Library
Electric Vehicles and Chargers
Electric Vehicles
EV Chargers
EV Charging Infrastructure in RDOS
Heat Pumps
Climate Glossary
To help navigate the complex world of energy and climate action, the RDOS has developed a library of definitions to help residents find their way with more ease.
Adaptation: Initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change impacts
Mitigation: Climate mitigation refers to efforts to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions. It involves actions such as planting trees, using renewable energies, making equipment more energy efficient, and changing management practices or consumer behavior.
Blower Door Test:During a blower door test an energy advisor installs a powerful fan in the front door and measures how quickly outside air enters the house. Homes with leaky building envelopes allow in too much outside air and waste energy and money.
Building Envelope: A building envelope includes all the parts of a home that separate the outdoors from the indoors. This includes walls, foundation, roof, windows and doors.
Carbon Offset: An organization that emits carbon into the atmosphere can purchase a carbon offset. The carbon offset pays another party for an activity which decreases carbon in the atmosphere. This action can be protecting an area of the Amazon rainforest, paying for energy efficiency upgrades in schools or providing heat pumps to replace fossil fuel heating.
Climate Change: Climate change is shifts, generally long-term, in temperature and weather patterns. They can be caused by natural events, such as changes in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth, however since the industrial revolution in the 1800s climate change has been dominated by carbon emissions released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. See Weather and Global Warming.
Decarbonization: Decarbonization is the process of switching activities, buildings and products that generate greenhouse gas emissions to methods that generate less or no greenhouse gas. Decarbonization of transportation is the process of switching cars and trucks to electricity or clean hydrogen.
Deep energy retrofit: While there are many simple and inexpensive energy efficacy steps, a deep energy retrofit is based on a whole-building analysis and includes updates to the building envelope and mechanical systems. Deep energy retrofits often decrease energy use and utility costs by 30%-60%.
GHG - Greenhouse Gas: Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere which causes warming. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and several fluorinated gases. Burning fossil fuels generates carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Landfills and wastewater treatment generate methane. Cattle, sheep and goats emit methane during digestion. Florinated gases leak from air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
Heat pump: A heat pump functions by extracting heat from outside air and moving it inside. Heat pumps can extract heat even when the temperature outside is below freezing. In the summer the heat pump extracts heat from inside the house, cooling it down. Cold weather heat pumps can heat a house in weather down to -30 C.
Net Metering: Net metering is an arrangement with a utility where a residence or business with solar panels is given credit whenever they produce more electricity than they use. Those credits can be used when the residence or business needs more electricity, particularly at night and during cloudy days.
Net Zero: An organization or region is net zero when they have significantly reduced their greenhouse gas emissions, and any remaining emissions are offset by activities that reduce carbon emissions. A common net zero goal is to reduce emissions by 90% with the plan to purchase carbon credits to cover the remaining 10%. See Carbon Neutral and Carbon Credits
Solar Photovoltaic: A solar photovoltaic (PV) cell is a renewable energy that converts sunlight into electricity. Solar PV systems mounted on buildings can supplement electricity from the utility, reducing utility bills.
Zero Emission Vehicles: Zero emission vehicles are cars and trucks which do not emit greenhouse gases. Electric vehicles are the most common zero emission vehicles, but the category also includes vehicles that run on clean hydrogen.
