The Energy Management Register
|
Reference material Building fabric Burners Chillers Compressed air Furnaces Heat recovery |
Lighting Metering, monitoring and targeting Motors and drives Steam Tanks and vats Travel and transport |
This site is edited by Vilnis Vesma (read his profile).
Get alerts, ideas, offers, and discounts on energy training by following him on Twitter
.
It's all about saving energy.
|
|
My next training workshop on monitoring and targeting is on 30 September in Bristol.
Thanks to Marion Beaver for updating the introductory page on compressed air, where you will find her contact details should you require assistance on this topic.
One of the delegates on a monitoring and targeting workshop in Cardiff asked me if I could provide a worksheet for calculating degree days from local maximum/minimum temperature readings. So I have created one and sent it to past delegates. Also, readers who have signed up to receive newsletters from me have been sent a link to the free download.
Might it be possible to compare the energy performances of burners, air compressors, cars and buildings with each other? It might sound daft at first, but if you are looking for your best energy-saving opportunities, that sort of analysis might be handy. Download a new article which explains how.
 |
Twenty-year average degree days are used for forecasting purposes. Now for the first time they are available for heating and cooling, and to assorted base temperatures, for the 18 standard UK reporting regions. Download them free as an Excel worksheet |
  |
I enjoy a good read... And here are some of the books that have inspired and informed my career in energy management. |
 |
Too right... The Economist recently ran a special feature on data overload, a subject which many energy managers will know only too much about, especially those who have invested in automatic meter reading. One quote from Herbert Simon stands out: "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention". If you are drowning in data and would like to know how to see in an instant which bits of it need your attention, why not sign up to my training course on monitoring and targeting? |
|
Each of these five column gauges can display a value (black rectangle) against a background showing threshold limits - in other words, as much information as a rotary-dial display occupying the same space as all five. Their compact design lets you create much-less-cluttered dashboard displays. Readers who have signed up to receive updates from me have been sent a link to an Excel workbook which does this kind of display... |
My focus is purely on energy saving: for wider sustainability issues I recommend visiting Our South West
I have reviewed the pages on monitoring and targeting to reinforce the concept of expected-consumption formulae which will underpin new work on harmonising M&T with measurement and verification.
I have been involved in developing new management standards for energy management
Recruiting an energy specialist? Advertise here free. Send us details
Tips on reducing the cost of air conditioning
Excellent coverage of magnetic fuel treatment scams at Tony's Guide to Fuel Saving
Opportunities to showcase your energy expertise as a topic correspondent
It is wrong to use rolling average degree-day values to weather-adjust your consumption figures (See why).
Notes on economic pipe insulation thickness.
Design of a rig for explaining power factor
Air-conditoning for computer cupboards - see discussion on bulletin board
Energy cartoons on the 'reditorial' page
Energy Resources Management have some case studies of energy saving in hotels in Asia.
Added on-line calculator evaluating savings from insulation and draught-proofing
Something for your energy newsletter: busting the full-freezer myth and other articles to copy and paste.
Page on improving thermal performance of buildings
Nothing new under the sun... donation of fuel efficiency literature from 60 years ago
Response to question on wind speed as a driving factor for fuel consumption
Call for energy-saving case histories
An independent test report on magnetic combustion aids - thanks to John Crabb of Exeter University Centre for Energy and the Environment
renewables information page from Energy Services Direct
U-value calculator
Links to transport CO2 emission factors and additional fuel calorific-value data: jump to amended page
Nothing new under the sun...
|
Retired energy engineer Doug Willis from Gloucestershire has donated some fascinating memorabilia
(left) in the form of fifty Fuel Efficiency Bulletins issued by the Ministry of
Fuel and Power between 1943 and 1951. Top of the pictured pile is one one combined power and heating
(since rebranded and combined heat and power) from 1945. But that isn't the oldest document in my
possession on the subject: some years ago I acquired a commemorative booklet with the unpromising
title The main drainage of West Middlesex, published by Middlesex County Council to
mark the opening of a massive sewage treatment works at Mogden in West London in 1936. Inside is
a diagram of the works's powerhouse, whose generators were powered by engines running on methane
from sewage sludge digesters, with process heat recovered from the engine.
V.V. 21 Sep 06 |
Do magnetic combustion enhancers work?
No. See also my longer answer. (V.V. 14 May 2006)
Material for your in-house energy newsletter
Short of material for your energy and environmental newsletter? This new section provides an assortment of generic paragraphs that you are welcome to copy and paste. We call it "reditorial".(V.V. 10 May 06)
Are we nearly there yet?
In the chemicals, food, drink, and other process industries there are often "batch" operations like mixing, blending, plant sterilisation, and so on which need to run for a set period to ensure that they have run to completion. In every case, energy will be saved (and throughput increased) if the process time is reduced. Often, the batch running time is arbitrary. The problem is this: how do we reliably detect that the "end point" has been reached, so that we can avoid excessive processing without compromising quality? For drying it is relatively easy: we can measure the residual moisture content. For some mixing processes, the viscosity may give us the cue we need. But what about other situations?We would like readers' input on this one: please email us if you have any experience, however specific and limited - thanks V.V., 18 Apr 06
Compressed air systems
|
We don't have our own expert advice on this but recommend you look for example at the compressed air fact sheet published by the government of Victoria under its 'Sustainable Manufacturing' programme (6 August 2006) |
Energy use in tanks and vats
|
Tanks and vats are used in a huge number of industrial applications, and they often present
opportunities to save some of the energy used for heating and/or stirring. See
article
5 Feb 06 |
|
Electrical energy saving exercises
Sequencing fans with VSD
What's the best strategy for part-load operation of a bank of fans with variable-speed drives? Try this simulation. (V.V. 7 Jan 06)True or false?
If you are leaving the room for less than ten minutes, it's cheaper to leave the fluorescent lights on... find out, feeding in your own assumptions about the size and duration of the startup surge. (V.V. 6 Jan 06)Why poor power factor is a problem
If an electrical circuit suffers from poor "power factor", a higher current than necessary will need to be drawn in order to deliver the required power. This can increase power charges, or stress the supply infrastructure: see a simulation of the effect. (V.V. 6 Jan 06)
Sankey diagram softwareThe product recommended by one of our readers in October has been upgraded: click here for feedback from the user and news from the supplier.(V.V. 2 Dec 05) |
|
What does "carbon neutral" mean?"
T.E. asked me to provide a "watertight definition". Here goes:A carbon-neutral process, building, or vehicle operates on energy sources which are not derived from fossil fuels. Alternatively, if fossil-derived fuels are used, their carbon emissions can be offset by deliberate activities that permanently absorb an equivalent amount of carbon; the combination can be claimed to be carbon-neutral.This is rarely quite the whole story because the production of biofuels or uranium (for example) will entail using some fossil fuel. Interestingly, using electricity generated from landfill, mine offgas, and other 'fugitive' methane sources, is better than carbon-neutral because for each molecule of carbon dioxide the power station emits, it removes a molecule of methane which would have been over 20 times as damaging as a greenhouse gas. (V.V. 2 Dec 05)
Automatic controlsControls can have a part to play saving energy for all users from the largest to the smallest. As well as the well-rehearsed topic of controlling heating lighting and other building services, there are often opportunities in industrial situations as well: see article. (V.V. 20/11/05) |
|
Energy targeting for humidity-control systems
: if you manage energy consumption in a building with full air conditioning, you might need to take ambient humidity into account when monitoring for excess electricity consumption. This article describes a novel targeting method that has been successfully applied in two large sites of this kind. V.V. 10/11/05Energy targeting tricks for industrial processes:
this article describes four scenarios in which it was not possible to use the simple straight-line activity-based targeting methods that would be used in some industries like papermaking and bread-baking. V.V. 31 Oct 05Reference data
Physical constants, calorific values, units of measurement and other authoritative reference data are available free in the on-line version of Kaye & Laby 16th edition. (V.V. 27 Oct 05)Back to basics: combustion
Optimising combustion efficiency is a low-cost way to ensure energy savings, and it something that every organisation needs to attend to. Read article (includes spreadsheet to download).Mineral wool insulation:
The trade association Eurisol offers a number of useful publications for free download. I have also added them to my useful links page (V.V. 15/10/05)
Units conversionI noticed this rather neat units-conversion program on a someone's PC; download free from joshmadison.com (V.V. 14/10/05) |
|
Energy metering
I found this page on the Switch2 Energy Solutions web site rather useful: it summarises the attributes of various meters for electricity, gas, steam, compressed air, water, and oil. The Spirax Sarco Learning Centre has an extremely good module on flow metering. I've added both companies to my contacts page as well. As for electricity, Northern Design Electronics, a highly reputable supplier, have a downloadable PDF document on selecting and installing secondary kWh meters (V.V. 9/9/05)
|
What the...?I have been rummaging in the cellar and found some historical curiosities relating to degree-day measurement - V.V., 6/9/05 |