tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post8052027998684658580..comments2023-10-25T07:29:40.789-02:30Comments on UNCLE GNARLEY: TOP TEN MUSKRAT MYTHS: PART IDes Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02566013585647491614noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-3735157009293139442016-02-17T16:47:48.774-03:302016-02-17T16:47:48.774-03:30As to minisplit heatpumps for saving on heating co...As to minisplit heatpumps for saving on heating costs for residential, here are some interesting figures:<br /> Nova Scotia gave rebates for a while at 1500 dollars. About 2011 installations there reached 20,000 a year, that is 30 million dollars to help homeowners.<br /> New Brunswick now rebates at 500 dollars, as they want to reduce their winter peak demand. If 10,000 per year are installed, this is a 5 million dollar rebate to homeowners.<br /> There is a new policy proposed by Nfld Power in the present rate application filed with the PUB. It deals with this minisplit heatpumps for residential. It proposed to educate Nflders on the benefits of these units. <br /> For 2016 it will spend 114 thousand dollars.<br /> For 2017 it will spend 95 thousand dollars.<br /> Typically that is about 30 cents per household. But even that is not a 30 cent rebate. There is no rebate. The 30 cents will cover the cost of a flyer with your bill letting you know that this is a technology that works and is effective to lower heating costs. And they will do this some 30 years after such systems first came to market!. What would we do without them looking out for us! World class, hey! <br /> And the 30 cents per household, that is not a Nfld Power gift to us, from Fortis shareholders.... it is a cost of business, to be approved by the PUB, and tacked on our bill. Call it business as usual. This has been filed now for months, but not yet approved. Will there be thousands at the PUB hearings to protest this..... guess not. After all, they show a 85 percent customer approval rating.... who can complain with that!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-70014949899545714922016-02-17T16:21:51.216-03:302016-02-17T16:21:51.216-03:30To suggest electric boilers are very efficient (98...To suggest electric boilers are very efficient (98 percent) is rather silly, although true. Given that in winter the electricity must come from Holyrood which is burning oil, actually means the efficiency is more like 35 percent than 98 percent. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul approach. If the Dept of Education saves money while the ratepayers are dinged for the extra oil at Holyrood, or to try and create a extra energy load to justify Muskrat, it is a continuation of a policy that increases winter time peak load, that has already forced power outages here.. stupid, stupid, stupid. We have what must be the worst winter peak load versus summer load in Canada, and caused by electric heat. Sure there is nothing cheaper to install than baseboard heaters or electric furnaces, but not cheaper in the long run. The long run... is about 6 years, when the more efficient technology is paid for and it is then saving substancial money. So it is that some countries make it illegal to install baseboard heaters or electric furnaces. This is 100 year old technology that anyone with common sense would agree should be abandoned. Winston AdamsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-61536460016001063912016-02-17T10:15:58.584-03:302016-02-17T10:15:58.584-03:30Electric boilers are very efficient (98%) vs oil f...Electric boilers are very efficient (98%) vs oil fired boilers that typically range from 80-85%. The reason why these conversions are occurring particularly in schools is that the school board pays for maintenance of their systems. Electric boilers have virtually no maintenance costs (perhaps a heating element burning out every few years) compared to oil fired equipment which must be serviced at least annually. The dept of education pays the energy costs so it is an advantage for the school board to reduce their operational costs related to maintenance. <br /><br />And up until the recent (last 18 months) decrease in oil prices, electricity was the cheaper fuel here in the province so converting made good sense.<br /><br />In home installations there is nothing cheaper to install than electric baseboard heat. Even the high end homes typically have it unless the owner is willing to pay thousands more for oil fired or heat pump technology.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-72318311766553604482016-02-16T11:21:48.397-03:302016-02-16T11:21:48.397-03:30As to above comments, last week Nfld Power`s conse...As to above comments, last week Nfld Power`s conservation engineer, Wayne Upshall was on CBC call in radio. He admitted that heatpumps reduce heating energy use by about 2 thirds on yearly average... but they offer no rebates, just loans on which they make considerable profits. He discussed nothing on the ability of minisplit heatpumps to reduce winter peak demand,BUT IN FACT, New Brunswick Power offers a rebate of 500.00, for just this reason: that it reduces winter peak demand. And if one checks the winter temperature of Moncton NB, to St John`s , we have milder temperatures, which assures the same units used here will reduce peak demand here even more.... it is just the way it works. Surely Wayne Upshall, an engineer cannot deny that fact! Winston AdamsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-34582097816946464342016-02-16T09:40:07.299-03:302016-02-16T09:40:07.299-03:30The NL government has been doing nothing to implem...The NL government has been doing nothing to implement electrical demand reduction on the Avalon an I wonder if it is intentional. There are 800 public buildings and many of the larger, older structures are heated with oil boilers. It is very common to demolish the old oil heating system, spend a million on an electrical upgrade, and then implement electric baseboard heating. Take Holy Heart high school as a recent example - the steam boiler is being replaced with two electric boilers with 1 megawatt total capacity. That is a new megawatt on the gird for no good reason. It is absurd to be burning oil to make steam in Holyrood to generate electricity for electric resistance heat (perhaps 35% efficient) when you could have burned oil directly in a furnace at perhaps 80% or better efficiency.<br /><br />We do nothing to discourage electric baseboard heating in new residential subdivisions. We don't rebate heat pumps, pellet stoves, discourage baseboard heating or consider new electrical demand when retrofitting government buildings.<br /><br />Is this by design? An attempt to increase demand, and thwart efforts to reduce demand, all to justify expenditures at Muskrat Falls? Or is it just incompetence and lack of planning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-19176907583460646022016-02-16T05:44:42.587-03:302016-02-16T05:44:42.587-03:30Another great Muskrat Myth was that the court case...Another great Muskrat Myth was that the court case currently going on in Quebec has nothing to do about the Water Management Agreement, or Muskrat Falls. hogwash!. This court case is all about the interpretation of the 1969 Power Contract. If the Recapture Allowance is limited to 300 MW, or the continious energy definition is interpreted a certain way it may preclude Nalcor from "sharing" energy between the assets. This means that Muskrat can only produce energy when the water is flowing. As the previous comment suggest this will have a huge impact on what was intended with the Muskrat Falls project. <br /><br />The government and Nalcor have been silent on the status of the court case. They have not told the public the true risk to their pocketbooks. They have again tried to simplify it. Gilbert Bennett has said he is not worried about it. Bullshit! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-19977580129645898092016-02-15T21:19:39.664-03:302016-02-15T21:19:39.664-03:30And the biggest myth of all “Danny Williams broke ...And the biggest myth of all “Danny Williams broke the Quebec lock on Labrador power”. Even John Crosbie fell for that one in his letter to the Telegram endorsing Muskrat Falls.<br /><br />The arithmetic proves otherwise. The link to Nova Scotia is 500 MW and the link from NS to NB is 300 MW further reduced by 50 MW when the wind is blowing to accommodate the windmills on the Isthmus between NS and NB for a net export ability to the US of 250 MW. The combined upper and lower Churchill capacities when completed are 8,500 MW so he succeeded in diverting 6% of the power to the mainland of which only 3% can reach Quebec’s market in the US and NB. The percentages are even lower if one includes the planned 3,000 MW of wind for the Smallwood Reservoir. <br /><br />Further, the Province’s position will be greatly weakened if we lose the Water Management Agreement court case. Quebec will control when 80% of Muskrat Falls power is produced. They will also control the “Energy Warehouse” in both production and its transmission except for a few percentage points.<br /><br />The timing of Muskrat production can lead to serious financial problems in honouring the firm power commitment to Nova Scotia and securing enough electric heat energy to keep Holyrood from burning oil. For the past ten years the Upper Churchill has produced full power in winter which would allow water for Muskrat but Quebec’s power market could be changing as the electric heat market is changing. Natural gas is becoming the more economical choice for heat and advances in heat pumps have made them much more efficient for heat and also more affordable for both new builds and even heating system replacements. Progressive Utilities such as NB Power are providing economical financing so that homeowners can install heat pumps and start saving immediately. The payment is less than the power savings resulting in more money remaining in the homeowner’s pocket right from the start.<br /><br />The Upper Churchill produces nine times more power from the same water than the “run of the river” Muskrat so it makes little sense for Quebec to release full water when they do not have a market for all of the power. It would be better for them to release partial water and sell what is needed to NL rather than waste energy so Muskrat can be at full power. This will require negotiations and Quebec will be in control. The WMA court case is much more serious for this Province than anything in the past. A loss will mean that Danny strengthened Quebec's lock on Labrador power.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5235138415013046381.post-10868716804632299562016-02-15T10:16:58.468-03:302016-02-15T10:16:58.468-03:30I first came across the initials JM in PUB posted ...I first came across the initials JM in PUB posted submissions on Muskrat Falls. I wondered who it was. My initial thought was Jim Morgan, a vocal opponent to the project. But as I read some of the material, I realized it was too professional and detailed to be Jim Morgan, otherwise known as `Jigger Jim`. So detailed was JM`s submission, that I had to read it in intervals, and was amazed as to the amount of work that went into his analysis. And I have followed his pieces over recent years that shows continued in depth analysis. I wonder if he is a government employee, who must keep his identity secret or suffer consequences.<br /> On this piece, he refers to the general apathy of why there were so few who opposed this project. And also that so few had the interest to study this project in detail. While this is true,the project and alternatives are complex issues, and I suggest, rather too complex for most people without technical training. JM, Dave Vardy,and also Maurice Adams has technical or professional training. Nevertheless, there are many many with such training that chose to stay silent.<br /> As to the Myths, Myth 2 and 3 listed here deals with the issue of `Do we need the power` and `our winter demand`<br /> Power, including the chart of now showing a possible reduced demand going forward, refers to energy to be used, in GWH(gigawatt hours). The other aspect of power is our `peak demand` which is what is the maximum mega capacity needed during these cold snaps for our baseboard heater use. <br /> There is the acknowledgement by power companies that efficient heat pump heating will lower power consumed for heating by 50 percent or more. But they continue the myth that the minisplit heatpumps may not reduce peak demand. This myth needs to be shattered. When properly sized,and installed, and models used suitable for our climate that operate at our cold snap conditions, they absolutely reduce the heating component of our peak load by 50 percent. At a reduction of 3 kilowatts per average house for heating, simple arithmetic shows a reduction of 450 megawattts during winter peak demand for 150,000 house. And there are additional reductions if heatpumps are applied for hot water heating, and also transmission loss reductions.<br /> I say this is absolutely correct from evidence based on observations I have done on a few installations I have monitored. And it is in accordance with independent published data by manufacturers and other agencies.<br /> I had proposed an aggressive conversion to these systems, at the rate of about 13,000 house conversions per year. I felt this was a high number, until recently finding out that Nova Scotia was converting at the rate of 20,000 houses per year, as of the year 2011.<br /> It is both necessary to reduce energy demand and winter peak demand. It is the peak demand reduction that reduces the need for over capacity in new generation and transmission infrastructure. <br /> Would love for JM to address Myth 11: peak demand reduction with Efficiency, primarily minisplit heatpumps, and the modest cost of this approach, and the long term saving to ratpayers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com