Recently in Conservation of Energy Category

Follow the money. Never take "science" at its word until you look into who makes money from the process, and who is threatened by a specific business sector's success. Knowing your business history is important to our very civilization's direction.

Are you ready to do your own research? At this point, I don't believe anybody! And no, I'm not really paranoid, I just have run into crooks, aggressive business strategists too often to believe that anyone has the public good at heart. "Eternal vigilence..." it still applies.

Control4 is a maker of home automation software, and have been pulled into the smart grid space by utility companies seeking suppliers with experience in home networking.

The Control4 Energy Management System (EMS) 100, is a combination of a Zigbee-enabled thermostat and touch-screen energy controller for viewing home energy data and accessing other home management applications. The EMS 100 package is set for launch in April.

The EMS 100 combines the functionality of a home area network controller with demand response support, with a wireless thermostat and energy management software to provide utilities a cost effective, flexible, home area network solution for their smart grid deployments.  

Leveraging Control4® Home Automation product technology, the EMS 100 is the only home energy management solution that delivers customer usage data via the smart meter and a standards-based, secure platform that can control many devices in the home.

Since research shows that information availability is essential to effective energy conservation, The EMS 100 serves as an effective communications tool, providing utilities an efficient means to alert customers of demand response events and send signals directly to devices in the home during peak times.

The EMS 100 solution features the following:

•    The Control4® Energy Controller EC-100 5-inch color touch screen display - The EC-100 delivers usage data and energy costs for the home and the ability for the customer to take such actions as powering down lights or adjusting shades to reduce energy use.
•    The WT-100 Thermostat - A simple, elegant, ZigBee-based programmable wireless thermostat that connects directly to the EC-100 for total control of heating and cooling throughout the home.  Programming the WT-100 thermostat is managed through the EC-100 display.
•    Control4® Network Management Software - Control4® Network Management Software enables the monitoring, optimization and reporting of all deployed energy controllers.  The network management tools provide cost effective Tier 1 technical support and remote diagnostic capabilities.
•    Control4® ECO Software - Control4® Energy Consumption Optimizer (ECO) Software collects, analyzes and compresses energy use and behavior data on the EC-100, then communicates with the utility's load management software to treat demand response events as a dispatchable resource.  
•    Control4® Platform - The standards-based, secure Control4® software platform is based on industry standards of embedded Linux and Adobe Flash Lite.  The platform is secured through ZigBee SE, SSL, and OpenSSH technology.  The platform is extensible, allowing third parties to develop new applications, providing enhanced functionality to the system over time. For example, utilities can develop their own applications such as the monitoring of gas and water or a home's carbon dioxide output.
•    Control4 Automation & Control -- Using ZigBee, Wi-Fi and Ethernet standards, Control4's solutions give homeowners the ability to control and automate their thermostats, lights, spa or pool, sprinklers and more, to manage power usage with one easy to use interface.

As the operating system for the connected home, Control4 brings home automation and control to the broad market. Control4 technology is at the heart of an expanding ecosystem of leading consumer electronics products designed to work together with ease.

Renewable energy is undergoing a global transformation to cope with today's environmental, economic, health and resource scarcity challenges.  The day of assuming endless supplies of petroleum resources is over, and countries and companies are looking for "renewable" sources that happen within the earth's systems:  solar beams, winds, waves, biomass and even human energy!  Innovation and commercialization of renewable energy is in full swing, offering jobs, investment opportunities, as well as business opportunities to help create the vision and implement the solutions. 

Green buildings of all shapes and sizes will become integrated into these new energy systems for both consumption of energy and generation of energy for their own use and for uploading to the grid.

Here are some of the renewable energies and services surrounding this new shape of energies to come:

Wind
Solar photovoltaics - PV
Wave Power
Geothermal
Solar Concentrator
Solar Thermal
Passive Solar

Energy Services - O&M
Plant MRO
Contract Energy Management

Distributed Generation
Micro Turbines
Fuel Cells
Micro CHP
Gen-sets
Rental
Recip Engines
CHP - Cogeneration
Trigeneration
Waste to Energy

Add to these renewable energy sources high performance energy efficiency, and you have a pathway to net zero energy buildings.  This extreme sport -- net zero energy buildings will leap forward in the 2010 decade as building and emissions regulations require greater focus on efficient operations and distributed power generation.