Below is a list of most notable Energy Management stories that came across our desk this week. These are stories that received the highest traffic, largest amount of ReTweets, or had a high number of shares from our blog.
We like to keep this post short ‘n sweet. (since it is the weekend) We hope you find these stories helpful and informative. Please feel free to share your energy efficiency and management stories from the week in our comments section. Thanks again for visiting us. Enjoy!
The Superdome
The big story this week was the Super Bowl. Not the game itself, but the facility. Preceding the game, focus was on renovation of the Superdome and its related energy efficiency upgrades. See this article from the Energy Collective. Of course, post-game all talk centered on the power outage experienced mid-game with reasons varying from a utility interruption to renovation errors. Eventually the root cause was identified as a faulty protection relay on one of the utility’s circuits feeding the stadium. Which then opens a dialog regarding Smart Grid and energy security. GreenBiz.com explains further.
How Will Energy Productivity Jumpstart the Economy?
A dialog on the National Journal site engaged a panel of experts on using energy efficiency as a catalyst for economic growth. This article opened a number of adjacent topics from National Journal’s panel as they offered their perspectives. Read more here.
White House Delay on Efficiency Standards Costs Consumers $300 Million per Month
A GreenTechEfficiency article from the previous week continued to gain traffic as it highlighted results from an ACEEE study. The study identified lost savings opportunities from the Obama Administration’s lack of action on updated standards for applicances and commercial equipment. They may be on to something here – if you’re in the U.S., have you tried to find a major appliance that is NOT EnergyStar rated? It may be time to raise the bar and continue the update of these and related standards.
Why HVAC Performance Gets Worse Over Time
FacilitiesNet.com published a story regarding adoption of the 2012 Energy Conservation Code by many states in the U.S. which will increase system complexity, but will also require system commissioning. The article continues to explain energy efficiency “drift”, why efficiency degrades over time, and what can be done to return systems to their original design performance.
Harvard, MIT, and Stanford Offer Select Courses Online at No-Charge
And lastly, our post from January regarding free online courses from major universities gained new traffic this week as spring semester got into gear. These on-demand courses enable learning on your time, at your pace. Although college credit is not provided, the universities do issue a certificate of completion if all course work is submitted. The post also includes my personal experiences as I tried a number of these courses last semester and look forward to enroll in others.
