Examine use requirements and design before choosing lighting fixtures

By Lindsay Audin
December 2009

When looking at the life-cycle cost of lighting, it pays to parse all the pieces: not just the prices for fixtures, lamps, and ballasts, but also the costs for power to run them, the labor to maintain them, and services to dispose of them. Savings are possible that could cut the overall cost of illumination by 5 to 15 percent.

Most estimates are that 80 percent of the cost to operate a fixture is energy, with the remainder distributed between labor and parts. But such charts may not include the initial cost of the fixture, lamp/ballast disposal, and other charges. Fortunately, options exist to minimize these and other factors, including energy.

For the purpose of looking at the lifetime costs of lighting, and opportunities to contain and reduce them, the following examples use a typical recessed 3-lamp, 4-foot linear fluorescent fixture with standard T8 lamps and an electronic ballast. All costs are in today’s dollars, without escalations.

Start With The Task

Most spaces are illuminated to achieve tasks such as work, instruction, or sales. Each has an appropriate lighting level, but finding such excessive levels is common. Some corridors are lit as brightly as offices or classrooms, despite the fact that a much lower level may be satisfactory. The same may be true when a task changes. One college library space was converted to a cafeteria, with no adjustment to lighting levels. Many offices now filled with LCD screens are still lit as though typewriters were in use. The end result in all three cases is roughly double the necessary light level, which then doubles the operating and maintenance costs………………

full story at http://www.facilitiesnet.com/lighting/article/Examine-Use-Requirements-and-Design-Before-Choosing-Lighting-Fixtures–11343

 

If zero carbon is the answer then just what was the question?

 My friend Martin Brown describes the situation with regard to our predicament excellently on his Blog which contains the posting below.

Through the lens of this Blog, Keeping Ahead of the Oil Curve, the question is clear and unaquivical and is “how do we continually reduce the Resource Intensity of the Build Environment to help balance the one planet equation”

The background to this formulation can be found at http://trailblazerbusinessfutures.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/quality-and-the-one-planet-equation/ and I would like, with Martin’s help, and others if you would like to join in, to explore the avenues this question opens to view in a world driven, immutably, whether we ignore it or not, by the One Planet Equation. 1 = P x C x I

Unfortunately the one planet side of the equation is shrinking as we consume its non-renewable resources and sinks.

dd

July 6, 2009 by fairsnape

If zero carbon is the answer then just what was the question

Is it ‘just because’ I am currently  seeing things from a different perspective as I re-read Cradle to Cradle, (which I feel  has more resonance with where we are now)  but a number of recent issues and events  have left me questioning our approach to zero, and that going to zero is not enough.   Indeed it may even be dangerous ‘just’ going to zero.

Lets consider the built environment in its widest sense, not just from design to FM but from winning raw materials through construction to end users, and consider the opening premise from Cradle to Cradle, and ask who today would allow a sector to :

Put billions of pounds of toxic materials in the air water and ground every year

Produces materials so dangerous they require constant vigilance by future generations

See Complete article at  http://fairsnape.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/if-zero-carbon-is-the-answer-then-just-what-was-the-question/

 

A ‘Single Conversation’, GARS or SARG?

The Homes and Communities Agency intend having a single conversation with with all the actors in Housing and renewal, which is fantastic you might say.

However, they are basing that conversation on Growth, Affordability, Renewal and Sustainability GARS, but is this a meaningful conversation?

Any meaningful converstion must be based on SARG, Sustainability etc.

To move forward we must move forward on a journey of continual improvement towards sustainability, only this route is affordable, creates renewal and offers the possibility of growth at reduced resource intensity.

The Learning and Skills Council have already tried the the GARS approach, which has led to a complete shambles as identified on the BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00l0z3b/File_on_4_16_06_2009/

 

A Single conversation

By engaging local authorities in a ‘single conversation’ on all aspects of housing and regeneration, we aim to connect local ambition with national targets.

The Single Conversation is the HCA’s most important business process – it is the way in which we agree and secure delivery at the local level in support of our national objectives. By working in an open and transparent way with local authorities and others we aim to become local government’s best delivery partner, enabling us to secure more and reach better outcomes for each place…………

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/singleconversation.htm

 

Summing the resource intensity of society

The concept of the Resource Intensity of a Society is powerful but lacks the focus to enable the learning that will lead to its continual reduction.

Dividing it up into sectors seems a good idea but could lead to continuation of our reductionist approach to problem solving, but the broad categories appear to be

The Resource Intensity of

• The Built Environment
• Governance
• Security
• Mobility
• Fulfilment
• Knowledge
• Failure Demand

It is clear from this list that they all overlap, which highlights the need to take a systems based view of process learning and improvement.

This adds another question into the equation, is it the resource intensity of knowledge, or the resource intensity of learning that is crucial?

The resource intensity of failure demand also cuts across all sectors and looked at crudely, is the waste we generate carrying out our essential processes and the ones that aren’t essential,

Of  ’not doing the right thing, right, every time’

dd

 

Plans for Eco-Cities now lie abandoned

 The mirage of green jobs and green technologies blinds us to the reality, the need to attack waste and loss in what we do now, in the existing built environment and within the change capabilities of existing cultures.

I remember attending an ARUP presentation on Dongtan around three years ago and the most suprising fact that came out was that the development would have to be protected from rising sea level at great resource intensity.

As with all evolution, those cultures resistant to change will die and be replaced by others that can.

dd

 China’s Grand Plans for Eco-Cities Now Lie Abandoned

……………………..But there’s another side of the story. The most highly publicized eco-cities, including Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, drew upon expertise from some of the most vaunted international architectural and design firms. The vision for an eco-city on the outskirts of Shanghai was first hatched by the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The well-regarded UK-based design, engineering, planning, and business consulting firm, Arup, designed what its Web site describes as the “master plan” for Dongtan. In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair even hailed collaboration on Dongtan as a sign of strong U.K.-China relations.

And William McDonough — a U.S. architect, author of Cradle to Cradle, and a celebrated figure in the American green architecture movement — worked on the design of Huangbaiyu, as well as “conceptual plans” for other eco-projects across China…………….

See full article at http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2138

see also

http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongtan

 

BBC ‘A Farm for the Future’ video on Google

A Farm for the Future

Posted by Gail the Actuary on March 26, 2009 – 8:35pm
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: farm, permaculture [list all tags]

Back in February, Chris Vernon wrote a post called “BBC Covers Peak Oil: A Farm for the Future”. The peak oil documentary is now available in available on Google at

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4152340418943461860&hl=en

 

information from http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5241
Included are some comments from Chris’ original post. The Oil Drum is listed in the credits!

 

V2G: Vehicle to Grid Power

AC Propulsion Provides Power for 500 New Electric Vehicles

San Dimas, CA – Nov. 19, 2008 – AC Propulsion supplies the electric propulsion and battery technology for the MINI E electric vehicle introduced today at the LA Auto Show by BMW Group. AC Propulsion has delivered more than 500 drive systems to the BMW Group factory in Munich for MINI E production.

“Working with BMW Group on the MINI E project has been a great opportunity,” said AC Propulsion CEO Tom Gage, “The schedule was tight and required a lot of discipline and coordination. We really pushed our manufacturing operation to meet the production schedule. I drove one of the cars in Munich and our drive system delivers the power, I couldn’t stop smiling. We’ve had cars with our drive systems on the road since 1992, and some have well over 100,000 miles on them, so we’ve seen our systems handle the rigors of daily use. This is a big step for electric vehicles.”

Download a high resolution version of this photo here.

The MINI E uses a specially-developed version of AC Propulsion’s proprietary tzero™ technology to provide high performance, high efficiency, and fast charging. AC Propulsion’s air-cooled copper-rotor induction motor produces maximum torque from zero to 5,000 rpm and spins all the way up to 13,000 rpm. The IGBT inverter drives the motor to produce peak power of 150 kW. Even with this high power rating, the AC Propulsion drive system operates with high efficiency in normal driving. Powerful regenerative braking adds to the efficiency and driving appeal. When the car decelerates, the kinetic energy of motion is converted back to electrical energy in the battery………………….

………………………………………..The charger can discharge the battery as well as charge it. In effect, the charger can serve as a regulated power source with many possible applications including, battery pack self-diagnosis, back-up power, car-to-car charging, and, perhaps most importantly in the future, providing ancillary services to the power grid. Engineers have a term for this – vehicle-to-grid or V2G – and it promises to make smart grids of the future more efficient in providing electric power for cars as well as buildings.

V2G does not discharge the battery, so the car is always available for driving. But with each vehicle sourcing or sinking small amounts of power while plugged in, a fleet of V2G-capable vehicles can buffer natural variations in supply and demand on the grid, and even allow for higher utilization of solar and wind power.

AC Propulsion is working with V2G research and development programs throughout the US to supply V2G-capable vehicles, evaluate V2G functionality, and develop the communications and control systems that will necessary to enable electric vehicles to support the power grid.

Full details at http://www.acpropulsion.com/company/press-releases.php

see also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-to-grid

http://www.udel.edu/V2G/

http://www.move.rmi.org/move-news/the-smart-garage–v2g—-guiding-the-next-big-energy-solution.html

 

Spanish cities to get electric car infrastructure

 

Spain’s Seville, Madrid, Barcelona To Get Electric Car Infrastructure This Year

Simple electric charging post, this on in London, via Alan Trotter @ flickr.

The pretty southern Spanish town of Seville has been chosen along with the capital Madrid and the northern hub Barcelona to implement the Movele pilot electric car infrastructure project proposed by the Spanish Ministry of Industry. The cities’ energy authority will this year begin putting in place the recharging stations for an eventual fleet of 500 cars expected to be purchased partially by private owners and partially by the state (subsidized in both cases up to by 30% state funds). What’s incredible (in the sense of being a bit hard to believe) is that the infrastructure of 75 charging stations in Sevilla alone is expected to be completed this year. Que será, será indeed! ……………………..

Full story at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/seville-to-get-electric-infrastructure-this-year.php

 

ClimateCars, reducing the resource intensity of mobility

ClimateCars: London’s Alternative Cab Service

by <!––>Kate Andrews <!––>

Founded in June 2007 by Nicko Williamson, Climatecars is London’s eco-alternative cab service. Although the popularity of cycling around the UK capital is significantly rising, the Climatecars service is sure to help improve awareness to many Londoners who still need to use taxi services. With an ambition to combine ecology, economy and innovation, the Prius hybrid car service cuts the carbon footprint of iconic black cab rides from 243g/km to 104g/km.

More photos and full story at http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/24/climate-cars-alternative-cab-service-in-london/

book at http://www.climatecars.com/

see also http://theappleofmyi.com/blog/climate-cars/

 

 

 

Why (green) schools matter – reducing the ‘resource intensity’ of creativity

Whilst the importance of this issue is beyond question, we must once again stand back to see what we are trying to achieve.

This is to enable the creativity for us to grow as individuals and contribute to solving our problems as societies, whilst continually reducing the resource intensity required to do this.

Measures of success are important, but they must be relevant to achieving this aim and measures, such as payback on construction investment and reading test results are not self-evidently so.

Success must be measured by how well students engage with their learning environment and its community, whilst being intimately aware of its functioning rather than isolated.

This is the essence of Education for Sustainable Development, defined here as “the leadership and management of educational institutions to maximize creativity and the value added to society, whilst working to continually reduce the resources used to enable it. The resource intensity of creativity.

 see http://trailblazerbusinessfutures.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/failure-by-degree/

dd

Why (Green) Schools Matter

As this column was being written, Senate and House conferees were ironing out the final version of the stimulus bill. An unresolved issue is funding for school construction and related technology improvements — the House bill provided $21 billion, $15 billion of it for grades K-12; the Senate provided no funding.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine was one of the senators who called for axing school construction from the stimulus bill, calling it a worthwhile objective but saying that building and renovating schools didn’t create jobs and was misplaced in the economic recovery measure……….

…………But job creation isn’t the only benefit from green schools construction. Recent national metrics on the costs and benefits of green schools are extremely positive. The October 2006 report, “Greening America’s Schools: Costs and Benefits,” evaluated the green building experiences of 30 schools in 10 states from 2001-2006. Positive outcomes associated with green schools include:

• Energy Savings. The 30 schools evaluated reported a 33.4 percent average annual energy savings from going green.
• Water Savings. The 30 schools reported an average annual reduction in water usage by 32.1 percent. ……………

…………• Student, Faculty and Staff Productivity Benefits.Green buildings have also been associated with heightened teacher retention (up 5 percent in a Washington State study). Improved student attendance (reported improvements of 15 percent in Oregon and Washington State case studies) and test scores (3 percent-4 percent in Washington, D.C. and Chicago; 19 percent in Clearview, Pennsylvania) also have been associated with green schools. In Statesville, North Carolina, the percentage of elementary school children reading at grade level increased from 60 percent to over 80 percent after the children were placed in a new, green school……….

…………All told, Greening America’s Schools found that energy and water savings over a presumed 20 year holding period had an average net present value of $9.84 per square foot, more than three times the $3 per square foot average cost premium to build green. The energy and water savings alone were paid back within six years.

These investment metrics are compelling: New school construction is a good bet for job creation and student achievement, and green school construction is even better. Let’s hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle catch on sooner rather than later.

Complete article at http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/02/12/green-schools

see also

http://www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk/

http://www.bsf-culture.co.uk/

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/resourcesfinanceandbuilding/bsf/

http://uk.green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins/55/building-green-schools.html

http://uk.green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins

http://uk.green.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090211/wr_nm/us_google_smartgrid.html

http://uk.green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins/70/remodeling-amory-lovins-home.html