If you had done this 4 years ago, you’d be a multi-millionaire.. and you'd be warm.

I was running electric heat in my office to help stay warm. So instead, I turned my desktop into a 200 watt space heater that makes over $2 per day and keeps my office 2 degrees warmer than my space heater. 

All you need is a computer. This can be scaled up in an office. An office could make hundreds or thousands of dollars each night and get free heat.

By now you have probably heard of Bitcoin, even though you may not know what it is. It’s just a new currency (among many others). It’s worth a lot of money. If you need heat, it’s a double bonus. Also, it went up in value by 15x since last year. So, if you were...

Working on a Monster TRACE 700 model?

If you use TRACE 700, eventually, you will be working on a model and you will have some sort of massive but redundant task. Maybe you’re changing 500 inputs one by one. If you’re lucky and have an intern, you think, “Maybe I’ll have the intern do this”.

But then, you think about it, and you realize that you could probably be halfway done by the time you explain it to the intern. And of course you’re worried that they will do it wrong and screw up something else in the meantime and you’re left off at square one.

That’s where automation comes in. TRACE is difficult to...

Nearly every energy modeler on the planet will ask at some point, “How do I solve unmet hours?”

Well, the rookie question would be “Which setting do I change to get rid of unmet hours?” or even better “Which button do I press to fix unmet hours?”

Sometimes a little naiveté is a good thing, but not when solving unmet hours. Experience matters and so does diligence. Being neurotic helps too. That’s where I come in.

In the past decade, I personally have taken unmet hours questions on over 1,000 files. There were only two times that I could not solve an unmet hours problem without “cheating” (such as tip #5...

You can design a ultra energy-efficient system. Maybe you designed an ultra energy-efficient building - a hard earned victory based on your knowledge of the first law of thermodynamics. Your energy model shows awesome results.

Now, the building is built and a fight against the Second law of thermodynamics begins. In case you forgot, the 2nd law basically states that “Everything tends to disorder”. Your ultra efficient building will not remain efficient without some help. And of course, the energy model is wrong.

Your building will trend towards inefficiency, and much faster than scheduled. This rapid decline isn’t the fault of your equipment selection, nor the fault of your control scheme, nor is it the...