Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Green Room of Charleston

On August 7th, The EcoBilt Energy Team installed a DC powered fan that is now on display at The Green Room of Charleston. The fan, located on the roof, is powered by a 20 watt AEE solar module which is ballasted as seen in the picture below. The purpose of The Green Room is to showcase companies representing various green products currently available to citizens in the Charleston area.

The Green Room is located in the heart of downtown Charleston on Cumberland Street and will be open to the public in late August or early September. Come by and check out the EES display!









































Wednesday, May 6, 2009

EcoBilt will be Greenville, SC this week for "Sustain SC"


EcoBilt is attending the "Sustain SC" conference in Greenville, SC on  May 7th and 8th.  The conference will provide great speakers, workshops and networking opportunities for architects, developers, building owners, and service providers.  It will be a great opportunity for EcoBilt to meet other sustainable developers in the SC region and also hear how the stimulus package is going to help SC with their goal of becoming more sustainable. Hope to see you there!

Friday, April 24, 2009

BLOWER DOOR TEST DEMONSTRATION

EcoBilt, along with Pete Moncada of Watt Not, had the pleasure of performing a blower door test demonstration this past week for the AP Environmental Science students from Pinewood Prep. The test was done at the teacher's house in Charleston giving the students a "hands on" idea of how residential energy audits are performed. After the test was concluded, we explained the results to the students which were surprisingly favorable - so much so, the house could easily meet Earthcraft House (www.earthcrafthouse.com) energy threshold standards. Good work, Mr. Neuman!! It is good to see individuals practicing what they preach.












Monday, March 30, 2009

Feed-In Tariffs

This is a great article on feed-in tariffs for Solar PV in Gainesville, FL that was brought to our attention.  Long story short,through this feed-in tariff, "The local power company is required to buy renewable energy from independent producers, no matter how small, at rates slightly higher than the average cost of production. This means anyone with a cluster of solar cells on their roof can sell the power they produce at a profit."

As evidenced in the article, this type of incentive can jump start a struggling renewable energy economy in any state of the country regardless of any other incentives that are in place. This can make any state in the US, like South Carolina on the local and state level that does not have very attractive incentives a much more popular candidate for solar PV.   

Monday, March 16, 2009

Wind Energy FAQ

Wind energy is becoming a popular topic among rural landowners with a mountain top or field that is consistently exposed to wind. Like any other relatively new technology, questions arise. How reliable are wind turbines? Who should buy a wind turbine? Is noise a problem with the turbine? And the ever so popular, Will I save money on my energy bills? To help answer these questions, we found a FAQ section on the American Wind Energy Association website. Enjoy!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Rainwater Harvesting

Through our relationship with AET Solar and MII Energy, EcoBilt is proud to announce going forward with the addition of rainwater harvesting to our service mix. For more information, call us directly or visit:
http://miienergy.com/rainwaterharvesting.html

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Solar Thermal for Dummies

With the popularity of Solar Thermal growing everyday, we get a
lot of questions surrounding how solar thermal works, the pros
and cons of different system types, as well as, cost/payback
details. That said, we have found the following article to be a
great overview for those interested in Solar Thermal pondering
the same questions. Feel free to contact us if we can go into
further detail- otherwise, we hope the article will serve as a
primer to help getyou started....
http://www.homepower.com/basics/hotwater