energy efficiency Archives - Page 4 of 24

Dec 16

12 Schemes to Reduce Carbon Emissions

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

Back in the day, when I was interviewing college kids for full-time employment with us, I would ask them to tell me about things they have done in their personal experiences to save energy. The purpose was twofold, 1) do you dig efficiency, or are you just looking for employment – any employment, and 2) creativity. I thought I had everything covered, but some real zingers gave me a chuckle. It’s too bad I cannot recall them at this time. Nevertheless, I came across an old paper that appears to have been published for an ACEEE Summer Study in 1994,…

Dec 09

Love0

Fly Balls, Fast Drives, And Fault Detection Diagnostics

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

For those of you who are not doctors or veterinarians for our beloved pets, have you ever been in an exam room when the technician brings in X-RAY results and posts them on the backlit thing and leaves you alone with them before the doctor arrives? I was in this situation a year or two ago. Looking at the image was like reading brail with my eyes – but that doesn’t stop me from trying. Oooh, what is that? Is this a problem? Is that out of whack? The doctor blew over what I was looking at because I was…

Dec 02

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Agrarian-Style Programs; Lily Free Rides

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

I’m an insatiable consumer of information, but I need to learn more. For example, if you haven’t watched the excellent movie Saving Private Ryan, do it. I don’t understand why the allies attacked from the water, in the daylight, when they were sitting ducks for the Nazis dug into the bluff with machine guns and grenade launchers? Why not paratroop in from behind? I have to share my favorite scene from the movie, maybe of all time, with my favorite line: “especially you, Reiben.” After reading about Thanksgiving last week, I also thought, why did the Pilgrims leave the UK…

Sep 16

Love0

Byrds, Dogs, Burning Hair, and Restless Anticipation

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

Distributed, independent, economical, efficient, reliable, resilient, flexible, adaptable, technical, clean, redundant, modern, profitable, renewable ready, and doh, smart! What is this? A microgrid? No, it’s Michaels Energy. We’re back. The Rant is back, and we’re ready to rock and roll! Let us take a look back a year and briefly review what has progressed in our company. As our clients know, before the microbe, which shall not be identified, forced the closure of bars and hair salons nationwide, we reorganized the company and modernized our team to possess microgrid characteristics. The reorganization required my first-ever sabbatical from the Rant in…

Aug 13

Love0

Electricity – Breakpoints, Tipping Points and Imagination

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant One Comment

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article last week – it would be fascinating if it weren’t sadly true. The title: Everyone Hates Customer Service. It is a perfect addition to my continuation of last week’s post regarding innovation with electric utilities. Are Electric Utilities in for a Taxi Ride? Tales of Customer Service Last week during a raging thunderstorm, I was in the pickup-window line at Walgreens. It’s a pickup window, not a chat room. Every time, the cars ahead of me take at least five minutes each. What are they talking about up there? The baseball trade…

Jul 29

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Efficiency’s Problem: Cyborgs, Fragments, and Climate

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant 2 Comments

The number of bipartisan political issues that can be counted on one finger is shrinking fast. All this while the definition of bipartisan has been lowered to a single vote from the opposing party. Energy efficiency is not among the bipartisan issue (sic). It is unfortunately limited to the left-wing of the political spectrum as once again demonstrated by Ohio where the deep red legislature in House Bill 6 passed a $1.1 billion bailout to keep two nuclear plants afloat, and efficiency - dead. Ohioans – Screwed, Coming and Going But there is more. Since it would be unfair to…

Jun 17

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Prestige, Not Pain – Efficiency at Home

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant 2 Comments

I call your attention to the brilliant marvel of engineering shown in the image below. This model was developed before most of you were born. It is the little diesel engine that could – get 60 mpg, in my second car – a 1984 Ford Escort Diesel. Most people didn’t even know they existed, but as a college sophomore, when I got tired of my crappy, rattling, vibrating, chintzy Mustang, I snapped up this baby for a deep discount from the Billion auto empire in Sioux Falls, SD.There was no air conditioning or power anything, including no power steering. It…

Jun 10

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Energy Policy – Stay in Your Lane, Bro

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant One Comment

Ohio lawmakers are again at the beck and call of deregulated power producing titans as they pass a nuclear and coal plant bailout at the expense of energy efficiency. They also dumped mandates for renewable resources. Almost simultaneously, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) published this brand new report, which compares levelized cost of electricity from existing nuclear plants to that of new wind and solar generation, transmission, and required backup resources. It may explain why Ohio lawmakers did what they did. The word “may” is used because I am firmly convinced the political class is mostly clueless regarding regulated…

Feb 25

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Attribution on the Cheap

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant 2 Comments

In the last two Rant posts, we learned that our 40-year-old program evaluation frameworks need to change to capture greater, real impacts. Rather than improving programs and accurately determining impacts, archaic evaluation methodologies are impeding progress toward greater energy savings. It may be like solving the percolating national debt crisis, but I will attack this rubber tree plant anyway. Attribution Determination of program attribution is the common thread that weaves through most of the six common flaws (described here and here) of current program policy. Attribution is the quantity of benefits delivered by the program or intervention. Attributable impacts are…

Nov 27

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A Possum Bucket of Behavioral Joy

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

Rant topics come in waves. I have no control over how or when others follow what I’m writing, but when they publish something related, I pounce. We’re bleeding-edge fresh here, so I must respond to ACEEE’s most recent published paper, Reducing Energy Waste through Municipally Led Behavior Change Programs.This week is not only about behavior, it includes a cornucopia of goodies, like all the Thanksgiving leftovers. At Michaels, we call these goodies, including Jell-O and pie, carefully layered into a repurposed Folgers can, a beloved possum bucket. Strategic layering is crucial for a successful possum bucket treasure. While sour cream…

12 Schemes to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Fly Balls, Fast Drives, And Fault Detection Diagnostics

Agrarian-Style Programs; Lily Free Rides

Byrds, Dogs, Burning Hair, and Restless Anticipation

Electricity – Breakpoints, Tipping Points and Imagination

Efficiency’s Problem: Cyborgs, Fragments, and Climate

Prestige, Not Pain – Efficiency at Home

Energy Policy – Stay in Your Lane, Bro

Attribution on the Cheap

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