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Community and Q&A

PV, Peak Demand and BEopt

homedesign | Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on

John Straube and Danny Parker have a good point.
When making decisions about Enclosure Design…we should consider the cost of PV.

We will need some PV anyway just to offset appliance and lighting loads.

I assume this means that we will be using the Grid as a “battery”.
What about peak demand? peak demand pricing? and reducing the need for more power plants?

It seems to me that this Sacramento strategy:
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/39821.pdf
makes more sense than comparing enclosure costs directly to the current cost of PV.
Anyone out there using BEopt?
Any update on BEopt software release to the public?

It seems to me that Peak Demand should be a design factor in Cold Climates also.

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Replies

  1. Robert Riversong | | #1

    I'm not familiar with BEopt, but the statement "We will need some PV anyway just to offset appliance and lighting loads" is similar to the position that we will need new nuclear power plants just to keep apace with current growth in demand without adding to global warming.

    The only cheap and environmentally benign power is nega-watts: making do with less. The conclusion "We will need some PV anyway" is based on the unquestioned premise that we cannot live without what have become conventional "appliance and lighting loads".

    Making an unsustainable lifestyle, economy and culture more efficient only slows down the train racing toward the cliff. It creates an illusion of progress by forestalling the consequences of our choices.

  2. homedesign | | #2

    Robert,
    I am sure that you live in a good enclosure...
    We all have gadgets and things that we could live without.
    How do you power your computer?
    I do not like PV ... But I am considering using it.
    I do believe in Optimizing the Enclosure first.

  3. Robert Riversong | | #3

    John,

    I'm bicycling as fast as I can to keep this computer running ;-) Actually, my use of electricity is one of my hypocrisies, but I purchase 100% green power from dairy farm methane generation and similar sources and use less than 100 kWh per month.

    I don't live in what we would consider a good enclosure (it's just a hunting camp), but at 300 square feet it doesn't require much wood to heat. And with no indoor plumbing, I find that I am far more conservative about water use (I have to pump it up every couple of months from a stream and collect rainwater from the roof or melt snow in winter for washing dishes - cold water only). I also enjoy the luxuries of looking out into the woods as I sit in my composting outhouse, and taking baths under the sky in my wood-heated hot tub.

    I feel that I have a higher standard of living than most "moderns" specifically because I have few of what are considered "necessary" amenities. I do, however, drive a pick-up truck - but I couldn't be a Vermont Greenneck without one, could I?.

  4. Leroy Who Prefers the Outdoors | | #4

    Robert, allow me to recommend instead living as I do in a large cardboard box here on East 57th Street in midtown. Apart from the posh and prestigious address, unlimited heat is available 24/7 from the nearby subway grate. No wasting wood in a woodstove nor global warming gases rising up the exhaust flue.
    Don't even get me started re driving a pickup truck.

  5. homedesign | | #5

    Leroy,
    Now that there was funny...
    I assume you get your wifi for free from the Starbucks?

  6. Robert Riversong | | #6

    Leroy,

    Wood heat is carbon neutral. And up here in VT, I would need a double-wall cardboard box to make it through the winters.

  7. homedesign | | #7

    UPDATE
    Recent headline in the Dallas Newspaper:
    "Smart Electric Meters May Change the Way We Live"

    700,000 smart meters recently installed in N. Texas
    3.5 million by 2012

    One feature of the smart meter is that occupants will be able to monitor their energy use.
    The REAL purpose is to pave the way to Peak Demand Billing.

    I think that Peak Demand Billing will sweep the whole country.
    This will eventually change the way we design and build our Enclosures.

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