The Energy Efficiency Regulations have been amended to add new products, harmonize minimum energy performance requirements with those of other jurisdictions, and update testing methodologies or labelling requirements. The amendments will:

• Increase the stringency of existing minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for some currently regulated products
• Introduce new MEPS and associated reporting and compliance requirements for six products:
  • Residential wine chillers,
  • Commercial clothes washers,
  • Torchieres (floor lamps),
  • Ceiling fan lighting,
  • Traffic signal modules and pedestrian modules,
  • Commercial and industrial gas unit heaters;
• Introduce MEPS for general service lamps in 2012;
• Require consumer energy performance labelling for most common lamp types

Related Posts: The Coming Wave of Energy Regulations

An amazing mash-up based on Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot talk.

This week, we upgraded our code base to a new version. The practical implications for NIMONIK users are a significant speed increase and a number of bug fixes.

When logged in, you may have noticed some items were displayed in French when they should have been in English and vice versa. With this upgrade, that bug should be gone.

Also, the new framework speeds things up. In the previous version, each request, such as when you clicked to view a topic, bulletin, or make a change to your legal register, was queued up – one behind the other. The system then processed each item one at a time. Now, we can process multiple items at a time, speeding things up for everyone on NIMONIK.

We hope these changes improve your experience and please send us your thoughts at info @ nimonik dot ca.

Click on the image to see the large version.

Warm Regards/Cordialement,

Yves Faguy, Paul Maclean, Jonathan Brun, Sasha Mandy, Danny Baum, Stéphanie Pham-Dang, and Tadatoshi Takahashi.

In September 2008,  in an effort to draw public attention to UK government support for new coal-fired electricity projects, Greenpeace activists painted Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name on a smokestack at the power plant. They were charged for causing criminal damage during their protest.  The company, E.ON, claimed that the paint cost more than £30,000 (US$50,000) to remove. 

The judgment : the activists were cleared. The British jury accepted a lawful-excuse defense for property damaged with the intention of averting even greater damage from climate change:  in other words, the “climate-change defense” (as described in the NY Times).  It’s uncertain how other courts will follow this. But it certainly illustrates the challenges of energy and climate change. 

More info, see BBC NEWS.