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June 2007
I just reduced my air conditioning demand by 30% by adding radiant
barrier products to my house.
It looks like I will yield a 20-30% return-on-investment.
My final goal is a 50% reduction.
If I help a few million people save 20-40% on their air conditioning,
the Country saves One Quadrillion BTUs of energy a year. That's
the equivalent of 17,000,000 barrels of oil.
By giving 51% of the profits to college engineering programs, I complete
the circle.
Reducing my air conditioning by 30% created a new problem. The air
circulates 30% less. That makes the air feel stagnant and warm.
I replaced one mechanical thermostat with a digital. It helped.
But a new kind of thermostat that circulates air as a primary function
and cools as a secondary function would be worth developing.
I also discovered that real-world tests are great...but it's the real
world. I added a radiant barrier to the rafters over my garage
because like most garages, it gets hot. Garages get hot because
they don't have any insulation. Well, my garage stays 12 degrees
below ambient temperature, unless you open the garage door. I
can't talk my wife into leaving her car in the sun so my garage stays
cooler.
We will be building and testing 3) 4' x 4' test houses this month.
One will be new construction technology, one will be retrofit technology
and one will be normal construction. We are up a generation in our
research and need to document the results.
Once those tests are in, we will contract with the manufactures of the
products we are using and one new home builder. Our contract is a
simple "electronic" handshake. It says that if the Project creates
increased revenue, the Project wants to share in the increased profit.
They determine what a fare share would be. 51% of that shared
profit will be a check written directly to a college engineering program
of their choice.
Our objective is to increase the demand for products that save money by
saving energy. Our initial focus is on radiant barrier products.
By increasing the demand for radiant barrier products in new homes,
developers can justify the addition costs and new homeowners can gain a
better return-on-their-investment.
Homeowners win. Manufactures and builders win. College
engineering programs win.
For more information, follow the link to the
One Quadrillion BTU Project.
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