Items Tagged With carbon footprint

We reported back in July that RFXCOM were working on a new Ethernet device.  This morning we can report it has been released, along with a new "Pulse" module which can be used to monitor utility usage by interfacing to Electricity and Gas meters for example...

Bye Bye Standby have released official photos and more information on their new web interface module.  This device allows remote control of circuits in yor home, from anywhere in the world via the web...

Back in January we reported on the new Bye Bye Standby units form Domia. Now Martyn Henderson has reviewed the units that are designed to save the earth...

Domia is releasing a new range of energy saving products. Designed to help reduce carbon emissions by switching off appliances that used electricity even when in stand-by mode, the "Bye bye Standby" range will be available from the end of next month (February 2007)...

"Bye Bye Standby is a brand new energy saving solution designed to reduce daily energy consumption of electrical devices. Bye Bye Standby works by completely cutting power to the devices plugged into it when they're not in use, thus saving the power that devices would otherwise have consumed in Standby Mode. Bye Bye Standby is a new way to save energy, carbon emissions and money...

Smart home company UK Automation have announced their intentions to support and market energy saving products with their release of the OneClick intelligent power supply range. Automated Home readers can receive 10% off the IntelliPlug(tm) and Intelligent Mains Panel by using the coupon code AUTHOME2 at CHECKOUT time...

Lets Automate have contacted us to say they are now the stocking award winning Electrisave electricity monitor. The device includes a sensor that clips around he mains feed into your home and then communicates wirelessly with the receiver to report various figures on your usage. Their current 15% Off Sale (ending soon) means this device is currently available at £67.95 instead of the usual £79.95...

The electrisave will show you:

• Instantly just how much electricity you are using and how much it is costing you
• How much you may be wasting
• How much harmful CO2 you are contributing to the greenhouse effect

"Using a roof-mounted solar collector, the HSL3000 tracks the sun and concentratedirect sunlight into plastic optical fibers. The optical fibers tansport sunlight throughout a building to multiple "hybrid" luminaies. Containing special optical elements that disperse the sunlight, these "hybrid" luminaires blend natural light with supplemental artificial light. During periods of limited sunlight, a photosensor maintains a constant room illumination by adjusting the level of artificial lighting."

Idratek have contacted us with news of the additional of a very useful, and often requested feature to their Cortex software...

"IDRATEK have introduced support for utility metering. This comprises two aspects: 1. Introduction of pulse accumulation capabilities to digital input modules (in order to interface to pulse output meters). 2. Introduction of metering and multiple metering objects into Cortex (which of course then integrate into everything else provided by Cortex)...

In our experience smart homes use lots of electricity. Perhaps this is a model to at least reduce electricity costs and their associated impacts on the environment...

"According to Professional Builder, the first zero energy home costing less than $200,000 has been built in Oklahoma. This house produces as much energy as it consumes in a year and combines "renewable energy technologies with advanced energy-efficient construction." This environmentally friendly house is just a prototype and not available for sale. But as it has created lots of interest, I would not be surprised if its builder decided to add it to its catalog. Read more...

Submission by Steve Jones - I wanted to improve the control of my central heating system by utilising my home automation controller (HomeVisionPro) whilst still retaining the original central heating timer so it could easily be switched back on if the controller was down or if I needed to take HV out if we moved...

This item featured on lots of Tech News sites today, looks interesting...

"It's possible in Japan (just like in almost every other country in the world) to get solar panels to feed your house with electricity through a "control panel". Sharp presents their type of control panel today, the JH-G51X series. This panel gives you in real-time the power consumption in your house, the power charge the solar panels are generating and an indication that the energy generated by the panels is enough to satisfy the need for power in your house at that moment (we could call this the Consumption/Production ratio, and this will also give you an indication on how much kW you can sell back to your local electricity supplier and how much profit this would generate). All in all, this is a very complete control station and it's really easy to read too...

I was interested to hear about this new switch from AEI Security. The idea of an internal PIR controlled switch seems so obvious (indeed these are readily available in the States - like everything else). The clever bit of this switch is that it doesn't require a neutral wire (like all those external PIR security lights for example). It can also be used with florescent bulbs as well as non-lighting appliances (fans etc). Here's a quote from AEI's website...