By Dean Gallea, TEAC Co-Chair and Energy and Conservation Committee Chair

New EV Charging Stations Ready for Use: Thanks to a grant from Westchester County and incentives provided by Con Edison and the New York State Energy Research Development Agency (NYSERDA), the Village has installed 20 new electric vehicle chargers in four stations at municipal parking lots. There are four new chargers in the Washington Street West Lot (Lot 4, outside to the left of the parking garage entrance), four new chargers in Lot D next to the Recreation Center, six new chargers in the lot next to Village Hall (Lot A) and six new chargers in the McKeel parking lot (Lot 5). The stations in Lot D, Lot A, and Lot 4 are activated and operational. The McKeel Lot station will be activated in the coming weeks.

As part of the County-wide installation project, the chargers use the

. Parking fees and rules apply when charging. There is a $.30/kWh charge for the electricity, and the charging rate is Level 2, about 40 miles per hour of charge.

The Village will also be replacing the existing damaged charging stations at Lot C (next to the Train Station) to convert them to ChargePoint stations in conformity with the others.

When I checked recently, the Lot A Village Hall station was active, but did not yet appear on the ChargePoint app. One of the 4 chargers at the Lot D station was offline. And the chargers at the Lot 4 station were all working, even though they show status as “Unknown” in the app.

Using Con Ed’s “Weekly Energy Update”: I’m getting an email every week from ConEd, usually on Saturday, covering the prior Sunday through Friday. You can opt into (or out of) this weekly email by logging into your ConEd account online, and “flipping” the switch on your Notifications settings:


I’ll normally do little more than glance at it to see if anything stands out as “unexpected.” This week I thought I’d take a look at why both my electricity and gas use were elevated. If you like, you can follow my analysis and do the same for your own data. It tells me that last week, Jan 23-30, I used 9% more electricity and 38% more gas than the prior week, Jan 17-23.

First, let’s look at electricity. My home’s normal usage in the winter is about 20-24 kWh per day - for a visualization, that’s about the same energy a small 1000-watt hair dryer would use if it was left running all the time. That covers lights, smart-home devices, data devices like my router, entertainment, my furnace’s forced-air blower, my heat-pump water heater, and laundry and cooking appliances. I also have an electric vehicle that typically gets charged at home once a week or less if I’m not traveling much. ConEd’s daily graph shows a large spike on Sunday 1/25, and also details the hourly use that day:

That turns out to be when I charged my car: I plugged it in the night before the big snowfall, to be sure I would have plenty of range the next day in case the power failed. The car is programmed to charge during the early morning hours (finishing by 8am) when the grid has plenty of extra capacity. That top-up charge increased my weekly electricity use by about 9%. So, one mystery was solved. 

Now, on to why I used 38% more natural gas than the prior week. The only gas appliances I now have are my furnace (my central heat pump switches over to gas when it’s below freezing outside) and clothes dryer, and I didn’t do laundry last week, so it’s due to heating. What caused me to use 38% more heating gas last week?

Maybe the weather: A house loses more heat “by degrees” when it’s colder outside. “Degree-days” are simply the difference between the average outdoor temperature each day and the chosen indoor temperature you keep, which in my case is 65 degrees. ConEd used to provide the local degree-days data right on our bills, but stopped years ago. But that data is available elsewhere, so I used the site

, choosing data for the nearest official weather station, White Plains Airport (KHPN). I downloaded the degree-days for the last two weeks and plotted it for illustration:

Right away, I could see that last week was colder than the prior week, but let’s do the numbers. The sum of degree-days from the earlier week’s Saturday 1/17 through Friday 1/23 was 254, and the sum from last week’s Saturday 1/24 through Friday 1/30 was 351. Dividing last week by the prior week: 351 / 254 = 1.38. Surprise… That’s 38% more! I didn’t expect it to be so spot on, but there it is, my gas usage tracks the cold exactly. So, no mystery on either type of energy use. You might want to enable your own weekly energy update from Con Ed, and at least glance at it to see if it makes sense to you.

Power-hungry Data Center Pushback Succeeding: The AI buildout by tech megaliths like Google and Oracle demands enormous and growing computing power, provided by large, concentrated data centers all over the U.S. They each use the energy of a small city, most of which is “wasted” to cool the chips that power AI. Data Centers’ new energy demands have usually required expansion of fossil-fueled power plants and renewed interest in nuclear power (see below.) As well, their cooling towers evaporate millions of gallons of potable water, which can starve aquifers and strain municipal water supplies. These downsides are leading to legal battles and public outcry against proposed data centers in communities. Heatmap.news reports that dozens of power-hungry data center proposals have been canceled due to sustained local opposition:

If data centers were required to provide new, on-site renewable (solar, wind or geothermal) energy generation, and prevented from drawing water from municipal systems, they would be smaller and more numerous, but would likely face less opposition.

A Nod for New Nukes Now: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is now excluding “advanced nuclear reactors” from Environmental Policy Act review. They apparently consider the hazards that have historically been associated with nuclear power-plants to be environmentally benign for these smaller, modular reactors. This is believed to be a nod to developers of huge, AI-supporting data centers that may want to generate their own electricity using small modular nuclear plants. Opponents point out that, though the newer type of nukes have a smaller environmental footprint than traditional ones (like Indian Point, Three-Mile Island, etc.), they still pose dangers from fuel production, transfer, and decommissioning. The energy industry touts nuclear power as a non-carbon energy source, which gives it a “greener” cachet than fossil-fueled generation. But like hydroelectric, it carries more environmental baggage than solar, wind, and geothermal sources.

Oh, One More Thing: If you know climate-change naysayers who are still clinging to an unfortunate phrase and are saying in this cold wave, “See, there isn’t any global warming!”... Remind them of what any climate scientist or thermodynamic engineer understands - that adding heat energy to a complex system (like our climate) acts like a “forcing function,” causing all sorts of chaotic behavior, not just temperature rise. The glaciers and polar ice continue to melt, the ocean rises, and all sorts of crazy weather happens, including cold snaps and bomb cyclones. There’s no mystery there.

by Suzy Allman, TEAC member
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Add this to the list of things birds are up against in their daily lives: Brightly lit skies at night are harmful to migrating birds, who depend on the moon and stars to navigate.

You may have noticed the difference at certain times of the year: the Tappan Zee Bridge is lit up with fabulous colors at night, but by morning, those colors have reverted to a dimmer pale blue. That’s because the Thruway Authority takes part in Audubon Society’s “Lights Out” initiative during spring and fall bird migration periods. Lights on the bridge are dimmed after 11pm, to protect migrating birds from the disorienting effect of bright lights. And the bridge also plans a “Lights Out” night for the bridge on April 22 this year, when all aesthetic lighting will be off as part of Earth Day, and the remaining lights will be amber.

That’s cool. But what about the busiest migrating hours? Most migrating birds begin their flight before midnight – beginning 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, with the greatest number in flight two to three hours later. (You can check out Cornell’s Birdcast to see this pattern.) Though the bridge takes part in Audubon Society’s “Lights Out” program – dimming the lights after 11pm -- the aesthetic lighting between sundown and midnight still burns brightly.

So TEAC will be promoting a Dark Skies month in April, when thousands of migrating birds fly overhead by night. Simple steps, such as closing blinds and curtains at night, can make a small difference.

Below are additional suggestions from US Fish & Wildlife Service:

Timing

• Limit lighting to necessary times only.
• Use automatic controls or motion sensors.

Direction

• Turn off lights that face up into the sky or lights that illuminate the surrounding landscape.
• Avoid upward light scatter by shielding, selecting, or positioning lights where light is not emitted above the horizontal plane.
• Keep lighting as low to the ground as possible, only illuminating necessary structures.

Color and Brightness

• Use amber, orange, red, or "warmer" light that is less harmful for most species because it is less likely to trigger a behavioral response.
• Avoid using blue, white, or "cooler" light that is least favorable for birds, other wildlife, and people…a practice the Tappan Zee bridge could follow!
• Keep light as dim as possible.

We’re experiencing a brutal winter this year and we’re not alone. The birds, squirrels, and other wild animals who live in our yards are struggling to survive in these incredibly harsh conditions. Animals truly need our help. Here are some easy tips for ensuring that neighborhood animals survive this merciless winter.

How to help wildlife when their food is trapped under snow and ice:

Food

Birds and squirrels require lots of seeds and suet. Snow has been covering many of the plants from which they’d normally be eating seeds and insects. Squirrels spent months preparing for the winter by burying nuts, which are now covered by snow and frozen ground. 

• If it’s your first time putting out food for birds and squirrels, you may be surprised how quickly they will find it. Usually in a matter of days, you’ll be on the food map
• You can use plenty of foods around the house: apple cores, old pumpkins, corn, cheese,  peanut butter. Avoid salted items and bread. Any kind of commercial bird seed or nuts are fine. Suet has extra fat and attracts woodpeckers.
• As you get used to feeding, you may get tired of shells. There are plenty of “no mess” offerings although I haven’t found any that completely live up to the claim. Try shelled sunflower seeds (Trader Joe’s) or peanuts (H-Mart). Make sure that these are unsalted.

Water

• In the short term you can just put out a bowl or lid of warm water near your food. You can keep it from freezing a little longer by adding a warm rock or floating ping pong ball to break up the ice. These are weak solutions.
• To prevent water from freezing during the hard freezes we’re having, you need an electrically heated water bowl ($20-$50). Put the bowl on the ground and you may help out some possums as well.
  • Bonus wildlife water heater use: During the recent freeze, a fin radiator in my basement burst, leaving a sheet of water on the floor. The tiny heater saved me from having an ice sheet. 

Shelter

• You can help out by just gathering a pile of branches or putting straw in a sheltered area

Disease

• If you find an animal in distress, you can find a local wildlife rehabilitator in the state database. The local group Animal Nation can usually find someone to help.

• Birds are getting avian flu this year, but Cornell Lab of Ornithology says songbirds are usually not infected so it’s safe to keep feeding. Do clean your feeders and water sources with bleach.
• Mange–caused by mites–is more likely in cold, hungry animals. A balding, scabby fox or squirrel probably has mange and may die of it. In New York, you’re supposed to work with a vet or licensed wildlife rehabilitator to treat wildlife. Many people will on their own treat mange with ivermectin, but the danger lies in getting the right dose into the right animal.