Category Archives: In Products

NEEP and Sponsors Honored for Retail Products Efficiency Programs

Posted on April 2, 2012 by neepenergy| Leave a comment

NEEP along with many of its Sponsoring organizations, were recently recognized for its a collaborative work accelerating energy efficiency through the promotion of ENERGY STAR products.  Our Sponsors are energy efficiency program administrators and electric and gas  utilities.  When it comes to our work here at NEEP, all of these companies participate for the same reasons: to capture significant energy and emissions savings that are as cost effective as possible for their customers.  This distinct collaboration is the reason why the Environmental Protection Agency is awarding our Retail Products Initiative with its sixth Sustained Excellence award- it’s most prestigious recognition.

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Proposed Transformer Standards Leave Efficiency Advocates Scratching their Heads

Posted on February 21, 2012 by dlenergyefficiency| Leave a comment

You may be surprised to hear that Distribution Transformers (which include the round barrel-looking devices on telephone poles) offer significant energy savings opportunities.  Although most transformers are quite efficient (efficiencies over 98%), the sheer volume of these deployed throughout the country mean even small improvements can result in big savings.

A few weeks ago, DOE published proposed efficiency standards for Distribution Transformers (This product class is made up of 3 categories of transformers; Medium-voltage liquid-immersed, Medium-voltage dry-type, Low voltage dry-type).

Besides the document containing surprising errors and misrepresentations, the proposed levels selected by the Department fell at the very low end of the levels considered.   Continue reading →

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Globe Magazine story misses the obvious: energy efficiency

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Jim OReilly| Leave a comment

In a Feb. 5 cover story of the Boston Globe Magazine, Neil Swidey’s “What if the Lights Go Out?” paints a bleak picture of the state of our regional electric grid. And all of his reasons are quite valid: we are overly-reliant on natural gas fired electricity generation; we have an aging electricity and natural gas infrastructure that is vulnerable to failures on its own and attacks from those intent on crippling our power system; and we are increasingly facing extreme weather events that challenge both that system and our resolve.

Swidey largely dismisses renewable energy resources, focusing on their intermittent nature rather than their promise to deliver clean energy from sources that, unlike fossil fuels, are not finite.

But his biggest disservice to readers is his complete omission of a solution that is quickly deployed, clean, reliable, affordable and indigenous to our region: energy efficiency.

Swidey makes no mention of the fact that cost-effective energy efficiency has the potential to save New England about 31,800 gigaWatt-hours of electricity, or the equivalent to the amount of energy produced each year by about four large coal-fired power plants.  The electricity saved could power 4 million homes for one year – about equal to the households in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont combined.

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Posted in In Best Practices, In Buildings, In Products, In the Market

Not Sure how to Read New Light Bulb Labels? Don’t Worry, There’s an App for That

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Linda Malik| Leave a comment

 In a recent blog post, Penni McLean-Conner of NSTAR, highlighted the tremendous innovation spurred on by the new EISA standards enacted on January 1. The standards have truly brought about the biggest evolution in the lighting industry since Edison was around.  Some of this change has not been so welcomed.  In her post Conner explains,

“Another important change brought about by the EISA will be a focus on comparing bulbs based on light output, or lumens, rather than relying solely on the traditional comparison of electricity use measured in watts. That straight-forward measurement is an apples-to-apples comparison consumers will warm up to over time.”

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Light Bulb Standards Remain in place

Posted on December 22, 2011 by dlenergyefficiency| 1 Comment

Congress and the President are set to pass a spending bill that will, among other things, defund the enforcement of the EISA light bulb standards for the 2012 fiscal year. While this means that the Department of Energy (DOE) will have no funding to enforce the standards until October 2012, the standards themselves remain in place.

  • The details of the new provision, like the standards themselves, have been misreported.  The lighting standards have not been delayed or repealed.
  • Efficiency standards will remain in place with a January 1, 2012 effective date (effective date refers to date of manufacture, not sales.  Retailers can still “sell through” their inventories beyond January 1st).
  • This provision simply eliminates funding to DOE to enforce them.
  • DOE is still trying to determine what enforcement mechanisms remain.  In the meantime, EISA 2007 stipulated that state attorneys general have authority to enforce the standards in their states.
  • Manufacturers (NEMA) support EISA standards and have put millions of dollars behind EE lighting (NEMA press release).
  • This recent change may undermine those investments by opening the door to unscrupulous players, creating a competitive disadvantage for complying manufacturers.
  • This provision will likely cause more consumer confusion than any actual marketplace non-compliance.
  • Reinforces need to continue education around the standards themselves.  Remember, the standards do not remove all incandescent products from the market (only the least efficient) and they do not require consumers to buy CFLs.
  • Visit the LUMEN Coalition Website for more information about the lighting standards and their effect on the lighting marketplace.

 

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Posted in In Products

Going Upstream: NEEP is recognized for collaborative work in new report

Posted on December 15, 2011 by neepenergy| 1 Comment

Rocky Mountain Institute

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a research and consulting non-profit in Colorado exploring the opportunities for increased efficiency with existing and new technologies.  The RMI recently published a report: Turbo Charging Energy Efficiency Programs, calling for utilities to dig deeper and broader for increased efficiency savings.

In a blog post today on the RMI Outlet, authors Brendan O’Donnell and Mathias Bell highlight  NEEP’s collaborative work with regional program administrators, manufacturers and retailers as an innovative approach toward maximizing the availability of efficient products to consumers.   Here’s a snippet of what they  had to say:
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Same Program, More Savings

Posted on December 5, 2011 by neepenergy| Leave a comment

Nearly every consumer appliance and electronics program developed in the past two decades has left considerable energy savings on the table.  How do I know?  Because until this year, program administrators lacked tools to help steer consumers from appliances and electronics that were merely more efficient than standard models to those that were at the top of the efficiency peak.

Enter TopTen USA. The growing nonprofit, whose board is chaired by NEEP founder Sue Coakley, was created to serve that exact function: To help program administrators achieve more savings from any program by adding and promoting higher incentives for the best of the best.  TopTen only looks at widely available products which (in categories covered by ENERGY STAR®) have already received their ENERGY STAR designation.  Within that group, TopTen ranks the ten efficiency winners from among the hundreds of products which have qualified for the ENERGY STAR label. Continue reading →

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Posted in Guest Contributors, In Products

Don’t Get Left in the Dark: Become an Educated Lighting Shopper

Posted on November 23, 2011 by neepenergy| Leave a comment

Photo courtesy of LUMEN.org

Remember when all it took to buy a bulb was to choose between which wattage you needed (40/60/75/100 Watts)?  This system worked when you had a single technology on the market.  But as Guest Contributor, Penni McLean-Conner from NSTAR mentioned in her blog post on Monday, the new efficiency standards for light bulbs have sparked a flood of new technologies into the lighting market.  While this vast expansion of higher performing lighting options provides consumers with newfound choices and exciting energy savings, it has also made a very simple decision process one that is a bit more involved.

Today, consumers have a host of next generation options to choose from which include halogen incandescents (that’s right, incandescent options will still be available), compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and Light-emitting diodes or LEDs.  With multiple technologies now on the market with varying efficiencies, our old system of determining brightness no longer works. Continue reading →

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Posted in In Products

Helping Consumers Embrace New Lighting Standards

Posted on November 21, 2011 by neepenergy| 4 Comments

Penni McLean-Conner, NSTAR

Beginning in 2012, new federal standards for energy efficiency will usher in an era of improved lighting options for consumers. If we take time now to familiarize ourselves and our customers with the coming changes, we’ll all be more informed shoppers when the new standards go into effect.

The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, requires that light bulbs use less energy beginning this coming January. It’s a common misconception that the Act bans incandescent light bulbs. It actually doesn’t.  But the EISA’s minimum efficiency standards are high enough that the incandescent lamps most commonly used by consumers today will not meet the new requirements. So the Act will essentially eliminate most traditional 100-, 75-, 60- and 40-watt incandescent light bulbs between 2012 and 2014. Continue reading →

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Posted in Guest Contributors, In Products

Vampires and Phantoms, oh my!

Posted on October 21, 2011 by neepenergy| 2 Comments

Yes Halloween is just around the corner, but we’re not talking about those types of vampires or phantoms. What we ARE talking about can be just as frightening — vampire or phantom loads refer to the appliances and electronics that draw electricity from your outlets even when they are turned off. The constant sucking of electricity these products produce not only are a drain on your electrical system but they are killer to your electric bill. So what can we  do to protect ourselves against these types of loads, become more energy efficient and save money on our electric bills? The answer is not garlic, a wooden stake, or even going around and unplugging every device. So what IS the solution? Continue reading →

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