Beware of the Twinkie Effect

Just what is the Twinkies Effect? It goes something like this. You go to the gym three times a week for really strenuous workouts. When you come home from the gym, you reward yourself with a Twinkie (or two). This goes on for many months and you keep wondering why you are not losing inches and pounds because of all your strenuous workouts.

Similar to the Twinkies Effect is the Prius Paradox. So you now drive a Prius Hybrid that gives you 45 miles to the gallon. But you will not save any gasoline if you now assume that you no longer need to plan and organize your trips because you have this fuel-efficient car.

You are probably wondering how anyone could be so silly not to recognize the problems with the Twinkies and Prius Effects. But are you following the same logic of the Twinkies Effect on your farm and in your home with respect to energy use? You are using the Twinkies logic if you decide that you no longer need to turn off lights when no one is in a room because you have installed very energy-efficient light bulbs. Or maybe you figure you can now set the thermostat in your home at 70 F throughout the summer and 75 F throughout the winter because you have just installed a very efficient geothermal heat pump. And then you wonder why your monthly electricity consumption is just as high as or higher than before you installed the energy-efficient equipment.

On the farm, you may be very proud of the fact that you removed your old energy-inefficient ventilation fans and chose to replace them with high efficiency fans, based on the rating of cfm/W (cubic feet of air flow per minute per Watt of electricity consumption). But these high efficiency fans will quickly become inefficient if you do not keep the fan blades clean and the shutters clean and well-lubricated. Just like the Twinkies Effect, you will not see the energy savings unless you have an appropriate preventive maintenance program in place.

Maybe you replace the refrigeration system for your bulk milk tank or chilled-water plate cooler with a unit with premium energy efficiency. But if you allow shrubs and/or weeds to block free flow of air to the compressor and condenser, your refrigeration system with premium efficiency will not be very efficient. Other causes of inefficiency with your system could be a slow leak of the refrigerant or periods of low voltages in the electrical supply to the refrigeration system. Not only will your energy-efficient refrigeration system be using more electricity under these scenarios, but the life of your equipment will be shortened.

The only thing worse than the “Twinkies Effect” is the “Deep-Fried Twinkies Effect”!

-By Dr. Dennis Buffington, professor, Penn State Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering