Maryland Energy Efficiency and Ethics 16 PDH Discount Package 2

This online engineering PDH course provides basic information on LED troffer retrofit lighting and controls best practices.

Lighting use constitutes about 20% of the total source electricity consumption in commercial buildings. Most of the lighting in U.S. commercial buildings is provided by fluorescent troffer ceiling fixtures. There are currently over 350 million installed troffers using more than 65 million kWh (the annual energy usage of 6 million U.S. homes).

Retrofitting these fluorescent troffers to light-emitting diode (LED) sources offers the potential for enormous energy savings. As of 2015, only 5% of the troffers in use had LED light sources. At a project level, retrofitting or replacing fluorescent troffers with LEDs can result in energy savings of 20% to 60% and help agencies meet energy-efficiency goals.

This online engineering PDH course provides a basic understanding of cooling towers, describes their key components and provides recommendations on how to improve the water efficiency.

Cooling towers are an integral component of many refrigeration systems, providing comfort or process cooling across a broad range of applications. They are the point in the system where heat is dissipated to the atmosphere through the evaporative process, and are common in industries such as oil refining, chemical process­ing, power plants, steel mills, and many different manufacturing processes where process cooling is required.

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 provides information on advancements made in systems and technologies related to oil and natural gas development to produce cleaner fuels. It pays special attention to advancements aimed at reducing the environmental impact associated with the production of oil and natural gas. It also discusses the safety conditions for those involved in the development process.

Fossil fuel resources account for 82% of total U.S. primary energy use because they are abundant, have a relatively low cost of production, and have a high energy density—enabling easy transport and storage. The infrastructure built over decades to supply fossil fuels is the world’s largest enterprise with the largest market capitalization. Of fossil fuels, oil and natural gas make up 63% of energy usage. Across the energy economy, the source and mix of fuels used across these sectors is changing, particularly the rapid increase in natural gas production from unconventional resources for electricity generation and the rapid increase in domestic production of shale oil. The United States will, for the foreseeable future, continue to rely heavily upon oil and natural gas to support its economy, national security, and energy security.

This online engineering PDH course provides guidance in new motor purchase decisions, and helps in identifying the energy and cost savings for motors that should be replaced with premium efficiency units.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) adopted a NEMA Premium® efficiency motor standard in August of 2001. A motor can be marketed as a NEMA Premium motor if it meets or exceeds a set of minimum full-load efficiency levels.

These premium efficiency motor standards cover the 1 horsepower (hp) to 500 hp three-phase low-voltage NEMA Design A and B general, special, and definite purpose induction motors that are in widespread use in U.S. industrial facilities. The energy savings from replacing in-service standard and energy efficient motors with premium efficiency motor models can be substantial.

In this online engineering PDH course, background on the philosophical models that guide ethical behavior is discussed and then applied to specific situations in engineering codes of ethics. This course is based on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Professional Practice Curriculum, Volume 8, Section: Engineering Ethics.

Many engineering organizations have drafted codes of ethics to which their members are required to commit.  Generally, these codes are quite similar and are based on a few fundamental principles which provide guidance to professional engineers in common situations. Nevertheless, there are many difficult or ambiguous situations in which the best ethical solution is difficult to determine.

This 2 PDH online course is intended primarily for engineers seeking to learn ethical principles and how to apply them to their professional practice.