7 Energy Efficient Gadgets that Could Be 2010 Game-Changers

The Consumer Electronics Show, that huge once-a-year celebration of the latest, fastest, sleekest gadgetry that opens today in Vegas, has been getting greener every year, with more and more companies touting the energy efficiency of their products.

In 2008 the folks behind the show (Consumer Electronics Association) even bought the Green Gadgets show, and those exhibitors are now well-represented at CES, particularly in the Sustainable Planet section, which seems to grow exponentially by the year.

The green ghetto is great, but this year it seems energy efficiency is a major selling point for all the vendors, not just those with an ostensibly green product. Perhaps more telling, the tech journalists and taste-makers covering the event also seem to be most interested in the products that are smaller, thinner and more energy efficient than their predecessors.

In general, what happens at CES sets the tech and gadget trends for the year, so it’s encouraging to see a general trend toward energy efficiency, helped along in part by the banner year smart grid had in 2009, the federal stimulus funds flowing toward various energy efficient technologies and California’s recent move to put a cap on the energy consumed by televisions.

Here's a peek at seven energy efficient CES debuts that could be game-changers in the coming year:

Home Energy Manager from Direct Energy

Brought to us by a collaboration among Direct Energy, Whirlpool Corp., Best Buy, Lennox and OpenPeak, the “Home Energy Manager” connects all energy-using devices in the home (appliances, heating and cooling units, lights, electronics) to an easy-to-use, touch-screen interface that allows users to set budgets for energy use and operational parameters for appliances.

According to the companies involved, alerts will warn consumers when they are close to reaching their budget threshold for the month and offer personalized recommendations about how to reduce costs for the rest of the billing period.

Consumers will also be able to program the system directly or remotely to avoid energy consumption during peak periods. The system will be pilot-tested in Houston this spring.

“What's most important is that the Home Energy Manager isn't all about energy,” spokeswoman Cybele Diamandopolous told SolveClimate. “As we've learned, this is a low-interest category for the average consumer. Operating on the OpenPeak OpenFrame platform, the Home Energy Manager integrates energy management information with other useful information such as real-time traffic reports, weather, news and access to social networks — serving as a key information terminal that’s part of everyday life for residential consumers.”

Low-Power Computing from Marvell Semiconductor

Of several ultra low-power technologies Marvell is unveiling at CES, the most interesting is the latest version of its Plug Computing platform, Plug Computer 3.0 (top photo).

Aimed at developers, the Plug Computer 3.0 is about the size of the average laptop battery pack and is embedded with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a built-in hard drive, all with low power requirements, which means they can be on all the time but draw less power.

The devices, which are essentially small Linux computers, require less than 2 watts to run and could be used to provide computing power to products like home automation systems, which need to be on all the time.

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