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thermostat

Behavior by a Left Brain Efficiency Freak

By Energy Rant One Comment
E2e, and I have no idea what that stands for, is a joint initiative of University of California-Berkeley, The University of Chicago, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their charter is to assess and quantify the energy efficiency gap between estimated, or ex-ante savings, and observed or measured savings; kind of like the Energy Rant attempts to provide. In Kool-Aid and Happy Face Rugs, I first referenced one of their reports in which they critiqued WAP – the federal government’s weatherization assistance program. That paper indicated WAPs produce only 40% of claimed energy savings. The methodology caught a lot of flak…
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Refrigerator Sitcoms and Lethal Toaster Ovens

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
I’ve read enough energy-saving tip lists to fill a Webster’s dictionary.  In this rant, I dissect some common ones, some uncommon ones, and provide some myself. Cook with small appliances – toaster oven, slow cooker, electric skillet:  I would strongly advise against a toaster oven because (1) using it to make toast wastes energy – a “slice” toaster evenly toasts bread with coils in the closest proximity possible minimizing wasted heat, (2) my experience with toaster ovens for baking things like quick bread is that they burn.  The temperature and coil proximity (ironically) is too close to what is cooking,…
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