Energy Efficiency Roundup

 
Some more top energy efficiency news from around the internet:

Lighting Science Group has completed the first phase of a relighting project in Washington, D.C. that will “save the city tens of thousands of dollars each year in energy costs” (and a lot of energy). “Already results show these new light fixtures are saving energy — 57 to 60 percent — compared to the old mercury vapor and high pressure sodium lights,” said Mayor Gray. “Imagine how much energy we could save if we expand this program to all 70,000 street and alley lights across the District. That would be a great down payment on a truly Sustainable D.C.”

Dr. Sanjoy Banerjee, Director, CUNY Energy Institute, shows the Institute's prototype zinc anode battery system located in Steinman Hall on The City College of New York campus.

A new battery system the CUNY Energy Institute has been developing could reportedly save buildings a lot of energy. The system uses “low-cost batteries that are safe, non-toxic, and reliable with fast discharge rates and high energy densities” and large-scale commercialization of the battery is supposed to start later this year.

Nest Learning Thermostats are now available at 500 Lowe’s stores across the U.S. (Have any of you picked one up yet?) There are also in-store Innovation Displays you can play around with.

Also, The Nest Learning Thermostat won the Gold in the Smart Systems category at The Edison Awards. Switch Lighting’s SWITCH75 LED bulb won the Silver.

Albeo Technologies’ H-Series LED High Bay recently won the Best in Class High Bay in the “indoor” category of the Next Generation Luminaires Award, sponsored by the Department of Energy, and was presented with the award at Lightfair International 2012 (LFI). “The Albeo H-Series LED High Bay was honored for its modular design that provides an industry leading lumenrange of 5,840 to 82,893, and the capacity to replace  the majority of fluorescent and HID high bay lighting products currently on the market.”

Intematix recently released the ChromaLit XT for LED lights. “Improving on the conventional approach where phosphor coats the blue LEDs directly, ChromaLit offers glare-free, diffuse light, high color rendering and consistent light quality.  By only using a blue LED engine instead of binned white LEDs, production is streamlined and inventories are reduced.  Furthermore, system efficacy is increased up to 30%, reducing lighting system material cost and power consumption.”

Intematix also recently released ChromaLit Contour. “Intematix’s ChromaLit remote phosphor can reduce LED costs by 25% compared with conventional LED light bulb designs while offering precise color matching and exceptional light quality.  ChromaLit Contour exceeds Energy Star and China Quality Certification lighting requirements.”

The Department of Energy has released new energy efficiency standards for residential clothes washers and dishwashers projected to “save consumers $20 billion in energy and water costs” (in total, not per person :D). “The new standards for both clothes washers and dishwashers were informed by important feedback from manufacturers, consumer groups, and environmental advocates, producing significant savings while retaining consumer choice. The clothes washers standard… will save households approximately $350 over the lifetime of the appliance, while offering consumers a variety of more efficient machine choices, and as a result of the standards for dishwashers, home dishwashers will use approximately 15% less energy and more than 20% less water, directly providing consumers with savings on monthly bills.”

The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) recently “outlined specific commitments by participating countries and private sector leaders which will promote improved energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies, and increased energy access around the world.”