Smart-grid technology for your home
Posted on January 8th, 2010 by Daniel
I was watching some of the videos from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and I thought it would be cool to show you guys what we can expect to see in the near future, when it comes to green tech for your home or business. Here are a couple of clips (via cnet.com)
Control4’s Energy Management System (EMS) 100 allows you to see and control your energy usage. The system works by aggregating energy usage data from several locations in your home, and displays the electricity usage information in an intuitive way, so that you will finally understand that your 12-year-old consumes 30% of your energy bill from all the electronics he runs in his room… or it can tell you that it’s time to upgrade the 15-year old washer and dryer you have in your laundry room.. you get the idea.
Tenrehte Technologies‘ Picowatt Smart Plug – a wi-fi enabled device that you can plug-in your appliances/electronics into. This allows you to remotely control the power for your appliances, while you’re at the office, or away on a vacation…simple.
We love green tech. We are also here to serve you, so if you need a nice energy audit for your home or small business, or you are thinking of doing a little green remodeling (and maybe then use the devices above in your newly-remodeled eco-friendly home), give us a holler by starting here and entering your zipcode to find green contractors in your area.
Tags: energy usage control, smart grid
This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Featured Content, Green Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Smart-grid technology for your home
Get Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)
Get Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)
Posted on January 7th, 2010 by admin
So you’ve been thinking about doing what you can to go green, and you want to start with something simple like lighting. Using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) instead of regular incandescent light bulbs is the right approach because CFLs have a higher efficacy and operating life. Efficacy is a measurement used to describe how much lighting (measured in lumens) can be produced by a bulb after giving it a certain amount of power (measured in watts). In other words, the higher the efficacy the better.
Regular light bulbs have an efficacy of 10-17 lumens per watt, and an average operating life of 750-2500 hours. CFLs on the other hand can generate about same amount of lighting by using approximately a quarter of the power that regular bulbs use, and CLFs can last up to 10 times longer. In addition CFLs produce only about 10% of the heat that regular light bulbs produce.
Sounds great right??? …ehm one of you may say, but wait, I was at the store the other day and I saw that the cost of CFLs was 3 to 10 times MORE than regular bulbs that can give me the same amount of lighting… I wanna save money, CFLs are not for me.. ok, well let’s look at this closely using a US Department of Energy post on CFLs… assuming you leave the light on in a room for 6 hours per day, and your electric utility company charges you at a rate of 11.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, you can look at the table below and see that you would have actually SAVED MONEY by buying CFLs:
25-Watt Compact Fluorescent 100-Watt Incandescent Cost of Lamps $3.40 $0.60 Lamp Life 1,667 days (4.5 years) 167 days Annual Energy Cost $6 $25 Lamps Replaced in 4.5 years 0 10 Total Cost $29 $134 Savings Over Lamp Life $105 0 Yep, you would have had $105 in your pocket after 4.5 years… I don’t know about you, but I would gladly spend that on Chipotle over the course of 4.5 years.. ok we digress, but you get the point: CFLs for the win! For more information on CFLs and a great buyer’s guide, visit this great Energy Star website. And as always, if you are interested in getting a more thorough energy efficiency audit for your home or small business, where you can learn about other things you can do to become part of the solution, start you search for an auditor on sobuka.com by clicking here.
Tags: Business, compact fluorescent lamps, Do it Yourself, Home, Lighting
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Do it Yourself, Featured Content, Green Remodeling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I still need to do this around my house
Window Weatherization
DIY Steps to Go Green – Window Weatherization
Posted on December 27th, 2009 by admin
Did you know that there are many simple things that you can do on your own to weatherize your home and save money on your heating bill? One starting point is with your windows. This applies to most windows, but it’s even more useful for people that are living in an old drafty house with original windows. Ok, let’s get started.
Materials
- seal and peel caulk, like the one here
- heat shrinking film, like the one here (this kit includes 2 rolls of double-sided tape)
- scissors and a hair-dryer
The Process
Clean your window first. You want to wipe the windowsill and window frame with a clean wet rag, and remove any moisture with a clean dry rag. Cleaning thoroughly allows for the double-sided tape to stick well.
Apply the caulk to any gaps you have between the window and its frame. This applies to all the windows that you do not intend to open during the Winter. If the gap between the window and the frame is large, just fill it up. The caulk can be easily peeled off later, so don’t worry about losing the chance to open your windows when Spring comes around.
Apply the window film to your window. This process requires several steps:
- Apply a single piece of double-sided tape all the way around your window, by starting with the windowsill and going around the entire frame of the window. Make sure you don’t leave any openings at the corners. You should have a single piece of tape spanning the entire circumference of the window when you’re done. Wait a minute or two for the tape to create a nice bond with the windowsill and surrounding frame.
- Cut out a good portion of the window film such that it covers your entire window, and it has some excess material all-around, just in case you may need it. Attach the window film to the double-sided tape, all around the window. A good technique is to start at the top middle side of your window, and work your way outward to the left and right sides, and then finish up at the bottom, on the windowsill.
- Use a hair-dryer to shrink the film. Start at the top edges/sides, and slowly work your way towards the middle. As you heat-up the window film, you’ll notice the film starts to shrink, making your insulation stretch tight like a drum.
- When you’re done stretching the film, and if you’re happy with your results, carefully trim the excess film.
You should now have a nice clean and clear sheet of film covering your entire window, thus allowing you to keep that heat that you pay for inside the house. We’ll add a video to this article as soon as we get to it, so hopefully it will make the process even more clearer and easy to follow
Tags: weatherization, windows
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 11:58 am and is filed under Do it Yourself, Featured Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.