Crave

These days, every little bit counts.

(Credit: Dan Ackerman)

Apple's OSX Snow Leopard update offers several noteworthy enhancements, and plenty of behind-the-scenes tweaks--but has anything in the operating system changed in regard to energy efficiency?

We took a 17-inch MacBook Pro and ran it though our standard energy use tests, first under OSX 10.5.6 (a.k.a. Leopard) and then after we installed Snow Leopard, which brought us up to OSX 10.6. Our test system, already Energy Star-compliant, had a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and we had the discrete Nvidia GeForce 9600 graphics turned on.

The differences were minor, but we were able to estimate that running your MacBook with Snow Leopard installed would use about one dollar's worth less electricity than if you kept the older version of OSX.

As our tests are based on a hypothetical usage model, your mileage will vary depending on how much time your system spends off, idle, or doing actual work (and it's worth noting that Snow Leopard includes a newer version of QuickTime, which is used in the part of the testing process). But, when added to CNET's already very positive review of Snow Leopard, it's nice to know that energy efficiency not only didn't take a hit, but also squeaked out a tiny improvement.

So, what are you going to do with that extra 95 cents? You could pick up a single nonpremium MP3 track from your favorite online music retailer, but we're going to track down one more nickel, which will snag us four cans of Coke Zero from the official CNET vending machine.

Attention mountain climbers, hikers, backcountry skiiers, and city dwellers with no sense of direction: new technology could make your handheld GPS device more energy-efficient and let its battery last longer.

Fuel cell manufacturer MTI Micro announced on Friday that it has created a prototype for an embedded fuel cell for handheld GPS devices.

The company said it will provide three times as much power as a set of four AA batteries would, keeping the GPS gadget in question powered for up to 60 hours of continuous use. That's crucial for many users of handheld GPS devices, who are often navigating territory far away from traditional power sources.

CNET News.com first reported that MTI Micro was working on a fuel cell for GPS devices last month. The embedded methanol fuel cell was ultimately unveiled at the 10th Annual Small Fuel Cells Conference in Atlanta.

MTI Micro's GPS fuel cell, which uses the company's Mobion technology, also has a USB interface so that it can be used as a power source for charging other handheld devices, such as cell phones and cameras. Recharging the cell currently involves filling it up with more methanol.

When these will hit the market is unclear: no time estimate was given for when MTI Micro's fuel cells will actually make it into a GPS device that could wind up in your hands.

There are all sorts of tech geeks working at CNET. I'm an energy geek, both at home and at work.

So how do you do the "green building" thing? Well, if you're wealthy enough to hire a sustainability architect, you have a new home built with bamboo flooring and solar panels (and lots of closet space.)

Click on this image for a photo gallery of assorted green home retrofits, including a pellet stove.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

For all the rest of us, I've assembled a photo gallery on ways to "green" your lifestyle using some examples from my home. For a very thorough run-down of resources, check out "How to green your life" from CNET's Elsa Wenzel.

Biomass, baby
Perhaps the most unusual thing I did was have a pellet stove installed last year. It's my attempt to fuel my home with a domestic, renewable fuel: compressed sawdust.

Overall, it's great. It burns hot enough to heat the downstairs of our small home and a blazing fire is just a nice thing to have in your living room.

Is it green? Yes, because it's made from a byproduct of wood mills. If the wood is harvested sustainably, then it's renewable. The Pellet Fuels Institute, an industry group, claims that burning pellets is "carbon neutral" since trees capture the carbon dioxide from burning the fuel, but that's not something I've been able to verify independently.

Unlike old-fashioned wood stoves, they don't give off a lot of smoke, which I'd rather not breathe.

I think the biggest concern facing pellet stove owners--and the industry as a whole--is availability of fuel. A few years ago, there was a shortage that pushed up prices and made it hard to find fuel during the winter.

That's being addressed because there are more mills being constructed to boost production, said Don Kaiser, the executive director of the Pellet Fuels Institute, which is lobbying for renewable energy tax rebates on pellet stove purchases.

Even without a rebate, the economics on purchasing a stove look pretty good, at least for me and my New England home. A back-of-the-envelope calculation I did showed that our overall heating bills aren't going down dramatically when all costs are included.

But we did notice something remarkable when we looked at our older bills: natural gas heating prices have shot up, nearly doubling in the nine years I've lived in my home. So with an alternate heat source, I've got a hedge against rising, or volatile, fossil fuel prices.

Of course, you need storage space for your fuel. And if you have a bad back, don't bother. You need to lug 40-pound bags around to feed the stove as often as once a day.

Efficiency
Alternative energy sources aside, efficiency is really the name of the game in the home.

Experts refer to energy efficiency as an energy "source" all its own that should have the same incentives that renewable sources like solar and wind have. Still, there are some tax incentives for doing the basics like insulation in the attic.

Click here to see all of News.com's Earth Day 2008 stories, photo galleries, and more.

Smart grid technology is starting to creep out into the power grid. For consumers, the most visible result will be some sort of in-home display that shows the cost of energy at a given time during the day.

Depending on the utility energy-efficiency program, consumers can choose to dial down their consumption themselves or have the utility propose an action as it did in a yearlong GridWise trial in the Seattle area. For example, the utility could turn the gas off from a dryer for a few minutes.

Overall, the GridWise trial found that it lowered consumers' energy costs by about 10 percent and took the strain off the grid during peak times, which could eliminate the need to build new power plants.

For starters, people can use smart power strips that cut down on the "vampire load" that most electronics pull even when they are idle.

For a more all-encompassing view on green retrofits, Elsa's piece offers many places to get more information. Also, last fall, I hosted an Ask the Editors forum on green buildings where many topics were discussed.

Another recent case study is Bill Nye (the Science Guy), who opened his 1939 home to the New York Times Magazine and offered his prescription for green living with style.

Here's a measurement you probably haven't thought of before: it takes between 3,000 gallons and 6,000 gallons of water to power a 60-watt incandescent bulb for 12 hours a day over the course of a year.

The water equation comes to energy.

(Credit: Virginia Tech)

That statistic was published on Thursday by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, who have studied how demand for a dwindling natural resource--fresh water--plays into energy.

The most water-efficient energy sources are natural gas and synthetic fuels produced by coal gasification. The least efficient are ethanol and biodiesel--two fuels booming in production because of supportive government policies, followed by rapid investment.

In terms of power generation, they found that geothermal and hydroelectric energy use the least amount of water, while nuclear plants use the most.

A United States-wide tally shows that power generation requires 655 billion gallons of water a year.

"There are several variables, such as geography and climate, technology type and efficiency, and accuracy of measurements that come into play. However, by standardizing the measurement unit (BTU, or British Thermal Unit), we have been able to obtain a unique snapshot of the water used to produce different kinds of energy," Virginia Tech professor Tamim Younos said.

Biofuels, in particular, are being increasingly scrutinized, as people start to measure the trade-offs of making liquid fuels from biomass.

Corn ethanol emits about 20 percent fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline, but it requires more water, and it has raised the price of grain and food.

Fresh-water supply is a serious concern among scientists studying climate change. Recent droughts in Europe and the southeast United States have been blamed for strains on production at nuclear and coal power generation facilities.

Your next lightbulb could come off a printing press.

General Electric's Global Research organization said Tuesday that it is the first to demonstrate roll-to-roll manufacturing for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)--a move that can dramatically lower costs.

OLEDs have been touted as the next generation of lighting and displays for consumer electronics like TVs.

They are very energy-efficient, are made out of flexible material, and can be tuned to give off different colors of light.

Printed electronics: GE's OLED lighting.

(Credit: GE)

As part of its Ecomagination initiative, GE is investing in the technology in an effort to make it a viable replacement for incandescent or fluorescent bulbs.

The demonstration of a roll-to-roll production, similar to how a newspaper is printed on rolls, has the potential to lower the manufacturing costs and make the end product cost-competitive with existing lighting, according to GE.

This printing process is being pursued by solar manufacturers as well, including Konarka, which is making solar cells from plastic.

GE demonstrated a transparent OLED, made at its research lab, to reporters last October and said it hoped to have OLED lighting devices available by 2010. (For a photo gallery of OLEDs and GE's Global Research lab, click here).

The roll-to-roll manufacturing machine will be used for further research, company said.

Luxim, which makes a long-lasting lightbulb that creates light with radio waves--has raised an additional $21 million, according to VentureBeat.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up has come up with a way to get rid of the parts inside of high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps that are often the first to fail. (Read our story from last year here.)

Trip the plasma light fantasma.

(Credit: Luxim)

In traditional HID lamps, high voltage pulses pass between two electrodes. The energy creates plasma from the ambient gases trapped inside the bulb and you get light. The electrodes, however, degrade over time. Tungsten splatters off of them and blackens the surface of the bulb.

By contrast, the Luxim LiFi lamp doesn't have electrodes. Instead, a radio-frequency amplifier pumps RF waves to an antenna inside a resonant cavity. The interaction between the waves and the crystal cavity convert trapped gases into a plasma.

"The structure creates a concentrated electrical field in response to a standing wave," explains Julian Carey, vice president of sales at Luxim told us last year.

Crazy, eh?

Luxim's bulbs get 120 lumens per watt. By contrast, many HIDs only get 90 lumens per watt. (Top-end LEDs crank out around 70 lumens per watt). Light sources are big with investors these days.

Panasonic has inserted Luxim's bulb into projection TVs. Luxim's bulbs won't be coming to your home soon because of the cost. Some of the complete lamps are also quite large. CEO Tony McGettigan brings a collection of them to meetings.

The new influx of funds--Luxim earlier landed around $40 million--comes from existing investors like Crosslink Capital and Sequoia Capital. Sequoia started in green technology investing later than most name VC firms, but has been catching up.

Hallowell International is effectively committing air conditioner fraud.

The Bangor, Maine-based company has figured out a way to get heat pumps--the basis for heating and cooling systems for much of the Southwest U.S.--to work decently in cool climates. For residents in the Northeast and Midwest, that's good news. Electric heat pumps are more efficient than fossil fuel heating systems and double as air conditioners in the summer.

The Acadia

(Credit: Hallowell International.)

In some northern states, residents can pay up to $4,000 a year to heat and cool their homes with fossil fuels, said Hallowell CEO Duane Hallowell. The company claims its heat pumps can cut that figure by up to 70 percent. The Department of Defense is installing the company's Acacia systems in 2,000 housing units in Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Traditional heat pumps don't operate efficiently when the temperature drops below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat pumps basically take heat (and air pressure) from one place and move it to another. Liquid refrigerant inside pressurized coils sucks heat from the air inside of a home and then expels it outside; the heat turns the refrigerant into a gas in the process. The refrigerant then gets re-compressed, and the cooling process continues.

To heat a home, the stages get reversed. The refrigerant gets heated outside and discharges the absorbed energy indoors.

"It is a question of how many kilowatt hours do you need to remove X million BTUs or how many therms do you need to create Y number of BTUs," Hallowell said. "That is how guys like me look at the world."

The fact that the outside air has to be warm for a heat pump to create heat, however, has always been the problem. "The industry has been plagued with great air conditioners," he said.

Hallowell's trick is a second air compressor that creates an artificial environment around the heat pump. Thus, if it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the heat pump is surrounded in a 10-degree atmosphere. The outside air molecules as a result contain more energy than the refrigerant. Heat is motion, and those outside molecules are wiggling more. The energy is absorbed, compressed, and becomes heat.

"You want the heat pump to think it's hot outside," Hallowell said. "We create a 10-degree difference."

Besides a heating and cooling system, Hallowell also sells a water heater.

It is also working on something it calls the cube, a 2x2x2 foot device that will provide the heating, cooling, and hot water for a house or condominium. Prototypes have already been built.

"The cube will blow the doors off of a lot of things," Hallowell asserted.

By 2010, Wal-Mart and its suppliers are going to be a lot more energy efficient.

The retailing giant has set a goal of getting suppliers to increase the energy efficiency of its products by 25 percent in three years. For some suppliers, the standards are a little more stringent. By 2010, the company will only sell Energy Star-rated air conditioners. Flat panel TVs will have to be 30 percent more energy efficient than they are now.

"If we achieved our 25 percent goal just in the U.S. we would save enough electricity to power 3 million homes per year or the equivalent of 10 million barrels of oil," said CEO Lee Scott in a speech to employees earlier this week. "We do not know exactly how we will get there. We do not even now if our suppliers can make times like hair dryers that user 25 percent less energy. But we do know that our approach works--to partner with suppliers, to help customers make better decisions, and to use our business model to drive out waste."

The company might also start building charging stations (powered by solar panels) so that customers can charge up their plug-in hybrids or electric cars, Scott said. General Motors has been working with Wal-Mart to install ethanol pumps, which ordinary gas stations recoil from. Families in the U.S., he asserted, spend on average 17 percent of their income on energy.

Wal-Mart has been one of the leaders among large corporations to cut its carbon footprint. The company, for instance, has tested out solar lighting and electricity at certain stores and is swapping out conventional lights for LEDs in freezer cases. It saved a $1 million a year in power bills just by taking out the light bulbs in coke machines.

It has also encouraged suppliers to change their packaging and distribution techniques to cut energy consumption as well. Wal-Mart's mandates don't work. A few years ago it told suppliers to start using RFID tags or else, and only some have. Still, the company can have a big impact because of the sheer number of products that flow through its doors.

The company's also not shy about telling its suppliers about its goals. "We will favor--and in some cases even pay more--for suppliers that meet our standards and share our commitment to quality and sustainability," Scott said.

Wal-Mart, he further added, will also try to keep the price of energy-efficient cost-competitive with standard products. The company, for instance, cut the price of some 3M air filters by $2.

"Our goal is to double the sale of products that help make home more energy efficient," he said.

What do energy hogs deserve for the holidays? Earth Aid Kits are a not-so-subtle hint to those who leave the lights on when they leave the room and the faucet on while they brush their teeth.

The customizable packages start at $75 for a dorm room, $80 for an apartment, and $99 for a home. The accompanying Web site offers carbon calculators designed to tally a household's needs and potential resource savings.

Thrown in the dryer, these balls are supposed to help dry clothes faster.

(Credit: Earth Aid Enterprises)

A family of three would save $460 in energy bills and 7,442 pounds of carbon after using a kit for a year, the company suggests.

Depending upon the need of each home, each kit includes a combination of programmable thermostats, smart power strips and timers, fluorescent bulbs, LED night lights, low-flow shower heads, tire pressure gauges, and weather sensors.

Recent college graduates launched Earth Aid Enterprises out of Washington, D.C.

(Via Sustainablog)