How do the newest lighting technologies perform off the showroom floor, and in which applications could they save money and energy? Staff from CEE's One-Stop Efficiency Shop® explain the implications of the trends at this year's LIGHTFAIR.

Several recent projects have demonstrated how online crowdsourcing can solve problems, share resources, and spread enthusiasm. So... could we use crowdsourcing to gather energy data or encourage efficiency?

BuildingEnergy is an annual interdisciplinary renewable energy and high-performance building conference and trade show. Highlights included case studies from resilient cities, electric grid security, and a discussion of LEED standards for neighborhood development.

An interview with Michael Blasnik about understanding the actual performance of buildings using measured data.

We need to apply user-centered approaches to the design of the appliances, technologies, and equipment that consume the energy that we use in our homes and workplaces.

Framing the standards as a ban on incandescent light bulbs misrepresents the actual situation: EISA increases the efficiency standards for a product whose design has remained essentially unchanged for 100 years.

A segment of the public anticipates prolonged power outages. But in taking steps to prepare our homes for natural disasters, could we be making them less safe?

Some utilities have successfully adopted market segmentation approaches. Developing a segmentation model is expensive, but a number of online resources could provide enough insight to improve program recruitment.

Bridget McLaughin and Nancy Lange describe topics and trends at this year's conference, from quantifing non-energy benefits to identifying the potential for improving efficiency in the industrial sector.

When the energy community talks about the “small commercial” sector, we lump together a huge assortment of businesses.

"With the world in crisis and people looking for solutions, it’s no surprise that artists like these are employing their creative talents to raise questions and address challenging issues. Good public art is not just about looking good."
A guest post from Jack Becker of Forecast Public Art.

An interview with Andy Padian about his experiences financing energy efficiency projects and mentoring future leaders in sustainability.

Alex Krzesinski, Marketing Executive at Yorkshire Energy Services, describes the new United Kingdom residential program called Green Deal.

"The greenest building is the one that is still standing."

An interview with Bernice Radle, Program Coordinator at Buffalo Energy.

Most energy reduction stratgies focus on lighting, plumbing, and HVAC loads, but target energy use intensities can only be achieved by proportionally lowering the plugload.

Even though the walls of an apartment look solid, air buoyancy and pressure differences between interior spaces cause air to move between rooms and even to other units in the building. We've created animations showing how these interior air driving forces affect the migration of secondhand smoke within a multifamily apartment building.

Some cities are adopting building benchmarking requirements as a step to improve the overall energy performance of buildings. When instituted into everyday building management, benchmarking can help building owners see how their building's energy use compares to that of its peers and its own potential. It is not itself an energy-saving solution, but a long-term management tool.

Last week, Innovation Exchange staff Nancy Lange and Lester Shen attended the 2012 E Source Forum. Originally created by the Rocky Mountain Institute, E Source provides subscription-based services in the form of information and advice to utilities, large end-users of power, Federal and State agencies, and vendors. In this post, Nancy and Lester share their reflections about this year’s Forum.

Definitions like “energy is the capacity for doing work” and “power is the rate of doing work or the rate of using energy” don’t do much to differentiate between a kilowatt and a kilowatt hour. This post walks through an example to show why to consider investing in energy efficiency upgrades before installing a solar PV system.

Community Energy Services draws from CEE’s experience applying community organizing principles to residential energy program design, but program staff are always looking for new ways to engage and educate people about energy. In this guest post, Program Coordinator Helen Booth-Tobin gives an update on a new pilot project to reach homeowners outside their neighborhoods.

i.e. is interviewing women at CEE to recognize their work in energy. For this installment, we sat down with intern Corinne Wichser, a Mechanical Engineering graduate student finishing up her Masters Degree from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and volunteer Kate Goldstein, a PhD candidate at M.I.T., to find out what it’s like to be a female student in the energy field.

This guest post from CEE's International Fellow Alice H., outlines a French tax credit for sustainable development. It provides substantial incentives to households that invest to improve the energy efficiency of their home. To-date, the program is the most-used incentive by French households.

During the late 80s and early 90s, the term “house as a system” pervaded the home energy field. This led the community to consider the interconnected systems of the building, but fell short of a systems thinking approach. Yes, the house is a system, but we do not practice systems thinking until we understand and define the system patterns and consider the entire system, including its occupants.

Water heating accounts for about 20% of the energy used in houses. Efficiencies of residential water heaters have risen in recent years, and new technologies provide significant opportunities for savings. In this guest post, Innovation Exchange intern Drew Polasky explains the first steps of a CEE work-in-progress: an online calculator tool that allows visitors to receive an idea of their water use and energy bill, plus possibilities for improvement.

CEE's Communications Coordinator Neely Crane-Smith shares insight on community organizing and social media, lessons learned from the Minneosta Energy Challenge, and advice for building connections with online tools.

Programmable thermostats are available for a little more than $50: why would any rational person spend four to five times that price for a Nest or other comparable wifi-enabled smart thermostat?

In this post, we’ll describe how you can gather important information about the house prior to the visit while sitting at your desk. Thanks to the Internet, you could begin filling out the audit form before stepping into your car and even perform a visual inspection of the exterior of the house. We'll discuss available tools and useful analyses that can help prepare and expedite your house visit.

Bicycling Counts is based on real Twin Cities data. The installation's aim is to provide an estimated impact for each passing cyclist that it "counts". Check this post daily to see how the social and ecological impacts of Minneapolis bicycling add up!

In this guest post, CEE's IT Manager Tom Spielman tests out a Nest thermostat in his own home. What does it look like? How does it work? And -most importantly- does it actually save energy?

In this post, I’ll discuss a couple of concepts for videos that apply new ways of messaging that incorporate ideas from social psychology and marketing.