Energy Wise 2014 by Bangor Daily News

Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014

We made it super EASY to fund energy efficiency improvements courtesy constellation energy

Funding energy efficient upgrades can be quite a cumbersome process, right? We constantly received that feedback from customers. So, we decided to do something about it. Our latest innovation, Efficiency Made Easy (EME), is not only a solution that helps fund energy efficiency upgrades, but also helps you implement them — providing your organization with real value. Below are five reasons why we believe the program makes financial sense for many organizations and the benefits you can actualize: 1. No upfront capital is required to get started. We’ve found a better way to make energy efficiency upgrades and your existing utilities budget work for you — allowing you to utilize your capital for improving and growing your organization. 2. The costs of the efficiency upgrades are directly built into your electricity rate and you are billed as one charge over the length of your

contract — keeping things simple for you. 3. There is a one-year warranty on the entire installation and many components are under warranty for three to five years or more, which provides you additional savings in your maintenance budget. 4. From 2011-2013, Constellation EME customers collectively reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 166 million pounds and counting. We will provide you with calculations of the carbon dioxide reductions from your energy efficiency upgrades — helping you meet your environmental mandates and corporate environmental goals. 5. You retain full benefits of the installed energy efficiency measures at the end of your electricity contract. This could yield continued savings even after your contract ends. Think the benefits end there? Think again.

The City of Bangor has already taken advantage of this unique energy efficiency program, which included the installation of 200 high efficiency lighting fixtures at the city’s new convention center, Cross Insurance Center. The City of Bangor is the first city in Maine to utilize Constellation’s Efficiency Made Easy through the Maine PowerOption’s (MPO) purchasing consortium, a consortium established after the deregulation of Maine’s electric industry. To better understand how we were able to come up with a solution such as Efficiency Made Easy, consider the following points:

tion’s innovative energy solutions have successfully helped customers from Main Street to Wall Street gain control of energy budgets, manage energy consumption, meet environmental goals and utilize renewable energy sources.

Experience We’re a leading U.S. power supplier with more than 25 years of energy efficiency experience. Our retail business serves more than 100,000 business and public sector customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100. Additionally, our parent company, Exelon, is the largest competitive power generator in the United States.

Passion

Knowledge

We love what we do, and nothing gets us more excited than being able to bring real value to hard-working businesses.

Our team is made up of incredibly knowledgeable individuals that understand both business and the energy industry. Constella-

To learn more, call Craig Brazell at 866-6900373 or visit constellation.com/MPO.

Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014

UMaine wind project receives funding to continue The University of Maine recently marked a successul year for the VolturnUS floating turbine deployed off Castine. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, along with top officials from the U.S. Department of Energy, went to the turbine site in early September to view the project in progress. “This is a remarkable achievement and confirms my belief that the most innovative and dedicated wind energy researchers in the world are working right here in Maine,” Collins said. Michaud said the VolturnUS wind turbine is an incredible project and a great example of the type of forward-thinking ideas that can strengthen our economy and define Maine as a leader in innovative technologies. “The UMaine team has done incredible work to get not just VolturnUS up and running, but many other promising initiatives, as well,” he said. The federal officials were joined by representatives from UMaine, Maine Maritime Academy and Cianbro. VolturnUS, a one-eighth scale model

bdn photo by ashley conti,

University of Maine’s floating wind turbine, VolturnUS, celebrated its first year at sea Friday in Castine.

of a 6 MW floating wind turbine with more than 50 sensors on board, has been successfully operating and collecting data related to design capabilities for more than a year. In addition, as part of the event, DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson signed a $3.97 million cooperative research agreement with UMaine, of which is $3 million in DOE funding and $970,000 in cost share, to continue the design and engineering work of the fullscale VolturnUS floating hull. “We appreciate the continued support of the Department of Energy in the University of Maine’s ongoing efforts in deepwater offshore wind technology research and development,” said UMaine President Susan Hunter. The VolturnUS floating turbine is a patentpending technology developed at the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Laboratory by UMaine and Cianbro personnel. In June 2013, it became the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine deployed in the Americas, and the first floating turbine in the world

designed using a concrete hull and a composites material tower to reduce costs and create local jobs. The turbine is a 1:8 geometric scale test program to prepare for the construction of a larger 6 MW floating turbine. The project brought together more than 30 organizations as part of the DeepCwind Consortium, led by UMaine and funded through a competitive DOE grant and industry contributions. “The success of the VolturnUS 1:8 test project deployed off Castine is a critical milestone on our path to allow us to economically harness the enormous wind power far offshore the U.S.” said Habib Dagher, director of UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. “The VolturnUS concrete floating hull technology has the potential to harness over 50 percent of the U.S. 4,000 GW offshore wind resource. With 156 GW of offshore wind capacity off the Maine coast, and 4,000 GW off the U.S. coast, we have an opportunity to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, stabilize energy prices over the long run, help protect the environment, stimulate local economic activity and create a new industry.”

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Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014

By Melissa Breyer

Mother Nature Network

Ralph Waldo Emerson once described a weed as, “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Might we not consider garbage in the same way? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, after all. To the non-recycler, an empty bottle is garbage. To the reuse enthusiast, that empty bottle could be a chandelier, a vase, a drinking glass, a candelabra … you get the picture. In a world being consumed by waste, it’s time to think of our trash in a different light (and save some money while we’re at it). The following 50 tips are just a few of the endless ways in which to discover the virtues of garbage. 1. Use a gallon milk jug to water the roots of garden plants without standing there with a hose: Poke small holes in the bottom of the jug and bury it; fill with water for slow and steady irrigation. 2. Place old silica gel packets with personal papers and important documents to protect them from moisture and mildew. 3. Humidity and light are deleterious to printed photos; tackle the moisture part by storing photos with silica get packets. 4. Use old wine corks to create a floating key ring; never worry about your keys sinking while at the beach or lake again.

ways to reuse your garbage 5. Become a recycling old master, like artist Scott Gundersen, and transform old wine corks into masterpieces. 6. Make a bird feeder out of a 2-liter plastic bottle. 7. Pour used bacon grease into a tuna or cat food can, chill until firm, and wire the can to a tree to give your feathered visitors some food. Bacon grease may be gross to some of us, but it attracts bluebirds, crows, jays, ravens, starlings, woodpeckers and Carolina wrens. 8. Spread out old newspaper beneath a tablecloth to provide further protection against spills. 9. Don’t forget the old trick of using newspaper instead of paper towels to clean windows. 10. Once it’s time to retire an old game, use the game board to make coasters. 11. Use old game pieces – Monopoly movers, dice, Scrabble tiles – to make jewelry or to decorate wrapped packages. 12. Place an open jar or bowl of dried, used coffee grounds in your refrigerator or freezer to neutralize odors. 13. Keep a jar of dried, used coffee grounds under the sink and use with dish soap as a scouring agent for cleaning caked-on stubborn food. 14. Mound used coffee grounds in a ring around garden plants to keep ants and slugs away. 15. Keep used tea bags in the refrigerator; in the morning, dampen if needed and put one on each eye to relieve puffiness and refresh sleepy peepers. 16. Dampen cool, used tea bags and place them on insect bites and minor burns; it’s said that the tannins help soothe and reduce inflammation. 17. Pack old newspaper sleeve bags in your purse of backpack for use as emergency galoshes. 18. If you hate the feeling of rubber gloves against your skin, use newspaper sleeve bags

to protect your hands while washing dishes. 19. Did your bike inner tube spring a leak? Lucky you! Now you can save the tube and cut it into strips for a bonanza of rubber bands in custom widths. 20. You can also use a bike inner tube to fashion an industrial chic door draft stopper: Cut a length of tube a little longer that the door’s width, fill with sand and seal both ends; block drafts and stay cozy. 21. We are a people of rampant toilet paper use and thus, we are all left with a lot of toilet paper tubes. You can turn those tubes into playthings and nesting materials for your small furry pets. 22. Torn and crumbled toilet paper tubes also make fine packing material. 23. If paper towels are one of your “eco sins” (we all have our indulgences), you can use the cardboard tubes for any number of crafts. 24. Old disposable lighters can be turned into jewelry, toys, and tricky secret compartments in which to store your secret things. 25. Empty pill bottles need not head to the landfill when they can be taming the mess of your junk drawer, tool box, sewing kit, and so forth; they love to contain little things. 26. And speaking of sewing kits and pill bottles, you can put together a teeny one with thread, needles and safety pins, and house it in a pill container. 27. Pill containers can also hold a stash of Band-Aids in your purse for when blisters and paper cuts strike. 28. For little bits of soap that have given up their lather, collect them and put them in a stocking leg to keep by an outdoor faucet, ensuring that you’ll have soap on hand for outside cleanup. 29. Another way to use soap slivers is to wrap

a group of them in a washcloth and tie it into a bundle; presto, you have a self-sudsing scrubber. 30. Put old, stained T-shirts to use fighting stains; cut them up and use them for messy spills around the house and in the garage. 31. Cut T-shirts into strips and knit with them; yes, knit. 32. Snagged pantyhose or tights may look unsightly on the legs, but nobody will care when they are being used in the home. For starters, they make great sleeves for posters, wallpaper rolls, wrapping paper and anything else that needs to stay rolled up. 33. Stockings that have passed their prime make great rags for cleaning and dusting. 34. And since over-the-hill pantyhose and tights seem to come in endless supply, they can also be cut and used for ersatz bungee cords, hair bows, sashes and arm warmers. 35. For the super crafty, use your old jeans for any of these cool old jean things. 36. Old sailors know this one: use banana peels to shine your shoes. Rub the inside of the peel on shoes, then buff with a soft cloth. 37. Don’t toss the ends of bread loaves; they deserve love too. Let them dry out and then turn them into breadcrumbs. 38. Use the peels of juiced lemons to make zest and twists, which can be dried or frozen for later use. 39. Use juiced citrus halves sprinkled with salt to clean stainless steel and other metal fixtures. 40. Add a hunk of orange peel to brown sugar to ensure it stays soft; no more trying to fit brown-sugar boulders in a measuring cup. 41. Parmesan cheese rinds may lack nice texture, but they have plenty of taste left and add richness to sauces; put them in soup stocks, minestrone, risotto and pasta sizes while cook-

Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014 ing, then remove what’s left at the end. 42. Don’t throw old books away; upcycle them into beautiful handmade journals. 43. Have an ugly sweater that is just too ugly and is calling for the trash? Mittenize it! (That would mean turn it into mittens; see the how-to here.) 44. Another wonderful way to reincarnate a sweater is to unravel the yarn and knit it again; and if you’re not up for the reknitting part, there’s a mom at Reknit who will do the knitting for you. 45. During windy rainstorms the trash cans on city corners overflow with sad, broken umbrellas; all those materials just waiting for the landfill, while there are so many ways to use them. For starters, salvage the cloth and use it for purses, skirts, or best of all, a doggie rain coat. 46. Styrofoam to-go containers can be cleaned, torn up and used as packing peanuts. 47. Use paper egg cartons to start seedlings; since the paper will biodegrade, each cup with its seedling can be dropped right into the soil. Toilet paper tubes can be used in the same way. 48. Little jars can be cleaned and employed in a desk drawer to organize office supplies, a junk drawer for odds and ends, or a dresser

drawer for jewelry. 49. Just because you may have gone paperless doesn’t mean you should throw your binder clips away. On the contrary: read 16 clever uses for binder clips. 50. Yes, this may seem random, but here goes: don’t throw away your old garden rake! Remove the head and hang it on the wall for use as a necklace tree, a rustic tie holder, a scarf organizer, a belt holder … the possibilities are many. This article originally appeared on the Mother Nature Network at www.mnn.com. Distributed by MCT Information Services

Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014

Mini-Split Heat Pumps: Planning, Installa Call to find out why over 600 Mainers have chosen us to be their heat pump installer. Schedule today and start saving on oil costs this winter. Contact us at: adam@mainealternativecomfort.com • (207) 947-3851 (207) 631-8469 www.mainealternativecomfort.com Located in Bangor, Serving all of Maine

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Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014

Get your home ready for cold weather courtesy efficiency maine

The days are still warm, but evening brings a chill in the air and a reminder that the heating season is at our doorstep. As you put away the bathing suits and boogie boards for the season, turn your attention to getting your home ready for fall and winter. If you’ve been putting off weatherizing your home, commit to making this the year you take action to save energy and money.

The Energy Assessment

Getting a professional energy assessment is often a great starting point towards saving money on your heating bills. During an energy assessment, an energy advisor will perform various tests—including a blower door test to measure air flow and combustion safety tests on your heating system—to determine the efficiency of your home. Using other special tools such as a smoke pencil and infrared camera, an energy advisor can provide a thorough and methodical analysis of your home’s leaky spots where air penetrates and creates drafts. The advisor can identify gaps in your insulation and assess whether better or more insulation is needed in attics, basements, walls, and crawl spaces. An advisor can also suggest ways to solve more complex air quality issues such as moisture, mold or radon pollution. Afterwards, the energy advisor will provide you with recommendations and usually a list of upgrades you should consider, which you can then prioritize. You may want to make some simple improvements in the short term, including air sealing and installing additional insulation, for example, before making more expensive upgrades to your heating system and water heater. And here’s the good news: Efficiency Maine offers up to $400 toward the cost of an energy assessment with six hours of air sealing (see below for information about air sealing). For a list of Registered Vendors near you, visit www.efficiencymaine. com/at-home/vendor-locator/. If you de-

courtesy efficiency maine

An Efficiency Maine Registered Vendor performs a combustion safety test during a home energy assessment.

cide to make additional qualified energy efficiency improvements, you can get an extra $100 bonus, along with additional rebates up to $1,500. Efficiency Maine also offers easy, low-interest rate financing for energy improvements. (Visit efficiencymaine.com for details.)

Air Sealing

If you’ve ever sat in your living room or kitchen and felt a breeze blowing through the room, or your house always feels chilly in winter even after you turn up the thermostat, your home may need some basic air sealing. Those breezes or chilly spots are often caused by air leaks from cracks and small holes throughout the house, sometimes located behind walls and trimwork and in other areas you can’t see. The air from these leaks moves upward between floors via space around chimneys, plumbing, recessed lighting, and ductwork. Preventing cold air from entering your home in the basement and first floor is equally as important as stopping warm air from escaping upward. The most common problem areas for cold air entry include sill plates in the basement; outlets and switches; space around windows and doors; and ducts leading from appliances like clothes dryers and vents. All of these easily allow cold air to rush in, heat up, and fly out, creating a drafty room and making it more

expensive to heat your home. Together, these leaks can add up to as much air loss as an open window! That’s why air sealing is so important, and it’s a simple and affordable way to make your home more energy efficient. Sealing these gaps along exterior walls, floors, and ceilings will help keep your home more comfortable and lower your energy bills. Some air sealing measures – like caulking and weather stripping around doors and windows – can be installed by a homeowner. But many air sealing projects should be installed by a contractor, and preferably after an energy assessment is conducted so critical issues are targeted first. Air sealing professionals use a variety of special materials to eliminate air leakage. Those materials include caulk, spray foam, metal flashing, weather stripping, and rigid foam. Some materials are better suited for specific locations or trouble spots. For example, fire-rated caulk and metal flashing are used in high-temperature areas around chimneys and wood stoves.

Insulation

Insulation’s ability to reduce heat transfer is rated in terms of its resistance, or Rvalue. You’ll often see information about insulation conveyed in total R-value. The Department of Energy recommends that attics in Maine be insulated to R49 or approximately 16 inches deep in a typical attic. The average Maine home is well below that and has an attic insulation level of R13 (e.g., 3.5 inch fiberglass batt insulation). Efficiency Maine recommends that the entire building envelope be insulated from top to bottom including attics, cathedral ceilings, all wall cavities, rim joists, basement walls, and crawl spaces. It doesn’t matter how new your home is -- unless your home was very recently insulated and you know how much insulation you have and its R value, it’s always a good idea to have it checked out by a professional. Building science has come a long way, and what was considered adequate

courtesy efficiency maine

An Efficiency Maine Registered Vendor conducts a blower door test during a home energy assessment. insulation five or 10 years ago can typically be improved. Insulating to recommended levels in Maine attics, basements and walls can cut heating costs by 40% or more. Have an energy advisor check the insulation, and ask if he or she suggests replacing old insulation or adding more. Efficiency Maine offers rebates of up to $1,000 for qualified insulation projects (restrictions apply).

Other considerations

If you have high energy costs or a heating system that is older than 20 years old, it may be time to consider upgrading your boiler or furnace to a new system. The choices in heating systems today can be both exciting and daunting. High-efficiency oil and natural gas boilers and furnaces, pellet systems, and geothermal systems offer a variety of options and price points. Supplemental heat sources, such as pellet stoves, wood stoves, and ductless heat pumps, can also increase home comfort and lower heating costs. To help make sense of it all, Efficiency Maine provides information on heating systems including videos and a home heating cost comparison tool to help you estimate and compare what your annual heating costs would be using different heating systems. For more information on energy efficiency, home weatherization, and heating systems, visit efficiencymaine.com or call 866-376-2463.

Energy Wise • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 25, 2014