Saving Energy the New Hampshire Way
Roger Amsden, a mustachioed middle-aged gent (assuming I face-booked the correct Roger Amsden), writes occasional articles for New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper. A recent human-interest feature of his in the paper’s "At Home" section caught my eye and irritated my colon.
The head and subhead read:
An energy-saving
superstar Homeowner’s cost-is-no-object goal:
on Squam Lake
Turn a typical north-facing ranch into a net-zero showplace
Deeper excavation into the article unearthed the information that a 74-year-old Massachusetts lady named Jane Bindley with messianic visions dancing in her small brain and more time and money on her hands than she knew what to do with, converted her newly-acquired second home on New Hampshire’s picturesque and pricey Squam lake into an energy-efficient, low-carbon-footprint, Al Gore-approved showpiece.
After a year or two or three of noise, dust, and sweat, and with the aid of $1.2 million of her own apparently unlimited stash plus a small army of contractors, carpenters, consultants, drill-rig operators, plumbers, electricians, peons, and other working stiffs, she and they achieved her goal ─ a ranch-style house that in 2009 fed 1732 kilowatt-hours of electricity back into the grid. At a going rate of 17 cents a kWh, this means she turned a cool profit of $294.44 which works out to be a .00245% return on her investment.
The news caused a thrill to go up my left leg and exit somewhere near my pancreas.
The world’s energy crisis was solved!
America, with Ms. Bindley marching in front of the troops singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic in a rich contralto, would soon be free of the petro-shackles of bearded Middle-Eastern Trillionaires. Never again would coal be exhumed from West Virginia hilltops. Los Angeles’ famed smog would be cleansed of diesel exhaust, British Petroleum, and flatulence from organically-raised cows. Colorful little songbirds would flit and dance among New York City skyscrapers. Endangered species would go forth and multiply in Roxbury, Mass., and outlying parts of Antrim, Hancock, and Peterborough.
"Wow-wow!" as my cat Mousse used to say each morning to indicate he was hungry.
* * *
In order to appreciate Jane’s pace-setting efforts more thoroughly, let us take an in-depth look at Mr. Amsden’s article in hopes that we, too, may follow in this brave woman’s footsteps and waste our inheritances on similar insane horseshit schemes.
Quote from article: "Can a north-facing home filled with large windows, sliding glass doors and partially shaded by trees on its optimal-solar-gain south side become a net-zero-energy home?"
Comment from Dome of Glass: An obvious solution would be to bulldoze the house to the ground and live in a motel. As for the trees, I wonder what became of them? I can’t imagine that Ms. Bindley would permit these eco-friendly, wildlife-fostering works of nature to be chain-sawed to the ground so that several thousand square feet of high-tech plastics could be installed on the roof
Quote from article: ."Bindley, 74, says that she became an activist in the global warming debate four years ago when she read an article...about the funding of global climate deniers by the coal industry and decided to do something about [it] in her own life. ‘The article changed my life,’ said Bindley, a 1957 graduate of Wellesley College who went back to college at the age of 50 to become a physical therapist."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Hmmm. What did she major in at Wellesley? Astrology? Home-making? Anthropology? And where did all her bread come from? (She kicked in $5,000 or so in 2008 to help Barack into the White House.) I didn’t know that physical therapists competed with lawyers, psychiatrists, hedge fund managers, and hitmen for the big bucks. Maybe her daddy or husband (if she had one, which I doubt) left her a few million from their organic egg farms. Or perhaps the salary of a physical therapist at Boston Medical Center where she works ranges into the upper six figures or even seven. In any event she seems to have reached that uniquely American financial level known as Rich Bitch.
Quote from article: "’Getting a tight envelope was the key. Keeping the cold air out and the warm air in through superinsulation is the first step,’ [Ms. Bindley] said."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Hey, now there’s a revelation. And all these years I’ve been thinking the purpose of a house was to keep cold air in and let warm air out. No wonder my utility bills are so high. And here I’ve been screaming at my wife for closing the windows and doors at night when the temperature drops below zero. I feel so guilty
Quote from article: "The home is now heated by an electrically- powered ground-source heat pump. The system uses three 220-foot deep closed polyethylene piping loops which bring warmth up from the ground. The piping heats a water tank to 95 degrees, and the water from the tank is circulated through radiant heat tubing under the floors."
Comment from Dome of Glass: For chrissake already, a heat pump doesn’t work by bringing "warmth up from the ground" any more than a refrigerator works by lassoing cold air from a room. There is no warmth in the ground to bring up. In New Hampshire the temperature 220 feet down is a steady 44º F year round. Heat pumps are just reverse, electrically-powered air conditioners. But the hell with it all. I’m sick of explaining things to morons.
Something else though. Just out of curiosity ─ I wonder how those polyethylene pipes were made. Couldn’t be from petroleum could it? Good, heavens. no! They must have been derived from watercress thickened with tapioca pudding. And the drill rigs and excavation machinery...I imagine they ran on hog urine and wishful thinking. And where did that heat-pump come from? Hand-forged by a cooperative vegan smithy perhaps?
Quote from article: "An array of 36 solar electric panels totaling 7.5 kilowatts (kW) is mounted on the roof."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Where did those solar panels come from ─ China, Germany, Spain, Japan, India, Haight-Ashbury? And how were they were manufactured? And how they were transported to Squam Lake? And how they were installed on the roof of Ms. Bindley’s home? And how were they wired into the electrical system? Must have been with alternate energy from other solar panels ─ surely not with the accidental use of any fossil fuels or with the aid of workmen who themselves rely on fossil fuels for their homes and trucks and shop in supermarkets heated with fossil fuels and eat produce fertilized with fossil-fuel derivatives and wear clothing imported from the Philippines on fossil-fueled ships and send their children to schools lighted and heated with fossil fuels. Heaven forfend!
And, oh, if you’ll excuse me, another small puzzle: I’ve heard it rumored that despite New Hampshire’s amazingly benign climate, a light snowfall may occasionally drift down (rarely more than a dozen times each winter and seldom more than two or three feet deep a crack) sometimes interspersed with an ice storm or two for variety. I wonder how the solar panels are kept clear during these rare weather events. Perhaps Ms. Bindley shinnies up to the roof with a whisk broom to keep the panels bright and shiny.
Oohhhh...wait a minute. An article posted on the Web by GreenBuildingAdvisor.com may explain it all: The home is only occupied for about half the year!
Well, shit, no wonder she's pumping more into the grid than she's taking out. "Net-Zero Home" my ass. Apparently Ms. Bindley buttons up her home and heads for warmer climes when the weather turns chilly. Kind of puts her in the same net-zero class as your average Amazon rain forest resident.
But hey...this gives me a great idea. I think I'll tack a solar panel onto an abandoned outhouse, announce that I have created the world's first net-zero-energy crapper, and tool around the country giving speeches to brain-dead liberals.
Quote from article: "The direct current generated by the panels goes to two inverters that transform the power to normal AC current."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Inverters you say...inverters? Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t inverters big enough to handle 7.5 kilowatts sell in the multi-thousand-dollar range?
Quote from article: "Domestic hot water is supplied by two 40 square foot solar thermal panels that heat a total of 200 gallons in two separate storage tanks. Electric resistance heat provides back-up."
Comment from Dome of Glass: In other words, the fucking solar panels don’t get the water hot enough so it’s back to good old New Hampshire Electric Co-op for Electric resistance heat "back-up."
Quote from article: "Hot-water use is minimized by...employing low flow showerheads."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Low-flow showerheads, which are a pain in the ass whose only purpose is to make people feel noble about being Green, are required by law in all new construction. If you want a decent showerhead, you’ll have to smuggle one in from Canada. Home Depot, Lowe's, and even the great and magnificent Edmunds hardware store in Antrim aren't permitted to stock them.
Quote from article: "Hot-water use is minimized by...employing...a horizontal axis washing machine."
Comment from Dome of Glass: Horizontal-axis washing machines are sold everywhere by everybody to anyone. Only problem is they cost twice as much as vertical axis machines.
Quote from article: "Hot-water use is minimized by conservation."
Comment from Dome of Glass: What kind of nutcase with all the money in the world to squander on hare-brained projects decides to dump $1.2 million into a hermetically-sealed, outstandingly undistinguished ranch-style home so she can spend her waking hours fretting about water usage and telling her guests (if she ever has any) to take cold sitz baths and eat frozen TV dinners in order to conserve electricity?
Norm Mack, Peterborough, dog@myfairpoint.net














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