The Energy Efficiency Manifesto

RE: The Energy Efficiency Manifesto

mcb1 — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:06:30 GMT

Sorry but Renewable is not part of Energy Efficiency.

The Energy Efficiency and Strategy do belong together.

I'm with [mention:9096439d3a464e28836f5e90621862d3:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] and say that Energy Efficiency is minimising the energy required to deliver the service.

This may also apply to natural resources or manufacturing methods to produce that service, rather than simply the end product.

We have a similar situation in NZ, where it takes 1020 litres of water to make 1 litre of milk.

http://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/05/24/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-produce-one-litre-of-milk/

That is not particularly efficient.

Charging batteries is similar where it takes 140% energy input for a charge, v directly supplying the load with regulated mains voltage using switching regulators.

Mark

RE: The Energy Efficiency Manifesto

dougw — Wed, 18 May 2016 03:29:42 GMT

One other motive for efficiency is weight and size reduction - very important when wearable electronics are involved. Carrying huge batteries is very clearly undesirable and more efficient electrical systems can save food costs associated with carrying heavier loads and also associated energy requirements for food production. Lighter wearables may also reduce medical costs. It is inevitable we will be wearing a lot more electronics in the near future, so the topic is very relevant right now.

How about saving time and effort - if your cell phone could last 10 times as long without charging, how much time would it save you? Generally any time a battery needs to be replaced or serviced or charged there are all kinds of savings to be had by reducing the need or extending the time.

RE: The Energy Efficiency Manifesto

jkutzsch — Wed, 18 May 2016 02:11:10 GMT

I like it!

One of the things that was discussed a lot with us during the purchase of our home this last month was Return On Investment for Energy Efficiency upgrades.

If you are a U.S. Veteran and you are applying for a Veteran Home Loan you can also apply to have money set aside for Energy Efficiency upgrades. They require a lot of paperwork showing exactly how much the existing costs of energy use is, how much the expected savings from the new upgrade will provide, and how much the actual upgrades cost. Then the math is applied to see if you are truly saving money by upgrading.

For example we looked into Solar Panel upgrades and Solar Water heating. Compared to the money that is spent on normal electricity connections we could have panels installed that would fully cover our energy needs with surplus for growth. The monthly payments for the panels would be the same as the monthly electricity bill so it would balance out. With the fact that it is expected that the Energy companies will continue to raise their prices but my Solar Panel monthly bill would stay the same, after a couple of years we would be paying less then we would be staying connected to the standard utilities. This would be a good Energy upgrade, alas it was also a large enough investment that the loan officers wouldn't look at it. :-(

The Solar Water Heater though would cost more then we would save over time from our Natural Gas Water Heater that we will be going to. Although to be fair, currently it is on Propane and with Propane, Solar is better. So while purchasing a Solar Water Heater would be more Energy Efficient and also Sustainable, the costs incurred would not be substantial enough to allow for the upgrade over Natural Gas.

Since the cap on the loan was so low we ended up ordering new energy star rated windows and will be having them installed.

ROI is a big factor that comes up when I discuss the benefits of purchasing a Tesla automobile with the wife to save on gas. :-) Until they expand their battery range I will be unable to take that upgrade either.

RE: The Energy Efficiency Manifesto

clem57 — Mon, 16 May 2016 15:15:16 GMT

The spirit is correct as well as the terminology. Here is energy efficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_energy_use

the goal to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services

But see this:

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy policy

Sustainable energy then is where the energy is sourced and how it can be either renewable like solar or synthetic sources like hydrogenated waste carbon dioxide like WWII Germany did with coal even though more costly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_energy lists even more.

Clem