District of Columbia Energy Efficiency and Ethics 20 PDH Discount Package 2

This online engineering PDH course provides information on a wide variety of energy-related topics, ranging from simple weatherization, insulation, heating and cooling system improvements in homes, to installing and maintaining efficient water heaters, home appliances and solar panels.

Every year, a typical family in the United States spends around half of its home energy budget on heating and cooling. Unfortunately, many of those dollars are often wasted, because conditioned air escapes through leaky ceilings, walls and foundations, or flows through inadequately insulated attics, pipes, exterior walls and basements. In addition, many appliances, heating systems and air conditioners aren’t properly maintained, are old and inefficient, compared to models being sold today.

By properly maintaining your existing heating and cooling equipment (or replacing aging units with high-efficiency models), addressing weatherization and insulation issues at your house and getting into the habit of using energy efficiently all the time, you can save 10 to 30 percent (or more) on your utility bills every year. You will also help reduce pollution at utility plants that use fossil fuels to generate electricity.

This online engineering PDH course presents guidelines on how to reduce mechanical system water use in residential buildings. Mechanical systems are frequently utilized to provide heating and cooling for residential properties. They typically fall into two categories: centralized and decentralized systems.

Centralized mechanical systems provide heating and cooling from a central location, such as a mechanical room or utility penthouse. These systems are more common in mid- and high-rise multifamily properties and can include cooling towers, boilers, and steam systems, each of which uses water as the heat transfer medium. As a result, the use of water for building heating and cooling can be significant and using sound management practices is a good opportunity for water savings.

Decentralized mechanical systems treat each unit of a multifamily property as its own space, as if each unit were a stand-alone single-family residence. These systems do not typically use process water, so they are not the focus of this water efficiency management guide.

This online engineering PDH course provides basic information on wireless occupancy for lighting controls.

Lighting use constitutes about 20% of the total energy consumption in commercial buildings. Adding lighting controls is a simple retrofit option than can save on energy costs while helping to meet agency and federal energy savings mandates. Some energy codes and federal standards require the use of lighting controls.

Studies have shown that adding lighting controls can reduce lighting energy use 10% to 90% or more depending on the use of the space in which the sensors are installed. One study conducted on a university campus found that installing wired occupancy sensors to control lighting in more than 200 rooms in 10 buildings provided an annual cost savings of about $14,000 with a simple payback of 4.2 years.

This online engineering PDH course presents a performance analysis of 75 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems installed at federal sites, conducted by the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) with support from National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

System data is analyzed for key performance indicators including availability, performance ratio, and energy ratio by comparing the measured production data to modeled production data. The analysis utilizes the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s System Advisor Model (SAM), which combines a description of the system (such as inverter capacity, temperature derating, and balance-of-system efficiency) with environmental parameters (coincident solar and temperature data) to calculate predicted performance.

The measured performance metrics are useful in that they provide realistic expectations of performance, and owners of existing systems may compare their own measured performance values to the average and focus on corrective actions.

This online engineering PDH course describes basic process heating applications and equipment, and outlines opportunities for energy and performance improvements. It also discusses the merits of using a systems approach in identifying and implementing these improvement opportunities for Fuel-Based and Electric-Based heating systems. Furthermore, it provides recommendations to financially justify process heating improvement projects (System Economics).

Process heating is essential in the manufacture of most consumer and industrial products, including those made out of metal, plastic, rubber, carbon fiber, concrete, glass, and ceramics. Process heating systems are broken into three basic categories: Fuel-Based Process Heating, Electric-Based Process Heating, and Steam-Based Process Heating all of which are discussed in details.

This 5 PDH online course is applicable to mechanical, industrial and process engineers, designers, manufacturers and all personnel involved in the planning, design and installation of process heating systems.

This online engineering PDH course introduces engineers to the National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics. The Code provides ethical guidance to engineers in their various and often simultaneously held roles as 1) guardians of public health, safety, and welfare 2) employees, 3) employers, and 4) providers of technical service to clients.

Engineers practicing their profession encounter not only technical issues but also ethical issues. Sometimes the latter issues are easy to resolve: applying everyday, common-sense notions of honesty, openness, responsibility, and lawfulness is sufficient to guide the engineer to the appropriate decision. At other times, however, matters are more complicated. In particular, knowing what to do when two or more duties or obligations conflict can be difficult. For example, an engineer's duty to his client or employer may conflict with the engineer's duty to the general public. Codes of ethics have been formulated to help engineers address these conflicts.

This 1 PDH online course is intended for all engineers who are interested in gaining a better understanding about how to protect and respect their engineering profession in the utmost manner.