6TO0101A0221 1aLIVE 6TO0101A0221 ZALLCALL
59 23:24:14 02/20/09
Sleep well with
lux sheets. LIFE, 1D
B
Former Melbourne Mayor John Buckley dies at 75.
SPACE COAST, 1B
SPORTS
1C
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009
LIFE
BY TOM RAUM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FLORIDA TODAY’s annual
singing contest is back, and
if you think you’ve got what
it takes, we’d like to hear
you sing. This year’s contest
will be hosted at brevard.
metromix.com. Last year’s
winner, Ginnette Ward, is
above. Get more on 1D
Soldiers pray for
each other in battle
As the chaplain at the Air
Force Theater
Hospital at
Joint Base
Balad, Iraq,
“Spirituality”
columnist
Burkes
Norris Burkes
often asks wounded soldiers what they are praying
for. Their answers contain
some surprises, 1D
75 CENTS
Plan can’t please everyone
Obama, FDR not
perfectly matched
for comparison
Brevard Idol is back
for a fourth season
WASHINGTON — In sheer size,
th e eco nomi c mea sure s announced by President Barack
Obama to address “a crisis unlike
we’ve ever known” are remarkable, rivaling and in many cases
dwarfing the New Deal programs
that Franklin D. Roosevelt famously created to battle the Great
ANALYSIS
Depression. Winning approval was
a political tour-de-force for the new
administration.
Yet gloom and uncertainty persist about the plan’s ability to deliver a cure for the economy’s severe ailments.
Stocks plunged to six-year lows
after the burst of bill signings, bailout announcements and presidential pledges. And polls show Americans increasingly are worried
about losing jobs and not having
enough money to pay their bills.
Why the skepticism?
See PLAN, 5A
AP
Looking back. President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan was a political
tour-de-force, the results of which dwarf some New Deal programs.
WATER HEATERS: GETTING THE MOST FOR YOUR MONEY
What gets hot, for less
WEATHER
FLORIDA TODAY
Chance of rain 5 percent.
Winds 8-16 mph. Overnight
lows near 56, 12A
BUSINESS
Civic leaders honored
in 4 under 40 event
FLORIDA
Crist taps stimulus aid
for balanced budget
Gov. Charlie Crist proposes
a $66.5 billion state budget
Friday, leaning heavily on
federal stimulus money to
rescue Florida from tax increases and more cuts in
state services, 8B
SPACE
Next rocket launch
March 5: A United Launch
Alliance Delta II rocket carrying NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on a mission to find
distant Earth-like planets,
from pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Launch window: 10:48 p.m.
to 11:18 p.m.
The latest Space Coast news:
Gannett Co. Inc.
INDEX
Classified........ 6-10D
Comics..................3D
Crosswords..........4D
5-Minute read....12A
Help!......................5D
Home & Garden.1D
Lottery..........12A, 8B
Obituaries............. 7B
Opinions.......10-11A
Wheels .............1-20E
Real Estate.......1-12F
Shuttle
launch
delayed
again
BY JAMES DEAN
Sunny, highs near 67
Four Brevard residents and
a Merritt Island student are
recognized Friday for being
community leaders. The 4
under 40 event is a formal
nod to the area’s young and
talented by an organization
called LEAD Brevard, 10C
Nine great
things about
Grapefruit
League.
Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY
Getting hotter. Senior research engineer Carlos Colon removes water from an integrated collector storage
solar water heater to calibrate the system. The 40-gallon ICS system costs about $3,500.
Testing 7 systems, researchers see more efficiency in solar
BY JIM WAYMER
FLORIDA TODAY
COCOA — In a 16-by-10-foot
shed, researchers at the Florida
Solar Energy Center run seven
types of water heaters to find the
cheapest and most efficient one.
With a $150,000 federal grant,
they’re comparing how well the
heaters work in hopes of saving
energy and homeowners’ money.
“We were trying to simulate a
typical garage,” said Subrato
Chandra, project director for the
energy center’s Building America
Industrialized Housing Partnership. “Our overall goal is research
toward ‘zero-energy’ homes.”
The researchers began their
yearlong experiment this year in
the new Hot Water Systems Labo-
ratory at the center’s Cocoa campus. The systems include conventional and tankless electric water
heaters, as well as natural gas and
three different solar systems.
The solar systems are leading
the pack in efficiency. The firstplace model used about 39 kilowatt hours between Feb. 1 and
Feb. 15, compared with 152 kilowatt hours used by the conventional electric water heater.
Solar water heaters cost more
initially — they can be $4,000 —
but owners can hit a break-even
point in 12 years or less, said Carlos Colon, a senior research engineer and task leader on the project. “The payback could be as
early as seven years,” he said.
Contact Waymer at 242-3663
or jwaymer@floridatoday.com.
Studying efficiency
The Florida Solar Energy
Center’s
staff has
been testing types of
water heaters to determine
which are
the most
energy efficient and
cost effective. Read
more about
the study’s
data on 3A
FLORIDA SOLAR ENERGY CENTER. The Legislature and Florida Energy Committee formed the center in 1974
during the energy crisis, in response to disreputable businesses bilking customers by making inflated claims about
untested solar systems. The center, which rates solar systems, is the first state-supported energy organization.
Neighbors
cleaning up
disheveled
structure
BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY
PALM BAY — The beige, windowless, cinder block building
sits at Florida Avenue and
Randolph Street, a testament of
the past 50 years to a once-nice
neighborhood that spiraled into
drugs and crime and now is trying
to claw its way out.
It is the Evans Grocery Store
building, and community leaders
CAPE CANAVERAL — Shuttle
Discovery’s launch date remained
uncertain after a marathon meeting Friday by senior NASA officials
at Kennedy Space Center.
They could not agree to launch
the year’s first mission next Friday,
as tentatively planned, and a midMarch or later time frame was under consideration.
Throughout the day, managers
and engineers discussed ongoing
concerns about a critical set of
shuttle valves that have delayed the
flight from its original Feb. 12 target date.
The three pop-up valves regulate
the flow of hydrogen gas from each
of the shuttle’s main engines to its
rust-colored, 15-story external
tank. That allows the tank to maintain proper pressure as liquid hydrogen propellant is burned during
the 81 ⁄ 2 -minute climb to orbit.
If pressure rises too high or sinks
too low, or if a fragment from a broken valve punctures the gas line,
the results could be catastrophic
for the shuttle’s seven astronauts.
The potential problem emerged
during Endeavour’s launch in November, when a small piece of a
valve broke off. No harm was done,
but engineers worried about how
likely another failure was and how
big a fragment could break off.
Weeks of tests ensued to study
the consequences of one or more
broken valves and to better understand the cause of the breakage.
Managers Friday were deciding
whether the risk was low enough to
proceed with at least one flight
while continuing to study the problem.
Seven astronauts are set to install the space station’s final set of
huge American solar array wings,
completing its power supply.
Contact Dean at 639-3644
or jdean@floridatoday.com.
Mortgage rescue may
not save Brevardians
BY JOHN McCARTHY
FLORIDA TODAY
Christina Stuart, FLORIDA TODAY
Before. Evans Grocery Store, at
1361 Florida Ave. in Palm Bay, is
closed Thursday. It will be converted into a community center
with a small grocery store.
are working to transform it into a
family-friendly place to shop,
teach children about business
and leadership, and for neighbors
to look for a job.
The Powell Subdivision Neighborhood Watch, along with the
Congregations for Community
See CLEANING, 9A
MORE ONLINE. To see the accomplishments of the Congregations
for Community Action, follow the link at floridatoday.com
There is little in President Barack
Obama’s mortgage rescue to offer
hope for tens of thousands of
Brevard County residents struggling with home payments.
When Obama unveiled his mortgage rescue plan Wednesday, he
said it could help as many as 9 million families lower their mortgage
payments and hopefully stave off
foreclosure. The most immediate
relief is available to those who owe
no more than 105 percent of their
home’s value.
But with local median sale price
of homes off 50 percent in the past
three years, more than 30 percent
of all local homeowners — about
30,000 households — owe more
than that, according to real estate
research firm Zillow.
Only 17.5 percent of local homeowners with mortgages fall within
the 80 percent to 105 percent loanto-value ratio needed to qualify for
streamlined, low-cost refinancing
to take advantage today’s historically low interest rates.
And that program is available
only to those whose loans are
owned or guaranteed by Fannie
Mae of Freddie Mac. It is not
known how many of those who
owe less than 105 percent locally
have such loans.
“It’s not going to help those most
afflicted from the loss of home equity,” University of Central Florida
economist Sean Snaith said. “The
worst-hit states are not going to
benefit very much.”
See MORTGAGE, 9A
6TO0301A0221 live 6TO0301A0221 ZALLCALL
59 21:33:42 02/20/09
B
FLORIDA TODAY
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009
6
How 7 heaters stack up
4
esearchers want to know how solar water
heaters stack up on cold, cloudy days. The
Florida Solar Energy Center compared the
systems from midnight Feb. 1 to midnight
Feb. 2. Temperatures averaged 55 degrees, with a
low of 40 and a high of 69. The number associated
with each system is not a rank.
R
2
Photos by Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY
1
Standard
water heater
0 WHAT: 50-gallon electric,
which most Brevard County
homes have
0 COST: $300 to $500
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
10.8 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Cheaper and easier to find
0 CONS: Less efficient than
solar and tankless heaters.
Produces more carbon dioxide and other gases that
contribute to global warming
than other tanks. Lasts
about 13 years, while solar
heaters can last several
years longer.
0 WHAT: 40-square-foot collector and 80-gallon tank,
flat-plate direct heating system that uses solar power to
circulate the water instead of
an electric pump
0 COST: $3,500 to $4,000
installed
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
4.6 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Ranked second of
the seven in energy use.
Similar performance to
electric differential-controlled
solar system. Uses no energy to run the pump. Very
reliable.
0 CONS: Higher initial cost.
Usually needs a backup system for cloudy days and increased demand.
Differentialcontrolled
solar
0 WHAT: 40-square-foot collector and 80-gallon tank flatplate direct solar water heating system with a differential
controller. An electric pump
circulates household water
from the collector, into the
tank and into the home. The
differential controller turns
the pump on and off to maximize solar heat gain with
minimum energy use.
0 COST: $4,000 or more installed
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
3.5 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Ranks best among
the seven in energy use.
Lasts 20 years or more.
0 CONS: Higher initial cost.
Needs a professional installer. Usually needs
backup system for cloudy
days and increased demand.
12 cents
Per kilowatt hour that residential customers pay for
electricity, according to the
Florida Solar Energy Center
Solarpumped
system
3
Integrated
collector
storage (ICS)
0 WHAT: 32-square-foot collector and 40-gallon ICS system with a standard
50-gallon electric tank for
backup. ICS systems use
one or more tanks or tubes
in an insulated, glazed box.
Cold water passes through
the solar collector, which
preheats the water. The water then flows to a conventional backup water heater,
providing a reliable source of
hot water.
0 COST: $3,500 installed
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
6.6 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Ranked third of
the seven in energy use. Increased storage capacity.
More reliable. Not as many
operating parts.
0 CONS: Higher initial cost.
Usually needs a backup system for cloudy days and increased demand.
5
Natural
gas
0 WHAT: 40-gallon conventional natural gas water
heater
0 COST: $400 to $500
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
59.1 cubic feet of gas,
17.33 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Saves space and
money up front, compared
with standard water heaters.
Results in three times less
greenhouse gas than a conventional water heater.
0 CONS: Least efficient
among seven. Heat escapes
because of the design — a
flue in the center of the tank,
with no way to insulate
against resulting heat loss.
3A
Tankless
natural gas
0 WHAT: A small heating
unit that heats water directly
without the use of a storage
tank. Provides hot water only
as needed.
0 COST: $800 to $1,100
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
35.9 cubic feet of gas, or
10.53 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Saves space and
money in the long term, compared with standard water
heaters. Doesn’t have
standby energy losses associated with water heaters
that store water. Three times
fewer gases that contribute
to global warming created
than with a conventional
electric water heater.
0 CONS: The temperature
rise is not as fast as conventional water heaters. Delayed
hot water to the faucet. Slow
flows may not ignite the
burner, leaving water cold.
More expensive to install
and maintain than conventional electric water heaters.
Can take up to 20 years or
more to recoup those additional up-front costs.
$20
7
Per thousand cubic feet, or
2 cents per cubic foot, that
Floridians pay for natural
gas, according to the Energy
Information Administration
cient than standard electric
water heater. Doesn’t have
the standby energy losses
associated with water heaters that store water, which
can save you money.
Tankless
electric
0 WHAT: Provides hot water
only as needed
0 COST: $800 to $1,100
0 ELECTRICITY USE:
9.3 kilowatt hours
0 PROS: Slightly more effi-
0 CONS: Slower to heat
than conventional electric
water heaters, which encourages more water use
Sources: Florida Solar Energy Center researchers Danny Parker and Carlos Colon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Reports, FLORIDA TODAY research
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