specifically, it seeks to discover if a heat pump is a more sustainable hvac (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) option than its counterpart, a traditional gas boiler. the irish government has proposed the national retrofit plan which is centered around a recommendation for installing 400,000 heat pumps in ireland’s residences. 

what are heat pumps?

heat pumps rely on renewable energy sources, and use geothermal heating techniques to regulate the temperature of buildings. a traditional gas boiler, which is most commonly used in irish homes, derives its energy from natural gases and fossil fuels.

when considering sources of energy that are used to power heat pumps versus boilers, one might conclude that a heat pump is definitively the more sustainable option. this is because, at face value, a heat pump may seem like the more environmentally friendly option; it uses renewable, natural resources to derive its energy whereas a traditional boiler uses natural gas.

this conclusion is echoed in an article from the international energy association (iea) noting the benefits of installing a heat pump in replacement of a traditional boiler. however, this conclusion is formed only by looking at the operational emissions associated with the two products.

in actuality, there are many more lifecycle emissions associated with sourcing the materials, constructing the systems, transportation to the site, etc. utilizing this concept in order to determine the entire emissions associated with a construction project is known as life cycle analysis. 

understanding the full life cycle story

my research project applied lca to one archetype of irish housing, a detached house. a detached house is a single-family, free-standing home that is typically more than one story tall.

three scenarios were studied to see which retrofit type had the most lifetime carbon emissions. a retrofit is a home energy upgrade that enhances the energy performance of a home.

a deep retrofit involves a holistic approach, considering the entire building as one structure, and carrying out multiple energy upgrades at once. a shallow retrofit is a smaller-scale alteration where only a few energy-saving measures are taken. the scenarios studied were:

1. deep retrofit – heat pump
2. deep retrofit – condensing gas boiler
3. shallow retrofit – condensing gas boiler

the emissions were estimated using an early-stage whole life carbon (wlc) calculation tool that is being developed by the irish green building council. inputs into the wlc tool differed between case studies.

examples of parameters input into the tools include the weights of heat pumps, boilers, ventilation systems, and radiators. the full methodologies used are described in the report linked below. the calculation tool is still being developed and would benefit from further maturation before it is implemented on a larger scale.

while the numerical results were not reliable, the trend of the results was clear: there are greater life-cycle emissions associated with a deep retrofit heat pump renovation than a deep or shallow retrofit condensing gas boiler renovation. 

the trend observed was also consistent with results obtained from a study performed by an external consultant for the research group that i worked under. in both studies, the deep retrofit heat pump renovation had greater lifecycle emissions than the gas boiler renovation for both retrofit types.

additionally, both deep retrofit renovation types were higher than shallow retrofit. this is interesting, as the intention of heat pumps and deep retrofitting is to decrease operational emissions. however, both of these solutions lead to greater lifetime emissions. while this should not discourage transitions to greener alternatives, developers should prioritize advancements to these approaches in order to achieve the desired result of lower lifecycle emissions.

a global trend

this problem is not unique to ireland. all over the world, homeowners are transitioning their traditional hvac systems to heat pump systems, citing environmental benefits. an article from canary media states that heat pump sales in the u.s. surpassed conventional gas furnaces for the first time in 2022. as the technology continues to advance, it will be crucial to continue to evaluate the entire lifecycle emissions of heat pumps in comparison to conventional methods, and identify areas for improvement of the products and construction process.

there are some organizations around the world that are working to make heat pumps that have lower lifetime emissions. as mentioned in the iea article, a research project in germany has successfully tested a prototype of a heat pump that uses six times less refrigerant (a major emitter throughout the heat pump’s lifecycle) than standard systems.

the article also mentions an eu initiative, repowereu, which aims to make the supply chain for heat pumps more sustainable. these initiatives address the manufacture and maintenance of the heat pump alone; lca also considers emissions from the construction aspect of the retrofit, maintenance of the hvac system throughout the building’s lifetime, and the disposal of materials at the end of the building’s lifecycle.

this conclusion can change the way that construction professionals view future renovations. while work is being done to reduce the emissions of heat pumps, considerations should be made with regard to the entire picture of a heat pump retrofit. as the industry turns to alternatives to fossil fuels, the entire lifetime emissions associated with alternative options should be considered. 

click here to read the full report.

after a u.s. consumer product safety commissioner proposed a ban on future gas stoves earlier this year, he sparked a national debate. but what’s behind this uproar? new studies have found that gas emissions from stoves may harm our health. however, years of advertising have led many to believe that cooking with gas is the best way to create delicious meals.

kaila nichols spoke to a chicago chef about his take on the issue, as well as daniel cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at rice university, on how the gas stove became such a cultural staple and the reasons why controversy has erupted around the appliance’s environmental impacts .

as an engineer he focuses both on energy balancing models, as well as marine energy in the arctic and heating. this field of work aims to develop energy systems for non-integrated electric grids and their associated oil-based heating systems. this work encompasses rural communities such as the one where bond is from and overall, he joins a broader effort to seek possible energy solutions for alaskans and beyond.

bringing energy to everyone

“rural communities are often disproportionately affected by prices that they don’t have control over such as the price of fuel,” bond says. “the highest price i’ve personally seen was $12.00 gallon for gasoline and small price increases or what most of urban america sees as small price increases those are often exponentially growthed (sic) out to rural communities,” bond says. asides from his current career, bond’s creative outlet and knowledge can also be found on social media like his tiktok account, @thatoneyuk, where he speaks on energy and how it’s used in the arctic.

although his work is mostly contained in data sheets, numbers and equations, his ancestral ties to the land, and the lifelong connection to his indigenous identity make this work important. by looking at different communities along the coast of alaska, he makes the determination of, “…whether or not if (the communities) would be a good candidate for something like wave or tidal energy and determining what size of technology would work for that community.”

bond continues to explain that much of this decision-making entails energy balancing modeling, as he usually receives data, “….from a community looking at their need versus what’s available to them in renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, wave, anything else.” with this amount of responsibility and community trust that is placed into bond’s hands, it’s his unique approach to stem that allows him to navigate this space.

bond describes this method as being a community focused stem approach “…that includes being mindful of listening to whatever community that we’re working with, making sure that we don’t make uninformed assumptions.” much like indigenous communities elsewhere, this is strongly reinforced when cultural sites and traditional gathering areas are brought into the picture.

this also includes being aware of the indigenous knowledge that people in the area have, as this form of expertise represents the ancestral ties to the land. bond puts it this way: “i view it as indigenous people were doing science before it was formalized. what my job is now i’m doing all the formal things. i am finding the efficiency of this turbine given these flow parameters those are even standardized. i have to follow a certain equation.”

with the onset of western knowledge, indigenous people have formalized their own form of knowledge by its ancestral tongue. bond defined it as “word of mouth and by trusting what the elders say to do, because they learned from their elders and that knowledge has been tried and trusted and true over thousands and thousands of generations.”

a community endeavor

the second part of this method also includes the community itself as they belong in the process as well. by adding different but impactful perspectives to each project, people, such as community leaders, can express what they know from their lived experience. bond explains that they, “…know so much more about their community then we do, and they can give us feedback. we know all the science and math, we know things like power factor, and we know things about efficiency, but the ultimate goal is for the community to benefit the most with both of our shared knowledge bases.”

it’s this communal approach to energy development in rural communities of alaska that will go farther than any imposed climate solution that doesn’t include the people living in that particular area or have traditional ties to.

both the environment and people benefit from this approach as communities have the possibility to enjoy a reduced cost of living. bond references a study that was completed on a “…community in southwest alaska where individuals reduced their spending on heating fuel. because of a thermal battery technology, they were able to spend more time and more money living a more traditional gathering lifestyle.” he continued to explain, that they were “…able to go out berry picking or go out hunting more and living in a way that aligns with their cultural values.”

this is most important when climate change is “…changing the energy environment that people live in,” said bond. “it’s changing the way resources are up here.”

because climate change is so heavily researched by western science, which has experienced continued reinforcement of indigenous knowledge, the phenomena, at its core, can bring people back to their universal values.

as bond says, “we have what’s important to us. many indigenous people have very strong cultural values. we should be able to live out those cultural values, right? one of those things that impede people’s cultural expression is cost of living. why does it matter? shouldn’t we try to make our lives and other people’s better? shouldn’t things get easier as our humanity ages? and that is based on the fact that we should care for other people. at the end of the day, we should care for other people just as much as we do for ourselves and our family.”

—

as two 20-somethings watching our food bills rise, we thought little of the food waste produced. it was just one of the growing sources of money sapping lifestyle inflation we had. we were adding convenience foods, eating out, and generally doing what two middle-class americans do once they’re out of school and starting careers: spend! as our budget ballooned, so too did our carbon footprint and waste.

but what if we could rethink our relationship with food in a way that would cut waste and save money?

food and individual empowerment

many ideas we think about on planet forward are nuanced, distant concepts. we don’t personally have much direct control over them. but, there is something we all individually do that has a real effect on the environment, society, and even our own wealth. we eat, and sometimes not with great efficiency.

it’s been close to a decade since we started looking — bleary-eyed with student loan debt — at our finances and the consumerism that blew holes in our budget. we’ve been fortunate to turn the tide, and then some, through lots of small purchasing decisions along the way. 

while writing about financial independence as one of a duo of 35-year-old early retirees, i’ve spent copious amounts of time researching how to reduce our grocery expenses. reducing food waste became a central theme of our expert guide to saving money at the grocery store.

ultimately, we cut our monthly grocery expenses from $575.80 to $339.85 in 2019 — a more than 40% savings.

in the process, we found the fortunate side effect of a reduced carbon footprint and a dramatic drop in food waste. put in place our strategies and do the same today. cutting food waste can lead to favorable outcomes for society and the environment.

it can even save you money — and you have full control over it.

reducing food waste can save you money

when food is wasted, so too are the resources used to produce that food.

an average u.s. household spends about $5,850 per year on food, according to the aaea.

reducing waste is an opportunity for households to directly improve the environment and strengthen their own financial position. while landfills are overflowing with wasted nutrition, food banks run out of resources to provide for those in need. in the time of a global pandemic, those most vulnerable tend to be those most in need of resources like food banks.

food waste in the united states

the average u.s. household wastes 31.9% of the food it purchases. consumer‐level food waste was valued at $240 billion in a single year, according to the aaea. the average u.s. household loses $1,866 on wasted food per year, according to a recent penn state study. this food waste is all-encompassing within a household: groceries, restaurants, and fast food. 

the money you might be wasting in the food you throw away

penn state’s study is based on u.s. households, which the census defines as 2.5 people. that means there’s $746.40 per person, per year or $62.20 per month in wasted food for just one person! cutting your personal food waste in half could put enough money into your budget for your netflix subscription and cell phone bill combined. not to mention all the knock-on effects to the environment.

so what can you do?

it’s easy to say we can reduce our food waste to help the environment and ourselves. but what actual steps can we take to make this change? here are five ways to reduce food waste and save money.

1. rethink what a meal is

if you’re like me, you grew up with a dinner plate that was nicely divided between three sections. it was a little pie chart of meat, a “starch,” and hopefully a vegetable. eggs were for breakfast. cereal was a complete meal. sandwiches with cold cuts were for lunch.

it doesn’t have to be that way. it can be any way you want, you’re an adult!

you don’t have to eat meals the way that we’ve decided they should be in the last 1% of the timeframe of human existence (and 1% is very generous). your goal is to satiate yourself and provide adequate nutrition, at a reasonable cost.

2. rethink your diet from zero

that doesn’t mean you need to switch to a diet of rice and beans. but, it does mean you should rethink your diet: start from the ground up rather than trying to remove things from your current diet. consciously add dishes that meet nutritional requirements along with foods you enjoy! devise how they can fit into your meal plan.

if you couldn’t care less how you eat it, identify the healthiest ingredients at the lowest cost, stick them in a blender, and go to town. kale and peanut butter in a smoothie? i mean, have you tried it? 

no one said you have to use a fork!

3. don’t let time be the master of your meals

you can eat dinner things for breakfast. leftover beans from last night’s dinner? mix them in with your eggs! just because you don’t normally eat green beans with your breakfast doesn’t mean you can’t. 

if you’ve run out of your typical breakfast foods, don’t force yourself to run out and restock the eggs just because they’re the normal accompaniment. challenge yourself to incorporate the beans with breakfast instead. you’ll help prevent your leftover food from going to waste and make your tongue a little more flexible.

having flexibility in your diet and your idea of what a meal is will permit you to be more efficient by maximizing your food use and reducing waste. flexibility saves you money, and not only with food.

4. don’t buy bulk when you don’t eat bulk

i don’t know about you, but our household is just two people. we’re decidedly averaged sized, too. i don’t know why we so often wind up with “family-sized” multi-packs of oatmeal that might be intended to feed horses. actually, i think i know why.

for years, we’ve read those repetitive “10 grocery tips to save money!” type of articles. they typically include:

• buy in bulk

• pay the lowest per unit/ounce price

here’s the thing. that’s great starting advice when you’re just trying to get an idea of how to save money on groceries. but, if you’re not in a household of four people, bulk buying could be more expensive. we’ve followed that simple starting advice and wound up with more than our fair share of big-bottle condiments sitting in the bottom fridge shelf slowly changing colors. 

i thought ketchup was supposed to be a brighter red?

here’s the advice when you’re concerned about your food budget and waste: buy what you need!

put that optimizing part of your brain to work on figuring out how much of the product you actually use over time. purchase the size that’ll be consumed before it begins to crawl out of the fridge on its own.

reduce waste, save money.

5. grocery price-shop online; avoid driving

most grocery stores have their in-store pricing available online either through their website or app. if the brand itself doesn’t, you might have luck getting an idea of the prices by using contracted shopper services like instacart (though their prices tend to be marked up a bit). this also lets you compare pricing with online grocers like amazon or boxed from the comfort of your home.

if you want to get the absolute lowest price for your grocery list and are willing to make multiple trips to do it, do your price comparisons online. 

generally, it’s probably not worth it to go to multiple locations (especially when a car is involved) to save a few extra dollars. if you can live in an urban environment that’ll let you walk to pickup your food, that makes it easier to locally price-shop.

save money and improve the environment by reducing food waste

altering your perceptions of what a meal can be, when to have it, and not giving into marketing hype will let you rethink what food means to you. using the tactics outlined in this article, along with a few extras focused on reducing costs, let us save over 40% on our monthly grocery budget while eating a healthful diet.

a pleasant side effect has been a much lighter trash bag with barely any food waste in sight. it’s taken us some time, but our grocery spending reduction has lead to more efficient use of resources and a small improvement to the environment we had full control over.

you have the ability to make the same changes as we did, today. you can add to your wealth while taking less from the world around you.

what do you intend to do to help solve food waste in america? reach out to tictoclife on twitter with your ideas!

as president obama famously said in 2014, “this generation is the first that will feel the effects of climate change and the last that can do anything about it.”

as a result, many countries, cities, and states from around the globe have vowed to enact policies to curb carbon emissions. according to the american council for an energy-efficient economy, the u.s. currently spends $60 billion to $115 billion on energy efficiency improvements each year. although these investments are being driven by government policies, energy consulting firms are on the front lines, ensuring smart, strategic, and sustainable investments are being made.

one such company is lilker emo energy solutions. based out of falls church, virginia, lilker is a small energy consulting firm that specializes in providing sustainable solutions to their clients. although lilker has fewer than 10 full time employees, it has become a major player at helping organizations, business, and consumers reduce their carbon footprints throughout the dmv (d.c./maryland/virginia) area.

steve hearn, a project manager at lilker who leads their residential team sees his job as one that “is on the cutting edge of the modern economy.” clients reach out to lilker when they are looking to make energy improvements to both existing buildings and newly designed ones. through preforming energy audits, energy modeling, and commissioning consultants at lilker are able to identify effective ways to reduce energy output and gain certifications like leed, well, energy star, and egc. 

as one of the leading energy consulting companies in the dmv area, lilker has had the opportunity to take on projects for their clients all across the country. one project that stood out to justin baker, managing director at lilker, was one he completed 8 years ago for the alice ferguson foundation. in this project, he had the opportunity to oversee work on a living building. living buildings are hard to find and even harder to build.

by definition, they are buildings that are net positive energy, water, and waste. baker found this project to be “exceptionally challenging because of all the different requirements that go into a building like that.” currently, there are only 9 certified living buildings in the dmv area and baker sees them as “a major step in the right direction. if people understand that its possible for a building to do more good than harm to the environment, then that’s a great mindset to have for the future.”

hearn also has had the opportunity to oversee eye-opening projects over his tenure at lilker. in 2010, the national park service contacted lilker about wanting to make energy improvements at some of their remote sites in alaska. for two weeks, hearn performed energy audits in buildings all across the tongass national forest, often taking “puddle jumper flights” to travel from site to site.

for hearn “it was a really cool experience to work in such an incredible region, and it really put it into perspective how important it is to preserve places like that.”

according to the alaskan center for climate assessment and policy (accap), the tongass national forest is vulnerable to climate change, noting that “the future will likely be different than both what we see now, and what we have seen in the past.” the work that both baker and hearn do is, and will continue to be, instrumental in ensuring that great environmental treasures are not lost to the impacts of climate change. 

lilker emo energy solutions was first founded in 1998 and since then, the industry has changed greatly. baker has been working with lilker since 2008 and has been encouraged by recent trends. “back when i first started, energy efficiency standards were fringe topics that often were looked at as a premium. now, people are much more knowledgeable about all the certifications and instead of them being a premium we are now seeing them as the norm.”

this should continue with the passage of the dc omnibus act of 2018. going into effect in last month, it mandates that d.c. transitions to 100% renewable energy by 2032. “i give d.c. a lot of credit for being progressive on this,” baker says. “hopefully people now understand that building owners have a responsibility to protect the environment.”

this bill will open up many opportunities for firms like lilker but also many challenges.

according to hearn, “the dc omnibus bill sets a goal in place but doesn’t solve all the logistical problems that go along with making this transitioning so quickly.”

this is one reason why both hearn and baker have begun attending local state energy commissions such as the dmv net zero coalition. this is a coalition of energy experts, policy makers, and academics who just recently starting meeting and are working to discover and drive solutions to achieving a net carbon future. for lilker, “efficiency is always the first piece of the puzzle,” says hearn, “but from attending these meetings it is clear that it isn’t the only piece.”

as is common in an industry of high forecasted growth, it is important to cultivate the next generation of energy professions. lilker understands this and has had an ongoing intern program for the past 5 years.

nathaniel waldman, a senior at george washington university has been an intern at lilker for the last 8 months. waldman has had the opportunity to see projects through from beginning to end over his time at lilker, describing his experience thus far as “eye opening.” one, that contributed most to his growth, was the preservation partners project. through this, he says he gained “a greater appreciation for the construction process and the major effort it takes on the part of green building specialists to ensure that the builders meet requirements.”

with the passage of the dc omnibus act, this challenge will surely grow for lilker. but hearn knows that “it’s an exciting time to be in this industry, there is so much opportunity on the horizon and it’s important to take full advantage of it.” the question now is, will they? 

washington—blockchain technology could make the u.s. more energy efficient in the long run, but right now the cryptocurrency miners using blockchain actually are consuming large amounts electricity to power their computers and other devices, experts told a senate committee on tuesday.

in the central and eastern area of washington state, the inexpensive hydropower has attracted many cryptocurrency miners, which has driven up electricity fees in the area, said washington sen. maria cantwell, the top democrat on the energy and natural resources committee. 

the worldwide energy usage for bitcoin, a popular cryptocurrency, is estimated to be around 2 billion to 3 billion watts of power, which is the equivalent amount of energy used by 2 million homes, said tomas golden, program manager at the electric power research institute. 

cryptocurrency is an application that uses blockchain technology, which is open to anyone but requires volunteers to consistently solve complex digital puzzles to support new blocks added to the chain. the process is called “mining,” and the volunteers are called “miners.” the volunteers are rewarded with small amounts of cryptocurrency.

miners require an increasing amount of computing power and energy to compete with each other, said paul skare, chief cybersecurity manager at pacific northwest national laboratory.

“the energy used in cryptocurrency mining has been compared to the total energy usage of states, and even countries,” skare said.

recognizing that the mining process is unlikely to be abandoned, princeton university associate professor arvind narayanan said that energy experts and computer scientists should work together to create efficient energy solutions. 

claire henly, managing director at the energy web foundation, said the government should develop an incentive policy to discourage miners to mine during peak times to relieve the supply-demand tension. 

but blockchain technology also has the potential to help the clean energy industry. cantwell said peer-to-peer energy transactions in blockchain allow customers to purchase and sell electricity, driving down the cost by allowing people to use their distributed energy. 

henly said energy web foundation had assembled a group of 80 energy companies to develop and deploy an open-source blockchain, which is less energy demanding.

a recent report by the energy future initiative estimates global investment in digital power sector infrastructure has increased 20 percent since 2014, reaching $47 billion, according to sen. lisa murkowski, r-alaska, the chairwoman of the senate energy committee.

citizens of tower, a great many of whom descend from finnish and scandinavian settlers, are always prepared for the cold. chimneys stretch from almost every home, and on an average day in february, thin wisps of lightly colored exhaust stream from many of the stacks, a signal they’re burning natural gas or propane in the below-freezing cold. billowing smoke from burnt wood is a rare site, but a few chimneys are smoking. to save on utility bills, more will light-up as the cold sets in; diffusing clouds of micropollutants across the landscape, and inevitably, into neighbor’s noses.

at the edge of town, a 3rd generation finnish stove and furnace maker, daryl lamppa, often shovels snow off the top of lamppa manufacturing inc. when he does, he puts his head over his own wood-burning chimney and unflinchingly breathes in.

“just as a joke, you know? just cause it’s so clean,” the business-graduate-turned-engineer says.

he’s breathing in pollution – a mix of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and microparticles known to worsen and cause respiratory issues. but from a regulatory point of view, it’s the future of wood smoke – white water vapor and exhaust with so few particulates that it’s nearly indistinguishable from the modest wisps emitted by oil, propane or natural gas-fired heating devices.

the exhaust shoots up the chimney from the wood-burning kuuma vapor-fire 100, designed by lamppa and his father. it’s a furnace; a type of wood-heating device built to duct hot air to heat a whole home, usually from a basement. as of press time, it’s the only furnace to burn wood that’s been cut and then aged for a year, called “cord wood,” that the environmental protection agency (epa) has certified as clean enough to be sold after 2020. several other wood heating appliances that boil water to warm whole homes, called boilers, are also approved.

the epa under president obama’s administration enacted standards for residential wood-heating technology in 2015 that prohibit selling furnaces powerful enough to heat a whole house if they emit more than .95 pounds of particulate matter per million btus. the rule has caused three of lamppa’s local competitors to take down their websites and close, rather than pay steep fines for each non-compliant device sold.

by 2020, phase two is scheduled to take effect and will require furnace manufacturers to lower their emissions 84% more. on april 16, the epa filed a legal brief saying they intend on revising the 2020 emissions rules this spring, likely granting the industry three extra years to design compliant appliances and other forms of relief. the house already passed legislation in march directing the epa to extend the deadline, though the senate so far hasn’t.

while lamppa thinks the 2020 rule is fair and that he had ample time to refine his 30-year-old design to be epa compliant since epa first announced the standards in 2011, major u.s. furnace manufacturers that dwarf his company in sales have continually warned of an “economic disaster” for the industry.

paul williams of u.s. stove, a top selling furnace manufacturer, testified before the senate subcommittee on clean air and nuclear safety in november 2017.

“people trust us and our products enough to have a live fire in their home. we take that responsibility seriously. we test our products for safety and durability, not just for emissions. we need more time to accomplish the task at hand,” williams said in his testimony.

the lamppas wrote to the subcommittee a month later, saying their small business was able to meet the deadline years early and had to spend much of their family savings to do it.

“to change the rules mid-stream would be incredibly unfair to lamppa and any other companies that took the mandate and the timeline seriously,” they wrote.

“if we can do it, so can they,” lamppa added later. “when i look at these results, i think these companies are going to have to completely rethink how they burn wood, redesign their furnaces, and retest again. when 2020 hits, a lot of them won’t be ready.”

as epa moves to revise the 2020 emissions rules, it’s likely us stove and other major manufacturers will have until 2023 to clean up their wood-burning appliances.

dutch dresser, founding director of maine energy systems, sells another furnace that the epa has certified to be sold up until 2020. his austrian-designed and maine-assembled autopellet air furnace starts at $7,999. since the autopellet air uses low-moisture, pelletized wood, it has a natural emissions edge over furnaces that burn cord wood, as lamppa’s does.

despite the technical hurdle of having to lower efficiency to bake moisture out of cord-wood, lamppa was still able to pass all four stages of epa testing. dresser hasn’t put his device through the same testing because he doesn’t have to until 2020. for now, epa is accepting european test results that weigh particulates differently. 

“temporarily, the epa is recognizing the european testing as suitable demonstration of compliance. what i would like them to do is continue recognizing it as suitable beyond 2020 or 2023 if current legislation passes,” dresser says. 

a war against smoke

daryl lamppa wasn’t always interested in the family stove-making business. but when the gulf war was in full swing and fossil fuel prices skyrocketed, he saw a business opportunity. initially he set out not to make another heating stove, which are small and ill-equipped to heat a whole home consistently. rather, he chose to design a wood-burning furnace, which along with boilers, are built to heat whole homes.

he bought a furnace from a manufacturer in wisconsin to heat his new home, and swiftly took it offline after a dangerous chimney fire.

“i used to load that thing at night and sit down in the basement for hours on end, looking and worrying, and then after that happened, i said, ‘no more of this, boy,’” lamppa says. “when you’re sitting there chewing your fingernails every night, you can’t relax.”

in reverse engineering the furnace, he found the problem: smoke. it was only used for a short amount of time before the furnace lined his brand-new chimney with a flammable resin called creosote. the substance eventually ignited, though the fire didn’t escape the chimney, it just forced flames and ash out of the stack, blanketing the snow around his home with black soot.

the experience convinced lamppa to design a replacement furnace that would emit far less smoke. in 1982, he and his father filed a patent for their “kuuma” design, which touted what lamppa now calls gasification.

“the only way to get rid of the smoke is you have to burn all the (liquids and) gases. and that’s what we’re doing,” he says. “i haven’t had to clean my chimney in 30 years.”

smoke coming from a chimney represents wasted energy. in contrast to his now-shuttered competitors who opted to expel smoke as it was made, lamppa designs provide the right amount of air, temperature, and time to completely burn the energy contained in smoke while keeping the furnace at a constant 220-degree temperature. as the smoke burns, inhalable particulates settle into a bed of ashes inside the fire box.

what’s ultimately emitted is exhaust that carries the same co2 that would be generated by burning the same amount of wood in a bonfire, though the reaction releases far fewer carbon monoxide and inhalable particles.

lamppa says the fundamentals of his kuuma design haven’t changed much over the 30 years since he first started manufacturing them. like the sauna stoves he also makes, the wood burns in a finnish fashion – from front-to-back rather than from bottom-to-top.

in the late ‘80s as they started to sell their new furnaces, the lamppas and every other stove maker in the country were hit with a regulation: to bring the weight of particles emitted per hour by stoves down to 7 grams.  

at the time, only heating stove manufacturers had to clean up their emissions. the epa left wood furnaces and water boilers capable of warming whole homes alone, all the way up to 2015. the lamppas successfully cleaned up their line of stoves to avoid fines that caused 90 percent of stove manufacturers to go out of business, says john ackerly, president of the alliance for green heat.

furnaces and boilers were hit with new emission regulations for 2015 and 2020 along with stoves. since stoves went through it before, ackerly says almost all manufacturers that specialize in that technology are weathering the storm.

“this time around, in the stove side of things, nobody has gone out of business, and it’s not clear that anybody will. the boiler and furnace industry is different,” ackerly says. “you did have some mom and pop kind of shops that didn’t have any real capacity to improve much, so there have been a bunch of those that have gone out of business.”

while ackerly says he doesn’t like businesses shutting down, he argues it’s necessary. the rules were generated by the epa in part as a response to a lawsuit by states that wanted an emissions standard for whole-home wood-heating technology.

“if you’re having a big fire in your house to keep your house warm, there should be some safety and emissions regulations,” ackerly says.

“it’s one thing if you’re in the middle of nowhere and your boiler’s just cranking out smoke 24/7. but with a lot of these, if you’re in a valley, even the next farm or house is a mile away. these valleys have inversions and that still poses a pretty serious ambient air quality issue,” he adds.

regulations make wood heat more expensive

since the 2015 rule went into effect, water boilers have drastically risen in price. furnaces have too, but stove prices have remained fairly level. with the rise in prices, retailers are struggling to sell to the historic audience of wood heating – the rural middle class.

“i think the epa is going about cleaning up the air the wrong way, because they allow all the existing stock of wood burning appliances to exist. and they have driven the costs for new and cleaner equipment so high,” says scott nichols, a boiler retailer in new england for tarm biomass.

nichols doesn’t sell outdoor boilers, but rather an indoor variety of wood-fired water-heating boiler mostly manufactured in europe. he says emissions standards in america are stricter than in europe. he believes under the upcoming 2020 rule, retailers won’t be able to sell and install boilers that burn cord wood without a thermal storage component, which costs somewhere in the ballpark of $3,000. boilers that burn pellets, he says, don’t necessarily need the costly addition.

“i’ve got customers who have boilers that are 40 years old, hs tarm boilers that are 40 years old. and i couldn’t discount my new boiler packages enough for these people to switch in most cases to a newer boiler. and meanwhile i continue to sell parts,” nichols added.

states and non-profits have offered various buyback programs aimed at the oldest wood heat technology. in minnesota, the environmental initiative is wrapping up a program called “stove swap,” where they would discount a brand-new wood-heating device by hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars if a resident turned in a stove, furnace or boiler built before the early ‘90s.

according to the initiative’s website, swapping out such old technology can be the equivalent of removing 700 cars from the road per year, in terms of the particulates and carbon monoxide that’s prevented from reaching the atmosphere. likewise, towns across the wood-burning states, like tower, minnesota, have put bans on smoky outdoor boilers.

nichols says the epa regulations give states a standard to work with. communities can welcome boilers back in if they are epa certified, and air quality would remain safe.

“we’re in a very different market than we were 10 years ago when outdoor boilers were at the height of popularity and there were no regulations. at that time, outdoor boilers were nothing more than a barrel in the middle of a box full of water,” nichols says.

nichols says buyback programs help, but that they don’t come close to stopping a worrying trend: his residential customer base has shrunk, and so he’s expanded his offering for commercial customers and parts.

“you can imagine someone sort of spreading out over thin ice. the wider you go, the less likely you are to fall through the ice,” nichols says.

the regulations, he says, are hitting at a difficult time. fossil fuel prices have been relatively stable and low, which harms wood-heating sales.

“when oil goes up, we sell more boilers. when oil is cheap we don’t sell as many,” nichols says. he adds that the rise in price for wood heating is driving many to invest in heat pumps that store heat and pipe it back into a home gradually. the technology is inexpensive and subsidized, but in most cases, it can’t be used as the main central heating source of a home as boilers and furnaces are.

“we’re going to try to take market share from the smaller pie that’s left and hope that over time there are more policies that favor what it is we do,” he concludes.

furnace industry sues epa

when daryl lamppa became the first person to get on the epa’s list of furnaces approved to be sold after 2020, he likely made the job of lawyers of the industry group he chooses not to be a part of, the hearth, patio & barbecue association, a little harder.

hpba has publicly endorsed the less strict 2015 regulations as necessary, opposing a bill that would have repealed the rules wholesale. however, in a lawsuit hpba brought against the epa, the group contends it’s unreasonable to ask that furnace, boiler and stove manufacturers achieve stricter compliance by 2020.

“(but) we got proof that it’s possible to do it,” lamppa says, adding that the $5,000 pricetag of his kuuma furnace hasn’t changed much over the past 10 years as he’s made improvements.

even though building compliant devices can be done, hpba argues in public comments from 2014 that following through on the rules will cause prices to soar too much, driving potential customers to hold onto older and dirtier wood heaters.

“unregulated woodstoves are undoubtedly the largest contributor of national emissions, and the largest emission reductions necessarily must result from targeting them,” hpba writes.

public comments from hpba also point to several other arguments that may be taken to court. first however, both the epa and hpba need to submit finalized legal briefs, and since the epa is revising its rules, those finalized briefs aren’t due until the fall. depending on what changes are actually made to the epa rules, hpba may tailor its case to a few contentious issues, like the test method. if the case goes to court, ackerly says one possible outcome for hpba would be a settlement agreement that puts part of the standards on hold until another rule is made.

but for now, lamppa’s vendetta with smoke seems to be paying off. he’s fought smoke since before the epa even thought about regulating whole-home wood heat. his motivation has always been for safety – he says he won’t burn wood in his home “if there’s smoke … it’s just not safe to me.”

as the only manufacturer with a corner on the post-2020 furnace market, his focus on safety for now is putting him ahead of his furnace-manufacturing competitors. he’s just broken ground on a new track of land in tower for a whole new manufacturing facility. they’re jumping from one welding bay to four, anticipating high demand.

witness the natural beauties of manaus, brazil. sail through the arteries of the rainforest — the rio negro. shop around at a floating market — a backbone for the country’s tourism industry. go out on a limb at janauari ecological park and check out the giant water lilies that have inspired architecture around the world.

with an open mind and a small green footprint, this 360° video puts the power in your hands. come explore — see for yourself.

this is moving the planet forward.

—

narration by nolan hausler

sources: science alert, world travels, plants of the world online, frontiers in materials science and greenpeace

manure, fish bones and charcoal. ancient native farmers in central america recycled these wastes in an intricate system to sustain water resources as well as replenish the land.

they used fire and ashes as a natural way to fertilize their land. with these sustainable systems, the natives developed their complex and diverse farming techniques and expanded the types of crops they cultivated.  these communities received all that they needed to survive from the land, and did as much as they could to make sure they gave back to their environment.

fast-forward to modern day panama, where the eco-town kalu yala strives to attain levels of sustainability like those who laid the groundwork for them in central america thousands of years ago. in a small valley, high up in the mountains, more than 100 members of the kalu yala community of interns and staff have started to establish irrigation systems for fish and water farming systems. they are also testing new crops that can flourish in the jungle’s hot and sticky climate, or during the daily downpour of the several-months-long rainy season. when it comes to sustainability, the members of kalu yala use the eco-town as a living laboratory for the best ways to reduce their carbon footprint and become as self-sustaining as possible. growing their own food and producing their own fuel from organic wastes helps meet that goal.

“we don’t want to be constantly reactive to (fixing) things that are unsustainable,” says rachael maysels, 26, the assistant director of biology, one of several internship programs at kalu yala. “we want to think about it ahead of time and act in advance of our actions so there is room for mistakes.”

in the conversation surrounding sustainability, carbon footprint and carbon emissions are topics that often come up. a person’s carbon footprint measures the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted as waste products due to consumption of materials — particularly fossil fuels.

“we’re not just trying to shoot for being carbon neutral at kalu yala. it’s trying to be carbon negative,” maysels says. “that’s something we can do with reforestation, pruning and turning (the plant matter) into charcoal. there are all these ways to kind of take one step further and it’s more of a proactive approach.”

maysels is helping the eco-town through the production of biochar, one of many ongoing programs that involve the interns that come to kalu yala from across the globe.

“it’s a simple idea and a simple method that can make a really big impact,” maysels explains. “it’s the idea of turning waste plant material, organic material into charcoal through a method of pyrolysis,” or the heating of materials without oxygen.

according to the united states department of agriculture, biochar is thought to have been used as a soil supplement in the amazon basin thousands of years ago. indigenous people created areas of “terra protta,” or “dark earth,” to regenerate fertilized soil for planting. by burying biomass, a combination of burnt wood and other organic materials, deep in the ground, the material heats up under pressure and goes through the process of pyrolysis, the thermodynamic decomposition of organic materials.

“almost like if you have a campfire, what’s left at the end is ash” – and char, maysels says. but when the burning process is buried, “you’re releasing all of the other material except for carbon.” this captures the carbon and prevents it from escaping back into the air, slowing down the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. this release prevention negates the carbon footprint that the burning of wastes would generate.

the creation of biochar also has other benefits, such as increasing soil fertility and water retention, as the ancients knew. “this really helps when it comes to the rainy season here,” maysels says. “we want to prevent erosion and hold on to as many nutrients as possible.”

but in the jungle, there are many challenges when it comes to accessing resources to make these experimentations with biochar more elaborate. “having a lot of the resources … to keep you going out here can be tough,” says ryan king, the director of biology at kalu yala.

“we’re trying to switch over everything to renewable energy.” biochar is one of the key ways to do so.  

to jump these hurdles, maysels finds that creativity and her college training in indigenous farming help make the process as simple, yet as effective, as possible.

“initially, my first design was a biochar system that took a lot of materials, which took some specific style hardware that couldn’t easily be found,” maysels says. “i think by setting limitations is when you get creative. restricting the ease of things, your brain starts to work around those obstacles.”

the process comes along with a lot of trial and error, but the community at kalu yala emphasizes learning from mistakes in experimentation. “here, they want you to do as much as you can and be creative, passionate, and make mistakes and keep doing it again,” king says. “having sterile and pristine equipment is definitely needed in certain fields of work, but you can’t control our systems. our earth systems have proven to be a lot more complicated with interacting factors. you have to study it through a different type of ecology.”

since joining the kalu yala staff in january and experimenting with biochar, maysels has combined her background knowledge with new and creative adaptations to progress toward reducing carbon from campfires. one solution involves digging a hole for the fires to hold more carbon in place.

“i graduated college in 2012 and did my field research part of my degree in the himalayas,” maysels says. “on a backpacking trip, i studied indigenous agriculture and high mountain ecology. i got launched into agriculture and since then have been to maybe about 20 countries and worked on maybe 18 farms in those countries, just studying internationally different styles of farming, food systems, small scale techniques, indigenous techniques.”

like the indigenous communities thousands of years before, the kalu yala systems are not perfect on the first try, but they strive to utilize what they can from the environment around them, reusing and replenishing as much as possible. the community members like to say it’s a culture of learning. but the learning at kalu yala would not happen without doing.

at sunrise, maysels heads down the dirt path to the area of campus with a large compost pile and stacks of burnt wood and organic waste ready for her to bury. she starts digging.