Energy + Environment

The Solar Decathlon, an educational project produced by the U.S. Department of Energy, joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Team California won for Architecture and Communications. Check out their house here. The University of Minnesota won for Lighting Design: Check [...]

Recommendations on achieving 30% energy savings over minimum code requirements are contained in the newly published Advanced Energy Design Guide for Highway Lodging. The book, published by ASHRAE, gives guidance to architects, engineers, contractors and other building team members on how to easily achieve advanced levels of energy savings without having to resort to detailed [...]

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association on a revision of their website detailing features, benefits and rules of implementation for the Commercial Buildings Deduction. Congress recently extended the expiration date for this important energy efficiency incentive to January 1, 2014. Check out the new and improved [...]

Energy efficiency remains America’s cheapest, cleanest, and fastest energy source for five years running. That’s the conclusion of a new study that shows that the utility cost per kWh of energy efficiency has held steady or even slightly declined at about $0.025 over the last half decade, even as the costs for new coal, nuclear, [...]

The Department of Energy has awarded the ENERGY STAR qualification to Renaissance Lighting Inc. on 11 of its newest all-white solid-state LED downlight fixtures. The ENERGY STAR qualification helps consumers identify the most energy efficient products on the market. ENERGY STAR qualification currently requires an LED recessed downlight fixture to deliver an efficacy of at [...]

NEMA recently launched the re-designed LampRecycle.org site to better provide a one-stop source of information about recycling mercury-containing lamps. One of the new features allows visitors to find CFL drop-off locations near them with the help of Earth911.com. Mercury-containing lamps can be recognized by the Hg symbol on the lamp—the universally recognized elemental symbol for [...]

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., has replaced approximately 12,000 standard incandescent and halogen lights in more than 150 Red Robin restaurant locations in the U.S. with new 7W GE LED PAR 20 floodlights and spotlights in general downlighting applications. The LED lamps, which emit 200 lumens, are expected to reduce energy consumption by 77% while [...]

Philips recently announced a commercial energy audit and lighting upgrade program aimed at replacing inefficient lighting systems currently found in 85% of existing buildings. A key element to the program, being led by the Philips Lightolier Energy Services Group, is a guarantee that the energy audit will deliver measurable energy cost reduction, defined projected return [...]

The need to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings was highlighted at the ASHRAE 2009 Annual Conference held in Louisville. At the meeting, ASHRAE launched the prototype of its Building Energy Quotient building energy labeling program, introduced a year-long focus on existing buildings and kicked off the Society’s most highly anticipated certification program to-date, [...]