Honey I Forgot to Plug in the Car

Having worked most of the kinks out of my Prius plug-in conversion kit, and learned to better manage its numerous idiosyncrasies, I set out to obtain maximum mileage from a tank of gas.  The car has an eight gallon tank (or that’s a normal fill-up) which will usually take me about 400 miles.  I wanted to see how much better I could do by maximizing use of the batteries.

Plug in cars haven’t exactly taken over the marketplace, but the capability of these cars is legit.  Regular readers of this blog know that my car is an older, out of warranty Prius with an aftermarket plug in kit that will take it an (optimistic) maximum of 20 miles without gas.  But a brand new plug in Nissan Leaf can go 80+ miles.  That’s a pretty good daily range for most people, and it only costs about 3 cents/mile in fuel to do so.  Compare this to a typical 25 mpg car which burns about 14 cents/mile in fuel (assuming $3.50/gal).  However, rightly or wrongly, people are wary of all electric vehicles.   The technology that does seem to be working for the marketplace is the gas/electric hybrid – the full electric suffers from something called ‘range anxiety’ (this is just a fancy way of saying you’re worried you’ll run out of battery on the Long Island Expressway, and you won’t be able to go get a can of electricity in time to be back before someone steals your alloy wheels).

But 20 miles of range is plenty for me.  My car plugs into a regular household outlet, and the batteries take about 3 hours to charge.  A typical day means the electrons need to carry my wife down to the beach at 5:30 AM for Boot Camp (during which time I attend Sleep Camp); the kids to school, which is on my way to work; and me back home, with maybe a quick errand or two.  This adds up to about 15 miles.  Hypothetically, with my 4 kW kit from Plug-in Supply, I could do this 100% electrically.  However, as a practical matter, the gas engine will always run a little.  It will run just to warm up the catalytic converter (uh huh – you read that right.  No – it does not make sense).  It will run just to ‘protect itself’, which means that it wants to be warm in case you need to floor it if there’s a bear attack.  And it will run if you turn on the air conditioning or defroster.  But usually I can complete this loop with the mpg meter pegged at 100mpg - which is as high as it goes - for the majority of the time.  Freeway driving takes a lot more power, and the batteries aren’t as much help for that, so when I go to the airport or to a meeting in town, I’m pretty much back to normal mileage.

I was doing great on my last tank, with the mileage meter showing a nice 65 mpg average, on the home stretch towards a 500+ mile tank.  That’s when it happened – I forgot to plug in the car.  It’s kind of odd if you think about it, to grab the extension cord of your car and plug it in, and I’m just not that used to it yet (the other thing everyone says you will do, and indeed I have done this once, is drive off without unplugging).

So I forgot to plug in for the last two trips that would have gotten me my max average ever, and now I have to start again on the next tank.  I’m going to keep trying, and you can see my progress here. 

How ‘bout you?  Have you considered a full electric plug-in vehicle, or a plug-in hybrid?  In my opinion, hybrid technology, which recaptures energy from braking, makes a lot of sense, especially for stop and go driving.  Adding to the hybrid function by precharging the batteries, plug-in hybrids may well catch on – heck, it’s nice to have your own gas station in your home.   And if you have solar PV, you can even become your own power provider, giving the idea even further allure.

Code Green

I attended a very interesting session on the International Green Construction Code at the American Institute of Architect’s convention last week.  The AIA was ‘there at the creation’ of the IgCC, participating extensively in its development, and is asking their members to advocate for its adoption in their local markets.  Lots of interesting questions were raised during the session (which were recorded and can be purchased at meetingproceedings.com/aia2012). 

One of the things that surprised me was the range of viewpoints in the room.  A panelist asked, “Who’s really excited about this code?” and a couple hands went up.  In response to, “Who’s really concerned and anxious?”, most hands went up.  The discussion certainly gave this non-architect a newfound respect for the extensive effort (non-billable time of course) that a practicing architect or consultant must devote to staying current with the codes, and with the IgCC  there’s going to be even more to cover.  There will be additional responsibilities in commissioning, metering, and monitoring of existing buildings - not just new ones.  A range of permutations (and interpretations) of the IgCC is possible, leading to probable inconsistencies across jurisdictions.  Of course, there will also be lots of opportunities and a chance to take a leadership position, for those that want to be on the forefront of the implementation and use of the new code.

As of this writing, the IgCC is not in force as a sole compliance option anywhere; but it has only been published for two months.  The State of Maryland seems to be the furthest along, but the language directing municipalities is written ‘may adopt’, and as far as I know no municipalities have.  But, generally, if you are used to very green projects, you’re going to be used to this.  Even better, for the professional roofing contractor who installs cool roofing and has a membrane and insulation recycling program in place, you’re already most of the way there.  And it was clear from the session that the best way to understand what’s coming is to know your architect.  With the support of the AIA, they are actively being kept up to date.  You can learn more at:

Iccsafe.org/igcc
Aia.org/igcc
Aia.org/codesadvocacy

And just to get some comments on this posting going, here’s a question that came up during the sessions:

Q: If IgCC is adopted in your jurisdiction, can you still do LEED®? 

Let’s hear what you have to say, and I’ll give the answer that was given in the sessions in the responses.

Recycling Coffee & Shingles

I really like good coffee – who doesn’t – and one of the best ways to get a good cup of coffee these days is the Keurig brewer and its ubiquitous K-cup.  It makes a single cup of good quality coffee, quickly.  However, what happens to the spent brewing cup is another story.  A K-Cup is a coffee machine in a cup, and has several component parts, including a multilayer plastic that isn’t easily recycled; a foil cover; a filter; and of course a little coffee.  So unlike coffee grounds and a paper filter, which make great compost, there just isn’t a simple  solution for recycling K-cups.

I recently had the chance to speak to Dr. George K. Criner, Director of the School of Economics at the University of Maine, along with doctoral candidate Travis Blackmer.  They study waste issues (and have had the pleasure of sorting many thousands of bags of household & office trash).  Dr. Criner said that the K-Cup is a perfect example of how the modern waste stream is getting more complex.  The single serve convenience of the K-Cup is hard to beat, but the recyclability is low.  And there’s a lot of packaging per serving.  In fact, in a quick study performed by Blackmer, the coffee to packaging ratio, by weight, of a bag of ground coffee is about 16:1.  A red tub of coffee like you’re familiar with, is about 8:1.  A K-Cup is about 1.4 to 1 – the amount of packaging is almost the same as the amount of coffee – and of course it only makes one cup.

One thing that we are trying now in our Wayne, New Jersey headquarters is the Grounds to Grow On K-Cup recycling program.  With this system, you receive pre-paid mailback packages to collect K-Cups.  Recycling is a volume game – almost anything is recycling, if you can get enough of it in one place – and this program allows Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to collect a large volume of used K-Cups, separate the portion pack components, compost the coffee, and burn the plastic in a waste-to-energy facility.  This is not as simple as recycling shingles (people often say that shingles, ground and ready to be added to hot mix pavement, look like coffee grounds) but is certainly progress.

Do you use K-Cups?  Have you found a good way to recycle them?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The benefits of a garden roof – reduced stormwater runoff, improved energy performance, and reduced urban heat island effect – are fairly well established.  But what you don’t often hear is how beautiful a garden roof can be.  In fact, if you’ve ever had the chance to tour one, you know it’s quite an experience.  It’s a little bit like being on a mountaintop, and with birds chirping and greenery all around you, it can be very beautiful. 

When I became a part of the roofing industry and began working with our GAF Gardenscapes line, of course the first thing I asked - as many do - was “What grows on a garden roof?”.  (The other most frequently asked question is “Will it leak?” which I cover in this blog ).  The plants that are selected for a garden roof vary by region, but they generally consist of plants that are well suited to extremes of temperature and exposure, and are often low growing.  Broadly speaking: things that grow on cliffs are good for roofs.

With my fairly steeply pitched residential roof with conventional asphalt shingle construction (and the fact that my wife doesn’t always share my passion for using the house to test everything), I don’t have the right structure to convert to a garden roof.  However, I wanted to try growing some of the plants.  Where I live in Maine, I do have some fairly rooflike areas to plant, with extremes of temperature and sun exposure.  So I am creating a small plot in my yard, as a kind of a test.

To get started, I built a small platform in my yard, then I called David Gilmore of Etera, a specialist in vegetative roofing horticulture, to ask for tips on selecting the species that would be most suited for my area.  Here is what David suggested  (the common name is followed by the Latin name):

Kinnikinnick or Bear Berry: Arctostaphylos uva –ursi
Blue Fescue: Festuca ovina glauca
Sea Thrift: Armeria maritime
and an assortment of low growing sedums, the real workhorse  of garden roofing: Sedum spurium, John Creech, Red Carpet, Fudliglut, Dragons Blood, Sedum album, Sedum sexangulare, Sedum acre

As I prepare the plot, complete with drainage mat and a simulated roof assembly, I’ll post pictures and update my progress!

LEED Public Comment Period Now Open

Professional Roofing Contractors, you have one more short week to weigh in on the upcoming versions of LEED. 

Generally there are many positive developments in the updated rating system but the roofing industry in general can always do more the be involved in the process.

There are 7 rating systems, you can't comment on them all; so start with Homes if you're residential and Building Design & Construction and Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance if you're residential.  Download the 'clean' version and search for keywords like roof, solar, and reflectivity to make sure you're opinion is heard in these key sections during this rare opportunity!