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All Posts By

Jeff Ihnen

Apr 07
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Attribution and Net to Gross – Pop Tarts or Oatmeal?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
Last week I attended the ACEEE National Symposium on Market Transformation in Baltimore.  Learning and information gathering from conference sessions are typically down the list of reasons I attend conferences.  This conference however turned out to be very beneficial on both of those counts.  In particular, the net-to-gross (NTG) football, as described in last August’s Energy Program Evaluation Asylum post, was uncased for another game.  This time I learned something. One session featured heavy doses of program attribution, and of course, the NTG football.  Speakers included Bob Wirtshafter from Wirtshafter Associates and Mike Messenger from Itron.  Both gentlemen demonstrated the…
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Mar 03
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Decoupling – A Love Story

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 2 Comments
Perhaps I am naïve, but to be more effective it seems interveners would do well to understand motives of profit-driven enterprises and their customers.  Consider, for example, this recent article in Midwest Energy News lamenting CenterPoint Energy’s withdrawal from decoupling.  You may recall a post I made eons ago where I described the perverse impact of decoupling on prices for consumers.  Allow me to recap. Utilities have fixed cost of hardware and labor to deliver energy to customers – poles, wires, pipes, transformers, compressors, trucks, etc.  This stuff makes up the rate base and fixed cost of energy delivery.  They…
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Jan 27
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Nest Thermostat – A Bird in the Hand

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
Six or seven years ago, without knowing more about the Nest thermostat, I would have commented something to the effect that, “It’s a stupid thermostat.  How brilliant could it possibly be?”  Once I got my hands on an iPhone, I could see what the deserved hype was about.  I expected something similar from Nest since it was developed by a former Apple guy, who I later found out led the development of the first 18 generations of the iPod and 3 generations of the iPhone.  I wanted to try the Nest out myself because: (1) I’m a stage 5 energy…
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Dec 09
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Energy Efficiency Potential and the Low Hanging Disease

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
When I first started working at Michaels, still in my 20s, my workdays usually ended around 5:15, and since I was allergic to rolling out of bed before 6:00 AM, I would run after work in La Crosse.  I started running the trails of Hixon Forest, a very nice park on the edge of town with steep traverses and varying terrain that was sometimes easy on joints and in other places treacherous.  One night I tripped on a tree root that protruded from the surface of the trail.  I did a face plant and got something between a scratch and…
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Nov 18
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De-Risking Energy Efficiency – From Both Sides

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Recently I have been preparing a presentation on a broad array of energy efficiency issues for executives and facility managers of large commercial and industrial facilities.  I was wisely advised by the utility product manager to keep it engaging and interactive.  I think I’ve whined in this blog before about how I despise dopey group exercises.  Sorry, can’t make it.  I have a teleconference.  I have a plane to catch.  I think my tuberculosis may be flaring up. So instead, I am thinking, as was also suggested, that rather than sending small groups at this session into the corner to…
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Oct 14
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Governors Crush Shaheen-Portman

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government 5 Comments
This week’s post is brought to you by the National Resources Defense Council.  Yes indeed; states are leading the way in energy efficiency and  considering the bumbling federal government that can’t get anything done or come close to living within its means,  supporters of Shaheen-Portman in our industry should think long and hard or short and easy about what they wish for. Most states have a genuine interest in the well being of their citizens across the entire state.  They balance their budgets, sometimes by force (law), and this is also the expectation of state governments and citizens alike.  Expectations…
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Sep 09
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National Energy Use and Efficiency

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Okay boys and girls; this week features a slice of energy geek heaven spawned by this human/America whapping article from Clean Technica. The basis for the article, and this post, is Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s (LLNL) annual national energy use and efficiency chart to the left. Clean Technica laments that the country was more efficient in 1970 than it is today.  In 1970, the analysis indicates we were slightly more efficient than 50%, but in 2012 we were only 39% efficient.  Hold on.  This does not tell the entire story.  I will demonstrate with a bunch of nerd analysis that we…
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Aug 26
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Why Customers Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency – Versus Stupid Pet Tricks

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
As I mentioned in a LinkedIn post last week, this week’s Energy Rant involves an interesting article Why Homeowners Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency.  The paper could also be tweaked a little and re-entitled, Why Customers Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency.  Period.  As usual, this brings to mind a cornucopia of spinoffs. Let’s first begin with a core theme of a rant from about a month ago.  In that, I said savings from current portfolios across the country are dominated by: Incentives for trinkets like CFLs and ENERGY STAR this, that, and the other (consumer goods) and Incentives for contractors to upsell efficient…
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Aug 19
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Energy Program Evaluation Asylum

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 8 Comments
Last week, some colleagues and I attended the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC) in Chicago.  The conference was great with my favorite part: meeting people, getting to know them better, and building friendships.  Session content, as usual, spawned a theme in my mind.  This year’s theme: This business is crazy. There are panel discussions of experts, you know, the thought leaders with 30+ years of experience in the business, and as I sat there listening, I thought to myself, “Isn’t this a rerun of something I attended in 2011 in Boston, and in 2009 in Portland, and in 2007…
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Aug 12
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Impact Evaluation Confidence and Precision – Fluffy Illusions or Autopsies

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
This week’s rant is brought to you by Ryan Kroll, Michaels’ Program Evaluation Manager.  Last week Ryan issued a Program Brief discussing 90/10 confidence and precision sampling that is the industry norm for energy efficiency program impact evaluation.  The 90/10 simply means the results of the sampled projects have a 90% probability of being within plus or minus 10% of properly representing the entire population – and NOT necessarily the right answer.  Sample representation and the right answer are obviously different things. Here is the perversion in impact evaluation that I’ve never seen written anywhere: The less you learn about…
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