Skip to main content
Tag

heating and cooling system

Rooftop Units – Yesteryear’s Pool Brat Punks

By Energy Rant One Comment
Last week several of us at Michaels bemoaned the hazards of operations and maintenance (O&M), controls, and behavioral programs. The specific discussion was about the ubiquitous rooftop unit, like those shown on the box-store roof below. The discussion could have been about anything other than light bulbs. Measures in a portfolio come with a spectrum of savings risk from baselines, to hours of use, to risks associated with operation once deployed. Next week I think I’ll analyze an entire portfolio of risks and give those risks relative scores. For instance, many measures depend on the baseline – not necessarily the…
Read More

Saving Energy, or Not: Mixing Breezes, Ice Blocks, and Toilet Paper

By Energy Rant One Comment
Four years ago, I wrote about a few home energy-saving tips in Refrigerator Sitcoms and Lethal Toaster Ovens. I said I would need to write a series because there are so many, mostly bad, energy saving tips to write about. With four years passing, it is more like a movie sequel than a TV series. Knowing the “why” behind anything helps it stick, like training. Here goes. The Ceiling Fan Famous advice for ceiling fans is to have them move air down (counterclockwise) in summer, and up in winter. A ceiling fan can do two things only. It can generate…
Read More

Spring Forward Monday Afternoon

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
I was blindsided by the onset of daylight savings time this weekend.  Wonderful.  As though I don’t already have enough work to do before I can get outside to do some badly needed yard work - hack an hour off my weekend to boot. If I remember correctly, daylight savings time used to begin at the end of April and end on the last weekend of October.  I also believe that these dates were moved to the current dates of mid March and early November as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  This is supposed to save energy. …
Read More