This is the 4th – and last – in a series discussing my experience driving the all-electric all electric BMW ActiveE. Steady State Impressions Hard to believe it has been 5 months since I picked up my BMW ActiveE. Even harder than you might expect, since I only have 1,614 miles on the odometer – which […]
Just one year ago, Aneesh Chopra, the US Chief Technology Officer who also serves as Associate Director of Technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, challenged the utility industry to provide customers with easy access to their electricity use data. The “Green Button” initiative was to be modeled on the “Blue […]
For a long time, I viewed my energy usage as something that my parents always told me to watch, but not as something that could start to improve my life in the short-term. At home, I would leave the light on in my room when I was at school for the day, override the settings […]
Energy Efficiency Delivers the Green… increased profits, that is Too often I hear people describe energy efficiency as a “do-gooder” kind of thing – something to “help the planet”, but with no other intrinsic value. Part of this may relate to confusion between the terms “efficiency” and “conservation”. While there are clearly overlaps between the concepts, […]
I generally try to keep politics out of things that I write. (Okay, maybe that is a gross exaggeration.). But, the recent barrage of the phrase “job killing regulations” has driven me over the edge – and reminded me of a very interesting graph I saw a couple of months back. I am clearly not […]
This is the 3rd in a series discussing my experience driving the all-electric BMW ActiveE. Oops Last Tuesday the odometer hit 1,000 miles. Last Wednesday the thermometer in Boston hit 96 degrees, a record for the day. Last Wednesday evening the car would not start. Coincidence? I still don’t know. The dashboard message read: “Drivetrain malfunction; […]
With the first day of summer officially in the books, the cooling season is on for the lower 48. Yes, Florida and Arizona and San Diego have been cranking air conditioning for weeks if not months by now, but the real heart of the cooling degree chart is now just in front of us. In […]
In my last post I disclosed that I had just taken delivery of one of 700 all electric ActiveE’s that are being leased by BMW. The ActiveE is based on the 1-Series BMW. What’s it look like? The ActiveE looks just like a BMW 1-Series, with the exception of the geeky lettering and circuit imagery […]
I am not generally an early adopter. I am a geek, but a cautious one that typically waits until the 2nd or 3rd generation before acquiring new technology. I began lusting for a Tesla Roadster the first time I read about the car long before its debut, perhaps 5 years ago. Having spent the first part of […]
I was thrilled to see the article in mid-February: PACE Financing on the Rebound. PACE – Property Assessed Clean Energy – is a program in which energy efficiency improvements and clean energy can be financed and the charged to the home – or business – owner through their real estate tax bill. Back in the summer […]
Tip 7: Reduce Demand Charges In this final post on energy efficiency in restaurants I will move away from a focus on energy usage to address an area that is less well understood by many people – energy demand. Most restaurants pay not only for the amount of electricity they use in a month – measured in […]
Tip 5: Water Water is a huge issue for most restaurants. Hot water heating can be a major energy cost – even without supplemental heating systems. And, in some locations, the cost of water itself can be extremely steep. If you have an older hot water heater (built earlier than 2000), an inexpensive insulating blanket, […]
