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Weekly Energy Newsbriefs

Articles for March 23, 2009


ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a weekly current awareness service provided by the Washington State University Extension Energy Program Library and written by Angela Santamaria, WSU Energy Library Manager, to assist users in tracking developments in the energy field. To view past issues or to subscribe to receive an email notification of the publication of a new issue, go to Energy Newsbriefs archives at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.

Please be aware that although every URL is checked for accuracy prior to the publication of Energy Newsbriefs, URLs are, for various reasons, subject to change. Further, servers sometimes fail to connect to working URLs.



DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

The question always has been: does Daylight Saving Time (DST) really save energy - power and/or fuel? An October 2008 study from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports that Extended Daylight Savings Time (ESDT) does save power (electricity) - but not fuel for transportation - while earlier studies suggested either that it had little to no effect or that it increased energy usage. It may be that the .5 percent decrease in electricity use that DOE found as resulting from EDST is of more interest now than in the past. Increased sensitivity about generating and consuming electricity because of the associated environmental and financial costs may make .5 percent (or 17 Trillion Btu) saved during the extensions in March and November more significant. Following are a few documents that may be of interest:

  1. Impact of Extended Daylight Saving Time on National Energy Consumption is the October 8, 2008, 21-page study from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); it is a Report to Congress required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It reports the .5 percent electricity savings mentioned above, but says that changes in traffic volume and passenger car fuel consumption are "statistically insignificant." See this document at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/ba/pba/pdfs/epact_sec_110_edst_report_to_congress_2008.pdf ; the one-page Executive Summary is on page three. For another summary of this report, see "Extended Daylight Saving Time Saves Energy, Says DOE," which includes a link to the full report and to other relevant information, in EERE Network News, March 11, 2009, at http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12285.


  2. "Does Daylight Saving Time Save Electricity?" by Laura E. Grant, Ph.D. Candidate and HYPERLINK "/index.php?q=node/2661"Matthew J. Kotchen, Assistant Professor of Economics, both in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This article includes results of a study within the State of Indiana suggesting that DST (not ESDT) increased power and fuel use. See this article in Vox, December 8, 2008, at http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/2663. (VoxEU.org is a policy portal of the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research [CEPR, http://www.cepr.org/default_static.htm ].)


  3. "Does Extending Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from an Australian Experiment" from the University of California Berkeley-based Center for the Study of Energy Markets, was written by Ryan Kellogg and Hendrick Wolff. This January 2007 study disputes that energy is saved by EDST and takes issue with other studies that assert that it is. In direct opposition to the later U.S. DOE study, it reports that increased morning use of electricity more than cancels out decreased evening use. See this study at http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/PDF/csemwp163.pdf.



ENERGY CONSERVATION - RESIDENTIAL

"Energy Conservation: It Starts at Home," by Peter Miller, is an engaging ten web-page article describing the efforts of friends, committed to greening their part of the globe, to reduce their carbon footprint to near zero. See this article in National Geographic, March 2009, at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/energy-conservation/miller-text.


GREEN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

"Jones Lang LaSalle Says First LEED Gold Multi-Tenant Office Building in Denver Will Cut Electricity and Water Costs by $200,000 a Year" was written by staff. The article explains that an innovative landscape irrigation system, a relamping, and a change in maintenance products made the LEED Gold certification possible. See this article in Building Design and Construction , February 18, 2009, at http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/CA6638515.html.


HVAC (HEATING, VENTILATION, and AIR CONDITIONING)

The following two articles appeared in the February 2009 issue of Engineered Systems (ES):

  1. "Alumni Center Adds to Modern Feel with Frictionless Chiller," by staff, explains how the addition of a new, small-footprint chiller to the center's HVAC system met redundancy needs and saved energy dollars. See this case study at http://www.esmagazine.com/Articles/Case_In_Point/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000516556.


  2. "Humidification in Health Care," by Brian Sikorski P. ENG., CEM, discusses the challenges of maintaining a comfortable and safe relative humidity range and suggests approaches that will provide reasonable solutions to what is, essentially, a difficult problem. See this article at http://www.esmagazine.com/Articles/Cover_Story/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000519107.



WATER and ENERGY

"Report Highlights the Importance of Water for Energy Production" is a one-paragraph article written by EERE Network News staff, discussing the 56-page World Economic Report, Thirsty Energy - Water and Energy in the 21st Century , which was recently published (copyright 2008). It explains the need to consider water and energy as interrelated issues, not separate ones. The article links to the press release announcing the publication of the report and to the full report. See this article in EERE Network News, March 4, 2009, at http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12278.

The following in-depth and valuable articles appeared in the January/February 2009 issue of Water Efficiency; the first describes the research effort to use microbial fuel cells to generate energy as well as save water (and pumping energy), the second highlights water conservation in agricultural irrigation, the third focuses on water conservation efforts in the ski resort industry:

  1. "Green Beer: By Running Their Wastewater through Microbial Fuel Cells [MFCs] on a Large-Scale Basis, Breweries Can Increase Water Efficiency" was written by Dan Rafter. It includes the sidebar, "The Potential of MFCs." See the article and the sidebar at http://www.waterefficiency.net/january-february-2009/green-beer-wastewater.aspx.


  2. "SWAT Away Wasted Water: Traditional Ways of Irrigating Crops Are Changing under the Pressure of Water Scarcity as New Technologies Emerge" was authored by Lyn Corum. See this article at http://www.waterefficiency.net/january-february-2009/swat-away-wasted.aspx.


  3. "Wintery Water Wonderlands: The Triple Threat of Water, Energy, and Economic Savings Is Inspiring Multi-Faceted Water Conservation Programs at Ski Resorts" was written by Sue Marquette Poremba. See this article at http://www.waterefficiency.net/january-february-2009/wintery-water-wonderlands.aspx.


Past issues of Energy Newsbriefs are available at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.

Generally, subscription information for the journals cited above can be found at the home page of their web sites.

© 2009 Washington State University Extension Energy Program. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted, provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, and that each is referenced by title with credit to the Washington State University Extension Energy Program. Copying, reprinting or dissemination, electronic or otherwise, for any other use requires prior written permission from the Washington State University Extension Energy Program.