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