Office of Science & Technology - Introducing Michael Stadler - Life with Energy
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Introducing Michael Stadler - Life with Energy Print E-mail
bridges vol. 19, October 2008 / News From the Network: Austrian Researchers Abroad

By Juliet M. Beverly


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Stadler standing outside_small.JPG
Dr. Michael Stadler
"I really hate the idea of having to use a dryer to dry clothes," said Michael Stadler. "It's a stupid idea because it's always sunny in California and you could hang your clothes outside, but you use your dryer anyway. I do it because I have no other opportunity to dry my clothes any other way. When I travel back to Austria, I always hang my clothes outside to dry. I'm always adjusting to two different lifestyles."

Michael Stadler, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) at the University of California, Berkeley, travels back to Austria three times a year for his parents, friends and his lecturing position at the Austrian University of Applied Sciences for Sustainable Energy Systems. Stadler's to-and-from lifestyle, one more typically associated with politicians, celebrities, and business executives, is becoming increasingly common. It is not unusual to find that your next-door neighbor is also someone else's next-door neighbor in another state - or even another country. The demands of this type of lifestyle are strenuous - and not only for the physical and mental capacities of an individual:  Imagine the demand on energy.

According to the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the average US household consumes about 11,000 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity per year, costing an average of $900 annually. This is equivalent to cooking your favorite one-hour stove-top meal 11,000 times. If you're not so much of a cook and don't waste too much time or energy in the kitchen, the range is the least of the energy-eaters in the home - it's the heating and cooling that consume the most. EERE reports that 45 percent of US residential utility bills goes to heating and cooling. Not only is this hurting the wallets of many, it is also harming the environment. Heating and cooling systems in the US emit 150 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, contributing to global climate change and the main elements that cause acid rain.

This is the issue that Stadler takes on: developing energy forecasting tools to determine how innovations can be applied to lower energy costs and reduce emissions while meeting growing energy demands.

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