by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 2, 2019 | Energy Rant
Many of us at Michaels are gluttons for data and accompanying analysis. Our homes are test beds. In this post, we look at impacts from smart thermostats, the dangers of wrong assumptions, and extrapolating findings for impact evaluation. Every smart thermostat...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 17, 2018 | Energy Rant
When I dig in to research a topic for the Rant, it’s a bit like American Pickers with Mike and Frank, but not drama. Pickers cover thousands of square feet of junk or treasure. I suppose the contents of this blog could be described as thousands of words of junk or...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 10, 2018 | Energy Rant
Last week we started to learn how wind turbines impact the environment from a global warming perspective. As an engineer, I have to understand the physics behind that, and in the meantime, I chased one rabbit and found that even though the wind dies down at night,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 3, 2018 | Energy Rant
As children, some engineers liked to take things apart to see how they worked – and maybe even put them back together. That was too much work for me, but I was curious. I would intently watch my Mom as she accelerated the 1970s Ford Galaxy 500[1] down the road. What...
by Jeff Ihnen | Nov 19, 2018 | Energy Rant
If polling managers were competent, we would have election day rather than the election playoffs. For several days they were finding ballots in the usual places anyone normal would stash them, like elementary school classrooms, rental car trunks, vans, and the bottoms...
