by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 7, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
If we are to get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we must put down the mud balls, enjoy some sacred-cow burgers, burn the little boxes in which we confine ourselves, and maybe have a little counseling about that boogeyman under the bed. This post first...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 23, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Let’s skip the energy supply side this week and talk about thermostats used for cooling. Let’s broaden the discussion to include both programmable thermostats and “smart” or “learning” thermostats. The Nest falls into the latter group. Speaking for the Nest, which I...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 9, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Easy peasy lemon squeezy, to repeat a phrase of one rant fan a while back – that describes carbon slayers’ victory laps in the past couple years. I am talking about the natural gas boom introduced by the development to near perfection of the hydraulic fracturing and...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 5, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
If energy efficiency programs are considered and measured to be a good thing in some states, why are they not good for all, or nearly all, states? Even the utilities we work with in Minnesota and Iowa with programs since the mid 1980s believe in energy efficiency for...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 28, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
There is weekly, if not daily, chatter about the end of the monopolistic electric utility systems we have today. They call it the utility death spiral, and it goes like this: Distributed generation, also known as DG, which includes rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV)...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 7, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Last week I attended the ACEEE National Symposium on Market Transformation in Baltimore. Learning and information gathering from conference sessions are typically down the list of reasons I attend conferences. This conference however turned out to be very beneficial...
by Michaels Energy | Mar 10, 2014 | The Big Why
“Baseline” is an incredibly important term in energy efficiency evaluation. It is thrown around often in many different contexts. So what does it mean? Michaels Energy is currently conducting several baseline studies, but when describing these studies to others, I...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 3, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Perhaps I am naïve, but to be more effective it seems interveners would do well to understand motives of profit-driven enterprises and their customers. Consider, for example, this recent article in Midwest Energy News lamenting CenterPoint Energy’s withdrawal from...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 27, 2014 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
Six or seven years ago, without knowing more about the Nest thermostat, I would have commented something to the effect that, “It’s a stupid thermostat. How brilliant could it possibly be?” Once I got my hands on an iPhone, I could see what the deserved hype was...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 9, 2013 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
When I first started working at Michaels, still in my 20s, my workdays usually ended around 5:15, and since I was allergic to rolling out of bed before 6:00 AM, I would run after work in La Crosse. I started running the trails of Hixon Forest, a very nice park on the...
