Have you ever noticed that we do have a significant amount of sunny days, in Wisconsin, in February?

As the days are getting longer I'm noticing that my southern facing home is staying warmer thanks to the four 4'x10' solar thermal collectors that are helping to heat our radiant floor and domestic hot water.

Even in our darkest month of December, Madison, WI receives an average of 3.9 sun hours per day. In July it shoots up to 10.7 sun hours per day. Wisconsin averages about 7.2 hours of sunlight per day, or about 2635 hours of sunlight per year.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has a great set of maps showing the insolation amounts across the United States. Here is a map for the month of February.


Insolation sounds like insulation, but it has a completely different definition. Insolation is derived from three words: incidence of solar radiation, and these maps from NREL measure the amount of insolation each state receives in terms of kilowatt-hours per square meter per day.

For me, this is a comforting thought as we gear up for more warmer and sunnier days.

Here is another neat sun hour map for the United States:

We had a great day meeting with many future RE & Energy Efficiency field workers. We're very excited and looking forward to working with them on upcoming renewable energy projects this summer! Thanks for taking time to chat with us today, we are pleased with the enthusiastic turn-out.

ATTEND A KEY PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE WI CLEAN ENERGY JOBS ACT

The Clean Energy Jobs Act (AB 649/SB 450) was introduced January 7, 2010. The bill, sponsored by four legislative committee chairs (Sens. Miller and Plale, Reps. Soletski and Black) incorporates several energy-related policies recommended by Governor Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force. If adopted, it would increase the state’s Renewable Energy Standard to 25% by 2025. It would institute renewable energy buyback rates that would stimulate the installation of smaller-scale renewable generation. The bill also expands the list of eligible renewable energy energy resources to include solar hot water systems, solar light fixtures, biomass heating systems, and renewable natural gas (from dairy sources).

The last public hearing on the Clean Energy Jobs Act will be held in the Assembly Committee on Clean Energy Jobs Monday, February 15, 2010 at 10:00 AM at the State Capitol in Madison, RM 412E.

The Sierra Club, John Muir Chapter (Wisconsin), has an easy way for you to register your support online. If you can attend this hearing, then you can testify in person.

The Sierra Club states that legislators have told them that they are not hearing enough from their constituents on the need to take action on climate change in Wisconsin- especially young people who will be most impacted by climate change. They are hearing daily from lobbyists who oppose clean energy.

Please show your support for this important legislative act in Wisconsin.

This notice came thanks to the Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter (Wisconin) and RENEW Wisconsin.

Stressing Energy Efficiency

Welcome!

We hope to provide weekly insights into our business and news about our passion: Renewable Energy.

For our first post we decided to write about energy efficiency. We believe energy efficiency is the single most important step toward creating better renewable energy systems. Energy efficiency is the ability to perform the same energy functions, but to do it in the most efficient manner. Energy efficiency can be accomplished through maintenance, design, and technology. It is slightly different from energy conservation, which is also important. For example, if a building needs to use a central AC unit to cool then installing a newer, more efficient, Energy Star approved central AC unit would be an efficiency measure. Turning the thermostat temperature up during cooling season would be a conservation measure.

Efficiency improvements can have staggering effects. According to Citizen Power, a public policy research, education and advocacy organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, if all central AC units in the United States are replaced with ones that are 20% to 30% more efficient that would save the amount of energy generated from approximately 46 300 MW power plants. That's incredible...That's efficiency.

At BEC Solar, our focus and main goal for our business has centered around building efficiency measures for our customers. It is why we named this business Building Energy Controls, LLC. Implementing energy efficient measures should be first and foremost.

We help our customers analyze their current energy use and help them by suggesting improvements. Improving efficiency first will significantly improve the performance and return on investment potential of any renewable energy installation. In homes and businesses efficiency can be improved by taking weatherization measures, upgrading lighting, and upgrading to Energy Star approved appliances.

We've found that the group Citizen Power has some compelling information about the stunning impacts of efficiency improvements. Here are a few of our favorites and most pertinent to what we recommend to our customers:

• If you replaced your 75-watt incandescent lightbulb with a 20-watt compact fluorescent, you'd get the same amount of light but save 1,300 pounds of CO2 and $55.

• Using an automatic thermostat to save energy when you are away from home

• Saving even a conservative 1 kW per new home and 10 kW per new commercial building means that in 2020, we can avoid another 100 300-MW powerplants.

• If each household in the U.S. replaced four 100-watt bulbs with compact fluorescents, we would save the energy output of 30 300-MW powerplants.

Efficiency first is also key in new building construction. Designing the new building to incorporate passive solar, solar thermal, solar electricity, and geothermal systems is key. Designing them in a way to utilize these systems to their fullest potential and most efficient manner is vital and the proper placement of these systems is critical to their operational efficiency.

For example, the central air-conditioning compressor for the building should be located on the shady side of the building to minimize how hard it would have to work in the full sun. Studies show that shading a compressor can shave 1% to 2% off cooling costs. It is also critical to efficiency to make sure that there is proper air flow over the compressor's coils, so placement away from fences, shrubs, and anything else that might block airflow should be at least two feet away.

Taking simple steps like:

• Opening drapes and curtains on sunny winter days to take advantage of the sun’s heating power, and then, closing all drapes, blinds or shades at night in the winter to make use of their insulating properties.

• Installing ceiling fans can save energy in both the summer and the winter. In the summer, fan blades should revolve in a counterclockwise direction. In winter months, set your fan at its slowest speed and reverse it in order to push warm air down.

• Fill empty spaces in your refrigerator and freezer with water jugs. You’ll save energy and money because it takes more energy to run an empty refrigerator and freezer than a full one.

The above are just a few considerations and steps to take when incorporating energy efficiency.

We'd love to have feedback on this, our first blog post, and ideas for future posts. Thanks for reading!