High Efficiency Products

The progression from development of the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Air Source Heat Pump Market Strategies Report to the development and growth of the Cold Climate Air Source Heat Pump Specification has been a remarkable journey.

After much pageantry and ceremony, a new LED is on course to de-throne the “traditional” options in efficient residential lighting. A new class of LEDs - with lifetimes lower than those that currently wear the ENERGY STAR mark - are set to replace traditional LEDs and CFLs in the residential lighting market.

After all of the recent holiday shopping, the last thing people want to do is step foot in another mall. Thank goodness for gift cards and the internet! As customers make shopping decisions and look for products online, we want to make sure they have the tools to access information about energy efficient options and rebates. Below we profile five web-based platforms and resources for customers and efficiency programs.

All I want is a heat pump for the holidays. You think that I’m joking, but I’m not. My room is FREEZING in the winter and a sweatbox in the summer. I’m getting tired of having to wrestle with the three (3!) blankets necessary to survive the Bostonian winters.  I haven’t forgotten last year’s winter, nor the high energy bills, which is precisely why I’m in the market for an energy-efficient cold climate heat pump.

The term Market Transformation gets tossed around a fair amount in the energy efficiency sphere, but what does it actually mean? And how can it be fully achieved? Our friends over at NEEA, a fellow REEO and respected authority on the subject, devised a definition for the term with equal parts elegance and accuracy:

This post was contributed by Lara Bonn, Efficiency Vermont's Efficient Products Strategic Planning Manager.

We buy clothes, books, and airplane tickets online. We virtually hail taxis, bank, and make international phone calls. We share photos of cats and start viral revolutions with bytes of data. Energy efficiency may be fashionably late to this e-party, but with strong partnerships and a focus on customer convenience, the movement is underway to transform how this least-cost resource is captured online.

So how are shoppers discovering energy efficient products online?

Home energy management systems (HEMS) are an invention of the internet age. They are a 21^st-century by-product of the idea that when two-way communication between utilities and homeowners is paired with the proliferation of smart devices, the results are greater connectivity, control, and ultimately comprehensive energy savings.

We know the future will be bright for the residential lighting market, but just how efficient will it be?

Residential lighting has long been at the heart of ratepayer-funded energy efficiency program portfolios. In New England, residential lighting measures have produced over 30 percent of all efficiency program savings. The large savings potential along with the relatively low barriers to getting bulbs into sockets makes lighting the classic low hanging fruit.

You’re an Air-Source Heat Pump believer and you’re itching to get one installed. After pouring over online reports and catalogs, visiting the cold climate ASHP listing, and checking out your neighbor’s system, you now consider yourself an expert. Without doubt, saving roughly 3,000 kWh and $300-459 annually is phenomenal – why leave money laying on the table? So tell me, what type of ASHP are you going to buy?

Ducted or Ductless or Short-run Ducted?