You can start saving on your electricity bill right away with a PowerCost Monitor. No electrician is required as the Monitor is easy to install and includes a large portable display and even WIFI connectivity allowing you to analyze trends on line with your own real time data. You can use the portable monitor to diagnose the details and compare results with others to start reducing your monthly electricity bill.
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I know that in the past few years, Google has received a lot of grief for seemingly acting contrary to their “Don’t Be Evil” motto, but you have to give credit to them when they do something that is genuinely positive, even altruistic.
Take for example, their goal to become carbon neutral and the ensuing action of agreeing to purchase power from a wind farm for the next 20 years. Of course, what this means is that this NextEra wind farm (in Ohio) will be reasonably funded for the next 20 years. If for no other reason, here’s hoping that Google is a going entity for the next 2 decades.
Yesterday Apple announced a completely redesigned Mac mini which features up to 2x the graphics performance using the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor, a new HDMI port, new SD card slot and industry-leading energy efficiency in a unibody aluminum enclosure. The new Mac mini is priced at $699 and comes in two options including preinstalled with Mac OS X and iLife or with Apple’s server software – Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.
What do the Geeks think? Basically the upgrade to the Mac mini is a miss. Apple has implemented an HDMI port and created a very energy efficient device perfect for the family room or living room using the TV as a display but neglected to include a Blu-ray drive opting instead for Apple’s standard Superdrive as Steve Jobs apparently still thinks Blu-Ray is a “bag of hurt”. Apple has skin in the HD movie and TV options with iTunes and apparently will continue to count on the digital media option rather than Blu-Ray. At least Jobs allowed HDMI on the Mac mini even with it’s “limited” resolution.
Spanish consumer electronics company, Energy Sistem has a line up of multi-function MP3/multimedia players that fall into the MP5 category.
Their latest Energy 42 Touch series feature 2.4″ TFT touchscreens that can be used with either your finger or rectractible stylus pen, built-in FM transmitter, playback of multiple formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA and JPG and BMPs, as well as e-book reading (TXT format).
The Energy also plays back video including AVI, FLV and RM, and includes software to convert YouTube and Google Video videos.
PS> MP5 is not actually a technical standard, but rather a trade name that is being pushed by some vendors to indicate portable media players that go beyond just being able to playback MP3 and/or other audio formats.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $59.99 for 4GB 4020 model. Other Energy models
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
We may not have reached a real substantive climate agreement in Copenhagen this past week, but thankfully this is not stopping companies around the world from making steps towards improving our dire environmental state. Take Panasonic for example, which is testing out ideas for an eco-friendly house that may actually produce more energy than it uses. Now that would be novel!
Aptly dubbed the Eco Ideas House, it includes things like vacuum insulation, LED lighting, hydrogen fuel cells, and of course, smart monitoring & control systems [pictured]. The folks at DVICE took a tour and wrote about it.
Wow. A plane that actually runs on solar energy?! The Solar Impulse just did its first taxi tests, all completely on solar power. So far, they were low-speed and not that impressive. What’s impressive is that it was run completely on solar power. This holds great promise for the future.
TrickleStar is a tech company that makes a line of products geared to save you money with your energy usage. We reviewed 2 of their products that go hand in hand. The main product is the PC TrickleSaver. It basically works by monitoring your computer (via USB cable) to see if it’s on. If it’s not, then it kills the power to any devices you have plugged into the TrickleSaver. You can look at the TrickleSaver as a different take on similar power conservation products like the Smart Strip.
If you have numerous devices about your office and/or main computer that you never think about shutting down when not in use, then the TrickleSaver can save you some money, by automatically cutting the power to them. However, before you rush out and buy one, you should consider whether or not this makes sense for you.
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Review: TrickleStar’s PC TrickleSaver and PC TrickleSwitch power conservation gadgetsRead More »
Google’s PowerMeter is going to see the light of day in a slightly different environment: coupled with a power-usage measuring device made by Energy Inc. Initially geared for analyzing the data from ‘smart’ power meters, Google’s software tool will now be usable with the same goal in mind.
The Energy Inc device will run about $200.
If you care about energy efficiency, saving money, the environment or just plain have a drafty house, then take a look at this handheld gadget. The B&D Thermal Leak Detector uses infrared sensors to measure surface temperatures to show you where there are temp differences and hence leaks.
The TLD100 is easy to use: just set the tolerance level, point it at the area you want to check and read the LCD display.
Just imagine saving 20% on your heating and cooling bills and having a nice toasty/cool home. The TLD100 also comes with a booklet that describes how to plug leaks.
Price: $54.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
We’ve seen Google trying their hand at operating systems but what about Microsoft trying to steal power usage market share from Google? Back in February we took a look at PowerMeter – a product from Google that allows users to monitor their power consumption via ‘smart’ meters, but Microsoft has released Hohm (still in beta) to do pretty much the same job.
Hohm will check your levels of electricity, propane and oil consumption within a given time period and Microsoft will look at adding device monitoring (something already offered by PowerMeter) and water monitoring to give a complete picture of your resource usage. When you sign up for your free account you can see how much you’re spending on energy, how it compares to similar users and how it can be reduced.
It’s just a pity they couldn’t get hold of a better domain to host it on.
