While this website focuses mostly on commercial buildings, I want to take a moment looking at the bigger theme and discuss my top 5 ways you can easily make an immediate impact on world energy savings. This article has to do with simply changing your behavior, and no worries - there will be no lecture on recycling (I assume you are doing this already, if not for the environment, for the local economy)

1. Drive properly. Don’t drive like an idiot.

Over-aggressive or Over-passive driving wastes gas in both your car and other drivers. When you make people hit the brakes, they consume additional gas. If you cause a traffic jam, even more. Remember to use your turn signals! That way, other people can make appropriate decisions.

How does ice storage help me save me money, save energy, and earn LEED points?

There are a lot of good reasons. This article focuses on a few of the main red flags telling you to get your butt in gear and get some ice tanks. And, if LEED is important to you, we will talk about how ice storage can yield big LEED points.

But before we talk about ice storage, let’s start with an ice-breaker: What is the number one reason to use ice storage? Now, if you said 'to save energy', you are WRONG. Would it surprise you to know that reducing energy consumption is not the most common reason to use ice storage?. The real reason to use ice storage is that IT SAVES EVEN MORE MONEY THAN IT SAVES IN ELECTRICITY. Example: you can "charge" the tanks at night, and nighttime electrical purchases, which are increasing in renewable energy content, can save you tons of money, and easily earn you additional LEED points. Ice storage often USES LESS SOURCE ENERGY, and thus has a REDUCED CARBON FOOTPRINT..

So, why is it so good for the environment? To answer the question, remember, not all energy is created equal. Ice storage helps optimize the use of utility companies, so even though it costs some energy on the building meter, the utility company itself can operate more efficiently, and operate with less overhead since ice storage uses energy at a time when it is more available. Therefore, they deliver you the energy at a lower cost, and they have less infrastructure (big picture energy savings).

Now, back to the other question: what is a red flag telling you to get your butt in gear and to use ice storage? Let's cover 2 common reasons:

A common energy modeling question is: Why did my VAV minimum go up when I added max z ratio in Trace 700? And why is the heating ventilation greater when using std 62?

This is a common issue when running standard 62, as it is a natural consequence of the calculations. I think it is best to walk through an example:

If you are an energy-modeler or work with one, you have probably wondered if all this extra work is worth the effort. When doing energy models, it seems like you spend more time and money on the model than it could ever be worth, but it only seems that way. Remember, buildings last a long time and they consume about 30% of the energy used in the United States. In other words, energy models pay dividends.