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This article from Greentech Media a few weeks ago provides a great follow-on subject for this post. The subject is selling energy efficiency, and it ties the combination of Home Runs in Residential HVAC(ironically published the same day as the Greentech article) and last week’s post, Trade Allies; Care for a Nail, Sir. The cruxRead more

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, leftRead more

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 manufacturersRead more

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 youRead more

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 IRead more

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 autoRead more

Google search tells me that I have never used the word “hoopla” in an Energy Rant.  Here goes.  There is a great deal of hoopla in the industry for behavior programs.  Last week, AESP featured a brown bag webinar – Current and Future Trends for Behavior Change Energy Efficiency Programs.  It is so new, itRead more

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 veryRead more

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 ofRead more

Last week in Pricing PV Energy, I discussed how solar photovoltaic, aka PV, aka rooftop solar, will not take down utilities or the grid.  The premise of that was once net metering policy pays PV owners what their electrons are worth in real time, the cost effectiveness will be capped, likely at some number consideredRead more

This post is brought to you by Midwest Energy News; in particular, the opinion piece, Time For Monopoly Reform in Minnesota.  It is written by Tea Partier Debbie Dooley from Atlanta.  You may have heard or read that the Tea Party and solar advocacy groups (a strange alliance) have been singing photovoltaic folk songs aroundRead more

The Energy Rant blog, in general, could be considered the sausage factory of energy efficiency; exploring the inner workings and realities of the business.  Everyone else writing about energy efficiency is talking about the delicious bratwurst and hotdogs one might get at the ballpark.  This week, however, we will explore EE from the utility shareholderRead more