Expert Q&As

Q&A: Brian Clark Howard Posted By Paul McGinniss

Brian Clark Howard is a multimedia journalist, editor, writer and photographer based in New York City and Connecticut. He is a Web Editor at The Daily Green, which is part of Hearst Digital Media. Brian was previously Managing Editor of E/The Environmental Magazine. He is the coauthor of several books, including Green Lighting and Geothermal HVAC from McGraw-Hill (2010). Brian's work has been featured by Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and he has written for The Green Guide, Popular Mechanics online, Men's Health, Mother Nature Network, Plenty, Oceana, AlterNet, Connecticut Magazine and elsewhere. Brian has a masters in journalism from Columbia University and he was a finalist for the 2005 Reuters/IUCN Environmental Media Awards for his cover story on the bottled water industry. Brian appears frequently on numerous radio and TV programs and blogs as the URTH Guy at The Daily Green.

You mention the benefits of low voltage lighting in the Green Lighting book. Can you explain this concept and explain how to best incorporate this into a home or business?

As I learned while researching Green Lighting (http://amzn.to/bNnM07) with my coauthors Seth Leitman and Bill Brinsky, low-voltage lighting is becoming increasingly popular, and offers several benefits if the application is right. By definition, low-voltage lighting operates at 30 volts or less, instead of the standard line voltage (in the U.S. 110). Low-voltage lighting has been used for years by people off the grid and in boats and mobile homes. However, more people are now using it in typical homes and commercial spaces, both indoors and outdoors.

Low-voltage lighting is safer for working on, for being around and has lower fire risk. It allows for greater flexibility of design, so interior decorators use it for complex and interesting track lighting and landscape designers use it to gorgeous effects outdoors. The biggest advantage is that low-voltage lighting produces two and a half times as much light as line-voltage lamps. In other words, a 50-watt incandescent bulb will be as bright on low-voltage as a 125-watt bulb on line voltage. And bulbs last considerably longer on low-voltage, so that's an added green benefit.

If you are powering the lighting from a battery or solar panel, you probably don't need to do anything else to keep it low voltage. If you are using grid power, you need a transformer to step down the voltage. These can be built into low-voltage fixtures or located elsewhere in your house. They typically come with long warranties and aren't very expensive. Many people consider low-voltage lighting a DIY project, and I've seen some great step-by-step guides on Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/lawn-garden/1273536).

You work in the most awesome green building - the Hearst Tower, which being in is a scintillating experience to say the least. (I had the pleasure of going to one of the Daily Green Heart of Green Award Ceremonies there as well as meeting with the Daily Green editor upstairs.) Can you tell us about some of the cool lighting elements to that building, and other green elements and what it's like working in such a well designed building?

Working in a gorgeous green building is definitely one of the perks of working for Hearst. The outside of the 44-floor NYC tower is mostly all glass, so it's wonderful for day lighting. This both saves huge amounts of electricity and makes the building more pleasant to be in. There are electronically controlled screens to reduce glare or to help cool in summer as needed.

Hearst Tower recently completed its first replacement of all the light bulbs in the building, most of which are fluorescents. They changed the previous ones with even more efficient newer models. All the bathrooms have occupancy sensors and the floors darken automatically in the evening. The fantastic cafeteria is also daylit, and is housed in the reclaimed floors of the original historic Hearst building, which now forms the base of Hearst Tower.

It's wonderful to work in the tower because we can always see outside, and the building has excellent ventilation and low-VOCs. It feels modern and clean, not stuffy or dingy like many office buildings. The atrium and café are naturally cooled and humidified by a fountain of reclaimed rainwater. The building also incorporates recycled materials. Like their ownership of The Daily Green, the tower is a symbol of Hearst's commitment to sustainability.

You have a new book on geothermal heating out. Can you tell me your thoughts on the affordability of geothermal installations for the typical home? I have found in the Hudson Valley, that by the time you include drilling or excavation cost with the installation and equipment cost, the price can be quite high. Do you find geothermal systems cost effective for homes or is it better suited for larger commercial projects where economy of scale comes into play?

You're right that geothermal heating and cooling projects tend to pencil out quicker for commercial projects. In our new book, Geothermal HVAC (http://amzn.to/d3ILAJ), coauthor Jay Egg and I present real accounting figures for projects Jay's Florida-based company (Egg Geothermal) has installed. For a typical commercial system the time it took the owner to recoup the investment in geothermal was only half a year, when considering tax credits, 5-year MACRS depreciation allotments, utility and maintenance savings and subtracting what it would cost to purchase a conventional HVAC system instead of geothermal (Jay reasonably pointed out to the client that they had to buy some kind of system to replace their failed one). For a typical homeowner Jay's system took 2.9 years to pay back, since homeowners can't take deprecation.

These numbers show that it's crucial to not just look at the upfront cost of going geothermal. There are substantial long-term benefits, and the technology will typically pay for itself faster than most other major green upgrades, such as solar, wind or fuel cells. It's true that homeowners can see lower costs for geothermal installations if they are working with new construction, but even retrofits can pay off in just a few years, as Jay's example shows.

It's true that excavation and drilling account for a significant part of geothermal expense, but in most cases that will only have to be done once in the lifetime of a property. Geothermal systems last longer than conventional HVAC, but even after 25 years or so when you need to replace the air handler or other components, you don't have to redrill, so at that point the costs will be much lower than a new system. Some people can also take advantage of the technology for less by using existing water wells or possibly even ponds or lakes. It's also true that areas of the country with less rocky soil than New York and New England can have cheaper installations, since horizontal trenching can more readily be done instead of vertical boring. But even in the Northeast, the geothermal industry is growing rapidly, and the systems pay off. It does take a bit of an upfront investment, but so do many other housing projects, such as adding on an extension or putting in a pool.

Geothermal HVAC has several benefits beyond financial payback as well. It provides exceptionally even, comfortable temperature control, without the hot or cold spots that plague fossil-fuel systems. Geothermal systems are whisper quiet and very reliable, requiring less maintenance or worry. Paired with radiant floor heating they are hypoallergenic and even more efficient. And instead of sending your energy dollars overseas you are supporting local jobs and homegrown renewable energy. That's worth something to many people, and going geothermal can help you get more for your house when you do sell.

You've been writing a lot about ecotourism (tourism to places having unspoiled natural resources, with minimal impact on the environment being a primary concern). If an unspoiled place gets popular - isn't there a potential downside to this concept?

That's a great question, and it is certainly one that the ecotourism industry is very concerned about. In fact one of the founding principles of ecotourism was to allow people to visit the world's great sites without spoiling them. (Another major tenant being use of tourism revenue to support conservation projects and sustainable communities.) We see this issue playing out in places like the Galapagos Islands, where stricter controls are being placed on tourists as a result of the impact that so many visitors have caused.

Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry, which itself is often described as the world's biggest industry. I think part of the appeal is that guests inherently have the sense that they want to leave a place at least as good, if not better, than how they found it. Given climate change and other problems, some of the most spectacular places are now called "endangered vacations" (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/endangered-vacations-2010), but hopefully things will turn around.

When traveling, try to patronize providers that use renewable energy and efficiency, protect the local environment, employ locals and are committed to sustainable development. Don't be afraid to ask a vendor for specifics. For example, I recently met with the owner of a new boutique ecoresort in Dominica, Rosalie Bay (http://www.rosaliebay.com/), and they generate 70% of their power from their own big wind turbine and solar panels. That shows real commitment to sustainability, beyond the rhetoric of some properties.

What do you think about the White House finally getting solar panels?

I actually read this week in David Findley's book Solar Power for Your Home that the original White House solar panels, installed by Jimmy Carter, didn't go to waste after Reagan unceremoniously took them down. They got moved to Unity College in Maine, where they provide clean power to this day. It's very unfortunate that we let go of the green vision this country had under Carter, but it's good Obama has tried to steer us back to green jobs and cleaner energy. Unfortunately there have been many distractions in Washington and stonewalling by the GOP, so it has been difficult to enact the kind of environmental legislation we really need.

The biggest environmental laws in this country were passed under Richard Nixon, during a time when both sides of the aisle worked together. We need to find more areas of common ground. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water and share our home with millions of other species of plants and animals. Sustainability shouldn't be a partisan or polarizing issue.

Who's your favorite environmental leader or activist?

One of the more interesting activists I know is Remy Chevalier, who lives in southern Connecticut and had founded the environmental action center at the popular Wetlands nightclub in NYC. Remy helped us research the Green Lighting book, and he has been making the case that a large-scale switch to LEDs (which also pay for themselves pretty quickly) would save so much energy that we could shut down our aging nuclear power plants, especially the troubled Indian Point in the Hudson Valley. Remy has always been about using new technology, fashion and art to shake up the status quo and get people thinking in a more sustainable direction (http://www.remyc.com/).

On the national level, I have been inspired by Edward O. Wilson, the Cousteau family, Lois Gibbs, and of course Dian Fossey. Each year I am also deeply inspired by The Daily Green's Heart of Green Award winners, in 2010 headlined by Ted Danson (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/heart-of-green-awards).

Paul McGinniss, "The Green Advocate," is a columnist for www.newyorkhousemagazine.com. You can read more about Green Lighting and Geothermal HVAC on his blog: www.thenewyorkgreenadvocate.blogspot.com