Energy efficiency

Think factory-built homes, and you might immediately imagine design that is wholly uninspired. But Simpatico Homes builds prefabricated homes that were inspired by Joseph Eichler, known for bringing mid-century modern architecture to California communities.

The modular homes are not only stylish, but sustainable and energy-wise too. And because they're prefabricated, they don't take as long to put together. SmartPlanet's Sumi Das takes a tour of a prototype home in Emeryville, Calif. Watch the video to see just how fast they can "set" (install) a house.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "… Read more

Armed with little more than data sets, APIs, pizza, and beer, a group of software developers this weekend set out to demonstrate the power of information technology to help the environment.

The Cleanweb Hackathon attracted about 100 developers in New York City as well as a panel of judges that included New York City's chief digital officer and the U.S. chief technology officer. The first hackathon took place last September in San Francisco.

Yesterday afternoon, 15 teams, including one from Columbia University, showed off their "hacks" and received awards. The Web and mobile applications touched on … Read more

Conventional fluorescent tube light fixtures officially need to die now that a Japanese company has announced a Wi-Fi-equipped LED fluorescent tube lamp replacement worthy of being on a spaceship.

The 40W LED light panel from NetLED is networkable to the cloud, allowing users to dim the lights to various intervals of brightness (and wattage) from a computer, smartphone, RFID-enabled device, or motion/light sensors. An iOS app for NetLED is already available, and according to AV Watch, an Android version is in the pipeline as well.

As with any other technology way ahead of its time, there's a rather large cost involved with NetLED's fixtures. Each individual main tube costs 19,800 yen ($257), but the main tube can drive up to three secondary lights, which cost 14,000 yen ($182). Then you need the primary NetLED server, which sets you back another 60,000 yen ($781) and supports up to 100 lights.

Using LED lights in an office is a wise power-saving solution that currently presents a rather large initial cost, but NetLED offers some compelling control schemes. … Read more

To home builder Kevin Casey's way of thinking, you shouldn't have to venture over the river and through the woods to get to grandmother's house. You should only have to walk across the back yard.

New Avenue Homes founder Kevin Casey is rethinking how we live by focusing on multi-generational living, where grandparents, parents, and kids share one piece of land with two homes on it. His company builds eco-friendly backyard cottages that are meant for the grandparents. SmartPlanet visits Casey on one of his construction projects in Orinda, Calif.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with … Read more

Most battery chargers today are like leaky faucets dripping out a tiny flow of electricity even when not charging your electronic gadget.

The California Energy Commission yesterday voted in favor of efficiency standards aimed at cutting wasted energy from battery chargers for small electronics, including cell phones and electric toothbrushes, to larger battery-powered machines such as power tools and forklifts.

Once enacted, the measures should improve the efficiency of chargers by at least 40 percent and save over $300 million a year in utility costs, according to the Commission. The energy savings would be about 2,200 gigawatt hours per … Read more

LED lightbulbs have a lot of things going for them: energy efficiency and longevity being the biggest selling points.

Then there are the things that make people think twice. Chiefly, the sticker price. Want to switch to LED bulbs but can't stand the infamously harsh light quality? SmartPlanet's Sumi Das rounds up some bulbs that might make you see things differently.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "LED light bulbs, just how efficient are they?"

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They said it, not me.

"Some colleagues still think that car-sharing borders on communism," Mercedes-Benz Chairman of the Board of Management Dieter Zetsche said onstage at CES today, speaking about Mercedes' new CarTogether initiative. "But if that's the case, viva la revolucion!"

To be sure, a luxury-car maker like Mercedes is not actually promoting communism. But during his CES talk, Zetsche pushed hard on a vision that the company has for a greener future that allows drivers to reduce emissions by using connected and social technology to easily find compatible passengers to share rides with. … Read more

Telematics. It's one of the hottest terms in the auto industry these days, and just about every carmaker is rushing to offer its own version of the connected car.

At CES today in Las Vegas, it was German automaker Mercedes-Benz's turn to paint its telematics picture, and it did so, unveiling its @yourCommand system.

As the company put it in a release, "The car becomes a mobile-communications center, then enables [the] driver and passengers to access all modern media and services at any time. Uncoupling from the conventional vehicle development cycles is achieved on the one hand … Read more

Marvell Semiconductor is trying to get in on the ground floor of the smart home.

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company announced a chipset that can add wireless networking to home appliances and LED light fixtures. The gear is designed to make it relatively cheap for manufacturers to make connected versions of common goods, such as thermostats and dishwashers.

A smart home that lets people remotely monitor and control appliances and electronics is likely to be a theme at CES this year as it was last year.

One of the technical challenges with making household items network-aware is … Read more