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Nokia’s Smart Home Solution

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Is this an idea who’s time has come? 

The Smart Home.

The new Nokia Home Control Center, a Linux-based platform that will control your house’s resources via your mobile phone.

According to Nokia, the platform is open allowing third parties to integrate their own smart home solutions and services; its core consumer value is the plug and play experience across all solution areas with high security levels built in. All solutions based on the platform can be used through a smart phone or PC locally or remotely. Consumers can monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion. In future, entire systems within the home can be connected to the Nokia platform, including security, heating, and ventilation systems.That way, you’ll rarely come across an incident where some new smart home tech you bought doesn’t actually work with your main controller. NHCC works with Z-Wave, ZigBee and KNX, three of the most common command languages for home networks.

Further, Nokia has started working with a number of companies to define and create a solid basis for building the next generation of products that will introduce a new kind of mobile access to intelligent systems at the home. These collaboration partners include Danfoss, Delta Dore, Ensto, and Meishar Immediate Community (MIC) and Zensys. The Nokia smart home partner program is structured around five key areas which mobile access will open up, creating new opportunities for the next generation smart home. These are security, energy efficiency, wellness, construction, real estate, and smart home solutions.

The Nokia Home Control Center will be launched some time in 2009.

Stop Playing Games and Save Energy

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We’re all trying to save money these days.  Using less energy by turning off lights and lowering your thermostat are goo ways to cut down on your energy bill, but here is a small step that can help you save a little more – Turn of your Wii, or Xbox when you are done playing.

Video game consoles nationwide use about as much electricity in a year as every home in San Diego combined, and can significantly add to consumers’ electric bills, according to a new report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Much of this energy use is consumed by machines that are left on, but not in use.

“If you leave your Xbox 360 or Sony Play Station 3 on all the time, you can cut your electric bill by as much as $100 a year simply by turning it off when you are finished playing,” said NRDC Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. “With so many struggling in today’s economy – it’s important to realize there are simple steps gamers can take to lower their energy costs. And if manufacturers make future systems more energy efficient, they’ll be doing the right thing for consumers’ pockets, for our clean energy future, and for the environment.”

Looking at the “big three” video game consoles – Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBox360 and Nintendo’s Wii – the report measured the amount of power they use when they are active, idle and turned off. It found these systems use nearly the same amount of power when you are playing them as they do when you leave them on and walk away. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 also operate as high-definition video players. When they are used this way, the consoles continue to operate at nearly peak energy levels, even after the movie ends, unless the device is turned off.

National video game energy use is growing as more and more homes have these devices and additional features are added. The report offers solutions for individuals to cut their game console-related energy costs and offers recommendations on how manufacturers can dramatically improve the efficiency of the next generation of consoles that are being developed. NRDC is working with the leading video game hardware and software designers to help make these improvements. In particular, NRDC is working to make sure users will be able to automatically save their settings and place in the game before they shut down the systems.

Consumers Like Touch Screen Technology

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My Oven has it and so does my new phone – touch screen technology is becoming hugely popular.  Apple started it with the iphone and now manufacturers of everything from consumer electronics to white goods are trying to keep up.  The cell phone industry in particular wants to compete with Apple’s iphone.

“Consumers are looking for displays with higher resolution, contrast, and more-sophisticated touch screen technology in applications that previously utilized simple LED or LCD displays,” says Gary Olson, director of engineering, Control Products (Chanhassen, MN, U.S.; www.controlproductsinc.com). “Appliance makers have high expectations from their control developers. Expertise in advanced features along with advanced graphics is necessary to keep pace with market demands.”

The latest product offerings from Electrolux feature control panels that appear “dark” and blank until touched to illuminate and reveal a bright and colorful display allowing operation of all functions. The displays on the new line of premium appliances use touch sensors to detect touch and tell the panel to turn on, and when touch is no longer sensed, they turn off to leave a sleek and blank display.

Even as touch screens become more popular, some suppliers are exploring the next advance to provide options that go beyond touch.

It seems uncharacteristic for a control panel to eliminate the need for an actual touch, but smart technologies are enabling it. The answer for WaveOn Technologies Inc. is a touchless sensor, designed to be so sensitive it can detect a near-touch from 3 in. away, even when placed beneath 10-mm-thick plastic.

Although the technology is now common with flat-panel TVs and glass range cooktops, WaveOn’s technology is pushing the envelope further. The company is looking into applications where a detection of movement might come in handy. One example is the kitchen, where hands are commonly messy with food preparation. Here the sensors could help consumers raise or lower radio or TV volume or answer a phone without touching a thing.

“The key concern of many consumers is that if [the control panel] looks elegant, it is likely to be fragile and less durable than systems they’re used to,” says Brenton Judge, engineering director, Defond Group Ltd. Defond in the United States includes Defond North America LLC (Raleigh, NC, U.S., www.dnagroup.com). “By giving customers a system that essentially has an infinite life span and is resistant to dirt and spillages at a minimal cost, we can boost the acceptance of electronic controls in the appliance market.”

To achieve this, Defond is placing smart digital control underneath the facade of traditional mechanical switches that consumers believe to be more reliable. The supplier says its specialty is control systems that simplify use by integrating instructions into the product itself via the display and adding sensors that enable a product to self-adjust according to how a consumer uses the product.

You can read more about this here.

Need Help with Technology? You’re not Alone.

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So many wonderful new gadgets.  So many user handbooks to read.

Some 48% of technology users usually need help from others to set up new devices or to show them how they function.  “Struggles with modern gadgetry mean less engagement with the services they enable,” said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet Project. “Time spent dealing with set-up or outages means less time using modern communication services to connect with friends or find information that might help people be more productive.”

Although tech users can usually fix the problems by themselves, with the help of friends, or by calling upon user support, some say they cannot fix tech problems at all. Here are some of the ways device owners fixed their broken technology:

  • 38% of users with failed technology contacted user support for help.
  • 28% of technology users fixed the problem themselves.
  • 15% fixed the problem with help from friends or family.
  • 15% of tech users were unable to fix their devices
  • 2% found help online.

“In an age in which new technologies are introduced almost daily, a new gadget or service can become popular well before the technology itself is understood by the average user,” said Sydney Jones, Research Assistant at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Naturally, some users catch on to new technology more quickly than others, and those who have more trouble grasping the technology are left confused, discouraged, and reliant on help from others when their technology fails.”

Read more here.

GE Wants to Try a New Refrigerant

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GE is asking for federal approval to use, in the U.S., a type of refrigerant that has low global warming potential and is widely used in Europe and Asia.

The company has filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency to allow it to use isobutane, a hydrocarbon, in household refrigerators. Hydrocarbons like propane and butane have been used in fridges elsewhere in the world for years as replacements for HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) and HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons).

Although HFCs and HCFCs were originally introduced to replace chemicals that contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, they are thousands of time more powerful than carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming. Hydrocarbons have no impact on the ozone layer and have a much smaller impact on global warming than HFCs and HCFCs.

Ben & Jerry’s recently gained permission from the EPA to test up to 2,000 ice cream cases chilled with butane, and Greenpeace, which developed the GreenFreeze technology used in hydrocarbon-based refrigerators, has been pushing companies to bring the fridges to the U.S.

If the EPA approves GE’s request, the company plans to use isobutane in a new GE Monogram refrigerator planned to launch in early 2010. GE also plans to use cyclopentane, another hydrocarbon, as the insulation foam-blowing agent in place of an HFC foam blowing agents. The development team behind the fridge also plans to seek ecomagination certification, GE’s in-house process for evaluating and labeling energy-efficient products. The company has seen success with its ecomagination line, expecting sales of ecomagination products to reach over $17 billion this year.

You can read the whole story here.

Still Have a Landline? Me Too.

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On a recent Sat- urday night while my hus- band and I sat watch- ing a movie, my home was invaded by two men looking for a quick steal. I surprised them in action and they ran off empty handed. The first thing I did as they ran away was grab the landline phone we keep in our home office and call 911. I was able to get help in under 30 seconds. My other phone was left lying around the house and it would have easily been a few minutes to find it. The police were able to respond and catch the men that night.

According to a recent Nielsen Company survey, more than 17 percent, or 20 million, of all U.S. households lack landline phones and use only a cellphone. The research suggested that 20 percent of U.S. households could be wireless-only by the end of the year, the company said.

Nielsen also determined that:

• smaller households with just one or two residents are more likely to cut the cord than larger households;

• moving or changing jobs contributes to the decision to drop landline service. Thirty-one percent of cord cutters moved before they dropped landline service, and 22 percent changed jobs; and

• although cord cutters tend to use their mobile phones more than landline households, they still save an average $33 per month in a household with only one subscriber, minus $6.69 for each additional wireless subscriber in the household.

Turning exclusively to wireless isn’t for everyone, however. Ten percent of landline customers have experimented with cellular-only communications in their household but returned to landline service, Nielsen said. The primary reason is the need to use a landline for such services as security systems, satellite TV, pay-per-view, fax machines and the like.

We have always felt that a landline was an investment in safety. Keeping the phone near the kitchen in case of a safety emergency was part of our plan, we never thought we would be using it to catch criminals, but being prepared was what the landline was all about.

GE to Launch New Line of Smart Appliances

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In the first Quarter of 2009, GE will introduce a suite of ”smart” appliances.  Energy Manage-ment Enabled Appliances. These GE appliances will be enabled to receive a signal from their local utility. The appliances will receive the control message and react based on the appliance internal programming. It requires no consumer interaction.

”Now that ENERGY STAR® appliances are recognized by 75% of American consumers, the next step is to reshape when energy is being used,” said Kevin Nolan, Vice President Technology for GE Consumer & Industrial. ”Peak hour energy demand is growing faster than total energy demand. It is imperative that we begin to shift some of the energy load from peak hours to other parts of the day – – helping to avoid the need to build new power plants to meet the demand,” he explained.

For example, the automatic defrost feature on GE refrigerators is initiated by the internal electronics based on the number of refrigerator door openings and other input signals. If the refrigerator can delay the defrost cycle from occurring during peak energy usage hours, consumers will save money by paying for the same amount of energy later in the day when the rates are lower.

In addition to ”smart” refrigerators, GE will enable ranges, laundry pairs, dishwashers and microwave ovens to receive and respond to communications from the utility company. Consumers will be notified of a rate change or of critical peak pricing by the display on their appliances letting them know when higher rates are in effect. Appliances will be programmed to avoid energy usage during that time but consumers may choose to override the program – giving them ultimate control.

Compact Electric Grill

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Now those of you living in high-rise condominiums can grill without worries. Fuego has launched the industry’s first outdoor, electric plug-in grill with an island configuration. Now you can entertain outdoors on the terrace or roof garden without the hazard of an open flame.

The Fuego 02 Electric features a powerful coil heating element with a reflector plate that reflects heat back to the grilling surface.

Features Include:
Slate and teak countertops with hidden storage
Cast iron, enamel coated grill grate
1,650 watts
Fully retractable weather lid
Built-in wheels for easy mobility

“The Fuego 02 Electric provides an alternative for those eager to entertain in style but are limited by space and safety regulations,”said Alex Siow, CEO of Fuego North America.

Avoid a Service Call – Troubling Shooting the Freezer

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We’ve just taken delivery here of a new Frigidaire Gallery upright freezer which we plan to review for you in depth. While sorting through all the paperwork that comes with a new appliance, I found a handy tip sheet that Frigidaire includes to help you prevent the need for a service call. Some of the tips may seem obvious, but hey, if it’s one that might have been forgotten, I want to be reminded of it.

To be certain your appliance is running properly:

The outside walls of the appliance should be warm. They can be up to 30 degrees warmer than room temperature.

You should be able to hear the compressor running ( as long as the surrounding noise level is low).

Check to see that the appliance is leveled and installed properly.

  • Be sure the wood shipping base is removed
  • Level the appliance from side to side
  • Tilt it slightly backward to insure proper door seal
  • Allow enough air space around the appliance and avoid high temperature locations.
  • Do not store items on top of or close to the appliance

The appliance must be plugged into a proper circuit.

  • It should not be plugged into a cicuit that is protected by a ground fault interrupt. If it is tripped, it will disconnect power to the appliance.
  • Use a properly grounded three prong outlet.
  • If you are unsure about the outlet, have it checked by an electrician.

So go check your fridge, see if it’s warm and has enough air space, then come back and see what we have to say about the Frigidaire freezer.

Another Choice in Robot Vacuums

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If you’ve been planning on picking up one of those robotic vacuums next time they’re on sale, LG would like you to choose theirs. This new addtion to the robot vacuum family has a very powerful motor, with suction power that can reach up to 100W, which is by far the strongest suction performance among the few robotic vacuum models available in the market. The Roboking also comes with a long lasting lithium polymer battery, HEPA filter, and a remote for controlling the vacuum at a distance. This vacuum is programmed with four patterns for effective cleaning.