Wind Farm Postmark
I got a letter today with a Wind Farm Postmark. I’m surprised it came through… Someone better tell the Postmaster that those are banned in Marshall County!
Honeywell Thermostat
Last Thursday I went to a presentation put on by Honeywell and Mid-City Supply in Plymouth that discussed their latest advancements in programmable thermostats. I would hesitate to say that this is their answer to the Nest thermostat I talked about previously (here), since Honeywell was actually doing this first, but I think Nest and its advances and popularity are pushing them to be more innovative. They have reduced the size of their programmable stat, given it more color options and beefed up their internet connectivity.
The three main things that I think set the Honeywell system apart are as follows:
- They have a lot of module add-ons available. (Homeowner Accessory Flyer) They can tie together multiple thermostats, zone sensors, duct sensors, humidity sensors and outdoor sensors within the HVAC realm. In addition they are adding things like sump pump sensors which will make your thermostat more of a multi-function device.
- Their RedLINK system has its own wireless bandwidth that works in a 1/2 mile radius to tie the modules together. The advantage of this is the entire system becomes just one device on your wireless internet router reducing the load when Dad is playing video poker, Mom is watching a Netflix movie and Junior is playing a multi-player online game.
- There is a commercial option for this system, partially allowed by the flexibility listed above.
Marshall County: Nice Scientists not Welcome!
I ran across this ad and found it amusing juxtapositioned against the current news articles about the Concerned Property Owners of Marshall County (What happened to their advocate counterpart? – blog here) and the Marshall County Commissioners and Plan Commission like this one. Verizon may not want to run this ad around here. On the wind farm issue, we don’t truck with Mad OR Nice Scientists. Let’s not muddy an emotional issue! We want our bald eagles killed the old fashion way through slow mercury poisoning from coal fired power plants, not whacked by newfangled wind turbines…
LED vs HID Wall Pack Fixture
I generally feel that upgrading electrical fixtures and devices to the newer energy-saving devices is the easiest green energy to justify. Great strides are being made in this area to the point that my average client can see savings with a short pay off time. This is often something that shows gains with a one-to-one swap of new for existing fixtures. Further gains can be achieved by designing around the new fixtures and adding energy-saving controls.
One of my supplier reps was in yesterday and shared the following analysis that he completed for one of his manufacturing clients who was considering upgrading their existing exterior wall pack lights from HID (High Intensity Discharge such as High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide) to LED (Light Emitting Diode):
These are the wall pack security fixtures you see high on the wall around factories, warehouses or buildings with parking near their wall.
Fixture prices:
HID TWH400MTB w/lamp $218
LED TWHLED 30C 50K $450
At $0.08 energy rate, 10 hour/day, 365 days/year the energy savings is $102.79/year.
LED = In a ten year time frame you would spend $450 for the LED fixture and $305.80 for energy use.
HID = In a ten year time frame you would spend $218 for the HID fixture plus change the lamp four times and the ballast once. 2 hours labor times 4 times is 8 hours. The cost for the four lamps and the one ballast is $124.
