This chip tells controls at Sleeping Lady Resort that guests have arrived so it's time to adjust the thermostat and turn on the lights.

The operators of Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort in Leavenworth believe they may have found a key to saving energy. Actually, 40 keys.

In April, 40 of the resort’s 58 guest rooms were outfitted with the Entergize key fob system. When guests enter these rooms, they insert a small chip attached to their room keys into a special light switch. This sends a signal to the upper half of the rooms’ electric receptacles and thermostats, putting them in the “occupied” mode. Some of the lights go on and heat or air conditioning comes on to pre-programmed settings. When guests leave their rooms they remove the key and fob from the control switch, which causes the lights to go off and the heating and cooling system to drop into the “unoccupied” energy-saving mode.

Ken Erikson, maintenance technician at Sleeping Lady, said the goal is to automate energy savings. Guests don’t mean to waste energy, he said, but it happens. For example, a couple out for a winter walk might crank the heat way up when they return to their room, then leave for dinner and forget to turn it down. With the new system, setback will occur automatically.

A majority of rooms at Sleeping Lady have been outfitted with energy-saving setback systems.

Entergize claims energy use in guest rooms can drop by up to 45 percent, but Erikson isn’t expecting savings that dramatic. Sleeping Lady has no TVs, so the resort can’t be compared to hotels where TVs, even in standby mode, are using power. Erikson said Sleeping Lady’s goal is to save energy over the long term.

Greg Felix, Entergize contractor who installed Sleeping Lady’s system, said he’s done work all over the country, including at actor Ed Begley’s home. The company’s work was featured on a History Channel Modern Marvels episode that focused on ways to reduce phantom load — the energy drain caused by cell phone chargers, TVs and other appliances that are left plugged in and continue to draw power. You can watch that show here.

Paul Steinbroner, left, and Malcolm Keithley at the controls of their Web-based EnergyRush TV.

Talking to film producer Paul Steinbroner, you get the impression he’s in a hurry. So much to say, so much to do, so little time to save the planet.

Steinbroner is the mastermind behind the aptly named EnergyRush TV based in Wenatchee. He and fellow producer Malcolm Keithley have been traveling around the country, developing Web-based programming on renewable energy and transportation. Their work and that of others is available on EnergyRush TV as both pre-programmed and on-demand pieces. 

Steinbroner’s goal is to popularize the renewable energy movement. “This is a transformational moment when we’re going away from the fossil-fuel world because it’s not sustainable,” he said.

He cares. He really cares. He wants you to care, too.

“Why should you care?” he asks, then answers the question. “Well, there’s the environment. There’s the  economy.  And then there’s national security.”

Steinbroner believes once the plug-in car is in full production, electric “fuel” will cost the equivalent of 15-70 cents per gallon. Displaced auto workers will find new jobs building  new hybrid cars. The economy will grow as the plug-in and related renewable industries are developed. While we’re at it, we’ll reduce our dependence on foreign oil and foreign governments.

Paul Steinbroner

“People ask about cost, but the cost is incalculable. What would it take to fix the environment? I don’t know, but what other planet do we have to go to?”

While EnergyRush TV is all about a sustainable future, it’s hard to tell whether the programming  has one. EnergyRush TV has been bankrolled by private investors  and are soliciting sponsors: “Getting intelligent renewable energy short films made is our first goal,” their Web site states, “but deploying them is our specialty.” 

Steinbroner and Keithley take on outside film jobs to support themselves. Steinbroner is originally from Southern California and remains a partner in CNS Productions based in Medford, Ore. The company produces educational materials including films and textbooks. He’s been in Wenatchee six years. Keithley grew up in Stehekin, worked briefly in LA, then moved to Wenatchee in the 1980s and formed M and M Productions. His studio, which doubles as EnergyRush TV’s base, is at Olds Station.

The pair recently turned their lenses toward producing a feature-length documentary they hope will be “not a movie, but an event.”  The film will pose a future where jobs, technology and the environment are in sync.  It will be about “hope, change, possibilities,” Steinbroner said.

Much of the film will be devoted to Dr. Andrew Frank, engineering professor at the University of California-Davis, also known as “Professor Plug-In” for his work with hybrid electric vehicles.

Steinbroner points to the Port of Chelan County’s hybrid vehicle project, Chelan County PUD’s SNAP program, and the region’s abundant hydropower as reasons Wenatchee is a good base for launching EnergyRush TV. “We’re the herald of what will be a renaissance,” he said. “We’re ahead of the curve.

“It’s a small piece of a big picture and we’re happy to play a role.”

Paul Steinbroner is entering a contest sponsored by singer/songwriter Neil Young to create your own video using the song “Johnny Magic” from Young’s CD “Fork in the Road.” Watch Steinbroner’s video about the evolution of the electric car here. 

Scott Beaton

Scott Beaton has spent most of his adult life sorting, crushing, shoveling, lifting, baling and trucking what used to be called garbage. Now, 21 years after starting a small nonprofit recycling project in Chelan, he’s being inducted May 5 into the Washington State Recycling Association Hall of Fame. 

While this is his first statewide honor, Beaton is well known locally. For seven years he was a weekly guest on KOZI radio, talking trash — or what shouldn’t go in the trash. He’s an original member of the nonprofit Community Services Work Group, which hosts an annual Earth Day Fair and started the North Chelan County Recycling Project.

The recycling center is the oldest and most extensive recycling operation in Chelan County. Located across the highway from the Chelan Wal-Mart, it doesn’t look like much — just a boxy shell of a building holding rows and rows of old wooden apple bins overflowing with old pickle jars and vodka bottles, crushed milk jugs, discarded cereal boxes and school math tests. It doesn’t smell too great either – a mixture of day-old garbage, stale beer and applesauce (possibly owing to the apple bins).

Sorted glass awaits the crusher at the North Chelan County Recycling Project.

“It’s never been an easy job,” Beaton said. “There’s a lot of cleanup. It’s physical work. You get a real workout.”

Beaton runs the center with help from two full-time and two part-time staff. When the recycling project began, Beaton was a volunteer working with others from the Community Services group. A state Department of Ecology grant in 1989 provided the money to build a full-fledged center.  When the grant ran out, the city of Chelan took over.

“The idea behind the program was to get a hunk out of the waste stream,” Beaton said. “And because we got help from the city and county, we’ve been able to do it in a dependable, consistent way.”

The center is open Tuesday through Saturday and accepts newspapers, magazines, glass, aluminum, copper, brass, tin cans, #1 and #2 plastics, milk and juice cartons, some plastic bags and shrink wrap. Drop boxes are available 24 hours a day in Chelan, Manson and Entiat.  Curbside recycling is offered to businesses and schools.

The center accepts wood debris from orchards and construction sites which is chipped, then offered to the public for free. And it’s an E-Cycle Washington site, accepting computers, laptops, monitors and TVs.

The center processed 1,170 tons of recyclables in 2008. Beaton expects volume to dip by about 15 percent this year as consumers buy less—and throw away less.  Industry demand for recyclables – plastics that are made into new carpets, metals that go into new cars and cans – is down. “Prices have dropped 60 to 70 percent,” Beaton said, adding that he’s bracing for a “rough year.”

State and county grants continue to fund the program, and the city remains the sponsoring agency. Revenues from the sale of recyclables pay for about 70 percent of operational costs.

The recycling center and the Community Services Work Group bring information about recycling and conservation to the schools, sponsor an annual litter cleanup and metals drive, and host the Earth Day Fair which this year is on Saturday, April 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Riverwalk Park.

“I always felt like it had my name on it,” Beaton says of his commitment to reduce-reuse-recycle in Chelan. “I wanted to try to do the best job possible.”

Recycling questions? Call Scott Beaton at (509) 682-4663. Want to help at the Earth Day Fair? (509) 682-5756. Lend a hand with litter cleanup? (509) 682-5320

It’s a problem that’s beginning to get some attention. California regulators are drafting rules that would require retailers to sell only energy-efficient flat-screen TVs. According to the Los Angeles Times, during a peak viewing time when most sets are on, such as the Super Bowl, TVs in California collectively suck up the equivalent of 40 percent of the power generated by the San Onofre nuclear power station running at full capacity. Televisions account for about 10% of the average Californian’s monthly household electricity bill.

Just how much does it cost to operate a flat-screen TV? That depends on the type of TV. The electronics Web site CNET tested 139 TVs, rating them by watts used per square inch as well as overall costs. Applying Chelan County PUD power rates to CNET’s calculations, energy costs would range from a low of $7.86 per year to run a Philips 42-inch LCD model to $52.53 per year to power a 58-inch plasma-screen Panasonic. (CNET used the annual average cost of 10 cents per kilowatt hour for its calculations; Chelan County PUD’s cost is 2.9 cents per kilowatt hour).

Depending on the technology behind the TV, energy costs can vary dramatically. Standard sets use a cathode ray tube, with those smaller than 40 inches drawing roughly 73 watts when on. An average flat-screen LCD TV of the same size also uses 70 watts, while a similar plasma TV consumes an average 246 watts.

If you’re still shopping for a new set, or just curious about your power use, you can calculate your costs using this formula:

Wattage X Hours Used / 1,000 = Kilowatt Hours (KWH)

Then multiply the kilowatt hours used times the cost of power (the average cost for Chelan PUD customers is 2.9 cents per kilowatt hour).

Blue Energy Star labels began appearing in November on all TVs that use less energy when turned on. Before November, Energy Star labels only indicated how efficient a set was when it was turned off.

You can stop your TV from drawing any power at all by unplugging it, or by plugging it into a power strip that can be switched off.

Related links
How Much Do Your Appliances Cost to Operate? (Chelan PUD brochure)