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Examples of Applying Efficiency and Optimization Approach

In each example:

  1. identify the problem and impact that could be mitigated by better efficiency
  2. what are the real constraints
  3. what are the objectives, besides better efficiency
  4. identify whether it is a process efficiency (just inputs and outputs) or an overall efficiency problem (
  5. analyze the factors that are limiting the efficiency and what actions could be taken to increase efficiency

 

Refrigeration

  1. Refrigerators are major consumers of power in American homes.
  2. the food has to be kept in a narrow range of temperature and yet the door has to be opened often for it to be a useful appliance
  3. saving energy by buying a new refrigerator, what happens to the old one (is it just moved to the garage and still used?)
  4. process efficiency calculation would be how much energy it takes to operate to keep the food within that range of temperature. Maybe the stardardized test could be a range of room temperatures, a set amount of food and number of door openings per day.
  5. refrigerators can be built to be more efficient with better motors, compressors, insulation, etc.

 

Water Pumping and Storage

  1. water storage and pumping for drip irrigation can be optimized to get the right combination of tank and pump, this will decrease the capital expenditure and power necessary for rural, solar driven purposes
  2. There is a long list of real constraints including well depth, capacity of the well, transport for large tanks for storing water, local materials, etc. But that's what makes this an interesting problem.
  3. other objectives include picking the right crops for the overall water available that fit climate and can be sold or consumed
  4. this is an overall efficiency problem - trying to get the right match of equipment to give the most cost effective amount of irrigation
  5. There are a wide range of pumps and tank materials available. An interesting twist on this problem is the the cheapest solar panels+pump+controller may not be very resilient. Slight more expensive solar pump controllers monitor the amount of power (which is a proxy for the depth of water in the well) and pumping consumption that could allow much better management of the project.

 

Wood Stoves for Cooking

You will be going over this in the lab on wood use.

There are two synergistic objectives - reduce consumption of fuelwood and decrease indoor air pollution.

 

Transportation

Basically, transportation in the USA meets so many objectives or our society that it will be difficult to address the overall efficiciency without coming right up against social, economic and political problems.

We could make more efficient personal vehicles, but that might result in a rebound effect of more driving.

Just an example of what a sticky problem this can be. A hard lesson we learned from Hurricane Katrina is that people were not willing to leave their pets behind. One aspect of personal vehicles is the ability to take your dog or cat.

There are many other aspects of this problem, but you shouldn't assume that there will be an easy solution.