George Dearing dot com

GE Testing Energy Efficiency Of Smart Homes

"The $5 million Department of Energy program will equip homeowners in the western U.S. with GE's Nucleus home electricity management system, with LED lighting, and with connected appliances. Homes will also be equipped with solar panels.
The project will evaluate whether the combination of on-site power production through solar and energy management technology can reduce energy usage by 70 percent in both new and existing homes, according to GE.
Basing calculations on U.S. averages of about 11,000 kilowatt-hours of power consumption per year and a rate of 11.33 cents per kilowatt-hour, the savings from a 70 percent reduction would be over $850 a year."

Filed under // energy+efficiency renewable+energy smart+homes solar

Posted August 24, 2010

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Key To Energy Savings Is Dumping The Energy Hogging Stuff

Perhaps more to the point, people seem conditioned to think of energy savings as they would of saving money: that they can save by simply reducing use, the study found. But the biggest energy savings are tied to replacing things that use a lot of energy with things that use far less.

via green.blogs.nytimes.com

Filed under // energy+efficiency

Posted August 18, 2010

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Historic Efficiency Agreement For Appliances Signed

via cleantechnica.com

"A historic agreement has been signed by a consortium of appliance manufacturers and environmental groups that will keep 550 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere over 30 years by setting new Federal minimum standards that raise energy efficiency increases nationwide in a range of consumer appliances by 2014.'

Filed under // energy+efficiency

Posted August 3, 2010

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Apple's New Battery Charger

via green.venturebeat.com

"A lot of other chargers continue to suck power even after the batteries they carry are fully juiced. Apple’s spin the product consumes 10 times less electricity than these rivals — about 30 milliwatts once its charge cycle is finished (as opposed to 315 milliwatts), the company says. If the batteries included in the purchase are charged regularly, they can last for upwards of a decade."

Filed under // energy+efficiency

Posted July 28, 2010

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Follow the Savings Not the Jargon When Greening IT

via earth2tech.com

"Forrester says it’s up to the Chief Information Officer’s leadership to show his/her company that “green IT” isn’t about jargon, but about savings. Forrester recommends using real world case studies as examples, like those from Nike, AT&T, the City of Palo Alto, and UPS, who have shown significant financial savings, via the energy savings of green IT." [Katie Fehrenbacher]

Filed under // CIO energy+efficiency green+IT

Posted July 28, 2010

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The Government's Landlord Wants Smarter Buildings

via fastcompany.com

"In an experiment that would make Cass Sunstein proud, the PBS is working with designers at IDEO and researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to install a giant screen in the lobby of the San Francisco Federal Building displaying its real-time levels of energy use. The assumption is that if you give people the information, they’ll take steps to rein in their consumption. “We want to see if we can change the behavior of people,” Santella said. Down the road, he hopes to stick a widget on employees’ screens depicting their personal usage. “We want to bring this down to human scale.”

Filed under // energy+efficiency green smart+buildings

Posted July 23, 2010

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Motel 6 Gets LEED Certification

via fastcompany.com

"..green building has found its way to the bottom of the food chain. LEED certification--and green building in general--won't be a distinguishing characteristic for long. Soon enough, it will be a prerequisite for all new structures, whether the clientele care or not."

Filed under // energy+efficiency LEED

Posted July 22, 2010

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Did Cash for Appliances Work? [EnergySavvy.com]

via energysavvy.com

"The number one predictor of whether a state rebate program sold out quickly didn’t have anything to do with how generous the rebates were. It actually turned out to hinge on the program’s design. Virtually all the “fast” states required consumers to pre-reserve a rebate application before making a purchase. These states set up websites and call centers that “opened” at a certain date and time, creating an “event” that turned into a feeding frenzy of activity, before closing down within days, or even hours."

Filed under // energy+efficiency

Posted July 21, 2010

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