by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 31, 2026 | Energy Rant
Industrial facilities love a good checklist: swap in premium motors, add variable frequency drives, call it efficiency. But when it comes to motors and drives, that plug-and-play mindset can backfire. In many cases, the difference between real savings and wasted...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 23, 2026 | Energy Rant
Industrial companies love to say energy efficiency is a priority. And technically, that’s true. But if you look at where the money is actually going, it’s mostly the same playbook: lighting upgrades, better HVAC units, maybe some motor replacements. Safe, familiar,...
by Liz Haworth | Mar 16, 2026 | Energy Rant
Written by guest blogger Liz Haworth, VP of Marketing at Michaels Energy Jeff is out of town, which means the Energy Rant microphone landed on my desk. As Michaels Energy’s marketing lead and current Chair of the AESP Board, I spend a lot of time thinking about how...
by Stan Nabozny | Mar 11, 2026 | The Decarbonized Cold Chain
Most refrigerated facilities don’t have an “efficiency problem.” They have a peak problem. Picture this: it’s 3:58 PM. A truck shows up early, three dock doors are cycling like they’re trying to win an Olympic medal, and defrost decides it’s also time to be brave....
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 10, 2026 | Energy Rant
To my surprise, it’s been over half a year, 27 weeks to be exact, since I’ve written about soaring electricity prices. DNYUZ, “an Armenian website that plagiarizes content word for word from major news sources,” according to...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 3, 2026 | Energy Rant
I spent last week in HOT San Diego at the AESP Annual Conference. It was 20 degrees above average, hanging out in the 85-90°F range of blazing afternoon temperatures. It felt like late June in the upper Midwest. Multiple locals noted that “this is not normal.” For...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 23, 2026 | Energy Rant
A year or two ago, around the time Hertz flooded the market with its fleet of electric vehicles, I heard from EV industry enthusiasts that the electric vehicle revolution was going through some chop, and that no transformation grows straight up. Correct. Usually,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 16, 2026 | Energy Rant
Everyone Wants to Rule the World (With AI) Everyone wants artificial intelligence to solve a big problem. Nations see it as the next arms race. CEOs see it as free labor. Vendors see it as a feature they can bolt onto anything with a circuit board. But somewhere...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 10, 2026 | Energy Rant
R Value Costs, Climate Specificity, and Why Business Outcomes Matter In this week’s unusual Rant, I am stepping back to take a hard look at standard energy-efficiency upgrades and tips that circulate endlessly across the internet, conference slides, and...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 3, 2026 | Energy Rant
Comfort, Customer Satisfaction, and the Things Energy Metrics Miss This week’s post was inspired by the Midwest Energy Solutions conference in Chicago, though not by anything that happened on floors five through seven, where the conference activities were neatly...
