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Archive for February, 2009

Velux is Energy Star rated!

Filed Under : Solar Power and other renewable resources,solar water heaters by Greenlanta

Feb.27,2009

If you are in the Atlanta area and want to take advantage of the energy portion of the stimulus package there are a few different options for you. One of the hottest topics that many people right now are very interested in is “Going Solar!” You can start out with a solar yard lighting kit that you can buy off of the shelf or you can make a more sizable investment and get a great return by adding a solar water heater to you house or by adding solar power to you house. The most affordable of those options right now is Solar Hot Water. There are many brands out there so be careful when choosing a manufacturer. At the Hoots Group we like to represent the best products on the market so we can sleep at night. For Solar Water heating we are qualified to install many different brands, however our clients have been choosing one over the rest of them. Velux- for solar water heating. Their complete system is qualified for all of the tax incentives and it is also Energy Star qualified!

Here is some PR from their corporate office here in the states:

“I am pleased to inform you that VELUX Solar water heating systems are now ENERGY STAR qualified. As you all know, the ENERGY STAR program is well recognized throughout the U.S. for identifying products that are energy efficient — ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.”

To find out how you can start to enjoy a Velux Solar water heater visit Fresh World

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Tags : Atlanta, atlanta area, energy star, environmental protection agency, fresh world, solar water heater, solar water heating, tax incentives, The Hoots Group, water, water heating

What is geothermal?

Filed Under : HVAC,What is...,geothermal HVAC by TimUzar

Feb.21,2009

I have been getting lots of questions about how geothermal works especially since the stimulus package upgraded the rebate that you get to 30% of the total cost. To date, I have not heard any consumer or builder get the principles of geothermal exactly correct so I have asked our in-house expert to give us a quick lesson on Geothermal. To get a more thorough explanation in person visit us this week at the SouthEastern Lifestyle Construction Conference.

GEOTHERMAL 101

By: Fresh World – Geothermal Systems design, Sales, Installation – Fresh World- Sustainable Solutions for Life

Geothermal heating and cooling technology has been around for decades, but not many people use it—compared to a conventional heat pump, it’s 2x more expensive to install. But if you’re building a new house, installing a geothermal system will only cost a few thousand dollars more than a conventional system and can pay off big through reduced energy and upkeep costs.

A geothermal Heat Pump is nothing more than a Heat Pump. A common misconception is it uses water from the earth to heat and cool your house, it does not! It works on the same principles as a regular air to air heat pump. Firstly I’m going to explain how a Heat Pump works. Compression of any gas to a liquid state (any one remember their chemistry & physics classes?) generates heat. In this case the gas we use is called refrigerant. This high pressure refrigerant is then quickly discharged to a vapor state through the use of a nozzle called an expansion valve, the same way hair spray comes out of an aerosol can. That vaporized refrigerant is now really cold. This cold refrigerant is piped through a coil where air blows past it from your air conditioner unit and the cold is what you feel in the summer time coming out of your vents. Once this refrigerant leaves the coil it begins its journey again through the compressor that puts the refrigerant back into a compressed liquid state. Imagine putting the hair spray back into the can and pressurizing it again so that the cycle can start all over again. But wait. The compressor and the refrigerant are now really hot from all this work so the Heat Pump uses a fan to cool everything off. This is what you see sitting outside your house making all kinds of racket out side your bedroom window. In the winter time this process still happens but in reverse. Read More…

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Tags : Atlanta, energy, geothermal, green, rebates, reduce, Southeast, sustainable, water

What’s better than discounted chocolate after a holiday?

Filed Under : Energy Tax Credits and Rebates,HVAC by Greenlanta

Feb.19,2009

3834-valentines-gourmet-chocolate-heart-1-lb_280x280 I love the day after sales. I just picked up some chocolate for my family that was 75% off retail. The first day after the Valentine’s day was 50% now it is 75%. Pretty soon it will be discounted even more.

Seems like green products are getting the same treatment, however in the form of rebates and tax credits. One of our clients chose geothermal HVAC over regular HVAC because the payback made sense with the tax credits. I have not had the chance to tell them that the federal credit is now 30% with no cap. Before they were getting 2K back from the Feds. With the stimulus package, they will be getting about 9500 back from the feds and 2K from the state of GA. That amounts to over 35% back in tax credits. If they lived a little South of Atlanta they would be getting even more! Some EMC’s have additional rebates available for renewable energy and geothermal HVAC.

You can buy a lot of discounted chocolate with that rebate! (I am not suggesting that- please invest your savings responsibly!)

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Tags : Atlanta, energy, GA, geothermal, geothermal HVAC, green, HVAC, payback, rebates

Affordable Greenovations Part I

Filed Under : DIY projects,Energy Efficiency by Greenlanta

Feb.18,2009

I just finished giving a seminar for an affordable house conference here in Atlanta. I wanted to share a few thoughts with the rest of you about how you can affordably make a sustainable impact on your home or property management as well.

PART I- energy efficiency

There are 2 parts to my presentation. The first one is a summary of “low hanging fruit” concepts that a DIY can do to make their home perform better. For property managers, I would recommend, at a minimum, exploring the following items since they are low cost and can make a difference. The more advanced items would need a contractor, but most of them you can self perform.

Install programmable thermostats- this can greatly reduce your heating and cooling bills
Airseal holes- this will help conditioned air from going out side of your living space. You paid to condition this air- why would you want to share it with you trees?
Upgrade insulation to meet energy code- This is actually a law that no one enforces or abides by. Whenever you are doing a significant renovation you are supposed to bring the insulation in those areas plus surrounding areas up the current energy code.
Upgrade HVAC to high efficiency unit- As of yesterday there is even a greater tax credit for this
Seal up the ductwork- why have a high efficiency unit and your air leaks out of your ductwork and goes outside?
Use CFL’s and create an awareness program on how to recycle them-

For those of you in the Atlanta area here are some of the rebates you can get for some of these items:

GA Power Rebates

Here is a site where you can find some of the green items to DIY:

Conservation Mart

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Why it pays to go green UPDATE!!

Filed Under : Energy Tax Credits and Rebates by Greenlanta

Feb.17,2009

Just In:

As part of the stimulus package (which should be signed at 2 PM EST today), new geothermal HVAC and solar thermal that is installed will have a 30% cost credit up to $2000 for each house. Now, there is not a cap! This is retro to the beginning of the year and will be good until 2017.

Here is how it works:

Solar Thermal retail (sample):            $8,000
GA tax credit 35% up to 2.5K              $2,500
FED tax credit 30% of total cost:       $2,400

Net cost to consumer: $3,100

Note: Solar thermal is 4-5 times as efficient as a gas tankless water heater and the payback is typcially 3-4 times as fast as well.

Geothermal retail (sample)                 $30,000
GA tax credit                                                $2,000
Fed tax credit 30% of cost                      $9,000
Net cost to consumer                              $19,000

Note- geothermal HVAC is more than 2x as efficient as the typical 13SEER HVAC that the energy code requires. The net cost of the upgrade is less than 2x so you are saving more now than you have to pay for this system.

Here is the draft that I received: Read More…

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Tags : energy, GA, geothermal, geothermal HVAC, green, HVAC, payback, Solar Thermal, water, water heater

“The First 100″

Filed Under : Uncategorized by Greenlanta

Feb.15,2009

100_header No, this is not in reference to Obama’s first 100 days in office, this is my 100th post on this blog! Somehow we managed to do this in less that 100 days. Early on I was told to post 2-3 times/ week. I had so much on my mind that we averaged over 1 post per day! I have had a couple guest entries, but most of it was from my head. Most of my friends read the blog just to see what is going on in my head of mine, especially how I entertain my boys with trash.

Here are some of the things that we accomplished in the “1st 100″:

We now get thousands of hits per week
We have many new guests that have registered to make comments- most of them pretty entertaining
I managed to write a post worthy of Carl Seville’s comments
We post information on green events in Atlanta so the green scene knows where to go
We managed to capture all of the rebates and tax incentives that are available in GA for the work that we do

Thanks to the over thousand of you who come back to the site on a weekly basis. I have been having lots of fun responding to comments and the comments sent to me directly via e-mail. If you are new to our blog, register and start making comments. Let me know what you are interested in so we can help enlighten you on your path to sustainable design and living.

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Tags : Atlanta, GA, green, rebates, Recycling, sustainable, sustainable design, tax incentives, trash

Products verses Solutions PART 1

Filed Under : DIY projects,Energy Efficiency,Indoor Air Quality by Greenlanta

Feb.13,2009

Have you had a salesperson tell you that all of your problems will be solved with one little gadget? OR- specifically on your home- ads tells us the replacing windows will cut you energy bills in half. Or that upgrading your HVAC can do the same. A few years ago I decided to investigate and the math did not add up. How can one product be the solution? Is every house or building the same?

What made these claims even sillier to me is when I started getting more green certifications and learning different techniques to help solve the requests that we get from our clients. I truly did wish that I could find a special pill to solve my client’s problems, but over time still had to look at each issue as being unique and the solution would be custom for that specific problem.

Here is one example:
You see these air cleaner that we can buy on TV or off the shelf at the store to help clean your air. Sounds good to me. Deep down I wanted to believe that this is all I had to do to help my clients breath better. Fortunately, since I am an engineer at heart and I resort to the scientific method for solving problems and offering solutions.

The problem is excessive dust which affects your health and your indoor air quality. The solution could be as simple as stopping the source of the dust and/or installing a whole house air filtration system.

A couple of solutions (for free- we usually charge for our consulting):
Problem: In new homes- if you have recessed can lights that not air tight and have fiberglass or cellulose insulation in the attic, then you probably cannot dust enough to keep up!

DIY Solution:
In this order..

Call a contractor to do all of this or
Count the number of recesses lights and either order new airtight trims online or go to your local suppliers to get what you need.
Take out the light bulbs (if they are incandescent or halogen you can take this opportunity to replace them with CFLs and save on lighting costs!
Remove the old leaking trim and install the new airtight trim. I make this sound easy, however the first couple will take much longer to figure out. The rest should take 15 minutes or less if you do them consecutively.
Reinstall the old light bulb or new Energy Star light bulb
Not only are you reducing the amount of dust your energy bills should decrease as well since your air leakage should diminish with the new air tight trims.

Note: if you see large gaps around the drywall- caulk them while the trim is off. If you have the time it makes sense to caulk any small gaps that you see as well. All of this will help cut down on the dust and air leakage

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Tags : conservation, energy star, green, health, HVAC, Indoor Air Quality, Insulation

“Demand for green builders outstrips supply”

Filed Under : Green Building by Greenlanta

Feb.12,2009

Last month I read an article in the WSJ that kept made me even happier to be in the green building profession. This first quarter has been the busiest for us in years. 2009 is truly a new year, and I am hearing from multiple sources that it is a green year (specifically as it relates to energy efficiency). Now forecasts are showing that the demand for people like me outstrips the supply. I like to think that this is true since we have a lot of green leads and we are giving each the attention that they deserve. I do have a couple of concerns in the new green economy that we all need to be aware of:

1. I am seeing people from outside the building industry jump on the green bandwagon with their green services. While I admire their enthusiasm and will support their efforts, lack of actual experience in construction could hurt them. They need to partner up with people that do have construction experience in order to avoid costly mistakes.

2. Yes, the demand is up, but if financing is not available that makes sense then that could be a problem. We also need property values to not be at an all time low so the comps are there so people can borrow money to build green.

I am still very excited about this market and believe that green initiatives coupled with capitalistic market forces will bring in great opportunities for those who chose the path of sustainability. I see huge opportunities are in existing buildings. They need help. Most of them are not going anywhere and are still being used even though they are not efficient. Business owners and howeowners alike see the value in make energy and water efficient upgrades since it does affect their bottom line.

Here is the article that provoked my thought in the first place. Read More…

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Tags : Energy Efficiency, GA, green, LEED, recycle, sustainable

Hat’s off to a local “Cap (and trade)”

Filed Under : Green programs and policy,Greenlanta by Greenlanta

Feb.10,2009

Last year our friends at Verus Carbon Neutral created the first Carbon neutral zone in Atlanta. Actually, the first Carbon neutral zone in the US! To find out more about that press release click on this link: First Carbon Nuetral Zone in US

Since cap and trade is starting to be better understood, the media have taken notice of what they have been doing. They are one of the few companies that are not charging exorbitant rates for Carbon offsets. Just recently the were featured on the Weather Channel. To see the video clip of their time on the air click on their logo to the left.

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Tags : air, Atlanta, Carbon Neutral, GA

Nothing’s free…

Filed Under : Energy Efficiency,Green Certifications by Greenlanta

Feb.7,2009

Energy Assessment vs. Energy Audit

Why pay for an assessment when you can get a free audit?

In the Atlanta area, and probably throughout the rest of the county there are many people giving free audits. Free had a cost that could be more expensive the paying a consultant. Please read on.

When I was 8 years old I remember and event at a bank where they had “free” pizza and other promotions there. I also got a “free” bond f or stating a checking account there. I remember talking about the free pizza and this older gentleman next to me told me that nothing in life is free. Unfortunately, every time I get something for “free,” his saying pops back into my head and as a business owner I start to calculate how much free might cost me.

This is still true today. Free- is a loss leader in hopes of getting your business. You will pay for free once you do business with them. In the energy world, there are lots of “free audits.” I think that giving a free energy audit is brilliant marketing. You have just disguised a sales call, by using a more comforting phrase such as “free energy audit.” How kind of your to give away something for free. Nothing wrong with that, except you are getting sold on a particular product verse a holistic solution without 3rd party verification. I am seeing many window and insulation salespeople offer this free audit which is good for getting people’s attention, however the best solution may not be just windows, insulation or HVAC. They are not going to offer the true best ROI, because they are going to loose money. So your free audit, I mean sales call, could actually cost you more money because it is free. The sales call will sell you the product with the highest profit margin, versus the solution with the the best return on investment.

When you pay for an energy assessment, it is more than a visual checklist that takes 20 minutes (like the free energy). It is a compressive approach that was created by a 3rd party- the EPA. I would trust suggestions from an unbiased 3rd party before I trust manufacturer’s claims. With a Home Performance with Energy Star Assessment, you get a prioritized checklist and full report of how your house can be made better for your energy efficiency, comfort and safety. An assessor homes out to you house and spends hours not minutes methodically testing your home to see where improvements can be made.

Also, with the assessment you are eligible for more rebates and have quantifiable numbers to work with when you go to sell you home.

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Tags : Atlanta, atlanta area, comfort, Energy Efficiency, energy star, Home Performance with Energy Star, HVAC, Insulation, rebates, The Hoots Group

Not so sustainable house

Filed Under : Story Time by Greenlanta

Feb.4,2009

True story about a sales call that could have been really bad based on a simple misunderstanding…

I went on a sales calls a year a half ago to see a new client that wanted me to build them a new house. I met them at a green conference and they showed me the basic concept and I agreed to meet them on site. Since I was coming from another meeting, I decided to meet them at the location where we would build the house. I went to the address that they sent me to and as I was driving up the driveway, I was coming up on a beautiful house that looked to be not even a decade old yet. My future client was asking for me to build them a new green house? Since this house was new, I was trying to figure out why they wanted me to tear this house down to build them a new one. I did not see how this could be considered sustainable. I was ready to talk them into a greenovation because tearing the house down would have been a waste.

When I came up to the house, I noticed that “they” were at the house already and had just came back from the grocery store. Since I was there early, I helped bring some of the groceries into the house for them. After I emptied the trunk, the homeowner, thanked me for the help that I just gave to her, but wanted to know why I was at her house. Puzzled, I told her that I was there to tear her house down and build them a new one just like her husband had asked me to. She did not like this idea, since they had just moved into the house. Great-husband and wife not on the same page!

About the same time I got a phone call from the husband that I was supposed to meet on site. He asked me if I was there yet and I asked him why he wanted to tear his house down? He said “what house?” I repeated the address that he gave to me. He apologized for giving me the incorrect address, I was one lot off. I apologized to their neighbor and told them that I would be working with their new neighbors to build them a new house next to them. Husband and wife back on the same page now.

There is a happy ending to the story- we did get to build the new LEED house and got to renovate the existing house for the neighbor. The neighbors get along fine even though they told be to build on the wrong lot. Glad we did not bring in the heavy equipment yet.

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Tags : GA, green, greenovation, LEED, sustainable

Summary of House Appropriations Stimulus Recommendations

Filed Under : Green programs and policy by Greenlanta

Feb.3,2009

Green Stimulus Package overview

For those of you that are interested in how your tax dollars will work for the green sector read on. I thought that it would be loaded down with corporate incentives, but was pleasantly surprised to see incentives for low income housing as well. If you do not agree with big spending by the government, then see how you can get some of the money back by greening up your business or house. Read More…

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Tags : Energy Efficiency, energy star, green, Insulation, rebates, tax incentives

Wow!- Just in- even more energy rebates for Geothermal!

Filed Under : Energy Tax Credits and Rebates,HVAC by Greenlanta

Feb.2,2009

rebate_01_ad3colx10

Looks like some of the manufactures that we represent are jumping on the stimulus bandwagon. One of them is the geothermal manufacturer that we work with.

We just got one of our clients over 10K in refunds, rebates and credits. Looks like we can get them even more now since we are a Waterfurnace dealer. Just got our geothermal newsletter and it looks like they will get an additional 2K back from the manufacturer in addition to the 2K from the feds and 2K from the state. Yes- that is 6K total. Not bad since this this particular system outperforms standard efficiency HVAC by over 200%! Better efficiency along with the great rebates and you do not have any more excuses for not going green now.

For more information on the rest of the rebates visit our Get Paid to Go Green page.

For more details on the rebates read on.

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USGBC Atlanta- Green Building Presentation

Filed Under : Green Events by Greenlanta

February is going to be an eventful month for us at the Hoots Group. I will create a summary of events a little later so you can fit them into your schedule as well. On Thursday, February 19, 2009 (04:00 PM – 06:00 PM); I will be presenting at the local chapter for the USGBC on how being green has positively affected our business. There are 2 other presenters as well that will discuss the history of green building and and will go over all of the green certifications available in the Atlanta area. For more information on the event and to register read on… Read More…

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Tags : Atlanta, atlanta area, EarthCraft, energy star, GA, green, Green Building, Home Performance with Energy Star, renovation, The Hoots Group

Retrofitting Suburbia (a sustainable event invitation)

Filed Under : Green Events by Greenlanta

Our friends at Georgia Tech have been promoting sustainable design and construction for many years now. They have bragging rights to the largest Solar Power Array in the SouthEast (installed on the 1996 Olympic swimming pool) and they did very well in the Solar Decathlon just recently. Through their architecture and building construction departments they continue to host sustainable learning events. Here are a few that are open to the public. One is this week, and there are a couple others planned for the next few months. Here the invitation that they asked for me to pass along: Read More…

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Tags : Atlanta, building, GA, Georgia, georgia tech, green, solar power, Southeast, sustainability, sustainable