Skip to main content
search
Tag

energy

Jun 06
Love0
demand

Learning Calculus via Demand and Energy

By Energy Rant 2 Comments
Last week, I was commenting on some retro-commissioning findings, and I was considering demand savings estimates versus energy savings estimates. A colleague asked, “If you are aware of any energy versus demand papers I would like to know more.” I was informed that the Association of Energy Engineers coursework for becoming a Certified Energy Manager only skims the surface, using a garden hose as a metaphor, for demand and energy. The flow of water represents the flow of power (kilowatts), and the water represents energy – the sum of power over time. This is a disservice because demand charges can…
Read More
Jan 25
Love0
clean power plan

A Wee Bit of Clean Power Plan Knowledge

By Energy Rant No Comments
Everyone reading this knows about the EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). You probably know the final rule was released in August 2015, and the plan calls for reducing CO2 emissions by 32% from a baseline of 2005 to the goal-achieving euphoria in 2030. From there, I’ll bet a survey for CPP knowledge falls like a Wile E Coyote Acme anvil.Answers to basic questions are very hard to find. The EPA’s website mainly provides fluff and spin describing how great the plan is and how flexible and easy it will be to “glide” to success. Instead, I conducted my research from…
Read More
Aug 24
Love0

Supercharging Behavior and the Four Dollar KiloWatt Hour

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
Google search tells me that I have never used the word “hoopla” in an Energy Rant.  Here goes.  There is a great deal of hoopla in the industry for behavior programs.  Last week, AESP featured a brown bag webinar – Current and Future Trends for Behavior Change Energy Efficiency Programs.  It is so new, it isn’t yet available in the AESP library, at least as I write this.  Now that I mention it, the other half of our subcommittee produced a Strategies newsletter article for commercial and industrial behavior programs, coming next month.  Don’t take your eye off the inbox.…
Read More
Jul 13
Love0

Evaluation, Measurement and Verification; From a Neander Cave

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
A title like Lies, Damned Lies and Modeling: Energy Efficiency’s Problem With Tracking Savings sounds like a natural fit for The Energy Rant, and in this regard, it did not disappoint.  Contributions to the article can be summarized as follows: professionals serving the evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) business are Neanderthals.  Having just discovered the open flame, these grunting upright creatures appear to be working on their next great discovery: rolling objects. Okay smarty pants.  The challenges for EM&V professionals can be boiled down to two words: Money Access  Little Money The article describes the fact that too much EM&V…
Read More
Jun 15
Love0

Relative Humidity, by Socks and Jeans

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Sustainability No Comments
It is mid-June, and strangely here in the northern Midwest we have experienced virtually no warm, humid weather yet this year.  The weather can flip like a switch from a pattern of rain and clouds of the past several weeks to one that is hot and humid with little precipitation.  Now is a good time to talk about relative humidity and moisture. Relative humidity is something everyone knows about but hardly anyone understands.  How many times have you heard “It was 100 degrees with 99 percent humidity?”  I guarantee these conditions are 100% impossible, at least in the ambient outdoors,…
Read More
Mar 17
Love0

Energy Storage v Storing Energy’s Benefits

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Utility Stuff 4 Comments
As we march along with the nation’s rather massive build-out of renewable energy resources, questions emerge for how to fill the gaps when the sun sets and the wind stops blowing – i.e., when it’s nice to be outdoors, especially in the summer.  So there you have it – turn off the lights, grab a drink and go out on the deck to hang out with your friends and family.  Now there is a behavior program to get behind!  Patent underway.  Unfortunately, the discussion is focused on energy storage rather than “quality time”, a term that predates “work-life balance”. Once…
Read More
Dec 22
Love0

Combined Heat and Power Ins and Outs

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
Combined heat and power (CHP) is quite easy to understand from an energy efficiency perspective.  Deploying policies to encourage it is very complex due to a number of things: What fuel type are we saving? What is fair for the utility? What are the public benefits? How should any incentives be derived? CHP Overview In a conventional thermal power plant fired by coal, roughly 20% of the energy is lost to the exhaust in the form of waste heat.  Roughly 45% of the thermal energy is rejected to the atmosphere or body of water – river, lake, or ocean.  This…
Read More
Jul 21
Love0

DC Circuit’s Smackdown of FERC re Demand Response

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
I’ve written dozens of proposals, and I’ve read dozens and dozens of requests for proposals from all sorts of entities including states, local governments, private corporations, and of course, utilities.  With this comes scope of work requested, required proposal content, rules, terms and conditions, and due dates.  I always consider content of the RFP to mean what it says, and if it isn’t clear what it means, either ask a question via the process detailed in the RFP, or ignore it and work it out later, or it is a minor thing – irrelevant in the big picture. Enter the…
Read More
Jul 15
Love0

The Future of Energy Efficiency and Big Blue

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 7 Comments
We were recently conversing with folks from AESP about topics of interest for newsletters, and one intrigued me: what will be the big thing in the industry in 2014?   Answering that would be like predicting the S&P’s close on December 31st.  Over the long term (decades) the market tracks the economy.  Over the short term (years) it tracks sheep, which are entirely at the mercy of the Ben Bernanke. First, a quiz.  I love quizzes.  What saves more energy? A) Swapping out a 10 SEER air conditioner for a 13 SEER unit? or B) Swapping a 16 SEER for a…
Read More
Jun 10
Love0

Duct Leakage Chaff

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
Due to duct leakage, only 57% of heat generated in a home furnace is delivered to conditioned spaces.  OMG!  Run for your lives.  Big deal. I have overheard conversations at conferences and other networking gigs that include statements like, “We are so focused on envelope tightness, insulation, energy-saving windows, and efficient appliances, but meanwhile we are wasting almost half the heat produced in an energy efficient furnace.”  Not so fast. In mechanical engineering, we have the first and second laws of thermodynamics.  The first law is like a change machine – conservation of money.  Put a piece of cotton-infused paper…
Read More

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

Subscribe for Expert Insights
Close Menu