efficient

Got big power bills? Blame dumb electronics

It's time for your DVR to get as smart as your iPad. If designers get it right, energy use from household electronics will stay under control without sacrifices in features.

By necessity, mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, need to be clever about power, just like an efficient hybrid car uses many tricks, such as turning the engine off when idle, to sip less gas.

By contrast, always-on electronics devices, such as set-top boxes, DVRs or often game consoles, operate as if they were going top speed at all times. As more devices in the home, such … Read more

Gaming consoles consume copious amounts of energy

Electricity costs on game consoles have soared into the billions with tons of energy being wasted, according to a study (PDF) by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. However, it doesn't have to stay this way.

The moral of this study: power down when done playing.

According to the research, 68 percent of all game console energy consumed in 2010 happened while in idle mode, which equaled 10.8 TWh of energy and about $1.24 billion in electricity costs. Overall, 1 percent of U.S. residential energy consumption in 2010 was spent on video game consoles, which is an … Read more

MacBook Air, ultrabook chips coming as second Intel launch

Ivy Bridge chips for laptops like the MacBook Air, the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook, and HP Envy series will come in a second wave, Intel's CEO said today during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call.

"The first versions of Ivy Bridge that we're shipping are quad-cores," CEO Paul Otellini said during the call today. "And then the second launch of the products is the dual core, which is the mainstream notebooks," he added.

The first launch will happen on Monday, the second launch is likely in June. That's the timeframe that a … Read more

Greenpeace: Time for cloud companies to come clean

Greenpeace is pushing harder for cloud-computing companies to cut back on coal and tap into cleaner sources of electricity.

The environmental watchdog group today released its latest rankings of companies, including Google, Apple, and Amazon, that run giant data centers to serve up Web pages and services. Greenpeace now has a "clean energy index" to measure how much electricity from renewable sources is used by these companies.

Greenpeace has been pressuring cloud companies for years to improve the efficiency of their data centers, advocate for clean-energy policies, and disclose energy usage.

This year, Yahoo, despite its dire financial … Read more

SolarCity crunches data for home efficiency loans

SolarCity has rapidly grown to be one of the largest solar installers. Now it's applying its financing model to energy efficiency.

The company today announced the availability of energy-efficiency loans that homeowners can use to finance home upgrades and defray upfront costs.

SolarCity's main business is solar, installing photovoltaic panels and offering homeowners leases under which they pay a monthly charge rather than actually purchase the panels. Two years ago, it bought privately held Building Solutions to expand into services and get access to that company's software.

SolarCity has started offering home efficiency assessments to its solar … Read more

Translean brings lean processes to Excel

Leanmap's Excel worksheets help busy people apply lean management techniques to nearly any business. Translean is a set of free worksheets for reducing waste and costs in a wide range of business processes, including transportation, labor, inventory, defects, and production. While most of its worksheets are free, it also includes a couple of try-only tools from the Pro version. We tried it in Office 2010.

Clicking any of Translean's worksheets opens Excel directly, but be sure to extract the zipped download to a familiar directory so you'll be able to browse quickly to it from inside Excel. … Read more

Open-and-save convenience

Default Folder X is a system preference pane that can save you a lot of time finding and flipping through folders, especially when opening and saving files.

The primary interface pops up with every open and save dialog, across all your applications, giving you faster access to multiple folders and commands. You can jump to favorite and recently used folders (even by clicking on open windows), enter Spotlight metatags, and manage files and folders right from the dialog--so you don't need to go to the Finder for simple tasks like renaming and deleting.

Default Folder X also lets you &… Read more

Ford focuses on a more energy-efficient future (video)

Ford Motor has set a goal to have hybrids and electric vehicles make up 10 percent to 25 percent of its fleet by 2020.

SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das talked to Ford executive Dan Kapp recently about the company's alternative-fuels strategy and one of its first electric vehicles to hit the market in 2012, the Ford Focus Electric.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Ford driving into the future with energy-efficient autos."

Myths, Marketing, and Misdirection: HDTV edition

The onslaught of marketing this time of year is unsurprising, but no less unpleasant. Advertising of products can be a useful tool, informing the public of the latest and greatest.

Where it becomes offensive is when it includes blatant lies, misleading truths, or perpetrates a myth.

Don't be fooled by these deceptive practices, in this (admittedly first) edition of Myths, Marketing, and Misdirection, the HDTV edition.… Read more

GE gas plant goes zero to 100 in minutes

General Electric has a customer for its natural gas power plant that nimbly navigates changes in electricity demand.

The company today announced a deal with French energy provider EDF to supply a FlexEfficiency 50 power plant which will be the first connected to a national grid.

GE is touting both the energy efficiency and the flexibility of this new turnkey power plant which it hopes will replace traditional power generators that, like steering bulky ocean liners, take hours to ramp up and down.

The ability to quickly adjust natural gas power production makes the FlexEfficiency well suited to work in … Read more