Energy-Efficient Cooling Methods

By Nathan Kipnis, AIA, LEED AP

Keeping cool in the summer is, from an energy standpoint, one of the most challenging things to accomplish.  This is especially true in hot, humid weather, such as an Evanston summer. One can always add more clothing in the winter, but there is only so much that can be taken off in the summer. 

There are a number of ways to try to keep cool in a low-tech, "green" way, and a good starting point is to look back at how it was done before energy-intensive air conditioners were prevalent. 

Trees on the southern and western sides of a house, or ivy on the walls, will keep the perimeter walls of the building shaded, thereby reducing the solar gain that the building would otherwise have to deal with.  Think of the difference in temperature between a wooded area and an asphalt parking lot.

Moving air will help evaporate moisture and create a cooling effect.  From a building standpoint, anything that encourages natural ventilation helps.  This would include having windows on one side of the house that align with windows on the opposite side.  A room with windows on multiple sides is always a benefit when natural ventilation is considered.  Many older Evanston homes have transoms over doors.  A transom is an operable window that allows the air to flow between the room (usually a bedroom) and the adjacent hallway. The "stack effect" created by open stairwells with operable windows at the top of the stairway is another way to create air movement for passive cooling.

Ceiling fans can make a space feel up to 4º F cooler while using only minimal energy. Make sure to set the blade rotation to be optiml for cooling, which is generally counter-clockwise.  Remember to turn off a fan if no one is in the room, as the fan does not cool a room, but rather it helps cool people.

Installing a whole-house fan really helps cool a home off, especially on nights when the cool outside air just does not seem to relieve the heat that has built up inside the house.  A whole-house fan is basically a large fan centrally located on the ceiling of the upper floor.  When the windows on the lower levels are open, the fan will pull in that cooler air and flush it through the house and out the attic.  Running this for 10 to 20 minutes in the evening can really cool down a home.

Trees on the southern and western sides of a house or ivy on these walls will keep the perimeter walls of the building shaded, thereby reducing the solar gain that the building would otherwise have to deal with.  Think of the difference in temperature between a wooded area and an asphalt parking lot.

Shade structures, such as overhanging porches on the south or west sides, will help keep the direct sun off of the building and prevent direct solar gain through the windows.  A properly oriented shade structure should still allow natural daylight to come in without direct sunlight, thereby enabling the lights to be turned off during the day. Also, conscientiously use indoor window shades to keep out sun when it is shining on those windows.

When properly sized, attic vents in pitched roofs will vent out the hot, stale air trapped in attics.  An attic can be as hot as 150º F or more on a 100º F day.  This heat radiates downward into the upper floor of the house.  Combine that with the fact that the hot air inside a house already rises to the upper floor, and it is no wonder that upper floors can be unbearably hot.

A lighter-colored roof can also reduce the amount that the attic heats up.  The problem with this is that a light-colored roof is not always aesthetically correct for a house.  Try to select the lightest-color roof that works with the color scheme appropriate for that house.

If the interior is going to be air conditioned, be sure to have proper wall and ceiling insulation, high-performance windows (at a minimum use double-glazed, insulated windows with a low "E" coating) and a high-efficiency air conditioner.  Every new air conditioner must have a mimimum seasonal energy-efficiency rating (SEER) of 13. Higher-rated systems are available and are a good investment from both a return-on-investment standpoint as well as an environmental one.

Basements are naturally cooler in the winter.  I have thought about designing a home with a "summer" master bedroom in the basement. It does not seem to make much sense to sleep upstairs in summer, where the air is inherently hotter.

Reducing the internal load of the house  – by using a microwave instead of the oven, cooking outdoors, and turning off unnecessary electrical devices, for example – can help limit the heat being added to the inside of the house.  Remember that every kilowatt-per-hour of electric power coming into the house is essentially converted into heat energy to the tune of 3,412 BTUs (each BTU is about equal to a match being lit.)

When in doubt, sitting on a shaded porch or under a tree and sipping a cool lemonade or beer are some other time-tested ways to help beat the heat.  Jumping into Lake Michigan or taking a cool shower before going to bed can also do the trick.

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Fifth-Ward Energy Audits Begin.

Story and photo by Elizabeth Foydel

The Network for Evanston's Future completed an energy audit of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church at Clark Street on July 19 as part of a pilot project that offers free energy audits to every house in Evanston's Fifth Ward.
  
The walkthrough of the building included examinations of entrances, windows, furnaces and air conditioning, lighting and appliances for possible heat leakage or inefficient energy usage.
  
Project interns made minor repairs with weatherstripping, a caulking gun and water-heated insulation. Said intern Anne Mikelonis, "We look for low-cost solutions and depending on upon how interested people are, we'll expand. What we're proposing is a win-win environmental situation: The energy audits are free and will help Evanston residents save money on gas and electric bills while conserving environmental resources.

Conceived last spring, the project is funded by grants, including $4,400 from the Evanston Community Foundation. Project head Elliot Zashin is currently recruiting Fifth Ward residents willing to let the Network for Evanston's Future audit their homes. Fifth Ward Alderman Dolores Holmes "has been a strong supporter of efforts to bring energy audits to lower-income areas and to reach out to geographic areas of the community that are not as involved in such environmental causes, said Mr. Zashin.

"Our goal is to do energy audits of at least fifty homes by the end of the summer," said Mr. Zashin, "and if the project goes well, we will continue in the fall and expand into the broader Evanston community." Interns William Fan, Anne Mikelonis and William Rothrock are pictured above with Frank Black of Mount Zion Church and Elliot Zashin.

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Wheels for the Sun.

On July 22 nine parents and 11 children gathered in a small classroom at the Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick Blvd., to experience technology intended to clean up our atmosphere. The activity was building solar-powered cars. Coordinated by Karen Taira, this activity was as popular as its predecessor. Last year Ms. Taira hosted an event in which participants built-solar powered ovens – an activity so successful she created the car activity this year plans to continue the trend. She hopes to raise awareness among children about this new technology – and instead of giving them a long lecture, actually allow them to put it to the test. Story and Photo by Dan Edelstein

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

By Elizabeth Foydel

On July 20, I joined Harry Potter fans of all ages at the Barnes & Noble on Sherman Avenue to line up in anticipation of the final installment in the boy wizard's tale. But unlike many of the hundreds who gathered, I found myself oddly nostalgic to be at the end of a journey that is perhaps to unique to my generation, which has for all intents and purposes grown up alongside Harry Potter.

A diehard fan since I cracked open the first of seven volumes in 1997, I attended the first midnight book launch for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," J.K. Rowling's fourth tale, in 2000, a tradition which I have kept with friends for each new release over the past seven years. We commence the evening with impassioned and unadulterated debate over what Ms. Rowling has in store, some of us sporting costumes or the tee shirt of our Hogwarts house of choice, and the arguments continue as we relocate to the party at the bookstore.

This time around, the conversation got more heated, for the stakes were higher: In less than 24 hours, we would doubtless be saying goodbye to some of our favorite characters. At Barnes & Noble, anxious partygoers wore stickers declaring their stance on the "Snape: friend or foe?" question. People bit their nails recalling the myriad rumors and spoilers regarding the possible deaths of Ron and Hermione, two-thirds of the books' central trio, which had popped up on the Internet over the preceding two weeks. I tugged on my Gryffindor shirt, purchased nine years ago and now barely able to fit over my head, as I wondered if Hermione Granger, my childhood idol, would make it through the 759 pages.

After a couple hours of Harry Potter word searches and costume contests, we queued up and counted down the last 30 minutes of our wait. When midnight arrived, screams of excitement burst from the crowd, which then hurried to purchase their books and leave the scene before anyone rained on the parade by flipping to the end and announcing the death count.

And as I started my all-night vigil, racing through the pages in a sleeping bag at a friend's home, I gritted my teeth and reached for the Kleenex to say farewell, not only to a long list of dead characters but also to the fantastical world that has so entwined itself with my childhood. Ten years later, I'm still wishing for that letter from Hogwarts.

Promoting Peace Inside and Out

Interfaith Action to Hold Peace Meditation July 28

By Victoria Scott

When the Evanston Ecumenical Action Council reorganized as Interfaith Action of Evanston last year, the formerly Christian group, incorporated in 1970, declared its intention to expand its membership to all religious and spiritual communities.

The meditations, which are universal and non-denominational, acknowledge pain and suffering in the world and seek to alleviate them by promoting peace, compassion, lovingkindness and beauty, says Polly Liontis, who will guide the July 28 peace meditation.

On July 28 the group will act on that intention, giving people of faith the chance to come together for a Peace Meditation at the Clark Street Beach. 

The service, open to the public, will begin at 8:30 a.m. with prayers for the world offered by Evanston clergy and will conclude with meditations from the Buddhist tradition led by a local teacher of yoga and shiatsu.

The peace event, like the new organization, is built on a recognition of the need, "in our time, [for] learning how to respect and honor one another in our faith traditions," says Sheri Delvin, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and incoming president of Interfaith Action.

While the main work of the group is still to serve people who are hungry and homeless, Interfaith Action also exists "to express shared values through action and interfaith dialogue," according to www.interfaithactionofevanston.org.

"We want [the Peace Meditation] to be an event to promote inner and world peace," says Interfaith Action Vice President Seth Weinberger, a member of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation and the impetus behind the Meditation. 

"The enormous need in Evanston to pray and hope for world peace is met in churches and synagogues and in secular peace rallies," he continues.  "But there is nothing to bring [the whole community] together."

Pastor Delvin comments that before reflecting on world peace, "sometimes we have to understand what it is to be peaceful within ourselves."

Polly Liontis, long a student of Eastern spirituality, will guide the crowd in meditations that she says are drawn from Buddhism but that are, nevertheless, "universal, nondenominational."  She characterizes one meditation, Tong Len, as "acknowledg[ing] pain and suffering in the world and seek[ing] to alleviate them."   Centered on breathing and the opening of the heart, the meditations promote "peace, compassion, lovingkindness and beauty," she says.

Ms. Liontis, who has had a lifelong interest in the mind-body-spirit connection, has been a member of the Evanston Northwestern Hospital Integrative Medicine Program since its inception.

The peace event, like the new organization, is built on a recognition of the need, "in our time, [for] learning how to respect and honor one another in our faith traditions." – Sheri Delvin, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and incoming president of Interfaith Action.

By inviting her participation, Ms. Liontis says, Interfaith Action is "hoping to reach a broader span of people, to make [the service] more inclusive."

For years the Evanston Ecumenical Action Council operated a network of soup kitchens and warming centers that attend to the physical and holistic needs of the homeless.  Other faith groups were engaged in social action at the same time, says Mr. Weinberger.

The newly formed Interfaith Action gives them "the opportunity to do it together," he says, adding, "There's a sense of joy and relief that [the transition to Interfaith] happened … it has been in the works for decades."

After incorporating under its new name, Interfaith Action held an extremely successful Thanksgiving service last year, says Pastor Delvin. The speaker was Eboo Patel of Interfaith Youth Corps of Chicago, which brings young people of various faiths together to find shared values in work.  Interfaith Action of Evanston is looking to replicate the program here, she says.

The Peace Meditation is intended to be the first in a series of events Interfaith Action is calling "Four Seasons of Faith."  Each event, says Mr. Weinberger, will celebrate a different community idea. 

Again this year, the Interfaith Thanksgiving service at Northwestern University's nondenominational Alice Millar Chapel will celebrate the giving of thanks.  In winter they will co-sponsor a candlelight vigil at Alice Millar to commemorate Martin Luther King and his ideals of social justice and brotherhood.

The spring season will bring a community-wide faith-based choir concert, says Mr. Weinberger, to celebrate "beauty as captured by the human voice."

Next Saturday's Meditation service will give Evanstonians a chance to act amidst all the talk of peace, says Pastor Delvin.  Although peace has no season, she sees this Interfaith celebration as an "opportunity to demonstrate living in peace. 

"What could be more important in our times?" she asks.

BOOK REVIEW

"The Ghost At the Table"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"The Ghost at the Table" by Suzanne Berne is a novel about the complexity of family relationships that unfolds over the course of a single holiday.

Sisters Cynthia and Frances Fiske see each other only at holidays -- and Cynthia. who is single and lives in California, usually avoids those. Then Frances calls and practically begs her to come for Thanksgiving. Their father is getting divorced at the age of 82, and Frances, who is ready to commit him to a nursing home, cannot face this alone. So Cynthia agrees to the visit.

There were originally three girls in the family. Their mother, suffering from Parkinson's disease, was an invalid for most of their childhood. Then their oldest sister died, leaving just the two of them and their father.

Both girls agree he is the cause of all their problems. Their father married the girls' young Swedish tutor within weeks of their mother's still-mysterious death and paid scant attention to either daughter – especially Cynthia. Now Frances is married to a successful man and has two girls and a fabulous old Victorian home in Connecticut. Cynthia really does not want to go visit.

Cynthia is the author of feminist children's books, writing biographies of famous people from the perspective of their sisters – and emphasizing the sisterly bond.  Her current project is a book about Mark Twain, whose family parallels her own: three daughters, a wife in poor health and Mark Twain himself, funny and charming on paper, but with his volatile temper, distanced from his girls.

Insightful about sibling bonds and rivalries, the author shows Frances, the middle child, as the peacemaker, who wants the family together and everyone happy. She over-organizes everyone and plans her "occasions" in great detail.

Cynthia knows her sister has probably been cooking for Thanksgiving for days and that the house will be tastefully decorated and the damask tablecloth fresh, having been packed away with rose petals.

Frances views the past through rose-colored glasses. Cynthia, the cynic, sees things differently. The sisters could not be more different.

And yet as Frances says, "Blood is blood." Cynthia asks herself who can resent someone who just wants everyone to be happy. Writing from the heart, the author has a lot to say about family connections.

"The Ghost at the Table" would make for great discussion.

FILM REVIEW

"Rescue Dawn"

A Film Review By Joe Linstroth

Legendary director Werner Herzog follows up his 1997 documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" with "Rescue Dawn," an intense dramatization of Navy pilot Dieter Dengler's escape from a Laotian prisoner-of-war camp.

Christian Bale turns in another stellar performance as Dieter, a German-born naval aviator who is shot down while flying his first combat sortie over Laos in 1965. After refusing to sign a document denouncing the United States, Dieter is beaten and tortured by his captors and then taken to a prison camp deep in the jungle.

His optimism and escape plans are immediately challenged by the brutal guards and the two American POWs in the camp, whose withered physical and mental conditions have left them unprepared to help in Dieter's grand plans.

Duane (Steve Zahn) is quietly supportive of Dieter, but his psyche, severely wounded from a year and a half spent in the bamboo prison, has left him on the verge of a breakdown. The other American, Gene (Jeremy Davies), is more garrulous and agitated.

Reduced to skin and bones, Gene is content to wait until the war ends rather than die in the jungle. But with food running out and their deaths all but certain, the group is forced to try their luck in the prison outside the walls.  

Evenly paced, the film takes its time to capture the boredom and filth of the camp.  The three men, along with three Vietnamese sympathizers, are beaten, starved and forced to sleep shackled to each other every night. The three Americans pass their time filling the shelves of their dream refrigerators.

"Raspberry pie, the way my mom used to make it, with the crust as thick as a steak," Duane imagines. The infinite and menacing beauty of the jungle is as much a character in the film as any of the fearsome prison guards.

Mr. Herzog pulls the camera back for wide-angle shots of jagged outcroppings poking through a lush green carpet then plunges it below the canopy, following Dieter and Duane as they trudge barefoot through the impenetrable tangle of vines, leaves and bamboo. 

Christian Bale lost considerable weight for the role, and the suffering pays off. It takes an incredible strength of mind to endure the amount of stress, both physical and mental, that Dieter Dengler experienced during his ordeal, and Mr. Bale plays it perfectly. 

At first, he seems too carefree for the situation at hand, at one point managing to coax a smile from a female captor while lying shackled to the floor. But his air of confidence comes from knowing that he has to escape before he loses hope like Duane and Gene.

When it gets so bad even Dieter cannot bear to smile anymore, it is his optimism and determination that carry him home.

Runs 2 hrs. Rated R for  violence and language.

FILM REVIEW

"Transformers "

A Film Review By Brian Murphy

Much of what is wrong with Hollywood films is a result of the canons of style-over-substance directors whose visually extravagant but intellectually devoid, thematically deficient, dialogue-defective scripts are billed as the must-see big-budget blockbusters of the year.

Take Michael Bay, for example, whose directorial efforts include "The Rock," "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor," and who served as producer on "Pearl Harbor" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning."

Save for his magnum opus, the wildly entertaining 1996 flick, "The Rock," viewing Mr. Bay's other films may have seemed a depressing waste of time. So audiences should be grateful that his film adaptation of the 80s comic book and cartoon, "Transformers," is worthy of at least one viewing. 

This appreciation comes from a former "Transformers" fanboy, who collected the rags, watched the show and was devastated when the decades-old animated film killed off Autobot leader supreme, Optimus Prime.

The story at the core of the film has heart. Human hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf of "Disturbia"), is a dorky teenager with a crush on the unattainable, popular hot girl (the almost-too-appropriately named Megan Fox). Although it may take an invading army of alien robots hell-bent on destroying the earth to bring the two together, to a socially awkward teen, that may, in fact, seem reasonable. 

After civil war has destroyed their planet, the heroic Autobots and violent Decepticons have made their way to earth in search of a cube that does something. No one – audience or director, it seems – cares what the cube does; it seems an excuse merely to flex the muscle of CGI (computer-generated graphics) to show a 50-foot robot shape-shift into a car, a tank, an airplane and on down the line.

This is the basis on which to wage an explosive, almost apocalyptic, guns-and-missiles- blazing showdown that leaves audiences buzzing with exhilaration.

Solid performances by Mr. LaBeouf, Ms. Fox, Josh Duhamel, and unexpected, emotive performances by respected actors such as Jon Voight and John Turturro create a solid backbone of movie reality amidst the presence of feuding, computerized robot giants. 

Aside from that, the screenwriters, and unfathomably, the director, have backed away from the forced poignancy and "deep" impact of crying characters, overwrought speeches and monologues, and vomit-inducing Aerosmith ballads that filmmakers often associate with the possible destruction of man.

Fortunately, we instead get loads of humor to offset the action. Inconceivably, we actually witness humor that derives from a genuine place, mostly involving nosy, embarrassing parents and a lovesick teen. 

While the fate of the world may be at risk, a dose of "American Pie" humor is a welcome, well-written addition.

Now, the question whether this is pure popcorn fluff or is there some dense undercurrent of socio-political anything festering beneath the surface is open to debate. However, keep in mind that our multi-
ethnic American troops are initially
attacked by the evildoers in Qatar (i.e.-the middle east) and presented as selfless heroes while the United States government is cloaked in secrecy and besieged by negligent agency leaders unwilling to cooperate with one another.

Further, the hero Autobots, while alien to our planet, resolutely adhere to their leader's doctrine that innocent humans (civilians) should not be harmed under any circumstances. Perhaps this is the filmmaker's way of a suggesting the way our country should be fighting its wars overseas. Or maybe it was all just an elaborate attempt to blow stuff up and make some money.

Runs 2 hr. 24 min.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language.

Young Evanston

And the Winner Is the Moon Team.

It was an all-Evanston final at the girls 5-6 Ponytail Division Tri-City Championship softball game on July 1 at James Park. The Prairie Moon Astros won 11-4 over the Evanston Pitch and Hit Galaxies.  Lara Murphy, Sarah Barnes and Allie Managlia pitched for the Galaxies. Karina de Hueck and Jackie Donohue pitched for the Astros. In picture are (front row from left) Miranda Reinberg, Mali Frazel, Emily Flood, Maddie Giella. (back row) Jackie Donohue, Madeline Walsh, Allie Nortz, Karina de Hueck, Bea Kruger, Fiona Harrigan. Coaches Bill Nortz, Tom Walsh, Terry Donohue. Not pictured are Ramina Khuri, Isabel Rodriguez, Emma Kolb and Katie Bertsche. 

Summer Reading Game Continues

The Evanston Public Library's Summer Reading Game has blasted off at the Main Library and both branches. This year's theme, "Mission Read: To the Library and Beyond," includes special activities related to outer space, space travel and aliens. Children read on their own to earn weekly prizes. Call 847-448-8610 to register.

"iRead" is the title of the Teen Reading Program, with music as this years theme. Yes, books still need to be read and reviewed, but prizes are music related. Call 847-448-8623, or www.epl.org.

Noah's Playground for Everyone

By Elizabeth Foydel

Reconstruction to transform what is currently Lawson Park at the Lighthouse Landing Center into Noah's Playground for Everyone, Evanston's first universally accessible playground, will begin later this summer.

A joint effort on the part of the late Noah Cutter's family, the City of Evanston and the Evanston Parks Foundation, the handicapped-accessible park will commemorate Noah, who suffered from neurological problems and passed away at the age of 2 in 2005.

The park will be one of very few public playgrounds in Illinois that is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-accessible and designed not only with special needs children in mind but also with the goal of promoting equal play among children with and without disabilities. Such features as wheelchair-accessible sidewalks, parking, water fountains, restrooms and paths to the playground; a "barrier-free" ramp system to help all children reach the playground's highest points; rubberized and wood-chip surfaces to minimize risk of injury and increase accessibility; a suspended sandbox to allow those in wheelchairs to play next to those who can walk; and different textures and noise-makers to stimulate sensory development will allow handicapped children to play alongside their non-handicapped peers.

The City Council voted on July 9 to award the sum of $836,255 to Clauss Brothers, Inc., the project's lowest bidder. Roughly $400,000 was raised through private donations; the City has contributed the remainder of necessary funding by reallocating money from the General Fund operating budget and from completed park projects with unspent balances. Said Julie Cutter, Noah's mother, "We began the project in 2006, with a projected cost of $700,000. The City generously agreed to pay $400,000, so our initial goal was $300,000, but as the projected cost rose, and as we received such a positive response from donors, we bumped our goal up to $400,000."

The project currently has more than 900 donors, a figure that includes "everything from a $5 bill sent to us by a family who had seen our project on the news to a $50,000 grant," said Ms. Cutter. "We really pounded the pavement, trying anything people suggested and asking friends to spread the word. We've received an overwhelming amount of support from the Evanston community, as well as from out-of-state." Fundraising tactics have included the more formal, such as a silent auction that brought in about $60,000, to the smaller and more kid-focused, which included puppet shows and children's concerts.

The Cutters and the City are currently in the process of scheduling pre-construction meetings with the builders, and construction should commence within the next few weeks. "We're excited to see this finally happening," said Ms. Cutter. "If Noah had survived, he would have needed a playground like this to play on, so it's a fitting memorial." For more information about Noah's Playground for Everyone, see www.noahsplayground.org.

ETHS Grad Is One of the "Pearls of Hope."

Leah Barnes participated in the Chicago Links Pearls of Hope cotillion in May. She was selected for her outstanding achievements, academic and volunteer work. Leah was one of 157 ETHS students who are Illinois State Scholars based on their college-entrance exam scores and high school academic achievement. She was recognized as one of the outstanding volunteers of Evanton Township High School at ceremonies at the volunteer recognition ceremony held at Northwestern University in April. Her volunteer efforts include working at the Mather, First Night, Interact, the Cradle and tutoring for INVEST.