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Greener Gadgets '10: Smart Grid Home Controller
Residential smart grid technology goes wireless with a notable entrant in the 2010 Greener Gadgets Design Competition: The Smart Grid Home Controller.
Mon, Feb 22 2010 at 7:54 AM
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Two of the finalists in this Thursday’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition that I’ve featured thus far — Rocco, the Energy Pal (a kinetic energy-generating rocking horse for kids made from recycled plastic) and the Automan 500 Subwoofer (a speaker cabinet/ottoman for adults made from recycled car tires) — boast a certain eco-aesthetic appeal: They're both tech-y, cool looking, and made from recycled materials. 
 
Today I’m highlighting an entrant, the Smart Grid Home Controller from Philadelphia-based BuLogics, that has zero design-y elements (it’s a green gadget through and through) but serves quite an impressive purpose: the seamless integration of emerging smart grid technology with wireless technology.
 
In a nutshell: when a home's smart meter starts to get distress signals from the local energy grid (during a summertime heat wave, for example, when hundreds of AC units are simultaneously sucking power), a signal is sent to the Smart Grid Home Controller that then shuts down select appliances and alerts you via cell phone text or e-mail though Z-Wave Area Home Area Network (HAN) technology.
 
Huh? Perhaps the folks at BuLogics can explain how exactly the Smart Grid Home Controller works a bit more clearly: 
 
1. Event: Utility company sends a demand change request via a Smart Meter outside of a consumer's home (indicating peak load times and prices increases). 
2. Response: Smart Grid Home Controller receives request and communicates wirelessly to Z-Wave's HAN automatically shutting down select appliances based on consumer user preferences. 
3. Monitoring: Z-Wave's HAN automatically sends text message via mobile Smart Phone or e-mail, notifying consumer of event and effects on energy efficiency. 
 
For non green-geeks, this may all be a bit hard to digest, but the goal of the Smart Grid Home Controller is to make tracking and controlling home energy useage easy for everyone ... easy to the point where you don't really have to lift a finger to ensure that your monthly utility bills are decreased and that your household carbon footprint is dramatically reduced. To find out more about the Smart Grid Home Controller, head over to BuLogic's homepage. 
Images: BuLogic
 

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Comments: 5
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anonymous
Skybox Jan 02 2011 at 5:42 AM

I was amaze to see your post, Your gadgets makes people job easy, and convenient.Nice post.

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anonymous
Sam Feb 26 2010 at 8:05 PM

I'm afraid we must be careful which technologies we use. This one is akin to putting a cell phone tower inside your house! The emission levels will be similar inside the hosue than if there were a tower outside, just like WiFi and cordless phones
Here is some information
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20091129_non_smart_meter_uk.asp

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anonymous
M. White Feb 26 2010 at 8:57 AM
These wireless 'smart home controller' devices are neither 'green' nor 'smart'. There is nothing 'clever' or 'smart' about involuntarily subjecting everyone, whether young, old, and regardless of health status, to the unremitting exposure to the microwave frequencies emitted by these devices. For those who have already become electrosensitive these monitoring devices are to be avoided like the plague. The international REFLEX Study found that the non-ionising microwave radiation is capable of causing
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genetic damage. It is not a good idea to forcibly irradiate the whole population with these so-called 'smart-meters'. For information about the adverse effects of microwave radiation I suggest that you read ''The Bioinitiative Report' available at this URLwww.bioinitiative.org.
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anonymous
Dr Andrew Golds... Feb 26 2010 at 7:45 AM
I agree with Ingrid. If anything looks too good to be true, it probably is. Many people have already voiced their concerns about the effects on health of non-ionizing radiation, particularly when the exposure is prolonged or continuous. There is a risk of developing electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), which already affects about 3 percent of the population, this number is growing and we do not know what the limit is. Unfortunately, once you have it, it is incurable and you may not then be able
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to use a cell phone or even a cordless home phone without experiencing one or more of a number of unpleasant sensations; e.g. heat, pain, numbness, pins and needles, tinnitus, nausea, etc. There could also be other effects of weak electromagnetic radiation on health (see http://tinyurl.com/5ru6e6 ). In my opinion, it is best to avoid any sort of unnecessary wireless communications within the home. Ration your exposure this sort of radiation to when you really need it, or you could end up being unable to use it at all. Apart from that, there is a question of the reliability of wireless communications. Interference from other radio sources is all too prevalent these days. With the best will in the world, it is almost impossible to avoid it. If you have Wi-Fi at home (which you really shouldn’t), how often do you lose your connection? How often does your computer hang up or no apparent reason? There are even doubts about the safety of some automobiles, which have their control mechanisms managed by computers that could be upset by stray electromagnetic radiation. If you have hundreds of dollars worth of food in your freezer would you prefer to have it controlled by something a bit more reliable than wireless? By all means, have energy-saving strategies that control your domestic appliances to limit the load at peak times, but anyone who wants to market devices to do this would be well advised to consider wired alternatives.
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anonymous
I.Dickenson Feb 26 2010 at 5:11 AM
Quite frankly I am appalled that you call a `wireless' gadget a `green' gadget! And this being advertised on a website called `Mother Nature'! Do you actually understand what a wireless signal does to Nature, let alone the human race?? And do you understand how much energy the mobile phone network uses? Since 3G the energy demand has doubled. The green movement is now largely responsible for promoting wireless technology in the name of Mother Nature. She is not respected anymore, let alone understood.
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Because if your company had an understanding of the natural frequencies occouring in Nature you would never promote wireless technology using 2.4GHz with a sharp increase planned for the future.. For more infromation about the `real' effect on Nature, wildlife (particulary the bees!)and the human race go to www.bemri.org for `scientific'' evidence and look at the `Alternatives' like `Visible Light Technologies' ,which might be the only answer for a bio-compatible technology. Start promoting those in stead of killing Mother Nature
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