site.openhandstore.org Blog

Small Change = Big Impact

The Operations Department at Project Open Hand always has it’s collective ear to the ground to find ways to save money and energy and we have just completed a small job that could help in both of those arenas.

 A recent development in refrigeration technology is the ECM motor.  This stands for Electrically Commutated Motor.  ECM motors are microprocessor controlled, requiring less current for the same effect and therefore resulting in greater efficiency.  ECM motors are also brushless causing them to have a minimal amount of resistance (friction) which translates into less heat in the coolers and freezers  from the motors themselves.  Refrigeration in it’s most basic form is getting rid of heat, rather than cooling air, so reducing heat from the fan motors is a great first step.  

We were able to have Bay Area Refrigeration install these ECM’s in our freezers and coolers at a minimal cost to POH.  We will be tracking our electrical usage over the next year to see how much of a difference these motors make, but my first impression is that they are already having an impact.

 I have observed over the last few days that the compressors,  which are outside of the boxes at various locations are simply not turning on as frequently as they were, but still maintaining the same temperature in the boxes.   Bingo, energy savings!  We will have some data within the next 6 months to indicate what kind of savings we are generating.  We are hoping to pay off the cost of the installation in energy savings in that amount of time. 

Every small increment of energy savings translates to more resources we can dedicate to our clients.

Posted by Steve

Resolarizing the Food System

Today is Earth Day (isn’t every day Earth Day?) and we were pleased to stumble across an article written by one of our favorite authors, Michael Pollan. Along wth Alice Waters, Mr. Pollan reminds us that some of the most progressive thinking on food and food systems comes from right here in the Bay Area. As usual, Mr. Pollan gets to the heart of the matter with plain, unadorned language that always serves to remind us that good food can and should be a simple proposition:

Resolarizing the food economy can support diversified farming and shorten the distance from farm to fork, shrinking the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers many other significant benefits: Food eaten closer to where it is grown is fresher and requires less processing, making it more nutritious, and whatever may be lost in efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience; regional food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks.

If you have a moment, read the whole article and if you like what you read, buy his books, you won’t be disappointed.

Bring It, Portland

A few days ago we reported that San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, proclaimed that the San Francisco Bay Area was on the road to becoming the electric car capital of the world.  Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, didn’t take kindly to this and threw down the gauntlet:

“Working with the Governor’s office, Portland General Electric, and others, we will be announcing the most aggressive in-garage and on-street wired up charging station strategy that I think any city in the United States has sought to achieve. And that even means you Gavin Newsom, who’s trying hard to make the Bay Area the EV capital of the world. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. That’s gonna be Portland.”

Mayor Newsom’s Communication Director, Nathan Ballard, responded, “We welcome the healthy competition. The more the merrier.”
You can read more about this smackdown, here. 

Meat is Seasonal?

 A provocative notion, to say the least:

If we are seeking something better from our food and our food system, however, we must begin regarding meat and other foods derived from animals as among foods that have a season. That’s because the most environmentally sustainable, humane animal farming is based on grass. Like other vegetation, grass has a season of plenty, a time of growth, reproduction, and then retreat. The best animal farming is based on, and in harmony with, those cycles.

You can read the whole post, here. The comments are worth a look-see, as well.

Electrified!

Count us among the advocates for a tailpipe-free vehicle. And we are fortunate to call San Francisco home as SF is one of the greenest cities this side of, um, Berkeley. Now, 3 Bay Area Cities are committing to make the kind of public investment in infrastructure we’ll need if we are going to see an emissions-free commute.

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose took the first step in becoming the electric vehicle capitol of the world.  The cities unveiled a nine-step program that includes everything from buying fully electric vehicles to creating a massive infrastructure of charging outlets throughout the Bay Area. All of this comes at a cost, of course. It is estimated that the program will cost 1 billion dollars.

You can get all of the details, here.