TV with ambient backlighting

Philips has several flat panel TVs with ambient backlighting. The Ambilight FlatTV:

Using Philips’ proprietary color analysis software, the ambient light is blended to match dominant colors on the screen, extending the consumer’s viewing field. This use of custom backlighting reduces eyestrain, improves the perceived picture detail, contrast and color and creates a deeper, more immersive viewing environment.

In standby mode, the lights can be operated to any color and create a unique ambiance in the room.

Philips does not specify the type of lamp other than "Efficient low energy lamp," and the lighting can be dimmed by "Manual and via Light Sensor."

This is more evidence of Bruce's prediction that displays and lighting are converging. (From HGTV)

Altoid Set-Top Box

A prototype set-top box in an Altoid tin: YBOX. No power use figures, but no off switch either. Just the thing for all those analog TV's after the digital transition. But will you be able to get a coupon for it?

Displays Everywhere

Soon there will be displays everywhere in the home and this one from Phillips is just one example. It uses 12W when on and charging the battery (which lasts 0.8 hours), but does have an option for scheduling its on times. No mention of standby power level. At least it is not networked and so will not be causing increased energy use elsewhere.

USB Refrigerator

Not quite, but per the CEA's "SmartBrief" (citing the
New York Times), "CoolIT Systems's U.S.B. Beverage
Chiller uses power from any PC or Mac to chill beverages.
The gadget works like a hot plate or mug warmer, only
with an opposite, chilling effect.

Uses Peltier effect which I recall is inefficient compared
to compressor cooling.

http://www.coolitsystems.com/

DC power from an airline headphone jack

This company has an interesting device that "Simply by plugging in the cable to the passenger seat headset jack, the cable converts the audio output into regulated USB power."
Inflight Power

The Inflight Power cable uses an internal trickle charger that takes 3-5 min to fully charge, then outputs power to the attached device (phone, music player etc). It does this repeatedly, thus the cable charges the attached device every 3-5 minutes for 1 minute or less.

The company also offers standard "Gomatic" tips that convert a USB connector to a device-specific connector for DC power.

A Shower with a Low Power Mode

Toilets were the first plumbing fixture I'm aware of that can have standby power use (article, picture). Now, a new shower control from Kohler not only can have up to eight shower heads, but it also has a color touch screen and who knows what sort standby power.

New TI Power Controler Chip

TI has released a new chip that provides power supplies with >88% efficiency while at the same time keeping no-load power below half a watt. It also disables the power factor correction stage in standby operation which allows large power supplies with PFC to meet low standby requirements.

Mobile PV for battery charging

This seems to be a good use for PV, integrated into backpacks and gear bags for charging batteries of electronic devices while away from the grid. This could impact the consumption of AC-powered battery chargers if the batteries need to be charged less often from the AC outlet. Would a stationary version of this charger, integrated into buildings, make sense?

Fiber to the home

In some parts of the country, phone companies are installing fiber optic cables to homes and businesses to replace the copper the rest of us have. These carry voice and data. This requires an interface box and a battery backup system to ensure that the phone doesn't go away when the power does. A picture of one can be found at:


http://fiosblog.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_fiosblog_archive.html

It isn't clear that FIOS actually stands for anything.
Verizon (who uses the FIOS moniker) also supplies a wired or wireless router, and of course you need to use them as your ISP. Apparently the battery backup unit which supplies power to the interface uses 11 W constantly. Since this doesn't replace a router, this is all new consumption compared to DSL or cable broadbanc (though FIOS gives higher data rates and the battery backup).

3D display

19" diagonal, 20 layer deep, 3D display.

http://www.lightspacetech.com/

nameplate power is 830 W. Uses a DLP projector and
flat panels that go opaque in sequence to catch the projection.
Not a low power issue, but interesting nonetheless.

Laptop bag goes electronic

APC now has a PowerReady line of laptop luggage that includes the external power adapter. It's not clear whether the adapter is integrated into the bag or just a special holder for their standard TravelPower adapter. The interesting point is that it has USB ports to charge other electronic devices such as cell phones and PDAs (each USB adapter is made for a specific device).

One question I have is whether these "all in one" power supplies actually save energy (either because the power supply is more efficient or reducing the number of plugged-in power adapters). At any rate, this is another example of USB as a de facto standard for low-voltage DC power distribution.

Home Gateway Initiative

It looks like the Europeans have started an organization (Home Gateway Initiative) to develop standard specs for "Home Gateways." This is how they define a home gateway:

The home gateway is a high tech device ensuring continuity between the home network(s) and the in home connected devices and the external world represented by a wide area network (WAN).

The device that initially offered broadband access was a basic modem and has evolved to a wireless enabled modem router to meet the demand of consumers. But this equipment is not enough to meet the next generation of services, thus there is a need of a more capable device that we call “home gateway”. The home gateway is the device offering broadband connectivity to the home and delivering services to the home environment and the different devices & interfaces composing it.

Requirements
The next generation of services has created the new requirements for the home gateway to fulfill:

* Providing a remote management service for the home gateway & the devices beyond,
* Allowing the right device or application to connect to the right service platform with the right service class / Quality of Service,
* Recognizing and potentially uniting devices capabilities
* Playing a role in the local network to federate device capabilities and offer customers a better “integrated home environment”.

These requirements imply a device that is constantly monitoring the home network, which has obvious energy implications, both for the gateway itself and possibly for the other networked devices.

lopomo

lopomo

From Today's NYT Circuits section:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/technology/circuits/12fridge.html
The connections are not digital so that low power consumption
can be low--just the remote and power button. I think that having
USB and being able to put up a computer screen are logical next
steps.
--Bruce


Now You Can Raid the TV During the Commercials

By MICHEL MARRIOTT

Published: May 12, 2005

Some 50 years after the TV dinner was introduced to American homes, LG Electronics USA has created the TV Refrigerator. But it is more than something to raid while watching television.

This $3,150 refrigerator is the television.

The refrigerator, available from major retailers like Best Buy and P. C. Richard, has a 13.1-inch liquid-crystal display built into the right door (opposite a water and ice dispenser in the left door). LG designers say the appliance saves counter space.

The television includes an FM radio tuner and 1.5-watt stereo speakers, is cable- and satellite-ready (a coaxial port is built into the right door hinge) and provides inputs for a DVD player or VCR on the side of the door. The refrigerator, which is 68 inches tall and weighs 335 pounds, comes with a wireless remote control.

And fear not for your ice cream: a special cooling system prevents heat generated by the television from affecting the environs of the refrigerator's sealed interior.

Pittsburgh Post article about standby power

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a recent article about standby power, which had prominent quotes from Alan and Bruce. An interesting product they mention is an "intelligent" surge protector from OneClickPower, a UK company that is

"not, however, scare mongering beardy weirdoes on an environmental crusade, but committed and informed futurists who believe that commerce, profit and pleasure need not have consequences for the earth's natural resources, or well being."

The intelligence of the surge protector is actually quite simple. It has one uncontrolled outlet that the PC plugs into; when the power draw from that outlet drops below a certain level, it shuts off power to all the other outlets as well (which could have other computer peripherals or electronics plugged into them). I saw a similar power strip prototype from someone at Novem at the Berkeley standby power workshop a couple of years ago. In that case, the control signal came from a USB cable plugged into the PC's USB port, so when the USB bus loses power, the power strip shuts off power to all its outlets.


The idea of using the PC to control the power to its peripherals suggests the opportunity for further integration of power supply and management within the PC "ecosystem." ACPI was supposed to provide some of this integration, but in practice it seems not to be used much. Powering peripherals from the computer's power supply can be accomplished with USB, but the allowable power levels are too low for most devices (at least with standard USB; maybe the new revisions will help expand this opportunity). I think it would be worth looking at the savings potential from this integration, to see if further work here is warranted.

More PoE Potential

We have discussed PoE here before (PoE Growing Fast). While looking for information about the PoE-powered PC, I found an article from 2003 on the potential of PoE. In it Alan Stevens writes about PoE's potential for eliminating external power supplies. Although he is skeptical about PoE's ability to power lap tops, it now appears that PoE Plus may make this possible in the future.

PoE-powered PC

Just saw this product announcement for a PC powered by
Power over Ethernet. They say it draws 12 W (including the monitor!).

Are the losses in the network switch and ethernet cable
less than the losses in a power supply for an AC-powered PC?
Probably not, but there's a big advantage in active power.

Plasma TV with Low Power Modes

A plasma TV produced by Mitsubishi and reviewed by Ultimate AV has a remote that has buttons to put it into both a standby mode and a sleep mode. It is not clear what the difference is between the modes, or what their energy use is, but the review seems to indicate that the low power modes are designed to help reduce burn in problems. However, I wonder if manufacturers are also beginning to be sensitive to the public perception of the high power use of plasma screens.

Mixed Up End Uses

Not strictly a lopomo topic, but more related to the continuing fuzification of end uses:

Last year Whirlpool brought out the Polara, the first range that could keep food cold until it was time to cook it. Now Sharp has turned that idea on its head with the introduction of a refrigerator that can keep a meal hot. So into which end use does one put the energy: Cooking? Refrigeration? Miscellaneous??

ADSL2 Low Power Modes

We have often made the point that the majority of energy savings opportunities in consumer electronics low power modes will only be realized when communications standards start to include power use as a criteria. Power use is a significant part of standards for portable equipment due to the high value of longer battery life and smaller products, but until now I have not seen much interest in standards that effect mains powered equipment.

I recently found that the standard for the next version of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) includes some very prominent low power modes. As outlined in a white paper on ADSL2, first generation ADSL transceivers stay in full power mode regardless of whether they are transmitting or not. The new standard specifies two low power modes (L2 and L3) which use substantially less power. L2 mode is designed as an intermediate mode which the device can cycle in and out of at a rate that depends on the data transfer speed. The device can enter and exit L2 mode instantly without any service interruption or bit errors. L3 mode is a full sleep mode for when there is no data traffic and transition to the more active modes can take as long as three seconds.

In addition to the energy benefits of lower power consumption and reduced heat buildup in telco cabinets, the low power modes reduce cross talk and noise, resulting in more reliable connections.

It seems that most other communicating consumer devices such as set-top boxes and modems should be able to use similar low power mode transitions to reduce power use, if only standards are written to take advantage of them.

New feature in a cordless phone

Panasonic is selling a cordless phone that also serves as the key pad for a home or business security system. It has battery backup, but the Times suggests that it uses the alarm system's battery:

When power lines are down, or during blackouts, the phone system can run on power supplied by the ADT system's backup battery.

[via Gizmodo]