Father of energy efficiency to get Fermi Award

http://news.com.com/Father+of+energy+efficiency+to+get+Fermi+Award/2100-11395_3-6083437.html?tag=sas.email

Art Rosenfeld, a physicist who helped jump-start the push for energy-efficient appliances and homes, will receive the Fermi Award from the U.S. government next week.

During the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil crisis of the 1970s, Rosenfeld, a veteran researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a member of the California Energy Commission, began to study the amount of energy consumed by appliances, air conditioning systems and buildings.

The findings were surprising. New refrigerators, which had consumed 400 kilowatt-hours a year on average in 1959, were consuming 800 kilowatt-hours a year. To gain extra storage space, manufacturers removed insulation and gunned the refrigeration motor.

Buildings weren't designed for energy efficiency either. They were often heated with electricity, rather than gas--an approach that's far less efficient--and came with huge lighting systems that caused air conditioners to work even harder.

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It has lots of interesting snippets of information:
"By Rosenfeld's own estimates, efficiency technologies cut energy spending in the U.S. by $700 billion in 2005 alone. (In other words, had such technologies not existed, the U.S. would have spent $1.7 trillion, rather than $1 trillion, to power appliances, cars and buildings last year.)"

n/t