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efficiency standards

Trump on Energy Policy – Yawn

By Energy Rant No Comments
The Donald has been in office long enough for an assessment of performance, if I may use that term, on energy policy. States Matter Most, but not all, of us are employed under a patchwork of state policies. State houses and executives set the policies, and utility commissions see to it that the policies are carried out. States tend to zig when the federal government zags. It doesn’t happen overnight but over the course of several years. For instance, the Obama administration was anti-coal, anti-carbon, and as a result, purplish-red (raspberry, I guess) states, including Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, pulled…
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Efficiency by Wi Fi – and Other Tricks

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
The old cliché, “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it”, may be coming to energy efficiency portfolios everywhere.  It may be an unstoppable juggernaut that our industry will have little control over (pun alert).  Instead, it will drive implementers into ambulance chasing and drive evaluators whacky.  What is it?  Controls, especially Wi-Fi consumer control systems. Millenials, bear with me as I write like an old man, but I will avoid discussions of snow, hills, and walking to school (if you’re over 40 and from the Midwest, you know what I mean). 1970s: AM radio, broadcast…
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Dodging the Absurd

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
In Stalin Lives, I mentioned our plan for securing an ENERGY STAR® clothes washer and dryer for our house.  What I did not mention was that the local appliance stores do not even stock gas-heated dryers. Think about how stupid it is to generate electricity with maybe 35% thermal efficiency, lose 10% of it to line losses, as discussed last week, in it’s transport to the home and then use this high-value energy as a toaster coil to dry clothes.  We, as well as I am sure millions of households, use “gas”, natural gas in our case and propane in…
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