RAIN JANUARY 1978 VOLUME IV, NO. 4 INSIDE: WHY BIG BUSINESS LOVES A.T. SMALL GROUPS, BIG WINDMILLS ONE DOLLAR
Page 2 RAIN January 1978 RAIN access C ENERGY Davis Energy Conservation Report, April 1977, $10 from: Living Systems Route 1, Box 170 Winters, CA 95694 ) We've reported at various times on the path-breaking energy conservation activities going on in Davis, California. Their new building code has achieved energy savings of 50 percent in new homes. Bicycles account for 25 percent of transportation mileage at a savings of 64,000 gallons of gas and $100,000 annually. Active and passive solar home designs adapted to the Davis climate have been developed and are in use by spec builders. Narrower and tree-shaded streets are being built. Overall electrical use per customer has decreased 8 percent in Davis since 1973, compared to a 4 to 5 percent increase in neighboring towns. Lots of interesting how-to information on enacting energy ordinances, feedback from builders, etc. -TB "How Much Are Nature's Services Worth," by Walter E. Westman, in Science, vol. 197, Sept. 2, 1977, pp. 960-964, in most libraries, or write: Walter E. Westman Dept. of Geography Univ. of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 Via numerous, interesting examples, the author explains why measuring the so- ~ial benefits of ecosystem functioning 1s both controversial and illuminating. Recommended for those into "net energy" and Howard T. Odum energetics theory. - LJ Landliving, Michael Watson and Theresa McCloud, 1977, 14pp., $1 from: Landliving Box 4736 Arlington, VA 22204 Essentially a delightful guide to personal, around-your-own-home land use awareness, this is a fine companion to Malcolm Margolin's The Earth Manual (Houghton Mifflin Co., 197 5 ), and to John Brainerd's Working With Nature (Oxford Univ. Press, 197 3). Practical ways of mapping your land's ecosystems and then enhancing them are outlined. -LJ What's Wrong with the Atomic Industry?, 1977, $3.50 from: Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Box 19312 Washington, DC 20036 A compilation of cases of misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance among atomic corporations, prepared as a desk reference for activists interested in the problems of nuclear power. However, this is so chock-full of short horror stories in mis-applied technology that radio stations and newspapers could use the items found in it as fillers in programs and in print. Ask for their list of other energy publications. - LJ New York State Energy Hotline Center for Energy Policy & Research New York Inst. of Technology Old Westbury, NY 11568 phone 516/686-7744 Local solar info is their specialty. Price of Power Update: Electric Utilities and the Environment (Technical Summary), Ronald White, 1977, $10 from: Council on Economic Priorities 84 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10011 Shows that increases in the use o( coal to generate electricity have cancelled out improvements in pollution control in the electric utilities industry. Emissions at U.S. fossil-fuel electric power plants remained substantially unchanged over a five-year period. The study named the Tennessee Valley Authority as the heaviest polluter per unit of electricity generated among the 15 large utilities analyzed. Pacific Gas and Electric posted the best control record. The 430-page study is based on data collected by CEP to assess pollution control at 119 coal, oil or gas burning power plants representing 24 percent of industry capacity. CEP examined each plant's and each company's outputadjusted (per Mwh) pollution emissions and their .environmental record in CEP's 1972 study to rank current company pollution control performance progress over the Update period. Pacific Power & Light is the highest ranked of the nine major coal-burning companies under study. The company had the lowest SO2 emission rate of the coal-burning companies and the highest percentage of its generating capacity equipped with thermal pollution control equipment in the study. PP&L's last place rank for particulate emissions is due to the poor controls at its Dave Johnston plant (Wyoming), though high efficiency equipment has recently been installed at the plant to reduce its particulate output. -LJ
! SOLAR. ) SUN DAY: May 3, 1978, the national solar energy observance day_, for info . and to be put on the mailing list, write: Sun Day Suite llO0 1028 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 In communities across the U.S., citizens are making plans to celebrate May 3,. 1978, the_former "Earth Day," to pub- ·licize, educate and learn about the world's only inexhaustible, predictable, egalitarian, non-polluting, safe, terrorist-free and free energy source. People are already planning solar fairs, conferences, teach-ins, sunri~e services and political demonstrations. Wri_te to see what you can start or with whom to link up in your town. We're g~nna have a good timt;. -LJ The Helios Strategy-A Heretical View of the Role of Solar.Energy in the Future.ofa Small Planet, Jerome Weingart,·. 1977, available free from: • Alternatives t~ Growth '77 Jon Conlon· Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. 3900 One Shell Plaza· Houston, TX 77002 Mitchell Prize Winner for 1977, it's interesting to -read what a fi~st-rank technologist and analyst:comes up with when converted to solar energy. Weingart doesn't mess around. He goe·s right for a total glqbal transition, as Denis Hayes & Amory Lovins have called for, but by means of an alterna- . tive lying somewhere between "small is beautiful" and "large is necessary,''. one which is compatible with both, the solar-hydrogen e;conomy. The paper is especially useful for its 30 tables full of data, much of which further supports Hayes & Lovins. Four other prize-winning papers are also available: "Beyond the Profit Motive: The Post-Industrial Corporation," by William Halal, "The Choices in the Next Energy and Social Revolution," by Charles Ryan, "T9wards a Sustainable-State Economy in the United Kingdom," by Andrew and David Gamble, and "Alternatives to Growth in Education: A Course on Physics & Society in Dutch Secondary Education," by Boeker and Eijkelhof. -LJ RAIN's office is at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, OR 97210. Ph: (503) 227-5110. RAIN STAFF: Tom Bender Lane deMoll Joan Meitl Lee Johnson Typesetting: Jrish Setter Printing: Times Litho Linda Sawaya January 1978 RAIN Page. 3 ISES Northwest Regional Chapter to be formed. Membe.rs of the International Solar Energy So~iety living in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana voted, 26 to 14, for a regional rather than state chapter(s). In addition, members voted for six to constitute a steering committee to form such a chapter. The six,, who will meet at Rainhquse at lp.m., Tues., Jan. 3, 1978, are: Doug Boleyn (Portland General Electric Co.), Kirk Drumheller ~Battelle Northwest Labs), Jill Goodnight (Battelle Northwest Labs), Lee Johnson (RAIN) , John Reynolas (U. of Oregon), and Ken Smith (Ecotope Group). Two Idahoans will also be invited to represent ISES members in their state. All ISES members will be ·kept updated on the outcome. - LJ Ouroboros South.Project Continuing Education i}! the Arts University of Minnesota 320 Wesbrook Hall Minneapolis, MN 55455 612/373-5170 ' I Word has come to us that the original self-sufficient house done by Dennis Holloway and his studen.ts at the Architecture Department is n'ow "under new management." Within the past year equipment to monitor th~ passive and active systems has been installed, with results being published p~riodically. Check with them for details and for appointments to visit the house- $1.50 adults, 50¢ children. -LdeM • SOLAR CONTRACTORS' STANDARDS Private industry has recognized the.iippact that solar energy is having on, its future and is taking steps to insure quality work from its people. Recent evidence of this trend 'includes the publication of a: set of installation standards for solar systems. . • The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' N,ational Association (SMACNA) has published the third edition of their Heating and Air Conditioning 'Systems Installation Standards for One and Two Family Dwellings anq, Multifamily Housing. This edition includes solar systems installation standards and provides contractors with a·wealth of technical and practical information regarding the proper design and construction of both air and liquid systems. The manual is quite comprehensive, starting with the chapters on architectural considerations for energy conservation and the necessary load calculations and ending with equipment selection and installation. There are sections on proper liquids piping, controls, in,sulation, fuel storage and thermal energy storage. / The manual tends to be heavy reading but is well-organized and well-illustrated with schematics and diagrams which are .adaptable to most installations. For the do-it-yourselfer, the SMACNA manuaJ provides simple, feasible information uponwhich he can build his own installation. For the sheet metal , contractors and air conditioning contractors who are just getting'into the solar energy side of their business, this manual insures that commercial solar systems will be installed properly. Copies of the manual are available from SMACNA, 8224 Old.Courthouse Road, Tyson's Corner, Vienna, Virginia 22180. The retail price for the manual is $10 (plus postage) while_ licensed contractors, engineers and architects may get it for $6 through the local SMACNA offices. SMACNA does not print an excess number of these manuals for the general public, so if the Virginia supply is too limited (which it often is), try locating one through a local contractor, engineering firm or architect. - Martin Peterson
Page4 RAIN January 1978 - \.__ c;-- '\__ - - ~-:' '"'---- , / j_ ---\ /~ ' Why -·,', - '· · ,• ' -~ \ \ , • I '\._ -~-" 1/ ) , }) ' .- ) : f I I ,•f ,., <~· ~ \ • "· i ' - . '\ "-._/ ~ } ' . -------...., ~~ - , I / / _/ =-~ -~ :....._-_~_· _:.·-_·_-_ _ _ _-·-=s::=::-::c= c_ ==--.:- ·"'~~ -::... - .- . Things seem to be moving along almost too well for a.t.-the ideas of ~ommunity production, decentralization, local control of local situations, etc. seem to meet encouragement rather than resistance from government and business. The power companies are ominously quiet, sometimes even cooperative. Executives of large corporations came to listen to Schumacher in droves. Small Is Beautiful is a best seller. ERDA, AID and NSF have set up a.t. programs. The U.S. Congress is interested in a.t. Carter meets with s·chumacher and Amory Lovins. Y.et these are 'not compatible bedfellows. What's happening? Why does Big Business love a. t .? . . ,Ask them. Surprisingly, you're likely to find out, but also to have some fantasies about a.t. nicely shattered. Ann Becker and Carol Ulinski did a study a year or so ago on IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (Development Digest, Jan. 1976). IRRI has developed a number of highly useful small-scale agricultural tools and machines ·adapted specifically to the Southeast Asian rice culture and • has been working to encourage the production, marketing and use of such machines. They found out, in brief, that Marsteel, •the dominant machinery manufacturer in the country, encouraged IRRI's efforts to get small businesses to adopt and produce their designs locally. Marsteel's logic was simple. Their marketing manager, Luis Bernas, freely admitted that they were quite willing to let someone else do the hard and risky work of ~eveloping designs and production, demonstrating, testing, overcoming local inertia, and developing markets for new products. They 1vere confident that if demand · for a product did develop they could step in and gain dominance in the market through their economie and advertising power and ability to overwhelm, fairly or unfairly, the small producers. Big business also welcomes the use of appropriate I
- January 1978 RAIN Page 5 Big Business Loves A. T. technologies where they either give a boost to the economic well-being of an area or lower costs- in either case making more money available for ·the purchase of their products. Sound at all familiar? Take another look at solar energy developments in the U.S. What's the pattern? You have a situation that clearly lends itselfto decentralized, at-home application and local production and installation. You have individuals developing and refining the simple technology required and fighting the massive efforts o_f entrenched energy companies, financial _{nstitutiO!}S and government that have done their best to prevent the rapid conversion to solar energy. Now that the public has begun to demand application of solar .energy, you find the government (ERDA in this case) giving massive amounts of our tax monies.to pay large corporations to reinvent these already proven technologies. What is at stake is not inventing the technology but paying the corporations to develop their capabilities to produce it and also to receive credit from the govt':rnment for inventing it. So the government promotes and pays big-business to take over a new field that is developing quit~ well without its "assistance." The next step is in process now. It is easier and more convenient for business to let government leg~slate the successful small producers out of business rather than have to compete directly against them. How 'to do it? Set up "performance" standards tailored to the capabilities of large corporations. The corporate approach to sola,r has consistently been biased towards exotic "high-efficiency" systems- ones that maximize the energy collected per square foot of collector but which produce less energy per dollar of expenditure. They know they can't c;oinpete on whole-system performance, so they try to push the issues to specific subsystems that can (but shouldn't) be maximized. The result is that an apparently innocent technical standard for thermodynamic efficiency clearly discriminates against simpler systems (homemade or local collectors, wood heat, passive solar construction) that are overall more effective and economical. Look at the federal and state standards being set up to determine what designs will qualify for tax credits, rebates or financing, and see what they really mean. • Curiously, no one has been speaking up against this. What has happened to the people developing-solar energy over the last decade who lovingly espoused the vision of decentralized, do-it-yourself technology? Burned out? Bought out? Shoved aside? Their silence has occurred in part because solar has been so _new that its proponents have weJcomed any means to get • it developed, endorsed, accepted and applied, realizing on some level that solar must be accepted in concept before the question of How and Who can .be dealt with. More importantly, developn:ient of solar energy has been tightly tied with undevelopment of nuclear energy, and to many people the corporate control of solar energy has seemed to be an acceptable price to pay- better they make solar collectors than reactors. But the solar/nuclear tussle is being won by the •inherently better wisdom, logic and economics of solar-not be corporate control of the industry. The question now is do we really need to or wish to pay that price or if we c~n still avoid doing so. -;-more+ KEEPING SOLAR SIMPLE What Can Be Done? • Demand change of ERDA funding focus and end of industry SUbsidy. • Demanq reasonable performance standards for solar that fit local collectors. • Demand encouragement of community production. • Encourage backyard solar- change people's heads · from buying to building: - Make available workable whole system plans, manuals and options for solar hot water systems arid hookup to existing water tanks. - Work with hardware stores to make kits of parts available. - Lay out community economic impacts of local and home production. -Do publicized workshops for building solar hot water heaters on SUNday. Install units on newspaper plant, TV station, mayor's house. Do workshops in D.C. for all congressional representatives. Publish plans in newspapers. - Provide write-ups on ERDA coverups and advantages to local and homemade units to local newspapers. • Develop local financing for local/backyard sy~tems. - See Lee's article in this issue on pressuring local banks. -Show banks precedent elsewhere for financing standard backyard units. • Publicize information on passive design and relative costs of active and passive systems. • Develop manual on insulating shutter construction. • Put together the figures that show whether giving away materials for homemade solar waterheaters would be cheaper for utilities. than new energy production. •
Page 6 RAIN January 1978 In both the above examples there are several distinct issues to be dealt with. The use of solar energy or. more effective agricultural tools is one issue. How those technologies are produced and used is a quite separate issue. (See David Morris's letter in this issue.) Despite its name, a.~. is not dominantly /a technological thing. It is the doing of things at the proper scale in the proper ways to the ends that create a society and a world of wh_ich we are happy to be a part. Once the feasibility of the necessary technology is shown, the real task of a.t. becomes a political one-dealing with the changing of the institutions that tie us to certain forms of doing things. That is the stage we need to move into now. It has hit home here in Oregon with compost toilets recently. Legislation permitting use of compost toilets was passed in the last legislative session and the Plumbing Advisory Board given the responsibility of drawing up regulations for their use. Everyone relaxed. Then draft regulations appeared, limiting use of compost toilets to areas where sewers or septic tanks were not available. This would effectively turn compost toilets into a tool for real estate development rather than an economical and ecological altern~tive to sewers. The technology is not enough without the appropriate institutional forms aff~cting its use. The efforts of most a.t. p~ople so far have been on proving its feasibiliW, but we will reach a dead end unless we turn , from promoting harmless things like solar collectors and compost toilets t9 dealing wi_th the real issue_s of institutional power and control that allow or prevent things from happening on more local and controllable levels. No community industries can succeed in a sustainable way,,for example, until the role of advertising in centralizing economic activity and power has successfully been dealt with. The same is true of finance and unregulated federal taxation. Our ability to deal successfully with many of these issues is greater than we may think. Our visions and o.ur own capabilities have gained credibility time and ti~e again in issue after issue- the nuclear/solar/conservation tug of war, in Vietnam, about pesticides-you name it. WHAT ABOUT ADVERTISING? Advertising promotes consumption anq causes centralization of production by those who can,afford massive advertising campaigns. It is an added and unnecessary cost of production. All these effects are undesirable in the resource-limited conditions we are - entering. Centralization of production brings centralization of economic and thus political power-a major threat to any democratic society. It also is ineffective in meeting local needs and using local resources effectively. The use of puplic media to promote increased desires when it is b'ecoming more and more difficult to fulfill such desires seems against the best _interests of society. Where do we begin to limit advertising to informational purposes (such as classified ads)? In contrast, our country has buiit up a horrible record of lies, deceit and wrongdoing through the lack of vision and integrity of our decision-makers-both in public office and private actions: We damn other countries for violation of human .rights but have violated human rights both here and abroad since our country's beginning, as badly_as other countries do. Our government trains terrorists, troops.and torturers for repressive dictators in other countries. The activities of th~ CIA and FBI in this country against Native Americans, Blacks, ~nti-war activists and others is finally coming to light and is scarcely less shocking. And both probably pall when the full nature of our "legal" economic exploitation of people is understood. Our country desp'erately needs people involved in all levels of decision-making whose vision and integrity can be _trusted. , Who do you trust? The corporate leaders whose deliberate mistruths fill volum~s from the advertising in every newspaper to the Congressional Record? The mercenary bureaucrats who drag down any designated path with a pay-check at the end regardless of where their hearts want to go? Or the silent academics who have failed to sp~ak out on any of the real issues we face until their students have beaten the answers into their .heads? Or is it the people who stand 'UP bravely and stubborn-. ly against the tide until the wisdom of their perceptions is finally understood. People echo whoever feeds them. Feed yourself. It's time to work through the politics of changes-from inside and outside government; at home, in our neighborhoods • and 'in Washington, D.C. And we need to remember that power does· corrupt. It needs to be shared, localized and taken control of locally ourselves. Get to it. . Tom Bender • Work for removal of the massive postal subsidies for magazines, etc., that predominantly contain advertising. Consumer Reports, RAIN, Seven Days and other publications show that advertising is not necessary for viable operation. • • Ban outdoor advertising. Several states have already, for various reasons. • Intervene in license renewal procedures for radio/ TV stations for a gradual phaseout of lids and substitution of public funding. Lo'cal governmental and citizen testimony can show the negative effect advertising has on local economies and the price of goods and services. • Remove advertising from public buses, airports, train stations,' etc., Any of these actions can start a • snowball effect similar to what has happened with regulation of cigarette smoking in public places or the effect that the ban on advertising lighting had on energy conservation efforts in Oregon in 1973.
C MEDIA Women in Distribution P.O. Box 8858 Washington, DC 20003 202/526-7400 ) If you are a library or a bookstore and want easy access to women's books by small presses, this is the place to go. ' (10 percent discount available to 1,- braries). They have over 400 books and records listed. But it's also useful just as a very complete and well-annotated· bibliography. Books are listed by publisher and cross-indexed by title and subject. Lovely 1940s p_hotographs and clear layout make this catalog a joy to read. I th1nk it's free. -LdeM C INFORMATION ): Seattle People's Yellow Pages, 197,8 edition, Kathy Reichgerdt, Editor, $3 from: Metrocenter YMCA 909 4th Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 ·Here's another in the fine tradition of reople's Yellow Pages, which Steve Johnson has been turning you on to for years in RAIN. This one's a dandy. Good graphics, clear layout, well-in-· dexed. What more could a person want to learn about and enjoy Seattle? · - LdeM A Directory of Rural Organizations, free from: The National Rural Center 1200 18th St., N.W. Washington, DC20036. Covering resource organizations which may be of assistance to rural projects, the dir~ctory does have a rural focus but covers many national organizations . of general interest as well. H,aving trouble contacting the heartland? Try this. -LJ "Whole Montana Catalog," now in process, for info write: Whole Montana Catal9g Montana Small Business Assoc. Box 7356 Missoula, MT 59807' Going to printers in nine months, WMC will include happenings-in renewable energy, cottage industries, grassroots organizing, alternative education, art, food, social services and media; a phil- . osophy section will cover Montana lifestyles, economic development, authors/ publishers and public events. Listings are needed for the "yellow pages," a directory of small businesses and ser- ·vices. -LJ Tucson People''S Ye.I/ow Pages, 1977-78, 2001 entries, index, $1.95 from: New Trails West 534 N. Hoff Tucson, AZ 8~705 , An excellent model for how to do one as good. Every entry is numbered, there are phone numbers, zippy illustrations and nice quotes. Sure to give you a fast feel for alternatives in Tucson. -LJ January 1978 RAIN Page 7 .€ECYCLING ) -Recyclopedia, Robin Simons, 1976, $3.95 from: Houghton Mifflin Compa~y Boston, MA The Boston Childr~n's Museum has long had a wonderful place where you can go rummage through p_iles of industrial waste for all sorts of wonderful objects to make games and toys ·and art ou.t of. This is an idea book to be enjoyed b'y teachers and children alike. -LdeM (wATER/SEWA~E) Goodbye to the Flush Toilet, Carol H. Stoner, 1977, $6.95 from: Rodale Press • , 33 E. Minor Emmaus, PA 1804,9 A thorough_and detailed survey of th~ whole field of compost toilets-from how we got into the sewer game to how different alternative systems operate, , a sl'Jrvey of homemade and commercial units with plans and guidelines for buying and use, greywater treatment and water conservation. Clear diagrams and lots of useful inform~tion-should be read by anyone considering a compost toilet. An excellent companion to the OAT report (RAily, Dec. '77). - TB
Page 8 RAIN January 1978 Care Ecologically-oriented people are using more wood fuel than ever before. I've noti.ced that many of us who burn wood have a tendency tQ neglect the periodic maintenance necessary for safety and efficiency. Of particular concern are older single ' course, unlined brick chimneys. Chimney fires are of little concern in newer, better constructed brick chimneys. This year, three old houses near mine have burned because their owners did not maintain the chimney. • A yearly cleaning and inspection of the stove or furnace is a good point at which to begin. Potential problems can be discovered before·they become critical. Stoves which have air leaks tend to develop "hot spots" and deteriorate much faster than they should. Welded stoves warp at an accelerated . rate as the door or door frame begins to lose shape. The first step is to wire brush and vacuum the stove interior. Listed below are some common chores and examinations to perform. • Trouble 1. Place trouble light inside stove in darkened room. Examine door and door frame for light leaks. 2. While trouble light is inside stove, check for light leaks around seams and joints. 3. If the appearance of .the stove is rusty or pale grey-white. Mode of Actidn to be Followed Replace door gasket if light is visible: Some . older stoves did not use gaskets, and a good seal cannot be achieved. Maintenance of newer welded stoves must be done by the stove dealer or manufacturer usually under the implied or limited warranties. I consider stoves one to five years old with warped doors or door frames to be defective. Fjll any g~ps by applying furnace cement (usually a clay, asbestos and water mixture) from the inside. No special tools are needed. Wipe off any excess cement which appears on outside of stove. Remove rust with a wire brush or emery cloth. Do not sandblast! Apply stove polish or high temperature silicone finish. FIRCHER'S CORNER Here are two publications from Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA 18049) that are about using firch for toolmaking and knifemaking. The1first, Edge of the Anvil: A Resource Book for the Blacksmith, by Jack Andrews ($6.95),•is a well:rounded primer with lots of drawings, an ex,cellent bibliography, and a useful index. Perhaps most interesting, after reading about how to make different shapes by all sorts of methods, are the photos of the decorative smith-work produced by a master. Step-by-Step Knifemaking, oy David Boye ($7.95), starts from scratch and leads you from the first simple knife through an increasing profusion of more difficult knifework, using simple and then more complex cools and techniques for heattreating, handle-making, blade-trueing. Sharpening & maintenance, steel-etching, sheathmaking and the science of alloy steels end the book. It's full' of shop hints and reads clearly. and maintenance. Square Chimney Brush Round Chimney Brush Older or unlined brick chimneys should be occasionally tested. One effective method is to build a small smudge in your stove or in the cle<J,n-out at the bottom of the chimney. Cover the chimney top with a wet blanket or piece of plywood. Look for smoke oozing from behind partitions or between bricks. If the chimney leaks smoke, it's probably time to call for professional help. Sometimes your local fire department can be of assistance. Pre-fabricated metal chimneys must also be inspec(ed and deaned. These chimneys are easily brushed by the homeow.ner. If you're operating an air control efficient wood burner, I suggest that "air-siphon'~chimneys (Ameri-vent, Majestic) not be used, and if they have been installed previously, replaced with a chimney incorporating solid insulation. The air-insulated chimneys tend to super-cool the stove exhaust, causing excessive creosote accumulation when used with efficient stoves. •
- of woodstoves and chimneys The scourge of newer, more efficient wood heating stoves is the pesky accumulation of creosote in the stove pipe or • chimney flue. Balky, smoking stoves or chimney fires are the result of inattention to this common problem. This discussion of chimneys assumes the reader has th~ intelligerice not to use •single wall pipe as chimney material. January 1978 RAIN Page 9 Tpe stove or flue pipe which .connects y.our stove to the chimney should be clean and free from debris. A hand-hel,d wire brush will usually handle this j-ob. During the heating season it is possible to check for creosote build-ups .by tapping the side of the stove pipe. A light, thin metallic sound indicates the pipe is clean. A dull "thunk" indicates there is some creosote or debris in the pipe. ' All chimneys should be examined and preferably swept once a year: There is no substitute for a close visual examination of the top of the chimney. Creosote accumulates first at the top of most chimneys and is easily visible. Loose bricks and soft mortar should be removed and replaced to maintain a safe chimney. Loose soot or objects can be dislodg~d by lowering a weighted burlap bag attached to a rope. Effective creosote removal usually must be done with a chimney brush (available at most wood stove dealers). Additional help and information can be found with most stove dealers or local fire -departments. Stove retailers who stock chimney cleaning equipment 'will usually have instructional material for the do-it-yourselfer. C FORESTS ) Reforestation in Arid Lands, Fred Weber, 1977, $6.50 plus postage from: VITA 3706 Rhode Island Ave. Mt. Rainier, MD 20822 A joint Peace Corps/Vita publication pulling together the Peace Corps practical experience and VITA's technical expertise. Based on West Africa projects, but most sections of the manual are valuable elsewhere. Covers land use choices, understanding soil and water characteristics, choosing species, nursery management, site preparation and planting, uses and prevention or fire, sand stabilization and a gµide to useful native species for this particular region. -TB . Chimney brushes (shown above) are effective cleaning tools. The modest.($10 to $35) cost enables every homeowner to have his own set. They:r~ available from S/A Imports Division, 700 East Water St., Suite 730, Syracuse, NY 13210. Leucaena, National Academy of Sciences, 1977, free to institutionally affiliated recipie_nts in government, education or research (if you 're not, fake it-what a_bsurd discrimination!) from: Commission on International Relations (J H215) . National Academy of Sciences 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, DC 20418 otherwise, $6 from: National Technical Information Service Springfield, VA 22161 (Accessi_on No. PB 268-124) New release in the NAS series that includes Under~xploited Tropi(!al Plants and Making Aquatic Weeds Useful. One of the -few really commendable AID projects! I really like the reports we've seen from this series-solid, thorough, clear and mind-blowing in their implications. This one surveys a tropical tree Bill Day family that is legumenous, whose leaves rival manure in nitrogen content and fertilizer value, whose wood has uncommonly high density _and caloric va\ue as a fuel, which coppices, and which provides excellent forage for rm;ninant·animals. - TB Locating, Cutting and Gathering Wood (G2873), Wood as Fuel (G2874), Wood Burner & Chimneys (G2875), and • Heating Water (G2876), by University of Wisconsin-Extension, available to Wisconsin residents from county extension agent, out-of-state purchasers should check on availability and price from: Agricultural Bulletin Bldg. 1535 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706 If you'.re in Wisconsin , y ou're very fortunate, as these are excellent primers on various aspects of wood heating. We'd like to hear about similar pamphlets from other states. - LJ
Page 10 RAIN January 1978 ~OREGON A.T. ON THE M,OVE~ A neat thing happened here in Oregon No one had any,axe to grind or battle last week which we are reporting on to win within the group. Even though here, not so much because.anything has there were several combinations of yet been accomplished, but becaus~ it people with histories of not getting seems to speak well about the trend of along, the feeling of the whole day was movement these days. _one of cooperation- helping each other . . . over the rough spots of articulating Fifteen or so people rangmg from what needed to be said. Eastern Oregon community development people to inventors and networkers, to someone from the State Department of Energy gathered to discuss setting up some sort of statewide a.t. organization. All day, -a free-wheeling brainstorming se~sion•ensued,in which a laundry list of needs for action was put up on the wall: lobbying and advocacy work, training sessions, conferences, information sharing, establishment of working models and preparation of educational materials. It was pretty much decided not to set up any new organizations yet but to explore together the possibilities of beefing up existing gr·oups with new people, money, moral support and ideas. What was special about the meeting was its tone. There were amazingly no polemics-everyone seemed to be on the same wave length as far.as purposes, scope and ideals for this animal we've been calling appropriate technology. C BUILDING ) The Care and Use of Japanese Woodworking Tools, Kip Mesirow and Ron Herman, 1975, $7.50 from: Woodcraft Supply Corp. 313 Montvale Avenue Woburn, MA 01801 We have our house pretty well finished ·now- with almost no use of power tools, as it has turned out. A lot of practice switching from Japanese to American tools and back, and learning the sometimes obvious. Japanese tools are designed for seasoned wood, not for sawing boards in the rain that squirt water like an orange. They're real good, though -for what they're designed for. Care and Use is a really helpful aid to doing right by them. What it won't teach you experience will. A half-size and halfprice edition would be preferable, but this is the only thing around that covers the ground. -TB It felt like we'd all been doing our homework-getting our shit together. We know compost privies,.solar collec- , tors and small-scale recycling systems are the way to go, and we've come a long way towards making those mechanical devices a reality. We are now The Graf tsman Builder, Art Boericke and Barry Shapiro, 1977, $12.95 from: Simon and Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas , New York, NY 10020 This is the successor to Art and Barry's much-copied Handmade Houses and focuses, in the same format of lush .color photos, on the hqmes and workplaces of artists and craftspeople ra,ther than the wild and wooly l'hippie homes" of Northern California in the first 'volume. My favorite is an incredible adobe and ceramic tile complex.in California that goes on from where Gaudi and early Soleri ended!, -TB realizing that it js time to move into an a~tion phase-getting legislators and •bureaucrats to pass the enabling policies, learning to work well within groups, and getting the word out much mor:e :widely. Everyone at the -meeting knew that we weren't going to _solve all our problems that day. We knew we were each too busy to even tackle much of the . laundry list we have outlined right . away. But we felt how good and strong and open we are. And we're meeting again in early Januaty. -LdeM Rooftop Wastelands, 1976, $2 (Canadian) from: Minimum Cost Housing Group ' School of Architecture • McGill University 3480 University St. Montreal, ,PQ H3A 2A7 I don't usually do this, but the introduction to this book is so nice that I'm just going to let it speak for itself: "It is not about a great new city. It is about scratching at the grime, and letting the moss grow. The thing that will transform the city is not civilization, or architecture or public transport, but nature. All the straight lines could be covered up. All the concrete could crumble. All the roofs could be a garden." -LdeM Houseboat, Ben Dennis and Betsy Case, 1977, $14.95 from: Smuggler's Cove Publishing 107 West John Street Seattle, WA 98116 One of the best of the takeoffs on Handmade Houses-the exotic, expensive, poetic and homey visions of life on the water. -TB •
APPROPRIATE 'TECHNOLOGY Rat Warfare Harried by hundreds of rats, the small city of Satellite Beach, Fla., acquired two red-tailed hawks and a barn owl a month ago and turned them loose. "From what I've read," City Manager Richard Shinn said of the birds, "they should be very effective. Rats and mice are their favorite dishes." Mr. Shinn reports two confirmed kills since then-one in a drainage ditch and one in a backyard-and "almost daily reports from reliable citizens" among the 8,000 residents as to where the birds are operating. "The owl covers the night shift, and the two hawks cover the day shift," the City Manager explains, adding: "I'm real pleased. I think it's working. But I think we need more birds." The city will be getting "a dozen or so" more hawks and owls from the Florida Wildlife Service, he says. -Richard Haitch, New York Times via Gigi Coe ( GOOD THINGS ) Night Train at Wiscasset Station, text by Lew Dietz, photographs by Kosti Ruohomaa, 1977, $7.95 from: Doubleday and Company, Inc. Garden City, NY 10017 A beautiful combination of photographic impressions and prose that borders on poetry. The combined vision of these two men has created a portrait of Maine, a place in transition in the complexity of political and economic growth and change. It is a legacy created in love and admiration that explores the relationship of its history, its people and their relationship to the environment. It talks of and with a rural wisdom that knows the value of self-reliance. The tone of Dietz's writing is one of concern that Maine's past and future will be bought by those "outlanders" who are drawn by the romantic vision of its rural life. But he is hopeful. "Always there has resided at the heart of the native consciousness the wisdom to know that those who own the land own the people, and only a people who own and honor its land can control its destiny." A beautiful book that I know I will want to go back to. -JM Light Energy, monthly, free from: Cascadian Regional Library 454 Willamette St. Box 1492 Eugene, OR 97401 Some NCAT money finally came through to help our friends in Eugene provide this a.t. supplement to their regional networking journal, Cascade. It's a good way to keep in touch with what's happening on many fronts here in the Pacific Northwest and a good way to get the word out about what you 're doing. Keep in touch with them. Also write to them for information on their well-dome conferences, including the upcoming Spring Equinox Gathering. -LdeM January 1978 RAIN Page 11 Mid-Atlantic Appropriate Technology Network (MATNET) c/o Citizens' Energy Project 1518 "R" St., N.W. Washington, DC 20009 Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope (SASE) for details which other a.t. groups now forming would find especially useful in developing organizational goals, programs, services and funding sources. A newsletter, conferences, directories and regional surveys are proposed. Contact them if you are in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, District of Columbia Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky or ' Ohio. -LJ Dr. E. F. Schumacher Memorial Foundation Pentre Ifan Felindre Farchog Crymych, Dyfed, Wales U.K. The good people at Resurgence and Mrs. Varena Schumacher have set up a foundation to provide financial assistance, information and advice to groups and individuals carrying on Fritz's work in appropriate technology development. They need our contributions. -LdeM
Page 12 RAIN January 1978 ~ ~ /I 11, .( J . ·_ ! ~· . ./ ,I.• ---.__ SMALL GROUPS, One important characteristic of appropriate energy technologies is that they can be built cooperatively as a community effort, or by one or a number of local small businesses, providing local employment in all cases. Certainly the 2-megawatt Tvind wind-turbine, whose completion is reported on here by Prof Marshal Merriam, U.S.-Berkeley, who has done much work in wind energy, must rank high as a model for the collective efforts of other small groups and their more expensive aerospace corporation competitors. Here in the U.S., two small private firms have also built wind gernerators faster and cheaper than the government or its contractors. Just off the southern coast ofMassachusetts, the island of Cuttyhunk now receives half of its electricity from a 200kw, Americanized version of the Danish Gedser mill (Rain, April '77, p. 12-14), which cost only $280,000. Its federallyfunded equivalent, the 200kw NASA/DOE Mod OA windturbine, sitting on neighboring Block Island, R./., was given to a private utility after costing us taxpayers $2,000,000, its rotor hub alone costing $200,000! The Cuttyhunk wind-machine was manufactured by WTG Energy Systems, Inc. (Box 87, 1 La Salle St., Angola, NY 14006, phone 716/549-5544), a ten-person company, and provides 50 islanders with over 400,000 kwhlyear at 5.Jr/1 kwh. Additional information can be found in the December • 1976 Windpower Digest ($2/single copy, $6/yr., quarterly, from WPD, 54468 CR 31, Briston, IN 46507) and the September 2, 1977, Science. In the Pacific Northwest, an even smaller but no less technically proficient and innovative family firm has built a 140 kw, 72' diameter, 3-bladed, upwind-rotor, hydraulic wind generator on an 80' tower as a production prototype for follow-on 275, 600 and_J_J00 kw capacity sizes. Charles Schachle, an aeronautical en ineer, with his two sons, an . . . 1; . ·. . .. BIG WINDMILLS electrical engineer and a business/marketing manager, have developed an extraordinarily sensible system which includes: 1) inexpensive wood blades from glue-laminated beams, 2) an original airfoil similar to but more highly cambered on its lower surface than the famous Wortmann PX-series airfoils, 3) an extremely stiff tower buildable by local steel fabricators and designed to tilt up for speedy on-the-ground installation of blades, hub and power head, without large and expensive crane work, and 4) turning the entire tower hydraulically on a concrete pad rather than rotating the tower-top powerhead alone on a stationary structure (i.e. similar to 1931 Russian Yalta wind-turbine; see Power from the Wind by P. C. Putnam). The Schachle & Sons mill has been operating since May 1977 at the Moses Lake, Washington, airport, supplying power into lines of the Grant County P. U.D., and is ready for immediate mass production. First shipments on a 600 kw size can be in 90 days from receipt ofpurchase order at $400- $480 per kilowatt (uninstalled). Contact Charles Schacble, 1032 Grant St., Moses Lake, WA, phone 5091765-9696. And remember as you read about the Tvind mill costs that Boeing bas a $10,000,000 contract from the federal Dept. of Energy to design qnd build one 2.5mw windturbine for Boone, North Carolina, by 1980. Isn't it about time you asked your Congressman to get DOE to move cheaper and faster, perhaps by simply buying and installing these succulent fruits of Yankee ingenuity, small business and private enterprise? You could start by sending a copy of this article. Additional citizens' energy perspectives on American wind energy can be found in People and Energy ($10/yr. from P&E, 1757 'S' St., N. W., Washington, DC 20009), which started the first of a series of articles on aeolian power in Vol. 3, No. 5. -LJ
l l J The Tvindmill Marshal F. Merriam7 College of Engineering University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA A most remarkable endeavor in the effort to use renewable energies passed a critical milestone recently in Denmark. At the Tvind Schools!, assembly of the world's largest windmill has been completed. The last of three giant blades was bolted into place on 17 November 1977. After trials the machine is scheduled to go into regular service early in 1978. The Tvind endeavor is remarkable in several aspects. First, consider the technological features of the machine. It is by far the largest windmill standing in the world today, and by a small margin the largest ever built. A horizontal axis, 3blade, downwind propeller, the blades sweep a circle of diameter 54 meters. The hub is 50 m. above the ground. For comparison, the rotor diameter and hub height of the twoblade Smith-Putnam wind turbine, Grandpa's Knob, Vermont. U.S.A. (1941-45) were 53 and 37 meters, respectively. The NASA-ERDA windmill which has operated at Plum Brook (near Sandusky), Ohio, U.S.A., since late 197 5 has rotor diameter and hub height both 38 m. The tip of a vertically upright blade of the Tvind machine stands higher than the roof of a 20-story office building. In addition to sheer size, and all the engineering that implies, the machine includes a number of technological features which are imaginative, novel and interesting. The blades, for example, are constructed of fiberglass and plastic foam and weigh only five tons each. (The Smith-Putnam blades, Student-built T~ind mill: ·2 MW rated output at 33 mph (15 m/s) windspeed, 177 ft. blade diameter, 174 ft. tower, 3-blade downwind rotor, cost: $660,000; construction time: 2½ years. January 1978 RAIN Page 13 which were metal, weighed about 8 tons each). Along with lower mass, the use of fiberglass composite should have advantages from a fatigue point of view. The Tvind blades were laid up and constructed mostly by hand techniques. A large number of volunteer workers accomplished the task without heavy machinery or modern automation. Fiberglass blades have been used before (though rarely), but not with the same construction technique or on the same scale. The emergency speed control system, a matter of great importance on a big machine, has novel aspects. In addition to more or less conventional shaft brakes and pitch controls, there are parachutes! Parachutes of the type used to slow high-speed airplanes when landing are stowed in the wing tips of the windmill, and deploy under emergency overspeed conditions when centrifugal forces overcome magnetic latches. The drag from even one of the three parachutes is calculated to be sufficient to slow the rotor to a safe speed. The operational speeq control system is also unusual. The Tvind windmill is the first large aerogenerator to be designed to operate at variable rpm. It is intended that it will operate at that rpm which maximizes efficiency, which means faster rotation at higher wind speeds, up to a maximum of 42 rpm at the rated wind speed (15 m/s). Up to rated wind speed the rpm is controlled by controlling the load on the generator; above rated wind speed hydraulic blade pitch control is used to keep rpm constant. Schachle & Sons production prototype WECS: 140 kw rated output at 26 mph windspeed, 72 ft. blade diameter, 80 ft. tower, 3-blade upwind rotor, located at airport, Moses Lake, Washington (note circular concrete pad on which entire tower turns to orient wind-turbine into wind).
Page 14 RAIN January 1978 The electrical system reflects the intended use of the machine-partly for heating and partly for electric power. (Previous large machines have been built for electric power production only.) The generator (2000 kw, 3000 volts) delivers variable frequency a-.c. power, which goes down a cable to the ground and under the ground for some distance to a nearby control house. There it is transformed to 440 volts, rectified to d.c., and _inverted to 50 hertz a.c., synchronously phased with the local power grid. Resistive load, thermal storage (resistively heated), electrical disconnects, and other control circuitry are connected between the windmill and the transformer. Because the generator was not custom designed for the windmill, it is somewhat fully sized. Also, about 80 percent of energy use at the Tvind Schools is as heat, only 20 percent as electricity. Thus the rectifier-inverter system is smaller, electrically, than the generator, and is rated at 500 kw, not 2000. It is expected that this will be ample to handle the electrical load of the school. At times there will be a surplus which may be sold to the local power company. Wind generator output in excess of 500 kw will be used as heat. The economic value of electricity sold into the net grid at wholesale rates is about 10 Danish ¢re/kwh (l.6¢kwh at 1977 exchange rate); the economic value of the same electricity converted to heat and used to save fuel oil is about the same. Fully as remarkable as the technological features of the Tvind windmill are the place where it was built and the way in which it was built. The Tvind Schools are part of the Danish education system; they receive money from the state, but they are not public schools in the usual sense. They are better described as private schools receiving public funds to pay the costs of educating the students. They have complete autonomy and the education program is quite out of the ordinary. The curriculum includes problems in the third world, problems in Denmark, and many other things not commonly covered in depth in the public schools, as well as the usual public school subjects. The students do practical work as well as classroom exercises. There are 3 schools, a teacher training college, a 'h¢jskole' and an 'efterskole.' The h¢jskole students are age 18 and up; the efterskole students are 14 to 18 years. Many of the h¢jskole students have been working for some time before returning to school. Students and staff live at the Tvind community, or in one of the outpost communities, in a cooperative and communal manner. Staff salaries are pooled, and a major fraction of the money is used for projects of the school, of which the windmill is one. Staff and students work together on these projects with a high degree of motivation and commitment. The cooperative projects, the egalitarian social structure, and the warm informal atmosphere contrast noticeably with the competitive and hierarchical conditions of most universities, companies and government laborator.ies. I. The Tvind Schools are a frees'tanding community of about 1000 people located 4 km south of the town of Ulfborg (which is itself 90 km north of the city of Esbjerg) in West Jutland. Tvind is about 10 km from the North Sea coast in the direction of the prevailing westerly wind. Address: Energikontor, Tvindskolerne, Tvind, 6990 Ulfborg, Denmark. Construction work on the windmill project began in May ! 975 and has pro~ressed steadily since, with some changes m plan as the project evolved. The motivation for the project was not to build the world's largest windmill. Rather, it was an effort to gain energy self-sufficiency for the school by using a renewable energy source. The best renewable energy source at Tvind is wind. (There are some solar collectors on Tvind buildings, but solar energy in the winter is a difficult proposition in Denmark.) The motivation came first, the technology was acquired-and not without effort-as the project proceeded. The great windmill stands today as an impressive professional accomplishment-conceived, organized, and mainly built, by amateurs. Another matter worth noting is the cost and the funding of the machine. To the point of completed assembly and installation, but before first rotation, about 4 million Danish kroner had been spent ($660,000 U.S.). None of this money came from the government, and none from any large private corporation or foundation. Essentially, all the funds were contributed by staff members at the school from salary income. A tremendous amount of unpaid labor was donated to the project by members of the "windmill team," volunteer workers from all over Denmark. A number of skilled fulltime workers spent extended periods at Tvind; they received living expenses but no salari~s. Some outside labor for specialized jobs was hired at regular rates. The cost of the outside labor and the living expenses of the full-time workers is inNovember 17, 1977: bolting on the last 88½ ft. blade, 2½ years after May 29, 1975, ground-breaking (note size of workers atop rotor hub and in open nacelle). eluded in the 4 million kroner. Although it cost more than had been originally estimated, much less money was spent than on machines of comparable size built elsewhere. When the machine is in regular operation it is expected to supply all the energy needs of the school, both electricity and heat, and to generate some surplus electricity for sale to the local power company. The workers at Tvind have built a machine which is a first rank achievement in technology, which demonstrates the power of community organization, and which shows the way in renewable energy implementation. 2. This report was written while the author was a visitor at the Neils Bohr Institute, Copenhagen.
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