Power Saving Archives – The Green Optimistic

3 Reasons to Reuse Old Clay Roof Tiles

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 05:38:45 +0000

Terracotta tiles are the oldest type of material used in building houses even before the time of Christ. These ceramic tiles can last a lifetime if made of high quality and make a good insulator of heat. Thus, it is not surprising to prevent wasting these tiles and instead, make the most out of them […]

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How to Save Energy in the Kitchen

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 13:42:20 +0000

If you are on a tight budget, looking for more ways to cut costs or you just want to reduce more on your electric bills, and you think you have done all to save energy in your household, then you might want to consider these tips from Zero-Waste Chef. Fortunately, there’s still room for saving […]

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In 2016, U.S. Energy Spending Lowest in 60 Years

Ece Polat — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 18:13:57 +0000

There have been concerns from the public about the Arizona coal plant closing down. Some people raised questions about whether they needed the coal plant or not. Apparently, they don’t. According to a Nasdaq report, the U.S. spent the least energy in 2016 since the last 60 years. The drop in energy consumption correlated with […]

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GE Bets on Smart LED Lightbulbs, About to Ditch CFLs

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 20:17:31 +0000

GE, one of the world’s most important lightbulb maker, has decided that they need to shift to LED lighting already, in a decision that’s very detrimental to not-so-old CFLs. It’s now been long since I’ve seen people reinventing the lightbulb and betting on new tech like crazy. Each lightbulb technology has its pluses and minuses. […]

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How to Green Up Your Home Security Systems

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 18:13:33 +0000

Imagine this: small white fence, nice green lawn, some trees, a quite little and cozy house with two of three bedrooms, a nice handcrafted stone alley, a big red door, flowers everywhere, a swing entrance door. This might be my home, your home, or everyone else’s home. This is the place where families gather and […]

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Circo, Zero Electricity Dishwasher that Works in a Minute

Mila Luleva — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 04:42:29 +0000

New compact dishwasher uses minimal amount of water and requires no electricity while doing the dishes in just a minute. Dishwashers are the one and only kitchen appliance, which make sense not only in terms of protecting the environment by saving water, but also by cutting down the tedious load of household duties. However, as water […]

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Reter: The Gadget That Helps Monitor and Cut Down Energy Usage

Mila Luleva — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:24:02 +0000

We often hear about the “next best thing”, which can miraculously lower our energy bills. Smart blinds, advanced building controls, you name it. Shame that very often it is the case that the makers of most of these gadgets are simply selling hot air. Now, something, which looks quite promising, and might well cost you […]

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Wood-Based Foam Provides Eco-Friendly Insulating Option

Mila Luleva — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 19:21:06 +0000

Everyone knows that good home insulation is the key to low energy consumption. This is of course great for our environment, as the less electricity is used, the less fossil fuels are burnt. Unfortunately, most of the insulation foams are based on petroleum and are not really environmentally friendly, which somewhat defeats the purpose. Now, […]

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Polar Bears Inspire The Development of New Ultra-Thin Insulating Material

Mila Luleva — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:53:21 +0000

One of the key ways to achieve maximum energy efficiency of your house is good insulation, this is a well-known fact. But it is a common misconception that a good layer of insulating material should always be thick and bulky and it would take quite a bit of our available space. A team of scientists from […]

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Apple Could Manufacture Mac Pro in U.S. Using Renewable Energy

Mila Luleva — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:05:40 +0000

Arizona is about to be the host of the latest manufacturing plant, where iPhones and iPads will be made using only renewable energy. The giant in the electronic industry, Apple, has decided to transform a site that used to belong to a solar panel manufacturer into a million dollar “green” facility, which will not only […]

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iPhone Consumes More Energy Than a Kitchen Appliance, Report Claims

Mila Luleva — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:56:00 +0000

Every one of us, or most of us anyway, has a cell phone. Regardless of whether we recycle regularly, grow our own food or have a bio-composter in our back garden, we always fall back to that little gadget of ours, which keeps us connected to the world. A recent study, however, established something that […]

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Graphene Closer to Becoming Suitable for High-Efficiency Electronics

Mila Luleva — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:11:46 +0000

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are one step closer to turning graphene into the most desired material for producing ultrahigh-efficiency solar cells and electronics. By examining the material at an atomic level, the team was able to establish the reason why the thin sheet of carbon cannot control the electron current. Ever since […]

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TVs, Computers and Icemakers in U.S. Use as Much Energy as Mexico

Mila Luleva — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 17:03:32 +0000

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a striking report indicating that household devices in the U.S., such as TVs, computers and ice makers, use more energy than what 200 countries, including Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, use to power their economies. Thankfully, the findings of the report entitled “Miscellaneous Energy Loads […]

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Berkeley Study Proves Cloud Computing is Truly Green

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:26:36 +0000

Cloud computing has been advertised lately as the way to go if you want to show off with your green IT achievements. A new report from Berkeley Lab now proves this is true and you can even calculate how green would your company’s IT infrastructure be if you switched to cloud computing. The publicly available […]

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City of Vancouver’s 5 Tips for a Greener Life

Guest Contributor — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:21:09 +0000

The Vancouver City Council and Parks Board works hard to through on programs to support the Greenest City 2020 initiative by attracting green building projects, increasing staff commuting options, sourcing local food for city cafeterias, and planning community based events. While individual residents may not wield the same power and influence as the city government, […]

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How to Make a Bubble Wrap Window Insulation

Mila Luleva — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:01:28 +0000

Here we would like to show you how to improve your window insulation by using bubble wrap. Over the last few days we published a series of articles showing how to save energy and cut down electricity bills at home. Undoubtedly, the first step towards having an energy efficient house is to ensure that there is a good and […]

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Rethinking the Taxes Should Encourage Energy Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:00:36 +0000

A new report issued by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) suggests that a tax reform could provide various opportunities to promote energy efficiency. In addition, the report proposes a number of crucial changes that should be made to the tax code, so that all barriers are removed by the Congress. According to […]

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Long Working Hours Speed Up Climate Change

Mila Luleva — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:50:24 +0000

A new study reported by the Center for Economic Policy and Research shows evidence that cutting working hours could slow down climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The economist David Rosnick estimated that if factories and offices operate fewer hours a day, the energy usage will drop, and carbon emissions will be reduced. If […]

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How Supermarkets Could be More Energy-Efficient: Study

Mila Luleva — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:23:49 +0000

Imagine how much electricity is required to sustain a supermarket with numerous rows of refrigerators and hundreds of lamps that light up the huge space. Statistics show that big supermarket chains use around ten times the energy of a normal household. Now a new concept developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy […]

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Ten Times Longer Battery Life Thanks to New Semiconductor Material

Mila Luleva — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:46:24 +0000

Novel methods and materials that can be used in building integrated circuits have the potential to reduce power, which would ultimately lead to extending battery life of mobile applications up to 10 times. This was demonstrated by a team of researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology, international semiconductor consortium SEMATECH and Texas State University. […]

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Aerated Shower is More Comfortable and Saves Water

Benji Jerew — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:08:31 +0000

Fresh water is a dwindling resource in many lands, and in order to conserve what is available, many governments have put strict limits on water usage, from lawn-watering regulations to water-saving building codes. What this is really about is saving it for important things like drinking and cooking, as the average human being requires just […]

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Micro Antenna Boosts Mobile Connectivity and Battery Life

Benji Jerew — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:40:26 +0000

Are mobile phones and other wireless personal electronic devices green? While we don’t boast how big our gasoline-powered mobile phone generators are, we have to realize that these devices suck up a lot of energy. Generated by power plants, the electricity powering our mobile devices is hardly clean, and when you consider there are billions […]

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Online Tool Helps Saving Energy and Reducing Carbon Footprint

Mila Luleva — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:13:24 +0000

The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, and EcoLayers developed a tool that helps property owners estimate the benefit of planting trees in terms of energy saving and carbon footprint reduction. It is an online tool that uses Google Maps […]

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New LCD Panel Offers Huge Power Savings While Displaying Static Images

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 12:03:02 +0000

Usually, when you watch your LCD TV, no matter what it displays, the power consumption remains the same. A new technology developed by Japan Display Inc does different: when the image shown on the screen is static, the power consumption drops to 3 milliwatts (mW). A low-temperature reflective polycrystalline silicon TFT sits and the foundation […]

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Data Centers Could Work at Higher Temps to Save Energy

Benji Jerew — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:21:01 +0000

The internet is a huge network of interconnected computers. Hundreds of thousands of servers quickly store, locate, and retrieve data, sometimes from halfway around the world, and usually thousands of times per second. This requires massive amounts of power, greater than 1% of the energy output of the entire world. For example, Google has about […]

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Simple Drain Heat Recovery System Can Save Up to 50% Heating Energy

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 07:44:11 +0000

This morning I found an ingenious idea by RenewABILITY Energy, called Power-Pipe Drain Water Heat Recovery (DWHR). The name should say it all – it’s a system designed to recover the heat of the water going down the drain and to reduce heating costs by as much as 40 percent. The idea is brilliant yet simple […]

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2 Reasons Why White Cars Are Environmentally-Friendlier Than Black Cars

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:53:02 +0000

Today I realized something I already knew, but didn’t pay importance to: black cars drink more fuel than lighter-colored ones, and this is something the car dealer fails to tell you when you’re about to get the cash out and enjoy your first ride home. Why do you think this happens? Reason #1: It happens […]

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Study: Yahoo Mail Users Consume 11% More Electricity Than Gmail Users

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:18:27 +0000

An interesting piece of news shared by Zach from Cleantechnica struck my attention and I instantly knew I had to blog about it. It looks like Yahoo Mail users are inclined to use more electricity than Gmail users, according to Opower, “a new customer engagement platform for the utility industry.” “Based on the company’s cutting-edge […]

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Credit Suisse Zurich Datacenter Saves Up to 50% Electricity Thanks to Innovative Management System

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 30 May 2012 09:08:24 +0000

An innovative method of saving the energy consume by data centers has been invented by EPFL scientists and applied for Credit Suisse in Switzerland. The solution, developed at the Embedded Systems Laboratory at EPFL, will save up to 50% of the energy currently used. The Power Monitor System and Management uses a set of (probably […]

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ThyssenKrupp’s New Greener Elevators Produce and Save Energy

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:42:44 +0000

40 percent of the energy used by the US economy goes in buildings. $400 billion per year. These are the numbers provided by the US Department of Energy and the basis for Obama’s “Better Buildings Initiative” that passed in 2011. Though more efficient planning for new constructions is part of the deal, the main focus […]

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General Motors Saves Power and Greenhouse Gas Emissions With New Painting Technique

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:11:30 +0000

Chevrolet is seemingly seeking to implement more and more environmentally-friendly technologies inside its factories. The latest innovation is one that will reduce the carbon footprint associated with… painting the cars! The technique employed by General Motors will be applied to the new 2012 Chevy Sonic, and will consist in the fact that the car will […]

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Datacenter Electricity Consumption Lower Than Predicted, Despite Growth

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:51:14 +0000

Servers in data center have been blamed to consume a lot of electricity, but a recent study performed by researcher Jonathan Koomey shows that, in recent years, data centers did not follow the path some have expected them to.

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Clinton Advises Turning Black Rooftops White to Reduce Energy Use and Unemployment

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:55:13 +0000

Houses having a white rooftop may seem too mediterranean to some, but I guess the Greeks knew what they were doing when they painted them so. A recently published article in Newsweek shares Bill Clinton's advices on how to reduce unemployment in America. One of them is painting black rooftops in white.

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Delft Student Invents Presence-Triggered Street Lighting System, Saves Power

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:32:05 +0000

A simple energy saving tip for everyone would be to turn off anything they don't use - the first thing that comes to mind are the lights. A student from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has invented a street presence sensor system that dims street lights down to 20 percent when nobody's around.

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Microsoft Hohm and Google PowerMeter Closing Their Power Saving Services

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:09:24 +0000

It looks like the world doesn't care much about saving electricity, when gasoline is way more expensive and companies like Google or Microsoft are even thinking of charging their users for saving that power. The conclusion: Microsoft and Google have both decided that it's time to end their Hohm and Power Meter services, reasoning that they didn't have much success on the market, even if offered as free.

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Grad Student Finds Better WiFi Management That Could Save Power

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:30:24 +0000

Since its appearance on mobile devices, the Wi-Fi technology has been draining the battery of Windows Mobile, iOS and Android phones continuously. The drain is due to the fact that the more wireless devices are within an area, the more they need to be awake to make data transfers, since so-called "collisions" between them appear all the time.

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Harvard Student's Tweak Could Yield 20% Energy Savings in Microprocessors

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:59:01 +0000

Currently, microprocessors waste a lot of energy by not shutting down parts of themselves that aren't in use at the moment. Wonyoung Kim, a graduate student at the University of Harvard has designed a power saving mechanism that puts the various parts of the microprocessor to sleep right away after they aren't used.

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MN103L: The Newest 32-Bit Microcomputer From Panasonic That Has Green Features

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:18:33 +0000

Panasonic has just announced a new type of 32-bit microcomputers specially built for saving power and for flexible designs. Their main achievement of Panasonic is a built-in flash memory, which is the biggest player in the power saving feature.

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Non-Intrusive Electricity Meter Could Identify Consumers By Their Signature To Help Saving Power

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:37:28 +0000

A special issue of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology presents a power consumption monitoring solution that could soon become popular among residential users for about $200 per household.

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Diamonds Could Offer Power and Carbon Savings In Hybrid Cars' Power Control Electronics

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:31:59 +0000

So far, diamonds had always been considered perfect for making jewelery or for cutting through the toughest materials on earth. Still, due to their perfect carbonic structure, diamonds prove themselves very good electric insulators and in some cases can act just like a semiconductor.

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Greening Up The IT Sector Vital For Reducing Carbon Emissions In The Next Decade, Study Says

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:55:59 +0000

The IT industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world and the fact that its development accelerates by the year is even more concerning. Its future grow and the impact it's going to have to the economy if limits are placed on carbon emissions have been evaluated by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID) in Singapore and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.

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Microsoft Will Control Your Home's Power Savings Through WiFi-enabled Meter and Their Hohm Service

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:54:25 +0000

Partnerships are essential in today's world, as one can no longer do everything - not even Microsoft. They joined a partnership with Blue Line Innovations, a company who sells electricity meters with WiFi network capabilities. These meters will connect to Microsoft's Hohm, a free online service telling the users how much electricity they consume and when.

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Samsung Unveils LCD Monitor That Powers Itself Solely From Your PC's USB

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:04:52 +0000

Samsung has unveiled a 18.5-inch LCD display that consumes only 6.3W. The announcement, made at SID 2010, has been accompanied by a demonstration in which such a display was powered only via a USB 2.0 cable from the PC it was linked to!

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DIY: How to Build an Energy Meter for Your Stand-by Devices

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:01:09 +0000

This DIY presents a device capable of detecting the stand-by mode of low-consuming electronics in your home (like plugged-in phone chargers, without the phones attached) etc. The metering starts when the devices enter stand-by and stop when they start consuming in large amounts.

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