Last week in Thermal Storage for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs), I introduced the importance of phase changes from solid to liquid to vapor, and the reverse, to our modern world. Benefits include heating, cooling, and refrigeration for all types of uses, including space conditioning, food storage and transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and of course, thermal storage. The simplest everyday thermal storage material is ice. Grocery and convenience companies have enormous ice-making facilities for guess what: thermal storage and your lowly Igloo or swanky Yeti coolers. I have a Coleman Lil Oscar cooler that I’ve used since Ha School. Now that is…
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Aside from efficiency being a core component of my thermos-fluids courses in engineering school, phase changes were also captivating to me. Phase changes from solid (ice) to liquid (water) to vapor (steam) have been used for hundreds of years, and more recently, the last 150 years, give or take, to generate electricity, refrigerate, freeze and keep us cool in the summer heat. Like water, practically anything will freeze, melt or vaporize. Take copper, please. It is widely used to conduct electricity in homes and buildings. It too melts and vaporizes. When it vaporizes, you don’t want to be near it…
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For some strange reason, I’ve learned a lot about pay for performance in recent weeks. To spare tongues everywhere, let’s call it P4P. P4P efficiency programs are on the move once again. It is interesting to note that the last time P4P was the rage was during the deregulation gambit, almost 20 years ago. Like denim preferences, what goes around comes around with efficiency fads. The Original One of the most popular programs during the prior faddy P4P era was called a “Standard Offer” program. What marketing genius(es) coined that brand? I like metaphors, but I can’t think of any…
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A blog post from OpenEE with a title M&V Adjustments Create a Bias Towards Savings Inflation is a good troll for a guy like me – a cynic who can’t stop writing the Rant even when I tried to quit a dozen times.Anyone with a pulse needs a relief valve, and the Rant does the job for me. Products designed to reduce stress, like stress balls or foam bricks, would never work. For instance, if I want to get even with a computer, do I want to grab one of these things and start squeezing? No. I want to take…
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