Google Adds Home Efficiency Tips To PowerMeter

Google.org has tacked on energy-efficiency recommendations to PowerMeter, one of many features planned for its home energy Web application.

The latest feature, accessible from the Take Action button, gives people a way to organize tasks for making a home more efficient. The recommendations are generated based on the type and size of a house as well as some basic electricity usage information.

The latest feature for Google PowerMeter is a list of recommendations to make a home more energy efficient.

As people take more steps to reduce energy use, the application generates new recommendations, said Google PowerMeter product manager Ryan Falor in a company blog.

PowerMeter graphs out real-time and historical electricity usage information of a person's home. The idea behind energy monitors is that when people get more detailed data on electricity use, they can take steps to conserve.

Google has deals with a number of utilities where smart meters feed usage information into PowerMeter, giving people some insight into how much energy different appliances use and how their usage compares to neighbors. Google also has deals with a couple of whole-house electricity monitor makers to display information on PowerMeter.

Over time, Google plans to add a number of other features to PowerMeter, which is being developed through the Google.org philanthropy. In addition to electricity monitoring, the company is considering getting data from gas and water meters, company executives have said.

Adding recommendations pits PowerMeter in more direct competition feature-wise with Microsoft's Hohm application. If tied to a smart meter or home electricity monitor, Hohm can gather and display energy data. But it also includes a long questionnaire that people can fill out to get recommendations on how to make a home more energy efficient.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20015178-54.html?tag=mncol;title#ixzz0yDrCehkW

Self-Cleaning Solar Panels Field-Tested On Mars

Cleaning an array of thousands of solar panels could be done with a mini shock wave, rather than manually washing each one, according to a researcher.

Boston University professor Malay Mazumder on Monday offered details about a material that can be used to enable automatic cleaning of solar photovoltaic panels, in a presentation at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

Keeping solar panels clean is serious concern, particularly for large-scale solar PV farms in dusty desert areas. The build-up of dust and particulate air pollutants blocks the sun and can significantly decrease the output of solar panels.

Right now, solar farm operators clean panels with water, which is a scarce resource in sunny desert areas. Mazumder proposed an electrically sensitive coating that would be placed on the glass of PV panels or a plastic sheet. Sensors that monitor dust concentrations would send an electrical charge through the material, causing a wave to ripple across the surfaces of the panels and send dust to the edges.

Mazumder said the process, which was originally developed for moon and Mars missions, would remove 90 percent of accumulated dust in two minutes.

"A dust layer of one-seventh of an ounce per square yard decreases solar power conversion by 40 percent," he said in a statement, adding that the technique could be used in commercial or residential systems.

The growth of solar power creates a need for cleaning services and methods, particularly for large-scale installations where investors expect a certain output.

For the high-tech coating and sensor system to be used by commercial energy project developers, it cannot add significantly to the maintenance costs associated with panel cleaning.

Is This The Burger Joint Of The Future?

NEW YORK--The team behind 4food, a burger shop opening next month on Madison Avenue and East 40th Street in midtown Manhattan, might have put forth the most idealistic concept that the fast-food industry has yet seen. There will be custom online orders with more than 140 million possible combinations, employees armed with iPads, free Wi-Fi, and a socially minded "green" mission that aims to use local, high-quality ingredients and compost everything that's thrown away.

Having gone to a preview event hosted by Gawker Media gadget blog Gizmodo on Thursday night, and having spent about an hour on 4food's Web site the prior day to lovingly craft a customized salmon burger on a brioche roll with Brussels sprouts, gruyere cheese, and hummus, I can say that the food component of 4food really is surprisingly good.

The three-level space is impressive, with power outlets at every seat (your receipt comes with a Wi-Fi password) and a massive video screen that projects, among other things, recent tweets and public Foursquare check-ins to the venue. When 4food opens in the second week of September, there will be a half-dozen iPads for self-service orders, as well as iPad-equipped employees walking around to speed things up.

Then there is the marketing strategy. Rather than spend money on traditional marketing, 4food encourages customers to save their favorite burger combinations in the 4food system, give them catchy names, and use the likes of Twitter and Facebook (and even YouTube video ads) to convince their friends to buy them. Every time a custom burger is ordered, the creator receives 25 cents in 4food store credit. A burger normally costs between $5 and $10, depending on the ingredients, which is fairly tame by New York standards but still expensive enough so that regulars will probably appreciate the successful-marketer discount every once in awhile.

Of course, it's green. 4food openly professes a devotion to high-quality, locally sourced ingredients, and all packaging for food and drinks--which, by the way, are primarily fruit tea-based concoctions without a super-size cola in sight--is biodegradable. A massive compost machine in the restaurant's basement can handle 400 pounds of waste every 24 hours. All floors are made of concrete to mitigate heat, and a set of high-tech shades on the restaurant's exterior can move around to let in sunlight while keeping things cool.

The problem for 4food, which hopes to open 10 to 12 new restaurants in the New York area in the next few years, obviously isn't going to be environmental sustainability--but financial sustainability is less certain. Operating a large food establishment in midtown Manhattan means paying some rather exorbitant rents even for an establishment that isn't paying a premium on fresher ingredients and compostable supplies. Currently, 4food is venture-backed by investors who specialize in both the restaurant industry and tech innovation (both digital media and green ventures) and plans to raise another round as it prepares to expand.

A roadmap to profitability? "As soon as possible," the management team told CNET. We'll see about that one. In the meantime, yes, the salmon burgers are delicious.

Geneco's VW Beetle Gets Pep From Poop

We've seen cars powered by some crazy things in the past. electricity, chip fat, water, air, hydrogen--as of today, you can add farts to that list.

Engineers from Geneco, a sustainable-energy company owned by Wessex Water, have unveiled a modified Volkswagen Beetle that runs on compressed methane gas extracted from human waste. A Dung Beetle, if you will.

Biogas is generated when filth from Wessex Water's sewage works is put into a decomposition container, where oxygen-starved bacteria break it down to produce methane. The methane is then harvested and placed in tanks inside the boot of the Beetle, where it can be used to power the car's slightly modified engine.

Read more of "Fart-powered VW Beetle tested in UK" at Crave UK.

'Smart Window' Maker Soladigm To Build Factory

Soladigm, a start-up that makes windows that can adjust to block light and heat, plans to build a factory in Mississippi.

The company, which is bankrolled by Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners, will make electrochromatic windows at the plant which will employ about 100 people in Olive Branch, Miss. in two years.

The three-year-old company has developed a material that is coated onto glass to block out light and heat, an effective way of insulating and reducing a building's energy load.

"The product is dynamic glass--it's like sunglasses that transition based on light," CEO and semiconductor industry veteran Rao Mulpur told the San Jose Mercury News. "We can change the tint from clear to dark on demand. We can control how the glass changes based on light, temperature, and time of year."

That area of Mississippi has a manufacturing culture and is close to Memphis, which allows for efficient shipping of its products, he said. The company, which was lured by $40 million in state incentives, is expecting to raise $130 million from private sources, the CEO told Earth2Tech.

Automatically tinted glass products have been under development for years but are not widely used. Soladigm is using a different thin-film material to coat glasses which is more effective at blocking out heat than other materials, according to a patent from Soladigm uncovered by Nano Patents and Innovations.

According to the patent, the company's electrochromatic glass uses alloys that use antimony or other base metals or lithium alloys.