Is your refrigerator as SMART as mine?

Green energy and smart-grid technology is all the rage these days, but there is definitely something to working smarter and not harder.

GE is creating a new line of “smart-grid” enabled appliances to help homeowners tap into lower energy use. According to their release “residential housing consumes 37% of the electricity produced in the US. Appliances, Lighting and HVAC represent 82% of electricity consumed in the home.”  This means that improvement in these areas can make a large impact on not only energy use nationwide but also homeowners bottom lines.

Some of the appliances being developed by GE and others are “demand response appliances” that means they have the ability to temporarily reduce power or delay some normal operations without interfering with the consumer’s daily needs because the consumer can override any of the appliance’s actions.

Some examples of how demand response appliances will operate during peak times are:

• A refrigerator will delay its defrost cycle – a cycle that takes more energy than normal operating mode – until the energy load is lower;

• A dryer will reduce the wattage used by the heating coils

The first of GE’s demand response appliances – the new Hybrid Electric Heat Pump Water Heater will be available later in 2009. In its normal operating mode, termed “Hybrid Mode”, the new water heater will require about half the energy of a standard electric water heater and will save about $250/year in energy costs.

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Going solar?

For months now I have toyed with the idea of cancelling my standard phone service and going straight to cell. One of the hang-ups for my plan has been what if I lost power and could not charge my phone.  I think a solar cell phone charger may be my answer.  In addition, it has the added benefit of saving “vampire” energy loss for all the times I leave the chargers plugged in.

This Solio charger looks awesome. And it works on more than jsut phones. One hour of sunshine is good for 20 minutes of talk or 50 minutes of music on an MP3. Solio is one of many new solar chargers on the market.

Do you have a solar charger for your electronics? What do you think of it?

One Sunny Day

In the tech world we’re not always that fashion savvy, but we may end up saving the world.

Our newest fashion misstep seems to be solar powered shades or “Self Energy Converting Sunglasses” .  Pack an ipod and then charge on the go while protecting ever precious eyes.  Just plug the cord into whatever small electronic device and, with the look of a headphone cord, you’ve got power on the go.  It’s a nice concept, but with only one style it’s hard to appeal to everyone.  But hey, Myvu glasses have taken off, why not these? As soon as (or if) they go into production there’s always a chance for them as well.

Universal Mobile Phone Charger on the Horizon

The mobile phone industry has finally decided to create a universal phone charger by 2012, according to GSMA, an industry organization.

Currently, chargers can be brand or phone specific, generating more than 51,000 tons of waste as consumers get new phones that are incompatible. For more information on recycling phones, click here.

Another aim is to create an energy-efficient charger to reduce stand-by or “vampire” energy consumption by 50%. The group wants to create the “UCS” or universal charging solution  to use Micro-USB for charging.

Among the companies involved in this initiative are LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and T-Mobile.

Now if we can just get the printer companies to standardize those blasted ink cartridges.

Plastics and Printing

When it comes to electric lighting the talk is usually your average light bulb verses energy saving ones.  Well General Electric has changed that conversation.

At GE’s research center in New York light is actually being printed.  The technology of OLEDs that made this possible have been around (they’ve started showing up in cell phones and televisions) but this is the first machine to print the light as is.  It basically seals a set of chemicals with a plastic film and foil, and thus, there is light.

Organic compounds combined with any electric current (yes, plugs are still involved) are the basic make up of this latest scientific development.  Just imagine light posts without bulbs at the top but a complete glow from top to bottom.  With the new OLED printable light the possibilities of form in the future are now almost indescribable.