Mason City globe Gazette, IA
12-07-06
Energy conference explores possibilities
By DICK JOHNSON, Of The Globe Gazette
MASON CITY — Radon. Wet basements. Asian Lady Beetles and Box Elder bugs. Carbon monoxide. Home insulation and ventilation.
The second annual Energy Efficient Health Homes Conference, held this week at North Iowa Area Community College, offered education on those topics and more, plus a variety of trade show exhibits.
The conference was sponsored by the ISU Extension, which received a grant from the Iowa Energy Center.
The goal is to help contractors and others improve energy and cost efficiency, said Paul Fitzgerald, Cerro Gordo County Extension education director, “because so many people might pay $400 a month for their house and spend $400 a month on heating and cooling. And that’s wasted energy.”
“We hope to replicate the information that we’re presenting today,” Fitzgerald said, “that 50 people here will go out and tell their associations and their companies.”
Donald Lewis, an Extension entomologist and professor of entomology at Iowa State University, spoke about combating bugs — “accidental invaders” who wander into houses. He told real estate and construction industry representatives that the battle is lost if you’re fighting the beetles and the box elders and such in your home.
“They’re already ahead of you,” Lewis said. “The real way to manage Box Elder bugs and Asian Lady Beetles is to ‘build them out,’ make the house so tight that there are no cracks and gaps for the insects to get in. The best we can do is reduce the problem by starting while the insects are still outside.”
Robert Ferris, product manager for Fantech, an air movement-and-ventilation company based in Sarasota, Fla., demonstrated a quiet, efficient bathroom exhaust fan, a heat-recovery ventilator, and an air filtration system.
The fans can move 90 cubic feet of air per minute, and need just 19 watts to operate; they reduce mold, which is generated by moisture in bathrooms.
Fantech’s heat recovery ventilators supply and exhaust air simultaneously — and recover energy in the exhaust air. It can be 60 percent to 80 percent efficient at recovering that energy, with a 36-watt motor, Ferris said.
The High-Efficiency Particulant Arrestance (HEPA) system captures dust and mold spores.
Education-wise, “We’re getting there,” Ferris said. “But we still need to do these conferences, to spread the word.”
Lewis said the conference is a good way to gather a diverse group of people, “just to kind of rub shoulders, say, ‘You know, we’re all kind of in this general area together, and how can we work together to help each other out?’”
“It also helps us to decide what really are our problems, and what should we be worrying about,” he said. “Not that we need to be alarmist and worry about everything. But the more we know about it, the easier it is to make those intelligent decisions.”
Reach Dick Johnson at 421-0556 or .