We have been watching the natural gas storm on the horizon for some time, and this is the first major lightning strike. We’ve theorized that LNG (liquefied natural gas) would be exported to Europe soon, raising prices for all gas consumers in the United States. While that is still probable, there is a more immediate, domestic dilemma that Maine residents and small business owners will soon face.
It hasn’t been a secret that we have limited natural gas pipeline availability in New England, and the major pipelines coming to us from the south are not nearly large enough to meet the requirements for our demanding heating season. For example, since July, Maine Natural Gas has been unable to connect new customers to the gas mains until an uncertain date in 2015 (we suspect it will be late in the year). While at Thayer we strive to remain fuel-neutral, we question whether it is in everyone’s best interest to connect to natural gas, with many reasons listed in one of our previous articles (read more here).
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), along with representatives from other state agencies, has issued a press release to the public, warning them to prepare for a surge in the price of electricity during the upcoming winter months. Over half of the electricity in Maine is generated from natural gas. Increased demand for gas and an inability to meet that demand has directly caused the price of electricity for Mainers to skyrocket. While homeowners will not see price spikes until March of 2015, small-to-medium businesses should brace for impact since rates will more than double for standard rate customers by January; CMP customers, for example, will see price spikes from $.06 to $.15 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the press release.
Individual consumers and businesses alike make financial decisions based on electricity being available at predictable costs; not priced on crisis. The fact of the matter is that the natural gas pipeline is constricted, and that is not going to change for several years at best. After the method of funding new pipelines is determined, political wills of many must align.
Fortunately, there are several things you can do before the onslaught of this energy crisis; all relating to energy efficiency. Both Michael Stoddard, Executive Director of Efficiency Maine, and Tom Welch, Commission Chairman of Maine Public Utilities Commission believe that now is the perfect opportunity to take a proactive stance and make energy efficient decisions. At the beginning of October, the MPUC has approved the increased allocation of funding to Efficiency Maine.
There are a number of changes to existing programs, which when combined with the rising cost of energy actually makes for better incentives, equaling quicker payback. We have effectively bundled several of the existing Efficiency Maine programs with new ones to yield larger incentives for our client/partners. Call one of our project engineers today and have your building benchmarked using the Energy Star rating system, which will give you a starting point of things to consider. There are almost always cost effective improvements that can be made to make you more money.
As the availability of natural gas becomes more widespread, a Fool’s Gold rush has been created. Thayer, LLC has been and will remain fuel, technology and brand neutral as we offer some considerations when determining if switching to natural gas is in your best interest.
The supply of natural gas in the United States has increased dramatically over the last decade, largely due to the use of fracking technology to improve yields from gas deposits embedded in shale rock formations. Many politicians hail cheap and plentiful energy supplies as the key to a healthy economy. Our political stability is strengthened by relying less upon imported oil. The environmental impact of fracking, however, remains the topic of heated political debate. Millions of gallons of clean ground water are used to fracture (frack) the shale to harvest gas. The water becomes severely contaminated and must be carefully sequestered below ground to prevent health and safety risks, including respiratory illnesses. It’s impossible to prevent some of the contaminated water from seeping into clean groundwater supplies and volatizing into the air above ground.
Last week, the largest independent study to investigate the health impact of fracking was released by Environmental Health Perspectives, which does not establish definite causation between health problems and fracking, but does report that the effects suffered by residents in 1 kilometer proximity of fracking sites: hair loss, persistent rashes, sore throats, respiratory illnesses and nose bleeds, among other ailments, is more prevalent than in households further than 2 kilometers from natural gas wells. Several multimillion dollar lawsuits have been settled, and surely more will follow. Chemical manufacturers are pushing for major legislative reform to reduce State by State rules for the use of their products. Opponents argue the proposal undermines states’ rights and weaken regulations. The environmental impacts associated with the use of fracking to harvest natural gas will likely escalate gas costs in the future.
There are more powerful forces likely to cause the price of natural gas to spike. As Russia bullies its European neighbors, the EU desperately wants to import natural gas from the US in the form of liquefied gas. Even with the costs of liquidation and shipping, estimates are that American gas can be sold in Europe for roughly half the cost of Russian gas (read more here). The export market for gas would explode if the house approved permits for coastal export loading sites. Opposition cuts across party lines as those opposed try to artificially keep domestic prices low. If widespread export is permitted the domestic price of gas will escalate.
Regionally, the price of gas has risen sharply as demand has exceeded supply. New gas pipeline mains and branches are being built at a breakneck pace. Gas suppliers are competing for new connections in order to grab market share. Once they connect a new customer, they almost always have the customer locked in regardless of gas prices. Ironically, major pipelines coming from south are severely undersized for present and future needs of New England. According to Maine Natural Gas, new requests for service from existing main lines will not be installed until 2015. Governors from several northeastern states are collaborating on the long term solution to install larger pipelines. Success will require political unity and lots of negotiation with thousands of individual landowners to create a corridor through heavily populated areas. The cost of land easements and the pipeline itself will have to be borne by gas users in the northeast.
The cost of heating with any fuel is the price of the fuel multiplied by the efficiency of its use. In the case of gas boilers and heaters, efficiency is a combination of combustion, thermodynamic and operational efficiency. Advertised efficiencies of 80-98 percent almost always refer to combustion alone. How efficiently the boiler captures the heat from combustion and transfers it to air or water is the thermodynamic efficiency. Boiler inefficiencies translate to heat being wasted through the chimney or vent. The configuration and effectiveness of the controls result in the operational efficiency. Smart thermostats, reset controllers and zone controllers are some enhancements that improve operational efficiency. A wide variety of factors play a part in determining overall system efficiency.
Lately, in the rush to fill seats on the natural gas bandwagon, there have been many conversion burners sold and installed. Gas companies often tout this approach since this method provides the smallest upfront cost. Although conversion burners can work effectively, they rarely operate optimally when the three types of efficiency factors are considered. The burners are not matched precisely to the boiler, creating challenges in operation and long term reliability. Thayer and other service providers are seeing many very poor installations, upset customers and premature failure of boilers and furnaces. Compare this to a total system replacement with all components being designed, tested, certified and optimized and the difference in cost of operation and ownership can be (and typically are) dramatic. The lower cost conversion burner on an existing boiler might have an overall efficiency of approximately 50% compared to a new efficient and optimized boiler at 90%. The magnitude of the differences is typical. The higher installed cost of boiler replacements, however, is a barrier for many. The higher installed cost, however, is a barrier for many.
Considering all of the factors of fuel choice, along with the decision whether to convert or replace equipment, professional design and installation provides more than a “one size fits all” approach. Unfortunately, most information being pushed to consumers is by the gas companies and manufacturers who have vested interest in objectivity.
Don’t settle for “Fool’s Gold.“ Hire a professional that has the experience to guide you through the maze of choices and considerations for gas, oil, heat pumps, wood pellets, chips, etc. Call one of our engineers to see if your project is suitable.
AUBURN, ME – Thayer, LLC, located at 1400 Hotel Rd. in Auburn, ME is proud to announce their selection as one of the “Best Places to Work in Maine” for 2014 in the small/medium company (15-249 employees) category.
The Best Companies Group evaluates employee policies and procedures, as well as a survey of company employees. The Best Places to Work program is part of a long-term initiative to encourage growth and excellence through all Maine Companies, and recognize those who have established and consistently fostered outstanding workplace environments. Partners endorsing the Best Places to Work in Maine program include: Mainebiz, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and Maine HR Convention.
According to President Dan Thayer, “This recognition is one of our proudest achievements and a testament to the depth, character and commitment of our team. We strive to serve them as well as they serve us and our valued customers. This award only deepens our commitment to continually grow, improve and serve them even better in the future.”
Thayer Corporation will be recognized and honored at the Best Places to Work in Maine awards ceremony on October 8 and will be profiled in a special publication by Mainebiz. The final rankings will be announced at the event.
Thayer was founded in 1981 with primary focus on servicing and maintaining heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Currently they perform service and preventative maintenance on all types of HVAC/R and control systems as well as design and installation. More information can be found at www.thayercorporation.com
Heat Pumps have been used widely for decades but recent developments have made them “cooler” than ever. Here’s what you should know: a heat pump is, simply put, a device that transfers heat from a colder area to hotter one using mechanical energy, typically using a vapor compression refrigeration cycle. Refrigerators, air conditioners and freezers are good examples, although the term heat pump (HP) is usually used for systems that heat spaces and possibly air condition.
There are many sources or, “heat sinks,” used to extract and deposit thermal energy. They can be air, the earth or water. For example, a geothermal heat pump transfers energy from the earth or water to air, which is then used to distribute the heat inside the conditioned area. There are numerous types of heat sinks, and associated terminology such as air-to-air, air-to- water, water-to-water, etc. The simplest and most common is air-to-air which has also been getting the most buzz lately.
When used for heating, HPs can improve comfort and indoor air quality while significantly reducing heating energy costs. Here is a recent chart of comparative heating energy costs.
Here is a model of a typical indoor ductless split unit.
As you can see, air-to-air HPs can be one of the least expensive ways to heat a space. Costs rival geothermal, natural gas and even firewood, which begs the question as to why haven’t they been used more in the past. There are characteristics that challenge their usage. The performance and efficiency of air-to-air HPs drop as the temperature difference between heat sinks increase. For example, the capacity and energy use of an air conditioner gets considerably worse on really hot days. Similarly, performance and efficiency drop when using HPs to heat a space on extremely cold days. The performance of a HP is rated by its coefficient of performance, or COP. This is a ratio of the energy moved divided by the energy required to run the device. Simple electric heat, for example, has a COP of one. For every kilowatt purchased it yields one kilowatt of heat energy. Modern and efficient air-to-air HPs have COPs ranging from approximately 3-4 when used for heating. Not bad, compared to electric heat, huh?
The challenge is that the heating output or capacity drops during the coldest outdoor temperatures precisely coincident with the times increased capacity is needed. Historically, air-to-air heat pumps were sized less than the maximum heating capacity needed since they would be grossly oversized for cooling (air conditioning) use in the summer months. This especially the case in northern climates where the winter has colder outdoor temperatures. The use of HPs in more southerly States has been more widespread because of the milder winter design temperatures. The “capacity droop” challenge historically required the use of supplemental or backup heat sources such as fossil fuels, or most commonly electric heat. These sources made the economics of HP heating much less attractive.
So what changed? The reliability, availability and use of variable frequency drives (or VFDs). Nearly all new and modern HPs are variable speed. This solves a major technological challenge; we can now size the system for the heating load without causing the equipment to short cycle, or rapidly start and stop while cooling, which tears up equipment and prevents good performance for cooling and dehumidification. During both heating and cooling modes the systems will ramp the speed and performance from anywhere between 10-100 percent. This enhances performance, equipment longevity and reduces noise. Dehumidifying performance is greatly improved as the unit runs longer at lower speed, enhancing moisture removal.
HP systems can easily be installed during new construction, but until recently they were more challenging as retrofits. Air-to-air systems distribute thermal energy via airflow. Many, if not most homes in the northeast have hydronic heating systems, thus no existing ductwork. Achieving a good outcome retrofitting ductwork can be expensive, invasive and challenging. In the heating mode, the typical warm supply air temperature is 80-110 degrees F, thus poorly designed airflow can create draftiness and discomfort. Fortunately, the “ductless” option alleviates this challenge.
Here is a model of a typical outdoor ductless split unit.
In the early 1980’s, the first imports of ductless split system heat pumps began to arrive from Asian manufacturers. These were popular in countries like Japan, where typical living spaces are quite small by American standards. These ductless systems distribute air indoors directly from wall or ceiling mounted air handlers. They are compact, and very quiet to operate. One manufacturer even sells a unit disguised as a wall mounted fine art painting, where air silently passes in all directions from behind the frame. American manufacturers fought off the market penetration of this new disruptive technology for almost thirty years mainly by tightening codes, standards and implementing arcane testing criteria. Asian manufactures found ready markets in less developed countries of the Middle East, Caribbean and South America, where their use became commonplace in smaller commercial and residential spaces. Finally, the American market embraced the technology about five years ago, and today utilization has increased substantially. Several major US producers have purchased manufacturers in Asia and began production in the US as well.
Although these high efficiency air-to-air units come in a variety of systems configurations, the wall mounted indoor unit is most popular. Due to the size of the unit and low powered fans, air filtration is very limited. The ducted version can be supplied with much higher efficacy filtration and can even have central humidification added for the dry winter months.
In commercial applications, both ducted and ductless split system heat pumps are an effective solution for difficult to heat and cool areas due to their installation flexibility. Centralized HVAC systems serving the building might not offer such flexibility.
It is important to note that most split system heat pumps do not satisfy criteria for fresh air required by those versed in “best practice” and building codes. Outside air can be introduced in the ducted versions, but typically require an uncoupled parallel ventilation system such as an air-to-air heat exchanger to adequately introduce fresh air. Thus, unless additional provisions are made, the ductless split system heat pumps do not satisfy building ventilation needs alone.
At Thayer, we first witnessed testing of the innovative ductless split systems in 1982. They performed well and could have been very useful to our customers. The bad news is that we had to wait nearly twenty years for them to be commercially attainable and UL certified in the US. The good news is that now they are available, competitively priced, very reliable and extremely efficient.
In the last year or so, we designed several geothermal heat pump systems but found the high efficiency air-to-air systems have similar performance at a lower installed cost. An ironic twist to the relative ease of installation is the recent proliferation of installing contractors who do not have HVAC experience, qualifications or expertise. Maine was lobbied by special interest groups to make exceptions to normal technician licensing and this has resulted in a sharp increase in faulty installations. Although they are relatively easy to install compared to other system types, they still require proper selection, sizing, location and commissioning for a well working system.
In our state, Efficiency Maine has been promoting heat pump use for select high efficiency models with a $500 incentive which helps defray new system cost.
There are no “silver bullets” in the HVAC and energy efficiency marketplace. No one source of energy is “best.” We have what we like to call “silver birdshot;” We evaluate each building, and explore all possible options.
If interested, we can have one of our engineers evaluate your needs and develop options. “Call in the Experts” at Thayer.
We ventured up to a rooftop unit the other day because it dispatched an emergency message, and it made the perfect opportunity for us to do what we love: share our knowledge and experiences.
For quite some time now, we’ve been in the process of compiling videos and ideas to produce our own video series called “Follow the Experts.” We’ll update you on the newest technologies, tips to keep your system in ship-shape, and awesome projects we’re working on. Let us know what topics you’d like to know more about, and maybe we’ll turn them into our next video.
Whether you believe the EPA’s carbon standards will have a positive impact on this country’s economy or a negative one, it’s hard to deny the environmental benefits they will cause. The EPA announced earlier this month they were investing effort into reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants. These rules are new, but the laws are not—due to political pressure, the Obama administration has chosen to create the rules and enforce the law.
The new carbon rules, which the EPA unveiled on Monday, June 2nd, are directly modeled after the success of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is a market-based regulatory program in the North East to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. All New England states participate, along with New York, Delaware and Maryland. RGGI, the first program of its kind in the United States, auctions carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances, also known as carbon credits. A carbon credit is a term for a tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one ton of CO2 or other greenhouse gas equivalent to one ton of CO2. Proceeds from auctions benefit energy efficiency programs in the region, for example, a great partner of ours, Efficiency Maine.
Last Friday, June 6th, was an important day for Maine’s growing green economy. Over 200 people gathered with Senator Angus King to celebrate Maine’s Climate progress and the new EPA carbon standards. Joining Senator King were Maine business and community leaders, the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Bob Perciasepe, Economist Charlie Colgan and others.
Senator King impressed upon attendees that, “Countless scientific reports have sounded the alarm on global warming, and right here in Maine we continue to see the impacts every day. The facts are simply undeniable: climate change is real, it’s caused by humans, and it poses a significant threat to public health and to our state’s and the nation’s economic livelihood.”
Climate change is a severe threat to Maine’s economy, and as Charlie Colgan explained, the EPA regulations are important to Maine for myriad reasons; Colgan states, “[The proposed EPA regulations] would reduce Maine’s electricity price disadvantage compared with other parts of the U.S., enhancing our economy’s competitiveness […] Maine and New England are very well prepared to meet the new regulations quickly and efficiently because we helped design the model for the national policy […] climate change is a clear and present danger for Maine that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.” As the easternmost state, we’re particularly vulnerable to carbon pollution. Bar Harbor, for example, has some of the highest recorded concentrations of ozone, due to pollution piggybacking on the jet stream.
It’s been a long time coming, but finally, climate change has been acknowledged by all political parties. Even the Pentagon recognizes climate change as a national security threat, along with many businesses including General Electric, Wal-Mart, and Nike. Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream are supporters of reducing greenhouse gases, as they, “know how messy things get when they melt.” Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the EPA, says of the new standards, “This is not about disappearing polar bears or melting ice caps. It’s about protecting our health and our homes. This is about protecting local economies and jobs.”
An additional 565 gigatons of CO2 is an approximate 20% increase of current levels, which will result in a 2°C (3.6°F) rise in the average global temperature. At that point, we’ll have significant and irreversible planetary damage. Both ice caps will have melted, elevating the sea level and widespread drought will lead to famine, animal extinction and widespread human despair. Alarmingly, publicly traded global energy companies currently report 2,795 gigatons of CO2 in their balance sheets—five times more than the disaster limit.
Implementation of a national carbon credit system would effectively determine who wants to pay to pollute. For example, General Motors has recently purchased $500,000.00 worth of carbon credits from the University of Illinois, and since 2010, they have reduced 7.7 million tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere. They purchase the credits so they are no longer on the market and to minimize their carbon footprint as well.
In an effort to burn cleaner fuel and save money, we’ve seen a rush to convert to natural gas over the last year. Due to limited pipeline availability and demand from Europe, prices and shortages are on the rise. Though the U. S. does not currently export natural gas, the US Energy Department has begun issuing permits to American companies to export, starting in 2015. Six out of twenty one applications to build port facilities in the US to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been approved. Currently US natural gas prices are one-third the cost what they are in Europe. The “landed” price for LNG in Europe will still be roughly 50% cheaper than Russian gas, improving their economic and political security.
There are a multitude of steps that can be taken to shrink your carbon footprint that won’t significantly impact your daily life, and a lot of them start with your HVAC system. If you’re unable to completely replace your equipment, make sure the system you currently have in place is maintained by a professional. In Energy Star’s guide to energy efficient heating and cooling, they express the importance of system maintenance. They go on to say that the average household spends more than $2,200 annually on energy bills, and the typical commercial building spends 40% of its energy on HVAC, and the other 20% on lighting.
Sadly, we find that less than 1 out of 20 buildings maintain their systems to the minimum industry consensus standards. Worse is that those non-compliant buildings usually perform less than 25% of the minimum preventive maintenance tasks, and resort to “belts and filters” approach.
Give the Experts a call at 1 (800) 649-4197. We’ll keep your system running at industry standards, and help reduce your greenhouse emissions.
