by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 7, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
If we are to get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we must put down the mud balls, enjoy some sacred-cow burgers, burn the little boxes in which we confine ourselves, and maybe have a little counseling about that boogeyman under the bed. This post first...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 23, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Let’s skip the energy supply side this week and talk about thermostats used for cooling. Let’s broaden the discussion to include both programmable thermostats and “smart” or “learning” thermostats. The Nest falls into the latter group. Speaking for the Nest, which I...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 9, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Easy peasy lemon squeezy, to repeat a phrase of one rant fan a while back – that describes carbon slayers’ victory laps in the past couple years. I am talking about the natural gas boom introduced by the development to near perfection of the hydraulic fracturing and...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 5, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
If energy efficiency programs are considered and measured to be a good thing in some states, why are they not good for all, or nearly all, states? Even the utilities we work with in Minnesota and Iowa with programs since the mid 1980s believe in energy efficiency for...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 28, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
There is weekly, if not daily, chatter about the end of the monopolistic electric utility systems we have today. They call it the utility death spiral, and it goes like this: Distributed generation, also known as DG, which includes rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV)...
