Energy Comm 4/30

The Energy Commission meeting was unusually brief tonight. It was adjourned in under two hours.

Items discussed included:
1) Pool - but it was decided that any further substantive discussion should occur after receiving the pool consultant report.
2) Town hall ventilation project
3) Town energy guidelines
4) retrofit of the electric heating system at CHS (currently with the PBC)
5) library window replacement
6) Norton school improvements - these are in process
7) Energy Star - while the Energy Commission endorsed this program a year ago, the Town Manager has not yet forwarded the recommendation to the Council... despite my continued urging. Regardless, I've been told again that this will happen soon. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

8) We continue to make progress on updating the web-based energy benchmarking tool. The idea with this is to benchmark the energy consumption of each of our buildings against other government buildings, nationwide. From there, we can get a better idea of what we do right and what we do wrong.
9) Since the town has earned one photovoltaic (PV), we need to organize a "solar workshop" to help educate people on solar energy.
10) On the 20% by 2010 campaign, the Energy Commission recently received a $5,000 grant to be used to increase the use of, and educate the public about, clean energy. Tonight, the EC voted to begin spending that money. First up... $500 to be spent on flourescent light bulbs. The idea is to offer free bulbs to people who are willing to sign up for clean energy. And the sales pitch is... even though you would pay a premium ($0.011/kWh), the efficiency of the flourescents will reduce your consumption (kWh)... offsetting the premium you pay. I'm the lucky one who volunteered to pickup the bulbs and give them out... I'm hoping Carol Wilson or Ira Kushner will find it in their hearts to spend a few hours with me while I try to convince people to sign up. lol.

Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission liaison