Illinois Energy Efficiency & Laws/Rules/Ethics/Sexual Harassment 30 PDH Discount Package 3

This online engineering PDH course provides an overview of wind turbines and presents the basic features, components, types and operating principles of the most commonly used wind turbines in the industry.

 

Wind is a form of solar energy caused by a combination of three concurrent events: the sun unevenly heating the atmosphere, irregularities of the earth's surface, and the rotation of the earth. The terms "wind energy" and "wind power" both describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity.

 

Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind—like a fan—wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

 

This 1 PDH online course is applicable to mechanical and electrical engineers and energy specialists who are interested in learning more about wind turbines and their basic operating principles.

This online engineering PDH course presents an overview of cool roofs, which can help many building owners save money while protecting the environment. It illustrates how cool roofs work, what kinds of cool roof options are available, and how to determine if cool roofing is an appropriate energy efficiency option for your building.

 

Just as wearing light-colored clothing can help keep a person cool on a sunny day, cool roofs use solar-reflective surfaces to maintain lower roof temperatures. Traditional dark roofs can reach temperatures of 150ºF (66ºC) or more in the summer sun. A cool roof under the same conditions could stay more than 50°F (28ºC) cooler.

 

This 2 PDH online course is applicable to engineers, architects, designers, contractors, building owners, and all personnel interested in gaining a better understating of cool roofs.

This online engineering PDH course provides Licensed Professionals (LPs) with step-by-step instructions on how to correctly verify the reported data of applications and assess indoor environmental quality of U.S. buildings.

 

Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 20% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. Through ENERGY STAR®, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works with owners and managers of our nation’s commercial buildings to help them strategically manage their facilities’ energy performance, cut energy use, lower utility bills, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

More than a dozen types of commercial buildings can earn EPA’s mark of superior energy efficiency – the ENERGY STAR, which is recognized by 90% of American consumers. Commercial buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR must perform in the top 25% of buildings nationwide compared to similar buildings, and their performance must be verified by a licensed professional.

 

The role of the LP is to verify that all energy use is accounted for accurately, the building characteristics have been properly reported, and indoor environmental quality has not been compromised in pursuit of energy conservation. By verifying the completeness and correctness of the application submitted to the EPA, the LP helps to ensure the integrity of the ENERGY STAR certification.

 

This 3 PDH online course is applicable to professional engineers who are interested in learning about the verification process of commercial building applications for the ENERGY STAR® certification.

This online engineering PDH course presents a novel building assembly called the Solid Panel Structure (SPS), which utilizes large format (8’x24’), oriented strand board (OSB) panels to create a wall structure that comprises of high-performance moisture and thermal control layers.

 

The SPS is an innovative interpretation of the “perfect wall” concept, in which environmental control layers are located on the exterior side of the structural components, as opposed to traditional cavity insulated, stud-framed walls. The primary objective of this course is to validate the SPS technology in terms of its constructability, cost, and performance.

 

This 7 PDH online course is applicable to mechanical, structural, civil, sustainability engineers, and architects; as well as contractors and others interested in learning more about the “perfect wall” system.

This online engineering PDH course will investigate green roofs as an approach to control stormwater discharge and pollutant content.  This course provides the data and background municipalities and private entities need to move forward with decisions to implement green roofs as a stormwater control technology, or best management practice (BMP).

 

Urban development has led to large areas of impervious surfaces such as parking lots and building roofs. Runoff from these areas is causing problems for many urban and suburban communities. Not only is total volume of wet weather flow (WWF) increased, but peak flow rates are also increased. Implementation of traditional stormwater BMPs in urban areas may not be practical in all circumstances due to limited available surface area and other concerns. Green roofs have been suggested as a means to reduce the stormwater impacts of development because they have been shown to both detain and retain stormwater. The purpose of this study is to quantify runoff reductions resulting from the use of extensive green roof systems.

 

This 5 PDH online course is applicable to municipality owners and/or operators, construction contractors/workers, site developers, engineers, managers, and all other personnel involved in the stormwater runoff control field.

This online engineering PDH course provides a systematic approach to estimate industrial water use in evaporative cooling systems, steam boiler systems, and facility wash applications.

 

Executive Order 13514 requires Federal agencies to develop a baseline for industrial, landscaping, and agricultural water use. Measuring actual water use through flow meters is the best method to develop this baseline. However, there are instances where Federal sites do not meter these applications, so developing a baseline will be problematic.

 

The intent of this course is to assist Federal agencies in the baseline development by providing a methodology to calculate unmetered sources of industrial water use utilizing engineering estimates.

 

This 2 PDH online course is applicable to mechanical and industrial engineers, Federal agencies and professionals who are interested in learning how to estimate industrial water use in various engineering applications.

This online engineering PDH course discusses the cost, performance and maturity of electricity storage technologies, with much of the discussion focusing on recent developments in battery technology.

 

The sections of the course are organized by technology and provide a snapshot of the status, trends in deployment, data sheets on performance, and design features. Estimates of life-cycle costs for each technology are also provided, along with the key assumptions used. Emerging technologies still in the early research and development stage are noted in the last section of the course but are not reviewed in detail.

 

In general, electricity storage technologies can be classified by the power they can deliver and the time required delivering it.  Thus compressed air energy storage and pumped hydro are capable of discharge times in tens of hours with power ratings reaching 1000 MW. In contrast to these large sizes, flywheels and batteries cluster in the lower end of the discharge duration spectrum, ranging from a few seconds to 6 hours.

 

This 5 PDH online course is intended for electric systems engineers/planners, storage system vendors, and regulators concerned with the design and implementation of stationary energy storage systems.

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 2 PDH online course is applicable to mechanical and electrical engineers and energy specialists who are interested in learning more about the performance of solar photovoltaic systems.

This online PDH course presents a training on sexual harassment prevention in order to adopt and actively implement policies that ensure that workplaces are safe for employees to report and express their concerns about sexual harassment.

 

The Illinois Human Rights Act makes it a civil rights violation “[f]or any employer, employee, agent of any employer, employment agency or labor organization to engage in sexual harassment.” 775 ILCS 5/2-102(D).

 

The Illinois General Assembly finds that tolerance of sexual harassment has a detrimental influence in workplaces by creating a hostile environment for employees, reducing productivity, and increasing legal liability. Therefore, every employer in the State of Illinois is required to provide employees with sexual harassment prevention training that complies with section 2-109 of the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”).

 

This 1 PDH online course is applicable to professionals licensed in the State of Illinois and who are required to demonstrate continuing professional competency in sexual harassment prevention training as a condition of their license renewal.

This online engineering PDH course presents the laws and rules of ethics and professional responsibility governing the practice of engineering in the State of Illinois.

 

Engineering ethics is (1) the study of moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and organizations involved in engineering and (2) the study of related questions about moral conduct, character, ideals and relationships of peoples and organizations involved in technological development (Martin and Schinzinger, Ethics in Engineering).

 

Excerpts from the Professional Engineering Practice Act of 1989, 225 ILCS 325 and the Illinois Administrative Code, Part 1380, which relate to the rules of profession conduct, continuing education requirements, proper use of seal and other pertinent regulatory provisions are presented in this course.

 

This 2 PDH online course is applicable to Professional Engineers licensed in the State of Illinois who are required to demonstrate continuing professional competency in the Illinois Laws, Rules and Ethics as a condition of license renewal. For each renewal period, every licensee must complete thirty (30) professional development hours, at least one (1) of the 30 hours must be in professional ethics and one (1) of the 30 hours must be in the laws and rules regulating the practice of engineering in the State of Illinois.