Whiplash: The Best Energy Efficiency News from January 18-22, 2009.

This past week we wrote about our unpackaging and first impressions of the eMonitor, the world's first whole-house circuit-by-circuit electricity monitoring system.  So far, the PowerHouse Dynamics eMonitor was easy to install, looks good, works great, and shines a whole new light on our home's electricity usage. Stay tuned for updates once our family fully integrates the eMonitor into our daily routine.

Energy Circle also featured a blog post by Tom Harrison featuring before and after images from the energy efficiency improvements he made to his home.  What makes the post truly fascinating is not only the math ($1175 in total upfront investment is paying off in about $1000 of energy savings annually), but the side-by-side infrared images from the initial energy audit and the follow-up audit -- you can almost feel the increased comfort of the house, which now has fewer cold spots and significantly reduced air leakage.

The New York Times reported on efforts to develop a clear plastic coating that could make dish detergent obsolete.  Jeffrey P. Youngblood, an engineering professor at Purdue University, is working to develop a spray coating that rejects oil but not water -- meaning that, when applied to dishes, mirrors, and other household items, they could be effectively cleaned with water alone.  So far it's just in the lab, but applied in the real world this technology could save water (no more scrubbing; just rinse), water-heating energy, and prevent often-environmentally-unfriendly detergents from winding up in the ground.  We particularly like it because it makes life easier for homeowners, and saves energy at the same time.

Martin LaMonica at CNET wrote about how energy monitoring is the newest Olympic sport.  Energy management software company Pulse Energy designed a product to make the Olympic Games in Vancouver more energy efficient, by sending real-time readouts of the seven Olympic buildings' energy consumption to a website and allowing building managers to compare and compete for efficiency. We already know the value of home energy monitoring (which can lead to 15% or more savings on monthly electricity bills), and we're excited to see monitoring get a high-profile advocate in the Olympics.

In other energy monitoring news, TED The Energy Detective (one of our favorite home energy monitors) announced a significant investment from 3M. Some sleuthing turned up a corporate SEC filing listing the investment level was $2 million. We continue to think that ubiquitous energy monitoring is critical so it is encouraging to see some big players supporting the sector. 

In what's shaping up to be quite an interesting battle, last week a court sided with the Department of Energy in its suit against LG electronics, who had sued DOE for stripping some LG refrigerators of their Energy Star label (which we wrote about in past Whiplashes here and here). The Energy Star program has been criticized in the past for too much leniency, so we're excited to see that it may be growing some teeth.

The International Builders' Show took place last week, with the Wall Street Journal pointing out that many of the "technologies" being touted this year are in fact decades old.  Spray foam insulation, insulated concrete forms, and structural insulated panels are among the technologies highlighted by the WSJ.  We think that, even though they may be old technologies, we know that they're nonetheless hugely effective, and look forward to the day when building products as simple as spray foam really make their way into the mainstream.

Energy efficient LED lighting received $37 million in stimulus funding, backed up by $28.5 million in private investment, to improve the technology underlying the production of LED and OLED lighting and to make manufacturing more cost-effective.  Anything that speeds up the process of making LEDs (what we believe to be the future of energy efficient lighting) affordable is welcome, although we've noticed that there are already a number of cost-effective residential LED lights available today.