News / Media

MAY 16, 2011 by Martin LaMonica

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20062743-54.html

Semiconductor company Marvell today is set to introduce a chip geared at improving the light from LED bulbs and connecting them to a network. The 8801 chip is small–about the size of a penny–and will be about the same price as existing LED lighting electronics.

If Marvell signs on light manufacturer customers, it could bring the very good light quality of some commercial LEDs to more affordable consumer products, said Kishore Manghnani, vice president of Marvell’s Communications and Consumer business. He said the chip, which integrates multiple functions on this single controller chip, is being tested by commercial or consumer light fixture makers now and it takes them about six months to introduce products with new chips.

Light quality for consumer LED bulbs has improved over the past few years but the color rending index (CRI), a measure of quality, is still not as high as incandescent bulbs. With the chip, Manghnani said a CRI of 95, higher than most of the consumer LED bulbs available now, is possible. The chip can control the current and temperature of two types of LED light sources. So a fixture or bulb maker could use the chip and driver to use LEDs with two different colors, such as white and red, to improve color rendering. Until now, the electronics to control different colored LEDs would be too large or expensive for consumer products, Manghnani said.

The Marvell component will also make LED dimming more precise and allow a lighting company to embed a wireless chip in the bulb. With a wireless ZigBee or Wi-Fi radio, lights can be controlled from a central point or set on a schedule. Last week, Google demonstrated a networked LED bulb controlled by its Android@Home software due for release by the end of the year.

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20062743-54.html

ThinkEco’s plug-in modlet learns your usage patterns and offers scheduling recommendations.

May 03, 2011 by Steven Castle

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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/intelligent_device_automates_energy_savings/C155

Like many of us, Mei Shibata has a home entertainment system with a sizable TV, DVD player, Wii game console and a cable box. But unlike many of us, she’s saving energy and money with it.

While no one is at in her New York home during certain times of the day, power is cut to the entertainment system—including the “always-on” cable box. Then, before her child arrives home and watches TV, power is resumed to the system and the cable box has time to boot up and download the necessary programming information.

It’s all done with a product called the modlet, from ThinkEco. The modlet is a plug-in device with two outlets and wireless ZigBee connection to a computer for the software interface. The modlet can monitor the energy of an appliance of device plugged into it—and it can cut or resume power to that device automatically. Even better, this is based on your preferences and your usage patterns.

The modlet and its software learns how you use the things plugged into it, and recommends savings plans.

ThinkEco estimates that cutting power to a cable box alone for 12 hours a day results in annual savings of $17, and cutting power to it 18 hours a day can save $25, based on a rate of 15 cents per kilowatt hour…

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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/intelligent_device_automates_energy_savings/C155

by Martin LaMonica MAY 2, 2011

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20058550-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech

In the space of a few years, I’ve gone from one lighting technology to another and now to three lighting types in my home. I suspect others will be in the same shoes as lighting options expand, notably those involving LEDs. Eager to cut down my electrical load, I essentially converted to compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs) years ago. Recently, though, I’ve replaced CFLs with efficient LED bulbs and even energy-hogging incandescents to address an unfortunate feature of CLFs: turning them on and off frequently degrades their life.

CLFs are still a good deal both financially and environmentally. They use about one quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs and will last about 10 years, or 10 times as long, according to Consumer Reports tests. But Consumer Reports also found that turning a CFL on and off within less than 15 minutes, something you might do in the bathroom for instance, leads to earlier-than-expected brownouts. That rapid cycling issue, plus the arrival of good LEDs in the traditional A19 bulb shape, got me rethinking my home lighting and prodded me to use different bulb types for different purposes. I’m still focused on efficiency, so I’m only using incandescent bulbs in places where the light is used in short spurts. I tend to go in and out of the attic quickly, for example, and want full brightness as soon as possible.

I’ve also added a few LEDs, which are certainly more expensive–a 60-watt incandescent replacement costs almost $40–but functionally they have been good CFL replacements and are more efficient per lumen. I have a few Philips LEDs that give off as much light as a 60-watt incandescent or a 14-watt CFL, and they consume 12 watts.

It will take a long time based on energy savings compared with CFLs to recoup the initial cost. On the other hand, LEDs are supposed to last upward of 20 years, and I placed them in fixtures that we flick on and off frequently, which I hope will address the burnouts I’ve experienced with CFLs.

LEDs multiply

You don’t yet see general-purpose LED bulbs at the supermarket or corner hardware store, but more products in the popular 60-watt-equivalent category are coming, and prices are expected to continue falling. In the space of the last few weeks, a couple of new LED companies have emerged, and one anticipated product (well, anticipated by lighting geeks at least) is expected in stores soon.

Switch Lighting, backed by venture capital firm VantagePoint Capital Partners, plans in the fourth quarter to start selling an LED bulb which has a cooling system that it says will ensure long life–on the order of 20,000 hours, or 18 years, at three hours a day. The company is readying 40-watt, 60-watt, and 75-watt equivalent bulbs, with prices starting at less than $20, according to a representative. To make light dispersal more even, the LED light sources–small coin-size dots–are located near the edge of the bulb glass, a change from the typical “snowcone” shape.

Another company is Pixi Lighting, which introduced an A19 LED earlier this month. It has a color rendering index (CRI) of 90, a measure of light quality, and a color temperature of 3,000 Kelvin, or white light. The 40-watt equivalent, which uses 6.5 watts, has been in an overhead fixture in my house for a few weeks and I find the light quality is good. Lighting Sciences Group will offer two 60-watt equivalent LEDs with some impressive “feeds and speeds” slated to be available online and in Home Depot nationally by the end of the second quarter, according to the company. Rather than the snowcone shape, the bulb has a thick disk on top of a heat sink to disperse light evenly.

There will be both a “cool white” and “warm white” version. The cool white will give off 950 lumens, have a CRI of 88, consume 13 watts, and have a cool color temperature of 4,900 Kelvin. That product is already available at some Home Depot stores and costs $36.97. The warm white will give off 850 lumens, consume 13 watts, have a CRI of 88, a temperature of 3,000 Kelvin, and cost $34.97.

The design of that product reflects how manufacturers are trying to improve LEDs so that they are suitable for many more uses in a typical home. Until now, LEDs have excelled at directional lighting uses, such as spotlights or downlights in recessed cans in a ceiling. But now GE has an “omnidirectional” LED bulb where the heat sink diffuses light. Cree, too, is working on a 60-watt replacement LED bulb that prioritizes even light along with efficiency (less than 10 watts) and life.

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20058550-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech

By Runco January 31, 2011

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http://www.runco.com/_blog/This_Minute_at_Runco/post/The_Benefits_of_Front_Projection/

#1: The Big Screen Experience

Home theater enthusiasts have known for decades how impressive front projection entertainment systems can be. They are the dominant technology in commercial cinemas for good reasons and many of these translate into residential applications.

So, why consider projection for your home?

The first benefit is that you can create a big screen experience at home. While plasma displays top out at around 150” and single LCD TVs over 70” are rare, projection systems are virtually unlimited in size and at a lower cost per square foot of display. You can create screens measured not in inches diagonal, but in feet or meters wide, which translates into more compelling entertainment.

#2: Design Flexibility

The second reason to consider front projection in the home is that it fits your lifestyle and blends seamlessly with your décor. You can hide the electronics away and with a touch of a button bring a home theater to life, without having to leave the room.

There is also no thinner flat panel display than a front projection screen. Projectors are available in a wide range of sizes, industrial design styles, and personalization that allow the product to be customized to the homeowner’s personality and passions.

#3: Unmatched Image Performance

From color performance to black levels, in the right environment, projection dominates. Plus, you are not limited to a fixed aspect ratio of 16:9 high definition (which is a 1.781 aspect ratio). You can watch CinemaScope2.35:1 content without black bars using Runco’s CineWide® and CineGlide™ technology.

#4: 3D Done Right

The market excitement around 3D in the home is palpable and there is no better way to watch 3D than with projection. The big screen experience is more immersive and it enables Runco’s Constant Stereoscopic Video™ (CSV) with battery-free passive glasses for the best-in-class 3D performance.

#5: Energy Efficiency

Using power-consumption-per-square-inch calculations, projectors use a fraction of the energy of large flat panel displays. This is especially true of Runco’s InfiniLight™ lamplessLED illumination (available on the QuantumColor™ series and the 3Dimension™ D-73d).

Why doesn’t everyone have a theater?

First off, projection is seen as relatively complicated (as opposed to a buy-and-hang flat panel display, which is often a do-it-yourself project for the homeowner). This leads to people believing it to be wildly expensive, overly complex, or not even considering it as a possibility at all.

The second reason is people associate projectors with dark, cave-like rooms that can only be used for movie watching. Sometimes space, room size, or ceiling height limitations can make homeowners believe that projection will never work for them.

Once the homeowner considers projection, then the real work begins of making it work for their room.

Projection only works when the light on the screen is brighter than the brightness of the room. In other words, the “blackest” blacks of the scenes you show, will only be as dark as the screen before you turn on the projector and in many bright rooms that is simply not dark enough for acceptable viewing. Make no mistake, projection is not the best solution for every room.

Outsmarting the Sun

While the industry standards for theater brightness call for approximately 14 foot lamberts (fL) of luminance off the screen, the sun delivers a whopping 10,000 fL!

One of the ways to beat the sun and create incredible visual experiences in the home is with a flex-theater. When you can’t dedicate the space or the budget for a dedicated home theater, a flexible design that accommodates multiple uses of a single space can be a perfect compromise. A projection system combined with modular furniture and lighting control can transform a living room into a theater back into an entertainment space with a simple tap on a touchscreen.



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http://www.runco.com/_blog/This_Minute_at_Runco/post/The_Benefits_of_Front_Projection/

February 3, 2011 by Martin LaMonica

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20030596-54.html

The newer your flat-screen TV is, the more energy-efficient it is, according to a study released today by industry group the Consumer Electronics Association.

The CEA commissioned an analysis, done by technical services company Tiax, which found a significant decrease in power consumption by flat-screen TVs from mid-decade to 2010.

The average “active mode” power use of LCD flat-screen TVs in the 35-inch to 54-inch category was about 250 watts during the years 2005 to 2007, but is now closer to 100 watts, according to the study. From 2003 to 2010, the LCD power density–or wattage per square inch–fell 63 percent in active mode and dropped 87 percent in standby mode.

Plasma TVs have traditionally drawn more power than LCDs, the study said, but there was improvement in efficiency over the past few years. From 2008 to 2010, the active mode power density for plasma TVs fell 41 percent and the standby mode fell by 85 percent.

According to CNET’s TV Energy Efficiency Guide, the average power consumption for plasma TVs is 301 watts. For a traditional LCD, it’s 111 watts and 101 watts for LED-lit LCDs.

The three biggest factors determining power consumption are the size of the screen, the type of TV, and the picture settings, according to CNET’s guide. The settings for stores are designed to be very bright but consumers can save a significant amount of energy by adjusting those retail settings. Older cathode-ray tube TVs can be less efficient per square inch, but many consumers buy larger TVs when they buy flat-screen TVs.

EnergyStar and industry competition helped propel the efficiency trend, according to the study. On a technical level, the study said that increased use of LEDs, rather than fluorescent lighting, and improvements in power electronics helped cut standby power.

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20030596-54.html

February 3, 2011 By Steven Castle

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http://greentechadvocates.com/2011/02/03/super-bowl-xlv-goes-green/

The stadium’s Legends Hospitality staff will use the state-of-the-art bio-composting reactor to turn up to 2,400 pounds of organic waste a day that would have ended up in a landfill into gray water within 48 hours. The Green Machine works by utilizing non-hazardous microorganisms in conjunction with biochips. It comes in three sizes, suited to meet the needs of most industrial kitchens, and is fully self-contained.

Use of composting practices is widespread in Europe and Asia, but still rare in the American marketplace. The Dallas Cowboys organization is the first U.S. sports franchise to install one of the sophisticated reactors. Rob Phillips, president of Totally Green, said he expects significant growth of the company because the Orca Green Machine enables businesses to go green and stay in the black.

“With our uniquely advanced system, customers dramatically reduce garbage disposal costs, tipping fees, and water and energy usage,” Phillips explained. “The Orca Green Machine makes good financial sense, and because it reduces the amount of garbage sent to landfills, it makes good environmental sense.”

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http://greentechadvocates.com/2011/02/03/super-bowl-xlv-goes-green/

Fun, friendly designs depict energy use for instantaneous viewing on TVs, iPads, touchscreens and more.

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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/the_interfaces_of_energy_management/

October 21, 2010 | by Lisa Montgomery

You’ve been turning off the lights as you leave a room. You’ve waited to start the dishwasher utility rates are low. You’ve even conceded to wearing a sweater so you feel comfortable with the thermostats set back to 67 degrees. So you’ve taken the first steps toward living a greener, more energy-efficient lifestyle, but are these small changes making that big of a difference?

In the past, you had no choice but to wait for your monthly utility bills to see if your efforts were paying off. Or, you could invest in an energy monitoring systems that spewed information on a smallish tabletop display or to a site that required logging in for a look.

Today, energy management has a much friendlier face. Energy monitoring devices and systems can be integrated with home control systems so that data can be viewed on the same touchscreen, remote control, iPad, iPhone or other device that’s used to operate audio/video equipment, lights, surveillance cameras, motorized gates, irrigation systems, and other electronic gear. The information can be sent directly, without any modification, to the various home control displays; or a custom electronics professional (CE pro) can tweak the layout, graphics and labeling to suit your specific needs and to match the style of your home control system’s on-screen interface…

Below are some pictures of the various energy monitoring interfaces:

Savant



URC The Energy Detective



Agilewaves - Crestron



Control4



Elan



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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/the_interfaces_of_energy_management/

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com Oct 29, 2010

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http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/the-coolest-home-upgrades.html

Fewer people are buying new homes these days, opting instead to do home renovations - you know, just to spice things up a little.Maybe you turn your bathroom into a high-tech spa or get some smart appliances in the kitchen. Maybe you do some green upgrades or maybe you do something purely for luxury.So, what’s the new rain showerhead, the new infinity pool?

We talked to contractors, designers and developers all over the country and here are the 9 Coolest Home Upgrades.

1) Hidden, Wall-mounted TV



It’s go big or go home with televisions these days - but when you bring one of these drive-in movie-sized screens home, it can often wreck the design of the room. When a guest walks in, they won’t say, “Wow, what a nice house,” but rather, “Wow, what a big TV you have!”Well now, you can have it all - a big screen and big style. Designers are increasingly choosing to hide gigantic televisions in the wall and cover them with a mirror or artwork so when they’re not in use, you don’t even know they’re there!

When it’s above the fireplace, it can be a framed mirror or piece of art. In the photo, this Samsung 37-inch LCD is mounted in the closet behind the mirror, hidden by a removable panel in the closet.You probably want a pro to do this - TVs require proper ventilation.

2) Water Feature With Fire



Fountains aren’t new and fire pits aren’t new but put them together - maybe even add some LED lighting - and shazam! Welcome to the future. A water feature with fire shooting out of the middle can instantly remind you of that Hawaiian vacation (maybe pump some hula music into the outdoor speakers) or just ensure that you not only keep up with the Joneses but knock their socks off when they come over for a barbeque. They can be rectangular trough-like structures with broken glass in the middle where the fire shoots out, or circular like this one in the picture. They can be freestanding, attached to a pool or create a big ridge of fire in a stoned wall. Have a seat because you can control it all by remote control! OK, who wants toasted marshmallows?

3) Home Golf Simulator



Golfers have been practicing their swing at home for years but not quite like this - a floor-to-ceiling golf simulator with a massive screen to let you “play” on some of the coolest courses in the world from Hawaii to England. A golf simulator like the one from Trugolf is the ultimate addition to your game room next to the pool table and pinball machine. Not only do you really feel like you’re on the course but it helps you with your game, with sonic ball-tracking sensors and a program that gives you valuable feedback on your swing. They run from $20,000 to $60,000 or more. She winds up the swing, good form and… Four!

4) Glass Rooms on the Patio



Outdoor patios with full kitchens are getting even huger these days, with some nearing 10,000 square feet, said Stephann Cotton, owner of the real-estate sales and marketing firm Cotton & Co. They’ve got the Rolls Royce of grills, outdoor wine fridges, fireplaces, sweeping views – you name it. But guess what else they’ve got? Bugs. Cotton said his high-end clients with penthouses in Boca Raton, Fla., are increasingly asking for these glass structures, out at the end of the patio where the best views are. They’re turning them into everything from outdoor dining areas and zen gardens to man caves and music studios. A four-sided glass structure means there aren’t just northern views or southern views, Cotton says, there are north, south, east and west views!

5) Exotic Landscape Lighting



So you’ve got spotlights and those little solar path lights but this is taking your backyard to the next level and doing exotic landscape lighting. Maybe it’s uplighting on the palm trees, Cotton explained, or in the waterfall that spills over into the pool. The cool thing is, Cotton said, you can even use solar lights - so it won’t cost you an arm and a leg in electricity! Take a solar light, put it in a spotlight and turn it upside down shooting up into your landscaping or water feature like a fountain or koi pond. “Landscape lighting in the water is fairly easy to do,” Cotton said. “You get that constant reflection - It’s very romantic mood light. It produces a romantic and flickering light - just like a fire does.”

6) Outdoor Shower



No, we’re not talking about the kind you put next to the pool so the kids can wash off the sand, dirt or chlorine. These are luxurious showers, usually off of the master bath, made of high-end stone and other natural materials, with lush foliage that create your own personal Eden. You’ll already find this type of outdoor shower in resorts in Bali, Fiji and the Caribbean, but now, homeowners are bringing the resort home. “It’s a very sexy thing,” said Walid Wahab, president of Wahab Construction in south Florida. “It’s your private shower – you can get completely naked and take a shower outside in your private garden.” Wahab said the construction is getting very creative - things like a shower head coming out of a tree.

7) Master Control for Energy Consumption



You know you can control your entire house now from a laptop, iPhone or iPad. Everything from the lights and thermostat to the stereo - and even the pool. Here’s taking it to the next level - a master control for energy consumption. “This is very, very new - people are just experimenting with it,” said Ron Rimawi, who co-owns Digital Interiors in Atlanta. “It helps make you more aware and more conscious of your energy usage, so you don’t waste energy.” Basically, they’re small digital panels that connect with the utilities and track various appliances and systems in your home. They can tell you everything from your usage to the temperature and how much it’s all costing you! “We have long held the belief that the promise of the Smart Grid can only be realized if the consumer is front-and-center in the design of demand-response systems,” said Control4, which makes the master control for energy consumption…

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http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/the-coolest-home-upgrades.html