by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 10, 2018 | Energy Rant
Last week we started to learn how wind turbines impact the environment from a global warming perspective. As an engineer, I have to understand the physics behind that, and in the meantime, I chased one rabbit and found that even though the wind dies down at night,...
by Jessica Wagner | Dec 10, 2018 | Videos & Webinars
Electrification has garnered a lot of attention recently across the country. Likewise in Minnesota. electrification and the associated concept of fuel switching within conservation programs have been the subject of conversations. research. policy dockets. program...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 3, 2018 | Energy Rant
As children, some engineers liked to take things apart to see how they worked – and maybe even put them back together. That was too much work for me, but I was curious. I would intently watch my Mom as she accelerated the 1970s Ford Galaxy 500[1] down the road. What...
by Jeff Ihnen | Nov 19, 2018 | Energy Rant
If polling managers were competent, we would have election day rather than the election playoffs. For several days they were finding ballots in the usual places anyone normal would stash them, like elementary school classrooms, rental car trunks, vans, and the bottoms...
by Jeff Ihnen | Oct 22, 2018 | Energy Rant
E2e, and I have no idea what that stands for, is a joint initiative of University of California-Berkeley, The University of Chicago, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their charter is to assess and quantify the energy efficiency gap between estimated, or...
by Jeff Ihnen | Oct 15, 2018 | Energy Rant
Show me the money, Jerry! That is what I have to say about building energy performance. I don’t care for bling and doohickeys. What is the bottom line at the meter? I surmise that ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager[1] was conceived and developed with the best of intentions...
by Jeff Ihnen | Oct 8, 2018 | Energy Rant
A recent webinar delivered some interesting facts to me. The average human brain weighs three pounds, as verified here. The presenter said the brain represents 2% of an average person’s weight but consumes 20% of the blood flow and calories. I thought, wow – that is...
by Jessica Wagner | Sep 21, 2018 | Videos & Webinars
Prepared for Energize St....
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 13, 2018 | Energy Rant
A couple of weeks ago I was directed to an article in AESP’s[1] magazine discussing ways to improve efficiency program cost-effectiveness. Although it wasn’t about avoided-cost and benefit-cost tests, it provides good stuff for elaborating in this blog. “Cost...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 23, 2018 | Energy Rant
I have always found it interesting that “demand-side management,” the term that is generally used synonymously with energy efficiency programs, includes virtually no demand management whatsoever. The term “demand-side” simply means the energy consuming side of the...
