Energy Efficient Top-Loaded Washers

Top-Loaded Washer Conventional wisdom over the past 5 years has pointed to front-loading washers as more energy efficient. They use much less water than traditional top-loaded washers, meaning less water to heat and they have higher capacity tubs, meaning fewer loads to cycle. Therefore, less energy is presumed to be required. Though the initial price is considerably higher, ranging between $500...

A Coming Bear Market for U.S. Electricity Sales?

Economic forecasters and business professionals alike are increasingly alarmed by the broad weakness of the U.S. economic recovery.  Forecasters in many sectors frequently highlight the “lost decade” of the Japanese economy following that nation’s stock market and real estate crash of the early 1990’s, and they openly wonder about parallel patterns in the U.S. and about the implications...

Decision Factors Related to Grid Modernization

The rationale for modernizing the electric transmission and distribution (T&D) network is obvious, particularly as one contemplates the specific application of Smart Grid and AMI and general implementation of full-scale distribution automation. However, any discussion about grid modernization needs to quickly shift to the planning and sequencing of the myriad actions to achieve the vision of...

Energy Storage – Essential to Renewable Energy

Electric energy storage has becoming a more dominant topic of the overall energy management discussion primarily because of the: Increased production of electric vehicles being plugged into outlets for recharging every evening, Advent of net-zero homes, and Expansion of intermittent solar and wind generation into the mainstream of energy supply options. As these factors begin to take on greater...

Gasoline Consumption in the U.S.

Gas Consumption Begins at the Pump Petroleum is used in everything from medications to lubricants, partially explaining its high usage in the U.S.’s heavily driven consumer economy. According to the EIA, the U.S. consumes approximately 21 million barrels of oil daily, the majority of which is refined into gasoline. To put this in perspective the U.S. consumes more gasoline than South America,...

Pricing of Gasoline

Gas Prices at the Pump Fluctuate Daily Gasoline remains a primary commodity in U.S. consumers maintaining their current quality of life, to the point where severe price fluctuations have devastating impact to the American economy, the lifestyles of its people, and the politicians. The typical person observes and is impacted by these seemingly random changes in price, but has little, if any,...

Energy Efficiency – Home Appliances

Though often taken for granted, home appliances exist to allow us to operate more efficiently on a day-to-day basis. And, though not critical to our well-being, they definitely save us time and labor, but questionable as to whether they save us money. Even those refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers that come with energy and money-saving features need to be operated properly if one is to...

Introduction to Nuclear Fusion

Inertial Confinement Process As the debate around the viability of nuclear power continues, particularly as the reality of the limitations of renewable energy sources become better understood, the advantages of fusion become ever more apparent: Abundance of the primary fuel, deuterium, which is one of the hydrogen isotopes. It can be readily extracted from seawater and tritium, another of the...

Introduction to Micro Grids

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle With the increased importance of electricity in our day-to-day lives and overall economic prosperity, the notion of depending on outdated, centralized power grids that inefficiently deliver power and occasionally fails to meet basic needs for power may be insufficient, if not outdated. This has brought about the application of localized power grids, as part of an...

Soy–Based Insulation

Soy is both renewable and sustainable, two qualities that make it an ideal alternative for addressing a number of energy-related challenges. According to the United Soybean Board, Americans used 450 million gallons of soy-based diesel fuel in 2007, a nine-fold increase over the previous five year period. Consequently, the thought of extending soy for building materials, specifically insulation,...