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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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Jun 25
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Progress?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
I was becoming concerned this week at rant time, Sunday morning, 9:00 AM.  We had our company picnic the day before on an overcast and nearly perfect day in cheese land.  Sunday was similar.  There were orioles, grosbeaks, yellow finches, house finches, ruby throated hummingbirds, downy woodpeckers, red breasted woodpeckers, cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees and other customers freeloading on our smorgasbord of bird offerings.  But then while reviewing my sources, one of which is the Google energy efficiency updates, emailed promptly at 4:51 PM CDT everyday, I came across this cheery piece.  There’s the topic of the week. It started out…
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Jun 18
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Universal Widgetitis

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
As blasted in this blog many times, most recently in Widgetman, humans almost always have their priorities far out of whack.  With EE for example, facility owners should probably establish marshal law to ensure lights are shut off overnight in their office buildings before they start adding photovoltaic panels.  But then, I guess, to the casual observer (schlep) one can see how green the building is during the day, but at night when the building is lit like the headlamp of an oncoming train when no one is there, the wonderful PV panels cannot be seen and nobody pays attention…
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Jun 11
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Intelligencize This

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week ACEEE produced a webinar, “Intelligent Efficiency”.  I was late to the party but as I came online, an ACEEE guy, Neal Elliott was talking and the topic was intriguing – system-wide, holistic, intelligent efficiency.  I thought, hmm, maybe somebody read this entire series of rants and was possibly preaching from the gospels of the obvious. Next up was a guy from Schneider Electric and he gave a boring advertisement of – Schneider Electric.  Next was a guy from Johnson Controls to talk about what else – the Empire State building.  The  Empire State Building EE overhaul has been…
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Jun 04
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Cah Tawk

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Sustainability 2 Comments
This week’s feature presentation is one of my favorites for saving energy: automobiles.  Let’s take this recent post from Fuel Fix and dive right in. The first one I read is “make sure your gas cap is broken or missing.”  That’s right.  You can save 3 cents per gallon if it is broken or missing.  I think they need some proofreading.  I suggest using a well-oiled and fully functional gas cap.  Where they get the 3 cents per gallon savings, I have no idea.  That’s like saying a 20 minute power walk will reduce the energy content of a milkshake…
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May 29
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Misguided Benchmarking

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Unfortunately, some products and services in life still require cash – coins or paper.  Some of the last places I use these anachronisms include taxis, and… and tips, or an occasional soda machine.  Oh and the beloved antique parking meters and toll roads in some places.  Here is something to consider: if the meter only takes coins, skip it.  You’ll spend $50 of your time finding a few bucks of quarters somewhere and running to the meter every hour or two – all to save a $10 parking ticket. A few times a year when traveling with others, we need…
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May 21
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Boredom or Drone?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week’s AESP Spring Conference in Baltimore wrapped up with Dr. Julie Albright’s presentation, The Social Utility – great stuff. I had already attended a similar presentation by Dr. Albright, apparently during last fall’s conference (crap for memory here). As the title suggests, the subject is social media: LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and dozens of offshoots that aggregate and/or process information from these sites into a preferred presentation. It’s mind blowing. Dr. Albright’s presentation includes generational views of these things – the people aspect. There are three generations of folks in the workforce today, from old to young: boomers…
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May 14
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Ballad of Willie Widget Man

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
As I created Widget Man last week I couldn’t get Elton John’s Rocket Man out of my head, so naturally I started to think parody.  A warm up may be good to get your rhythm. Willie Widget Man goes sumpin ike iss: They set my goals so high, I cried Two percent, holy crap! Why they gotta be high as a kite like that? I miss the fruit so low, I miss old code It’s not easy for me now It’s such a mindless rite And I think it’s gonna be a damn hard time No light bulbs anywhere for…
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May 07
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Widgetman

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government 4 Comments
Widgetitis: Obsessive compulsion to build canals with teaspoons – or meet program goals with showerheads. A short story about economist Milton Friedman from The Wall Street Journal sort of sets the stage for effectively meeting program/portfolio goals in big chunks: “Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: “You don’t understand. This is a jobs program.” To which…
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Apr 30
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Better than Doritos

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Investments, Tax Stuff No Comments
Last week we looked at the financial benefits of energy efficiency as compared to the stock market.  I’m going to take this a few steps further, as forewarned last week.In both cases we start with the $39,000 investment and the stock market simply grows at its long-term average of 7.5% (Dow Jones Industrials).  Obviously, a smooth appreciation of your investment is not the case and if you don’t have a strong stomach, you should avoid equities.  Why is it called the Dow Jones Industrial Average anyway?  It’s full of service companies, banks, and retailers.  It includes Microsoft, but not Apple,…
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Apr 23
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Facility Management, Taliban Style

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, Investments 2 Comments
Possibly the greatest thing about energy efficiency is there is no limit to learning. In what other occupation can engineers work with social scientists, urban planners, economists and 16th century Mongolian art majors?  Last week I attended a presentation by Christopher Russell, energy efficiency and finance swami, or is it guru?  The higher ranking one.  Or maybe I should just call him Colonel Russell. His presentation started with the tale of two college campus facility managers, Doug and Dave as I recall, with names changed to protect the guilty.  I’ll call them Dick and Harry for double protection. It doesn’t…
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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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