Have you ever wondered what to do with those energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs when they burn out? One shouldn’t just toss them into the garbage due to the small amount of mercury (~5mg) in each bulb yet it’s not really apparent what to do with them. Presently, there are a number of pilot programs that collect and hopefully recycle the bulbs, but a sustainable and clear recycling stream has really yet to emerge.

One has to wonder if this is a business opportunity? The Wall Street Journal online has a good article discussing the pros and cons of the current state of electronics recycling including cfls (ignoring the pejorative title “The Dark Side of Green Bulbs”.)

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Via Earth2Tech:

Demand management, the business of intelligently managing power use, especially during peak energy-use hours, can pay for itself in a matter of months. But now with some utilities offering incentives to commercial and industrial power users, demand management systems can give a return on investment almost immediately.

That’s the case with a $250,000 energy management system from Powerit Solutions, for which PG&E has given produce processor Guadalupe Cooling Company a grant. Powerit President Bob Zak told Earth2Tech that “using the California incentives that are demand response-based… [our] systems can be 100 percent paid for upon installation.”

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We continue to believe that demand management is a part of the solution with respect to our transition to an electric economy (from a fossil economy.) Sure, it’s essential that efficient generation from renewable resources continues forward to increase capacity, but there is also an opportunity to manage demand such that the capacity we currently have can be utilized more effectively and consumers can make decisions about their utility bills. How does this work? Powerit has provided a nice diagram that shows the key components:

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Image Credit: WFI Industries

One of the most overlooked and effective geothermal technologies is the heat pump. As shown in the diagram above, the technology can be used for heating and cooling and depending on the annual temperature variance from the base earth temperature, annual savings vs. conventional HVAC equipment can be as high as 50% per year. Essentially, these systems use the earth (or water held in the earth) as a heat exchanger, moving heat from one place to another via a working fluid in a closed loop system.

In a heating situation, if the ambient air temperature is 32F (0C) and the earth temperature is 53F (12C) the working fluid will be used to transfer heat from the earth to the interior ambient environment – a 21F (12C) advantage over taking exterior ambient air – and then will use conventional means to heat the air to the desired temperature. In a cooling situation, it’s the reverse taking heat from the interior ambient air and transferring it to the earth. Since most humans don’t wish to live in 53F temperatures, further cooling isn’t generally necessary.

One of the leaders in geothermal heat pumps is Indiana based WFI Industries, manufacturer of the Water Furnace. It would seem over the past few years that WFI has been discovered, take a look at their stock chart from that time frame:


Image Credit: Yahoo Finance

This is clearly a technology with huge benefits, particularly where the climate has significant differences in ambient air temperature between summer and winter conditions.

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The chart above is from a family member’s home with data over the last 3 years. Of interest about this home, is that it is relatively new (<10 years old) and all-electric (water heating, cooking, clothes dryer, heating/cooling, etc.) Other interesting things to know is that the home has, relatively speaking, many windows and is located in an area where it is very warm in the summer and can get very cold in the winter.
Over the past 3 years this household has made a point of attempting to reduce their energy consumption and ultimately, energy efficient lighting has made a big difference as have solar shades to help with temperature control. One of the things that is striking about this chart is how the peaks have been reduced. Notice in March for 2005/2006 that the peak consumption was around 2,500 KWh. In 2007 that was reduced to about 1,000 KWh. Overall, the 2007 consumption is about 1/3 less than for comparable periods in the prior years.

Conservation does matter and when real data like this is exposed, it shows you what is possible by just by doing the simple things.

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So you’ve been thinking about exchanging those hot incandescent lightbulbs for lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps but there’s one nagging thought you worry about: Mercury. Yes, it’s true that there is between 4-6mg of mercury per cfl. You worry, what happens if the lamp breaks? How do I recycle them post usage? Well, the good folks at Energy Trust published an informative article about these issues recently. The chart below is from their article, showing that even with the mercury in the bulb, over a 5 year burn, the CFL still results in less mercury than an incandescent bulb.

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