Isolé IDP-3050 Power Strip Photo Credit: WattStopper

While at Greenbuild, WattStopper displayed how to optimize LEED projects with Digital Lighting Management (DLM) and plug load controls, in other words how to “turbocharge your energy savings!”

WattStopper makes buildings and homes more energy efficient through lighting controls and provides a comprehensive range of products for work or at home. If you’re looking to improve your energy consumption try out the Isolé IDP-3050 Power Strip with Personal Sensor. It’s an ideal energy saver for the office and at home if you need to plug in multiple items. 

If you’re looking to control lighting, try out the Incandescent Multi-way Slide Dimmer, which provides preset dimming control by a slider and an on/off switch. It allows you to set your ideal light level for each room! 

These products provide DLM, which goes beyond the basic energy code compliance to optimize energy performance by automatically configuring controls to the most energy-efficient operation possible out of the box. DLM makes it easy to integrate plug load and lighting control to turbocharge your energy savings. 

To find out more visit http://www.wattstopper.com/ and see how you can put a stop to energy waste!

Photo Credit: Serious Energy, Inc.

This week, the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo kicked off and Eco News Network was there to get the scoop. We toured the expo looking for highlights to share with our readers and will be posting daily for you to stay in the loop!

Greenbuild Exhibitor Highlight: Serious Energy, Inc. 

Serious Energy, Inc. provides a suite of energy software services and advanced building products designed to increase the value of America’s buildings. It increases the value of buildings for both owners and occupants by increasing net operating income, comfort, productivity and health at a lower operating cost. 

One service Serious Energy can provide is “The No-Risk Retrofit.” This will optimize your building and guarantees a 10 percent reduction (or more) in energy costs over the next decade! “Guaranteed” probably stood out for you; well under a contract with Serious Capital, building owners or tenants pay a monthly fee to Serious that’s equivalent to around 90 percent of their utility bill. Then, in turn, Serious pays the utility bills. It works, because SeriousEnergy Manager and light retrofits can achieve a reduce power consumption by 20 percent or more. 

Serious Energy also provides great products. One particular product is iWindows. All building managers, owners and occupants need to maintain their windows, so why not try this new type of window that gets installed on top of existing windows? Why would you do that? First of all, it only takes 15 minutes to install, can increase the thermal performance by 60 percent and glare without impairing visibility. It delivers in energy savings and comfort!   

For more information, visit http://www.seriousenergy.com/.

Enlighted, Inc.^®, a breakthrough building sense and control company, launched the Enlighted Lighting Control system and announced the successful closing of a $14 million round of funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Intel Capital. This funding will support growth plans for Enlighted’s significant project pipeline and its efforts to deploy its innovative lighting and energy management platform. This novel system provides lighting monitoring and control distributed to the level of each fixture in the building that is designed to achieve between 50-75 percent energy savings in existing customer facilities.

In addition to reducing energy use and carbon emissions, the Enlighted platform is designed to enhance the value of real estate and create greater harmony between buildings and occupants. The company’s lighting control technology is already in use at several world class facilities, including Interface Services^®, where the solution has reduced lighting energy use by almost 70 percent and is projected to deliver an 18-month payback. 

“Lighting consumes 25-40 percent of commercial office building electricity and is a major factor in worker comfort and productivity, yet more than ninety percent of existing buildings have little more than a wall switch,” said Tushar Dave, chairman and CEO, Enlighted, Inc. “When asked, facility managers identified cost and complexity as the key reason why they have allowed such wastage in their facilities. Enlighted was founded by people with expertise at solving just these problems in the network management domain.  We’ve created what we believe to be the simplest, most cost effective advanced lighting control system on the market.” 

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Intel Capital provided Enlighted with $14.2 million in financing in 2011 to further its product offerings and growth. 

“Buildings represent one of the single largest opportunities for energy savings and intelligent lighting is the best place to start,” said Trae Vassallo, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Enlighted’s solution caught our attention because of its strong ROI and its simplicity.  Installation is as easy as changing a light bulb and because Enlighted doesn’t change any existing wiring, there is no risk to mission critical infrastructure. Enlighted is the first step to making buildings smarter and more efficient.” 

Interface Services collaborated with Enlighted in its newest 35,000 square foot facility located in Acworth, Ga. 

“We installed 150 individual lighting fixtures in a diverse range of uses, from cubicles and conference rooms to loading facilities – which allow the granularity and flexibility to light hallways, bathrooms, and work areas with just the right amount of illumination only when needed,” said Pieter van der Toorn, president, Interface Services.  

By leveraging the intelligent lighting capabilities of the Enlighted Lighting Control system, Interface Services was able to reduce overall lighting costs by approximately 69 percent and projects a payback period of just 18 months. 

“I was amazed by the Enlighted solutions,” said Jeff Roman, vice president of Information Services, Interface Companies. “The system installed quickly and employee training took just minutes, plus it improved our work experience by tailoring illumination levels to employee needs while saving energy. We’d been exploring updates for our lighting system for a while but it was an easy decision after we reviewed Enlighted’s capabilities, attitude and service.”   

Enlighted was founded in 2009 by a team that includes Tanuj Mohan, CTO, and Premal Ashar, VP of Software Engineering.

Solar Gard Films, Available in Greys, Silvers, Stainless Steel and Bronze Photo Credit: Solar Gard

We are constantly trying to find a way to reduce our energy consumption. Well, thanks to Solar Gard Specialy Films we can! 

At Greenbuild, Solar Gard will be demonstrating their new Solar Gard® Silver AG 50 Low E window film that can reduce your energy consumption during both cold and warm periods! It even provides year round energy and cost savings. The window film is carbon negative and cost-effective, and provides buildings with the following benefits:

• Reduces winter heating costs by reflecting interior heat back into your building.
• Reduces hotspots in your building during the summer months.
• Improved year-round occupant comfort. 

Attendees at Greenbuild will even receive a FREE energy analysis, providing an anticipated return on investment for window film to show the beneficial energy effects of window film, including:

• Professionally installed window film can help buildings reduce energy expenditures by up to 30 percent with decreased interior temperature fluctuations and cooling costs.
• Improved fenestration can lower energy consumption and GHG emissions by 10-40 percent in both commercial buildings and homes. 

For more information, visit Solar Gard at http://solargard.com/ and for that free energy analysis be sure to stop by booth 6542S at Greenbuild.

Looking for ways to decrease your home’s electric bill and reduce your carbon footprint?

Check out WindowDry’s new EcoDry Rack, a laundry drying rack that easily mounts to your window or tile surfaces, supporting up to 25 pounds of laundry.

EcoDry Rack from WindowDry

Why dry clothes naturally? According to Project Laundry List—a non-profit organization making air-drying and cold-water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways to save energy—if all Americans used clotheslines or wooden drying racks the savings would be enough to close several power plants! In fact, dryers use 10 to 15 percent of all domestic energy in the U.S.

The EcoDry Rack is an eco-friendly alternative to massive household energy consumption. It’s also portable and compact, so it can be easily stored after use. Retail price: $29.95.

Visit www.windowdry.com for more info on the EcoDry Rack. Visit www.laundrylist.org for more energy and air-drying laundry statistics from Project Laundry List.