heard it through the grapevine

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

America’s Anemic 13% Energy (in)Efficiency

Friday, August 20, 2010 www.aceee.org/blog ACEEE Summer Study at Asilomar, California

Follow us on Twitter: #summerstudy

Congress and the news media continue to focus almost completely on the question of where we will find new sources of conventional but clean energy. Yet, the surprising insight is that the robustness of our economy squarely depends on more productive investments in energy efficiency. Indeed, the overwhelming emphasis today on new energy supplies is “crowding out” a meaningful national dialogue and progress on achieving greater efficiency in an economy that today wastes 87% of the energy we use.

The United States economy has tripled in size since 1970 and three-quarters of the energy needed to fuel that growth came from an amazing variety of efficiency advances—not new energy supplies. Going forward, the current economic recovery, and our future economic prosperity, will depend more on new energy efficien-cy behaviors and investments than we’ve seen in the last 40 years.

Americans may have an overly optimistic impression of how energy-efficient the United States is. Despite the enormous strides achieved in the last four decades, research by colleagues Bob Ayres and Benjamin

Warr suggests that the United States economy remains about 13 percent energy-efficient. If that corresponding unacceptably high level of inefficiency is allowed to remain, the United States. will be mired in lackluster economic activity for the foreseeable future. By way of comparison, Ayres and Warr note Japan and several European countries are about 20% efficient, a factor of 1.5 higher than the United States. Even so, all economies are underperforming in this regard.

How big might the next round of potential efficiency improvements be? If we invested in more energy productive technologies, such investments can provide one-half or more of the needed greenhouses gas emissions reductions most scientists agree are needed between now and the year 2050. And that gain in energy efficiency would not only mean reduced greenhouse gas emissions, it would result in lower energy bills for businesses and consumers. Cost-effective investments that reduce the amount of energy nec-essary to support a dollar of economic activity are the single most important driver of economic productivity within the United States and around the world. The evidence suggests we ignore this at our considerable peril.

John A. “Skip” LaitnerEconimic and Social Analysis Program Director

The Poster Sessions provide a place to see the important work of

energy efficiency mavens who didn’t present formal papers at Summer

Study. The beer, wine, and munchies set the backdrop for an informal and

lively atmosphere where ideas bounce around and move minds.

Tuesday’s Poster Sessions included presentations about SEAT

(Subdivision Energy Analysis Tool), a tool to examine community wide re-

newable energy installations and other innovations, and the Silicon Valley

Energy Map, which can track utility program progress and point to under-

served areas of the community. There was a demonstration of a software

tool that teaches HVAC and information about the energy-efficient rebuild-

ing of Greensburg, Kansas, including residential and commercial buildings,

and buildings that serve local government.

Though it seems that all the attention lately has been on existing

buildings, the Building America Program has supported builders such as

Tommy Williams Homes in Gainesville, Florida and Tim O’Brien Homes in

Waukesha, Wisconsin, that are selling handsome high performance new

homes in a down market for new homes. Speaking of existing homes, a

study of 160,000 homes in Houston, Texas, shows that Energy Star Homes

are clearly energy savers and affirming that the REM:Rate software tool

Thursday’s Poster Session

Satish Narayanan and Scott Horowitz

continued on page 3

heard it through the grapevine

At the Aquarium....

and on the Dance Floor

PedometerHashem Akbari of Concordia University reached 33,879 steps at 5:15

pm on Monday, August 16.Dustin Jensen of Metropolitan Energy Center reached 114,179 steps

by the end of the contest.

Scavenger HuntChris Anne Dickerson, The Cadmus Group

Name That Camper1. Ed Vine, LBNL, 55 names

2. Linda Schuck, CIEE, 28 names

3. Chuck Goldman, LBNL, 16 names

Congratulations Winners!

Winners of the ACEEE 30th Anniversary Summer Study Contests

2012 Summer Study Co-Chairs Announced

Cindy Regnier, P.E., P. Eng., LEED AP, and Michael Brambley, Ph.D,

were announced as the 2012 Summer Study Co-Chairs at the Wednesday

night plenary.

Cindy is a Program Manager, Building Technologies Department,

Environmental Energy Technologies Division, at the Lawrence Berkeley

National Laboratory. Cindy has over 13 years of HVAC design experi-

ence, the last 6 years as a lead designer and project manager with

Rumsey Engineers, a company with a mission to design only low energy

and low water use buildings. Her projects have included many LEED

Gold and Platinum certified buildings, including the Nueva School which

was honored with the AIA’s COTE (Committee on the Environment) pres-

tigious Top 10 Green Project of the Year in 2008 and UC San Diego’s

Supercomputer Expansion which re-

ceived a UC Sustainability Best Practice

award in 2006. A recent project focuses

on a 190,000sf net-zero site energy build-

ing.

Michael Brambley, Ph.D., is a

Building Systems Program Manager,

Energy Technology Development Group,

at the Pacific Northwest National

Laboratory.

Mike has over 30 years of academic

and research experience related to energy technologies and policy, focus-

ing for the last 22 years while at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

(PNNL) on developing technologies for improving building energy efficien-

cy. At PNNL, Dr. Brambley has served in a variety of roles including princi-

pal investigator and research contributor, project and program manager,

technical group leader, department chief scientist, and leader of several

initiatives. Most of his work over the last 15 years has focused on improv-

ing the actual operating efficiency of buildings and other energy systems.

For 6 years before joining PNNL, Dr. Brambley was a faculty member at the

Washington University Engineering School in St. Louis.

ACEEE Summer Study 2010

is accurate to within 3% compared to average metered energy

use.

The Summer Study Poster Sessions continue to be an

effective way to spread the word about successful energy ef-

ficiency technology and tactics.

Akaash Bhalla, Jessica Yang, and Ingrid BranMel Oyler, Joe Derringer, Mark Case

Informal Session: Larry and Suzanne Weingarten’s Hummingbird House TourThursday afternoon, several carloads of people

visited the home of Larry and Suzanne Weingarten

SIPs house near Salinas. Larry is known as the

creator—and curator—of the Water Heater Museum,

and he has poured a lifetime of experience creating

sustainable water heating systems into building a sus-

tainable, affordable, and beautiful home.

The house is tight, cozy, comfortable, and quiet.

Larry has invented, tinkered, perfected, observed, and

maximized himself and Suzanne into a dreamhome

that he built—over several years—for about $100 per

square foot.

Read more in “Hummingbird House: Design for

Everyone” in Home Energy magazine, January/

February, 2010.

Thursday’s Poster Session continued

30% post-consumer waste paper. 100% delivered by bicycle.

is published by Home Energy Magazine

www.homeenergy.org

Tom White, Managing Editor

Melanie Feliciano, Steve Greenberg, and Jim Gunshinan, Reporters

Leslie Jackson, Production

Uncle Sam Wants YOU to Submit Data

As Cathy Zoi noted Sunday night, DOE is looking for data on mea-

sured energy savings from building retrofits. Contact Colin McCormick:

colinmccormick@ee.doe.gov

AnnouncementsTV Standards!For the first time, DOE has initiated a rulemaking for energy conservation

standards for televisions. According to DOE’s Regulatory Agenda, a final

rule is due in 2013.

RidesharesLooking for a ride home? Looking for a passenger? Post your ad, or find

others’ ads in Surf and Sand on the Bulletin Board. Don’t drive home

alone!!

Special sessionFriday 10:30 -- Noon on Kiln: Hashem Akbari and Arthur Rosenfeld:

“Cooling the World, One Roof at a Time.”

Asilomar is changing out my lightbulb: The Winning Camp SongAx Diesel & the Retro Commissioners were the winners of the

2010 ACEEE Song Contest. They rocked Merrill Hall on Thursday night with

their hit song, “Sweet Energy:”

Racking up waste

Leaky windows

Sagging insulation’s got you blue

Tryin’ to stop the heat loss through your attic

But your IR camera’s giving you bad news

Now I’m sipping wine in California

Learnin’ bout these sweet low-hanging fruits

Asilomar is changing out my lightbulb

Gave that incandescent lamp the boot

Cut it, cut it down, your consumption

Electric, nat’ral gas, oil too

Cut it, cut it down, get some gumption

Gotta save that one last BTU

Second Prize went to Tina Kaarsburg, for “ACEEE,” sung to the tune of

“Edelweiss.”

More Faces of AsilomarAs you drive away from the experience of Summer Study 2010, take

a moment to close your eyes (preferably at a stop sign) and allow the

images of faces, posters, ocean waves, whale sightings and aquarium

jelly fish to download and become part of your hard drive. We are so

often thinking of what is going to happen next that we forget to stop and

connect the data. How does Sunday’s plenary connect to Wednesday

night at the aquarium? Who are the people you attracted most frequent-

ly? Were you really listening to them or were you waiting for your turn

to speak? If you can’t remember, never fear, allow www.aceee.org to be

your external hard drive of memorable moments at Summer Study 2010.

See more Faces of Asilomar at www.flickr.com/photos/aceee

Rob Hammon, Consol Energy & Environmental SolutionsRob Hammon, principal of Consol Energy & Environmental Solutions, is presenting Zero Peak Homes today at 8:30.He uses the Google Power Meter to track his energy use in real-time, which is relatively low since he has PVs (photovoltaics) installed on his home.

Lilah Glick, director of community outreach for Cambridge Energy Alliance, is attending Summer Study to learn techniques and tools for market transformation.“I liked that the kickoff started with what federal government is doing,” said Glick, referring to the Sunday Plenary with the assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “I was inspired by Cathy Zoi’s optimism.”On Monday, Glick attended “Experience With Rapid Ramp Up,” which compared three different utility energy efficiency programs’ efforts and results, and “Community Programs,” which offered marketing techniques and strategies.“I liked the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s idea of working with schools - Lights for Learning is a fund-raising tool by selling CFLs, and 50% of parents adopt behavior because of student participation.” Glick, who hopes to start a similar program in her region, is networking at Summer Study for the first time this year.