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!

I’ve previously speculated about some ways to calculate a carbon footprint (see post). My methods were pretty basic, but I hope they at least gave some ideas of how we can start tabulating or carbon costs.

While other carbon calculators do exist – such as Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth calculator – they only provide the high level information about what all goes into our carbon footprints – both individually and nationally.

For those who would like to take a more serious look at what comprises your carbon emissions, I highly recommend the book “Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air” by David MacKay.

MacKay, a Physics professor at the University of Cambridge, goes through a thorough investigation of all the direct and indirect carbon emissions that we’re each responsible for. He then tabulates those emissions against theoretical renewable energy alternatives. And I do mean theoretical – MacKay envisions such extreme scenarios as putting wind mills on almost every available acre in the UK or solar panels on every home. He focuses on what’s possible if we all used about as much renewable energy as we could.

The downside is that MacKay lives in Britain, and so his numbers are focused only on what the UK could do and don’t take into account U.S. consumption habits or potential renewable resources. But his book still provides a fantastic overview of the challenge behind actually going to a completely renewable-based energy supply, and he does it in a fun and very readable way for non-technical folks.

Best of all, MacKay gives his book away online for free, so you can download it in chapters or all at once and start reading today.