At CES, Smart Energy Abounds by Green Tech Advocates, January 11th, 2012
Editor’s Note: EarthTechling, always looking to bring you interesting cleantech articles, is proud to repost this article courtesy of partner GreenTech Advocates. Author credit goes to Steven Castle.
One of the big words of the week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is “Smart.” As in Smart home, smart TV, smart connectivity. Smart. Smart, smart. And that’s a very good thing, because the term is often being associated with home connectivity and saving energy.
Even for smart TVs.Panasonic is showing“Viera Smart” TVs, for example, that don’t just focus on Internet content apps, design and picture quality and easy operation, but also energy savings with auto sensors.
And it seems that almost everyone has an energy management system of some kind—or can show a concept for one. There is, indeed, a wide range of energy management options being shown at CES.
One of the coolest ones is from Echo Labs. The software comes with Mi Case Verde’s well-regarded Vera Z-Wave-based controller. (It will work with Vera 3 or the Vera 2, the latter with a firmware upgrade.) It can measure whole-house electricity use with energy monitors from TED or Blue Line Innovations. A basic interface showing total power consumed, proportional demand. A free web-based Ergy Lite interface is also available, and paid version ($40 for two years service) delivers high, low and average energy use of each connected Z-Wave device.
«View all news.