LifeHacker’s Energy Saving Tips

Check out this interesting  post on LifeHacker about ways to significantly reduce your energy bills.

Check this post from Jason Chen   He managed to cut 1/3 from his energy bill.   You might find some good tips there …

Remember; unless your energy is from a renewable source, reducing your energy use also lowers your carbon footprint and can save you some money.

Via:  LifeHacker  LINK

Braxton's Animal Works (Devon, PA) Goes Green with LED Lighting

Braxton's in Devon, PA (western suburbs of Philadelphia) is a 3rd generation family business.  We buy a lot of our dog stuff there ... one day I noticed a sign outside touting their "green-ness" by installing LED lighting.

Their lighting solution came from LED Saving Solutions of Devon, PA..
After installing LED lighting their electric  bill went from over $750 / month to around $100 / month.  Projected lifetime savings are over $260,000 as well as eliminating 100,00 lbs of carbon emissions.


Via: LED Saving Solutions LINK

Philadelphia is becoming well known for  its green activities ... including solar powered compacting trash bins (the BIG BELLY) that can signal when they are full and need to be emptied.

They are also upgrading standard traffic signals with ones that contain LED light "bulbs".

LEDs are even more energy efficient and longer lasting than CFBs - and do not contain any mercury.

" ... funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG).  ... reducing energy use and costs, ... and furthering the City’s sustainability priorities."

"Replacing 85,000 traffic lights with new, low energy LED lights."


Via:  Phila.gov LINK

On-Line Shopping May be a Greener Experience

For those looking to be green and keep their carbon footprint as small as possible ... the question of what kind of shopping is "greener" - Local or On-Line?

"Shopping online reduces environmental impact with 35 percent less energy consumption."

" ... a study by Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Institute ... looked ... at Buy.com's e-commerce model, ... found ... online ... "reduces environmental impact with 35 percent less energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions than ... the traditional retail shopping model.""

"... this isn't going to work for every online retailer, or compare to every brick-and-morter store in your area, but still, these results are surprising." " ... approximately 65 percent of total emissions generated by the traditional retail model stemmed from customer transport to and from retail stores."


Via: SustaineLane LINK

Lenovo boasts 'greenest' laptops on the market

Lenovo's L412 and 512 are " ... are being touted as highly durable and as being the “greenest on the market.”"

" ... Labeled with an Energy Star 5.0 rating, ... notebooks are 40% more energy-efficient than previous ThinkPads. Several parts of the machines ... made from post consumer content, including old IT equipment and office water jugs that make up the LCD cover, palm rests and top/bottom case. ... laptops are shipped in almost 100% recycled packaging."

Via:  ZDNet.com  LINK

Idling buses  and trucks waste lots of fuel and add to pollution.  Can technology provide a solution ?
You bet !

" ... The Provider, a school bus operator in Brentwood, N.H., ... first embraced wireless navigation technology from Navman Wireless ... thinking that it could helps with better tracking the mileage and hours related to individual busing contracts."

" ... realized that excessive idling ... could be addressed and controlled with the technology. ... When an alert is triggered, dispatchers call the driver in question ... because idling wastes fuel. ..."

" ... Navman Wireless, says his company ... tracking 110,000 vehicles. ... Navman Wireless estimates that it saves about 552 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions across the fleet it manages. Most of those savings are calculated based on reduced fuel consumption."

Via: SmartPlanet LINK

Besam - Eco Friendly Products from an Eco Friendly Company

While at the National Geographic Museum in DC I noticed that their entrance doors are made by Besam and were marked as "low energy power operated door".

Some businesses are reluctant to not have the door always open to make the store more inviting and easier for customers to come in - this wastes tremendous amounts of energy and money in heating and cooling costs.

" ... Besam strives to manufacture ... automatic entrances in a manner that limits their impact on the environment, ... "

" ...study conducted .... energy use and customer counts were monitored before and after the installation of Besam Holland’s “Green Door” ..."

" ... cost of heating the shop was reduced by 43%. ... there was virtually no decrease in the number of customers entering the store after the installation of the automatic sliding door."

Automated doors have been shown to both save energy and keep store traffic at high levels.

Via:  Besam.com LINK

Ghost or vampire power users are devised that are "turned" off but still draw power.  Included in this  category are batter charges used for cell phones and the like. 

Most people leave these charges plugged in all the time and they are "burning power" all the time.  Feel the charger and it is usually warm .... wasting electricity.

"AT&T estimates their customers consume enough energy by leaving idle phone chargers in the walls to power 24,000 homes for a year. ... their new ZERO charger .... Available at the end of May ... will sense when it is not connected to a cellular phone and will block the power supply from the socket."


Via: SmartPlanet LINK

Google - Leads in Energy Efficient Data Centers

Google has been at the forefront of energy efficiency quite some time.  They recently were written up for their large rooftop solar array.  Google has lots of data and metrics to determine the average energy "impact" per search.

Read on to learn more about Google current initiatives.

" ... Data centers ... account for most of Google’s energy needs ... take our energy use seriously and, from the very beginning, Google has focused on designing systems that use as little energy as possible ... operating what we believe to be the world's most efficient data centers."

" ... Google-designed data centers use about half the energy of a typical data center ... energy used per Google search is very small ... currently use about 1kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average query ... roughly .2g of CO2 ... often take the place of more carbon- and time-intensive activities, such as driving a car to a library or spending hours navigating shopping malls."

" ... commitment to sustainability goes beyond just electricity and carbon ... two Google

facilities currently run on 100% recycled water, and by 2010 we expect recycled water to provide 80% of our total data center water consumption ... share our own data center best practices and are encouraging our industry peers to do the same ..."

" ... if all data centers operated at the same efficiency as ours, the U.S. alone would save enough electricity to power every household within the city limits of Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C."



Via: Google LINK

Levant Power Corp. - Vehicle Energy Recovery Technology

Hybrid cars are able to recover energy from braking by turning the brakes into a generating device ... Levant Power is using the energy in road bumbs to turn shock absorbers into a similar energy recovery device.

" ... identified an alternative energy source previously untapped ... the suspension system. The energy of a vertically oscillating vehicle is significant and currently dissipated as heat through shock absorbers. ... GenShock, recovers this energy and utilizes it for fuel economy gains ... extending a vehicle's range ... improves ride quality ... "

"Hybrid vehicles with GenShock installed can increase their fuel economy by up to 10 percent ... capturing suspension energy and using it to charge the vehicle's battery, it reduces the overall carbon footprint of the car."

"GenShock, is currently being produced for the defense industry. We will be offering our first public products as trucking aftermarket sales, later becoming a standard feature on select vehicle lines."

Via:  Levant Powwer LINK

ZigBee Alliance

 " ... ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard."



"... goal ... is to provide the consumer with ultimate flexibility, mobility, and ease of use by building wireless intelligence and capabilities into everyday devices ... "

"ZigBee Smart Energy Certified Products ... represent solutions across the entire efficiency ecosystem – energy services portals, meters, displays, thermostats and load controllers. Each product may wear the ZigBee Certified logo and the green ZigBee Smart Energy icon so that they may be easily identified in the marketplace."


Via: ZigBee LINK