InCharge Battery Station

The Greener Gadgets Design Competition is on in anticipation of Greener Gadgets Conference to be held in New York City on February 25. You can make your voice heard by voting for the gadget you find more eco-friendly.

Consider, for instance, the BuLogics Smart Grid Home Controller. It’s billed as the world’s first smart grid-compatible wireless controller. By installing the Z-Wave HAN in your home, you can automatically shut down appliances and electronics that are not being used during peak electricity demand times. This occurs when your local utility grid sends a demand change request and allows you to reduce your monthly power costs. You can also monitor how much you’re using and saving using a wireless computer or cell phone. It’s a great way to really get a handle on when and how much energy you use in order to save power as much as possible.

Another option is the InCharge Battery Station by Pensa. We all know that using rechargeable batteries is not only cost-effective, it’s more environmentally-friendly than disposable batteries. But it can be a pain to plug in the charger and hook up the batteries. With the InCharge Battery Station, simply drop the batteries into the base—it automatically sorts them and begins charging. The LED light indicates the relative charge in each individual battery, holding charged batteries until you need them so that you always have batteries at the ready.

And if you want to produce your own power to charge your electronic devices, check out the RollerGen. As you cycle, the RollerGen will automatically charge two devices—cell phone, mp3 player, and so on—simultaneously. In fact, a 2-mile ride can charge a smartphone!

Or how about the Turbine Light? It’s a renewable energy harvesting device that doubles as a renewable energy system. As the wind turns the turbine, energy is created, which can be used to power the lighting at night. The wind is generated by weather or by passing vehicles.

So don’t miss out on your opportunity to vote for the greenest gadget (deadline February 25)!

RollerGen bicycle powering device

Turbine Light

Letting go of old lighting technology

There are those, it would seem, who are mourning the loss of their traditional bulbs and choosing to are stockpile the things before stores run out. Whether it’s because they prefer the light quality of an incandescent or that they have a hard time stomaching the higher sticker price, enthusiasm for the program is certainly not universal.

While I can sympathize with the frustration over light quality (I’ve got a few yellow-ish compact fluorescents lights (CFLs) in my home that make my reflected image look less than appealing), the financials for incandescents just don’t add up. Sure, it will cost more to invest in CFLs, but as officials at the European Union (E.U.) point out, the savings are tremendous. CFLs use up to 80 percent less power than a traditional bulb and last 10 times longer, by some estimates, making them the sound lighting investment.

Making large-scale environmental progress

By force or by choice, the E.U. is serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and this recent incandescent light bulb ban is just one way they’re doing it. Additional programs involve efficiency improvements in all sorts of consumer products, including televisions and washing machines.

Of course, the debate over the effectiveness of environmental legislation rages on, and this will certainly give us a good indication of how it works ahead of the US ban on incandescents set for 2012.