Get Energy Smart! NOW!

If embraced, solar cooking has the potential for providing a meaningful Silver BB in the fight to mitigate climate change, in the struggle to reduce health damage from polluting cooking (such as wood or coal burning in inadequately vented homes), and aiding economic strengthening for some of the world’s poorest people (reducing costs (both monetary [...]

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As any who regularly read my work should be aware, I have a fascination with the power of feedback systems to foster behavioral change (and here and …) and help foster more Energy Smart practices and to hasten the adoption of Energy Smart/Energy COOL technologies. This guest post by Milly Watt (which, in this context, [...]

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Representative Tom Perriello (D-VA-5) was one of the first candidates to make the Energy Smart list. Today, not for the first time, he provided a clear statement as to why he merited and continues to merit a prominent position in the ‘must support’ list for anyone concerned about fostering a prosperous and secure America [...]

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Today, a poll popped up:
How do you primarily heat your home / apartment?
This question gave me pause.
Sadly, for a self-proclaimed (and labeled by others) energy ‘geek’ and one who values feedback (systems) to enable better decisions/energy use patterns, I realized that I simply can’t answer this question.  The problem: multiple heating systems, with multiple changes [...]

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While too much of the world’s attention turned to the falsehoods from climate deniers (such as Sarah Palin) about ClimateGate (Swifthack), there are people from around the world in Copenhagen seeking to find a path toward a global agreement to mitigate climate change. And, around the world, there are people striving to find and execute [...]

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Occasionally, it seems worthwhile to resurrect earlier discussions, to try to bring attention to elements that should be part of our national dialogue but which, sadly, seem not ingrained in people’s thinking. No Regrets strategic thinking looks to satisficing — how would this pan out across multiple scenarios. Considering what a No Regrets Strategy would [...]

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With the last moments of competition, with the last event, the
German team of Decathletes surged forward to seize the lead, seize the victory of the fourth Solar Decathlon, topping second-place Illinois (The Gable House) by less than 11 points out of 1000 possible (908.27 to 897.3).
The margin of victory came from just one event, an [...]

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No, we’re not speaking about Cold Fusion, but Penn State’s entry into the DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Friday on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Let’s take a look at some of Natural Fusion’s features from its website, which is dynamic, enabling rapid connection of concepts and approaches with the home’s physical layout.

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All too often, those engaged in examining options for “greening” a new or existing building are constrained in a stove-piped cost analysis which (in a very simplified fashion) goes something along these lines:

How much more will it cost to build?
And, how fast will energy and other operating cost (water usage/sewers, maintenance) savings pay for those [...]

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When writing a review, the desired state is to write positive; hopefully having had an excellent experience with, then, the pleasure of sharing that with others. Sadly, not all life’s experiences are joyful.
Rik DeGunther has an empire of Energy for Dummies books. He writes well. And, it is clear that he has real knowledge. [...]

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