Factors affecting residential heating energy consumption

Twenty per cent of all energy consumed in New England and ten per cent of all energy consumed in the United States is consumed in home heating. This paper reports on an effort to ascertain the major factors affecting the consumption of home heating oil. Three general classes of factors are analyzed: (1) physical and occupant characteristics (number of rooms, number of occupants, number of stories, amount of insulation, income level, etc.); (2) external (price, shortage awareness, weather); and (3) behavioral and physical changes (change in temperature settings, change in insulation, change in oil burner, etc.). The study is based on four data series: (1) actual monthly home heating oil consumption data on 8000 suburban homeowners in suburban Boston; (2) questionnaire responses from 2000 homeowners on their homes' physical and occupant characteristics, as well as changes in physical and occu- pant behavioral characteristics between 1972 and 1975; (3) monthly weather data; and (4) heating oil price data. The data is associated with the years from 1972 through 1975, a period in which marked price changes, shortages, and behavioral changes occurred, hence providing an opportunity to study the effects of these various events. Three models are central to the study: Model I. A cross-sectional model that depicts consumption per degree-day as a function of physical and occupant characteristics of a home. Model II. A time series regression model that establishes consumption per degree-day as a function of price and consumer awareness of an energy shortage. Model III. A cross-sectional regression model that attempts to explain change in consumption per degree-day from one year to the next as a function of specific conservation actions such as temperature resetting, addition of storm windows, etc. The major findings of each model are as follows: Model I: House size, age of home, family income, and the presence of storm doors and windows are all significant factors in predicting the amount of home oil consumption. Model II: Estimated values of price elasticity with respect to demand for residential heating oil and a measure of 'mnpact of shortage awareness on consumption are determined. This model also demonstrates that there were substantial savings in consumption corresponding to increases in price and shortage awareness from 1972-1975. Model III: he data from the questionnaire indicate that only a few consumers made physical home improvements; however, the data from the oil company indicate that a substantial savings (over 12%) in consumption occurred between the heating seasons 1972/73 and 1973/74. The conclusion from this data indicates that behavioral changes were the major conservation actions taken. Model III indicates that the behavioral change of temperature resetting is significant and the physical change of additional weather stripping and change of burner are significant. Further study is needed, however, to determine those behavioral changes that accounted for the major change in consumption. In addition, this model indicates that different groups within the sample (e.g., by income level, house characteristics) display similar conservation efficiency. In addition to the findings of the models, the paper includes (in Appendix B) a detailed discussion of biases associated with the data. Major conclusions from that discussion are: (1) our sample is representative of suburban homes in the Northern United States; (2) the consumers who responded to the questionnaire were slightly more energy- conscious and responded slightly more dramatically to price increases than the general populace; (3) our residential heating oil prices are representative of those that prevailed in the region; and (4) the heating seasons 1972 through 1975 were warmer than usual. Trends in the data indicate that new homes in the sample have a considerable amount of insulation and the typical single-family house in the sample has storm windows and doors.New England Regional Commission, NEEMIS Project Contract no. 10630776 and the M.I.T./IBM Joint Study Agreemen

Applications of MODIS Fluorescent Line Height Measurements to Monitor Water Quality Trends and Algal Bloom Activity

Recent advances in satellite and airborne remote sensing, such as improvements in sensor and algorithm calibrations, processing techniques and atmospheric correction procedures have provided for increased coverage of remote-sensing, ocean-color products for coastal regions. In particular, for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor calibration updates, improved aerosol retrievals and new aerosol models has led to improved atmospheric correction algorithms for turbid waters and have improved the retrieval of ocean color in coastal waters. This has opened the way for studying ocean phenomena and processes at finer spatial scales, such as the interactions at the land-sea interface, trends in coastal water quality and algal blooms. Human population growth and changes in coastal management practices have brought about significant changes in the concentrations of organic and inorganic, particulate and dissolved substances entering the coastal ocean. There is increasing concern that these inputs have led to declines in water quality and have increase local concentrations of phytoplankton, which cause harmful algal blooms. In two case studies we present MODIS observations of fluorescence line height (FLH) to 1) assess trends in water quality for Tampa Bay, Florida and 2) illustrate seasonal and annual variability of algal bloom activity in Monterey Bay, California as well as document estuarine/riverine plume induced red tide events. In a comprehensive analysis of long term (2003-2011) in situ monitoring data and satellite imagery from Tampa Bay we assess the validity of the MODIS FLH product against chlorophyll-a and a suite of water quality parameters taken in a variety of conditions throughout a large optically complex estuarine system. A systematic analysis of sampling sites throughout the bay is undertaken to understand how the relationship between FLH and in situ chlorophyll-a responds to varying conditions and to develop a near decadal trend in water quality changes. In situ monitoring locations that correlated well with satellite imagery were in depths greater than seven meters and were located over five kilometers from shore. Water quality parameter of total nitrogen, phosphorous, turbidity and biological oxygen demand had high correlations with these sites, as well. Satellite FLH estimates show improving water quality from 2003-2007 with a slight decline up through 2011. Dinoflagellate blooms in Monterey Bay, California (USA) have recently increased in frequency and intensity. Nine years of MODIS FLH observations are used to describe the annual and seasonal variability of bloom activity within the Bay. Three classes of MODIS algorithms were correlated against in situ chlorophyll measurements. The FLH algorithm provided the most robust estimate of bloom activity. Elevated concentrations of phytoplankton were evident during the months of August-November, a period during which increased occurrences of dinoflagellate blooms have been observed in situ. Seasonal patterns of FLH show the on- and offshore movement of areas of high phytoplankton biomass between oceanographic seasons. Higher concentrations of phytoplankton are also evident in the vicinity of the land-based nutrient sources and outflows, and the cyclonic bay-wide circulation can transport these nutrients to the northern Bay bloom incubation region. Both of these case studies illustrate the utility MODIS FLH observations in supporting management decisions in coastal and estuarine waters

Oxidation of manganese in an ancient aquifer, Kimberley formation, Gale crater, Mars

The Curiosity rover observed high Mn abundances (>25 wt % MnO) in fracture‐filling materials that crosscut sandstones in the Kimberley region of Gale crater, Mars. The correlation between Mn and trace metal abundances plus the lack of correlation between Mn and elements such as S, Cl, and C, reveals that these deposits are Mn oxides rather than evaporites or other salts. On Earth, environments that concentrate Mn and deposit Mn minerals require water and highly oxidizing conditions; hence, these findings suggest that similar processes occurred on Mars. Based on the strong association between Mn‐oxide deposition and evolving atmospheric dioxygen levels on Earth, the presence of these Mn phases on Mars suggests that there was more abundant molecular oxygen within the atmosphere and some groundwaters of ancient Mars than in the present day

The Effects of Metamorphism on Iron Mineralogy and the Iron Speciation Redox Proxy

As the most abundant transition metal in the Earth’s crust, iron is a key player in the planetary redox budget. Observations of iron minerals in the sedimentary record have been used to describe atmospheric and aqueous redox environments over the evolution of our planet; the most common method applied is iron speciation, a geochemical sequential extraction method in which proportions of different iron minerals are compared to calibrations from modern sediments to determine water-column redox state. Less is known about how this proxy records information through post-depositional processes, including diagenesis and metamorphism. To get insight into this, we examined how the iron mineral groups/pools (silicates, oxides, sulfides, etc.) and paleoredox proxy interpretations can be affected by known metamorphic processes. Well-known metamorphic reactions occurring in sub-chlorite to kyanite rocks are able to move iron between different iron pools along a range of proxy vectors, potentially affecting paleoredox results. To quantify the effect strength of these reactions, we examined mineralogical and geochemical data from two classic localities where Silurian-Devonian shales, sandstones, and carbonates deposited in a marine sedimentary basin with oxygenated seawater (based on global and local biological constraints) have been regionally metamorphosed from lower-greenschist facies to granulite facies: Waits River and Gile Mountain Formations, Vermont, USA and the Waterville and Sangerville-Vassalboro Formations, Maine, USA. Plotting iron speciation ratios determined for samples from these localities revealed apparent paleoredox conditions of the depositional water column spanning the entire range from oxic to ferruginous (anoxic) to euxinic (anoxic and sulfidic). Pyrrhotite formation in samples highlighted problems within the proxy as iron pool assignment required assumptions about metamorphic reactions and pyrrhotite’s identification depended on the extraction techniques utilized. The presence of diagenetic iron carbonates in many samples severely affected the proxy even at low grade, engendering an interpretation of ferruginous conditions in all lithologies, but particularly in carbonate-bearing rocks. Increasing metamorphic grades transformed iron in carbonates into iron in silicate minerals, which when combined with a slight increase in the amount of pyrrhotite, drove the proxy toward more oxic and more euxinic conditions. Broad-classes of metamorphic reactions (e.g. decarbonation, silicate formation) occurred at distinct temperatures-pressures in carbonates versus siliciclastics, and could be either abrupt between metamorphic facies or more gradual in nature. Notably, these analyses highlighted the importance of trace iron in phases like calcite, which otherwise might not be included in iron-focused research i.e. ore-system petrogenesis, metamorphic evolution, or normative calculations of mineral abundance. The observations show that iron is mobile and reactive during diagenesis and metamorphism, and these post-depositional processes can readily overprint primary redox information held by iron speciation. However, in principle, additional mineralogical and petrographic approaches can be combined with iron speciation data to help untangle many of these post-depositional processes and arrive at more accurate estimates of paleoenvironmental redox conditions and processes, even for metamorphosed samples

Generalized scans and tridiagonal systems

AbstractMotivated by the analysis of known parallel techniques for the solution of linear tridiagonal system, we introduce generalized scans, a class of recursively defined length-preserving, sequence-to-sequence transformations that generalize the well-known prefix computations (scans). Generalized scan functions are described in terms of three algorithmic phases, the reduction phase that saves data for the third or expansion phase and prepares data for the second phase which is a recursive invocation of the same function on one fewer variable. Both the reduction and expansion phases operate on bounded number of variables, a key feature for their parallelization. Generalized scans enjoy a property, called here protoassociativity, that gives rise to ordinary associativity when generalized scans are specialized to ordinary scans. We show that the solution of positive-definite block tridiagonal linear systems can be cast as a generalized scan, thereby shedding light on the underlying structure enabling known parallelization schemes for this problem. We also describe a variety of parallel algorithms including some that are well known for tridiagonal systems and some that are much better suited to distributed computation

Retired A Stars and Their Companions IV. Seven Jovian Exoplanets from Keck Observatory

We report precise Doppler measurements of seven subgiants from Keck Observatory. All seven stars show variability in their radial velocities consistent with planet-mass companions in Keplerian orbits. The host stars have masses ranging from 1.1 < Mstar/Msun < 1.9, radii 3.4 < Rstar/Rsun < 6.1, and metallicities -0.21 < [Fe/H] < +0.26. The planets are all more massive than Jupiter (Msini > 1 Mjup) and have semimajor axes > 1 AU. We present millimagnitude photometry from the T3 0.4m APT at Fairborn observatory for five of the targets. Our monitoring shows these stars to be photometrically stable, further strengthening the interpretation of the observed radial velocity variability. The orbital characteristics of the planets thus far discovered around former A-type stars are very different from the properties of planets around dwarf stars of spectral type F, G and K, and suggests that the formation and migration of planets is a sensitive function of stellar mass. Three of the planetary systems show evidence of long-term, linear trends indicative of additional distant companions. These trends, together with the high planet masses and increased occurrence rate, indicate that A-type stars are very promising targets for direct imaging surveys.Comment: PASP Accepted, final submission awaiting comments from the communit

Low Mass Companions for Five Solar-Type Stars from the Magellan Planet Search Program

We report low mass companions orbiting five Solar-type stars that have emerged from the Magellan precision Doppler velocity survey, with minimum (Msini) masses ranging from 1.2 to 25 Mjup. These nearby target stars range from mildly metal-poor to metal-rich, and appear to have low chromospheric activity. The companions to the brightest two of these stars have previously been reported from the CORALIE survey. Four of these companions (HD 48265-b, HD 143361-b, HD 28185-b, HD 111232-b) are low-mass Jupiter-like planets in eccentric intermediate and long-period orbits. On the other hand, the companion to HD 43848 appears to be a long period brown dwarf in a very eccentric orbit.Comment: Accepted for publication on ApJ, 26 pages, 10 figures, 7 table

Two Jovian-Mass Planets in Earthlike Orbits

We report the discovery of two new planets: a 1.94 M_Jup planet in a 1.8-year orbit of HD 5319, and a 2.51 M_Jup planet in a 1.1-year orbit of HD 75898. The measured eccentricities are 0.12 for HD 5319 b and 0.10 for HD 75898 b, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations based on derived orbital parameters indicate that the radial velocities of both stars are consistent with circular planet orbits. With low eccentricity and 1 < a < 2 AU, our new planets have orbits similar to terrestrial planets in the solar system. The radial velocity residuals of both stars have significant trends, likely arising from substellar or low-mass stellar companions.Comment: 32 pages, including 11 figures and 5 tables. Accepted by Ap