The process of removing a power plant, apparatus, equipment, building, or facility from operation.

Two metals of different coefficients of expansion welded together so that the piece will bend in one direction when heated, and in the other when cooled, and can be used to open or close electrical circuits, as in thermostats.

A material that retards the movement of water vapor through a building element (walls, ceilings) and prevents insulation and structural wood from becoming damp and metals from corroding. Often applied to insulation batts or separately in the form of treat ...

A fluid, such as methanol or ethylene glycol, added to vehicle engine coolant, or used in solar heating system heat transfer fluids, to protect the systems from freezing.

A fan mounted on an attic wall used to exhaust warm attic air to the outside.

A wall that carries ceiling rafters or roof trusses.

An interior court to which rooms open.

A device that converts the mechanical energy of rotation into electricity based on electromagnetic induction. An electric voltage (electromotive force) is induced in a conducting loop (or coil) when there is a change in the number of magnetic field lines ...

Water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt.

A category of electric power producer established under the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) of 1978, that includes small-power producers (SPP) who use renewable sources of energy such as biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity, solar (thermal a ...

The amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of a given mass of a substance by one degree Celsius. The heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius is 4186 Joules.

The conversion of biomass into a gas, by biogasification (see above) or thermal gasification, in which hydrogen is produced from high-temperature gasifying and low-temperature pyrolysis of biomass.

The process of decomposing biomass with anaerobic bacteria to produce biogas.

A hard, dense type of coal, that is hard to break, clean to handle, difficult to ignite, and that burns with an intense flame and with the virtual absence of smoke because it contains a high percentage of fixed carbon and a low percentage of volatile matt ...

A standard unit of electrical power equal to one thousand watts, or to the energy consumption at a rate of 1000 Joules per second.

The cost of producing electricity up to the point of the powerplant busbar.

The presence of contaminants in the air in concentrations that prevent the normal dispersive ability of the air, and that interfere with biological processes and human economics.

The positive pole or electrode of an electrolytic cell, vacuum tube, etc. (see also sacrificial anode).

A building architectural element (vestibule) with two airtight doors that reduces the amount of air infiltration and exfiltration when the exterior most door is opened.

This is the voltage-ampere requirement of a device designed to convert electric energy to a non-electrical form.