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Green Efforts at the Studio Power We also replaced the very old and inefficient air conditioning condensor with a new, highly efficient unit. We had monitored the power use in the building with a little box ( http://www.powermeterstore.com/p4154/cent-a-meter.php ) that attached to the fuse box, and realized that the air conditioning was by far the biggest electricity hog. Evidently tube mic's and the telefunken pre's don't really use much power. A timed thermostat turns down the heat (or air conditioning) at night (unless, of course, special late night magic is being made!) . So far the summer kwh's are lower, 30% in July. We've ordered a reflective radient barrier ( http://www.radiantguard.com) which we'll try to use on the black roof to cut down on heat absorbed during the summer days. In the winter well remove it to take advantage of the sun's heat. 7/28/08:We have the reflective barrier in place, held down with 2 X 4's and plastic bags full of rocks. It does seem to make a huge difference - the roof is nearly too hot to touch with out it, and cool under the barrier. Chris insulated the studio from the adjacent unheated storage space with standard fiberglass insulation. Lighting 8/5/08: We tried to install simple motion detectors for the bathroom and storage rooms, but they don't work with compact floresent bulbs! Looks like X10 is the only way. 9/3/08: We are running the X10 motion detector for the incandesant lighting in the studio, and it's working well, shutting of the lights after about 8 minutes if there's no movement in the studio. It has the slight problem of shutting off the lights if someone is sitting in an area that the sensor doesn't reach, eg sitting at the piano. We have another sensor on the way, which presumeably will work together with the first sensor. 10/20/08 We've solved the problem of the lights shutting off by adding more sensors and an more advanced programable reciever. There's a sensor on almost every headphone station, almost any movement is detected. Water Recycling
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