Association of EnergyEngineers
New York Chapter
www.aeeny.org
December 2010 Newsletter Part 2
As City's Temperature Rises, Air Quality Falls
By Rich Kassel, Gotham Gazette, Aug 2010
IT HAS BEEN A GREAT SUMMER for anybody who sells ices on the street, repairs air
conditioners, or enjoys a run through a park sprinkler. For New Yorkers who sweat their way
through the hot days, though, it’s been struggle since the start of spring. That is because, this
year, New Yorkers have lived through the hottest spring and summer on record. From March to
June, we saw four consecutive months that broke their all-time record for average monthly
temperature, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And July came close, only avoiding the mark thanks to an unseasonably cool final day
that dropped the average monthly temperature in the city to 81.3 degrees, just one-tenth of a
degree cooler than July 1999, the reigning hottest July on record.
Weather reporters tend to focus on the temperature readings, but hot weather also brings
spikes in levels of ground-level ozone, more commonly referred to as smog. That's because
ground-level ozone forms when volatile organic compounds (mostly hydrocarbons) and nitrogen
oxide gases mix in sunlight. When there is more sunlight and temperatures rise higher and
higher, the ozone reaction speeds up, creating more and more ozone. (By the way, ground-level
ozone is different than stratospheric ozone, which helps shield the Earth from dangerous sun
ultraviolet rays).
Unhealthy Air
Breathing too much ozone can trigger or worsen a wide range of serious health problems
in the short term, including asthma emergencies, bronchitis and emphysema. For some people,
inhaling high levels of ozone can lead to chest pain, wheezing, throat irritation, and congestion.
Over the longer term, repeatedly breathing the levels of smog we have in New York City can
reduce lung function and permanently scar lung tissue.
Children, the elderly, people with lung disease and people who work or exercise outdoors
are all at greater risk than the general population.
New York City has never met the federal health standards for ground-level ozone. These
standards are set periodically by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and are designed to
protect both public health and public welfare (crops and vegetation, for example). The federal
government sets two ozone standards -- the "one-hour" standard is designed to protect people
from short-term spikes in ozone levels, and the "eight-hour" standard is intended to protect us
from more chronic exposure to ozone.
Certainly, cars, trucks and industrial pollution sources are cleaner than they were 40 years
ago when the first Clean Air Act was passed. But as our understanding of the health impacts of
ozone has increased, the health standards set by the U.S. EPA have become more stringent.
The agency’s AirNow website includes a public awareness program that informs the
public about pollution levels in real time and provides daily forecasts of expected pollution levels
and historic information about past pollution levels. On the website, the EPA index system rates
ozone -- and particulate matter as well -- from a scale of 1 to 500. An Air Quality Index value of
100 generally corresponds to the national health standard for the pollutant. An Air Quality Index
rating of 50 is considered to be "good" air quality that has little potential to affect public health.
At 300, the agency considers the air to be "hazardous" to breathe -- so polluted that everybody is
at risk and serious enough to trigger public warnings about emergency conditions. In other
words, when the Air Quality Index is below 100, EPA believes that the air is generally clean
enough for all New Yorkers.
EPA declares an Air Quality Alert day whenever Air Quality Index levels of ozone or
particulate pollution exceed 100. When the Air Quality Index is between 101 and 150, EPA
considers the air to be "unhealthy for sensitive groups." Although the health of the general public
is not expected to be affected in this range, people with lung disease, older adults and children
are at a greater risk from exposure to ozone, while particulates in the air pose a greater hazard to
persons with heart and lung disease, older adults and children. People in these risk categories are
advised to avoid prolonged outdoor exertion when the index is above 100.
Thanks to this summer's repeated heat waves, the number of Air Quality Alert days has
skyrocketed in 2010. Indeed, according to EPA, there have been 27 Air Quality Alert days since
Memorial Day. All but one of these Air Quality Alert days were in the 101 to 150 Air Quality
Index range. On July 6, however, portions of the city moved into the red zone of "unhealthy" as
everybody could begin to feel some adverse effects of the high air pollution. In a normal year,
there are fewer than five Air Quality Alert days in the city during May, June and July.
As Michael Seilback of the American Lung Association in New York said, “For the
hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who suffer from asthma and other lung disease, these
high levels of ozone could make it difficult to breathe and could even lead to hospitalizations or
death.”
Cleaning Up Summer
New Yorkers who are concerned about the potential health impacts of breathing high
levels of ground-level ozone should avoid prolonged outdoor exertions when the heat and
pollution levels are high.
It is easy for concerned New Yorkers to keep up to date with the air pollution levels and
forecasts in their community. By subscribing to EnviroFlash, New Yorkers can get a free daily
email with up-to-date pollution information for their ZIP code. Calling the New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation's air quality hotline at 800 535-1345 also will
provide localized air quality information.
On Air Quality Alert days, New Yorkers can help reduce the city's pollution levels by
avoiding unnecessary car trips, using transit and reducing electricity consumption wherever
possible.
Hot summer days are also a good time to remind ourselves of the policy steps that our
elected leaders and government officials can take to reduce summertime ozone levels in years to
come. In Washington, EPA is expected to announce its new national eight-hour standard for
ozone by the end of August. The agency is considering a range of ozone levels below the current
standard, and setting the most stringent standard will be especially important. That is because the
new standard will trigger revised state-level requirements to develop additional programs to
reduce pollution levels to meet the new standard.
If we are ever to escape from the trends of ever-hotter and more-polluted summers, it will
be critical for Washington to take positive action on these necessary policy steps, and for New
York to adopt a plan to finally meet EPA’s health standards for ozone, once and for all.
Rich Kassel is a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he
focuses on urban air pollution and transportation issues. He also chairs the Tri-State
Transportation Campaign, a regional transportation advocacy organization; is on the
board of the New York League of Conservation Votes and blogs on a variety of
environmental issues on the NRDC Switchboard.
###
User's Manual Helps Professionals Apply Standard
The newly published User’s Manual for ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2009,
Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential
Buildings, provides explanations of the standard’s requirements and examples of its application.
It includes sample calculations, forms to demonstrate compliance and references to helpful
resources and websites.
###
Destination: LAPTOPISTAN
Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
Gross domestic product: It may not look like much goes on in the laptop brigade at Atlas Café in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but the room is a hive of entrepreneurial and creative energy.
By David Sax, NYTimes, Dec 3 2010
JUST after 4 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon, as a dozen people clicked away on their laptops
at the Atlas Café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, half of a tree broke off without warning less than a
block away. It crashed into the middle of Havemeyer Street, crushing a parked car, setting off
alarms and blocking the street. A deafening chorus of horns rose outside Atlas’s window as
traffic halted. An 18-wheeler executed a sketchy 10-point turn in the middle of a crowded
intersection before a pair of fire trucks made their way through the traffic jam in a blaze of red.
Chain saws roared, sawdust flew and the horns built to a peak. It was New York urban
pandemonium at its finest.
Inside the warm confines of Atlas, separated from the chaos by only a thin wall of glass,
not a soul stirred. A quiet mention was made of the falling tree, a few heads rose for a second,
and then, just as quickly, they ducked back down. They all returned to whatever was on the other
side of their glowing, partly eaten apples. On a day when the cafe Internet connection had
already been down for four hours, and the toilet had been blocked for even longer, I thought I
had seen these worker bees pushed to their limit. But I had underestimated them. Nothing could
stir these people. They were not in New York; they were citizens of Laptopistan.
I was an interloper among them, an anthropologist of sorts, sent to untangle their odd
society, to understand their mores and unwritten rules. How did the natives interact? How did the
government function? What was the economy like in this land of bottomless cups and table
hoggers? And what, oh what, were they all writing?
I was, admittedly, a profoundly skeptical observer. Though I had been a freelance writer
for the last eight years, I had always worked at home, clad in pajamas and brewing my own fuel
rather than paying $3 for someone to make pretty designs in my caffeinated foam. Whenever my
wife suggested that I get out of the house, maybe take my laptop to a cafe, I shot back: “Real
freelancers don’t work in coffee shops. It’s just unemployed hipsters and their unpublished
novels, or screenplays, or Facebook stati.”
My disdain for the coffee shop writing scene only grew this June, when I met a friend at
the Red Horse Cafe in Park Slope. I had previously been there only on weekends, when it was
filled with couples sharing the Sunday paper and parents wiping brownie residue off their
toddlers. That weekday afternoon it was a place transformed. Gone were the newspapers and the
strollers. Laptops had colonized every flat surface. No one uttered a word; people just stared into
screens, expressionless. It felt like that moment in a horror movie when the innocent couple
stumbles into a house filled with hibernating zombies, and they listen, in terror, as the floorboard
creaks.
My friend and I ordered our coffee, and began to discuss whatever it was we were there
to discuss. Within seconds of opening my mouth, I felt a change in the room. Eyes rose from
their screens and landed on us — the zombies were awake, and they weren’t happy. One of them
passed our table on the way to the washroom and let loose what can only be described as a
snicker. We downed our coffee and beat a quick retreat. “To hell with those laptop-wielding
fundamentalists,” I said.
So what was I doing in Laptopistan? I moved from New York to Toronto in September,
but had come back to the city for a week and was sleeping on a friend’s couch. I needed a place
to work. Someone suggested Atlas. I swallowed my skepticism and got my passport ready.
SET ON THE CORNER OF HAVEMEYER AND GRAND STREETS, and flooded with
light from two walls of windows, Atlas Café, which opened in 2003, looks like a combination of
worn trattoria and late 1990s Seattle coffeehouse. The name reflects its wall-sized map of the
world (there are also a mobile of hanging globes, and flourishes of décor inspired by someone’s
travel to the Far East). The soundtrack is a mix of old country and folk (Dylan, Willy, Cohen and
Cash), classical, bebop and French ballads.
A makeshift milk station sits in the center of the 750-square-foot room. To the left is a
long bar of dark stained rustic wood, where people order food and drink (proper espressos for
$1.50, excellent panini, salads and deadly little chocolate-filled Italian doughnuts, $3), as well as
the windowless, orange washroom. There are three stools at the bar, and beside them a table of
reclaimed timber pressed against a cozy window bench. According to two signs, this little corner,
perhaps one-sixth of the cafe, is designated a laptop-free zone.
###
Current NY Chapter AEE Sponsors:
New York Chapter of AEE thanks our corporate sponsors who help underwrite our activities.
Please take a moment to visit their websites and learn more about them:
•
•
•
•
•
Duane Morris LLP
Constellation Energy
Innoventive Power
Association for Energy Affordability
R3 Energy Management
If you or your firm is interested in sponsoring the New York Chapter of AEE, please contact
Jeremy Metz at jeremy.metz@verizon.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Superintendents Technical Association (aka the Supers
Club) is the first technical society of multifamily building
maintenance personnel. See our monthly newsletter at www.nycSTA.org.
A note from your editor:
Heartfull thanks to all of you who emailed me to tell me that they
found this newsletter of value.
Dick Koral, Editor, dkoral@earthlink.net
City Urges Workers to Power Down Computers After Work
By Adam Lisberg, Daily News, Dec 8 2010
BLOOMBERG ADMINISTRATION BEAN COUNTERS have ordered city
workers to save money by shutting down unused computers - and drinking
less bottled water.
A new memo from Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith estimates the
city can save at least $250,000 a year if workers turn off their computers at night and on
weekends.
"If full shutdowns are not practical, agencies are strongly encouraged to set computers to
other energy efficient settings like 'hibernate' and 'standby,'" Goldsmith wrote.
"Staff should be strongly encouraged to shut off power to monitors, printers and other
electronic devices when not in use."
The city has an estimated 100,000 computers. Each would save about $50 a year worth of
electricity if they're shut down on nights and weekends, the city estimates.
Goldsmith also ordered agencies to stop buying small water bottles for workers to drink
in offices and meetings - and instead encouraged employees to use water coolers.
Agencies buy more than $100,000 worth of bottled water each year, and Goldsmith wants
to reduce that to $25,000. Bottled water should be used only by workers in the field or in an
emergency, he said.
Both ideas came from New Yorkers who submitted them to the "suggestion box" on the
nyc.gov website, which has garnered more than 2,000 money-saving ideas since mid-October.
Goldsmith has previously ordered city workers to make double-sided photocopies, with
the hope of saving $1 million a year - and to stop sending Christmas cards to save $50,000.
The city is looking for savings big and small as it tries to plug a budget gap next year that
could rise to $4.5 billion if Albany tries to solve its own problems by slashing city aid.
"My job is to continue to provide the services, as much services as we can possibly
afford, keeping the cost down, making sure they're delivered efficiently," Mayor Bloomberg said
yesterday.
"Make no mistake about it - we will not be able to do everything that we did in the past,
and there will be no sacred cows," he added.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and some Council members want to block
Bloomberg's $1.6 billion in proposed cuts, such as eliminating nighttime coverage at some
firehouses and laying off children's services workers.
"Short-term, we're not going to grow out of this," Bloomberg said. "Short-term, we have
to balance the budget."
Fantastic Solar Plastic Breakthrough
By Todd Woody, Grist, 7 Dec 2010
Todd Woody is a veteran environmental journalist based in California.
YOU CAN FIND very low-powered flexible panels embedded in backpacks and small solar
chargers, but the challenge has been to increase the efficiency of such photovoltaic cells. Now a
company that has spent years developing an organic solar technology, Konarka of Lowell, Mass.,
says its "Power Plastic" has set a new record, achieving an 8.3 percent efficiency rate in
converting sunlight into electricity. The
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
certified the efficiency rating.
Photo: Konarka One of the holy grails of solar
power has been to create very thin plastic solar
cells that could be attached to just about anything
to generate electricity -- windows, awnings, bus
shelters.
"This unsurpassed NREL certification
opens new doors for the commercial
production of cost-effective, efficient electricity for numerous large scale applications," Howard
Berke, Konarka's chief executive, said in a statement.
Now, 8.3 percent is less than half the efficiency of a conventional crystalline silicon
photovoltaic panel like those found on residential rooftops. But it's a notable achievement for a
solar cell that uses organic molecules to generate electricity. The great promise of organic
molecules is that they can be produced at far less cost than standard silicon solar panels, but the
low efficiency of organic photovoltaics has limited their use.
If Konarka can maintain the increased efficiency in mass production, it may be able to
expand the market for its power plastic. After all, it wasn't too long ago that crystalline silicon
panels were barely 10 percent efficient.
(I got a look at just how long scientists have been working on this technology when I
recently visited a solar power plant in Davis, Calif., that served as a testing ground for
photovoltaic technologies in the 1980s and '90s. In one corner stood a rack featuring early
versions of the type of modules Konarka makes.)
A couple of years ago, a Konarka executive showed me just how portable and easily
installed photovoltaic plastic can be. He pulled a roll of solar modules out of a briefcase and
unfurled them on a table. Within a few minutes they were powering a lamp.
If you happen to be in San Francisco, you can spot Power Plastic modules at bus stops.
The modules are embedded in the wave-shaped red roofs of the bus shelter and power its lights,
as well as Wifi routers for web-surfing passengers.
The city plans to solarize 300 bus stops, which would generate 43,000 kilowatt-hours a
year.
Now that's fantastic plastic!
###
New York Passes Water-Efficiency Legislation
(from ASPE Industry Pipeline)
The New York City Council recently enacted a set of local laws that address the water
efficiency of New York City buildings by amending the New York City Plumbing Code. Local
Law 54 prohibits the use of potable water for once-through cooling systems, and Local Law 56
requires alarms and sub-meters to be installed in facilities that are major water users to alert both
the operator of the facility and the Department of Environmental Protection of a potential water
leak or equipment malfunction. Both are effective Jan. 1, 2011. Local Law 55 requires
mandatory drinking fountains to be equipped with both a bubbler faucet for drinking and a
separate faucet for filling a water bottle. Local Law 57 lowers the maximum flow rate for private
lavatory faucets, showerheads, urinals, and toilets. They are effective July 1, 2012.
###
The Use of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems
In Concert with Water Reclamation and Reuse
By Dennis E. Hallahan, Water Efficiency, Nov – Dec 2010
A SERIOUS PROBLEM FACES OUR SOCIETY as the demand for potable water begins to
exceed the available supply. Treating and reusing wastewater is becoming an acceptable solution
to this problem. Engineers across the country are challenged to deliver cost-effective wastewater
treatment and reuse solutions that protect the public health. Many of the solutions being
developed are novel approaches. In the absence of sewers, onsite wastewater treatment systems
are being designed to allow high water usage facilities to reuse wastewater. The systems
discharge to the subsurface, thereby replenishing dwindling groundwater supplies, and the
system designs incorporate treated wastewater as reuse for toilet flushing.
Classifications of Reused Water.
The reuse of treated water relates to water that has been used for sanitary or industrial
applications and then subjected to those treatment steps necessary to allow it to be reclaimed.
Reuse can be classified as either indirect or direct. Indirect reuse occurs when the water receives
enough treatment to be discharged back into the ground to build up the water table or prevent
seawater encroachment. Direct reuse requires that the treated wastewater be transported directly
to a point of reuse.
Treated or reclaimed wastewater is currently
being reused for many purposes, including industrial
and limited domestic applications. Some examples of
this are recharging groundwater by directly injecting
reclaimed water or allowing it to percolate into the
ground, or irrigation for residential and commercial
properties such as golf courses, farms, and
firefighting.
Wastewater Treatment Systems for Water Reuse
In order for reclaimed sanitary wastewater to
be acceptable to regulatory agencies and the general
Photo: Infiltrator
Geosynthetic Aggregate Bundles allow for public, it has to meet very stringent treatment
system design flexibility.
standards. In addition to the removal of conventional
pollutants such as Total Suspended Solids and
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous may need to be
reduced along with the removal of all waterborne pathogens, viruses, and any chemical
compounds that impart color and odor. Since conventional secondary wastewater technology
could not achieve these rigorous standards, it became necessary to apply advanced wastewater
technology.
There are many acceptable technologies available for advanced wastewater applications,
including tertiary systems that treat the effluent from conventional secondary systems and standalone advanced wastewater treatment systems. Nearly all of them require multiple steps to
remove organics, nutrients, and ensure disinfection. A combination of technologies is used to
treat and recycle the wastewater, which is often unique to the individual system and the
requirements of state and local codes.
The Shallow Soil Horizon Is a Great Place for
Treatment
There are many benefits to placing systems
shallow in the soil. The foremost being that water is
easily returned to the environment when closer to the
point of origin. The upper soil horizons contain a
more biologically active zone because it’s more
aerobic. Here the oxygen is better diffused through
Photo: Infiltrator
the soil, increasing the number of organisms in
Wastewater disposal chambers installed
under parking lots at Gillette Stadium treat comparison to deeper soils, which enhances the
quality of treatment. These systems also meet
excess water discharged by the parking
minimum separation distances to groundwater or
lots, allowing recharge of the local
aquifer.
limiting layers such as bedrock or hardpan, satisfying
regulations. Shallow systems fall in the root zone
where plants can uptake water and nutrients. This uptake of water and the natural
soil evaporation allow for evapotranspiration to occur. Evapotranspiration (ET) is
a critical factor because in many soil conditions the permeability is very limited
so the ET increases the capacity of the system while also providing better
treatment by the root uptake of nutrients.
Shallow Applications That Can Be Applied to Reuse Designs
In order to reclaim wastewater, it is necessary for the designer to consider the wastewater
treatment system and the treated wastewater disposal system. One challenge has been developing
system designs and products that can provide substantive treatment at varying depths including
shallow systems. These systems are often needed when groundwater levels are an issue or soils
are poor. With the new approaches to system design and a number of technological advances,
solutions for shallow system designs are expanding.
The availability of products for shallow applications is not new. Driplines have been
around for years and have been installed in these designs. The choices have expanded recently to
include other technology to meet the increasing demand.
Driplines deliver effluent into the biologically active soil horizon. Because they are
installed at these shallow depths, the soil easily breaks down the effluent, while the plants, trees,
and grass use the effluent and the nitrogen and phosphorus in it for nutrition. These two elements
are the key components of most plant fertilizers. In this scenario, the wastewater is reused as a
supplement or replacement for any plant irrigation and nutrition. Any remaining effluent is
treated by the soil and returned to the groundwater supply. The typical drip line system uses a
hydraulic delivery system for accurate pressure compensation and includes a free-floating
diaphragm that cleans itself during operation. The drippers are generally located every 2 feet in
the 1,000-foot rolls and provide 0.61 gallons per hour per emitter. In most applications, the
tubing is placed 2 feet on center providing one emitter for every 4 square-feet of total area.
Plastic chambers are extremely effective in providing even distribution of effluent to the
soil, and recent low-profile product innovations are making them a viable choice for shallow
systems. Chamber systems are easy to install and are engineered for strength and performance.
They offer a great deal of design flexibility, and, like driplines, they do not require heavy
equipment for installation. This results in cost savings on labor, materials, and time savings on
the job. One example, the Quick4 Plus Low Profile Chamber from Infiltrator Systems Inc., is
only 8-inches tall and 4-feet long, making it ideal for difficult site configurations.
Reuse in Action
Case Study—Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA.
The stadium that serves as the home of the NFL New England Patriots has the distinction
of having one of the largest recreational water reuse systems. When the Town of Foxborough
advised the private developers that constructed the stadium that they could not furnish enough
water or treat the wastewater from the planned 68,000-seat stadium, it became apparent that the
reuse of reclaimed water was the only answer.
Working closely with the Town, a program was developed to support the stadium that
resulted in the construction of the following facilities:
 250,000-gallon-per-day (MGD) membrane bioreactor facility capable of being expanded
to treat 1.1 MGD
 680,000-gallon equalization tank to capture the half-time wastewater surge
 2.4-acre groundwater chamber recharge field for the excess highly treated effluent
 500,000-gallon elevated water tank for reclaimed water storage
Key System Considerations
Water Supply.
Today, Gillette Stadium and its environs serve as a venue for football games, soccer
matches, concerts, and other public events. At the time of design, the Town of Foxborough did
not have a sufficient enough water supply to meet demand during football games. Conventional
solutions for supplying the stadium and other events concurrently were financially prohibitive. In
order to meet the demand for water, engineers proposed to incorporate a water reclamation
scheme into the design. The design would allow wastewater from the stadium and the
community to be collected, treated, and reused for such purposes as toilet flushing, irrigation,
cooling water, and flushing of streets and sidewalks.
Sewage Treatment. Had water been available, the existing sewer interceptor could not have
managed to transfer the volume anticipated from the stadium to the wastewater treatment facility.
The distance to the sewage treatment plant from the proposed stadium site made it costprohibitive. In addition, there was no nearby receiving water capable of accepting the high flows
if a treatment plant was constructed to service the stadium.
The Foxborough Solution
Photo: Infiltrator
The Quick4 Plus Standard Low Profile
Chambers are the first chambers with a
low profile design for use in shallow
applications and do not require heavy
equipment for installation.
The solution to Foxborough’s problem was to
capture the wastewater from the stadium, treat it to a
high degree, and store it for reuse when necessary.
The treatment process is based upon the application
of membrane bioreactor technology. These reactors
allow the organic wastes (including ammonia) to be
biologically degraded by microorganisms,
minimizing the need for excess power or chemicals.
The solids in the treated wastewater are separated
from the liquid fraction by membranes whose pores
are small enough to capture viruses. Additional
treatment is provided to biologically convert the
nitrates formed from the destruction of the ammonia
to nitrogen gas. The treated water is reaerated and
disinfected using ultraviolet radiation, eliminating the
discharge of bacteria. The community keeps the
treated water aerated and stored for use at the stadium
or elsewhere, if necessary. Excess water is discharged
below the surface of the parking lot by a series of
Infiltrator Chamber Beds, allowing recharge of the
local aquifer.
In Conclusion
Science tells us that based upon the water cycle the earth has the same amount of water
today that it always had. But we should be aware that we are wasting this limited resource when
we use freshwater, treat the resulting wastewater to remove contaminants, and then discharge it
to receiving water where it drains into the ocean and becomes unavailable for reuse. In
comparison, reclaimed water that is treated according to today’s rigorous standards may be as
good as raw water and suitable for reuse for many applications that do not involve direct human
consumption.
Ever-changing regulatory requirements, intensified environmental sensitivity, and goals
for sustainable development are pushing everyone in the wastewater industry to look for
innovative approaches and products to better protect our public health and to conserve water with
cost-effective methods to treat wastewater. Returning water to the aquifer as close to its origin as
possible and cutting costs is driving the shift toward the use of onsite septic system treatment, as
compared to centralized treatment plants. With the advanced products and new approaches now
available, these natural systems are extremely efficient and effective, including those installed in
the shallow soil horizons.
###
New York City
Superintendents Technical
Association
Training, Tips and Shop Talk
By Mary K. Fons,
Cooperator, Nov 2010
THERE HAVE LONG BEEN
ORGANIZATIONS that strive to
strengthen and clarify the roles
of owners, residents, and
managers within the cooperative housing environment. But one essential player in the game—the
superintendent—was the last to find representation. Thanks to the work of the New York City
Superintendents Technical Association (STA), the workhorses of the multifamily building have a
voice, too.
Work Boots 'n' Club Roots
According to Peter Roach, STA’s current president, the group boasts a membership of
about 150 “supers,” (up 15 percent from last year), and attendance at the non-profit group’s free
meetings is strong, with around 40-45 seats filled each month. Thousands of superintendents
across the city read Building to Building, STA’s bi-monthly trade publication. “We’re about to
launch our new and improved website,” Roach adds. “It will contain more links to educational
videos and resources, and it's more user friendly.”
They’re on Facebook and are hopping on Twitter, too. But it’s taken awhile to get here.
The story begins with Dick Koral, director of the Apartment House Institute (AHI), New York
City Technical College’s continuing education unit. In the late 1970s, Koral, an engineering
technician and expert on energy conservation, operation, and maintenance in multifamily
dwellings, began teaching a group of supers the basics of running a building. Many supers were
recent immigrants and knew very little about boilers or plumbing. Koral knew this was because
of a simple lack of experience and education, not a lack of intelligence.
[Note, Koral is now retired; NYC Technical College is now NYC College of Technology (CUNY);
and he was a technical editor, not an engineering technician.]
###
A ‘Shared Vision’ on Climate, With a Glitch
By Andrew C. Revkin, NYTimes, Dec 5 2010
[Dec. 5, 10:35 a.m. | Updated Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chariman of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change has confirmed the small error in the draft described below. On Sunday
morning, he told me he was contacting relevant officials about "the need for correcting the
wording that the statement uses."]
CANCÚN, Mexico — The United Nations office managing negotiations toward a new
international climate pact on Saturday issued several draft documents for consideration by senior
government emissaries in this, the final week of the treaty conference. One was an outline of an
agreement centered on a “shared vision for long-term cooperative action.” It focused on a
substantial intensification of efforts to boost resilience to climate shocks, particularly in the
poorest, most vulnerable places, and to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. But the draft
contains plenty of provisional language.
Environmental groups were split on the language, with some seeing far too much
waffling and conditionality and others, perhaps betraying a pragmatism born of long-fought
battles, seeing a path to progress. (I’m putting some reactions in the comment string below.) A
statement made on Friday by Christiana Figueres, the United Nations official managing
negotiations, best sums up the attitude of the optimists in the halls (hat tip to Susan Anderson):
Honestly, there’s no perfect job here, okay? Nothing that we are going to do in Cancun is
going to be perfect. Don’t expect perfection. Nothing is going to be highly ambitious. Nothing.
Everything here is going to be one step, and everything is going to be insufficient. But it is the
best that this group of people in these circumstances, with these political constraints, in this
economic environment, can do for the time being. And as soon as this finishes we have to start
pushing for the next step. And so it goes. But each one of us that is here has the moral
responsibility to do the absolute best that we can at that moment under those circumstances.
Before the draft starts to congeal, though, there is a glitch in the text, in a description of
the core conclusion on human-driven climate change in the 2007 report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On page 4, the third point reads:
3. Recognizes that warming of the climate system, as a consequence of human activity, is
unequivocal, as assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in its Fourth
Assessment Report;
I’m not sure how the clause “as a consequence of human activity” slipped in, but it
shouldn’t be there. The only major conclusion of the climate panel that is described as
“unequivocal” is that the climate has warmed. (I’ve had some very long discussions about these
subtleties with Susan Solomon, the federal atmospheric scientist who was co-leader of the group
that wrote the science summary for the 2007 report. The cause of warming is described in a
much more nuanced way, and one that’s tripped up reporters and campaigners many times:
Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century
is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.
I sent an e-mail on the glitch today to several panel scientists and Rajendra K. Pachauri,
the climate panel chairman. Hopefully they’ll suggest a change. It’s minutiae in some ways,
particularly because the phrase comes in the throat-clearing preamble. But details matter, as the
climate panel discovered last year when some small errors in its reports ballooned into a major
inquiry and a largely-welcomed call for reform.
The panel would do well to try to prevent errant descriptions of its findings, regardless of
the context.
[10:35 a.m. | Updated In an e-mail, Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State and a lead
author of the relevant climate report, offered the following substitute for the errant wording:
I’m not at the table, and don’t have any direct line to anyone who is; instead getting ready
to shepherd 800 not-always-happy students through our final exam. But, at the risk of being
accused of cutting and pasting, I believe that statements citing the IPCC results should as closely
as possible follow the IPCC results. Thus, something more along the lines of:
3. Recognizes that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, with most of the observed
increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century very likely due to the
observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, as assessed by the
Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in its Fourth Assessment Report;]
###
My article (in Building Operating Management magazine) on real-time energy
dashboards has now been posted
at:(http://www.facilitiesnet.com/powercommunication/article/ What-Energy-Dashboards-CanDo--12121) . It covers most of what I reviewed at the 11/16/10 NY AEE meeting, but does
further into determining who should consider (or not) purchasing or subscribing to such
software. Please feel free to provide this link to those who may be interested.
Best wishes, Lindsay Audin
What Energy Dashboards Can Do
By Lindsay Audin, December 2010
AS MILLIONS OF "SMART" ELECTRIC METERS are being installed in commercial
buildings, electric utilities are gathering — and starting to provide — boatloads of meter data
showing usage in 15-, 30- or 60-minute intervals. The goal is to help facility managers better
manage their power consumption and peak demand. But many facility managers are scratching
their heads when it comes to converting that data into money-saving action. To achieve those
ends, some are now using real-time Web-based software to digest and portray that information in
ways that lead directly to their bottom lines.
While much of the so-called smart grid involves the routing of power transmission and
other actions far from customer busbars, utilities across much of the United States and Canada
are also replacing their old electromechanical meters with digital smart meters. Many
commercial properties bigger than a bodega are likely to have one in the next year or two. Such
meters are, in effect, electronic sentinels that continuously communicate with a utility, sending it
usage data — and possibly receiving commands in return. The goal is to foster real-time
customer awareness of power use and, with customer permission, to alter that use when needed
to limit grid-wide load.
Such functions are already performed, to varying extents, in facilities with energy
management systems (EMS) that control HVAC, lighting and other equipment. Where peak
electric demand is monitored, and operators can control it, commands may be issued to reduce
non-critical light levels, adjust air handler fan speeds, etc., until the need for a demand reduction
has passed.
Given the ability to see, via real-time displays and retrospective analyses, how a
building's hourly load varies, facility managers have found problems with mechanical systems,
erroneous EMS settings, and other issues that when corrected, cut energy waste and cost. A few
have reduced annual consumption as much as 20 percent.
Facilities billed under time-of-use electric rates have, for years, been able to receive
interval meter data, though usually too delayed to take immediate action. Utilities offered either
e-mailed files of monthly interval readings, or provided access to the data via websites where it
is displayed 24 hours after the fact. Those sites may include basic analytical tools, such as hourly
load profiles, power factor and load duration curves for customer-specified time periods. Such
static displays are available for free or at a nominal charge appearing on monthly utility bills.
Range of Information
By marrying digital meter outputs and wireless/Web communications, interval data may
now be economically accessed and delivered to many in near real-time. Customers may either
plug directly into such meters, providing immediate on-site data, or access the utility data stream
in real-time via private websites. The latter collect and portray the data by subscription and offer
graphical interfaces more robust than available at utility data sites.
Called "energy dashboards," such displays may include:





Speedometers showing minute-by-minute how quickly power, fuel and energy budgets
are being consumed.
Running 24-hour load profiles for power, chilled water or other characteristics.
Comparisons of present usage against prior usage under similar conditions (e.g., time,
day of week, temperature).
Automated carbon footprinting, perhaps with a green power purchasing option.
Tenant- or consumer-level information about energy use and efficiency efforts.
For a portfolio of buildings, pictures of each property may be available that, when clicked,
bring up the data for the chosen facility. Some dashboards sound alarms when a demandresponse action should be activated to limit or cut load, in anticipation of payment from the
utility or grid operator. Others include algorithms to direct, based on pre-programmed pricing,
which energy source should be used when a choice exists: natural gas or oil in a dual-fueled
boiler, or switching between electric and gas-driven chillers, for example. To that end, at least.
###
NY Chapter AEE Board Members
David Ahrens
Michael Bobker
Robert Berninger
dahrens@energyspec.com
mbobker@aol.com
rberninger1@verizon.net
Jack Davidoff
Fredric Goldner
Bill Hillis
Dick Koral
John Leffler
Robert Meier
Ryan Merkin
Jeremy Metz
John Nettleton
Asit Patel
Dave Westman
jack@energyconsultingservices.com 718-963-2556
fgoldner@emra.com
516- 481-1455
wjhjr.1@juno.com
845-278-5062
dkoral@earthlink.net
718- 834-1626
johndelnyc2@juno.com
212-868-4660x218
rmeier@lime-energy.com
212-328-3360
rmerkin@hotmail.com
212-564-5800 x 16
jeremy.metz@verizon.com 212-338-6405
jsn10@cornell.edu
973-762-8560
apatel@aeanyc.org
718- 292-6733x205
westmand@coned.com
212-460-6588
718- 677-9077x110
646-660-6977
212- 639-6614
Board Members Emeritus
Paul Rivet
energyx@verizon.net
George Kritzler
gkritzler@aol.com
Alfred Greenberg
agpecem@verizon.net
George Birman
(RIP)
Timothy Daniels
twdaniels44@hotmail.com
Chris Young
c-young1@att.net
914-422-4387
212- 312-3770
914-442- 4387
Past Presidents
Placido Impollonia (2007-09), John Nettleton (2005-07), Mike Bobker (2003-05), Asit Patel
(2000-03), Thomas Matonti (1998-99), Jack Davidoff (1997-98), Fred Goldner (1993-96), Peter
Kraljic (1991-92), George Kritzler (1989-90), Alfred Greenberg (1982-89), Murray Gross (198182), Herbert Kunstadt (1980-81), Sheldon Liebowitz (1978-80),
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