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custom efficiency program

Program Secrets for Large Commercial and Industrial

By Energy Rant No Comments
Maybe it’s the Implementation Contractor Classic golden opportunities in retro-commissioning include fixing the root cause of the problem rather than trying to treat the symptoms. For example, it may be too cold in a space, so what should be done? Turn up the hot water temperature, of course! No. The problem could be any number of things like a new partition (wall) being installed, isolating one space with a diffuser from another space that has the thermostat. Or my favorite – parking a 1 kW printer under the temperature sensor. We were RCx geniuses in ha school. When our room…
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Rooftop Solar’s Tiger by the Tail

By Energy Rant 3 Comments
Four years after I explained why distributed rooftop solar on every home bucks every successful ongoing business trend in existence, Keith Dennis proves it in Public Utilities Fortnightly. His article: NOT Zero Energy. The vehicle for Mr. Dennis’ flatulent beef is zero net energy – or ZNE as it is known in the jargon language – homes. However, it is not the design of the ZNE home, which is uber fuel efficient: uber insulated, ventilation energy recovery, and efficient equipment. It is a fallacy that a ZNE, when equipped with solar generation, is good for society or net emissions. The…
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evaluation

Real Time Evaluation for Real – Excuses Stay Home

By Energy Rant One Comment
People and firms talk about integrating evaluation findings into programs and portfolios closer to real time than the conventional methods.  But what is really being done about it other than talk? This post features some concrete ideas to put in the bank - money. First, what is the conventional evaluation process? Approaches and plans vary all over the place because different clients see different general approaches. For example, some clients evaluate every program every year. Some evaluate every program only once per EE plan cycle and within this subset, some evaluate them all in one shot over the course of…
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Commercial and Industrial Custom Efficiency, Entrails to Turkey Dinners

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
In the past week or two, we evaluated whether or not we wanted to respond to a request for proposal to deliver a commercial and industrial (C&I) custom efficiency program.  The metrics of the RFP were doomed to a disservice for this particular utility’s customers, and therefore, of course we passed.  What do I mean? The project term was one year.  In that year, the program needed to be designed and promoted, customers needed to be recruited, projects developed, AND implemented within the year.  Give me a break!  Here again, large C&I is treated like an upstream program for LEDs…
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