It was good news to learn that Energy Star has finally announced specifications for water heaters. The specification for heat pump water heaters is particularly welcome, since these products have an unusually large savings potential. A heat pump water heater can reduce water-heating energy by half, which translates into over 1,500 kWh per year in many homes. Nearly 40% of American homes use electric water heaters, so the market is huge. This market is unlikely to be tapped soon, however, because there are no significant American manufacturers of heat pump water heaters. This situation is likely to change, since major refrigeration manufacturers—GE, for example—have announced plans to begin production.

Rapid progress? Not really. Japanese manufacturers are already producing half a million heat pump water heaters a year (see “A Cute Water Heater,” p. 12). You can be sure they are looking for export opportunities. Have American manufacturers missed an opportunity and allowed another “Prius” to dominate the market?  To be sure, the Japanese ECO-CUTE heat pump water heater has some attractive features. First, it has a remarkably high reported efficiency, with a seasonal coefficient of performance (COP) approaching 3. The few existing U.S. models have achieved only a modest COP 2, so the ECO-CUTE squeezes 50% more hot water out of each kWh consumed.  Second, the ECO-CUTE uses CFC-free CO₂ as the refrigerant. Thus the ECO-CUTE is doubly green, by combining efficiency and zero CFCs. Is there a downside?  You bet; these suckers are expensive, at over $6,000 in Japan.

How do Japanese consumers justify buying a million of these expensive products? The answer is a useful lesson in economics and culture. First, Japanese homes use lots of hot water—more, in fact, than most American homes. Nearly all of it goes to the famous Japanese baths. Second, the ECO-CUTE can also provide hot water to an in-floor heating system, which fits in particularly well with the Japanese lifestyle. Third, the ECO-CUTE is designed to operate only at night and during periods when electricity is cheap. ECO-CUTE owners get a special tariff, which is far below the normally very high residential electricity rate (about 24¢/kWh). Thus the cost savings are substantial. Combine that with a $420 government subsidy to purchasers of ECO-CUTEs, and the payback time drops from centuries to under a decade.

The environment in the United States would appear to be less favorable to sales of the ECO-CUTE. But this could change quickly. For example, modest redesigns might lower the cost without sacrificing all of the efficiency advantage. And one of the new energy bills being contemplated in Congress could easily add a tax credit for heat pump water heaters. Suddenly, there’s another Prius in the basement.

We have created a series of 5 3-D motion lenticular posters that will get attention, stop traffic and get people talking about stopping energy waste. The posters are 12″ x 18″ and really stand out.

Take a look at these posters at www.awarenessIDEAS.com in the energy and recycling posters links.

Give us a call and ask what we can do for you.

We received some press coverage from our friends at UtilityProducts.com this weekend.

AwarenessIDEAS Introduces Lenticular Poster Programs at WEEC Show in Washington DC

http://utilityproducts.com/display_article/342241/129/none/none/Indus/AwarenessIDEAS-Introduces-Lenticular-Poster-Programs-at-WEEC-Show-in-Washington-D

http://www.awarenessideas.com/press-room-media-releases-a/365.htm

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Here’s a poster that can include a write on surface, or a set of blank decals that can include student ideas for stopping energy waste. K-12 teachers can use this poster to create discussion in the classroom and start students thinking how they themselves can take a positive role in making our environment a better place to grow in.

Here’s a poster that can include a write on surface, or a set of blank decals that can include student ideas for stopping energy waste. K-12 teachers can use this poster to create discussion in the classroom and start students thinking how they themselves can take a positive role in making our environment a better place to grow in.

One of the biggest energy wasters in every environment is door left open beyond the need to be open. Air conditioning lost in hot weather and heat lost to the cold is one of the biggest wasters of energy.

We designed this and many other energy conservation posters to remind people that they can make a difference in stopping energy waste. Visit our web site for thousands of products that can make a difference in your work environment.

One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it reportedly saves electricity.
The demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening throughout the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.

AwarenessIdeas.com

Take a few minutes in the beginning of every day and make a list of the few things you can do that day to stop wasting energy. Then stop thinking about it and accomplish that list.

We’re here at awarenessIDEAS.com to help you motivate yourself and your peers to be energy champions in all that you do.

 Remember the old TV show “Father Knows Best” from the mid 1950s? As with any TV sitcom, there were lots of jokes, funny dialogue, and plot twists often leading to difficult situations that needed working out. Of course, the one thing you could count on was Dad—played by Robert Young in the series—finding the solution, since he exemplified the paternalistic nature of American family life at that time.

Those days may look good in hindsight, or not, depending on your experience. But might a little government paternalism be some help in solving our energy problems nowadays? If you google the phrase “libertarian paternalism” you will find a lively discussion about the meaning of it and its implication for public policy and government programs. I confess that six months ago I didn’t know what libertarian paternalism was. So let’s start with a definition:  the phrase describes an economic belief that the government can find and help you make the choices you would make for yourself but don’t because you lack the strength of will and the sharpness of mind to do so. Advocates of this policy typically use insurance or retirement plans as examples. Many of these plans require employees to actively opt in.  Few do. Instead, the libertarian paternalism approach would automatically enroll people in these plans, but allow people to opt out. The overwhelming majority of people, the logic goes, will not bother to opt out.  But the existence of an opt-out option satisfies groups that would ordinarily oppose—and sometimes block—government-mandated policies.

So what does libertarian paternalism have to do with saving energy? It appears in unexpected ways. Consider Energy Star’s specifications for flat-screen TVs. Unlike older models, the power consumption of a flat-screen depends on the level of brightness. Manufacturers typically ship TVs with their brightness set at maximum.  Consumers don’t know how to reduce brightness (and certainly don’t know about the connection to power consumption), so they live with excessive brightness for the life of the TV.  Energy Star wisely required manufacturers to ship Energy Star-compliant models with brightness set at mid level. Few consumers will notice and even fewer will bother to reset them to higher brightness levels. That’s easily 75 watts saved per TV for thousands of hours per year. Of course, if the customer wants it brighter, he or she can read the users manual and opt out of this energy saving mode.

There are other situations where factory-adjustments could have long-term impacts on energy use, such as the temperature setting for water heaters, powering down set-top boxes after 4 hours of no use, and enabling power management enabled PCs. This strategy works for some devices but I can’t imagine a way of opting out of a more efficient motor or thicker insulation. Still, nobody has considered a policy of aggressive energy efficiency requirements combined with opt-out provisions where possible across the whole range of appliances and energy-related regulations.

There are obvious drawbacks, too.  Manufacturers and installers often set temperatures, brightness, and other features at maximum so as to minimize callbacks. And there will be more callbacks with more aggressive efficiency requirements.  But manufacturers can anticipate them by re-designing the products so that products perform better at the energy-saving level (or by increasing staffing at telephone hot-lines).

I’m not convinced that adopting libertarian paternalism will accomplish significant energy savings, but perhaps it has a role in some energy policies, especially where progress has been impeded by political stalemates.  If we are serious about reducing our energy use by a large amount, then we need to be creative, take chances, and then change course if the strategy fails. If we don’t, then perhaps father does know best, and we need to legislate in the energy savings. After all, he was right about turning off the lights to reduce the electric bill, wasn’t he?