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The outpouring of response on the recent NYT article about the Hartford family, who had tried to exchange the title to their 16 year old Lincoln Town Car for fuel oil, has brought to light one of the reasons I starting writing DSS in the first place: the intersection of public policy [...]
DemandSideSolutions
energy issues in the built environment
Good News….Bad News….
First, the good news:
US technology firm the Joseph Company International has unveiled an energy drink in what it claims is the worlds first self-chilling can, featuring a heat exchanger and cooled using carbon dioxide. West Coast Chill is a new drink devised to be sold in a can which uses Joseph’s [...]
Withering away?
Due to a lack of pain, The Green Building Curmudgeon makes this, likely correct, prediction:
The big question is, what will happen to the home performance industy as incentives go away? It will probably fare better in regions with high energy costs, where paybacks are faster. Where energy audits or HERS ratings [...]
NYC Code Change
Is anyone familiar with NYC development strategies? I ask because I’m curious as to the significance of these proposed code revisions:
Exempt external building insulation from floor area requirements, allowing existing buildings to add insulation within their property lines;
Eliminate penalties for high-performance envelopes in the way floor area is measured, by exempting a [...]
Lighting Uncertainty
I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for a while now. My apologies. Been feeling very busy and the last thing I’ve felt like doing after a long day of work has been to catch up on the industry news and sit in front of a computer. I could continue with additional excuses, but instead I’ll [...]
Insured Savings
Interesting comments from Tony. Good to see this level of sophistication in the commercial upgrade market:
A few weeks ago a business consortium including Lockheed Martin and Barclays Capital announced the largest single private-sector investment to-date for commercial property energy efficiency retrofits. The business consortium, referred to as the PACE Commercial Consortium, [...]
Enough Pain to Spend $$ on Upgrades?
I have come around to the view that “deep energy retrofits” in the residential sector are a pipe dream, at least at any sort of scale that is significant. Why? Well, they’re expensive, and utilities just don’t hurt most homeowners enough. The “pain” of most folks monthly bills isn’t large enough for them to justify [...]
Carbon Tax and Markets for Retrofit
My good friend Scott, and frequent commenter, pointed out that it’s been a month since my last post. I have lots of excuses for that but will bear you the boring details. Probably as he was writing to tell me that frustrating piece of information I was reading a post from MR that responded to [...]
I Was Wrong?
Back in November 2010 I posted (ENR link now broken) that I couldn’t believe MGM would actually demolish the Harmon Hotel, part of the massive City Center development in Las Vegas. Apparently, I was wrong:
Plans submitted to the county call for the building to be imploded in six months, with four months of cleanup [...]
Here’s another perverse incentive for ya’ll….
I posted this perverse incentive a while ago. Here’s another (hat tip Energy Vanguard’s tweet, via GreenBiz):
Pretend you are a small business owner. You happen to own the building where your business is housed, which has helped you weather the recession. Things seem to be getting better, and you have the opportunity [...]