The perfect washing machine



When we moved into our current home in 2001 we purchased a new Staber washing machineIt is the most efficient washer available based on energy, water, and detergent usage.  It is particularly pleasing to know that it was designed and is still manufactured by a family owned business based in Ohio. 


Looking down into the hexagonal washing chamber
What is distinctive about this machine is that it is a top loading horizontal axis design.  See this promotional video that shows its features, and a cool video about How It's Made.  When you open the lid, you are presented with two stainless steel doors that open into a hexagonal washing chamber that rotates inside a larger water tank.  This means that it uses significantly less water, detergent, and also electricity due to its very simple and elegant design.

Front view with cover removed
We noticed a little water underneath the washing machine yesterday so I jumped into repairing it today.  To be clear, this is the first repair I have had to do on this machine in over 13 years!  I remembered that another major feature of this washer is that repairs can be accomplished from the front which is quite unique in the industry and a very thoughtful piece of design.  It was quite simple to remove four screws from the bottom front edge and then take off the front as seen in the image above.  I discovered that a flexible rubber hose had developed a leaking seal where it exits the bottom of the large stainless steel water tank.  It was a relatively simple matter to clean off the existing silicone sealant and replace it with new silicone.  Problem solved!

While this machine is relatively expensive at $1300, I am sure it has saved us hundreds of dollars in energy, water, and detergent.  Overall we have been extremely pleased with it, although my wife occasionally complains that it is a bit harsh on delicates.  If you are looking to replace your machine with a beautifully engineered piece of American design and want something extremely efficient - look no further than Staber!

Decentralised mini-grids based on renewable energy - Case Study: Svalbard

Group work, NorRen Summer School, by
Sara Ghaem Sigarchian, PhD candidate at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Chiara Bordin, PhD candidate University of Bologna, Italy
Dr. Gideon Goldwine, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Fabio Buonsanti, Head of Operations Norway at Aega AS, Norway
Georgios Fytianos, PhD candidate at NTNU, Norway


What we would like to focus on is something that could be considered a bridge between policy and science section, and something that lies on the edge of this summer school and that reflects both our interdisciplinary backgrounds and the interdisciplinary nature of the research institutes to which we belong to.
Svalbard is the vastest and northernmost wild area in Western Europe, that sixty percent of the archipelago is glacier and it is a paradise for rare species of seabirds.




As a country with well-established traditions in environmental and climate research, it was highly surprising to learn about the controversial choice of Norway to encourage a coal enterprise on Svalbard.
This circumstance seems clearly related to the interpretation of the Spitsbergen Treaty, which allows citizens from signatory countries to benefit from the same rights as Norwegians when it comes to engage in industrial activities as mining, fishing or hunting, and to conduct scientific research. That explains the presence of a small Polish scientific base in Hornsund and the Russian mine in Barentsburg. 
 
Such clauses though can also be considered as “open doors” for countries like Russia, ready to claim the whole archipelago in case of Norwegian abandonment. From a Norwegian political perspective, building a strong community, Longyearbyen, with its campus and a raising business around tourism make a lot of sense. What is less clear, though, is the push for a systematic and extensive exploitation of mineral resources in such a fragile environment.
On one hand, despite an extremely low production and productivity, Russia unexplainably keeps on running its mine in Barentsburg, on the other hand Norway is afraid to slow down its production of coal because uncertain are the reactions of the community settled in Longyearbyen, which is believed to directly or indirectly make a living out of the coal enterprise.
Norway’s official position was once made no secret by Robert Hermansen, former managing director of SNSK, a partially State-ownded Norwegian mining company: “To keep control of Svalbard we have to have a community here. If we left, the Russians would immediately claim it”. With these words Hermansen implicitly stated what’s politically needed is only a stable settlement, not a polluting mine! 

In these terms it becomes quite complicated for Norway, an oil producer, to justify the subsidies given to the only coal industry of the country and the embarrassment of the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) grows even more with the boosted production after the new mine that was opened in 2020, a decision that explicitly admits the failure of the much advertised goal to make Svalbard “one of the best-managed wilderness areas in the world”. Norway is today the world’s sixth largest exporter of oil, and the second largest supplier of natural gas to the EU. These data do not necessarily collide with taking an international leadership in environmental politics, especially if we consider the possibility for industrialized countries to achieve the targets ratified in Kyoto by action abroad, rather than at home.
 
Internationally, Norway chose to justify its oil and gas as products by arguing that they pollute less than coal. In such perspective oil and gas become "green" options as opposed to coal.
The emission of CO2 within the archipelago in 2007 surprisingly account for only 1% of the carbon dioxide emitted from the mainland in the same year (KLIF 2020). This is a very small number, as seen in these terms. If, instead, we espouse the more sustainable sharing theory of per-capita emissions and consider Svalbard as something apart as they say, then we realise how intolerable is the current situation, where the per-capita emission of CO2 in 2007 is 181 tons: 3 times more than that of a citizen of Qatar, the country with the highest per-capita emission in the world (55.4 tons); 20 times more than a Norwegian living on the mainland (9.1 tons); 36 times more than a Chinese (5 tons); and 129 times more than an Indian (1.4 tons).

Our feasibility study showed that there are big untapped resources of wind and sun complementary assets that, if exploited, could potentially free Longyearbyen from its energy dependence on a polluting and finite fossil reserve (measurements are taken at the airport = sea level. +30% of wind on top of a hill). Of course, today’s logistical, operational and engineering challenges, especially when it comes to exploiting wind, are enormous, from storage- to permafrost-related issues and crossing seabirds danger. At the moment, PV is the only practicable renewable technology on Svalbard, although only for a few months a year (basically from April to August). The almost nonexistent cloud coverage, scarce level of precipitations, low temperatures, and land availability, make Longyearbyen a theoretical perfect place for its implementation. Even if alone it will hardly reach the same potential of wind in meeting Longyearbyen’s energy demand, it could still play an important role in terms of immediate reduction of local GHG emissions. Thus, I argue the need to prioritise its diffusion as soon as possible.

The quality of PV projects in Polar environments has already been tested. Summit Station in Greenland, and most of the research stations in Antarctica, for example, use photovoltaic panels as a complementary source of wind turbines  to enhance reliability in less windy or dark periods, feeding common battery banks in so called “hybrid systems”
A reduction of local GHG emissions may not only slow down Svalbard’s ecological degradation and buy precious time for humans and other species to adapt to climate change. It would certainly lead to the loss of CO2 per-capita emissions’ world record, which today belongs to Svalbard’s inhabitants.

Unsustainable tech product packaging


Linx evaluation kit - case not to scale
For the last 40 years or so I have been designing and developing electronic products.  Many of these products incorporate short range radio controls, and this has become a specialty of mine.  For the last 20 years or so I have been working with a company called Linx Technologies that make a broad line of miniature radio chips and antennas that are ideal for small products.  When they introduce a new product I sometimes order an evaluation kit from them that typically costs around $100.  These kits include battery-powered demonstration circuits that help to familiarize you with how they work.  

Linx have just released an exciting new radio product that I plan to use in a project I am currently developing so I ordered the relevant evaluation kit (see their promotional image above).  In the past, these kits were shipped in small custom fitted cardboard containers and it was quite simple to recycle the cardboard materials.  Not so with this newest kit that came in an aluminum case that weighs almost 3 pounds and measures 14" x 10" x 4".  I was stunned when the package arrived because it was so huge and heavy.  The distributor (Digi-Key Corp.) packed it in sustainably sourced paper packing material that can be recycled, but I have no idea what I am supposed to do with this large metal case.  I do not need to clutter my home office with this albatross, and will simply store the components on a shelf.  Here are is a picture of the relatively tiny (and not very fragile) parts inside the case:
Kit with all parts visible
I find the idea of shipping small items weighing only a few ounces in a 3 pound case to be completely offensive to my sensibilities as someone committed to living sustainably.  From my perspective this is a 1950s style Mad Men style promotional concept that has no place in today's world and it made me angry.  I also have to question the 1 pound stack of documentation that came in the kit.  While it is convenient to have paper manuals, technology companies do not commonly send any paper documentation with their samples since everything an engineer needs to know about their products is available from their website.  15+ years ago I used to have bookshelves filled with thick technical manuals, but they have all disappeared in favor of PDF documents readily available on corporate websites.

My small rural town recently switched to a Pay As You Throw (PAYT) program which requires our trash to be placed in specially purchased orange trash bags that cost $1 for a small bag and $2 for a large bag.  The purpose of this program is to incentivize increased recycling in our town and I am hoping it will have the desired effect.  Currently the town recycles around 20% of its waste stream, while I am averaging 60%.  The impact of the new program on me is that I resent companies that send me products packaged in bulky non-recyclable materials.  I have conveyed my displeasure to the sales person I work with, and he says he will talk to the marketing department at his company about my concern.

There are so many companies that are embracing social responsibility on so many levels that it makes me sad to see a good company that ignores the realities of a planet with finite resources.

After seeing this blog post, the Linx salesman that I work with offered to pay for return shipping of the offending metal case via FedEx.  I appreciate his thoughtful response to my displeasure.

A friend saw my blog and has asked if he can have the case.  Giving it to him has a lower carbon footprint than shipping it back across the country.  Everybody wins!

Propane: the dirty little secret of rural living

propane tanks below my solar collectors
Living in rural America, one notices propane tanks everywhere because we do not have natural gas pipelines out in the country.  It is a convenient fuel source for cooking, water heating, clothes drying and building heating.  The tanks pictured above are used to supplement the heat from the solar collectors that heat my workshop, and also run our backup generator during power outages which are frequent in the winter.

While propane is a fossil fuel, in the grand scheme of things it is one of the cleaner fossil fuels and is also relatively benign.  I found this webpage promoting propane that offers the following bullet list:
  • Propane is not considered a greenhouse gas.
  • Propane is not damaging to freshwater or saltwater ecosystems, underwater plant or marine life.
  • Propane is not harmful to soil if spilled on the ground. Propane will not cause harm to drinking water supplies.
  • Propane vapor will not cause air pollution. Propane vapor is not considered air pollution.
  • Propane vapor is not harmful if accidentally inhaled by birds, animals or people.
  • Propane will only cause bodily harm if liquid propane comes in contact with skin (boiling point -44°F).
This webpage also states: "damaging emissions following LP Gas combustion is far below that of any readily available carbon based fuel used in vehicles and engines today."  Despite all of the above slightly biased factoids, I have been doing everything I can to reduce our usage of propane, for instance over the last 10 years or so we have dropped our propane consumption from about 800 gallons a year to around 400 gallons a year in our house.  This propane is used for heating, water heating, clothes drying, and cooking in pretty much that order.  This reduction was  created by installing solar collectors for water heating, and replacing our old propane water heater tank with a tankless unit.   Here is a chart showing our annual propane since 2003:
propane statistics for our home
You can also see live statistics of how well my solar collectors are working on this page of my website.

In my workshop, I have dramatically reduced my propane use - largely by burning wood that I cut on my own property:
propane use in my workshop 2000-2020
workshop propane usage - reduced by using solar and firewood
 Live performance statistics for the solar heating system are on this page of my site.

Many of my neighbors have traditionally heated their homes exclusively with firewood.  Two neighbors in particular have added supplementary propane heat over the last five or six years.  One of them rationalized it because he did not want to worry about freezing pipes in his house if he needed to leave it for more than a few days in the dead of winter when temperatures dip below 0°F frequently.   Another neighbor added an in-law suite that was at the far end of his home from the wood stove and elected to put in a propane heater rather than another wood stove.  Unfortunately, propane heaters require electricity to operate so if the power does fail as it often does during winter storms one is still without backup or emergency heat.  This makes a wood stove and/or a propane fired backup generator an important asset.

I have come to accept propane as a necessary evil.  I remember a quote from an author writing for Home Power magazine in which he stated: "propane is the dirty little secret of off grid living".  And that has stuck with me as a way of focusing my consciousness around this relatively benign fossil fuel.