Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Cooking
Improved efficiency biomass stoves, efficient gas stoves (ignition,
burners)
Lighting
Compact fluorescent lamps, improved phosphors, solid-state elec-
tronic ballast technology, advanced lighting control systems (in-
cluding day-lighting and occupancy sensors), and task lighting
Motors
Variable speed drives. Size optimization. Improvement of power
quality
Other Building energy management systems, passive solar use (building
design), solar water heaters
Legal standards (e.g., building codes; well-informed consumers, planners, and de-
cision makers; motivated operators; market-based incentives such as certificate
markets; and an adequate payments system for energy) are central to the successful
implementation of energy efficiency improvements.
North American refrigerators provide one example of the gains possible in en-
ergy efficiency. Despite the fact that the size of refrigerators has tripled over the
past 50 years, they use much less power and cost less. In the period 1947-2002
refrigerator size increased from less than 400 to 1800 ft
3
, while the average price
dropped two-thirds between 1975 and 2000. Energy use per unit increased from
400 to 1800 kWh/yr in the period 1947-1975, and then dropped by up to 462 kWh/
yr by the year 2000.
This was achieved through the use of better insulating materials that minimize
heat losses.
In industrialized countries, where the problem of providing houses to the great ma-
jority of the population has been achieved, the main housing task is to retrofit ex-
isting buildings to save energy. Considerable energy savings can be obtained in
this process. Besides stricter building codes for new buildings and maintenance re-
quirements for the existing ones, energy certificates are required and financial in-
centives (such as tax reduction and financing) are granted to more efficient techno-
