Legionella: The bacteria that inhabits cooling towers

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Legionella is a type of bacterium that causes the respiratory illness called legionellosis.


Legionella dwells in natural water systems, but thrives more in hot and artificial water systems. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention explains that the heated water of cooling towers of air conditioning systems provides an ideal environment for Legionella growth. Accom News adds that the bacteria “is most active when the temperature of the water is between 20° and 45° and there is sufficient nutrient to support growth and multiplication.”



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When people breathe in water droplets that contain legionella, they can be infected with legionellosis. In 1976 in Philadelphia, there was an outbreak of the disease when the American Legion convention members got infected due to contaminated cooling towers. Legionnaire’s disease, a form of legionellosis, was coined after this outbreak.


To prevent legionella from thriving in the cooling towers of air conditioning systems, regular inspection and cleaning must be observed. Both cooling tower manufacturers and companies that have cooling towers must follow strict maintenance guidelines. Companies can also seek the services of air conditioning and heating contractors like Comfort Experts and Quality Cooling and Heating, which conduct air quality analysis to make sure that there is no legionella in the air.



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How does an air quality analysis work? Find out by vising this website.

Heating and cooling systems for underground shelters

Nuclear threats, extreme weather, and doomsday predictions – people can never tell when they’re going to happen, but they can always prepare for the worst rather than be sorry.

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One of the options people could take is to build an underground shelter, at least 8 feet deep, adjacent to the occupants’ house, and equipped with the necessary survival kits and proper ventilation.


The chapter on Nuclear War Survival Skills of the book Fighting Chance: Ten Feet to Survival by Eugene P. Wigner notes that one of the most significant survival skills that people should learn is “how to keep occupied shelters adequately ventilated in all seasons and cool enough for many days of occupancy in warm or hot weather.”

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The author recommends using a large-volume shelter-ventilating pump, an expedient heating machine which doesn’t require ample technical know-how to build. The book shows how to build the machine using inexpensive household materials.


Another heating systems option is to use geothermal heat pumps run by electricity generated through solar power. Builders may need to hire a professional to set up the heat pumps. Heating and systems contractors, like Hobson Air and A Plus Quality Inc., can provide necessary assistance. Adequate ventilation is still required during freezing weather conditions as the earth’s moist will continue to absorb body heat, leaving the occupants prone to weather-related illnesses.


Natural ventilation can be achieved by following the structure of an Eskimo igloo. The spiral dome is built with small ventilation openings poked at the ceiling and at the floor to protect its occupants from harsh temperatures. A shelter with a chimney-like vent is proven to be useful during cool weather, supplying occupants with enough air needed to prevent the build-up of carbon dioxide. However, it should be noted that this vent may not work during warm weather.

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Experts from Hobson Air can assess whether or not your underground shelter is well- ventilated. This website offers more about proper ventilation during harsh weather conditions.

REPOST: Why 2013 could be a game-changer on climate

Last year's elections saw the country's leaders tackle many of our most pressing issues. However, climate change did not seem to be one of them. This year, the discussion seem to be making a comeback, after the nation saw firsthand how extreme weather events have cost our economy billions of dollars in recovery. This CNN article details how climate change may be a hot topic in the World Economic Forum in Davos this month.

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(CNN) -- As leaders gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, signs of economic hope are upon us. The global economy is on the mend. Worldwide, the middle class is expanding by an estimated 100 million per year. And the quality of life for millions in Asia and Africa is growing at an unprecedented pace.

Threats abound, of course. One neglected risk -- climate change -- appears to at last be rising to the top of agendas in business and political circles. When the World Economic Forum recently asked 1,000 leaders from industry, government, academia, and civil society to rank risks over the coming decade for the Global Risks 2013 report, climate change was in the top three. And in his second inaugural address, President Obama identified climate change as a major priority for his Administration.

For good reason: last year was the hottest year on record for the continental United States, and records for extreme weather events were broken around the world. We are seeing more droughts, wildfires, and rising seas. The current U.S. drought will wipe out approximately 1% of the U.S. GDP and is on course to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Damage from Hurricane Sandy will cost another 0.5% of GDP. And a recent study found that the cost of climate change is about $1.2 trillion per year globally, or 1.6% of global GDP.

Shifting to low-carbon energy sources is critical to mitigating climate change's impacts. Today's global energy mix is changing rapidly, but is it heading in the right direction?

Coal is the greatest driver of carbon dioxide emissions from energy, accounting for more than 40% of the total worldwide. Although coal demand is falling in the United States -- with 55 coal-powered plants closed in the past year -- it's growing globally. The World Resources Institute (WRI) recently identified 1,200 proposed new coal plants around the world. And last year, the United States hit a record-high level of coal exports—arguably transferring U.S. emissions abroad.

Meanwhile, shale gas is booming. Production in the United States has increased nearly tenfold since 2005, and China, India, Argentina, and many others have huge potential reserves. This development can be an economic blessing in many regions, and, because carbon emissions of shale gas are roughly half those of coal, it can help us get onto a lower carbon growth path.

However, while gas is an important bridge to a low carbon future—and can be a component of such a future—it can't get us fully to where we need to be. Greenhouse gas emissions in industrial countries need to fall by 80-90% by 2050 to prevent climate change's most disastrous impacts. And there is evidence that gas is crowding out renewables.

Renewable energy -- especially solar and wind power -- are clear winners when it comes to reducing emissions. Unfortunately, despite falling prices, the financial markets remain largely risk-averse. Many investors are less willing to finance renewable power. As a result of this mindset, along with policy uncertainty and the proliferation of low-cost gas, renewable energy investment dropped 11%, to $268 billion, last year.

What do we need to get on track?

Incentivizing renewable energy investment

Currently, more than 100 countries have renewable energy targets, more than 40 developing nations have introduced feed-in tariffs, and countries from Saudi Arabia to South Africa are making big bets on renewables as a growth market. Many countries are also exploring carbon-trading markets, including the EU, South Korea, and Australia. This year, China launched pilot trading projects in five cities and two provinces, with a goal of a national program by 2015.

Removing market barriers

Despite growing demand for renewable energy from many companies, this demand often remains unmet due to numerous regulatory, financial, and psychological barriers in the marketplace.

In an effort to address these, WRI just launched the Green Power Market Development Group in India, bringing together industry, government, and NGOs to build critical support for renewable energy markets. A dozen major companies from a variety of sectors—like Infosys, ACC, Cognizant, IBM, WIPRO, and others— have joined the initiative. This type of government-industry-utility partnership, built upon highly successful models elsewhere, can spur expanded clean energy development. It will be highlighted in Davos this week at meetings of the Green Growth Action Alliance (G2A2).

De-risking investments

For technical, policy, and financial reasons, risks are often higher for renewables than fossil-based energy. Addressing these risks is the big remaining task to bring about the needed energy transformation. Some new funding mechanisms are emerging that can help reduce risk and thus leverage large sums of financing. For example, the Green Climate Fund could, if well-designed, be an important venue to raise funds and drive additional investments from capital markets. Likewise, multi-lateral development banks' recent $175 billion commitment to sustainable transport could help leverage more funds from the private and public sectors.

Some forward-looking companies are seeking to create internal incentives for green investments. For example, companies like Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and UPS have been taking actions to reduce internal hurdle rates and shift strategic thinking to the longer-term horizons that many green strategies need.

Davos is exactly the type of venue for finding solutions to such issues, which requires leadership and coalition-building from the private and public sectors. For example, the the G2A2, an alliance of CEOs committed to addressing climate and environmental risks, will launch the Green Investment Report with precisely the goal of "unlocking finance for green growth".

Depending on what happens at Davos—and other forums and meetings like it throughout the year—2013 could just be a game-changer.

Andrew Steer | Image source: CNN

Editor's note: Andrew Steer is President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, a

think tank that works with governments, businesses and civil society to find sustainable solutions to environmental and development challenges.

Weather is increasingly unpredictable. Keep your home temperature stable with cost-effective heating and cooling systems. Get a free quote from Hobson Air. See more information on this website.

Basic concepts of energy efficiency for homes

Back in 1977, the nation was suffering from an oil crisis, which prompted President Carter to address the citizens and ask them to dial down the thermostats in their homes. The reason for this call was that by reducing the temperature in homes around the country, the nation could conserve heating fuel.

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At present, homeowners may still follow that call if they wish to make their homes more energy efficient. Hobson Air Conditioning Inc.’s home energy analysis shows that the energy expenditure in many homes go to temperature regulation.

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The same principle applies for homes in hot and cold weather. Homeowners should try to lessen the temperature differential between the inside and outside of the house to reduce the heating or cooling costs. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, but consumers can make small adjustments in order to compensate for the warmer or cooler room temperature which would then be considered their new ‘normal.’

Meanwhile, they can also make a few small improvements around their house to improve energy use. For example, they can increase the amount of insulation between rooms to stop the heat flow from the rooms they use to outer areas such as the attic. They can also focus on using natural lighting to illuminate the rooms to reduce electricity use during the daytime.

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With every small adjustment made, homeowners can easily reduce the energy consumption in their home, which then translates to similar reductions on their utility bill.

Find out more about how you can make your home more energy efficient at ACGenius.com.

REPOST: The Cost of Cool

This interesting article was originally published in the New York Times Sunday Review.

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

THE blackouts that left hundreds of millions of Indians sweltering in the dark last month underscored the status of air-conditioning as one of the world’s most vexing environmental quandaries.

Fact 1: Nearly all of the world’s booming cities are in the tropics and will be home to an estimated one billion new consumers by 2025. As temperatures rise, they — and we — will use more air-conditioning.

Fact 2: Air-conditioners draw copious electricity, and deliver a double whammy in terms of climate change, since both the electricity they use and the coolants they contain result in planet-warming emissions.

Fact 3: Scientific studies increasingly show that health and productivity rise significantly if indoor temperature is cooled in hot weather. So cooling is not just about comfort.

Sum up these facts and it’s hard to escape: Today’s humans probably need air-conditioning if they want to thrive and prosper. Yet if all those new city dwellers use air-conditioning the way Americans do, life could be one stuttering series of massive blackouts, accompanied by disastrous planet-warming emissions.

We can’t live with air-conditioning, but we can’t live without it.

“It is true that air-conditioning made the economy happen for Singapore and is doing so for other emerging economies,” said Pawel Wargocki, an expert on indoor air quality at the International Center for Indoor Environment and Energy at the Technical University of Denmark. “On the other hand, it poses a huge threat to global climate and energy use. The current pace is very dangerous.”

Projections of air-conditioning use are daunting. In 2007, only 11 percent of households in Brazil and 2 percent in India had air-conditioning, compared with 87 percent in the United States, which has a more temperate climate, said Michael Sivak, a research professor in energy at the University of Michigan. “There is huge latent demand,” Mr. Sivak said. “Current energy demand does not yet reflect what will happen when these countries have more money and more people can afford air-conditioning.” He has estimated that, based on its climate and the size of the population, the cooling needs of Mumbai alone could be about a quarter of those of the entire United States, which he calls “one scary statistic.”

It is easy to decry the problem but far harder to know what to do, especially in a warming world where people in the United States are using our existing air-conditioners more often. The number of cooling degree days — a measure of how often cooling is needed — was 17 percent above normal in the United States in 2010, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, leading to “an increase in electricity demand.” This July was the hottest ever in the United States.

Likewise, the blackouts in India were almost certainly related to the rising use of air-conditioning and cooling, experts say, even if the immediate culprit was a grid that did not properly balance supply and demand.

The late arrival of this year’s monsoons, which normally put an end to India’s hottest season, may have devastated the incomes of farmers who needed the rain. But it “put smiles on the faces of those who sell white goods — like air-conditioners and refrigerators — because it meant lots more sales,” said Rajendra Shende, chairman of the Terre Policy Center in Pune, India.

“Cooling is the craze in India — everyone loves cool temperatures and getting to cool temperatures as quickly as possible,” Mr. Shende said. He said that cooling has become such a cultural priority that rather than advertise a car’s acceleration, salesmen in India now emphasize how fast its air-conditioner can cool.

Scientists are scrambling to invent more efficient air-conditioners and better coolant gases to minimize electricity use and emissions. But so far the improvements have been dwarfed by humanity’s rising demands.

And recent efforts to curb the use of air-conditioning, by fiat or persuasion, have produced sobering lessons.

Since 2005, Japan had been promoting energy conservation through its annual summer “cool biz” campaign: air-conditioning thermostats in government offices were set to between 75 and 77 degrees and workers were told they could forsake business suits for looser, cooler clothes. So far so good.

But in the past year, the country became an unwitting laboratory to study even more extreme air-conditioning abstinence, and the results have not been encouraging. After the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami knocked out a big chunk of the country’s nuclear power, the Japanese government mandated vastly reduced energy consumption. To that end, lights have been dimmed and air-conditioners turned down or off, so that offices comply with the government-prescribed indoor summer temperature of 82.4 degrees (28 Celsius); some offices have tried as high as 86.

Unfortunately, studies by Shin-ichi Tanabe, a professor of architecture at Waseda University in Tokyo who has long been interested in “thermal comfort,” found that while workers tolerated dimmer light just fine, every degree rise in temperature above 25 Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) resulted in a 2 percent drop in productivity. Over the course of the day that meant they accomplished 30 minutes less work, he said.

Other studies have found that with office temperatures between 82 and 86 degrees, symptoms like headache, drowsiness and difficulty concentrating increase, which may explain the drop in performance.

Worse still, perhaps, Mr. Tanabe calculated that the suffering was all for naught: When offices were kept above about 82 degrees, so many people were using inefficient fans at their desks that the total electricity consumption could be higher than if the building had been better cooled. “That’s just stupid,” he said.

Some studies from hot and humid Singapore also show that cooler is better when it comes to office work, said Mr. Wargocki, who is currently a visiting researcher at the National University there. Though people in Singapore tend to identify a range from about 68 to 75 degrees as “neutral” temperature — neither hot nor cold — studies found that work improved if the thermostat was lowered to about 72. “It’s a huge problem if we have to cool buildings in tropical environments to that level, in terms of energy use and climate,” Mr. Wargocki said.

And that is where the bulk of new demand will occur. A new report by the McKinsey Global Initiative predicts that one billion city dwellers “will enter the global consuming class by 2025.” And, for most of them, an air-conditioner will most likely be a first purchase since almost all of the cities with the highest potential cooling needs, according to Mr. Sivak’s research, are in developing countries that are in hot climates.  These include Chennai, India; Bangkok; Manila; Jakarta, Indonesia; Karachi, Pakistan; Lagos, Nigeria and Rio de Janeiro. Sales of air-conditioning units are already growing by double digits annually in many emerging economies.

So researchers say the best hope is that we all adjust our air-conditioning expectations and behavior.

Building managers could increase airflow in hot buildings, for example, which improves comfort. Workers could wear lighter, looser clothing to work in summer — instead of carrying sweaters to protect themselves from over-chilled air. Architects could design office blocks using materials that did not conduct so much heat and where humans could open the windows to take advantage of natural ventilation and breezes.

Stan Cox, author of “Losing Our Cool,” suggests that one solution might be a return to room air-conditioning, so we only use energy to cool spaces that people are actually using. He believes that people are accustomed to working in frigid offices but could acclimatize to warmer conditions.

Mr. Wargocki says that an office temperature in the mid to high 70s should be fine. The comfortable temperature for sleeping (naked) is around 84, Mr. Tanabe says, if a fan is on.

Those suggestions are a good deal warmer than the norms in the United States, which underlines a cultural differences in cooling preferences.

“The temperature many Americans find most comfortable indoors in summer — 70 degrees — feels uncomfortable to most Europeans, who find it too cold,” said Mr. Sivak, who suggested that Europe’s greater environmental awareness might make people more inclined to put on an extra sweater in winter or tolerate a bit more heat in summer.

Unfortunately many tropical places — including Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong — seem to have followed the United States’ lead in cooling preferences, Mr. Tanabe said, holding cooler to be better.

But certainly if I deserve to have an air-conditioner here in New York, my counterpart in Mumbai deserves to have one, too. So individuals need to be coaxed to make new choices.

“We need to educate people there are other ways to be comfortable than just turning up the A.C., you have to use it wisely,” said Mr. Wargocki, speaking from his condo in Singapore with the windows open late one evening to create natural drafts for cooling.

He began telling me about how the European Union was effectively forcing companies to use less cooling, by mandating that new buildings meet stricter energy-use standards. Since air-conditioning gobbles up far more electricity than heating in many office buildings, one way for architects to achieve compliance is to avoid an over-reliance on air-conditioning — for example, building with materials that do not absorb heat or pumping in cool air from deep underground.

I was listening from my living room in New York on a steamy Sunday morning. Given the topic of our conversation, I had the air-conditioner off, and the temperature was 85 or so. I couldn’t concentrate.

 Elisabeth Rosenthal is a reporter who covers the environment for The New York Times.

Reblog: Style and comfort - It must be an energy saving house

CNN tells the story of a super energy efficient house built on a campus in Maryland. 

Gaithersburg, Maryland (CNN) -- It is spacious, contemporary and livable.

There are stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and the bedrooms are painted a soothing green. Stately columns convey "comfortable suburban." A savvy realtor could market it as "The Woodlands" model or "The Retreat."

But when the owner of a super-energy efficient house in the Maryland suburbs is the U.S. government, you bet the name will leave you scratching your head.

The welcome mat reads: "Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility," or NZERTF.

Built on the campus of a national technology testing site, the "Net-Zero House" is the nation's newest science lab.

Government scientists and engineers will use the 2,700 square-foot home as a test-bed to develop ways to measure products, materials and systems that make a house energy efficient and green.

They aim to demonstrate that an attractive home for a family of four can be "net-zero energy" -- meaning it produces as much energy annually as it consumes.
"What we wanted to do was show that it's possible to do in homes typical in size, with the aesthetics and features of a home in a metropolitan area," said A. Hunter Fanney, chief of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Energy and Environment Division.

Buildings are an often overlooked part of the U.S. quest for energy independence, Fanney said.

Residential buildings consume 22 percent of the nation's energy and commercial buildings eat up another 18 percent, he said.

Making homes more efficient, proponents say, will help reduce the country's dependence on energy imports and cut greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Turning up the heat to drive down carbon emissions and energy bills

Fanney and other experts say that ways to measure systems in the complex environment of a home are lacking. Their solution: this project.

The "Net-Zero-House" was built using commercially available products and constructed to exacting specifications to make it air and water tight.

It bristles with state-of-the-art technology, including photovoltaic panels on the upper roof to convert sunlight to electricity and solar thermal panels on a lower roof to heat water.

Three types of geothermal systems use ground temperatures to heat the house in the winter or cool it in the summer.

Radiant heating is embedded in the floors. Both conventional and high velocity duct systems distribute air. The house also has a "smart" electrical system.

"I'd love to live in this house. It has all the amenities," Fanney said, adding that it will be "extremely comfortable."

But who will actually live in it?

Meet "the Nisters" -- a "virtual family" scientists created to help simulate the impact of real people on the house.

The "Nisters" simulate two working adults and children, ages 14 and 8. Devices in various rooms will mimic them, emitting heat and humidity at appropriate times, while sensors record conditions.

"Every movement of their lives has been scripted. Lights will go on and off; showers will take place," said Fanney. "Appliances will be turned on and off just as a family of four would use them."

"The reason they're not real people is we want to have control," he said. "With real people, we all live randomly, so it's very difficult to have this control in place."
Meanwhile, scientists in the detached garage will monitor conditions.

Approximately $2.5 million has been spent on the house using federal stimulus money. As a condition of the stimulus funds, almost all of the house was built using American materials and products. The lone exception -- a ventilation device in the basement -- was made in Canada. No similar device is made in the United States, the laboratory said.
What will happen to the house once tests are completed?

"I don't think that we'll ever be finished with this facility," said Fanney.

He envisions new energy technology "for the next three or four decades."

And he suspects that the research will allow homebuilders to advertise a house's energy efficiency.

"Buildings will have an energy label on them much as cars have a 'miles per gallon' label today," he said.

The story may be accessed through http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/16/living/house-energy/index.html?iref=allsearch

AC Genius: Four reasons to get an Air Quality Analysis test

AC Genius is a full-service air conditioning and heating contractor. In addition to performing preventive maintenance checks, the company also offers heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems services. The firm has been in business since 1962.

Hobson Air. Image credit: acgenius.com

Asthma affects about 20 million Americans– 6.3 million of whom are children. A common, chronic disease, asthma is mainly caused by environmental factors, in addition to being genetically prone. Indoor allergens and pollutants have been proved to cause childhood asthma. This is exacerbated by common, viral respiratory infections, like colds or the flu, for which there are currently no cures.

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If customers are not 100% satisfied with the services provided, AC Genius will refund all of their money.

With a threat as close as inside a home, parents go to great lengths to protect their children. What most of them don’t realize is that the simplest form of protection is ensuring the cleanliness of the air they breathe. Here are other reasons homeowners should seriously consider getting an Air Quality Analysis:

• To gauge the concentration of pollen, which cause allergies, pollutants, which cause asthma, and allergens.
• To detect mold infestation. There are many types of mold, and none of them will grow without water or moisture. As molds reproduce through invisible spores, people need the help of experts to seek and destroy them.
• To detect the presence of Radon, which cannot be detected by the human eye. Radon is a naturally occurring product estimated to cause thousands of deaths from lung cancer and related health risks annually.
• To determine and identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the home. Most homeowners do not realize that even a small repainting job can emit chemicals that are harmful to their children– particularly babies whose immune systems are still developing.

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