TerraLogos Green News

Vol. 4, Issue 2

May 2010

Use our Spring Discount and
Help Replace a Power Plant

Since 2006, TerraLogos Energy Group has helped hundreds of property owners reduce their energy use.

It's amazing how little steps over time by lots of people really add up to something big. Using our Building Performance method, TerraLogos customers have saved over $2.6 million so far.

In addition, together we have stopped over 6,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, and replaced the need for over 32 Megawatts of Power. Watch our new counter tally the savings here.

That's the advantage of Negawatt production - doing the same or better using less energy. Being more energy efficient. Our next goal is to replace a whole power plant through Negawatt production using our Building Performance method.

This is a big goal. An average coal-fired power plant produces 600-700 megawatts of power. We are at 5% of our goal and gaining on it with each passing minute. To encourage more homeowners to join our effort, we are once again offering our

Spring Discount:

BPI Certified Home Energy Audit
regular $495 - Spring Discount $450

Discounted Audits must be scheduled
before June 30th. Start the process now and
be ready for the summer cooling season.

Save $Money$ 3 ways:

Save immediately on your audit with our Spring Discount.
Access the BGE Home Performance Incentive program to receive up to $2,450 towards qualified improvements.
Save money on your energy bills after performing your recommended improvements.

Customers who have completed their recommended energy improvement projects have shared their stories with us, indicating up to 50% savings on energy bills. Plus, their homes are more comfortable and healthy for their families. Read their stories here.

Take advantage of our Spring Discount and help us replace a power plant's worth of energy.
Start the process by scheduling your
BPI Certified Audit today.

Click here and submit your on-line form or

call us at 410.225.5040

to schedule your Energy Audit.

Trust TerraLogos as your partner for improving
the energy efficiency of all types of buildings.

MD's First EE Financing Program

EmPOWER Annapolis

A new clean energy financing program - the first of its kind in Maryland - just became available for residents of Annapolis. EmPOWER Annapolis will enable homeowners to secure low-cost financing for performing energy efficiency (EE) improvements on their homes.

The main elements of the loan include the following:

It must be for energy efficiency projects on an owner-occupied residence in the City of Annapolis.
Financing up to $10,000 per home with up to a 10 year term and rates as low as 3%.
Payments are made with your water bill and are transferable if the home is sold.
Must perform a BPI Certified Energy Audit to determine valid projects, but the cost of the audit can be rolled into the loan.
All TerraLogos Audits performed in Annapolis within the last year already qualify for the program.
Once approved, improvement projects must be completed within 90 days.

At present, there is only enough funding to finance approximately 50 projects. If you are interested, TerraLogos is ready to help you take advantage of the EmPOWER Annapolis program.The first step is scheduling a BPI Certified Energy Audit.

Click here and submit your on-line form or
call us at 410.225.5040
to schedule your Home Energy Audit.
Take advantage of our Spring Discount.

Click here for the EmPOWER Annapolis Program.
Click here for Information on PACE legislation.

However, legislation that would have made this type of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loan available throughout the state failed to pass during the 2010 legislative session. TerraLogos testified for this legislation, and we will be back to help pass this bill in 2011. Stay tuned.

Doctor, Heal Thyself: Part 1

Air Sealing & Insulating Our Old Building

TerraLogos Energy Group now occupies the 1st floor office space of a Bolton Hill rowhouse that was built in 1875. Conventional wisdom says that old buildings are cold, drafty and leak energy like a sieve. (See photos of our project here.)

That was certainly true in our case............ but we could fix that.

As for all our customers, the process started with a comprehensive BPI Certified Energy Audit of the property. Our resulting Energy Efficiency Report identified our building's primary issues as high air leakage (over twice the target rate) and minimal insulation levels in particular areas.

Since our building was built before air conditioning, a central air system had never been installed. Instead, 10 separate window and thru-the-wall units supplied the AC for the building. These units were inefficient compared to currently available systems and greatly contributed to air leaks, drafts and energy losses in winter.

So we removed the AC units, bricked off the openings and then brought in the air sealing & insulation crew. When we were done, we reduced our air leakage by 39%! We could immediately feel the difference in comfort this winter, plus our energy bills went down even during the big cold spell.

We'll be installing a high-efficiency, ductless, mini-split heat pump system this month to supply room-by-room zoned air conditioning for the building. We should see a big reduction in our summer cooling bills, too.

See photos of our air sealing & insulation work here.
Look for photos of the AC installation in our next issue.

Doctor, Heal Thyself: Part 2

Going Tankless

The average life expectancy of water heaters is 11 to 14 years. As part of every energy audit, we inform the homeowner when they can anticipate the need to replace their heater.

That's because it's not much fun to deal with a failed water heater. They leak all over the place.

Well, .... in February, the 1991 vintage unit in our carriage house apartment decided it had more than met its life expectancy. See photos here of the replacement process.

Fortunately, TerraLogos' water heater installer stocks tankless units (and solar ones too!), so we were able to quickly make the replacement with a fine energy efficient unit.

Tankless is NOT the solution for many homes. It was the perfect choice here because:

We use natural gas for fuel.
The location made installing the new exhaust system easy.
The runs between the heater and the kitchen & bathroom are very short, since the unit is in a utility closet right inside the 1 floor apartment.
The apartment is used irregularly as a guest house, so stand-by losses from the old tank system were high. This gives us big savings to pay for the additional cost of the tankless unit.

The big reduction in gas expense was visible on our very next bill. After being "surprised" by this unit failing, we are already planning the replacement for our 2002 water heater in the main building. We'll be going solar for that one. Stay tuned.

See photos of the installation of our
new tankless system here.

40th Earth Day

Cash For Appliances - Energy Saving Product

April 22nd marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson, the first Earth Day (http://nelsonearthday.net/) was celebrated in 1970 by millions of self-organized Americans. Soon to follow was the creation of the EPA, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

The Maryland Energy Administration marked the anniversary by kicking off its "cash for appliances" program. Purchases of new, high-efficiency clothes washers, refrigerators and electric heat pump water heaters now will qualify for rebates of $50 to $300. A total of $5.4 million will be disbursed, with funding coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. See the MEA's website here or BGE's website here for more information and forms.

The Appliance Rebate Program, like the BGE Home Performance with Energy Star Program, is one of many EmPOWER Maryland initiatives with the ultimate goal of reducing state energy consumption 15% by 2015. As a certified contractor, TerraLogos Energy Group has helped BGE customers earn incentives of up to $2,450 for qualifying energy improvement projects.

To take advantage of this incentive program, the first step is performing a certified BPI energy audit for your home. Schedule yours using the on-line form here or call us at 410.225.5040. The Spring Discount is in effect until 6/30.

Green Kids are the Future

Pinewood Elementary Visits TerraLogos

This winter some VIP visitors came to the TerraLogos office - Teresa May's 1st grade class from Pinewood Elementary. See more photos from the visit here.

Our Bolton Hill neighbor and school principal, Kathy Arnold, planned the trip as part of their studies on Communities. The scholars were conducting field research on urban neighborhoods.

Walking through the office, we talked about recycling buildings (historic preservation), choosing paints that don't stink (low VOC), why we don't use paper towels anymore, and saving our lunch scraps for Frank's worm farm. The children were full of questions and were really quite knowledgeable.

We also served as an example of a green business, which fit in with the school's status as an Accredited MD Green School.

In fact, the National Education Association chose Pinewood for the launch of its Green Across America grants program. The school was recently presented with the first of numerous $1,000 grants that will be awarded nationwide to the most environmentally active schools. Read a Baltimore Sun article on the award here.

Congratulations to Pinewood Elementary for playing a leadership role to create a greener future for us all. Click here to visit Pinewood Elementary on-line.

What We Do

TerraLogos provides energy improvement contracting to find and fix the hidden energy leaks that cause high energy bills and make buildings uncomfortable.

Our process begins with a BPI Certified Energy Audit. The resulting report targets energy use reduction. But it's a 5-step process:

We accurately diagnose the energy issues of your home or building;
We create a cost-effective, prioritized treatment plan specific to your property;
We properly perform your recommended improvements using our trained Building Performance contractors;
We assist you with filing for available incentives;
We perform follow-up testing to ensure that the work was performed safely and completely.

The TerraLogos process provides Maryland property owners with cost-effective solutions to simultaneously

save money on utility bills,
make homes and buildings more comfortable and healthy, and
reduce our impact on the environment.

TerraLogos Energy Group
Your partner in energy efficiency

In This Issue

Spring Discount

Financing in Annapolis

Sealing Our Leaks

Going Tankless

Energy Saving Product

Video game consoles can be big energy wasters. The first generation Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 each consume over 160 watts when on, even if your game is paused.

That's as much as an energy efficient refrigerator.

One obvious solution is to power down the unit when not in use. We also strongly suggest enabling the auto power-down feature. This is typically buried in the system settings and disabled by default.

Finally, using a Smart Strip allows you to automatically cut off all power to your consoles when the TV is off. Just don't forget to save your game progress!