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By kimquirk, on March 14th, 2010
 Google PI Today is March 14th, for some that’s 3.14 (pi, π) day. Pi is the greek symbol representing the constant which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Google often takes the opportunity to acknowledge an interesting day (or date) on its front page, and they did so today as you see from the image/link. The word google has a good number of circles in the letters and the number that “googolplex” represents is a one followed by a very, very large number of zeros (read more at the googolplex wikipedia link). So today is PI Data day for me — an opportunity to blog about techy stuff.
Specifically, this blog is about data collection and information. I enjoy trying to make information out of data. Data by itself is generally quite boring and difficult to understand. But if we can use that data to provide information, we can use then use the information to improve systems… like to reduce our energy use, for instance. [See other blogs on "Weather or Not", "Data Logging -Real Information", and "Can We Share our Energy Data"]
…continue reading Pi Day
By kimquirk, on March 5th, 2010
 Fresh Food
Over the last week I have had an opportunity to watch two movies and a TEDprize presentation about America’s un-sustainable food industry: “ Fresh“, “ Food, Inc” and Jamie Oliver’s TED prize acceptance video. I wasn’t seeking out information on food … but they all presented themselves in the last week so I felt it was time to talk about it.
I found both of these movies provide a great insight into how our food is created and brought to market. Yes, they are both a little depressing with pictures of chickens, pigs, and cattle that are never given more than a few inches of space in which to move around during their entire life … but the uplifting part is there is something we can do about this. Most of us can choose which foods to buy at the grocery store.
…continue reading Sustainable Fresh Food
By kimquirk, on February 25th, 2010
 Solar Thermal Collector We are finally making progress again on the solar heating system at 78 Main St. After building the tank (Solar Storage Video), building the collector rack and trench to the basement, and building the heat exchanger (see pictures below), the next step was to get the two main loops pumping (see Solar Storage Tank, part 1 and part 2).
The first loop is the solar heating loop. This is a loop of copper pipe that takes the hot water/glycol mix from the top of the collector to a heat exchanger in the basement and then returns the colder water to the other side of the solar collector. This is one continuous loop under a small amount of pressure so the pump needed to move this water is small and only requires a 5-10Watts. You can see from the pictures below that we have a 20W solar electric panel mounted on top of the solar thermal collector (evacuated tubes). This solar panel should provide enough power to circulate the water in this loop.
…continue reading Solar Collector – Hot Stuff!
By kimquirk, on February 21st, 2010
It’s been a few weeks since my last update on the 78 Main St Renovation, and a lot has changed. Don Robert’s crew (Wayne, Aaron, and Bruce) have almost completed the framing of the new roof and walls within the old structure. David Dow (Double D Electric) has a permanent electrical connection to the house and some temporary outlets for us to use. We’ve also made some really good progress on the Solar Collector heating system (look for solar collector pictures and details in the next blog).
I knew very little about historic preservation when we bought this house. My least favorite subject in school was history. I always thought of myself as high-tech and modern. The first two houses that my husband and I bought (and where we raised our kids) were both new construction. I’ve never been nostalgic for “the good old days” or cared much to browse through antique shops.
…continue reading 78 Main – Putting Old and New Together
By kimquirk, on February 15th, 2010
“Your Voice” is a relatively new publication that has been delivered to mailboxes in many towns in and around the Upper Valley (NH and VT). I was excited to hear that they were publishing an “Off the Grid” section every other week starting in January (for 6 weeks to start). I asked if I could provide a ‘blog’ type editorial entry for this section and they thought that would be a great idea.
Below are the entries that have been published so far… if you get this publication in your mailbox, look for “Off the Grid”.
By kimquirk, on February 7th, 2010
I have been interested in weather-related data for a while, and once I went into the renewable energy business, it has become even more intriguing to me. I like to know how much sun, rain, wind, and humidity we are experiencing. I want to know about the inside temperature, the outside temperature and the highs and lows for the day or the month. How many sunny days did we have in November? How many inches of rainfall in April? How high were those gusts of wind we just experienced, what is the wind chill factor, and what do the barometer do when we got that sudden 20 minute white-out blizzard where the snow was blowing sideways.
The device I got is a Davis Vantage Vue. The measuring components all mount onto a solar powered station, which can sit on a 1-2″ pole. This station sends data wirelessly to the display inside our house, which gets its power from the wall outlet.
…continue reading Weather or Not
By kimquirk, on January 27th, 2010
A friend and colleague of mine, Brad Vietje, is building a straw bale house and will be working with the same solar heated storage tank as I am using for 78 Main St. He, too, has a goal for net zero energy, with solar PV for electricity and using local and sustainable materials everywhere.
I didn’t know anything about using straw bale for insulation — so I was happy to find that Brad is blogging about his house construction and has described it in some detail at his website: Vermont Straw Bale Adventures.
Straw is a local, sustainable material with good insulation characteristics. Here is the specific link where Brad outlines the benefits of straw bales: So Why Bales?.
Best of luck, Brad! And keep blogging.
By kimquirk, on January 16th, 2010
For Christmas I received two books that I have been enjoying related to sustainable food, gardening, cooking and green kitchen products and processes. The first book is called “The Green Kitchen” by Richard Ehrlich. It is based on a column in the “Times of London”.
This book has great tips on everything from taking advantage of local foods and seasonal foods, to energy efficient cooking tips, energy efficiency appliances and green cleaning tips. The bulk of the book are recipes with pictures (which is imperative in my opinion). The dishwasher in the house I am currently renting is pretty much useless, so the section on hand washing dishes and when dishwashers are more beneficial than hand washing was particularly interesting to me.
…continue reading Green Cooking
By kimquirk, on January 8th, 2010
There is a new document that has recently been published to provide ideas and advice for energy efficient improvements for historic buildings. This document, “Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Historic Preservation” is available from the “Clean Air Cool Planet” (CA-CP) website.
First a note about CA-CP. This is a non-profit organization whose mission is “Finding solutions to global warming”. The work I am familiar with is in the ‘Communities’ section where they provide the Small Town Carbon Calculator, documents on getting an Energy Committee started in your town, and resources to help you find funding and write grant proposals. Good stuff.
…continue reading Historic Preservation – Embodied Energy
By kimquirk, on December 29th, 2009
 Kill A Watt
I am a strong proponent for measuring things and finding the real information among the data. You may know that it is 14 degrees outside (this mornings temperature here in Enfield, NH), and that it was 36 degrees yesterday and 34 degrees the day before. This is interesting data, but just data, facts without much meaning. Yes, it tells you to put on a warmer coat today.
Similarly if you have a Kill A Watt meter or something that can tell you how much energy a device is using, each measurement is a data point. The real information comes when you can get many data points and start seeing patterns. Data logging refers to the ability to save many points of data.
…continue reading Data Logging – real information
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