When Val Jenson talks, I listen. When he writes, I read. His recent article in Energy Central triggered an avalanche of ideas for a program, portfolio, and industry overhaul needed to get us there, which is the next level of savings equal to the last 25 years of lighting replacements and retrofits. Those days are gone, and unfortunately, the line of thinking that got us here (light bulbs) won’t get us there. Downstream Days are Numbered Let’s start with my favorite need for an overhaul, which is my greatest peeve – rebates and cash incentives to customers, known as a…
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This post is brought to you by the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC), circa 19, er 2015. I moderated one session featuring four great papers and presentations concerning residential space heating and cooling. I also observed one concurrent session for nearly all the timeslots in the conference. The theme I found, which was very pleasing to me, is that doing useful research and evaluation is challenging and expensive. The reason it pleases me is that, well, getting things right is everything, but it also levels the playing field. I hate losing bids, but it is less painful to lose…
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Everyone has probably heard at least one hundred or maybe a thousand light bulb jokes – the ones that disparage a class, gender, group, country, state, generation, etc. The point is to make fun of the group in question because changing a light bulb is so simple, but it takes several doofuses in the disparaged group to do it. Unfortunately, changing a light bulb is about the only energy retrofit measure that doesn’t get screwed up, usually. Is this all we are capable of? In the past couple years, I have posted at least four Rants on energy code non-compliance:…
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