*News and Events
Austin Energy Tops Green Power Sales
HP Smart Cooling to Reduce Data Center Energy Use
Hotel Demonstrates Energy-Efficient Lighting
Conferences on Residential Energy Efficiency Begin
San Diego’s $3.6 Million Energy-Efficiency Project
*Site News
BetterBricks
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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Austin Energy sold 251,520,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power last year, more than any other utility in the nation. The utility’s GreenChoice program offers electricity from wind, solar, methane gas from landfills, and hydropower plants to more than 6,500 residents, 165 small businesses, and 31 large companies and organizations in Austin, TX. Sacramento Municipal Utility District was the second largest green power producer last year at 104,344,000 kWh, and Xcel Energy was third with 103,739000 kWh. See Austin Energy’s press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available].
HP Smart Cooling to Reduce Data Center Energy Use
While clean energy technologies are often at the forefront of energy news when it comes to reducing air pollution and conserving fossil fuels, advances in energy efficiency are also capable of tremendous cost and emissions reductions. For example, HP announced this week that it is now using a “smart” cooling modeling system to design data centers, which the company claims could dramatically reduce energy and save millions of dollars per year. Created in HP labs, the system uses computational fluid dynamics–like that used to improve airplane design–to create a 3-D model of temperature distribution throughout a data center. It then recommends strategic placement of computing resources and air conditioning equipment to optimize energy use for cooling.
HP Services is offering customers an analysis of their data centers to determine whether the smart cooling solution could benefit them. HP suggests energy savings could offset the cost of this new service. For example, a future 30,000-square-foot data center with 1,000 racks might require 10 megawatts to power the computing infrastructure and half that amount–5 megawatts– to dissipate and remove heat. At $1,000 per megawatt hour, the cooling alone could cost up to $4 million per year. HP researchers believe smart cooling analysis could reduce expenses at a data center of this size by 25 percent–$1 million annually. See the press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]
Hotel Demonstrates Energy-Efficient Lighting
The hospitality industry has become one of the biggest sectors of the economy. For this reason, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has a research program specifically dedicated to reducing energy use in hotels. By monitoring energy use in hotel rooms, LBNL found that one of the largest energy savings opportunities is the bathroom light, often left on while the guest is out of the room. Researchers suggest installing an occupancy sensor combined with an LED nightlight that often eliminates the need for an overhead light in the middle of the night.
To demonstrate and verify the LBNL research, Watt Stoppers, a Livermore, CA, company that designs lighting control systems, will supply such a lighting system and Sacramento’s Doubletree Hotel will install it with the help of a grant from the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. LBNL will then analyze use patterns. DOE’s Office of Building Technologies funded the hotel lighting energy research. For more details on the target demonstration, see LBNL’s press release: [sorry this link is no longer available]
Conferences on Residential Energy Efficiency Begin
The Affordable Comfort Conference, an annual training event for building professionals on technical aspects of how to remodel, repair, build, and diagnose homes, will take place March 31-April 5 in Kansas City, MO. Affordable Comfort, based in Waynesburg, PA, organizes trainings and conferences on construction, remodeling, repair, and operation. The annual conference targets builders, contractors, policy makers, and affordable housing and weatherization professionals. This year’s conference also offers several free sessions for homeowners and consumers on reducing high energy bills and increasing comfort and health in the home. For descriptions of consumer workshops in Spanish and English and for more details on the conference, see the Affordable Comfort Web site: [sorry this link is no longer available]
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center’s fifth annual Green Building Conference will take place March 30-April 1 at the Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, MD. The conference focuses on resource-efficient design, construction, and operation of homes, and claims to be the only national green building conference that targets the mainstream residential building industry. Educational sessions will cover energy efficiency, smart growth, innovative building technologies, indoor air quality, sustainable site design, and trends in green building.
The NAHB Research Center is a not-for-profit subsidiary of NAHB. NAHB has 190,000 members, including 50,000 builders who build more than 80 percent of American homes. The Research Center conducts research, analysis, and demonstration programs in all areas relating to home building. The conference hopes to reach remodelers, engineers, developers and planners, architects, manufacturers, local officials, and trade contractors. For more nformation on the conference: [sorry this link is no longer available]
two types of plumbing distribution systems in a high water-use home and in a low water-use home. (Tankless water heaters heat water on demand rather than maintaining heated water in a storage tank.)
The researchers used the Transient Energy System Simulation Tool (TRNSYS) to develop a simulation model to estimate energy consumption for each system as well as simulate other system designs. The study suggests optimal combinations for energy efficiency, and preliminary analyses showed the potential for significant energy savings based on a combination of demand water heaters and parallel piping configurations. See the summary and the complete study on NAHB’s site. Access them by going to the NAHB Research Center index and scrolling down to the title “Performance Comparison of Residential Hot Water Systems.”
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San Diego Agrees to $3.6 Million Energy-Efficiency Project
The City of San Diego made an agreement with Onsite Energy last week to proceed with a comprehensive $3.6 million renovation of San Diego police headquarters, which will reduce energy consumption and generate clean power from photovoltaics and a combined heat and power (CHP) system.
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BetterBricks, an initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, was established to help commercial building professionals use energy efficiency as a design tool and financial strategy. Its Web site features articles on energy effective design and better building management, as well as success stories, news, and events.
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| Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). |
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