Oh, man…home gadgets can be so cool. Just take a look at Lucid Design Group’s Building Dashboard system for your home computer. It’s a piece of software for those tech nerds out there who also happen to be environmentally conscious tree hugger types. It allows homeowners to track their home energy consumption in several areas. From electricity and water use to solar electricity production and the amount of water collected from rainwater systems. “The interactive display shows how the home is performing at any given moment and how current performance compares to performance over the last month.” It can also calculate your cost of consumption and even provide you with the current and forecasted weather reports.
Their system was featured in Wired magazine’s recently introduced Home of the Future, which is a 4 million dollar LEED certified home meant to combine the best luxury and environmentally sound products on the homebuilding market today.
Clearly, you need to have a fat wallet to get this up and running, but how cool would it be to marry the old with the new? Renovate or build a vintage home and include this type of cutting edge technology…when I get there I’ll let you know.
Oh, and if you want a cheaper way to do some energy monitoring, check out what DIY Kyoto has put together. It’s called Wattson and it’s designed to pick up home electrical use within roughly 30 meters of the transmitter you install near the home’s electrical supply. A stylish digital readout on the top of the wireless display can show how much electricity it takes to run, say your TV or microwave, and switching off items in your home will result in the display showing what it costs to keep that item running. Another cool feature are the lights on the underbelly of the display. They turn blue when your electrical use is low and red when high. You can also connect Wattson to your computer, upload your energy consumption data and analyze it further or compare it to other Wattson users. Cost is about $300 though when I tried to place an order there was no option for folks in the U.S.
I was watching Living with Ed on HGTV last night and saw two products I never knew existed – first was the water powered garbage disposal. Invented by a NASA engineer and produced by Hydromaid, this disposal acts like a food processor, grinding all types of food into small bits. It consists of “five stainless steel blades, driven by a water-powered piston, [that] oscillate back and forth, mincing the food waste.” This baby will butcher nuts, bones, and practically all other food items that are usually tossed in the trash instead. What I find truly amazing is that this thing has been around since 1998 and it still seems to be barely known.
Makers of the Hydromaid disposal claim that the product is 20 decibals quieter than other disposals and that it uses about the same amount of water. Not surprisingly, back in 1998, after this product got a lot of attention at the National Housewares Show, In Sink erator, the disposal company goliath, claimed that “It uses an enormous amount of water…and takes five times as long as an electric disposer to grind the same amount of food.
For $300 it’s one of those things I’d really love to see in action before I would consider purchasing it. They definitely need a youtube video – something like this.
The second product I saw was the Vertex 90% efficient storage tank water heater. This just blows my whole tank vs. tankless water heater debate out of the water. I believe most tankless water heaters top out at 80-85% efficiency, so I’ve gotta talk to my neighborly engineer about this. He has some serious explaining to do.
Did I mention that Jay Leno owns one of these? God, now I really have to get one.
Thanks Ed, you made my day.
Useful links:
HGTV’s step-by-step guide to installing the water-powered disposal
