Benefits Of Becoming Energy Efficient

[wiseshopper]

In a business like ours, data is important to minimize our energy use and consumption. We are focusing on the benefits of becoming energy efficient. As a growing company, we want to know about other energy savings opportunities and platforms to assist us with improvements and the maintenance schedule of our operation. In your own business, how do you reduce your energy consumption at the same time minimize risk and increase your returns? I want to learn about other solutions?

Edited February 15, 2017 by wiseshopper

[ToryRodgers]

Right now I don't have a business of my own but in the company that I work with we have a system that organizes our energy consumption. The report generated by this system usually helps us in crafting data driven evaluations on where and how to save energy costs. Hope that would help.

[Maine farmer]

We are big readers in my family, and we read several trade publications, and there is always plenty of information out there about new developments.  Often when our equipment wears out, we use that as an opportunity to upgrade our efficiency.  For example, several yeas ago we replaced our vacuum pump that ran at full speed and maintained the appropriate vacuum level by letting air in a valve set manually with a variable speed drive that maintains vacuum by electronic sensors and control.  It was a technology that had previously been unavailable, but was a proven technology when the old pump failed, and it cut our electric bill in half.  Likewise with our water heater.  When our old tank blew out, we purchased on demand water heaters and cut our propane use by over 30%.  

 

Sometimes we are early users of newer technologies, but never first.  We like to give the manufactures time to work out the bugs and bring costs down.

[wiseshopper]

Thanks for the responses. Actually the being energy efficient as an individual is tough, but it is tougher if it is a group. There are so many perspective and sometime, its difficult to convince people. Anyway, enough with my sentiments.

 

There are companies whom we have contacted to assist us with this project and they are very much willing to set up the system for us. They discussed about energy management system, energy efficiency portfolios and benchamarking. The thing though is, we are contemplating because of the cost involved.

[Speedjohn]

I have no any business but I want to share my views on Energy efficient cars by taking hydrogen as a fuel.Hydrogen
is environmentally-friendly alternative
There are two ways in which hydrogen is used to power cars:
1.Burning hydrogen directly in the engine
Water is the only product formed when hydrogen burns:

hydrogen + oxygen → water

2H2 + O2 → 2H2O
2.Hydrogen fuel cells-

In a hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen reacts with oxygen without burning. The energy released is used to generate electricity, which is used to drive an electric motor.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Speedjohn

[billvon]

I have no any business but I want to share my views on Energy efficient cars by taking hydrogen as a fuel.Hydrogen

is environmentally-friendly alternative

Hydrogen is a terribly dirty fuel.  We have no "natural" hydrogen, so we have to make it by either splitting water (which requires electricity, which comes from coal) or by separating it from natural gas (and then we get all that carbon released as CO2.)  The only way we will ever be able to produce it economically is via thermal dissociation in high temperature gas reactors, and there's not much likelihood we will be building any of them in the near future.

 

And once we have it, it's still a terrible fuel.  It's about the most flammable gas there is, which means almost any concentration of it in air will enable an explosion.  Natural gas, by contrast, has a very narrow range of flammability - which is why you don't blow yourself up every time you light your stove.  It leaks through everything; you need to change all the seals on any system when converting from natural gas to hydrogen, and even then the seals are leaky.  It is very difficult to carry enough hydrogen to give you enough range, so you have to resort to very high pressure tanks - which become bombs in collisions.  The Mirai, for example, has two very large 10,000 PSI tanks for hydrogen storage - and they only hold enough hydrogen for a 300 mile range.  Most stations will only fuel to 5000 PSI for safety reasons, which means the range is 150 miles.

 

Want a clean fuel?  Use natural gas.  Want an even cleaner fuel?  Use biogas.  Both are basically methane, and can be used in ordinary natural gas vehicles like the Honda Civic GX.  And they will deliver it to your house via a pipe.

[current]

 

Clean fuel , use water .

[billvon]

Clean fuel , use water .

Water's not a fuel.

[current]

 

Water can be a fuel .

 

In the early 1900s water was used as a fuel .

 

And was used as a fuel by an inventor in the 90s as well , he died under suspicious circumstances .

[Maine farmer]

Water can be a fuel .

 

In the early 1900s water was used as a fuel .

 

And was used as a fuel by an inventor in the 90s as well , he died under suspicious circumstances .

This got off topic fast!  I don't dare ask for more specifics, even though current seems to be begging the question.

[billvon]

Water can be a fuel .

In the early 1900s water was used as a fuel .

And was used as a fuel by an inventor in the 90s as well , he died under suspicious circumstances .

No, it can't be.  It can be used as a working fluid, as in a steam engine.  It can be used as a performance enhancer, as in water injection on high compression engines. It is not a fuel.