ENERGY FLASHES

IT'S EASY TO CUT ELECTRIC HEATING BILLS BY ONE-THIRD : Just install a heat pump. Heat pumps (which can either collect warmth at Point A and move it to Point B or vice versa) are--thanks to the energy crunch--suddenly coming into their own. Engineers say that, "Compared to other forms of electrical heaters, these units are 200 to 250% efficient." If you're interested in learning more about them, see your local heating contractor. General Electric, Westinghouse, Lennox and other major furnace/air conditioning manufacturers already have begun a major marketing push of the pumps.

WIND POWER AND SOLAR ENERGY have already been harnessed by the oil industry. Shell, Atlantic Richfield, Tenneco and other large petroleum companies are currently using small solar-powered equipment (foghorns, warning lights, etc.) on drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The firms are also conducting serious tests on windplants with 3-to-7-foot-diameter propellers (and outputs ranging from 16 to 150 watts). Business Week reports that oilmen now figure on using Gulf breezes to supply electricity to half of the 2,800 offshore drilling platforms located in that body of water.

MASS-PRODUCED SOLAR COLLECTOR COMPONENTS are now available from both Olin Brass and Revere Copper & Brass. See your nearest supplier of Olin and Revere industrial products for specifications and prices.

DON'T EXPECT MUCH from the World Energy Conference, scheduled for September 23-27 in Detroit, Michigan. Lavish advance promotion brands the gathering as a big-government-big-business-as-usual waste of time. When the newly formed American Wind Energy Association applied for admittance to the conference, it was turned down. ("You're too late;' AWEA representatives were told.) Result: Undaunted AWEAers decided to hold their own alternative energy conference in Detroit on September 20-21... with maybe just a little of their meeting being extended to overlap the WEC clambake. AWEAer Al O'Shay--of Detroit's Environmental Energies, Inc. (21243 Grand River, Detroit, Michigan 48219)--expects to have his solar, wind and methane powered store open by then and has offered its use as unofficial headquarters for the AWEA meet. Contact Nancy Horning at the Grand River address (1-313-533-1985) for further details.