How Many Lance Armstrongs would it take to power your home?

At Lopez Elementary School, students gained some good biking muscles trying to keep the lights on!

How? Thanks to a bicycle generator put together by Kent Schaefer, kids in Alex Nelli's science class and Dale Shreve's homeroom learned that they could power lights, a boombox, pencil sharpeners, fans, motors, an electric piano, or a combination of the above, with their own little legs.

Elementary students lined up in Lorri Swanson's garden class to power the fan used in the winnowing process to separate wheat berries from the chaff, which they helped grow and harvest.

Apart from having fun and getting a good workout, the kids also learned first hand the value of precious energy. Can you imagine how hard it would be to have to generate your own electricity? For these students, it's no longer a theoretical concept. They know how much work it is to light a bulb, and hopefully how important it is to use energy wisely and consciously.

One child pedaling as hard as possible generates enough to power one 60 Watt incandescent bulb. At that rate, most children last about five minutes. It would take 300 such hard-working children on generators for 10 minutes each to dry a load of laundry.

They also understand the huge difference in power consumption between efficient (LED or fluorescent bulbs) and inefficient incandescent lights, despite their equivalent brightness. Keeping only one incandescent lamp on is more difficult than powering 5 compact fluorescent and LED lights combined.

A fabulous educational tool, the bicycle generator has a fan (powered by the rider and positioned to cool the rider), a panel of three different types of lights, and ability to connect to DC (direct current) and AC (alternating current) appliances, with or without a battery.

A resident of Center Island, Kent Schaefer said it took two full days to put this ingenious set together, using mostly “stuff that was lying around” his house, plus a free exercise bike courtesy of Neil's Mall. One of his main inspirations is Ryan, his 10-year-old son, genius inventor-in-training, and forth grader at Lopez School.

Lopez school students are very lucky to have such a resource! The potential for education is unlimited. Some high school students are toying with the idea of using the bicycle generator to power the sound system for an energy-efficient dance party, or to make treats for an energy-efficient bake sale fund-raiser.

Fortunately the bike can be powered not only by volunteer child labor. Adult labor is welcome and encouraged. Community members, young or old, can come and try out the bike at the celebration of Lopez Energy Challenge results at the Lopez Island Library Thursday, 16 December, at 5PM. We will hear inspiring energy stories and engage in a community conversation on energy. And of course, you will get to find out how many Tour de France champions it will take to power your home!

Hope to see you there. Bring your own enthusiastic legs.

(Written by Chom Greacen, the article first appears in the Islands Weekly in Dec 2010.)

My Energy Detective Hero

He is a man on a mission. He is obsessed. He is ruthless. He is my hero!

Meet Reuben Deumling, Energy Detective Extraordinaire, our good friend who recently visited Lopez.



He has hawk eyes, honed to detect energy leaks. He snoops out excesses and has a persistent knack for tweaking appliances and dwelling so they require the least energy input. When it comes to killing waste, he is ruthless.

And the results? A 90% reduction in his household electricity use!

After implementing waste-cutting measures, he and his wife consume an average of only 9 watts/person (that’s less than a single efficient lightbulb). At OPALCO rates (excluding the $25.50/month fixed charge) that’s a household electricity bill of just $12 for the whole year!

How did he do it? Two words: curiosity and meters.

To Reuben, conservation is a fun challenge to satisfy his curiosity—how much energy do we really need to have a comfortable life?

Some people change light bulbs or buy energy efficient appliances. But Reuben took a broader approach. He started by reading his electric utility meter daily to track consumption in relation to different use patterns. This allowed him to tinker with specific devices and inspired him to be more conscientious about turning off unnecessary lights and appliances.

His detective work also revealed his fridge consumed a whooping 3 kilowatt-hours a day (1,095 kWh a year). He replaced it with a small fridge with a 413 kWh/year rating.

Then he added additional 3” of insulation to the freezer compartment and positioned the refrigerator so that the coils in the back stayed as cool as possible. The best performance Reuben’s fridge achieved was 98 kWh/year, a quarter of the rating!

Next, he used a “Kill-A-Watt” meter (made to monitor power usage of individual appliances) to ferret out phantom loads – power consumption in off/standby mode. Phantom loads can be eliminated by using a switched plugstrip, or unplugging devices not in use.

“It is about empowerment,” says Reuben, “We don’t need to wait for an expert to tell us what to do. We can figure it out ourselves by reading meters and experimenting.”

You might wonder what it would be like to live with someone as passionate about energy as Reuben. Me too. So I asked Diana, Reuben’s wife and mother of their 5-year-old daughter Isabel.

In a gentle voice she said, “I have felt challenged to change my old habits and learn new ways of doing things. But I share the same vision so I fully support what he does.”

Diana and Isabel seem perfectly normal. If they can do it, maybe so can we!

So…let’s become Energy Detectives.

I believe we can learn a lot by sharing with each other tips and encouragements – not only about electricity but gasoline, propane and water too. Share your stories with us at islandenergymatters@googlegroups.com and check out Reuben’s slides on conservation below. Have fun and save $$$!

(Written by Chom Greacen, the article will appear in the Islands Weekly next week.)

Energy Matters

We used to live in a simpler world. It was a world in which we were blessed by an abundance of cheap hydropower and fossil fuels. It was a world in which our pursuit of low-cost electricity and fuel was not complicated by our mounting impact on the environment, natural resources and habitat-- a world of seemingly endless economic growth and opportunities.

Now that world is not so simple.

What we face today is a world of unprecedented challenges and uncertainties. Our islands currently depend on hydroelectricity for 80% of our power. What will happen if climate change affects rainfall patterns and power generation from hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest? Fuel prices are unpredictable and the environmental risks of extracting petroleum has never been more apparent than with the massive BP spill in the gulf. How can we prepare ourselves and our economy for the time when fossil fuels are no longer as affordable? Is there a way we can maintain and improve our quality of life without compromising the environment and natural resources that we leave our children and their children? And finally, can we move forward in a way that is creative, responsible, affordable and even fun?

We believe the answer to the last question is yes! Innovations in technology, policy, and collaboration open up opportunities that are more than sufficient to address our challenges. We want to explore energy questions and engage our community of readers in an important discussion of our county's energy future. In this space you will find exciting energy facts, ideas and initiatives from our neighbors and around the world. We will offer information on incentives, services, resources and technology that will save energy and money. As we explore our use of energy in the San Juan Islands, we will discuss where we are now, where we want to be in the future, and how to get there.

We envision a thriving local energy economy that is based upon the principals of ecology, peace, and social justice. This column will be a regular feature and because we believe the discussion of our energy future belong to the community, we welcome any questions, comments or inspirations our readers may have. Please write us at islandenergymatters@googlegroups.com.

Who are "we", you may ask? Spearheaded by Lopez Community Land Trust, the taskforce is a small group of energy enthusiasts and professionals as well as members of a group called "Islands Energy Coalition" whose interest is to promote community discussions, solutions and empowerment towards a happy, resilient energy future for the San Juan Islands. Specifically, this column is initiated by Chom Greacen (energy researcher), Chris Greacen (energy consultant), Doug Poole (building performance contractor) and Jeff Dyer (renewable energy contractor), all residents of Lopez Island. We and other IEC members will contribute to future articles. Doug is the groups contact at 468-4047.

(Written by Chom Greacen and Lopez Island Energy Taskforce, this article first appeared in Islands Weekly in May 2010)