by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 24, 2017 | Energy Rant
Last week we introduced exergy and at least one application of it in a building. First, let me make something very clear, for the refrigeration cycle, if I’m cooling beer or freezing leftovers, the heat that is sucked out of those masses is rejected somewhere else....
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 18, 2017 | Energy Rant
Exergy is a sexy word (maybe only to energy nerds), but it represents a vital class of measures and opportunities as we sprint head-on into the game changer (cliché alert) that will be the post-gravy-train-of-lighting-retrofit-era of energy efficiency. Pay attention!...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 27, 2017 | Energy Rant
I have written rather popular articles on critical thinking and climate change in greenhouse gas basics and others. This week, I am going to bring the two together, with this article from the New York Times supplying the data/ammunition for this post. Survey...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 13, 2017 | Energy Rant
A while back, a reader asked, “why don’t we switch to at least localized direct current power grids?” The simple answer is it would cost a fortune for both the utility and the consumer to change all distribution and consuming loads to take DC power. As I researched...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 6, 2017 | Energy Rant
This post ends with a quiz and more than 49 $5 Starbucks card winners for correct answers. Why the quiz for this post? Because the subject is power factor. Most descriptions of power factor remind me of riding the NYC subway many years ago before passengers buried...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 27, 2017 | Energy Rant
Most of you reading this owe your lives to the phenomenon described in this post. Therefore, it is worth understanding precisely how grid power is generated, and what it looks like. And of course, you will not find this anywhere else. Rant topics are inspired by...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 13, 2017 | Energy Rant
When this post launches, I will be sitting in a critical thinking course as part of AESP’s National Conference. As luck would have it, I also stumbled onto a couple interesting articles while eating my curds and whey last week. The first covers echo chambers from Inc....
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 6, 2017 | Energy Rant
Most readers have likely seen the business triangle: cheap, fast, good [or accurate]; pick two. My first emotional reaction to the triangle was that it was something a lazy bum[1] would say. However, as a geezer, I think the law is valid for consulting. I will explain...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 16, 2017 | Energy Rant
Expressions Hair Design versus Schneiderman. That may sound like a softball or bowling league matchup, but it is actually a Supreme Court case that was heard last week. How in the world does this relate to energy efficiency? It is a case of behavioral economics and...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 9, 2017 | Energy Rant
Last week I wrote about understanding the customer and knowing what they want, whether the customer is the utility, regulator, or the end user of energy. Taking this a step beyond, the customer/client may not know what they want. For example, a hypothetical customer...
