Triangle Sustainability Blog

In a previous post, I questioned the effectiveness of the government’s notorious Cash for Clunkers program. While that program might have been a dud, another stimulus idea is percolating in policy circles that might have more merit: a Cash for Caulkers program.

Here are some of the details from the N Y Times article:

The official name of the program would be Homestar, playing off the name Energy Star, a government program that promotes energy-efficient appliances.

It would cost $23 billion over two years. Of that, $6 billion would go to incentives to people who did at least two significant weatherization projects — such as air sealing, insulation, new light bulbs and new appliances. Homestar would have a list of 10 such projects. Households that did at least two would be eligible for up to $2,000. Households that did four would be eligible for up to $3,500. The government money could not pay for more than half of any project.

The nice part about this scheme is that it would actually focus on making some of the most valuable energy improvements a homeowner can do – sealing and insulating their home – rather than purchasing new trucks from the sputtering car makers. Cash for Caulkers scheme also has a lot of potential to put idle construction workers to good use, so it probably would help with job creation on some level. And the energy savings in many cases will pay for themselves within a few years time.

At Triangle Sustainability, energy audits and home (or business) weatherization are one of our core services for our customers. Our energy audit will help you identify where energy savings in your home exist and what the best methods are to fix them. Then you can either make the improvements yourself or hire us to come do them for you.

Ready to get started with an audit? E-mail us today at info@trianglesustainability.com and we’ll set up a time to come visit your home!

In a recent post, I reviewed some research that shows that our current atmospheric carbon concentrations are now at a level not seen for around 15 million years. That’s bad news.

But there’s some good news, too. A recent report from the International Energy Agency spells out a strategy for stabilizing carbon atmospheric concentrations, perhaps in more detail than has been specified before.

For the IEA, keeping carbon concentrations at our below 450 ppm is the key, since that’s the level they believe will minimize the effects of global warming. Hence they call getting to that goal the “450 scenario.”

Achieving the 450 scenario, according to the IEA, requires pursuing a variety of different carbon abatement measures. These measures include pursuing greater energy efficiencies, renewable energy, biofuels, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage (see figure).

World energy-related CO2 emissions abatement (source: IEA)

Based on the IEA’s handy graph and table, we can see that they believe end-use energy efficiency to be the greatest slice of the carbon-abatement pie. And within that category fall lots of measures that we each can take to boost our personal energy efficiency – better insulation, building sealing, replacing incandescent light bulbs, driving a car with better mileage, etc.

This serves as a nice reminder that it’s easy for each of us to take energy-savings steps today, rather than waiting for various forms of renewable energy to become more affordable. So what are you going to do to boost your own efficiency?