Gadgets for Green

Energy-Efficiency Rules for TVs Could Spark an OLED Boom

California is stepping out as a leader again in energy efficiency banning certain types of power hungry TVs.  Plasma TVs are a pleasure to watch, but they use almost 3x - 4x more energy per square inch of display space as the newest generation of OLED TV displays.  Though OLED are just now coming on the market, they are available at prices not unlike the first LED TVs in 2000.  Expect prices to come down quickly.  The proposed legislation in California would require tvs to be 33% more efficient by 2011 and 49% more efficient by 2013.

The next generation beyond OLED will perform even better.  Quantum Dot technology is still in the Labs at spin outs from major universities, like MITs QD Vision.  QD Vision and its peers are working on easier implementations in the area of cell phones an lighting.  But, expect rapid advances in display technology that make the Plasma TV as arcane as an old black and white TV without a remote control.

EcoSnoop - Snooping for energy efficiency

The climate is in turmoil.  We cant build enough solar and wind generation quickly enough.  We have a tough problem if we want to save energy.  But what about our daily life?  Some estiamate that as much as 20% of the energy used in buildings is all waste related.  How often have we seen:

• Giant buildings lit in the middle of the night with no one in them
• Street lights left on during the day
• Doors left open in the middle of the day

The folks at EcoSnoop are developing a range of applications to help communities, end users, government, and business reduce energy waste through social networking.  EcoSnoop just released an iPhone application that turns everyday iPhone users into EcoDetectives (or EcoSnoops). 

If you see an example of energy waste that needs action, you open up EcoSnoop and then snap a picture.  The application asks you to categorize the "EcoCase" into various categories that best fit such as after hours lighting, Water Waste, poorly watered trees, etc.  There seems to also be a function called "I want", where a user can take a picture of their roof and say "I want solar".  I bleieve they intend to link the "I want function" to some form of lead generation to get back to vendors.  The iPhone captures the location, picture, and category - then it posts it onto the users account online at EcoSnoop.com 

From the iPhone you can select several others screens.  "Nearby" - shows other EcoCases in your general geographic location. "Mine" lists all your EcoCases.  "Settings" lets you enter your username and password from the EcoSnoop website.

EcoSnoop is apparently working on a more advanced version of their website that will open up to include a lot of social networking functions, cataloging, and dialog.  Through online engagement, EcoSnoop wants to help EcoSnoops bundle and arrange EcoCases into a set of actions that can be taken by the business, community, homeowner or whomever has the energy problem.  They also plan a blackberry, Pre, Twitter, Facebook, etc variant.  You can track their them on Twitter at EcoSnoop or on their fan page on Facebook.

The company is very concerned that EcoSnoop might violate privacy rights or create some for of "Red Baiting" from the days of McCarthyism.  So, they are working o various other steps in the process to maximize the opportunity to save energy while minimizing privacy infringement.

Apparently they are working on a business version of the software that will let businesses see and manage reported EcoCases.  The application is free, but one can imagine the business version will have some charge. 

If you do not have an iPhone, you can still see activity on the EcoSnoop Website.  Everyone should just go to the site and create a username and password.  You can install the application on the Iphone via your phones app store or through iTunes.  Search on the term "EcoSnoop".

A new view on Green Innovation from the Father of Ethernet

The Internet was developed over many years by many great entrepreneurs who toiled in the lab and the market place to develop real innovation. They did this with a passion for the technology they were developing, but great uncertainty with regard to how their technologies in the end would effect society. The true entrepreneurs of the bunch evolved with the market place, discovering new angles and views on how to be successful. They were beat up in the market place, and survived stronger for it.  First amongst these Entrepreneurs is Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet (as in he has the patent) which is a critical foundational technology for the Internet. His classmates at MIT were key players in Email, FTP, TCP/IP, etc.

Metcalfe went on to found 3Com corporation, a leader in the Internet. He has been around all the key innovations in information technology over the last 40 years. He is now a major investor in all forms of new start-ups, with a particular concentration on Energy.

Metcalfe's perspective on how to solve the energy problem is a good lesson for us all. Metcalfe, based on his real and successful experience actually doing something that has changed our lives, believes that the pathway to climate salvation will be the development of Clean and Cheap energy. This notion of "Cheap" is critical to his perspective.  Rather than restrict, Metcalfe wants to expand and make efficient. Now think about this, computers use to be expensive, over time they became cheaper, new applications were developed, society shifted, the world operates in a different manner. Perhaps in a better manner. Metcalfe suggests that the dire climate predictions will be swept away by entrepreneurs who blow our mind with market derived innovation. For a great summary of Metcalfe's views, you need to see this YouTube video:

If you listen to Metcalfe, you are compelled to think differently about how to solve the climate problem in a way that meets all our needs.

Your thoughts on New Gadgets Please....

Gadgets for Green is keen to learn about new technologies of any sort.  Our team can investigate and do reviews on a range of products that you might be considering for your home, business, or otherwise.  If you have some thoughts of great products, suspect products real capabilites or anything in between feel free to send us an email and we will investigate.  Please send an email to ideas@energylover.com.

Saving Trees with a Kindle

I am of a generation that is in transition.  My older sister did all of here high school book reports and papers on a typewriter, while I did mine on an apple II (one of the few in my class).  I have always thought electronic books would be the wave of the future, therefore really excited when the Kindle first came out.

I bought the first generation Kindle for my wife, and we never really used it.  I bought the next generation for my mother, and I am still not sure she uses it.  I just bought a Kindle DX for myself, and am in love.

So, it took me a while to get use to it.  The final tipping point for me is the larger form factor of the DX.  It puts enough information on the page that lets you spend more time reading and less time clicking "Next Page".  The functions take a bit getting use to, like figuring out the difference between "Previous page" and "Back".  Back being about going up a level.

I use the kindle as a daily source of the newspaper.  I already have moved online for most news, but I like the ability to read material on the kindle.  I find I read more of the articles compared to being on the web.  The key feeds I like are WSJ, NY Times and Politico, though there are a few others (Blogs) that you can get.  The kindle charges a small fee (basically air time) to get you certain blogs.  Reading the WSJ and NY Times is a bit problematic - you need to switch between the "Sections" view which lists top level themes (World News, Technology, etc) and "Article List" which lists key articles.  I do not think they publish all articles, but I have yet to resolve this.

I really like the notion of the pdf function.  Essentially you register an email address for your kindle (i.e. energylover@kindle.com).  There is an anti spam function to prevent abuse.  You then email a pdf to your address and it shows up on the Kindle.  The gray scale function on the kindle does not work real well here, but its sufficient for now.

I used the PDF function to download the entire The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), (1,201 pages) and related amendments (300 pages), which gets me to the tree saving part.  Its a bit ironic that a major bill on climate change results in so many pages.  If they just fixed the margins the bill would be about 600 pages.  But, I can say for sure, reading ACES bill on my kindle was easy and saved a lot of trees.

I need to figure out what the carbon foot print of my Kindle is (electronics etc), but I am fully bought into this technology now and in love with its potential.  Its fun to get aa good book and turn it page by page, but I think I am making the transition to electronic permanent.

Cool Energy Saving Program

I saw this on youtube great video on YouTube about Palm Desert.  They are doing a large scale energy efficiency program targeted at small businesses and residential applications.  Very interesting stuff.

EcoSnoop

I have seen a Beta Release of a new application called EcoSnoop, that is sort of a social networking system for Green people.  The soon to be released Iphone application lets you take pictures of green issues like "Lights left on in a building" late at night, and post these on a website to be discussed and perhaps resolved.

The notion is that many organizations want to be green, they just are not sure how to be green.  EcoSnoop leverages the good will of the community to provide that extra bit of help in being green.

Geothermal gets a real tax credit....

A modified tax credit is now available for home and commercial building owners who install geothermal heating and cooling systems.  Anyone who has an old HVAC system should absolutely take this option to put in geothermal (Don't forget insulation at the same time).  If you have a younger system, you should give some serious consideration to geothermal especially if your system is configured for R401.

The feds, under H.R. 1424, offers a one time tax credit of 30% of the total investment for all residential ground loop or ground water geothermal heat pump systems installed in 2009. Credits differ for commercial.  It seems you can also apply the credit to properties other than just your primary residence.   Some key requirements include:

• The systems must meet or exceed EnergyStar requirements
• Must be installed after December 31, 2007
• Units installed in 2008 are subject to a $2,000 cap on the credit
• Make sure your contractor provides a detailed bill listing "Geothermal Heat Pump that Exceeds requirements of Energy Star".

The tax credit is available through December 31, 2016. Talk to your account though.  Other resources include:

• IRS Form 5695*: Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit
• More Information about the "Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit"
• Find additional tax incentives that may be available in your state - www.dsireusa.org

Google PowerMeter.....

In a move that should not surprise anyone, Google entered the energy business today with their concept of a web based power meter, leveraging their marketing power to offer a solution that is sure to cause investors to question investments in companies like Tendril, GreenBox, etc.  It is not clear what the scope of Power Meter is, but it seems to be focused on leveraging the planned installation of several million Smart Meters proposed under the stimulus package.

For those that have followed the smart meter market, efforts to implement smart meters over the last 10 years have been met with great promise but little success.  The barriers perhaps being a combination of Silicon Valley optimism vs. the practicality of running a utility.  There have been a range of Smart Meter efforts ranging from simple low cost solutions to bold power over power line broad band game changers.

I believe real time information to end users is absolutely critical to solving the energy problem, I wonder about how this is being done. Al Gore, John Doerr and others from Kleiner Perkins have been talking to Pelosi etc about how to deal with the Green issue, making several recommendations via testimony to congress.  Someone put into the legislation that all meters need to be "IP based and Open".  Interesting, one of the few truly open meter infrastructure solutions is Silver Springs, a Kleiner backed company.  The head of Google.Org's, Dan Reicher, is a primary advocate for the Google solution and was the Obama transition chief for the presidents energy team.

Saving energy is a big important thing.  I think a great deal of Google, Keliner, and other players here.  I am disapointed about how this looks and how it may effect the market and other innovators if industry percieves you need to be "in the club" to access opportunity.

Bernoudy House

A friend of mine has a plot of land they have been thinking of building on.  Next door the is a small house designed by William Bernoudy, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's first students.  These owners heard the Bernoudy house was for sale, and feared someone would tear it down and build a big house on a small plot of land.  To protect against this, they bought the house with the intent of fixing it up, renting it for now, and then using it as a guest house of sorts once they build their new home next door.

Several of us keen on green and looking for something to do, have persuaded the new owners to make the update to the home as green as possible and in keeping with the Bernoudy style.  We will be posting pictures of the effort as it gets underway.