Although swimmers and sprinters face no resistance beyond water and air, peak-performance feats in other sports must face strong defenses, which only improve as each sport gains sophistication.
You should also be aware that almost none of us have air conditioning: our peak energy demand is very definitely in these cold winter snaps, not in summer for cooling.
The cells could then reduce peak power demands air conditioning would be making on the electricity grid, leveraging their own economic value.
"Residential air-conditioning is the peak load problem, and we're able to tackle the load-shifting in a very automated way, " says Matt Rogers, Nest's engineering VP.
The Waldo Canyon Fire captured attention because of its proximity to landmarks such as Pikes Peak and the Air Force Academy, and also to Colorado Springs, a city of about 400, 000, the state's second largest.
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During peak energy hours, air is released powering a turbine, which in turn produces electricity.
The instrument has established that winds generally blow east-west on the floor of the crater - something of a surprise to researchers who thought the rover's position close to the northern slopes of Gale's big central mountain might drive winds in a prevailing north-west direction as air moved up and down the peak in a day-night cycle.
"Hot and muggy weather and continuous heavy use of air conditioning remain the single largest factor affecting peak electricity demand in the summer, " Edward Schwerdt, president of the power coordinating council, told reporters on a conference call.
It is also over one day in the air and 20 time zones crossed - hardly conducive to peak athletic performance and very possibly more than any athlete's body can handle.
The data showed, overwhelmingly, that the reduced-gas, more-air method of power management (called lean-of-peak, or LOP) worked best.
Gogo's ATG-4 technology is capable of delivering a peak speed of 9.8 Mbps, triple the peak speed of 3.1 Mbps enabled by the previous air-to-ground network.
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Mr Rogers of Cinergy notes that it might also allow utilities to manage peak loads by, for example, turning down your residential air conditioner remotely while you are at the office, in return for a lower tariff.
The hiatus in air travel could be a rehearsal for a post-jet age if the peak oil theory is correct and we are facing a future with insufficient fuel to put into planes.
On peak days in the summer, when suddenly everyone cranks up their air conditioners full blast, fossil fuel generators that can be fired up on a moment's notice will be needed into the foreseeable future, Legge says.
There's nothing quite like a behind closed doors briefing at a busy tradeshow like IFA. Creative wasn't quite ready to take its new D5 Air out onto the showroom floor just yet, but the company did let us take a sneak peak at the thing in a small testing room room.
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