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Energy Efficiency

Jun 29
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Lost Revenue Adjustment; One Patch in the Quilt

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
This week, I dive into something I have wanted to know more about for some time: efficiency program funding mechanisms.  This post is based on a recent paper released by ACEEE, Valuing Efficiency: A Review of Lost Revenue Adjustment Mechanisms. Utilities must be allowed to make enough money to draw required investor capital, debt and equity, to fund their operations.  Energy efficiency programs are funded by ratepayers, one way or another – not out of shareholder charity.  All states with programs have some sort of transparent, although usually incomprehensibly confusing, means for cost recovery or lost revenue recovery. Although the ACEEE…
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Jun 15
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Relative Humidity, by Socks and Jeans

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Sustainability No Comments
It is mid-June, and strangely here in the northern Midwest we have experienced virtually no warm, humid weather yet this year.  The weather can flip like a switch from a pattern of rain and clouds of the past several weeks to one that is hot and humid with little precipitation.  Now is a good time to talk about relative humidity and moisture. Relative humidity is something everyone knows about but hardly anyone understands.  How many times have you heard “It was 100 degrees with 99 percent humidity?”  I guarantee these conditions are 100% impossible, at least in the ambient outdoors,…
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Jun 08
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Tesla Powerwall and the Disruption of Rational Thought

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
Howitzer Explosion Guy.  That was the nickname Wayne Campbell of Wayne’s World gave to Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s correspondent for the Gulf War in 1991.  “Sheeyeeaaah.  I’m so sure.”  “He just made it up for the war.”  Too bad Wayne isn’t still doing his show from his parents’ basement on community access channel 10 in Aurora, Illinois.  I would like his assessment of Elon Musk.  Pierre GQ Manly – like Larry Ellison, minus the useful products. One thing is for sure, solar panels of the photovoltaic type are certainly sexier than, oh, a fractionally expensive building surgery that provides equal quantity…
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Jun 01
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Condensing Boilers – Test for Show, Ship for Dough

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
Everyone has probably heard at least one hundred or maybe a thousand light bulb jokes – the ones that disparage a class, gender, group, country, state, generation, etc.  The point is to make fun of the group in question because changing a light bulb is so simple, but it takes several doofuses in the disparaged group to do it.  Unfortunately, changing a light bulb is about the only energy retrofit measure that doesn’t get screwed up, usually.  Is this all we are capable of? In the past couple years, I have posted at least four Rants on energy code non-compliance:…
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May 26
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RFPs, Wind & Participants from Hell; Tales from AESP Spring 2015

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
Last week’s AESP Spring Conference was the best that I can recall, in terms of the content delivered, in my opinion.  Perhaps I got lucky and went to the right presentations.  Perhaps it’s because I went to more presentations than usual.  Most likely it is for another reason, and readers will have to call me for that because it’s an advantage I want to hold among die-hard rant fans. I attended an Espresso Learning Shots discussion led by Laura Orfanedes from Fiveworx.  The topic was requests for proposals (RFPs) from both sides of the fence – from the buyer (utility)…
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May 18
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Electric Water Heater is to Battery as Heating Fuel is to Furniture

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Recently, I’ve snagged a number of articles, blogs, and news feeds about the great idea for using electric water heaters as energy storage devices.  E Source even goes so far as to insinuate water heaters are like batteries: “How the Water Heater Just Became a Lean, Mean, Battery-Killin’ Machine”.When I was an impressionable young lad (and much better looking), I recall watching a drama on television.  I am guessing it was Little House on the Prairie.  This particular episode featured a severe winter storm and blizzard.  Around that time we lived through the Great Storm of 1975, aka, Minnesota’s Storm…
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May 11
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Industrial Energy Efficiency; Bad News for Pimento Loaf

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
The big energy saving opportunities in a building are usually hidden from the unsuspecting field auditor.  The obvious exception is lighting because it isn’t hidden!  The hidden things are what go on behind closed doors in the dark.  Yes, the salacious activity spawned by an out of control brain – the energy management system. Similarly, nuggets flow across my desk, computer screen, and directly from people that feed topics of this Energy Rant.  A few weeks ago, I stumbled onto data confirming my years-old assertion that tight fitting ductwork does not save energy, relative to in situ status quo.  Being…
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Apr 27
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Clean Power Plan Arms Race

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government No Comments
I imagine the EPA is working feverishly on their final ruling for the Clean Power Plan (proposed under the Clean Air Act), due this June.  Meanwhile, many states and one prominent company, Murray Energy, are digging in to do legal battle for decades to come, possibly.  The “possibly” part of that would occur if the Clean Power Plan is upheld by the courts.  That will result in endless litigation.  If it is thrown out, the federal government may have to actually pass laws for once – you know, the political process. Here is the problem with the Clean Air Act:…
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Apr 20
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Duct Leakage; The Results Are In

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 5 Comments
About two years ago, I wrote Duct Leakage Chaff, which explained that residential duct leakage is a mole hill, a red herring, a boogeyman.  I recently reviewed a report that nails my assertions from June 2013. The program evaluation (residential HVAC tune-up) was thorough, likely expensive, but worthwhile.  Too often, not just in evaluation, but any professional service industry, contracts go to the low-ball bidder.  The low-ball bidder either uses the tactic because it’s the only weapon they have, they don’t understand the challenge of doing a decent job (ignorance), or providing actionable value simply isn’t that important to them.The…
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Apr 06
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HVAC’s Cure for Cancer

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
In January, I wrote about code compliance and that while energy codes keep ratcheting down energy intensity in theory, reality is misery.  That post was a thinly veiled advertisement for my AESP National Conference session in the Lion’s Lair, and that presentation can be seen here.  My Lion’s Lair proposal was a thinly veiled pitch to fix what would be the equivalent of curing cancer for commercial HVAC systems. The cancer is the widely used variable, air volume system.  Another boondoggled application of one such system triggered this post.  The boondoggle was part of an evaluation we are doing on…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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