energy modeling

System Simulation: TREAT, Modelica, SPARK, Simulink, EES, Metasys® Building Automation and Control Systems

Energy Analysis: EnergyPlus, TRNSYS, ESP-r, EQuest, DOE-2

Energy Modeling: Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp

 

energysmiths, manual j

Best Practices Energy Efficiency

Best Practices: Quick Plant Energy Profiler

 

successful Energy Management Program (EMP) has 3 main components:

1. Building Automation System (BAS) that provides controls for AC, lighting, and other building systems
2. Energy Information System (EIS), which is a suite of information technologies that work with the EMS to provide data and information.
3. commitment from both the management and staff that collectively participate in the EMP

MEP – Stream

The world of energy engineering is a vast and intricate place. By grouping ideas and terms together, i hope to form some understanding of it:

Design Tools: Revit, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing), Autodesk, Google SketchUp, Trane Trace 700, TRACE, DOE EQUEST, RETscreen.

NEBB (National Environmental Balancing Bureau), ASHRAE (American SOciety of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers), AEE (Association of Energy Engineers), LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), USGBC (US Green Building Council)

Energy Engineer, facility management, HVAC, Commissioning, TAB (Testing, Adjusting, Balancing)

Building Operations: Heat Pump (heating cooling), humidification, dehumidification, lighting, process equipment (appliances, tools)

District Energy Plant: Combined Heat and Power, Chiller, Steam

Incentives: DSIRE, SRECs, White credits, DOE, Federal, State

Suppliers: Trane, Johnson Controls, Siemens, Honeywell, Raytheon

Book Highlights (part 1): Made by Hand – Mark Frauenfelder

Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder

This book follows Mark’s attempts at DIY gardening, espresso making, chicken raising, guitar building, beekeeping, whittling and tutoring. The underlying theme of benefits to the DIYer are very zen-like: engaged, fulfilled, enrich, mindful, and making meaningful connections.  It’s also important that the DIYer expect mistakes, be self-reliant, taking ownership, and relish in the control and accomplishment of each project.

• LINKS:
• Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea
• Seed Savers Exchange – heirloom seeds
• Post Carbon Institute – preparing for a post carbon world
• Homegrown Evolution Blog
• TED Rob Hopkins
• Kombucha
• An Island to Oneself – Tom Neal
• The Book of Puka Puka: A Lone Trader On a South Seas Atoll – Robert Dean Frisbie
• Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements – Bill Mollison
• Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn
• Mypetchicken.com
• The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City – Erik Knutzen
• Homegrown Revolution
• Wild Fermentation
• Whole Earth Catalog
• Psychology Today: Freedom to Learn

• BOOK HIGHLIGHTS
• Could the problem be less about how much money we were spending and more about how we were spending out time?
• Was there a better way of life out there, waiting for us to create it?
• Take more control of our lives
• Forge a deeper connection and a more rewarding sense of involvement with the world around us
• Life was simpler – people expected and were satisfied by less
• The focus wasn’t on getting ahead; it was on communing with nature, and sharing music, food, dance, and craft
• I promised myself I’d come up with something that would allow me to slow down, use my hands, and become more engaged with the world around me
• DIYers are not afraid to take responsibility for the creation and maintenance of things they use, eat, wear, play with, learn from, and live in
• DIYers welcome the challenge of creating, maintaining, and modifying their physical environment
• Become more mindful of our daily activities, more appreciative of what we have, and more engaged with the systems and things that keep us alive and well

• I learn more from my mistakes than I ever could by being a submissive follower of instructions
• Perspective of the world as a hackable platform, something to be remade/remodeled
• The things around your should have meaning, and his way of giving them meaning is by collecting, customizing, rebuilding and combining them in ways that make him happy
• You will screw things up. But that’s one step to overcome to get on the path of living this richer life or engagement, or having meaningful connections to the objects around you
• Mistakes are not only inevitable – they are a necessary part of learning and skill building. Mistakes are a sign you’re active/curious
• Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi – beauty found in an objects imperfections
• New trend in advertising, which appealed to peoples subconscious, irrational desires instead of their actual needs
• It’s not that you think you need a piece of clothing, but that you will feel better if you have a piece of clothing
• They make things not because they are born with a special talent for making, but because they choose to develop and hone their ability

• Natures components could be snapped together like Tinkertoys – pieces to create thriving ecosystems
• Homeowners in the US spend billions watering, mowing, fertilizing, and resodding ground they don’t actually use
• Approach gardening as problem solving and it will rapidly become a bore. Instead look at it as an opportunity to try stuff out. Ask yourself ‘what do I get to do?’ not ‘What do I have to do’
• The problem with DIY projects – you end up learning a lot when you do something the first time, but unless you want to tear it down and start over, you have to live with the mistakes you make

• EROEI – Energy Return on Energy Invested
• Food versus fuel debate
• Liquid fuels are very hard to make, so you should treat them very preciously
• Against the big guy and for the little guy
• They don’t like large, centralized suppliers of food, energy and manufactured goods – Shorten the supply chains
• Reduce consumption and produce locally
• We need to grow crops that will feed our communities

Book Highlights (part 2): Made By Hand – Mark Frauenfelder

Continued…

• It’s not just about it working; somehow it’s about arriving at the solution, the trial and error
• DIY is an appealing alternative to buying solutions to every problem that arises
• When you become personally invested in the care and maintenance of something, you appreciate it more
• It’s about creating a lifestyle that is more rewarding
• It’s about breaking from the consumer cycle and living a more natural life

• PID – proportional integral derivative control – slows as approach set point
• Bimetallic thermostat – stop sign – full speed at, full speed reverse, never reaches mark
• What isn’t acceptable is designing a part that can’t be fixed or replaces by the car’s owner
• The more involved you are in the process of making something, the better the experience
• DIY is rewarding because you are involving yourself in the creative processes
• DIY is learning to take back your life from outside parties
• By learning how technology works, you become better able to control your world instead of being controlled by it

• Resistentialist – things are against us
• inanimate objects don’t have intentions, but people often react as if they do
• I felt confident about this project because I’d become more familiar with the way lumber behaves. I understood the functions and limitations of the tools. And I was comfortable with the idea that I might screw it up.
• We live in a society where most people solve problems by buying solutions instead of making them

• Getting involved with something tactile that demands concentration, observations, and resourcefulness was exhilarating
• Building and playing a homemade instrument helps the guitarist to avoid lusting after the latest and greatest gear and to focus on really learning to play on the instrument they have
• Best practice for DIY: Finishing the job, no matter how botched, will wring the most knowledge out of the experience and lead to better results the next time a similar project is tackled
• I didn’t want this hobby to become a stressful job instead of a source of joy and relief

• Forrest M. Mims III – traditional education system as a destroyer of the DIY spirit
• Mims – I probably would have been diagnosed with ADD as a kid because I didn’t pay attention. I was bored to death by conventional education. My mind was wondering all during class, inventing things or traveling to foreign countries or whatever. That didn’t mean I was stupid, it meant I thought a little bit differently than my neighbor. If they’d put me on medication, maybe I’d be on welfare today, who knows? We are totally dumbing down the country by not fully understanding these things.
• The influence of a young person seeing what somebody else can do is incredibly important. If that guy can do it, I can do it.
• I’d never paid much attention to what she was learning because I believed that paying someone else to take care of her education meant I didn’t have to worry about it. Not only was I wrong, I was also missing out on a rewarding way to spend time with my daughter
• Emphasis on passing standardized tests, instead of teaching skills that would help them lead rewarding, responsible lives
• I am at my most creative when I do something that I have no experience with
• Live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise
• No child left behind: Everybody is supposed to be progressing in the same way along the same track
• Encourage play where you just go out and do things and learning is secondary to doing
• In school you learn before you do. In play you learn as you do and you’re not afraid of mistakes – you make mistakes and that is how you learn
• The education system believes there are right answers to things and the job is to learn the right answers before you try to do anything
• Children who are free to follow their own interests will learn what it is they enjoy doing and will end up happier as adults, working in a field they feel passionate about
• DIY – 1. To improve family home life by taking an active role in the things that feed, clothe, educate, maintain, and entertain us
• DIY – 2. To gain a deeper connection and sense of engagement with the things and systems that keep us alive and happy