Commonly Asked Questions

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Wind Energy

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Energy.

Wind energy offers many advantages, which explains why it's the fastest-growing energy source in the world. Research efforts are aimed at addressing the challenges to greater use of wind energy.

Advantages

Wind energy is fueled by the wind, so it's a clean fuel source. Wind energy doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas. Wind turbines don't produce atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain or greenhouse gasses.

Wind energy is a domestic source of energy, produced in the United States. The nation's wind supply is abundant.

Wind energy relies on the renewable power of the wind, which can't be used up. Wind is actually a form of solar energy; winds are caused by the heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the earth, and the earth's surface irregularities.

Wind energy is one of the lowest-priced renewable energy technologies available today, costing between 4 and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, depending upon the wind resource and project financing of the particular project.

Wind turbines can be built on farms or ranches, thus benefiting the economy in rural areas, where most of the best wind sites are found. Farmers and ranchers can continue to work the land because the wind turbines use only a fraction of the land. Wind power plant owners make rent payments to the farmer or rancher for the use of the land.

Disadvantages

Wind power must compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Depending on how energetic a wind site is, the wind farm may or may not be cost competitive. Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past 10 years, the technology requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled power plants.

The major challenge with using wind as a source of power is that the wind is intermittent and it does not always blow when electricity is needed. Wind energy cannot be stored (unless batteries are used); and not all winds can be harnessed to meet the timing of electricity demands.

Good wind sites are often located in remote locations, far from cities where the electricity is needed.

Wind resource development may compete with other uses for the land and those alternative uses may be more highly valued than electricity generation.

Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to other conventional power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and sometimes birds have been killed by flying into the rotors. Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly positioning wind plants.

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2. What are the environmental benefits of wind energy?

Wind energy system operations do not generate air or water emissions and do not produce hazardous waste. Also, they do not deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation, or require significant amounts of water during operation. Wind's pollution-free electricity can help reduce the environmental damage caused by power generation in the U.S. and abroad.

In 1997, U.S. power plants emitted 70% of the sulfur dioxide, 34% of carbon dioxide, 33% of nitrogen oxides, 28% of particulate matter and 23% of toxic heavy metals released into our nation's environment, mostly the air. These figures are currently increasing in spite of efforts to roll back air pollution through the federal Clean Air Act.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause acid rain. Acid rain harms forests and the wildlife they support. Many lakes in the U.S. Northeast have become biologically dead because of this form of pollution. Acid rain also corrodes buildings and economic infrastructure such as bridges. Nitrogen oxides (which are released by otherwise clean-burning natural gas) are also a primary component of smog.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a global warming pollutant --its buildup in the atmosphere contributes to global warming by trapping the sun's rays on the earth as in a greenhouse. The U.S., with 5% of the world's population, emits 23% of the world's CO2. The build-up of global warming pollution is not only causing a gradual rise in average temperatures, but also seems to be increasing fluctuations in weather patterns and causing more frequent and severe droughts and floods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned in July, 2003, that extreme weather events appear to be increasing in number due to worldwide climate change.

Particulate matter is of growing concern because of its impacts on health. Its presence in the air along with other pollutants has contributed to make asthma one of the fastest growing childhood ailments in industrial and developing countries alike, and it has also recently been linked to lung cancer. Similarly, urban smog has been linked to low birth weight, premature births, stillbirths and infant deaths. In the United States, the research has documented ill effects on infants even in cities with modern pollution controls.

Toxic heavy metals accumulate in the environment and up the biological food chain. A number of states have banned or limited the eating of fish from fresh-water lakes because of concerns about mercury, a toxic heavy metal, accumulating in their tissue.

Development of just 10% of the wind potential in the 10 windiest U.S. states would provide more than enough energy to displace emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants and eliminate the nation's major source of acid rain; reduce total U.S. emissions of CO2 by almost a third; and help contain the spread of asthma and other respiratory diseases aggravated or caused by air pollution in this country.

If wind energy were to provide 20% of the nation's electricity -- a very realistic and achievable goal with the current technology -- it could displace more than a third of the emissions from coal-fired power plants.

In 2006, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that wind plants in the U.S. will generate 24 billion kilowatt-hours. If instead the average utility fuel mix were used to generate that much electricity, 30 billion pounds (15 million tons) of carbon dioxide, 76,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (208 tons per day), and 36,000 tons of nitrogen oxides (100 tons per day) would be released into the atmosphere.

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3. What are the environmental impacts of wind energy?

Wind power plants, like all other energy technologies, have some environmental impacts. However, unlike most conventional technologies (which have regional and even global impacts due to their emissions and fuel imports), the impacts of wind energy systems are minimal and local. This makes them easier for local communities to monitor and, if necessary, mitigate.

The local environmental impacts that can result from wind power development include:

Erosion, which can be prevented through proper installation and landscaping techniques. Erosion can be a concern in certain habitats such as the desert, where a hard-packed soil surface must be disturbed to install wind turbines. Erosion has also been raised as a concern in the eastern U.S., where wind farms typically must be installed on mountain ridgelines. However, standard engineering practices used by ski areas on the same kind of terrain are adequate to deal with any erosion issues that might be raised by construction of a wind farm and its service road.

Bird kills, bat kills and other effects. Birds occasionally collide with wind turbines, as they do with other tall structures, such as buildings. Avian deaths have become a concern at Altamont Pass in California, which is an area of extensive wind development and high year-round raptor use. Detailed studies, and monitoring following construction, at other wind development areas indicate that this is a site-specific issue that will not be a problem at most potential wind sites. Also, wind's overall impact on birds is low compared with other human-related sources of avian mortality—see Avian Collisions With Wind Turbines, for more information.

No matter how extensively wind is developed in the future, bird deaths from wind energy are unlikely to ever reach as high as 1% of those from other human-related sources such as hunters, house cats, buildings, and automobiles. (House cats, for example, are believed to kill 1 billion birds annually in the U.S. alone.) Wind is, quite literally, a drop in the bucket. Still, areas that are commonly used by threatened or endangered bird species should be regarded as unsuitable for wind development. The wind industry is working with environmental groups, federal regulators, and other interested parties to develop methods of measuring and mitigating wind energy's effect on birds.

Wind energy can also negatively impact birds and other wildlife by fragmenting habitat, both through installation and operation of wind turbines as well as themselves through the roads and power lines that may be needed. This has been raised as an issue in areas with unbroken stretches of prairie grasslands or forests. More research is needed to better understand these impacts.

Bat collisions at wind plants generally tend to be low in number and to involve common species which are quite numerous. Human disturbance of hibernating bats in caves is a far greater threat to species of concern. Still, a surprisingly high number of bat kills at a new wind plant in West Virginia in the fall of 2003 has raised concerns, and research at that plant and another in Pennsylvania in 2004, suggests that the problem may be a regional one. The wind industry has joined with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Bat Conservation International to form the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative (BWEC), which funded the 2004 research program and is continuing to explore ways to avoid or reduce bat kills.

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4. Why is there opposition to wind energy?

Local opposition to proposed wind farms usually arises because some people perceive that the development will spoil the view that they are used to. It is true that a large wind farm can be a significant change, but while some people express concern about the effect wind turbines have on the beauty of our landscape, others see them as elegant and beautiful, or symbols of a better, less polluted future.

The visual effect of wind farms is a subjective issue, but most of the other criticisms made about wind energy today are exaggerated or untrue, and simply reflect attempts by particular groups to discredit the technology, worry local communities, and turn them against proposed projects. In the electronic age, myths and misinformation about wind power spread at lightning speed.

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5. Where can I find the New Jersey wind resource maps?

The New Jersey Wind Resource maps can be found here.

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6. Is wind energy practical for me?

Small wind energy systems can be used in connection with an electricity transmission and distribution system (called grid-connected systems), or in stand-alone applications that are not connected to the utility grid. A grid-connected wind turbine can reduce your consumption of utility-supplied electricity for lighting, appliances, and electric heat. If the turbine cannot deliver the amount of energy you need, the utility makes up the difference. When the wind system produces more electricity than the household requires, the excess can be sold to the utility. With the interconnections available today, switching takes place automatically. Stand-alone wind energy systems can be appropriate for homes, farms, or even entire communities (a co-housing project, for example) that are far from the nearest utility lines. Either type of system can be practical if the following conditions exist.

Conditions for stand-alone sytems

You live in an area with average annual wind speeds of at least 4.0 meters per second (9 miles per hour).
A grid connection is not available or can only be made through an expensive extension. The cost of running a power line to a remote site to connect with the utility grid can be prohibitive, ranging from $15,000 to more than $50,000 per mile, depending on terrain.
You have an interest in gaining energy independence from the utility.
You would like to reduce the environmental impact of electricity production.
You acknowledge the intermittent nature of wind power and have a strategy for using intermittent resources to meet your power needs.

Conditions for grid-connected systems

You live in an area with average annual wind speeds of at least 4.5 meters per second (10 miles per hour).
Utility-supplied electricity is expensive in your area (about 10 to 15 cents per kilowatt-hour).
The utility's requirements for connecting your system to its grid are not prohibitively expensive.
Local building codes or covenants allow you to legally erect a wind turbine on your property.
You are comfortable with long-term investments.

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7. Is my site right?

To get a general idea if your region has good wind resources, look at the Wind Powering America Wind Resources page, which has state wind maps. The maps will show you if wind speeds in your area are strong enough to further investigate the wind resource. Of course, the maps are just a starting point — the actual wind resource on your site will vary depending on topography and structure interference. A localized site with good winds, such as a ridge top, may not show up on the maps.

Another source for wind data is the National Climatic Data Center , which collects data for selected sites and makes area wind data summaries available for purchase.

You will need site-specific data to determine the wind resource at your exact location. If you do not have on-site data and want to obtain a clearer, more predictable picture of your wind resource, you may wish to measure wind speeds at your location for a year. You can do this with a recording anemometer, which generally costs $500 to $1500. The most accurate readings are taken at "hub height" (i.e., the elevation at the top of the wind turbine tower). This requires placing the anemometer high enough to avoid turbulence created by trees, buildings, and other obstructions. The standard wind sensor height used to obtain data for the DOE maps is 10 meters (33 feet).

You can have varied wind resources within the same property. If you live in complex terrain, take care in selecting the installation site. If you site your wind turbine on the top or on the windy side of a hill, for example, you will have more access to prevailing wind than in a gully or on the leeward (sheltered) side of a hill on the same property. Consider existing obstacles and plan for future obstructions, including trees and buildings, which could block the wind. Also realize the power in the wind is proportional to its speed (velocity) cubed. This means that the amount of power you get from your generator goes up exponentially as the wind speed increases. For example, if your site has an annual average wind speed of about 5.6 meters per second (12.6 miles per hour), it has twice the energy available as a site with a 4.5 meter per second (10 mile per hour) average (12.6/10^3).

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8. What kind of incentives/rebates are available for wind energy through the New Jersey Clean Energy Program?

There is a chart located here which will describe incentives for wind systems. There are also links to several programs with rebates and offers here. Information on past rebates and incentives given out can be found here.

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9. Where can I find vendors for wind equipment?

There are several vendors for wind equipment, many of them can be found here or at this website.

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10. Where can I find installers for wind equipment?

Residential installers for wind equipment can be found here.
Commercial installers for wind equipment can be found here.

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11. Where can I find manufacturers of wind equipment?

Manufacturers of wind equipment can be found here or at this website.

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12. Where can I find a list of licensed electricians?

A list of licensed electricians can be found here.

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13. How much does wind energy cost?

Over the last 20 years, the cost of electricity from utility-scale wind systems has dropped by more than 80%. In the early 1980s, when the first utility-scale turbines were installed, wind-generated electricity costed as much as 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. Now, state-of-the-art wind power plants can generate electricity for less than 5 cents/kWh with the Production Tax Credit in many parts of the U.S., a price that is competitive with new coal- or gas-fired power plants.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working with the wind industry to develop a next generation of wind turbine technology. The products from this program are expected to generate electricity at prices that will be lower still.

Supplementary Material

14. Why does the cost of wind energy vary depending on location?

The most important factors in determining the cost of wind-generated electricity from a wind farm are the size of the wind farm, the wind speed at the site, and the cost of installing the turbines. Each of these factors can have a major impact. Generally speaking:

Larger wind farm, all other factors equal, lower cost of energy.
Higher wind speeds, lower cost of energy.
Less expensive construction costs, lower cost of energy.

On New England ridgelines, for example, wind farms are likely to be smaller, experience lower wind speeds, and be more expensive to install than in the flat terrain of northern Plains states. While wind power may cost less than 5 cents/kWh in the northern Plains, it may cost 6-7 cents/kWh in New England.

In the case of offshore wind farms, the distance that power must be transmitted to shore is the fourth potentially significant cost element.

SEE ALSO
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15. How much electricity can a wind turbine generate?

The ability to generate electricity is measured in watts. Watts are very small units, so the terms kilowatt (kW: 1,000 watts), megawatt (MW: 1 million watts), and gigawatt (pronounced "jig-a-watt," GW: 1 billion watts) are most commonly used to describe the capacity of generating units like wind turbines or other power plants.

Electricity production and consumption are most commonly measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt-hour means one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of electricity produced or consumed for one hour. One 50-watt light bulb left on for 20 hours consumes one kilowatt-hour of electricity (50 watts x 20 hours = 1,000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour).

The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine's size and the wind's speed through the rotor. Wind turbines being manufactured now have power ratings ranging from 250 watts to 5 megawatts (MW).

Example:

A 10-kW wind turbine can generate about 10,000 kWh annually at a site with wind speeds averaging 12 miles per hour, or about enough to power a typical household. A 5-MW turbine can produce more than 15 million kWh in a year--enough to power more than 1, 400 households. The average U.S. household consumes about 10,000 kWh of electricity each year.

Example:

A 250-kW turbine installed at the elementary school in Spirit Lake, Iowa, provides an average of 350,000 kWh of electricity per year, more than is necessary for the 53,000-square-foot school. Excess electricity fed into the local utility system earned the school $25,000 in its first five years of operation. The school uses electricity from the utility at times when the wind does not blow. This project has been so successful that the Spirit Lake school district has since installed a second turbine with a capacity of 750 kW. (Further information on this project, is provided here)

Wind speed is a crucial element in projecting turbine performance, and a site's wind speed is measured through wind resource assessment prior to a wind system's construction. Generally, an annual average wind speed greater than four meters per second (m/s) (9 mph) is required for small wind electric turbines (less wind is required for water-pumping operations). Utility-scale wind power plants require minimum average wind speeds of 6 m/s (13 mph).

The power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed, which means that doubling the wind speed increases the available power by a factor of eight. Thus, a turbine operating at a site with an average wind speed of 12 mph could in theory generate about 33% more electricity than one at an 11-mph site, because the cube of 12 (1,768) is 33% larger than the cube of 11 (1,331). (In the real world, the turbine will not produce quite that much more electricity, but it will still generate much more than the 9% difference in wind speed.) The important thing to understand is that what seems like a small difference in wind speed can mean a large difference in available energy and in electricity produced, and therefore, a large difference in the cost of the electricity generated. Also, there is little energy to be harvested at very low wind speeds (6-mph winds contain less than one-eighth the energy of 12-mph winds).

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16. Can wind energy help to solve rising natural gas prices?

Yes! Wind energy is clean and is often used to substitute natural gas.
Several documents have been posted on this subject:

17. How does wind energy compare to other renewable energy sources?

Wind is the low-cost emerging renewable energy resource.

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18. What about legal, environmental, and economic issues?

In addition to reviewing your site and particular situation and goals, you should also:

Research potential legal and environmental obstacles
Obtain cost and performance information from manufacturers
Perform a complete economic analysis that accounts for a multitude of factors
Understand the basics of a small wind system
Review possibilities for combining your system with other energy sources, backups, and energy efficiency improvements

Establish an energy budget to help define the size of turbine that will be needed. Since energy efficiency is usually less expensive than energy production, making your house more energy efficient first will likely result in being able to spend less money since you may need a smaller wind turbine to meet your needs.

Potential Legal and Environmental Obstacles

Before you invest any time and money, research the potential legal and environmental obstacles that may arise installing a wind system. Some jurisdictions, for example, restrict the height of the structures permitted in residentially zoned areas, although variances are often obtainable. Your neighbors might object to a wind machine that blocks their view, or they might be concerned about noise. Consider obstacles that might block the wind in the future (large planned developments or saplings, for example). If you plan to connect the wind generator to your local utility company's grid, find out its requirements for interconnections and buying electricity from small independent power producers.

Pricing a System

When you are confident that you can install a wind machine legally and without alienating your neighbors, you can begin pricing systems and components.

Approach buying a wind system as you would any other major purchase. Obtain and review the product literature from several manufacturers. Lists of manufacturers are available from the American Wind Energy Association; however, not all small turbine manufacturers are members of AWEA. Manufacturer information can also be found at times in the periodicals listed below. Once you have narrowed the field, research a few companies to be sure they are recognized wind energy businesses and that parts and service will be available when you need them. Also, find out how long the warranty lasts and what it includes.

Ask for references of customers with installations similar to the one you are considering. Ask system owners about performance, reliability, and maintenance and repair requirements, and whether the system is meeting their expectations.

The Economics of Wind Power for Home Use

A residential wind energy system can be a good long-term investment. However, because circumstances such as electricity rates and interest rates vary, you need to decide whether purchasing a wind system is a smart financial move for you. Be sure you or your financial adviser conducts a thorough analysis before you buy a wind energy system.

Grid-connected-system owners may be eligible to receive a small tax credit for the electricity they sell back to the utility. The National Energy Policy Act of 1992 and the 1978 Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) are two programs that apply to small independent power producers. PURPA also requires that the utility sell you power when you need it. Be sure you check with your local utility or state energy office before you assume any buy-back rate. Some Midwestern rates are very low (less than $.02/kWh), but some states have state-supported buy-back rates that encourage renewable energy generation. In addition, some states have "net billing," where utilities purchase excess electricity for the same rate at which they sell it.

Also, some states offer tax credits and some utilities offer rebates or other incentives that can offset the cost of purchasing and installing wind systems. Visit the DSIRE web site, which contains a database of financial incentives for wind energy. Check with your state's department of revenue, your local utility, public utility commission, or your local energy office for information.

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19. Will wind energy equipment have any effect on radio, tv, cell phones, or radar?

This is not a problem for modern small (residential) wind turbines. The materials used to make such machines are non-metallic (composites, plastic, wood) and small turbines are too small to create electromagnetic interference (EMI) by "chopping up" a signal.

Large wind turbines, such as those typically installed at wind farms, can interfere with radio or TV signals if a turbine is in the "line of sight" between a receiver and the signal source, but this problem can usually be easily dealt with by improving the receiver's antenna or installing relays to transmit the signal around the wind farm. Use of satellite or cable television is also an option.

Radar is basically designed to filter out stationary objects and display moving ones, and moving wind turbine blades create radar echoes. It is possible to modify a radar installation to eliminate this problem, according to a consulting firm that has studied it for the British government According to the study; "This study concludes that radars can be modified to ensure that air safety is maintained in the presence of wind turbine farms. Individual circumstances will dictate the degree and cost of modification required, some installations may require no change at all while others may require significant modification."

If a wind project is proposed near an airport or military airfield, this issue will likely require further technical investigation. The interference is generally limited to objects (airplanes) that are physically shadowed by the turbines (that is, very low-flying aircraft), so the further the turbines are from an airfield and the lower their altitude, the less interference should occur.

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20. How can I go about building a wind farm on my land?

A very useful document for building a wind farm can be found here

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21. >How can I invest in wind power?

A very useful document for investing in wind energy can be found here

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22. How big is a wind turbine?

Utility-scale wind turbines for land-based wind farms come in various sizes, with rotor diameters ranging from about 50 meters to about 90 meters, and with towers of roughly the same size. A 90-meter machine, definitely at the large end of the scale at this writing (2005), with a 90-meter tower would have a total height from the tower base to the tip of the rotor of approximately 135 meters (442 feet).

Offshore turbine designs now under development will have larger rotors—at the moment, the largest has a 110-meter rotor diameter—because it is easier to transport large rotor blades by ship than by land.

Small wind turbines intended for residential or small business use are much smaller. Most have rotor diameters of 8 meters or less and would be mounted on towers of 40 meters in height or less.

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23. Where can I find more information?

Information can easily be found with a simple search of the World Wide Web at any search engine. The following is a list of several links to sites that you may find useful:

Energy Audits

1. Will the energy audit cost money?

There is no cost on the customer’s part. This is state funded by the New Jersey Clean Energy Program.

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2. How long will an audit take?

Access to the building will be required for approximately 6 – 10 hours over the course of 2 or 3 days.

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3. When can the audit report be expected?

A typical audit report can be completed in about 2 or 3 weeks, depending on the size of the building. The report can be expected immediately after completion.

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4. What information is required for an audit?

Past energy bills spanning the last occurring year to date is required to examine how power is being consumed. Blue prints and other plans are recommended to increase the efficiency of the audit.

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5. What size buildings can an audit be performed on?

There is no limit to building size; however, if the building is large the audit will require more time to perform and complete.

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6. Can employees be present during the audit process?

Yes. The audit can be performed with residents of the building on the premises. This is actually recommended so that the employees can be questioned about energy usage.

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7. What access is required for the building? (basements, rooftops, etc.)

Access to equipment that consumes power will be required, most importantly, access to the HVAC system. Roof access also is needed to investigate the PV system potential of the building.

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8. Is it possible for me to conduct my own energy audit?

Yes, it is quite simple and almost anyone can do it. Click here to find out how.

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Energy Efficiency

1. How do I begin improving energy efficiency on my own?

There is a very useful checklist of things you can do to improve energy efficiency here.

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2. What should I do to get an energy-efficient heating or cooling system?

First and foremost, find a qualified contractor. Choosing a good contractor to install a new furnace or central air conditioner can be as important as the equipment you choose because proper installation and maintenance is needed for the equipment to operate safely, reliably, and at maximum efficiency. For more information, see ACEEE's tips on picking the right contractor, read the advice from ENERGY STAR, and download their useful HVAC guide.

Next, talk to your contractor about installing a high efficiency system. See ACEEE's recommendations for purchasing a new furnace or boiler, central air conditioner, or heat pump.

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3. Are energy efficient products more expensive?

Energy efficient products do not necessarily cost more. While some do have higher up-front costs, energy efficient products cost less to operate over the product's lifetime. They often offer better performance, as well. Thus, it's important not only to compare the price of the product but also to examine the second or hidden price tag, which is what you will pay as part of your energy bill month after month. When you consider total costs, energy efficient products almost always save money.

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4. How do energy efficient products compare to standard products?

Products that have earned the Energy Star perform as well or better than standard equipment. By purchasing Energy Star qualified products, you will not sacrifice any performance features.

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5. Where can I find Energy Star qualified products?

Check with your local retailers. For additional information, call the ENERGY STAR toll-free hotline at 1-888-STAR-YES (782-7937) or check the ENERGY STAR Website

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6. What can the common comsumer do to help reduce energy usage at the office/work place?

Customers can replace common items with more energy efficient items, such as light bulbs. When purchasing new appliances, make sure it has the “Energy Star” symbol which represents that the appliance is energy efficient.

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7. What is recommended for controlling temperature in the building?

Using a thermostat can control the temperature within a building. If possible, only control the temperature when there are residents present. For example, the heating or air conditioning unit should not be used over-night while the building is unoccupied.

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8. Would a PV or wind system be an option for my building?

Any reusable energy option is a great way to reduce energy costs for any building. An assessment can be done on the premises for more specific requirements of each building.

More information on:

Rowan University Clean Energy Program