Abstract
Energy efficiency has been dubbed the sixth source of energy (Fig. 14.1). The other five sources of energy are coal, natural gas, petroleum, nuclear and renewable energy. This chapter is about energy success stories and potential success stories. Since the oil embargo, the United States has reduced its energy-use growth rate from 4.4 % per year (1960–1970) to almost zero, less than 1 % per year. The nation’s appetite for energy rose from 74 quads in 1973 to 100quads in 2004, a much smaller rise than the 1972 Atomic Energy Commission projected 160 quads for 2000. Electric power consumption actually grew by 2 % per year in the 1990s, reaching an average power of 430 GWe in 2012. This growth was also well below the 1972 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) projection of 2,000 GWe for the year 2000. The reason energy demand didn’t match projections is because of the success of enhanced end-use efficiency. The United States saved 50 % of energy use on new autos (other than SUVs), houses and refrigerators since the oil embargo of 1973–1974. Appliance standards saved the building of 50 large power plants, which would have consumed 3 quads/year. Energy demand could be cut by another 50 % on new cars and houses, as it is being shown that these new-energy technologies are cost effective. Over a 10–20 year period, thicker insulation is cost effective, but it is far cheaper as installed on new construction, compared to retrofitting existing houses.
One Rosenfeld is a power rate of 3 billion kWh/year of electricity savings and 3 million metric tons/year of carbon dioxide emissions savings (equal to the generation and emissions from a typical coal-fired power plant). This lump of coal represents 60 pico-Rosenfeld years – the amount of electricity saved by a compact fluorescent lamp every 4 hours. In the early days, after the oil embargo, Henry Kelly defined 1 Art as 1 BTU/ft2-hour.
(“Defining a Standard Metric for Electricity Savings,” Environ. Res. Letters, March 9, 2010)
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Notes
- 1.
The transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow takes place at higher Reynold’s numbers,R = vL/η, where v is velocity of air,L is hole diameter, and h is viscosity, M. Sherman,AIPCP 133, 655–662 (1985).
- 2.
Raising R values above R-3 (English) to R-5 and R-7 is less effective. The additional savings from raising R-0 to R-3,R-3 to R-5, and R-5 to R-7 were measured in several cities with these results: Phoenix (23 %/6 %/3 %), Washington, DC (18 %/6 %/3 %), Minneapolis (17 %/4 %/3 %) (Sherman and Walker, 1998; Sherman et al, 2000).
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Hafemeister, D. (2014). Enhanced End-Use Efficiency. In: Physics of Societal Issues. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9272-6_14
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