You may think all E Source researchers fall under a certain "type," but that’s actually not true. Peter Criscione could talk just as excitedly about HVAC and lighting technologies as he could about salsa dancing and his latest adventurous pursuit of horseback riding. Proves that you just never can tell!

Nickname: None.

Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana

What you do at E Source: I’m a manager in the research department and work in the technology assessment group where I evaluate technologies that claim to save energy.

Why you like working at E Source: I enjoy being exposed to so many new technologies on a continual basis. I also enjoy the flexible work arrangements and casual atmosphere E Source provides.

Something most people don’t know about you: I love to dance—I do swing and salsa!

Check out this video of Peter to learn more:

I just love politics, and the upcoming election is firing me up. It’s hard because we have such good candidates to choose from, and they’re each very strong in their own way. I’ve been following them closely, and I definitely think I’m one of those swing voters who could go either way when it comes time to check my ballot.

Imagine my pure delight when the candidates called me up last week to ask if they could host the Awards Luncheon on October 4 at the 25th Annual E Source Forum! No, I’m not kidding!

The ACTUAL, REAL candidates for the DOE’s new position of High Minister of Stuff That Plugs In arehosting our Awards Luncheon next week. Yes, that’s right: Bella Shriver and Blaze Tundra.

Well, who can blame them? We’ll be celebrating the highest-ranking utilities in brand strength, large and midsize business customer satisfaction, and business websites. We’ll also be revealing the winners of the 2012 E Source Utility Ad Awards Contest. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would want to be part of that awesomeness.

Have you seen their campaign ads yet? Man, it’s going ...

This week, I was very interested to see the New York Times article on data center energy use, along with several responses, like a piece from Katie Fehrenbacher on GigaOm. The energy consumed by the data center industry is truly astonishing. For example, did you know that Google’s data centers annually use more energy than 200,000 houses?

However, data centers are not the only businesses that waste a surprising amount of energy. Many other industries—including restaurants, healthcare, and retail—also have important opportunities to improve energy efficiency. For business owners paying the monthly electric bill, information about how their company is specifically wasting energy may be compelling.

Utilities can use startling industry statistics on energy waste to encourage their business customers to take an interest in energy-efficiency programs that they might have otherwise ignored. By presenting this information in terms that specifically make sense to each business owner—such as how many new nurses a hospital could afford to hire with the money saved on energy—utilities can make these numbers even more attractive.

I still remember the first time I traveled to a country where I didn’t speak the language. Finding the places I wanted to visit was a challenge until I developed some rudimentary vocabulary and grasped the basic geography of the city I was in.

Visiting a website can be a similarly disorienting experience, as no two sites operate quite the same way. Here at E Source, we’re currently involved in a project that will result in significant improvements in how our site works, but in the meantime, you can be successful finding the content you’re after if you know a few key search tips and tricks. Here are two tips that should be immediately useful:

• Use quotes around multiword terms or phrases.
  
  Examples: “distributed generation,” “in-home energy-use display”
  
  If you enter a phrase in the white search box at the top right of the page with quotation marks around the phrase, in the results list, content with that exact phrase will rise to the top. Otherwise, you’ll get a mix of results where the listed content may only contain one of the words in the phrase.
• Use OR to ...

Last week, I attended the first ever EnergySavvy Customer Summit in Seattle, where we enjoyed amazing weather, delicious food, and, of course, interesting discussions about energy efficiency. The event was hosted by the folks at EnergySavvy, who make software to support energy-efficiency programs, including an online audit tool and a program management software platform. With guest speakers from a number of great organizations, the conference was designed to provide thought leadership for utilities and other organizations that are looking to market and deliver more-effective energy-efficiency programs.

One of my favorite speakers was Dr. Amanda Carrico of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment, who presented insight into energy-efficiency program design and human psychology. A variety of factors, such as the availability of information, can influence people’s perceptions and participation rates in many activities, including energy-efficiency programs. For example, Dr. Carrico cited studies showing that belief in climate change is increased if people are asked about the topic while surrounded by dead plants, and concern for drought is heightened ...

Last year was my first E Source Forum. Though I had plenty of pre-Forum training to learn the ins and outs of this fun and informative week, I wish I had known a few details before arriving at the Westin.

The 25th Annual E Source Forum is coming up in less than two weeks, so for attendees, I’ve crafted a helpful list for you to review before you show up in Denver:

1. Secure your hotel reservation right now! The presidential debate is being held at the University of Denver on October 3, limiting room options in downtown Denver. If you need help making a reservation, e-mail Tara Johnson, conference associate, or call her at 303-345-9137.
2. Speaking of the presidential debate, we’ll have a viewing room set up so you can watch, but because Forum activities will be going on at the same time, I recommend setting your DVR to record the debate or asking someone to record it for you. That way you can watch it when you get home from the conference.
3. Do you have a new title? Did you forget to let us know about food allergies? Do you want to reserve a spot for the optional Thursday tours or dinner? Visit the website to update your ...

I’ve been working in electric vehicle (EV) research and development for about a decade now—all the while, avidly following the tumultuous roller-coaster ride of this fledgling EV consumer market—and I’ve heard just about every metaphor in the book used to describe product adoption. From waves to trickles, transformations to bridges, gorillas to grid-stabilizers—friend, foe, phantom, or fool, there are so many ways to frame it. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what the future holds for EVs, but I recently heard a rather unique metaphor for EV marketing that really stuck with me: So far, many of the failures we’ve seen in EV marketing stem from the simple fact that they’ve been sold like medicine.

That may sound like a strange metaphor to someone outside of the EV industry, but to those of us keeping one finger on its pulse, this observation is dead on. So much of the messaging used to sell EVs to a wider mainstream market—both as a product and in concept—has a generally guilty tinge to it. The story line is simple enough to follow: Your choices and actions are destroying the planet and threatening ...

When I found out that Spencer Sator was coming back to E Source after taking two years off to serve in the Peace Corps, I couldn’t have been more excited. Besides being absolutely hilarious, he is amazing with our members and passionate (i.e., totally nerdy) about the subject of technology. While in Ethopia, Spencer kept a blog, and it was incredible to read his stories and see his amazing photography (check out one of my favorite posts). In addition to accomplishments with ecotourism and alternative fuels, he helped to open a library in Arsi Negele, an African city of about 70,000 people. If you run into Spencer at a conference, sit down with him and get ready for some of most amazing stories you’ve ever heard—and be ready to laugh harder than you have in a long time.

Nickname: Dr. Awesome. Okay, I actually don’t have a nickname.

Hometown: Beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado.

What you do at E Source: I manage the Technology Assessment Service, where I dig deep into all varieties of efficient end-use technologies and help our members make informed choices when it comes to finding the best technology ...

This is the final installment of blog posts from the 2012 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. So far, I’ve blogged about my appearance on the Plug Loads Panel, the inspiring and industry-leading energy professionals I met, and the presentations that I attended on the latest and greatest in phase-change materials, variable refrigerant flow systems, and consumer electronics.

Today, I’ll dig into a familiar (though perhaps not so sexy) technology that could be poised for a full transformation. Clothes dryer efficiency finally appears to be ready to move into the 21st century. While many major household appliances—including clothes washers, refrigerators, and dishwashers—have seen efficiency improvements of 50 to 80 percent in the past 20 years, clothes dryer energy consumption has changed very little. I assumed, along with everyone else, that there wasn’t much opportunity for efficiency improvements. The development of heat pump clothes dryer technology in Europe, however, encouraged New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program to launch the Super Efficient Dryer Initiative (SEDI) in 2010 to support the successful introduction of ...

Scene: A psychiatrist’s office
Time period: Today
Location: Anywhere in North America

Patient: I keep having the same nightmare, doctor. I design and plan my energy-efficient appliance rebate programs, then I see all these customers hacking my e-mail to find out when my programs will start so they can use my rebates! And they’re laughing at me, mocking me, because they would have bought those appliances or done those retrofits anyway, and they know I can’t count them as part of my program savings. (Gasps and tears) Doctor, help me!

Doctor: So tell me, how long have you had this problem?

Patient: For a long time now … at least back into the 1990s.

Does this scenario resemble your current situation (or one you’ll soon find yourself in)? Many program managers have serious issues with attribution. It’s the bête noire of efficiency—the bane of many a demand-side management (DSM) program manager’s existence. Nearly every conference I’ve attended or heard about over the past two years has included at least one session highlighting ...