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energy efficiency

New Year’s Energy Resolutions

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Here is a New Year’s resolution for you: resolve to not use an excuse to use New Year’s resolutions.  If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing now.  Put the unused exercise equipment on eBay so it can take up space in somebody else’s closet or under their bed.  Get out and walk or run.  Buy some free weights.  Take the stairs. Do push-ups or stomach crunchers.  Do not cruise the parking lot for the closest possible spot.  Take the always-empty row furthest from the building. Like energy efficiency, these things aren’t sexy, but they are practically free and very effective. …
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Save Energy – Get Out of Jail

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Stimulus, Sustainability One Comment
Unless you were living in a cave four or five years ago, you know Wal-Mart was under relentless assault by, I’ll just call them activists.  Complaints included: They weren’t providing health care to enough people.  They weren’t paying overtime.  Their goods were manufactured in sweat shops overseas.  When unions tried to organize their meat cutting operations, Wal-Mart exited the meat cutting business.  Their executives were making too much money.  The company was making too much money.  Part of the real gripe was that Wal-Mart had saturated the rural and small town markets and they had started to impinge into larger…
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Policy to Curb Carbon

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Stimulus, Tax Stuff No Comments
Any carbon-reduction policy that includes paying Washington for permits to emit carbon is the wrong way to go.  Why?  Two words.  Social Security. Washington has no spending restraint.  Earmark nation is alive and thriving.  Everyone has heard of the Social Security Trust Fund; Al Gore’s “lock box”.  Social Security has been running surpluses in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year for a long time.  If you think your payroll taxes are piling up for your retirement in a bunker under Washington somewhere, you are sorely mistaken.  Our profligate government has been taking the surplus and spending it on…
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What’s the Game?

By Energy Rant, Renewable Energy One Comment
Hypothetical:  Our company has about 40 employees.  We’re going to split into 4 teams and have a tournament.  What’s the game?  We have cyclists, runners, a guy who thinks he can play golf, a guy who throws hammer but not when I’m around, skiers, people who fish, people who hunt, play cards, Sudoku, video games, Frisbee golf, and play board games.  We’ve played softball games (poorly) when the economy was good. We have people who were born when I was in college.  We have people who were in college before I was in the first grade.  Female, male, burley, squirrelly,…
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Energy Efficiency Stimulus and Oversight

By Energy Rant, LEED, Stimulus One Comment
Most energy efficiency programs are required by regulators to be evaluated to ensure ratepayer money is being spent wisely and reported savings are being achieved.  If only such oversight were to happen for the millions/billions/gazillions being shelled out to state and local governments in the name of energy efficiency. State and local governments have Amazon-wide budget gaps to fill, and I can assure you that earmarks (dirty word) for energy efficiency will find their way to plug budget holes to keep buildings open, replace roofs, buy new lawn mowers and pickup trucks, and avoid staff reductions. We in Wisconsin have…
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The More You Spend, The More You Save

By Energy Rant, LEED, Retrocommissioning (RCx) 2 Comments
Talk about an oxymoron.  Years ago this was a favorite saying of my roommate and I as we lambasted dopey ads on TV, on paper, or over the airwaves. Fewer years ago, once I got into this energy efficiency profession, I was speaking with a utility energy-efficiency program guy who frequently interacts with regulators.  This was during a stakeholder meeting for quantifying energy saving potential by sector and by technology.  (technology = lighting, furnaces, chillers, etc.)  Knowing buildings systems rarely work as they are supposed to, I asked, “Have you considered retrocommissioning (RCx) as an energy efficiency program?”  His answer…
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Ah, the Energy Rant

By Energy Rant No Comments
My mother used to tell me I ought to be a lawyer because I would argue and/or complain about everything.  I think I still get under her skin sometimes, even as she has passed her 75th birthday.  She SAYS she still likes me to visit anyway.  The thing is, my brain is hardwired to make everything as efficient as possible.  Perhaps this is due to my growing up on a large farming operation where there was always more things to do than time to do it.  Let’s see…, sounds like my present job. Some past and present obsessions: Save as…
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