Debunking efficiency misconceptions

By  Scott Schnelle
Guest Blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets
April 11, 2012

 

Your clients may hold some common misconceptions about how to begin conserving energy in their homes. In this article, I hope to debunk a few of those misconceptions. An audit from a company like EnergyLink is a good place to begin; it shows homeowners where to concentrate.

 

A report called Driving Demand for Home Energy Improvements looked at successful and unsuccessful energy efficient programs across the country. Here are a few common illusions that prevented programs from being as effective as possible.

 

Misconception 1: People get energy efficient improvements just to save money.

There are a number of reasons that people cite as to why they want to improve the efficiency of their homes. These reasons include cutting down on waste, stimulating the economy, achieving tax incentives and just plain being kinder to the earth.

 

Misconception 2: Solar panels and expensive installations are the only way to improve efficiency.

There are many things your clients can do to cut back on the amount of energy they use: air seal their windows and doors, install insulation or energy efficient lighting and replace windows and seal ducts. They might also replace air conditioners, hot water heaters and washers and dryers that are past their prime with more energy efficient models.

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April 11, 2012 | | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Pink on Green: How to ignite the second electrical revolution

Elisa WoodBy Elisa Wood
April 4, 2012

 

The electric industry is good at building things. That’s how it solves problems. Is there a threat of blackouts? Develop  a new natural gas-fired plant. Worried about climate change? Build wind and solar power. Does electricity cost too much? Install a transmission line to import cheaper power.

 

But build-to-solve represents only half of the equation in the new world of smart grid. The other half, the part that stumps the industry, is solve-without-building.

 

Rather than adding more energy, smart grid tries to wring maximum efficiency out of the system by changing the way we consume electricity.  But it turns out,  trying to direct human energy behavior makes cat herding look easy. To get people to pay attention to their energy use, utilities and private companies are experimenting with alluring gadgets and social motivators.  So far, success has been minimal.  Thomas Edison’s light bulb has been such a smashing success for the last 100 years, none of us want to turn it off.

 

So what will it take?

 

The Edison Foundation recently looked outside the industry for some answers, inviting Dan Pink, best-selling author of “DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” to speak at last month’s Power the People 2.0 conference  in Washington D.C.

 

Consumer motivation has become a common conference topic. But Pink’s talk was different. He stepped back and took a broader view and asked: How do we motivate the people who are trying motivate the consumer? Pink calls this “the science of how people do extraordinary things.”

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April 5, 2012 | | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Business Intelligence for utilities: Five planning strategies

Skip LaitnerBy Chris Lewis
Guest blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets
March 28, 2012

 

Business Intelligence is not a new concept to utilities, as the analysis of data is as entrenched in every utility as the concept of providing safe, reliable and affordable power. However, the unique challenge facing utilities today is that there is exponentially more data, from more advanced sources, and dispersed to many more functional areas of the organization.

 

Utilities are operating in a new smart grid environment where they must start examining Business Intelligence and Analytics as a core competency. Careful planning and strategies need to be put in place to ensure data quality, manage and support system integrations, and ultimately determine the level of engagement of the customer.

 

Cognera conducted research in this area and surveyed investor-owned utilities, co-operatives, and municipally owned and operated utilities, and found some interesting facts:

 

  • Almost 70% of respondents with advanced metering infrastructure installations planned to use the data for purposes other than billing and specifically for a Business Intelligence application.
  • The most preferred single source for Business Intelligence software was within the actual provider of the AMI system themselves (50%), followed by a desire to see meter data management systems (25%) and customer information systems (15%) provide the Business Intelligence function.
  • 70% of respondents said that they are currently unsure or would be using a combination of systems to provide the analytics and reporting required.

 

Five planning strategies for Business Intelligence

If you are part of the 70% unsure about Business Intelligence, consider the following as you begin the planning process.

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March 28, 2012 | | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Desert Year: Why Is It So Hard to Care?

Skip LaitnerBy Skip Laitner
Guest blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets
Reposted from Real Climate Economics
March 21, 2012

 

Why is it so hard to care about snakes? Or the desert? The climate? And especially the environment more generally?

 

This time the snake was real.  Right there on the side of the road.  Some evenings ago, however, in the waning hours of twilight, it turned out to be just a short length of black rubber hose that was also laying along the path I was taking. But this particular snake was just as dead.  I’m no expert but it was non-venomous, perhaps a narrowhead garter snake.

 

It looked as though it wanted to live, but it also looked as though the wound had slowly bled it to death. The snake seemed as if it had been just barely clipped or pinched by the wheel of a passing car. The injury itself didn’t really appear to be all that serious.  I was thinking that had it been given immediate care, it would likely be alive today.  Unfortunately, the cars seem to be more forthcoming than any immediate animal care.

Narrowhead Garter Snake

I confess that while not especially fond of them, I am intrigued by snakes.  And of this particular critter? Somehow I think of this as “my snake” and I wondered why I cared about it, or why I was saddened by its demise?  That single snake was neither socially nor economically important.

 

Nature is content to love snakes in her own way – as a species. Yet she seems wholly unconcerned with any particular snake.  As Joseph Wood Krutch suggested many years back, Mother Nature seems to hold the view that it’s the “greatest good of the greatest number.”  In fact, it seems to be a principle so absolute that she is not “tempered with regret over those who happen not to be included within the greatest number.”  And yet, I cared.

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March 21, 2012 | | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

All sustainability is local

Elisa WoodBy Elisa Wood
March 15, 2012

 

“All politics is local.” This quote from the late US Congressman Tip O’Neill continues to frame political strategies today. It turns out his premise also applies to environmentalism. All sustainability is local, as a Massachusetts software company reveals in a new application that takes on the complicated task of quantifying the green efforts of corporations.

 

Massachusetts-based Energy Points has devised a sustainability algorithm that considers location, right down to the zip code, in sorting the many variables that reveal how well a company performs environmentally. What’s most sustainable in one location might not be so important elsewhere. For example, installing LED lighting could be wise move for a Massachusetts operation, but a company in the Mojave Desert might be better off with a new water management system, says Energy Points founder Ory Zik.

 

We tend to use the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘green’ loosely, and they have become more advertising slogans than clear descriptions. Energy Points says it overcomes this problem by measuring sustainability “on math not myth.”

 

More specifically, the company takes its cue from Weight Watchers by reducing a complex set of calculations into a simple point system. Energy Points converts a company’s sustainability profile into what it calls an energy per gallon metric, a mirror of the per gallon of gasoline measure that is easily understood by most Americans.

 

But there is nothing simple about the software platform’s data base, which took three years to build. In addition to location, the algorithm considers such variables as a company’s management of fuel, transportation, waste, water and electricity, where resources are used, when they are used, and how they are created, distributed and treated.

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March 15, 2012 | | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »
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