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Drew Gillett
By Jim Romeo
As
a kid in the fourth grade, Drew Gillett drew floor plans for houses. It
must have been a sign of things to come. He would later graduate from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and design homes and buildings
for maximum energy efficiency. The Bedford, New Hampshirebased Gillett
has blazed a trail for architectural and engineering design that brings
solar power and energy conservation into the limelight again.
The recent environment of energy price spikes and the allure of the better energy mousetrap has helped Gillett's pursuit. Solar power, once the poster child for a post-hippy era energy crisis, has recently gained attention and popularity. Solar power and its inclusion in engineering design has always been important to him, and MIT was his foundation to learn about it and build a career out of it. "I knew I was going to MIT when I set it as a goal in the seventh grade" recalls Gillett, who originally entered as a chemical engineering major. Disillusioned with the chemical field, he dropped out.
After quitting school, Gillett, 52, found himself in New Mexico, weaving
baskets! There he discovered that if he pursued a field of study that
interested him, it would work out. He returned to MIT, and in 1973, he
graduated with a bachelor's degree in architectural design, but he stayed
on for two more years to attain another B.S. in civil engineering.
Gillett's interest in alternative energy sources was kindled in college
by MIT professor Ed Allen's course on urban utilities, in which he first
became fascinated by the creativity of alternative energy and the pure
economic efficiency of it. He was later inspired by attending a Northeast
Sustainable Energy Association conference in Worcester, Massachusetts.
"It introduced me to the fact that there was a real alternative industry
out there with real products and projects," explains Gillett. "A
key paper I wrote covered balancing insulation and infiltration reduction
with a limited budget, which explored the limitations of linear programming
with the step function availability of products and prices in the real
world. I still use the principles today when doing any microeconomic analysis
for a client." To put it in simpler terms, Gillett explains that
it answers the question: should I add insulation or buy carpets?
Right out of the starting gate after college, Gillett went to work for Kalwall Corporation in Manchester, New Hampshire as an energy conservation analyst and designer of solar panels and systems. A few years later, he left to take a senior engineer position at Brookhaven National Laboratory on eastern Long Island, New York, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. At Brookhaven, he consulted to engineers and architects in the northeastern U.S. on energy conservation. Later in 1981, Gillett delved into solar design as chief solar engineer at R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, Inc. in Boston. There he was responsible for the analysis and design of solar projects, including active, passive, day lighting, and photovoltaic designs for various construction projects.
Gillett's experience has made
him savvy to the common objections of solar power and energy-saving measures.
"It's too expensive, it doesn't work, and it's subversive,"
he cites as the first line of excuses for solar power aversion. But he
sees irony in this objection. When the truth is told, solar power and
energy-saving measures are just the opposite, he says. "It's magical,
perhaps in the same sense that drilling a hole in the ground and watching
oil, water, or money emerge is. "It's exciting. I'm constantly amazed
at the amount of time and effort spent on talking the client out of energy
efficiency or renewable projects by 'professional' engineers with absolutely
no experience with the technology."
So what was the "coolest" project he's worked on? Actually, several come to mind: a Texas vacation and hunting retreat for the Rockefeller family that included an insulated trailer truck with integral refrigeration to keep hunting game and a battery-dominated photovoltaic system for the caretaker and surrounding homes. The second project was a small solar domestic hot water project with web monitoring for its solar contractor. A third idea he's particularly proud of is a paper he presented on solar domestic hot water for Bermuda that points out the favorable economics of solar power in comparison to a nuclear plant.
When it comes to solar power and alternative energy, Gillett firmly believes in walking his own talk. "We live in a recycled 1890s farmhouse with a greenhouse and sunspace, a solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system (now 23 years old), a 400-square-foot active air heating system, grid-connected and non-grid photovoltaic systems, and a pool heating system. The SDHW has been a consistent producer, displacing over 4000 kilowatt-hours every year," he says. " The new grid-connected photo voltaic cell was really easy, and it's most magical watching our electric meter spin backwards (if you turn everything else off). The pool heater was effective in extending the end of the season from August to September, but not as good as painting the outside of the above-ground pool black, showing that passive solar is simple, cheap, and effective."
Besides his home, Gillett has incorporated energy efficiency into other areas of his life in numerous ways. "The average age of our cars is 20 years, and the diesel Volkswagen Rabbits get over 40 miles a gallon," he says. "We don't own an SUV, unless you count the airplane!" He adds, "I'm a Yankee. Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without."
A freelance writer based in Chesapeake, Virginia, Jim Romeo is the author of Net Know-How. Surviving the Bloodbath. Straight Talk From 25 Internet Entrepreneurs.
Progressive
Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
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©2004 Progressive Engineer