efficiency
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San Francisco saves gas by making better parking spaces cost more
In San Francisco, a parking place costs more the more people want to use it. This might sound like common sense, but it’s actually a radical experiment in keeping people from circling endlessly, looking for a spot and wasting gas. Since 2010, the pricing for 7,000 metered spaces in the city has changed in real […]
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Frank Lloyd Wright goes solar, posthumously
Taliesin West, the iconic desert home created by Frank Lloyd Wright, is about to go net-zero, which means it will produce as much energy as it consumes.
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‘Passive House’ documentary is the last word on zero-energy buildings
Passive Houses are homes so well insulated that they require no heating at all, even in winter. They're super popular in Europe, because it’s a magical land where everything is made out of chocolate and any sexual encounter that ends in fewer than three orgasms is immediately reported to the happiness police.
Journalist Charlie Hoxie realized that most people in America have never heard of the Passive House (or Passivhaus in the original, economical German) building movement, so he embarked on a documentary to spread the word. What follows are a series of excerpts from that film.
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Huge strides in fuel efficiency innovation canceled out by bigger cars
If, and this is true, automakers have made huge strides in fuel efficiency over the past 30 years, why aren't we all driving the 100 MPG ubercars we were promised at Epcot Center when we were but wee lads and lasses?
The answer is that our cars, like our homes and just about everything else we consume, have been supersized, says MIT economist Christopher Knittel.
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Death of ‘lightbulb ban’ greatly exaggerated
Congresscritters who love inefficiency, waste, and air pollution — or at least the money that comes from industries that do — attached a rider to the spending bill yesterday evening that will reverse an earlier law to phase out crappy old-style lightbulbs. The crazy thing is that the ban is still in effect, and the […]
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Efficiency standards are the SINGLE BIGGEST CLIMATE DEAL EVER
The U.S. federal government teamed up with all of the major auto manufacturers and hammered out a deal to double the average fuel efficiency of all vehicles on the road by 2025 — to 54.5 miles per gallon. New vehicles sold under the program will save "a total of four billion barrels of oil and […]
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White House to make $4 billion out of $0 using energy efficiency
Everyone says energy efficiency can pay for itself, and now the White House is out to prove it, by spending zero money to produce $4 billion. Yeah, I'm not making that up. From the administration: The $4 billion investment announced today includes a $2 billion commitment, made through the issuance of a Presidential Memorandum, to […]
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China bulb ban will eliminate 1 billion incandescents annually
Joining the U.S. and just about every other country with an economy, China will ban import and sale of incandescent bulbs beginning in 2014, reports the AP. State-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Xie Ji, deputy director of the NDRC's environmental protection department, as saying China is the world's largest producer of both energy-saving and incandescent […]
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All of the internet uses less than 2 percent of the world’s energy
Humanity spends a lot of time on the internet. Too much, probably. And every little Google search, Facebook message, and tweet uses some energy. All that Hulu uses a lot more. It's been clear that energy going to internet use is growing, but how does it compare to total energy use? If we really want […]