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Energy Efficiency

Sep 28
Love1

Trade Allies; Care for a Nail, Sir

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 5 Comments
Would you like to hear about the founding of Michaels?  Great!  Jim Michaels, founder and namesake of the company, and Dave Waffenschmidt, current President, had started a flourishing energy efficiency business within a local architect and engineering firm amid the waning days of the Carter administration.  The two of them, and one other fellow, left that firm to start Michaels because they saw an opportunity and focused solely on energy efficiency and improving building performance.  They had a burning passion for these things.  Efficiency and performance were the thing, not a thing, to tinker with as time permitted in an…
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Sep 20
Love0

The Warts of Combined Heat and Power, Puppies Not Included

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Having seen several interesting emails form ACEEE come through during my uber busy week, one of the first things I did as I sat down to pound out this blog Saturday was to take a look and see what they were all about.  This one discussing the virtues of the Clean Power Plan for manufacturers caught my eye.  That led to many resources for combined heat and power, which of course can be a great tool for fuel efficiency and GHG reductions.  That reminded me of this excellent evaluation paper reporting the findings of combined heat and power (CHP) installations. …
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Sep 14
Love0

Evaluators & Implementers; I Would Die 4 U

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
I’m not your lover.  I’m not your friend.  I am something you will never comprehend.  Beeeeewwww.  I would die 4 U. The wonderful energy efficiency industry in which we all (or most of us) work features program administrators/implementers and evaluators.  For a given portfolio, you may either implement programs or support these efforts, or you may evaluate how well the program is working in regard to impacts (savings), accuracy, customer satisfaction, and a slew of other things.  In no-man’s land, or the DMZ, there exists the incredibly squishy things like potential studies and market effects studies.Any of the couple dozen…
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Sep 08
Love0

Home Runs in Residential HVAC Savings

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
When talking about energy efficiency, one needs to be careful to not spend too much time discussing California – because people not from California DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!  (yes, they shout)  However, the rest of the nation can use lessons learned from bleeding edge policy, and even research, in California. Whenever I visit California I think, “What else does this state have for EE opportunities?  They have been running aggressive programs for eons.  Haven’t they done everything yet?” Heck no.  They suffer the same widget focused, human boondoggled programming the rest of us have.  What do I…
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Aug 31
Love0

Distributed Energy; Batteries and Bread Machines

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
The Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) Summer Conference included interesting bookend plenary discussions for this post.  The opening plenary featured motivational speaker, Murray Banks; not to be confused with Matt Foley: “eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river”.  Actually, if triathlons and mountaineering were auto racing, the Banks family would be the Andrettis. The closing plenary featured representatives from SolarCity, Opus One Solutions, and Enbridge, Inc.  SolarCity is the Elon Musk-owned photovoltaic manufacturer/installer.  Opus One is a smart grid software company with ties to Tesla as well.  Enbridge is a…
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Aug 17
Love0

The State of Program Evaluation and Tips for Picking Good Evaluation Practitioners

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
This post is brought to you by the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC), circa 19, er 2015.  I moderated one session featuring four great papers and presentations concerning residential space heating and cooling.  I also observed one concurrent session for nearly all the timeslots in the conference.  The theme I found, which was very pleasing to me, is that doing useful research and evaluation is challenging and expensive. The reason it pleases me is that, well, getting things right is everything, but it also levels the playing field.  I hate losing bids, but it is less painful to lose…
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Aug 10
Love0

Contracts from Hell; Donald Trump Clauses

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
Perhaps; no doubt; probably; certainly; damn sure, the least liked aspect of my job is reviewing contracts with which the buyers sentence their contractors to unlivable conditions.  Anyone watch The Donald lately describing people as “idiots” and “stupid”?  The Donald comes to mind when I read some of these contract terms and conditions. First of all (and I don’t like to use that phrase because it sets the stage for conflict and ranting but this IS The Energy Rant), lawyers must get paid by the word of rambling, incomprehensible prose they produce.  Why not get paid to produce a contract…
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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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