Cold last days of 2009

Progress (or lack there of):
The weather in our region is very cold these days, and it is expected to last for at least 14 days.

As a result, our ventilation aggregate stopped working again the other day (-13C). It seems as though temperatures below -10C causes build up of ice inside the rotating heat-exchanger and the aggregate stops working (the alarm flashing on the display says "Rotor"). The ventilation subcontractor has been notified, but we are still waiting for them to fix this and other remaining issues.

Dispite the fact that the project has not been completed and formally "handed over" to us, they sent us the remaining invoices on December 23rd. I immediately contacted the project leader and told him that we accept to pay for the other work - but the last invoice for the ventilation system (ca 10.000 USD) will not be paid until the solution has been delivered according to the contract.

Note: The updates on this blog have not come as frequently as they used to. First we had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the last couple of days we have been skiing in the norwegian mountains (at Beitostoelen).

Comments:
Until our own JAHUS project has finished - I will continue to write updates when there is progress to report. There will also be more on the economics of this project. Initial calculations indicate that our project will have a paybacktime of approximately 12 years. With more fine-tuning others who want a JAHUS project should be able to get almost the same CO2/energy savings with a paybacktime of 10 years. More on these calculations and suggestions on how to achieve the same benefits and a paybacktime of only 10 years in future blog-posts.

"The job isn't done...."
COP15 in Copenhagen didn't give us what we had hoped for. In the next 12 months we will continue to see development and discussons on the unresolved issues (China letting UN monitor what they do, USA to pass a new climate law, who pays for what etc.). As we enter into a new year, I will also continue to update this blog with information on topics related to global warming and energy-saving.

After Copenhagen - now what?

Comments: not done yet
The climate meeting in Copenhagen ended, as feared, without the big breakthrough. The result was a sort of declaration to continue work, and at least that is something.

The U.S. and other rich countries were blamed for the failure in Copenhagen. I think the toughest COP15 critics oversimplyfy what in reality is very difficult political questions.

1) It was an error to put a lid on the scientific debate about climate change: instead, one should be much more open about the uncertainty, but also remind people that the uncertainty could mean that things are worse than the models indicate. We should view the measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases as an insurance. (Insurance is something we pay for even if we do not know for sure that something goes wrong.)

2) It will be expensive: One can compare the cost to the entire world's GDP, and say that it is not going to cost us much. The burden, however, will not be evenly distributed and it will definitely change the lives of many people. Are these efforts going to result in major transfer of resources from developed- to developing countries?

3) The distinction between the "rich nations" and the rest is also too easy. It was also one of the major problems with the Kyoto Protocol (in addition to the United States never ratified it): no restrictions were imposed on most countries in the world, also relatively rich countries, such as South Korea. The same was true for rapidly growing economies such as China, which in the meantime has become the world's largest emission source.

(Thanks to Are Slettan for input)

Progress:
As mentioned in my previous blog post, the ventilation aggregate stopped working around noon on Saturday. Later on that same day, the outside temperature increased to -7C (from -12C) and I decided to start the aggregate again. This time it worked - and I told the ventilation team that it seems like the aggregate has problems below -10C. This is of course not an acceptable limitation in a country like ours where we can expect -10C in December, January, February and occationally even in March. It is now 4 pm on Monday and they have not responded or showed up to finish the work...

In my email I also asked for an update on when the electrician is planning to connect the new fans - to get the flow of heated air into the ventilation system. He didn't come on Friday, but the projectleader responded per email on Sunday saying "The electrician is coming tomorrow!".

Around noon today I received a phonecall directly from the electrician - and he said he could not make it today. I told him what the project leader had promised me, but he insisted that he could not come today.

I sent a frustrated mail back to the project leader: "Did just hear that Morten is not coming today (so now we see how much your promises, with exclamation points, are worth) ..."

He responded very quickly: "I spoke with Runar now, he promised to call Morten and tell him to stop by today! He will call you back. " (Runar is the manager). Does anyone believe that the electrician called me back or showed up?

Final day of negotiations in Copenhagen

Event: A Copenhagen Accord it is
An agreement drawn up Friday night by leaders from the US, China, India and South Africa has been recognized Saturday morning by the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The three-page document, which would not be binding in international law, dropped a final paragraph in a previous draft that had said that negotiations on a full, legally binding treaty would have to be completed by the end of 2010.

The text stuck to previous goals, including one of limiting world temperature rises to a maximum rise of 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times to avert impacts such as floods, heat waves, species extinctions and rising ocean levels.

The draft still left blank key elements such as the depth of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions expected of developed nations by 2020.
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=3070

Comments: What was agreed at Copenhagen – and what was left out
National leaders and sleep-deprived negotiators thrashed out a text late last night that could determine the balance of power in the world and possibly the future of our species. A useful breakdown of the key points is provided at the following web-site:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/how-copenhagen-text-was-changed

Comments: Copenhagen climate conference: global warming talks meltdown
The Bella Centre in Copenhagen looks more like the aftermath of a particularly messy house party rather than the place where 120 of the most powerful men and women have just met to discuss saving the planet.

Obama said “Yes we can!”

Umm, actually no we can’t.

It soon became clear that China was not signing up to any treaty that allowed other countries to snoop around in their dirty emissions laundry. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reportedly left for his hotel in a huff and suddenly the whole conference was plunged into chaos.

What really happened - and why?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6843154/Copenhagen-climate-conference-global-warming-talks-meltdown.html

Progress:
The carpenter came to our house yesterday and he removed the "doghouse" (that covers the heatpump), but to our surprise it didn't make the noice go away. The problem must be the heatpump itself or the way it is connected to the house. The team who installed it has promised to fix it (but did not show up yesterday).

The electrician didn't come on Friday and we therefore still can't try the JAHUS solution (with heated air added after the aggregate). At the moment it is -12C outside, and the fresh air that is delivered to the livingroom is only 7C (!).

The pictures show that the pipe that is used for sending the exhaust air out of the house, is full of condensated- and partly frozen water (the exhaust air is -3C).



I hope they will wrap this pipe in isolation material too, to fix the problem.

To add to our frustration, the aggregate stoppped working this morning (Saturday). It started making noices and I had to pull the plug. When I restarted the aggregate, the heat-exchanger didn't rotate and that was the cause of the noices from the aggregate. I therefore pulled the plug again and emailed the project leader and the subcontractor - telling them that we are currently without a working ventilation system. With Christmas only days away, I really hope that they take this seriously on Monday.

Progress - in Copenhagen and in our JAHUS

Event 1: Video clip
As world leaders arrived in Copenhagen yesterday, a nice videoclip was released to further highlight the need for serious committments from both developed- and developing countries. Watch the video clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Nc18O4E38&feature=player_embedded

Event 2: Back to work
United Nations talks on fighting climate change finally turned to the details of how to combat global warming on Thursday after 36 hours of wrangling over procedural issues. Officials expressed relief that the procedural row had ended at last, but warned that the dispute had wasted precious time just a day away from the end of the conference.

"I would say: hold tight and mind the doors, the cable-car is moving again," the UN's chief climate negotiator, Yvo de Boer, told journalists in Copenhagen.

Progress:
Today they finally installed the connection between the pipe with heated air from the heatpump (the pipe in the lower right side of the picture) and the pipe that blows fresh air from the aggregate to the distribution network in the house (the pipe in the upper left corner of the picture). The new setup is exactly what I asked for in an earlier blog post (and in discussions with the subcontractor). The design is also illustrated in my technical sketch which is attached below.

As shown in the picture above, the new setup includes a fan (the lump on the connection between the two pipes) - and because the electrician hasn't connected the fan to the electrical grid in the house, the functionality can not yet be verified. I hope that we can test it for the first time tomorrow and publish some results during the weekend.

Tomorrow the carpenter has promised to move/adjust the "doghouse" that was built around the heatpump (outside). We believe the current construction is causing more noice than normal from the heatpump - because the "doghouse" is attached to the outside wall and probably transmits vibrations to the house.

It is -10C in Kolbotn now and the exhaust air is therefore below zero (C). As I expected, there is condensated water building on the un-isolated pipe as shown in the next picture. I have forwarded this picture to the ventilation experts and told them that I believe that this particular pipe should be isolated. The last picture was included to illustrate how cold one of the valves is under such conditions.

Interest rates and global warming?

Comments:
Strong domestic economy caused the norwegian central bank to increase interest rates by 0,25% today, dispite the fact that a stronger local currency will make it even harder for the export industry to compete in the global market.

So, why do I talk about a relationship between interest rate policies and global warming? When you need to tighten the domestic economy to prevent inflation - isn't adding more tax to the cost of electricity a good alternative (or supplement) to the frequent increases in interest rates ? Increasing taxes on electricity will not only curb inflation, but it will speed up the adoption of energy saving projects - and it will also have an element of distributive politics (people who own the biggest houses pay the most). Such a measure will not strengthen the exchange rate in the same way, and hence will not aggravate the situation for the export industry.

Should energy saving measures provide some environmental benefit, Norway must also increase the export capacity of the power grid (multiple cables to Europe). If no excess power can be sold to Europe, supply of electricity will exceed demand and prices will plunge.

Many people have recently argued that we must avoid adding to the capacity of the transmission of electricity between Norway and the rest of Europe. They say that synchronizing the prices of electricity with the rest of Europe is a bad thing - and is only being pushed by profit-hungry power companies. Electricity prices that Norwegian industry must pay is currently below the level their competitors out there pay. They should be able to make a profit with European electricity prices (or move production to where it can be produced at competitive prices). Private households will have less money to spend (and drive inflation) either way - tax on electricity or higher interest rates. As a reminder, look to the United States and what artificially low gasoline prices did to the use of cars. At the other end of the spectrum, look to Europe to see what high energy prices have done to the daily routines like switching off the lights when you leave a room (if you don't move quickly up the stairs, the lights are switched off automatically before you get to the next level).

In addition, there are other more technical arguments why we need to add more cables between us and Europe. This fall, we had two examples of large quantities of clean energy that was lost because we lacked the capacity for the exchange of energy between Denmark and Norway. In Denmark there was a storm and since this happened over a weekend, it was not enough demand for power in the grid - and they simply had to disconnect the wind turbines from the power grid (a grid that does not have the ability to store energy). That same week, there was a story on the TV2 News that the local power company (BKK) had to let the water in reservoirs flow outside the turbines - because they produced too much power and magazines could not be filled more.

When there is no wind in Europe, they should be able to draw on hydropower from Norway (which we can save and "let go" when it suits us). Similarly, they should be able to export energy to us when the wind generates "too much" power - because we can use this energy to pump water up to the reservoirs (where the energy can be saved and released again when there is no wind in Denmark or overcast in Spain - so that the solar powerplants do not produce electricity).
Events:
More than a 100 world leaders have now arrived in Copenhagen and take over for the environment ministers.

The demonstrations outside continue and so does the talk of police brutality.

Inside the COP15 building, there seems to be a bigger gap between the developed- and the developing countries than when they started the negotiations a week ago. There are still many challenges that the delegations must face before they can leave on Friday - with the results we all hope for.

Progress:
Only 2 days until they promised to have all the extra ventilation work done (new fan, adding the heated air after the aggregate, reducing noice) - but nothing was done today either.

There is light at the end of the tunnel - is it a train?

Event 1: Walkout heightens failure fears for climate marathon
Negotiators worked through the night Tuesday to prevent a UN climate summit from ending in catastrophic failure after developing nations staged a five-hour walkout and China accused the West of trickery.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091214/twl-walkout-heightens-failure-fears-for-6d10327.html

Event 2: More specifically China versus USA
China, which last month for the first time publicly announced a target for reducing the rate of growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, is refusing to accept any kind of international monitoring of its emissions levels, according to negotiators and observers. The United States is insisting that without stringent verification of China’s actions, it cannot support any deal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/earth/15climate.html?_r=1&ref=energy-environment

Event 3: Green protest on Sydney Opera House
Greenpeace activists climb the Sydney Opera House to get their message across to the world leaders - only a short week away from the closing of the conference.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091215/video/vwl-green-protest-on-sydney-opera-house-d7f4ae7.html

Progress:
The ventilation subcontractor said: "I am waiting for the delivery of sound absorbers. These will help significantly on the noise. I'll check with the refrigeration engineer - there may be something to do with the noise from the heat pump. We should be fully assembled during this week".

The electrician is in the house today and will install the regulator for the fan that drives the "extra loop" (supply of cooler air to the bedrooms). Hopefully he will also make it easy for the ventilation team to install the extra fan downstairs. That fan will pull heated/cooled air from the area near our heatpump and blow it into the stream of fresh air (after the aggregate). This air-mixture is then distributed around the house from the attic.

Developing = poor?

Comments: Developing = Poor?
At the COP15 the press is constantly referring to a fight between the developed countries and the developing countries. Developed countries have caused the problem by occupying most of the available "CO2 space" and should therefore pay for most of the efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in developed and developing countries.

People seems to think of developing countries as poor countries - but is this always true? Today there seems to be only one nation with huge amounts of cash, China (categorized as a developing country). A leading developed country USA borrows money from China to finance its budget deficit. When USA is going to pay big bucks to developing countries for CO2 reduction programs - it will be with borrowed money from China.

If you play with this thought, it might get scary... If you get into trouble financially (or otherwise) and live in Sicily or in New York -the Mafia is more than happy to help you. There is a catch, however, they will some day "ask" for a favour in return. The more you owe them, the harder it will be for you to pay them back.

The blue-suits know more about this dilemma, but through history we have seen many South American countries with huge debts - and at that time they borrowed from USA. Hyperinflation and frequent devaluations reduced the debt - how will USA be able to pay China back? My guess is that we'll either see inflation or big budget cuts (or both).


Event 1: More than 200 activists detained Sunday.
Danish police stopped an unauthorized demonstration on a second day of street protests over climate change as environment ministers met for informal talks to advance negotiations on a new pact.

These arrests follow the 968 people detained during and after a mass rally Saturday in Copenhagen. (Police said only 13 of them remained in custody Sunday. Of those, three were set to be arraigned in court on preliminary charges of fighting with police).

Event 2: Gahr and Gore
Former American Vice President Al Gore and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will present their global report on melting ice during a side event of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) today - "Melting of the polar regions occurs much faster than experts previously thought. Sea may rise two feet over this century."

Progress:

Nobody showed up to finish the work today either.

The price tag on CO2 cuts

Event 1:
In connection with the Nobel Peace Prize concert, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Unni Steinsmo (CEO SINTEF) and Torbjørn Digernes (Rector of NTNU). They represent some of the best climate-related research in Norway and title on the the lecture was "How to meet Norways challenges and opportunities in the climate crisis?".

They presented numbers which showed that Norway has to reduce our CO2 emissions by 16 million tonnes per year by 2020 - and the price tag for this is estimated at 7 billion NOK per year. This puts the price tag on CO2 cuts to NOK 4.500 per tonne of CO2.
(Note: 1 USD = 5.5 NOK)

They also presented areas we should focus on to achieve this goal - energy efficiency, renewable energy and CO2 capture (and storage). The greatest potential lies on energy efficiency they say, and have estimated that the potential is 12TWh per year. With sufficient capacity for the transfer of power to Europe, one can argue that 1TWh saved in Norway, means 1 TWh less from coal fired power plants in Europe. In this scenario 12 TWh will equal 12 tons of CO2 per year. Even though most of our electricity is produced without CO2 emissions (hydroelectric power) - they estimate that 12 TWh equals 6 tons of CO2.

If the potential is at 6 million tons of CO2 the politicians should, in the next 10 years, channel approximately 27 billion NOK to increase the energy efficiency in buildings (private, public and commercial buildings). A large part of the potential lies in the approximately 1.5 million private homes in Norway, which are not yet compliant with the low-energy standard (100 KWh/m2 per year). What do the politicians do to realize this potential?

We have converted our house to a "jahus" with the replacement of windows, extra insulation, ventilation with heat recovery and heat pump. Projected savings are approximately NOK 15.000 a year with the current level of electricity prices. With a total cost of about NOK 280,000, it is as much as 19-year repayment period.

If, however, the government helped make the package 135,000 NOK cheaper the repayment period would be halved (10 years). The estimated cuts in our house are 30 tons of CO2 per year and multiplied by the price tag at 4.500 NOK per tonne you get 135,000 NOK.

Unni Steinsmo and Torbjørn Digernes addressed the politicians with a "call to action" (ref Obama) and called for a strategy for industrialization of these technologies - both the results of research in renewable energy and technology for energy efficiency.

My specific request is a combination of interest-free loans over 10 years - as they have in France (for example from the Norwegian State Housing Bank), and tax exemption on products included in "jahus" projects. Both of these suggestions can be done within the 4.500 NOK per tonne of CO2 and I believe many families would initiate such projects if the hurdle of upfront payment was removed and the repayment period was reduced to 10 years.

A whole industry would be busy improving our houses over the next 10 years - giving us both lower unemployment and lower CO2 emissions. I agree with Unni Steinsmo and Torbjørn Digernes - what are the politicians waiting for?

Event 2:









Participants to the Global Day of Action try to prevent an inflatable globe from falling to the ground to dramatize their call to act now coinciding with the ongoing climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 in suburban Quezon City north of Manila, Phililppines. The activity coincided with activities from other countries calling on the world leaders for a fair, ambitious and binding deal to combat climate change. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)

Progress:
1 week from Christmas and we haven't seen the ventilation team since the hand-over metting. They promised to fix both functionality and noice issues as soon as possible....

Obama is in town

Event 1:
Barack Obama, and the "circus" that always follows the american President, arrived in Oslo this morning. After a brief meeting at the Nobel Institute, the Obama group moved on to talks with the norwegian government (he also brought his Energy Secretary to the talks).

This week has been very busy for Obama with the US health reform, unemployment, and the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

He has also started preparations for the UN conference on climate change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen. Part of those preparations was to meet with Al Gore - a previous Nobel Peace Prize winner for his (and UNFCCs) efforts to put global warming on the agenda.

The day’s events culminate in the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where Obama will accept the 2009 award and deliver a speech before an audience of about 1,000 people at Oslo City Hall. He will address members of the Nobel committee, who stunned the world and Obama himself on Oct. 9 by presenting him with the award only nine months into his presidency.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee wrote in explaining its decision.

The president’s speech on Thursday, which aides said he was still writing and editing during the seven-hour flight from Washington, will focus directly on the paradox of the moment for Obama as he accepts a prize for peace nine days after announcing that he would escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 new American troops.

Other Events:
In his Nobel Peace Prize speach Obama did, as predicted, talk about the paradox of the moment and the concept of "just war". He did not say much about the climate challenge (it was after all a speach in the setting of the Nobel Peace prize). He did, however, say that solving this issue is a prerequisite not only to good and sustainable living conditions, but actually to peace as well. "...It is also why the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades." Failure to prevent dramatic climate changes will fuel new wars over water, farming land etc. - and as such a strong signal to the UN conference in Copenhagen.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/10/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5961370.shtml

China on Wednesday criticised the lack of action by developed nations in fulfilling their commitments on carbon emissions reduction and financial support to developing nations in coping with climate change. http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article62882.ece?homepage=true

Action Jackson: U.S. EPA Boss Gets Warm Welcome in Copenhagen. Jackson said she has emphasized in her meetings that while the Obama administration will push Congress to enact legislation next year curbing greenhouse gas emissions, EPA will move ahead with plans to both finalize greenhouse gas rules for vehicles in March, and then curb the carbon output from large emitters like coal-fired power plants.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34311724/ns/us_news-environment/

Green fund to be proposed by Norway, UK, Australia and Mexico at U.N. climate talks.

http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/energy/100214303-1-green-fund-proposed-u.n.-climate.html

Progress:
During the renovation project, including the JAHUS part discussed here on this blog, we had to move a lot of "stuff" around in the house - from the attic to the basement living room (now a storage room) etc. Even though there is still work to be done before the ventilation project is finished, we're now busy getting all our "stuff" back were it belongs (and in this process sending quite a lot to recycling).

On Tuesday the ventilation subcontractor promised to fix the noice problem (most urgently needed outside - where the exhaust air leaves the house). With all the delays earlier on in the project, it is no surprise that this last relay leg has not yet begun. It is probably because the guy doing the work in our house was injured last week. He cut him self with a knife during work at a different location (but this injury was known when they promised to finish the delivery within a week).

Until the JAHUS solution has been delivered 100%, I'll keep the "Progress" heading - but then I have to think of new heading that better describes this section of the blog (detailing the economics of this JAHUS project,

Blog changes:
There are a lot of useful websites out there with a focus on global warming and related topics, but I have found that the www.350.org site complements in a nice way the other listed favorite websites (thanks to the reader who suggested this). I have therefore added the link in my "favorite links" shown on the blog's righthand side.

The videoclip on youtube.com illustrates nicely why the organization is called 350.org: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY

The JAHUS hand-over meeting

Event 1:
On the second day of the COP15 in Copenhagen, I found 2 news articles that illustrate the challenges we're facing:

Virgin Galactic (http://www.virgingalactic.com/) showed their new spaceship to the press. The goal is to take rich people for a 2.5hour trip to space and back (6 passengers on each trip will experience 5 minutes of weightlessness and a magnificent view for 200.000 USD). As if intercontinental flights didn't generate enough CO2. Yes, part of the emissions will take place outside the earths atmosphere, but some of it will be released exactly were it makes the most damage....

China released salesnumbers for new cars. The chinese people bought more than 1 million cars in November - a 98% increase over November 2008! The total number of cars sold in China will for 2009 outnumber that of USA. India also reports a 61% increase in car sales for November. The total of 133.687 is still far behind China, but these numbers illustrate two economies in which the middleclass now can afford cars and want a more "western" lifestyle. At 0,5 tons of CO2 per year per capita in India they are still way behind USA at over 20 million tons per year - but the number of new cars on the road indicate that the gap is closing.

While 15000 people are gathered in Copenhagen to discuss the urgent need to limit and reduce the CO2 emissions, the "real world" outside the conference buildings pushes on like never before (filling up the available CO2 space).




Progress:

Today we had the "handover meeting". The project leader showed up half an hour earlier than the ventilation subcontractor, so we decided to push the "hot potato" to the end. We took a tour around the house (both outside and inside). I pointed out the things that I had put on my "follow-up" list and we stopped at some locations to listen to the noice level from the ventilationsystem and the heatpump. Some of the "issues" were solved by explaining how it should work/be, and others were put on their "to do list".

The first part of the meeting was done really quickly, and we had just finished that part when the "ventilation guy" showed up. We then started discussing the JAHUS (energy saving) part of the project. At first I only listened to the guy explaining how it should work. Because the clock turned 3 pm - the system switched automatically to normal mode (from low effect during the day) and everybody could observe the change in noice level.

They agreed that the noice level outside and inside the building still isn't acceptable and promised to fix it (as soon as possible).

I then explained that the temperature of the air leaving the house is way to high. As mentioned in a previous blogpost a 10C increase in the exhaust air equals a loss of approximately 1.8KW He agreed that exhaust air at 16.7C was too high, but no matter how they tried to manipulate/adjust the valves and settings on the aggregate - they didn't manage to increase the temperature of the air flow to the livingroom while decreasing the exhaust air.

They (finally) agreed to add the heated air after the aggregate like I suggested some time ago - and with an extra fan on that new pipe, we can very accurately adjust the temperature to the other rooms.

When these two changes have been implemented - I believe the system will work as planned and I am really looking forward to that day. On that day, we will also be given the instructions on how to operate and maintain the system. This will include:

• How we can adjust the weekly program (scheduler) for the aggregate and the heatpump


• What to do if the house looses power (when it comes back on)


• What we need to do when going from winter to spring/summer (and vice versa)

Even though the system is not working as planned on the day of hand-over, I am happy because they agree with all my comments and have promised to fix everything within a week or so.

Virtual Participation in COP 15

Event 1:
The long awaited UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) has finally begun.


Rising hopes for a meaningful outcome at the Copenhagen climate talks have received a further boost with the news that Barack Obama and Indian leader Manmohan Singh will attend the 192-nation conference in its vital last days.
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1768


If you, like me, would have liked to be there to follow the discussions and all the surrounding activity - there is a an offering that will be welcome: "virtual Participation in COP 15".
Check out this official portal:
http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_15/virtual_participation/items/5092.php



Progress:
The hand-over meeting is less than one day away and there is still work to be done, but nobody showed up today.


During the weekend I found out that there was a 10C increase in the "used air" that the ventilation system sends out of the house - when we mix the heated air and the fresh air before the aggregate (versus only sending cold fresh air into the aggregate = the baseline case).


Today I wanted to estimate how much energy we waste when we send out 500 m3 (per hour) of air with a temperature that is 10C higher than the baseline case. Pulling the volumetric heat capacity (VHC) for air from the table below - I found that the loss is equal to 1,8KW for 10C (or 180KW per 1C increase in the exhaust air). This value will of course be higher when the outside air falls below zero (because the 10C temperature difference will be higher).

First testresults from the JAHUS

Progress:
Now that the ventilation system should be finished according to the subcontractor who is responsible for the this part of the project - I have run some tests on the system during the weekend (in preparation for the handover meeting on Tuesday).

The scenarios were as follows:

1) The system was running as the ventilation team had left it on Friday afternoon. This means pulling some hot air from the area near our heatpump - and mixing it with fresh/cold outside air before the "preheated" air entered the ventilation aggregate.

2) I then closed the supply of preheated air and let only the cold outside air enter the aggregate.









The testresults presented above are shown in degrees Celsius and show that switching off the supply of pre-heated air had a dramatic effect on the temperature of the air leaving the house, while only minimal effect on the temperature in the livingroom (and other parts of the house).

With the last setup the exchange of energy is more effective because there is a much bigger difference in temperature between the cold outside air and the hot exhaust air. To me this confirms my view - that the heated air should be mixed with the fresh air after the aggregate (with its rotating heat exchanger). We'll have to wait for Tuesday to hear why they insist on the design we have now.

Moving slowly forward

Event 1:




President Barack Obama has changed his travelplans. They now say that he will join the other heads of state at the end of the climate summit in Copenhagen. The planned one-day visit on November 9th has therefore been dropped.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-press-secretary-united-nations-climate-change-conference

Event 2:
Green Entrepeneur Shai Agassi talks about the climate challenges just days before Copenhagen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM18BqlGyWI&feature=player_embedded


Progress:
The ventilation team sent a guy on Friday afternoon, and he worked on the system that will remove condensated water from the heatpump (in the hallway). He also spent some time on the ventilation aggregate (it now seems to automatically switch between the lowest effect and the "normal" setting).

I have asked them to bring a decibel meter on Tuesday - so that we can document the noicelevels when the system running in "normal mode". They know that I cannot accept the solution if it can't be run in "normal mode" with acceptable noicelevels outside and/or inside the house.





A week ago I also bought a CO2 meter (UPS says it will arrive on Monday). I hope that this meter can tell us when we have sufficient supply of fresh air in the house. According to the sales material it will show the CO2 level (range: 0 – 9,999 ppm) and we can set a threshold that will warn us if there is too much CO2 in the house.

http://www.co2meter.com/products/co2-temperature-humidity-meter

Why set the target at 2C ?

Event 1: the world is headed for a global warming of well over 3°C
A sobering new assessment by the "Climate Action Tracker" of the emission commitments and pledges put forward by industrialized and developing countries for the Copenhagen climate negotiations shows that the world is headed for a global warming of well over 3°C by 2100.

Carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to be over 650 ppm, with total GHG concentrations close to 800 ppm CO2 equivalent. From these numbers, there is at least a one in four chance of exceeding a warming of 4°C. This "Climate Action Tracker" is an independent science-based assessment, which tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries. The website provides an up-to-date assessment of individual national pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Event 2: Why is 3C warmer so much worse than 2C ?

"As honest curiosity: If we have seen a temperature increase of 0.57deg C over the past 100 years, when the CO2 levels went from 288 ppm to 365 ppm, how are current climate models managing to bring in temperature increases of up to (?) 6 degrees?"

After a temperature increase of 2 degrees above preindustrial levels the Earth reaches one of its natural 'tipping points'.

This basically means that various eco/climate systems operating within our planet begin to 'change gear', should this happen then we have 'run-away' climate change over which we have no control.

For example:

i) The tundra stretching across Russia,Siberia,Canada & the Arctic is ancient swamp land; previously frozen for millenia these swamps begin to release huge amounts of CO2 & methane as they deforst, (try Googling 'drunken trees' - its happening already).

ii) As the oceans heat up they begin to emit CO2 rather than retain it.

iii) Coral reefs bleach in hotter water, as they die they release CO2; once the reefs are dead the ocean ecosystems begin to collapse, with millions of tons of rotting vegetable matter, (dead fish) releasing yet more CO2.

iv) With less sea ice the dark waters of the ocean attract more sunlight increasing the temperature further.

It is the prevention of these and other 'positive feedbacks' which have the scientists so worried. Essentially once positive feedback loops begin, we completely lose control and it could take tens of thousands of years for the Earth's climate to return to its current state, if ever.

(Thanks to Clint Boon for his insights).

Progress:

They have encapsulated the outside-part of our heatpump today (see the attached picture). This "doghouse" has three purposes:

• Protect the heatpump


• Capture and maximize the effect of the exhaust air from the ventilation system (5-10C warmer than the surrounding air)


• Reduce the negative visual effect of a heatpump mounted on to the northfacing wall

Yes, we are still waiting for the team to reduce the noice level (inside and from the outside) - and hopefully they will change the point of entry for the heated air (from the heatpump). No progress to report today, but they have confirmed that the hand-over will take place on Tuesday next week.

The pictures below, shows the condense on the piping containing around 0C exhaust air.

Higher energy prices - yes please

Sorry - blog editing problem. Please see my last blog post here:

http://thejahusblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/higher-energy-prices-yes-please.html

Next week is the big week

Events next week:

• The UN Climate Change Conference kicks off in Copenhagen (COP 15) and Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding international agreement on climate change and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poor countries meet its mandates. The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of international leaders before next month's global climate summit in Copenhagen.
  
• Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo


• ....and an important step for us: the JAHUS project will finally be completed

You may also want to see this video-clip on glaciers disappearing in China http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=16886820&ch=4226714&src=news

Progress:

As mentioned above, they have promised to finish the JAHUS project this week. Tuesday next week we have agreed to meet here and they will formally hand over the project to us - and give us instructions on how to operate the new ventilation system (and the heatpump).

Until then, I'm afraid there will be very little to report from our project. (Nobody showed up today either - so I guess they're planning a busy end to this week).
















The attached picture shows one page from the Users Guide that follows our new ventilation aggregate. In the middle of the picture there is something standing up like a factory chimney with a mysterious thing at the end (marked 5). This is the discharge of extract ("used") air. I have pointed out that the discharge of extract air from our house is creating too much noice - and reminded them of the fact that there should be a silencer at the end (it's not here now).

The picture also shows noice-traps on the pipes coming in to- and when the air is leaving the aggregate (for distribution in the house). These noice traps are also missing, but I hope they will fix this before hand-over next Tuesday.

The most critical point except for the noice level, is the ventilation system's ability to both effectively capture the energy in the exhaust air - and to distribute the heat from the heatpump. In my last blog post I mentioned that I believe they have to alter the solution to make this work (adding the heated air AFTER the heat-exchanger in the aggregate). We'll see one week from now....

A day in between

Event 1: China sets emissions target
China has announced a target to cut the greenhouse intensity of its economy by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, its contribution to the Copenhagen climate treaty negotiations. The target means a lowering of carbon emissions per unit of GDP only – not making absolute cuts to emissions nor cutting emissions by a set amount below business-as-usual levels. The government also announced that Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the conference in person next month.

http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1750

Comment> While China and other developing countries have never been expected to set targets for absolute emission cuts, analysis of China’s carbon footprint suggests that the target is not particularly ambitious. See more comments on the CO2 emissions from China vs USA below (under Event 2).

Event 2: Climate change - Copenhagen in graphics
As the UN summit in Copenhagen approaches, BBC looks at the past, present and possible futures of climate change. This article provides a good summary of the situation we are in - and it contains interesting graphs.


The graph I have included here shows where we need to be in 2030 in terms of gigatonnes of CO2 emissions - to stay below 2C global warming. It shows that even with the current best case scenario for the Copenhagen summit - we'll miss the target by approximately 6 Gt.

One of the other graphs from BBC (not included here) illustrates that in the first years of the new century, China's emissions overtook those of the US.

We should keep in mind, however, that China and India produce a much smaller amount per capita than counterparts in regions such as North America or Western Europe. Countries that industrialised early and grew rich early because of that industrialisation, such as the UK, Germany and the US, have a higher "historical footprint". In some peoples' eyes, this gives them a higher responsibility for curbing the problem (ref my previous comments on "the CO2 Space").


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8359629.stm


Progress report:
Nobody showed up to finish the work yesterday - and it doesn't look like they will do any work here today either. I hope and believe that many new families will convert their houses to a JAHUS-standard in the next few years, but hopefully they get an easier ride than what we have had. The good news, however, is that I now feel quite confident that (with a few small adjustments) - our JAHUS will be as comfortable and energy efficient as we had hoped for.


To verify that the heat exchange inside the ventilation aggregate works as expected, I closed the valve that regulates the amount of heated air from the heatpump that is currently being mixed with the fresh air BEFORE the aggregate. This means that it now gets cold fresh air at 5C as input and it exchanges energy with the outgoing exhaust air which holds ca 20C.


The test shows that the aggregate works nicely (and as expected) when there is no heated air mixed in with the cold outside air. The air that flows out of the aggregate and into the house goes from 5C to 17C and the air leaving the house comes in at 20C and leaves the house at 10C.

I have created a flow chart that illustrates how the system would look like if they move the point of entry for the heated air - to after the aggregate. I still haven't received an answer from the ventilation team regarding this suggestion.

Higher energy prices? Yes please

Event 1: A global energy market?

Many contributions to the local debate here in Norway has argued that we should avoid adding to the transmission capacity of electricity between Norway and the rest of Europe. There are talks about this initiative being driven by profit-hunger from the already rich energy companies (and bonus/salary payments to management in these companies). This is quite possibly one of the driving forces, but I believe there are far more important considerations.


Our time's biggest challenge is global warming, and in the background there is a looming energy crisis. How much energy saving- (and hence CO2 reduction-) projects will be initiated if electricity prices in Norway are totally out of sync with the rest of Europe? Look to the USA and what low gasoline prices have done to the the use- and size of of cars, and how high energy prices have changed the daily routines to the better in Europe (if you don't walk up the stairs fast enough, the lights will be switched off).


Does Norway want to be the scapegoat in environmental issues, and countries such as France is considered one of the leaders in CO2 reductions? France has had energy-conscious people for years, and now they also have extra incentives for implementing energy-saving measures in the house (interestfree loans up to 30,000 Euros over 10 years) which, together with high electricity prices make it financially attractive for private households to order "jahus" projects (extra insulation, heatpumps etc). The government in France achieves not only increased economic activity, but is also reducing the unemployment problem and the ability to fulfill their part of the CO2-cutting task that we all have to deal with the (all people to the oars - for we are all in the same boat).


There are also more technical arguments why we need to add more cables between Norway and Europe. This fall, we had two examples of large quantities of clean energy being lost because we lacked the capacity for the exchange of energy between Denmark and Norway.

• In Denmark there was a storm and since it was weekend, it was not enough demand for power from the grid - so they had to simply disconnect the wind turbines (the power grid has no function to store energy).


• That same week, there was a headline story on teh TV2 news that the BKK had to let the water in their reservoirs flow down the mountainside - outside the turbines because the electricity generated was more than the demand in the powergrid.

When there is no wind in Europe, they should be able to use hydropower from Norway (which we can save and "let go" when it suits us). Similarly, they should be able to export energy to us when there is plenty of wind - we can use this energy to pump water into reservoirs in the mountains. Norway then stores excess energy until some time in the future when there is no wind in Denmark (or clouds in Spain - so that solar plants do not produce electricity).


It can be repeated until it becomes tedious, we are all in the same boat and 1 ton of CO2 not emitted from a coal fired power plant in Europe (because they have access to clean energy from Norway) is equally important to our planet as 1 tonne of reduced CO2 emissions from rush hour traffic in Oslo, if we all use or bikes to work. Wouldn't everyone in Norway rather have Europe buy electricity from Norway (the majority goes straight to the Treasury = us) than to have BKK sending water outside the turbines while at the same time there are power plants in Europe fueled by coal (sending one kilogram of CO2 into the atmosphere for every 1KWh produced)?

I therefore strongly believe that we must (as soon as possible):

1. Get the current electricity prices of our synchronized with the rest of Europe


2. Increase the capacity of power transmissions between Europe and Norway


3. The government should, through the Norwegian State Housing Bank, channel some of the extra revenue (higher electricity prices/increased exports) to measures that further incentivates private households to start "jahus" projects (interest-free loans as in France and VAT / tax exemption as in Germany and the USA).

Progress:

Yesterday, I called the technical director at a norwegian manufacturer of ventilation systems (Flexit). We discussed the solution being implemented here and he fully supported my claim - that the heated air from the heatpump should be mixed with the fresh outside air AFTER the heat-exchanger.

There has been no progress to report all week, and the team has refused to comment on the issue of "point of entry" for the heated air. Next Tuesday is the hand-over day and as far as I can see there is quite a lot of work remaining (pump, noice, point-of-entry etc.)....

Silence is golden

Event 1:

President Obama to Attend Copenhagen Climate Talks:
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/11/25/president-obamas-copenhagen-pitch/

Comment> The fact that he is coming is good, but he arrives a week before the other heads of state - and most people had expected much more comittment than CO2 cuts in the range of 17% below 2005 (which equals no more than the 3-4% from the 1990 level). This also well below what IPCC says is required to avoid dramatic climate changes.

Event 2:
The weather here in Norway is really bad these days and the newspapers today included such headlines as "It's raining - but the price of electricity drops". In the same newspapers, the discussions continue on whether or not we should increase the capacity of power cables between Norway and the rest of Europe.

Comment> How can the government expect people to invest in energy saving measures at home (like JAHUS) if the price of electricity keeps falling - rather than to synch with the rest of Europe? If the price came up to its proper level - not only would more people save more energy at home, but the mostly state-owned power companies would make more money that the government could use for incentives that will drive more energy saving projects.

Progress:
The title "silence is golden" was chosen since much of the focus now is on reducing the noice from the ventilation system. When we came home from work today, the system was running on medium effect (normal) - so it seems as though they agree that we need "normal" effect to get the required supply of fresh air.

During the day they have added a noice-trap to reduce the noice in our guestroom (see the attached picture of the noice trap).

Directly in front of the noice trap is something that looks like a valve.

If it is, I think it is a good idea - because I was afraid that the room next to the ventilation room gets much more than it's fair share of the fresh "supply air" (both the noice level and holding your hand up to the outlet gave an impression of much more airflow than in the livingroom upstairs). I guess we'll have to wait for the handover to find out what their plan is...

According to the users guide from the manufacturer of the aggregate there should be noice traps all the piping going in and out of the aggregate - and on the outlet (where the exhaust air is blown out of the house). All these noicetraps are still missing.

I also think they finished the extra loop today. It will provide cool air from the basement to the bedrooms upstairs on hot summer nights (to keep the bedrooms cooler than the rest of the house).

I have created a flowchart that illustrates the flow of air through our ventilation system - and I attached it below for those who are interested. If you have comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to use the comment input field (at the bottom of this blog).

Behind the scenes of climate negotiations

FORMAT CHANGE:
Now that the pressure is building up for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15 in 12 days), there are many events that I want to share with you, and discuss. At the same time, our JAHUS project goes into a phase with smaller changes/steps and hence little to report from day to day. I will therefore start the blog-entries with comments to recent events, and I will end the blog posts with a report from our own JAHUS project.

EVENT 1: MIXING WATER TO GET ELECTRICITY
The Norwegian company Statkraft opened the world’s first osmotic power prototype today.“This new technology generates electricity simply by mixing water. New solutions to meet the climate challenges might be closer than we expect, which makes me confident that the future looks bright,” says Statkraft CEO and President, Baard Mikkelsen.


The global potential of osmotic power is estimated to be 1,600-1,700 TWh per annum, equivalent to 50 percent of the EU’s total power production. Osmotic power plants can, in principle, be located wherever fresh water runs into the sea; they produce no noise or polluting emissions and they can be integrated into existing industrial zones, for example, in the basements of industrial buildings.


http://www.statkraft.com/presscentre/press-releases/the-worlds-first-osmotic-power-prototype-opens-today.aspx

EVENT 2: BEHIND THE SCENES OF CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS
What will happen in Copenhagen? Can the world be saved by this summit? This was the agenda when the think tank Civita hosted a breakfast meeting this morning.

Keynote speaker was Norway's chief negotiator Hanne Bjurstrøm (and she will be Minister of Labor after the Copenhagen summit). Terje Osmundsen, director of strategies and business development in the norwegian solar energy company Scatec Solar, then commented on the keynote.

I found the session very interesting and want to share some of the highlights with you.

The target for climate negotiations
The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (http://www.ipcc.ch/) is the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences. In 2007 they received the Nobel Peace Prize (sharing it with Al Gore).

IPCC says that industrialized countries must reduce CO2 emissions by 25-40% by 2020 (compared to 1990) if we should have a hope of keeping the global warming from increasing beyond 2C. According to IPCC this is a level at which we can avoid the most dramatic scenarios of global warming - and is now accepted by most countries as the target for all climate talks.

IPCC also say that CO2 must be cut by 50% by 2050, but more than 40 years ahead - there is no real discussion or negotiations about this target. All emphasis is on getting sufficient cuts by 2020.

Terje Osmundsen said that it is no longer a game of numbers, but a more fundamental issue that requires the mobilization of all people (like the rest of Europe must have felt when they were fighting "the Third Reich" from 1940-45). It is either win this war or face certain catastrophy.

One other way to look at it is: you can not afford to wait and see, and then try to compensate for what you see (control engineering). With the threat of dramatic climate changes it is too late "to turn the ship" in 2020 when the first actual dramatic changes can be observed - we must act now. It is a fact that cutting 1% CO2 in 2010 is worth a lot more than the same amount in 2030.

Current assessment
The average committment from industrialized countries is currently at approximately 17% now - so according to IPCC these committments must be raised to at least 25% for the world to stay below 2C global warming.

Not only should industrialized countries (who stands for most of the CO2 emissions) stand for 80% of the CO2 cuts - but we will not reach our target unless even the developing countries cut 20% (compared to 1990).

How to achieve these cuts
Developing counties: There will be transfer of funds from industrialized countries to developing countries upfront to help them build systems and reporting on CO2 emissions. Later there will be payments for achieved tasks (they will commit to specific lists of tasks and not a specific % reduction in CO2 emissions). If we get a working market for CO2 quotas, the markets will also take care of a transfer of funds from industrialized countries to the developing countries.

Industrialized countries: the realistic target for COP15 is a binding political agreement and industrial countries must quickly come up with plans (and milestones) to implement the cuts they have comitted to. The participants in todays session criticized the Norwegian government for being good at setting high targets - but not so good at producing plans or taking actions (like introducing incentives for improving the energy efficiency of the many old homes - ref the JAHUS project).

Challenges:
There are of course many challenges they face when they meet in Copenhagen. I will list some of them here.

One question from the audience: "only 80% cuts in the industrialized countries? Shouldn't it have been 120%?" The answer....

When China talks about "the CO2 space" they mean that there is a limited CO2 space in the world and the industrialized countries have used (or taken up) a majority of this space. Now when China, India and other developing countries are being industrialized too - their growth will be curbed because the CO2 space is almost "sold out". Most countries agree that this is a correct description of the situation. Industrialized countries will be responsible for 80% of the cuts (from higher levels), but as mentioned above even the developing countries need to cut CO2 by ca 20%. It may seem unfair to most of us, and India can safely claim that they will never be responsible for as much CO2 emissions as the best performing industrialized country - but nevertheless it is an unfortunate fact that we must all pull together to reach the 2C target.

Russia was given CO2 emission quotas in Kyoto, that were higher than they actually need now - because of more problematic business development than expected during the Kyoto negotiations. They have therefore accumulated considerable amounts of CO2 quotas that they of course will insist on pulling forward into the new agreement. Even if Russia commits to 25% cuts it will not be enough because they can actually increase CO2 emissions and still be compliant (because of the unused CO2 quotas pulled forward). EU will similarly get "a free ride" from the membership countries who also have accumulated CO2 quotas.

We live in a global world, and if we produce goods in our own country - the CO2 emissions increase here. If we, however, move the production to another country - we look like a compliant country and the CO2 effect of the goods we import adds to the CO2 emission reports in the country where the products were produced. USA has suggested a special CO2 import tax - but India is clearly against such a move. Understandably so - because this would be like introducing new trade barriers and it would be more expensive for consumers in USA to buy products from China or India (World Trade Organization is fighting all such trade barriers).

PROGRESS IN OUR JAHUS PROJECT:
As mentioned yesterday, we have doubts about some of the solutions that have been implemented by the ventilation team. These issues were described in an email to the company yesterday, and today we received a brief response.

They will answer all the questions/comments when they hand over the project to us (when they have finished everything and feel they can be proud of the result).

At least they agreed to my suggested location for pulling the cool air into the separate ventilation loop that will provide the 4 bedrooms with colder air than the other rooms in the house). Not sure what they plan for the extra supply of air to this room (as they will be pulling air out of a quite small room). It does not seem like they liked the idea of using some of the air from above the heatpump on the other side of the wall (colder than the outside air in the summer months). The other question about the air being pulled into the aggregate is too warm was not answered - so I guess we'll have to wait for the handover to see what they actually did about that problem.

I read the instruction manual for the aggregate today and found out that it must be running on the medium setting (what they call "NORMAL") to provide the house with enough fresh air (500 cubic meters per hour). This setting means much more noice - and when I mentioned this, the ventilation team said that it should be sufficient air supply if we use the lowest setting (the manufacturer call this setting "Going Away"). My response to the team was that I expect the solution to deliver 500 cubic meters per hour as it is stated in the contract - and they can do (almost) whatever they like to achieve this. If this means running the aggregate at medium/normal effect, then they will have to add more silencers on the ducts/piping and in the cabinet they use for the transport of air to- and from- the rooms on the first floor (via the attic).

We are waiting in cautious optimism for the actual handover day.

Even though they had promised to come here today - it seemed to me that nothing had been done when I arrived early from work at 2pm (planned to work from home the rest of the day and answer any questions they may have). One hour later one guy showed up with some supplies, but because he had been injured by a knife in a workrelated accident earlier today (two fingers had been stitched) - he was in too much pain to do any work today. He left after 15 minutes. I later found out that he had actually started the project of adding an extra loop to the bedroom (adding another pipe from the attic through the cabinet to the basement).

Waiting, waiting....

Progress:
The electrician showed up today and I think he has finished all that was needed by the ventilation team. Now the rest is up to the ventilation team, but they did not come today - and have not said anything about the plan to finish their project.

At the moment the temperature of the air that blows out of the building is the same as the temperature that is distributed to the rooms in our house (only 16C). There is definitely a need for calibration of the system - and if I'm not mistaken the ventilation team also has to make some changes to make it work as intended. I have provided them with a few suggestions that I think will improve the distribution of heated air - and at the same time utilizing the aggregate to "pull" energy out of the used air before it leaves the house.

One example: To get the most out of the exchange of energy between cold incoming air and warm "used" air I would think that the incomming air must be cold - and not mixed with heated air from the heatpump. Shouldn't the heated air be mixed with the fresh air after the aggregate? Looking forward to hear the response from the ventilation team.

Events:
As I'm writing this blog post, there is a program on the TV and the agenda is "global warming - true or false".

In the introduction they started with a look back at the 1970s - when the scientists predicted that we were entering a new ice age. We now know that their assumptions were wrong, and we have later observed that the average temperature in the world is rising.

Charles David Keeling published the first report on CO2 in the atmosphere as early as 1958. He continued to measure CO2 and after a few years the trend was clear - the CO2 content increases year over year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_Curve). CO2 captures the heat on its way out from our planet - and increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere creates the greenhouse effect (global warming).

The Jason report on climate changes came in 1979 "Title Long term impact of atmospheric carbon dioxide on climate. Technical report JSR-78-07": The warming of climate will not necessarily lead to improved living conditions everywhere. Changes in sea level, in agricultural productivity, and in water availability can be anticipated, but the dimensions of their economic, political, or social consequences can not."

The Reagan administration in USA ordered another scientific report and their conclusion was different - there is no need to do anything. Later during the 80s and 90s the politicians could no longer close their eyes for the scientific evidence. Now, most world leaders have said that they will come to Copenhagen in December for the UN lead conference on climate chages.

Don't worry, I will not report on all the historic events they talked about in the program. It was interesting to see more of the scientific work behind the common view of the connection between CO2 emissions and potentially dramatic climate changes. Yes, the scientists have been wrong before (ice age/1970), but can we afford to not listen to the almost unison warning from the science community and world leaders?

(As discussed in an earlier blog post, there is also a different reason for reducing the use of fossile fuels - the reports of a looming energy crisis).

What will happen in Copenhagen? Can the world be saved by this summit?
The think tank Civita has invited to a breakfast meeting tomorrow (Nov 24th.) Keynote speaker is Norway's chief negotiator Hanne Bjurstrøm (and Minister of Labor after the Copenhagen summit). Terje Osmundsen, director of strategies and business development in the norwegian solar energy company Scatec Solar, will then comment on the keynote. I am looking forward to hear what these people have to say - now that we are only a few weeks from the Copenhagen summit.

First day in our "new home"

Status:
For the first time in years we slept without opening the door (from our bedroom) to the small veranda outside. We used to open the door to get the desired supply of fresh air through the night, but hoped that the ventilation system would take care of this now that we live in a "JAHUS"...and the jury says:

Nice. We had enough fresh air, and because the door had been closed there was:

• no noice from people passing the house on their way home from a party/nachspiel. The new door not only keeps the energy inside the house, but it is very effective in shielding us from noice from outside the house
• higher room temperature (but not too high) compared to the "open door scenario"

Now that the ventilation system was running, we were ready for the inauguration of the refurbished bathroom - including the new shower (picture attached below).

This morning I got up early for a nice 1hour bicycle ride under clear blue skies (with the nice colours you see when the sun is rising). When I came back I used the shower upstairs for the first time - and it was as nice as I had hoped for. As I came out of the shower, my daughters called and said the breakfast was ready - what a nice day to start a Saturday :-)
















The point of sharing this with you? There was no noice from the ventilation system, but the "fog" in the bathroom did not clear as fast as I had hoped for. We'll have to ask the specialists for advise on how to increase the effect on the ventilation from this room (from this room the system only pulls air out - the air is "refilled" from nearby rooms, under the door etc.)

One pleasant surprise this morning was that the heatpump had adjusted it self down to a very low noice-level. The excessive noice we experienced yesterday was probably the result of some start-up sequence.

I have now adjusted the different valves of the ventilation system to maximise the circulation of the heated air from the heatpump - and it seems to work fine. All rooms in the house is on approximately 21C and without the help of other heating than the heatpump.

I purchased a bunch of cheap thermometers and placed them in different locations throughout the house to monitor the effects of different settings in the ventilation system. Yes, the specialists will do this for us on Monday - but the readers who know me, know that I like to find out how these things work without reading the manual or getting help from specialists......

When I have had the "beginners crash-course" in our JAHUS solution, I will provide you with a more detailed description of the solution and how we achieve cooler temperature in the bedrooms etc. (using the valves and settings on the heatpump, the ventilation aggregate and the new fan).

For the readers who know us and have been to our house before, I have also included a picture from the new restroom (WC):

Events:
In a local newspaper today (Dagens Naeringsliv), a key article on page 2 was written by a senior journalist who is very sceptical to the actual environment value of migrating from fossil fuels to biodiesel/bioethanol. As mentioned in earlier blog-posts, there is a very heated debate in Norway these days about removing the taxes benefits for cars running on biodiesel. The journalist refers to recently published scientific report that questions the CO2 benefit:



Newly agreed EU legislation on biofuels and fuel quality are highly unlikely to reduce CO2 emissions from transport fuel used in Europe. T&E and other environmental organisations are proposing substantial changes, in particular to address the environmental impact of indirect land use change (ILUC) caused by increased biofuel production. Download the report Biofuels: Handle with care and summary in English, French and German

He says that not only are the benefits of biodiesel projects questionable and at best very ineffective, but keeping the lower taxlevel on these cars only encourages a migration from thirsty diesel SUVs to thirsty biodiesel SUVs.

Comments: As if I should have said it myself :-) Compare 180 USD per ton of CO2 estimated for biodiesel efforts versus the reduction 5 tons of CO2 per USD invested in JAHUS projects..... (http://thejahusblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/for-nerds-or-you-and-me.html)

• Look to the Netherlands where they are changing from taxing the cars to taxing the use of cars. They will be paying for kilometers driven per year regardless of the type of fuel used (except, I guess, for elcars - and I hope with higher taxlevels for SUVs than small cars).
• In Norway we're also talking about a special rush-hour tax during rush-hour in the big cities (to get people over on public transportation)