At Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker, we’re continuing to experiment with ways in which residents interested in climate change issues might take part in an online conversation about how well the city’s program to fight global warming is working.

When we saw that many users seemed daunted by the prospect of becoming regular guest contributors to our group weblog, we launched a series of online forums to lower the hurdles, making it simple to take part by the tried-and-true means of one-off comments on our various forums.

Now we’ve tweaked our approach again.

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Boulder’s initative to cut greenhouse gasses has a fabulous-looking public face in the ClimateSmart web site launched last September. Only trouble is, behind the handsomely designed and info-rich site, it appears there’s virtually no “community” in this community effort!

We here at Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker certainly understand that problem. Cultivating a vibrant online community is a real beast. You may have noticed that we’ve been having a hard time with that ourselves. Still, it’s a beast that must be tamed if educational programs like Climate Smart that rely on participation and buy-in from local citizens are to truly succeed.

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The Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project is about to have its second major growth spurt since our start-up last summer — and we’re asking you to be part of it.

Today we launch a series of online forums, and with them hope to inaugurate a vibrant discussion of the city’s unique municipal carbon tax approach. But it’ll be one that will be significantly easier for you to take part in. Check out the new discussion boards.

Our aim when we launched this project — with the help of the Knight Foundation and it’s News Challenge grant — was to see if two long-time environmental reporters could partner with local citizens to explore participatory journalism’s potential, in this case to cover a tough eco-issue like global warming, and find a local focus for a story with national and international implications. … (more…)

Amy Gahran

This new CFL doesn’t quite fit my lamp. Grrrrr….

Today at King Soopers I bought a GE 3-way compact fluorescent bulb to see if I could replace the conventional incandescent bulbs in my living room lamps. I’m glad I bought just one as a test, because I just tried to install it and was dismayed to find that I couldn’t get it into my lamp.

I think it would fit once it’s screwed in, but it’s too tall to get past the metal support for the lampshade.

This is frustrating… I’ll basically have to dismantle part of the lamp just to screw in a light bulb. I need to figure out if I want to go to that trouble. If anyone knows of a less drastic way to get that CFL into the socket, please comment below.

Compact fluorescents are a great idea, but dumb practical issues like this probably keep a lot of people from installing them everywhere. Organizations that promote their adoption — including Boulder’s energy programs — should keep this in mind.

Finding correctly sizeds CFL bulbs isn’t as easy as it should be…

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Amy Gahran

Electrician and entrepreneur Jeff Jones, wiring up my Saver Switch today.

Several weeks ago, Xcel Energy called me to see if I wanted to sign up for their Saver Switch program. That’s when they install a remote-controlled switch on my outdoor central air conditioning unit, which they use to cycle my cooling off for up to 15 minutes at a time on up to 15 hot summer days per year. This helps the utility manage peak electricity demand and hopefully avoid blackouts or brownouts. For that, I get a $25 credit on my September or October utility bill each year I have the switch.

That sounded like free money to me, so I said sure! Today, my Saver Switch finally was installed.

The installer was Jeff Jones, an electrician with Hunt Electric (Xcel’s installation contractor). I had a great conversation with Jeff — turns out he’s got a local business that specializes in renewable energy and off-grid solutions for residential and commercial buildings. He’s trying to convince the state of Colorado to offer more incentives for developers to include renewable measures like photovoltaics in new-construction housing developments. He also dabbles in biofuels, especially ethanol-powered vehicles.

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Amy Gahran

The main level of my home has LOTS of windows — all inefficient.

Earlier I wrote about my home’s new attic fan, which (so far this summer) is doing a much better job of keeping my home cool than the aging central air conditioning unit ever did. I am running it during most of the day, however.

Jay Stein of E Source pointed out that this is not an ideal practice. He commented: “You’re not supposed to run the fan all day long. Just run it at night, when it’s cool out. Be sure all the windows are open. Get the house nice and cold. Then in the morning, shut all the windows and pull down all the blinds. Your house should stay cool until the late afternoon. When the evening rolls around, open all the windows and start over again.”

Jay’s absolutely right; that is recommended practice for using an attic fan. However, our house has some significant flaws which — as far as I can tell — require some compensation as we work to correct them one at a time. Right now, running our attic fan during the day, instead of our central air conditioning, is an intermediate step toward efficiency, and an immediate step toward comfort.

In the summer, cooling our home at night has never been a problem. Our home faces west-east, the same direction as Boulder’s prevailing wind patterns. So if we open all the upstairs windows after sunset and run the bedroom ceiling fan we almost always pull a steady cross-breeze through the house that sucks out the day’s accumulated heat. So we don’t really need an attic fan for traditional reasons. It has more to do with compensating for our home’s serious daytime cooling flaws.

Plus, I personally prefer moving air far more than cooled air. I’m more comfortable in dry, moving air. I’d rather avoid air conditioning if I can — I had more than enough of it when I lived on the east coast. I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m living in a refrigerator.

Making tradeoff decisions when upgrading a home’s comfort and energy efficiency is something many Boulderites face. Much of the housing stock in town is decades old and was built by developers who apparently cared more about construction speed and profit margins than energy efficiency.

Here’s how we’re handling those decisions in our own case…

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Amy Gahran

My finished attic fan has completely replaced my central AC unit, so far.

On June 16 I wrote that I was getting a new attic fan installed in my Boulder home. While I expect this measure will save energy and money, my main motivation was to make my home more comfortable during the heat of summer. I work at home, so that’s pretty important.

I’m pleased to report that since the installation was completed on June 18, I have not turned on my central air conditioning unit at all. Not once. Really. And it’s been pretty hot in Boulder lately, with temperatures nearing 100° F some days.

For instance, right now it’s about 92°F out on my deck. Inside, with just the attic fan running, it’s 82°F. Not exactly cool, but since the air is dry and moving (if you stand in my stairwell you can actually feel a cool breeze coming up from the basement) I’m very comfortable.

I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait to see my next bill from Xcel Energy.

As with any energy-saving measure, this one has its pros and cons…

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Amy Gahran

Boulder handyman Steve DiCesare cut through my ceiling yesterday to make way for an attic fan.

Today, Steve DiCesare (a local musician, teacher, and handyman) is finishing the installation of my new 30-inch attic fan. And I can’t wait. The top floor of my 3-story (including the finished basement) South Boulder home routinely roasts during the hottest days of summer. Since I work at home, and my office is on the top floor, that’s a problem.

The whole project, including equipment, supplies, and labor, will cost me about $600. Although I didn’t run the numbers to estimate energy savings from this project, I didn’t have to in order to decide to go for it. For me, it’s a matter of summer survival.

Which got me thinking: What really does motivate people to undertake major energy-saving projects?…

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How big is your personal slice of Boulder’s CO2 pie? Photo by dongkwan, via Flickr, CC License

As the City of Boulder proceeds with its plan to curb its carbon emissions, some Boulderites might wonder, “How much of those emissions am I personally responsible for?”

That’s a surprisingly complex question to answer. When I recently ran my own carbon numbers using two different online calculators, I got wildly different answers (neither of which was as good as I’d hoped — a disappointment since I’m currently car-free).
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