Sierra Club Green Home » Electronics

Hidden Energy Saving Features

Linda Foss — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:00:43 +0000

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Save energy by using the automatic setting instead of the timed setting on your dryer. (By Linda Foss)

By Linda Foss

Clothes Dryer Automatic Settings

Don’t use the timed setting on your clothes dryer. The automatic setting uses moisture sensors to tell when clothes are dry. Not only does this use less energy, it saves wear and tear on your clothes. Set it somewhere in the middle. The “more dry” setting can over dry clothes and waste energy. The “less dry” setting leaves clothing damp for ironing. And when an automatic cycle is done, an “extended tumble” setting without heat prevents wrinkles if you don’t remove clothes immediately.

Television Sleep Timers and Brightness Settings

I know so many who fall asleep each night with the television on. Not only does this waste energy, it also interferes with your ability to sleep well (and good sleep which is vital for good health). Every television I’ve had or used for the past two decades has had a sleep timer. There’s a sleep button on the remote of most Sony televisions. With others, you may have to navigate the onscreen menu. Sleep timers usually offer 30, 60, 90, etc. minute increments and then the television shuts itself off when the time is up. Plug the TV into a smart strip and it can cut the power to your cable box, DVR, or other peripherals at the same time. Many TVs also have the ability to turn on at a set time, so you can be awakened by the morning news or your favorite exercise program.

You can also lower the backlight brightness on your TV to both reduce energy usage and extend the life of the lamp, which cannot be replaced in most TVs.

Tank Water Heater Vacation Mode

Try the lowest setting on your water heater, sometimes called “vacation mode.” After I forgot to turn it back up when I returned for a trip, I discovered that it produces enough hot water for me in the summer months.

I hope that you find these tips useful. If you have a few energy-saving secrets of your own, please comment on this post to share with the rest of the Sierra Club Green Home community.

For related article, see:
Top 10 Tips to Lower Your Home Energy Bills

Smelting Saves Electronics from the Landfill

SCGH — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:30:23 +0000

Smelting: Recycling We Urgently Need

Electronics go out of style faster than clothes these days. Americans throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers every day, according to Time. E-waste piles up and often gets shipped to poor countries where it causes serious environmental and health problems.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to letting e-waste accumulate and leach dangerous chemicals into the surrounding soil and water. In this video, Michael Pittman from 2nd Solutions explains to Sierra Club Green Home how smelting makes it possible to recycle old electronics.

You can also learn about batteries’ eco afterlife, or find places to recycle your cell phone safely and sustainably.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Batteries’ Eco Afterlife

SCGH — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:39:38 +0000

From cameras and cell phones to watches and eggbeaters, we use batteries every day in all sorts of household products. It’s hard to imagine not using batteries, but is our current use and disposal sustainable?

Sierra Club Green Home asks Jessica Bell from LEI Electronics to explain what a standard battery does to the environment when it is disposed of in the trash, and why it is important to think about sustainability when powering up. LEI Electronics produce EcoAkalines, which are carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly batteries.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To find a recycling location for your single-use batteries, check out our Recycling Center.

Customized Reports Save Money, Electricity

Debbie Van Der Hyde — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:00:05 +0000

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The cost savings from energy conservation efforts can add up quickly. (Jannoon028, freedigitalphotos.net)

By Debbie Van Der Hyde

Utilities and energy providers across the nation are turning to personalized home electricity reports to help customers save on their utility bills and reduce their carbon emissions.

These easy-to-understand reports provide customers with information about their energy use compared to people with homes of similar square footage. Some reports include a progress tracker to see how a homeowner’s usage changes over time.

Many reports also offer personalized tips, including no-cost and low-cost improvements to help customers make their homes more efficient. Examples include unplugging cell phone wall chargers when not in use, putting outdoor lights on timers, hanging laundry to dry, and buying more efficient refrigerators.

Behavioral approach to energy conservation
The home reports get their approach from behavior-based electricity management, a new, growing field in conservation. Puget Sound Energy, a private utility in Washington state, for example, currently sends reports to 24,000 customers. Joel Smith, who manages the company’s energy efficiency services, sees how these reports encourage more eco-friendly behavior.

“The program provides our customers with a benchmark for understanding how they and their home use energy. It gives them an idea of whether or not there is room for improvement if they choose to make changes,” says Smith.

La Vonna Jones, a former Puget Sound Energy customer, altered the days and times that she did laundry based on her reports.

“I didn’t know that energy usage at certain times of the day was higher and more expensive because so many people were using it,” Jones says. The behavior change reduced her electricity bill and was rewarding, she says. “It seemed perfectly easy and reasonable to me to make small changes to save energy while also helping the community as a whole.”

Do the reports achieve results for customers and utilities alike? The answer is: definitely.

“On average, a Seattle City Light customer who receives the report is using about 3 percent or 300 kilowatt less electricity per year than those who are not,” says Lars Henrikson, program manager for the home electricity reports for Seattle City Light. The public utility launched the program in 2009 and is currently sending reports to 50,000 customers.

“When we multiply that savings by the number of customers receiving the reports, we’re achieving approximately 15 million kilowatt hours of savings annually. That’s about what a windmill would produce in one year,” says Henrikson.

Figure 1: Seattle City Light electricity savings per household for the first two years of the program for the initial cohort of 20,000 customers. (Graph courtesy of Opower)

Opower, a software company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, provides the analytics behind the home electricity reports used by Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light and about 60 other utilities across the country. Opower estimates that up to 20 percent of electricity in people’s homes is wasted.

“The reports are designed to make sure customers have full visibility into opportunities to save electricity, and to make it easy for them to do something about it by eliminating the amount that is wasted,” says Ogi Kavazovic, Opower vice president of corporate marketing.

Behavior-based management can be just as beneficial for the utility companies as well. “In many cases, our utility customers are also using the platform to help them evolve from providers to electricity management advisors and service providers,” says Kavazovic.

This is certainly the case at Seattle City Light. Customer calls about the report are directed to the utility’s conservation call center. “The reports are a great conversation starter about measures our customers can take. They also help our customers understand the costs of inaction,” says Henrikson.

Other energy management tools
In addition to paper-based reports, some utilities work with Opower and similar companies to offer Web portals that provide customers with more in-depth and customized home electricity usage statistics.

Tendril, located in Boulder, Colorado, serves more than 30 energy service providers across the United States, primarily in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. Tendril’s Web platform gives customers insight, choice, and control over their energy use in real time.

“Consumers can monitor their kilowatt hours being used, determine what actions they can take to reduce their usage, and then see an impact on their bills,” says Sheila O’Neill, communication director at Tendril.

Utilities can then offer their customers smart devices, such as programmable thermostats or smart outlets. “This gives consumers more control over their energy use and more savings,” says O’Neill.

Cape Light Compact, a Massachusetts-based electricity service provider, designed and implemented a smart home monitoring pilot program in collaboration with Tendril. Customers could see real-time electricity usage and could chat through a secure Web dashboard with others in the pilot about what they were doing to help save electricity.

“We were looking for a new way to reach customers and to see if small behavior changes impacted their energy consumption,” says Briana C. Kane, senior residential program coordinator for Cape Light Compact.

“On average, we saw a 9.3 percent reduction, showing how small changes can lead to big impacts,” Kane adds.

Additional electricity management services available through some utilities include email or text message alerts to monitor usage and mobile management applications. Using the apps, participating customers can access electricity usage information and remotely control devices in their home, such as programmable thermostats or air conditioners. This saves even more energy and money.

Are you interested in receiving a regular home electricity report? Call your utility to find out if it offers the program or to learn more about other available energy-saving offers.

For related story: Top 10 Tips to Lower Your Home Energy Bills

E-Waste: Out of Our Sight, Into Their Air

April Fang — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:25 +0000

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A girl holds up a keyboard found among e-waste shipped to her town. (Blogpaedia, Flickr)

By April Fang

Ever wondered where your used electronics go? Or maybe you just think, “I paid my recycling fee, so they must have been recycled in a proper way.”

As a matter of fact, most e-waste from all over the world is shipped to third-world countries such as China. In Nanyang, China people dismantle e-waste in their homes or on the street rather than in a factory. The toxic smoke from incinerating e-waste causes serious health effects, including high lead concentration residents’ blood and lower IQs among children born in the area.

Here are little things we can do to make a difference:

Buy reusable batteries rather than disposable ones;
Upgrade hardware computers rather than throw them away;
Recycle batteries properly. Often public libraries have information about local places to recycle batteries and other hazardous waste. Some chains that typically collect batteries to recycle include Best Buy and Staples; and
Recycle your cellphone by donating it. Sprint will allow you to send in any cell phone for free if you pick up a postage-paid envelope from one of their stores, or print out the mailing label online. You can also search for a local cell phone recycling program using ReCellular‘s Web site.

Spread the word about these simple practices and how they can help mitigate e-waste’s harm to the environment and to human health.

Old Plastic Bottles Bring Light

Debra Atlas — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000

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A solar bulb brightens a marketplace. (Courtesy of ALiterofLight.org)

By Debra Atlas

PHILIPPINES — Millions of people in the Philippines live in (relative) darkness. The cost of electricity is beyond the means of many, so residents of poorer communities resort to candles or kerosene lamps, which pose serious health and fire hazards.

Using electricity 24 hours per day, something most of us take for granted, raises a household’s expenses by approximately 40 percent. In a country where the average income ranges from minimum wage to less than $1 a day, this added expense is not seen as crucial.

However, there is an incredibly simple solution that is both greener and safer.

The Solar Bottle Bulb was originally developed by students at MIT and spearheaded by Mac Diaz, the innovative founder of MyShelter Foundation. It uses plastic water bottles and a little bleach to bring light to the darkness.

To create the bulb, developers fit 1.5 liter plastic bottles containing water and bleach snugly into holes in a metal roof. Sunlight refracts through and off the water, creating free solar lighting equivalent to 55 or 60 watts of clean white light. The bleach inside the bottles prevents algae from forming inside them. The bottles do not heat up and are designed to produce clear light for approximately five years.

The MyShelter Foundation is currently distributing thousands of these lights to homeowners across the Philippines, where oftentimes homes are built so close together that little to no light can get through the windows.

The Isang Litrong Liwanag (“A Liter of Light”) project is a sustainable lighting project whose aim is to bring light to low-income communities. The organization envisions lighting 1 million homes by 2012. So far, they have distributed 10,000 solar bulbs.

The installation of these bulbs is brightening more than the homes they light: They are helping to create a better quality of life for entire communities.

Check out more articles by Debra Atlas.

How Apple’s Carbon Footprint is Reduced by Its Product Design

Gustavo Grad — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:00:32 +0000

(Courtesy of Apple, Inc.)

Blog post by Gustavo Grad
November 17, 2011

Apple products come in black, white—and green, says the company’s environmental Web page: “Apple reports environmental impact comprehensively. We do this by focusing on our products: what happens when we design them, what happens when we make them, and what happens when you take them home and use them.”

The company is paying attention to its total carbon footprint, something Apple estimated for the year 2010 to be approximately 14.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Apple understands that 98 percent of its carbon footprint is directly related to its products, which means adding up the emissions generated from the manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling of its products, as well as the emissions generated by its facilities.

(Courtesy of Apple, Inc.)

To improve the products’ performance, Steve Jobs led the development of smaller, thinner, and lighter products. But the products also were more eco-friendly. Example: Today’s 21.5-inch iMac is more powerful, with a much larger screen than the first-generation, 15-inch iMac, yet it has 50 percent less material and generates half the emissions. Another example: The iPad became 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter in one generation, generating 5 percent fewer carbon emissions.

The reduction in materials means less packaging, and at the end of the day, it also helps reduce the emissions produced during transportation. Apple gives a clear example for this in the packaging for the iPhone 4: It is 42 percent smaller than for the original iPhone shipped in 2007. That means that 80 percent more iPhone 4 boxes fit on each shipping pallet, more pallets fit on each boat and plane, and fewer boats and planes are used, resulting in fewer carbon emissions. This helps alleviate the greenhouse gas emissions from transporting Apple products, which accounts for 6 percent of the company’s carbon footprint.

Finally, a significant contribution on energy efficiency—something that accounts for 45 percent of Apple’s total greenhouse gas emissions—is its design of products. The Mac mini uses as little as one-fifth the power consumed by a typical light bulb—even less power than a single 13-watt CFL light bulb, according to Apple. Moreover, Apple claims that its products not only meets but exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s strict ENERGY STAR guidelines for efficiency.

“Think different” is what Jobs had in mind when he returned to Apple in the late 1990s. Today we can say that this was not just a dream but his signature.

For related article, see:
Steve Jobs Leaves Apple With Green Legacy

Exclusive Interview With Panasonic Vice President

E.Q. Lam — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:17:20 +0000

Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series looking at Panasonic and its ecological strategies and technological developments.

OSAKA, JAPAN — Sierra Club Green Home sits down with Peter Fannon, Panasonic’s US vice president of technology policy, to talk about the company’s goal to be the leading eco innovation company in the global electronics industry. Fannon also tells SCGH what all the exciting technology being developed in the company’s Japanese facilities means for US consumers and homeowners.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Travel and accommodations provided by Panasonic Corporation.

Steve Jobs Leaves Apple With Green Legacy

Gustavo Grad — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:00:01 +0000

(Courtesy of Apple, Inc.)

Blog post by Gustavo Grad
November 15, 2011

Steve Jobs left a legacy that began with the launch of the Apple Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh a year later. The Mac marked the development of the personal computer. In the last 10 years, Apple (guided by Steve Jobs) has produced some of the most iconic designs, such as the iPod, the iPhone, the iPac, and the MacBook Air. It is easy to see how much the world has been changing lately under our noses in ways that have never been experienced before.

In light of the enormity of these changes and their impact on our lives, it might be a good idea to check the company’s green legacy.

“That computer your child is using—did you know that it contains more than a thousand different kinds of materials, including toxic gases, toxic metals (such as cadmium, lead, and mercury), acids, plastics, chlorinated and brominate substances and another additives? The dust from some printer toner cartridges has been found to contain nickel, cobalt ,and mercury—substances harmful to humans that your child may be inhaling as you read,” wrote William McDonough in his book Cradle to Cradle and continues, saying that “obviously some of those thousand materials are essential to the computer itself.”

The question is what about Macs? Are the products any different? I appreciate the clean design and the ability that these devices brought to our lives to connect with others and stay in touch, but the question is whether they are any different, any greener.

Steve Jobs himself answered this question in 2007 in a six-page statement called “A greener Apple,” where he said that “upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress …, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of most of its competitors in these areas.” Jobs concluded that whatever other improvements are needed, Apple had failed to communicate the things that were done well. He wanted Apple to be greener and acknowledged stakeholders’ right to expect more from Apple.

Here are some actions that Apple has taken to remove toxic chemicals noted in Steve Jobs’s statement:

(Courtesy of Apple, Inc.)

Lead: A toxic substance typically shipped by the pound contained in the cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays. In mid-2006, the computer conglomerate became the first company in the computer industry to completely eliminate CRTs. While a typical CRT used to contained approximately three pounds of lead, the first CRT-based iMac contained only 484 grams, and the third-generation LCD-based iMac contains less than one gram of lead.

Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Decabromodiphenyl, and Ether: In 2006, the company declared that all of its “products met both the spirit and letter of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), restrictions on cadmium, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants years before RoHS went into effect.” The RoHS is a directive from the European Union aimed to restrict certain dangerous substances commonly used in electronics and electronic equipment.

Arsenic and Mercury: Both are industry-standard materials used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). In 2007, the computer company introduced the first displays using arsenic-free glass, and one year later the company began the transition from fluorescent lamps to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to illuminate the displays.

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR): PVCs begin to be phased out in 1995 and began restricting BFRs in 2001. For example, more than 3 million iPods already have been shipped with a BFR-free laminate on their logic boards.

Recycling: The company started recycling in 1994, and in 2007 it operated recycling programs in countries where more than 82 percent of all Macs and iPods were sold, with a scheduled increase to 93 percent. The computer company recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which was equal to 9.5 percent of the weight of all its products sold in the previous seven years.

In the closing statement, Steve Jobs said that “Apple is already a leader in innovation and engineering, and we are applying these same talents to become an environmental leader.” A step in the right direction will be for Apple to design its products from the very beginning for effective, optimal recycling as technical nutrients on a “cradle to cradle” cycle, using William McDonough words: a “system of material flow and metabolism in which the very concept of waste doesn’t exist.”

For related article, see:
How Apple’s Product Design Reduces Carbon Footprint

Panasonic Makes Eco Innovation Central Focus

E.Q. Lam — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:00:02 +0000

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Panasonic employees wear the green “Eco Ideas” pin with the same design as that displayed on the screen during a press presentation at Panasonic Center Tokyo.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series looking at Panasonic and its ecological strategies and technological developments.

Story and photos by E.Q. Lam
November 12, 2011

OSAKA, JAPAN — Panasonic Corporation wants to take over the world, or at least the electronics world. And the global consumer-electronics giant, based in Osaka, has a vision for what that world looks like. The company seeks to provide all the technology for home electronics, appliances, and even electrical vehicles (EVs).

On Friday, Panasonic wrapped up its week-long eco press tour, highlighting to an international group of media from the United States, Europe, and Asia the company’s present and future developments in electronics. This includes a model home for the future, smart cities projects in several countries, state-of-the-art recycling, and the world’s largest renewable energy facility.

Panasonic president Fumio Ohtsubo announced four years ago that the company would integrate its business activities with environmentalism across the board. Since then, the company has been taking bold steps to make innovative eco ideas central to all of its business operations.

“Our brand slogan—Panasonic, ideas for life—represents such philosophy,” says Katsumi Tomita, manager of corporate environmental affairs at Panasonic, who noted that past innovations have drastically changed people’s lives. Panasonic sees a big turning point with climate change and the lifestyle and development trends around the world. “We are entering into the third phase of revolution, which is the green revolution. … As [Panasonic’s] business grows, the contributions to the planet will be bigger and bigger.”

This eco ideas strategy means comprehensive energy solutions for a green lifestyle and green business—providing all the answers to consumers, businesses, and cities through its products as well as practices.

“Panasonic has basically had a philosophy to live in harmony with the environment for a very long time,” says Peter Fannon, Panasonic’s US vice president of technology policy. “Certainly since the late ‘60s and early ‘70s when things were being expressed even in those terms by our founder, Konosuke Matsushita.”

See more of Fannon’s comments in a one-on-one interview with SCGH:

Click here to view the embedded video.

All work within Panasonic is aligned with environmentalism, including the company president and top management, who “now takes very seriously this initiative,” says Tomita. Panasonic employees worldwide now wear the green lapel pin “Eco Ideas.”

In the United States, Panasonic’s US subsidiary plans to move into a LEED-certified building in Newark, New Jersey, just outside New York City, says Jim Reilly, US director of corporate communications for Panasonic. The building will start construction in 2012, but Reilly says that in 2013 the company will move its 1,000 US employees and contractors from the current headquarters in Secaucus, New Jersey, to Newark, where more mass transit is available.

Travel and accommodations provided by Panasonic Corporation.

Check out more articles by E.Q. Lam.