Greening the Valley Exhibit Opening tonight

The "Greening The Valley: Sustainable Architecture in the Pioneer Valley" exhibit opens this evening at the University Gallery at Umass. A couple of ADI projects will be in the exhibit as well as other projects from around the area.
We'll see you there!

Real Time Energy Data

Another piece of making our live's more efficient is real time monitoring of our homes usage of electricity . It is another emerging field that already seems crowded with  solutions, yet there are few options on the market right now.

This week in Copenhagen a call to action was issued by a number of large companies to make real time monitoring become more widespread. There is a nice piece by Martin LaMonica over on cnet about the announcement.  There is also a gallery accompanying the piece which includes links to hardware and software solutions. We are anxious to get some of our clients started with real time monitoring of their electricity usage and hope that all this data will also in turn help us make our designs more efficient.

As the article mentions, until there is real time variable pricing to accompany the monitoring, there won't be a financial incentive for users to run their appliances at off peak time, thereby eliminating the need for new power plants and reducing peak demand which is the most polluting and expensive.

Real time monitoring will become essential in zero-net energy building and help the occupants manage their usage so as to achieve that balance.

The Ay's Have It - Clean Energy A Must

Clean Energy Connections, hosted at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA on Tuesday, November 10th, was well-attended and optimistic in nature, with over five hundred clean energy organizations, business owners, and job seekers listening attentively to keynote addresses and plenary sessions. More than 60 universities, colleges, businesses, and organizations exhibited at the conference, providing ample opportunities to exchange ideas and information, to learn about the ever-evolving renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, and to prospect for jobs and new employees.

According to keynote speakers, Dr. Robert Pollin and Mr. Truman Semans, approximately $120 billion in government spending will boost the U.S. “green” economy over the span of several years. Seventy percent will fund energy efficiency projects with 30% funding renewable energy technology. Additionally, Massachusetts’ total share of the funds is $2.3 billion, which will result in roughly 42,530 “green” jobs with renewable energy “poised to become” the tenth largest job cluster in the state. Though success in the green economy is predicted to skyrocket and greatly contribute to the nation’s financial recovery , it alone will not revive the U.S. economy. Moreover, it will take persistent policy overhauls to improve the flow of money from government to private organizations.

Anne Perkins of Rural Development Inc. (RDI) and Bill Austin and Jacqui McCreanor of Austin Design Inc. (ADi) manned our integrated display. As folks stopped at our table to chat, we shared with them RDI’s affordable housing enterprises and our ecological designs for single family homes, communities, and remodels. And in turn, we learned about an increasing interest, on the parts of both individuals and private organizations, in retrofitting existing buildings, adding renewable energy technology to new and existing buildings, and investing in strong local community centers dedicated to the health and robustness of its citizens and economies.

Great contacts were made and a good time was had by all. On the whole, it was a great and educational day.