meter data to figure out what is really going on with energy in your house. Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show for Steve’s approach to prioritizing and then reducing energy costs, as well as his insights into Whole House Electrification.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

After your heating and cooling system, the next biggest energy hog in most homes is your swimming pool. I won’t feel bad if you skip this podcast if you don’t have a swimming pool — unless you’re an energy geek like me. My recent experiences addressing the energy problems in my old house really focused my attention on my swimming pool; in comparison, fixing my HVAC system was relatively easy (that’s the subject of another podcast).

Here is a summary of my annual pool expenses: $1,300 for pool pump electricity ($0.45/kwh), $1,800 for pool maintenance, $500 for evaporative water loss (1.5 cents/gallon), $100 every time I want to heat up the pool in the spring/fall for the weekend ($1.75/therm), and $10 every time I want to heat up the spa. I’m too busy on weekends to do the pool maintenance myself, and the pool’s oval shape is not conducive to a pool cover. So I focused on reducing my pool’s electricity and gas consumption.

It was surprisingly easy to cut my $1,300 electricity cost down to about $130 per year. First I installed a variable speed pump (about $1600) — if you have a pool, do this now. Second, since this pump is so quiet I run the pump at night during off-peak rates — currently $0.13/kwh. Third, with solar power on my roof my costs are down to about $65 per year ($0.07/kwh for solar electricity amortized over 25 years).

Keeping the pool at a comfortable temperature is usually more problematic…except for our family since my wife and I don’t swim, and the kids generally don’t care how cold the water is. But if you want to keep your pool comfortably warm in the spring and fall, the best option is a solar pool heating system that uses black plastic collectors mounted on your roof through which pool water is pumped. Note that if you have this type of system you will need to run your pool pumps during the middle of the day — which may be during peak electric rate times. Another option is a pool heat pump. Air to water heat pumps are good in warm and humid climates (not always best in hot and dry climates). If you are more concerned about heating a spa, a water to water heat pump (cooling the pool and heating the spa) might make sense.

For more about reducing your pool’s total operating costs so it’s no longer an energy hog, Listen up to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Upcoming electric rate changes mean that almost every home and business will eventually benefit from a battery connected to their solar system. These combined systems provide tangible economic benefits: time shifting energy use, energy arbitrage, preserving the benefits of net metering and demand charge reduction.

In a nutshell, battery storage systems help preserve the benefits of net metering. But because of the grid’s unreliability — coupled with upcoming Public Service Power Shutoffs in California — the vast majority of our residential customers are installing battery storage systems for backup power.

As our company got back into the energy storage business with lithium ion batteries, we did extensive research into battery systems and their compatible inverters, into manufacturers, into software and operating modes, and into the interconnection and incentive process. After almost two years of selling and installing battery storage systems we’ve gained a lot of wisdom — and made some mistakes along the way. To help our fellow contractors and our future customers, here are ten of our most systemic and painful battery storage installation mistakes:

1. Misunderstanding customer desires

2. Incomplete product offerings

3. Underestimating support and maintenance costs

4. Adding batteries to existing systems

5. If the CTs don’t fit, you’re in deep sh-t

6. Complicated backup panel wiring

7. Buggy software and firmware

8. Interconnection problems

9. Incentive delays

10. Battery warranty claims

For more insights into avoiding battery storage installation mistakes, please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.