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FULL HOUSEIf anyone has ideas and suggestions regarding AEA's season agenda (2005/ 2006), please send an email with your comments. For instance, you can suggest meeting topics, field trips or workshops and your suggestions will be considered by AEA steering committee.
Below are some of our past events that you might like to repeat.
Off
The Grid Home Office Meeting AEA Mtg 5/24/2002!
Were you there? If not, here are the highlights.
Where: Cincinnati's Convention Center, downtown
Home designer and energy consultant John F. Robbins lead this presentation and discussion of residential energy efficiency in the TriState at this shared meeting of the SW Ohio Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), SW Ohio Alternate Energy Association (AEA) and Cincinnati AIA Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE).
John released and discussed the results of his recent survey of 2001 home energy costs, plus present an overview of residential energy efficiency opportunities based around his outline he uses to evaluate his own home designs as well as those of his clients'.
This meeting was held at the Cincinnati Convention Center during
the middle of the Affordable Comfort Conference (ACC), the largest
residential energy efficiency conference in North America. ACC
is at the convention center that entire week, April 15 - 20. Attendees
of our local meeting were welcomed by ACC to tour for free its
trade show of over 50 exhibitors who showcased their professional
energy efficiency and
performance diagnostic tools, products and services.
The ACC is an annual conference primarily aimed at and attended by professionals and practitioners in the residential energy, comfort and health areas. Interested professionals, students and do-it-yourselfers should also review the ACC course offerings at the two website links below. This was the first time any similarly large residential energy conference was held in Cincinnati, and since no local schools offer this kind of comprehensive technical education agenda, this was a unique opportunity for local people seeking such education and exposure without additional travel and lodging expenses.
http://www.affordablecomfort.org/html/02-bro7.html
http://www.affordablecomfort.org/html/02-bro4.html
John F. Robbins, CEM
"Strawbale Homes for the Holidays" November 29, 2001 at 6 PM, Ridgewood Corporate Center ( just off I-275 at the Hillsboro exit in Milford); Pizza and Cider before the meeting was outstanding! Were you there? If not, here are the highlights.
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FULL HOUSEBeginning at 6:30 PM, after a preliminary gathering and pizza eating social, Paul Koppana, a once-AEA member and 'natural' builder visiting from Colorado, presented a video tour of his work on passive solar, strawbale homes and other features including earthen plasters and adobie floors. Locally, Paul has collaborated with AEA's own solar designer and energy engineer John Robbins, and their Cinci superinsulated, passive solar homes have been featured on past AEA Home Tours. Now living in his own passive solar strawbale house with active solar hot water in Crestone, Colorado, Paul does business under the name SkyHawk Construction using as many natural materials and energies as possible in his beautiful structures.
AND there was more!!
Strawbale has come to Cincinnati, quietly at first, in the form
of an organic harvest processing building at Grailville last summer,
as a swimming pool enclosure at a private residence and in a church's
community barn in Union KY... We got a sneak preview of the first
code-approved strawbale building in Hamilton County. One of the
designers, AEA's Andy Corn, of Humpert Wolnitzek Architects, was
among our guests, as well as the folks from the Cincinnati Nature
Center, who will be the proud owners of the building... and we
also invited our friends at Grailville, Michaela Farms, &
some surprise guests, all of whom were among the early straw bale
builders, all to bring us up-to-date on what's different inside
the Strawbale Scene in Cinci as we pass this milestone in alternative
homes and architecture...
Shared Car Meet Subject:
Car meeting! June Meeting: SW Ohio AEE
Date & Time: Thursday, June 21, 2001, 6:00 meet (6:15
start) - 7:30 pm Topic: Dual-Fuel Cars
EarthSave picnic June 17, 3 pm at James Taylor Park in Newport, KY. John F. Robbins spoke at 4 pm on "Solar Energy, Saving Energy, and Buying Green."
Van Mell Revisited April 26, 2000
Time: 6:30 PM
Van Melle installed another
690 PVs to produce 52 kW more of grid-intertied electricity (in
addition to the 4 +/- kW they had before). This is now the largest
PV installation in KY. For the April meeting, AEA made a field
trip to Van Melle. This was a good AEA event for the EarthDay
month of April 2000.
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One of AEA's newest members, Allen Rainey (seated on right), invited us to his completely solar and wind powered "Camp Amakanata"! The power station is 500+ watts of PV power and a newly installed Air 400 wind generator. The power comes through a Trace C-40 controller into 12 golf-cart batteries (1200+ amp hours). A Heart 2000 inverter converts 12-volts to 110. (See picture, below). The power is used for pumping, lights, phone, tools, etc. Toilets are composting. Shower water is solar heated, too. Camp Amakanata currently provides only tent camping. Popups and RVs are welcome, although there's no electric hookups, just a charging station for 12V batteries.
Amakanata was not public yet, but AEA members were invited to camp Friday night, Nov.12, (free) before the meeting! Allen says he may be able to conjure up a solar cooked meal or a barbecue for our meeting. He invited AEA members to bring their solar ovens, too!
Two AEA members, Eric Merkt & his wife who live in SE Indiana, did camp out. The other attendees (non campers) besides the Raineys included Jim & Joy Fangmeyer from Hidden Valley Lake, Stu, Jeanette & MyaLee (sp?), Diana DePuydt from EC, Ken Shelly and John Robbins.
We had 5 solar ovens on a beautifully mild, mostly sunny day. Cookers were setup between noon and 1pm. Ken had his new lighter weight model. John Robbins had his earlier heavyweight model made by Ken and modified by John, plus the little cardboard one bought from a retailer. Stu had one of the original ones made during one of the earliest AEA solar cooker workshops. Allen had the fancy sun oven sold by Real Goods. It was not only fancy, including a suspended rack which is self-levelling!, but it also got up to 100 degrees higher than the best of the others. We cooked vegetable soup, biscuits, croisants and cookies to eat. (picture).
Allen gave us a tour of the campsite, including his 2 composting toilet "outhouses". There was one bank of fixed-position PV solar electric panels, another bank of tracking PVs. A wind generator was mounted on a pole much higher than everything else. All power feeds into and comes back from the battery & controls shed. On its north side is a charging station for the campers. There's also the backup fueled generator next to the charging station. He said solar setup cost him about the same as the utility wanted to extend their electric line back to the camp. The only trouble he's had has been when he runs his air conditioner and the water pump at the same time. (The water for the camp is pumped from a well.)
BTW, there was also an outdoor shower for the campers. It had solar hot water, too!
There were enough windy times during the afternoon that the wind generator actually came on, so we could see solar and wind power in action at the same time while we were eating our solar cooked meal. It was also 'cool' to see that 'passive' tracking solar array which moved without any motors track the sun so quietly.
Allen said he'd be happy to do this again in the future! AEA says THANK-YOU to the Rainey's for their generous off-the-grid hospitality!
More info: contact Allen Rainey
allenrainey@juno.com
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AEA's 18th Solar & Energy Efficient Home Tour The American Solar Energy Society's National Tour of Solar Homes and AEA's 18th Annual Solar and Energy Efficient Home Tour .
AEA's 20th Anniversary Solar Cookout with Ken Shelly. Here's
John Robbins and Ken enticing a lovely lady to sample some of
Kens famous solar baked cookies while her husband looks on. Wonderful
time was had by all. More pictures.
Have a solar baked cookie?
More info: contact John Robbins: 363-0376 or jrobbins@queencity.com
Annual Home Tours
October 18th 1997 was the date of AEA's 16th Home Tour 97. The tour featured 6 homes and an ecological demonstration and learning center.Saturday October 17th was the date for AEA's 17th Home tour 98. The tour featured 5 homes of various types.
For tour updates throughout the year, visit ASES home page http://www.ases.org/solar.
If you prefer contacting us by phone, contact AEA's president John Robbins at (859) 363-0376 (area code required from greater Cincinnati) with home tour ideas and comments about AEA's next year agenda.
Meetings and activities are posted each month as received.
[Home Page] [Home Tour 97] [Home Tour 98] [Home Tour 99] [Home Tour 2003]
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Alternate Energy Association
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