Cool House Insulation Retrofit

Bye Larry, thanks for the cool attic.

Larry is our new friend who may have changed our lives in summer forever. His brightly colored trailer pulled into our drive this week looking like the circus had arrived. A ladder emerged extending 25 feet up to the balcony, and a guy carried a thick hose up the ladder, over the railing, through the bedroom, into the closet and up into the attic. Larry and team had come to install spray foam insulation in our fifteen year old house.

Summer heat is coming. Probably next week, Maybe tomorrow. We’re bracing for five months of daily temperatures in the high 90’s. Back in February when so many folks in Florida were hopping like wallabies after seeing their January electric bills, we were cool. Our bill was low. I can get by wearing layers and layers to save energy. But, the summer heat in our cupola bedroom is beastly, and one can only peel off so much. Several visiting hurricanes had bullied the pink fiberglass batt insulation into rumpled heaps all over the attic. We hired Larry to retrofit our house with six inches of foam under the roof.

Of course we wanted to take advantage of rebates, tax credits and any other incentive available so our first step was to ask FPL, our utility provider, to inspect to see if we qualified for the utility company rebate. The maximum rebate is $300 and we qualified due to the numerous areas where insulation had fallen and left bare areas in the attic. He wrote a voucher which we were to present to the installer upon completion as part of the payment.

One issue to understand is whether to get open cell or closed sell insulation. For interior use, open cell is the answer. It allows moisture to escape and for the house to breathe. Closed cell is for use externally and forms a hard crust. Open cell, which costs less, retains a softer character.

Because the master bedroom is literally built into the roof of our Old Florida style house, we technically have two attics - - one over the master and one that goes around the master. For Larry and his men, it was a contortionist work-out to crawl amidst the trusses, no taller than 60” at the max, gathering the old batt and preparing to seal the vented attic. (Spray foam requires an unvented attic.) They also built a wall to close off those parts of the eves extending over the exterior porches. Finally, Larry, dressed in a sheer white fiber hazmat suit crouching, stretching and contorting, sprayed and sprayed and sprayed.

The entire process took two and a half days. The workmen were very respectful of our home, spreading plastic for their walking paths, and cleaning up each day before they left. A couple of mishaps occurred. One venetian blind was broken and two recessed lights popped out of the ceiling below. The cat is wearing some tiny dots of overspray, but he’s nosey and brought that on himself. We left the attic access open for two days to allow VOCs to escape. Two days was not enough, but we had to close it off again to get back to normal living.

With the rebate from FPL, cash discount and federal tax credit (30% of cost up to $1500) we reduced the bill by about $2100. If you are considering retrofitting with spray foam here are the steps we took:

1. Find out your utility company offers a rebate. It’s probably on their website. If you can’t find it, call or email customer service.

2. If they do, make an appointment for an inspection to see if you qualify.

3. Obtain several estimates. Ask about the VOCs in the product they supply.

4. Prepare to move your personal items out of the way.

5. Wait cheerfully for summer, knowing this one will be better.

Mexico City Who would have thought?

Mexico City? Really? I had to follow the headline because it was so unexpected. “Mexico City Bans Stores From Distributing Plastic Shopping Bags.” It’s the kind of news one might expect to hear from our other continental neighbor. No surprise if an environmentally-savvy Canadian city like Vancouver, banned plastic bags to help the environment (but they haven't). In the U.S., San Francisco passed such a law in 2007. The bags are second only to cigarette butts as litter. Well, the things we don’t know about our neighbors are bound to surprise. So high-five Mexico City! That’s one solution.

I’m disappointed in the rest of us though, but not because we don’t have more bag laws. Rather, I’m feeling piqued because individually, we are the cause of so many bags still blowing around. Who’s doing that littering with the butts and bags? Not to name names, but we can pretty much point at smokers for tossing the butts along the roadsides, not the cigarette manufacturers.

Ah. Now I get it. Like the gun debate, it’s not the gun manufacturers that kill; it’s the gun buyers who shoot. In the case of butts, it’s the smokers. With plastic bags, it’s the shoppers that are the littering perps. True, while it’s unlikely that a cigarette drops unnoticed from the smoker’s mouth, bag litters are usually oblivious. Well that makes us all suspects in the line-up.

Now for the interrogation:

Do you accept plastic bags for your purchases?
What did you do with the bag after you brought it home?
Did you ever use it again?
Did anyone see it blow off the table at the picnic?
Which child did you ask to retrieve it?
Did he?
What did he do with it?
Did he throw it into the trash?
Are you sure it didn’t blow out of the trash can when the truck emptied it?

Something that seemed so insignificant at the time, like what you did with the bag at the picnic, can become a life and death issue. Bags choke marine and bird wild life. They fly up off the road to block the radiator grills of cars causing engines to overheat. They can blow onto a motorcycle helmet. Seriously, bags have a deadly side. They also make the neighborhood and roadside look crummy and leach chemicals into soil.

I’m just saying, you still have freedom to carry a plastic bag, so know that if you’re going to tote one, it’s safer when loaded. Don’t let it go off accidentally.

3 Seconds of Fame on a Hybrid Bus

I was on TV news this week. For about 3 seconds. I spotted myself riding next to the window on a hybrid bus, taking a four mile trip around a big block from the Edison State campus past Kmart and back.

The Florida DOT is sponsoring “Hybrid Ride” a 31’ hybrid bus touring Florida counties on trial as a fuel efficiency model for para transit service. This week and next the bus is in Collier County where it will run the regular route from Naples to Immokolee as fuel mileage is monitored, then it will move on to show its stuff in another county.

Our tour guide asked if we riders could tell the change in the engine whine as the it switched from electric to diesel. No. I could not. I could not hear any whine, or maybe all I heard was whine. No matter, it sounded like a bus. The real point is that Hybrid Ride can improve fuel economy 25% to 60% and has reduced NOx emissions by 60% and 90% reduction in particulates.

After touring the state, Hybrid Ride will take its position in the Tallahassee fleet which is already recognized as a Florida Green Government by the Florida Green Building Coalition. Palm Beach County has purchased three hybrid buses, whether Collier will make that decision is still on trial. I'll be following the decision process. Glad I was able to catch a ride and thankful I'd chosen my green shirt for my 3 second TV appearance.


Para transit buses provide services for disadvantaged and special needs riders. Hybrid Ride had an elevator lift in the rear.

Hybrid Ride is a product of International Chassis and Eaton Electric Parallel Drive Hybrid System wth Lithium Ion Battery Pack.

Smart Car Tickles My Street

Today our cul de sac experienced its first Smart Car zipping down to the end circle and back. If the pavement were skin, surely the little red car tickled the surface like a fly. From my vantage on the porch, it did look like a remote controlled toy except a pretty large fellow was behind the wheel.

I’m thrilled. Our neighborhood is the perfect venue. Within my two-mile radius of suburban sprawl, one can get to - - grocery, bank, bookstore, doctor, insurance, cleaners, gas station, restaurants, fast food, library, movie theater and anything else one needs - - without driving on a main traffic artery.

I called the local Smart Car dealer several months ago when I saw the little cutie on display outside of Whole Foods Market. Interestingly, the Smart Car dealer is also the luxury- superfast-prestige car dealer. I mean Lamborghini and Ferrari-level cars dealer. For a business model, I guess that fits because all such cars are special ordered one at a time. From a reducing GHG emissions business, it’s not really a conversation. Clearly, it's a prestige car business model.

It would be fun driving a Smart Car with its 1-liter engine for local errand running off the main highway. If everyone in the neighborhood had one, all the more fun. As for driving on a big highway, I will if you will.

Here is a link to the online Smart Car community website.
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/

Getting to Know Daryl Hannah in Midair

From five miles above the earth, southern Georgia looks like a jigsaw puzzle. Compared to Florida’s more formal grid of square and rectangle shaped property boundaries, it was easy to spot a change from 36,000 feet up as the plane flew over into Georgia. The aligned angles of Florida fields melded into curves and loops with ruffled riparian edges in Georgia. I like Georgia, especially from up here. It means I’m on my annual spring trek to Nebraska.

I’ve relied on the latest issue of Sky, Delta’s in-flight magazine, to pass the first hour of flight. April’s issue has the annual Earth Day article, this time featuring the actress/environmental spokesperson Daryl Hannah with some of her thoughts on the hard work of saving the planet. She says:

“. . .sometimes keeping my spirits up can be a challenge, but I’m constantly refueled by absolute rabid love for this planet and the beauty I see when I find it.”

(I sometime have trouble finding the planet also, so I definitely understand. Not so sure about feeling rabid; I have a strong commitment, but maybe I just don’t know the symptoms.) I’m teasing, Daryl, you’re a passionate advocate, if not articulate spokesperson for the environment, and I do know what you mean about the fight to keep your spirits up. Discouragement is the side affect of working so hard to make a difference and not seeing results.

But there are results. The gentleman in the seat next to me on this flight was embarrassed when he confessed that he’s not very good about recycling. See? There was a time when he wouldn’t have known enough to be embarrassed.

Climate Action Conversations - Fish or Cut Bait

Our city is joining the National Conversation on Climate Action on Earth Day, April 22. I’m certainly up for the occasion, and I have fingers crossed for success. The goal is to have dialogue about practical steps our region can take to stave off rising sea levels that may result. It’s pretty important here, you see, because it’s predicted our town will disappear under water.

I serve on the steering committee that organized the local event. As one might expect, the organizers are a group of committed individuals who are passionate. Passion can shake the status quo toward change. However, there is the pitfall to passion that can destroy the common purpose. That pitfall occurs when partisan political barbs catapult into a meeting.

Early on our group laid a ground rule against sending up political lobs during our discussions. For the most part, we’ve kept to it. Occasionally a zinger spews, maybe someone has a zinger habit. When it occurs in our small group, we immediately remind each other what we all have agreed: No party lobs. No party zingers. No political jokes.

The national discussions on Earth Day are about climate change and our communities. If you have the opportunity to participate in one of these discussions, please do. As a word of caution, watch out for the red herring, that darting political zinger. Don’t let the splat of a political affront distract you from the mission. Likewise, take care you don't chum the waters with baited comments yourself. The zinger is bait. Baitfish are small. We have bigger fish to fry.

Bang for the Buck with Plant Tray

This morning in honor of my countdown to Earth Day, I harvested a bucket of gorgeous black crumbled dirt from my compost, scooping it from the bottom with my hands. Totally earthy. I’ll add it to the soil when setting out the 18 vinca plants that have cheered me in the kitchen for the past week. The tray of plants, with blossoms of amazing magenta with white centers, has moved around the house. It has been a dinner table centerpiece, a coffee table decoration, a window sill box and overall my kitchen’s ode to spring.

While I love bringing home a perfect bouquet of cut flowers from the market, the budget these days won’t let me do it often. For $9.95, a tray of 18 blooming plants provided as much cheer and bang for the buck, plus they’ll keep on contributing through the season with cut flowers later. Just a thought that you might enjoy doing the same thing.