August 11th, 2009 by Bruce Rowse
Building Automation Systems (BAS), otherwise known as Building Management Systems (BMS) or Direct Digital Control (DDC) systems don’t save energy. But their operators can.
A BAS system will often cost the equivalent of around one year’s worth of energy bills. But unless its well operated it may never pay itself off.
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Tags: BAS, BMS, building automation system, building management system, cost, DDC, direct digital control, operation, saving energy
Posted in control | No Comments »
August 7th, 2009 by Bruce Rowse
Research recently undertaken by Siemens says that the lifecycle efficiency of LED lights is equal to that of compact fluorescents.
Measuring the lifecycle efficiency involves looking at the energy to manufacture and dispose of the product, in addition to the energy it uses whilst in operation.
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Tags: CFL, compact fluorescent, efficiency, LED, lifecycle
Posted in Lighting, energy efficiency | No Comments »
August 6th, 2009 by Bruce Rowse
The Climate Savers Computing initiative aims to reduce computer energy consumption by 50% by 2010. Organisations on its board of directors include Dell, Google, Intel, HP, Microsoft, CSC and WWF. It has hundreds of members, all committed to purchasing energy-efficient PCs and servers for new IT purchases, and to broadly deploying power management.
The CSC website includes case studies on deployment of aggressive power management across entire organisations, and a range of guides for activating power management settings. It has a large FAQ section, and if you want to learn about power management the chances are you will find an answer on this site.
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Tags: climate savers computing, power management
Posted in Computers and office equipment, energy efficiency | No Comments »
August 3rd, 2009 by Bruce Rowse
Nissan has just unveiled the prototype of its first electric car, the Leaf, available in Australia from 2012, and in Japan and the USA from next year. It will have a range of 160kms, a top speed of 140km/hr and a 5 to 30 minute rapid charge. The car is a 5 door hatch. Incredibly the battery pack will only weigh 200kg.
Nissan Leaf electric vehicle
By going for a rapid-charge battery the Leaf is competing with the Better Place model of physically changing the battery once depleted for a fully charged battery. Presumably you could drive into a service station with rapid charge capability and be fully charged in 5 to 10 minutes, not an unacceptable delay if you don’t have to do it that frequently.
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Tags: 2012, electric car, Nissan Leaf
Posted in transport | No Comments »