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Energy Rant

This is a satirical and at times humorous but critical commentary on energy efficiency issues of the day.

“Keep up the good work! I like the variety of topics; never boring. It's like a Box of Energy Chocolates.... you never know what you're gonna get!”

Mike MernickSenior Vice President, ICF
Jeff Ihnen
By In Energy Rant

Are You Serious About the Climate Apocalypse?

Washington Post headline last week: “World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says.” Wolf! Wolf! People…
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Sep 09
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National Energy Use and Efficiency

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Okay boys and girls; this week features a slice of energy geek heaven spawned by this human/America whapping article from Clean Technica. The basis for the article, and this post, is Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s (LLNL) annual national energy use and efficiency chart to the left. Clean Technica laments that the country was more efficient in 1970 than it is today.  In 1970, the analysis indicates we were slightly more efficient than 50%, but in 2012 we were only 39% efficient.  Hold on.  This does not tell the entire story.  I will demonstrate with a bunch of nerd analysis that we…
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Sep 03
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Utilities: A Formula for Contraction

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 3 Comments
In the Energy Rant, I cover subjects I know well, subjects I don’t know well but can analyze with bookends and say, “that will never fly”, and things I don’t know well.  It takes viscera, and that’s what I’m covering this week – not bowels, but utility rates impacted by energy efficiency. Utilities are in business to make money, like every other business.  Let’s establish that making money or being profitable means revenue exceeds costs.  Costs consist of long-term capital-intensive investments in poles, wires, and power plants; and operating costs including pesky employees, coal, natural gas, uranium, U.S. mail, trucks,…
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Aug 26
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Why Customers Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency – Versus Stupid Pet Tricks

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
As I mentioned in a LinkedIn post last week, this week’s Energy Rant involves an interesting article Why Homeowners Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency.  The paper could also be tweaked a little and re-entitled, Why Customers Don’t Trust Energy Efficiency.  Period.  As usual, this brings to mind a cornucopia of spinoffs. Let’s first begin with a core theme of a rant from about a month ago.  In that, I said savings from current portfolios across the country are dominated by: Incentives for trinkets like CFLs and ENERGY STAR this, that, and the other (consumer goods) and Incentives for contractors to upsell efficient…
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Aug 19
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Energy Program Evaluation Asylum

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 8 Comments
Last week, some colleagues and I attended the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC) in Chicago.  The conference was great with my favorite part: meeting people, getting to know them better, and building friendships.  Session content, as usual, spawned a theme in my mind.  This year’s theme: This business is crazy. There are panel discussions of experts, you know, the thought leaders with 30+ years of experience in the business, and as I sat there listening, I thought to myself, “Isn’t this a rerun of something I attended in 2011 in Boston, and in 2009 in Portland, and in 2007…
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Aug 12
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Impact Evaluation Confidence and Precision – Fluffy Illusions or Autopsies

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
This week’s rant is brought to you by Ryan Kroll, Michaels’ Program Evaluation Manager.  Last week Ryan issued a Program Brief discussing 90/10 confidence and precision sampling that is the industry norm for energy efficiency program impact evaluation.  The 90/10 simply means the results of the sampled projects have a 90% probability of being within plus or minus 10% of properly representing the entire population – and NOT necessarily the right answer.  Sample representation and the right answer are obviously different things. Here is the perversion in impact evaluation that I’ve never seen written anywhere: The less you learn about…
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Aug 05
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Thought Leader – Get on this Train

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
The term “thought leader” is, as “paradigm shift” was at one point, the buzzword of the day.  But thought leaders are not paradigm shifters.  To demonstrate, this article in Forbes defining thought leaders, does not include the word, or variation of the word entrepreneur; a para dig em creator.  Using the article’s description, which happens to align with my caricature of a thought leader, I arrive at this simpleton definition:Noun Thought Leader (thot lee-dur) 1. Best-practice Yoda and Grand Master Jedi energy nerd Defined another way, thought leaders are geniuses at what is – not to be confounded with Bill…
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Jul 29
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Project Performance and Customer Satisfaction – Three Strikes and Yer In, or Out

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week I attended the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) Summer Study for Industry, which had excellent content, but one phrase prompted me to this week’s topic, one that’s been simmering a while in my gray matter.  Due to multitasking and poor note-taking, I don’t remember the phrase exactly, but it was something to the effect of the rule of three.  My version is when it comes to project performance and customer satisfaction (and many other things), three in a row has meaning. Fortunately, the conference featured heavy doses of benchmarking, planning, and continuous improvement, which is…
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Jul 22
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Energy Efficiency in the USA

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
Over the weekend I was reading this white paper by ACEEE, and as almost always, a number of responses came to mind.With the passing of years I observe that as people age, they fall into perhaps three categories: (1) the curmudgeons  - the glass is ¾ empty and don’t tell me it isn’t (2) cynical cranks with ideas and (3) Chrissy Snows.  Engineers, for example, fall into the first two groups – or they go to law school, get into politics, and turn into a Chrissy Snow.  Chrissy Snows, as with everyone, are mostly good people, but they live in…
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Jul 15
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The Future of Energy Efficiency and Big Blue

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 7 Comments
We were recently conversing with folks from AESP about topics of interest for newsletters, and one intrigued me: what will be the big thing in the industry in 2014?   Answering that would be like predicting the S&P’s close on December 31st.  Over the long term (decades) the market tracks the economy.  Over the short term (years) it tracks sheep, which are entirely at the mercy of the Ben Bernanke. First, a quiz.  I love quizzes.  What saves more energy? A) Swapping out a 10 SEER air conditioner for a 13 SEER unit? or B) Swapping a 16 SEER for a…
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Jul 08
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Summertime Energy Use and Your Abode

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
Now that winter, followed by a couple months of flooding rains have passed, at least for a few days, summer is here, and this brings about some energy saving tips, rumors, bologna, and truths about summertime energy use around the house.First, allow me to destroy the inappropriate and overused term “humidity”.  When someone complains about 90% humidity, it would be entirely wrong in most instances.  For demonstration, see the chart nearby.  Each curve represents relative humidity (RH) over a 24 hour period. Which represented day is more comfortable from a RH perspective?  The correct answer - I can’t tell because…
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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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