The Science Guy Weighs In

" Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. " - Carl Sagan

I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. William Nye of "Bill Nye the Science Guy" fame speak last night at Northeastern University. While he didn't demonstrate the effects of gravity or explain magnetism, he did discuss the supreme importance of science in the battle against climate change, including an explanation of the above photograph*. During his two-hour presentation, he mentioned several technologies which he utilizes in his own home as ways he helps minimize his carbon footprint and fight global warming.

His most interesting offerings were the "green switch" and solar water heaters. Nye's green switch is a simple on/off switch which turns off specified electrical outlets around his home using a wireless radio signal. Electronics in standby mode, including those with no visible lights such as phone and laptop chargers, account for 8% of the nation's energy use. That's 8% of our energy being used by devices just, as Nye said, "waiting to be turned on." This switch can be turned off at night, cutting off power to the "twin fangs" of power adapters and devices around the home and saving countless watts of energy from being turned into wasteful heat. Even if the switch is used only half the day, a 4% savings on your energy bill is easily reached.

And this switch only simplifies the process of energy savings. Simply unplugging devices which aren't in use can achieve the same effect, albeit with a little more work.

Nye also discussed the many benefits of solar energy, including solar water heaters seen across the globe. Simple in their operation and highly effective, even in the low winter sun, solar water heaters provide free (as in $0.00) hot water by harnessing the energy of the sun to boil a refrigerant, which in turn heats water. Natural convection currents carry cold water to the bottom of the heater and force hot water out the top and into the home, and the cycle continues all day until hot water is stored at night.

Much like these water heaters, direct exchange ground source heat pumps use the warmth of the sun, just in a different manner. The solar energy reserve of the Earth provides all the heat one needs to heat a home in even the coldest of climates at a fraction of the cost of traditional heating, and with a fraction of the environmental impact.

If you have a DX heat pump installed in your home, we'd love to hear about it. Feel free to leave a comment or send us an email and we'll be happy to share our passion for the fight against climate change.

-Marcus

* The photograph above was taken by Voyager 1 from well outside the solar system in 1990. The tiny, one-pixel blue dot along the right side inside the orange band is Earth. Named "Pale Blue Dot," it is considered one of the ten most important space photographs ever, and is largely viewed as the image which inspired modern conservationism.