For all the talk about saving energy nowadays, there doesn’t seem to be enough talk about energy itself. What is Energy anyway? Well, I can hear a bunch of nerds reading this saying “Energy is the ability to do work”. By the way - that’s not a definition, that’s idiocy. It’s like asking, “What is an automobile?” and then answering, “an automobile is the ability to drive”. Get my point?

So, I ask again, what is energy? What is energy not hidden behind matter (naked energy, so to speak)? Does anybody really know? Well, the last great Scientist, Einstein, was famous for an equation about energy. However, that equation answered the question - What is matter? The answer of course being “Energy”. So, we know that...

This map shows the solar energy potential by region in the United states for items such as photo-voltaics, solar hot water, and solar heating.

Don't forget, the map is interactive. Use your scroll wheel or +/- buttons to zoom in and out. Left click and drag to move the center of the map.

Hover the mouse cursor over a region to see more details since the map also tells you: how many houses can a solar panel power? (by location, assuming 100,000 square foot array).

Energy-models have become more popular in the last couple years - this is certain. This is in part due to ASHRAE, LEED, and increased computational power.

So you could ask, "How successful is energy-modeling?".

Let's take a look at the [current] ultimate metric for environmental success - Global Warming.

I've heard that a way to measure global warming is by arctic populations, especially that of tertiary predators - chiefly the polar bear. While watching the Big Game, I witnessed something that gave indisputable evidence that the polar bear population is thriving, and possibly even evolving.

The number of polar bears shown over the passed few years has grown exponentially, which indicates healthy arctic...

Let's cut straight to it:

LEED energy models have a default requirement that process loads and receptacles are 25% of the baseline building costs. The total cost must be identical in the proposed LEED model.

However, this assumption is based on a standard office building. Thus, if the process loads and receptacles are designed and documented (think spreadsheets, or even a basic description), one can use the actual designed loads. This can yield free leed points, bascially LEED plus a little math gets you 2 valuable LEED points.

....LEED + Math = 2 Points!

Let's consider a building that has 31% savings on the proposed...