Echelon@LonWorld 2007

Build a refrigerator with an energy footprint of 'zero'

Graduate student Aleksander Tilkowski has figured out how to build refrigerators with no energy footprint. None. According to Aleks, refrigerators consume dozens of MW annually cooling when they shouldn't, and spooling up their compressors at the exact time when energy is least plentiful and most expensive.

How's he do it? Using ice! Simply, his design uses the refrigerator's compressor to make ice in special containers in the housing of the refrigerators. The water has a saline pump to modulate the temperature at which it freezes and thaws. During the day, when energy is most expensive, the temperature in the refrigerator is maintained by the cooling effect of air moving through the refrigerator as it is cooled by the ice.

Very cool.

Infrastructure Product of the Year Award

LonMark International awarded our i.LON(r) SmartServer the Infrastructure Product of the Year Award this morning. Infrastructure products are those that connect, integrate, manage, or control automation networks. The SmartServer is a web service platform for tying control and data networks together. Our product also includes power line mesh networking and other features to make is a powerful segment controller for outdoor lighting applications. It also can manage networks through a web browser without a PC or outside service. Congrats to the engineering and product management team!

Smart Streetlights

Energy management is a hot topic in most every industry today but one of the most exciting new solutions is applying technology to streetlights to drastically reduce energy usage. Just how much energy can be saved by “adaptive outdoor lighting” systems? Up to 50% is common.

And saving energy is only the start—maintenance costs can also be reduced by 30% (say goodbye to night patrols by city maintenance employees searching for broken streetlights) and a city’s “green image” is also enhanced by reducing energy use and therefore CO2 emissions.

Companies such as Philips and several companies from Spain, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy all presented today on the topic and the growing market.

Interview - Abhay Gupta on the LED lighting market

SQN - Abhay, can you tell me what's so exciting about the LED market?
ABHAY - It's the fastest growing segment in the lighting market because LEDs consume about 1/10 of the energy of regular lights at the same lumen output and they last 50-100 times longer than an incandescent bulb.

SQN - So why is Echelon interested in this market?
ABHAY - We think the total available market for LED lights is in the multiple billion unit range. What's missing from the current LED market is control technology. So far, we're talking about on/off with no ability to create things like lighting scenes with color mixing. Controls enables customized mood lighting, self-installation that lower cost, and improved diagnostics. Echelon brings both Pyxos technology and power line networking to the market that we believe meets all the controls requirements in this new space.

SQN - Examples?
ABHAY - Architectural public lighting, e.g., a bridge or large building, requires high power low bandwidth communications so power line is a great fit. Theater, lounge, and nightclub lighting requires much higher bandwidth and far less power so Pyxos is a great fit. And for everything in between, like indoor residential and commercial, retail stores, etc, either works depending on your installation and wiring restrictions.

SQN - How does this fit in with Clean Technology when LED lights already save so much energy?
ABHAY - That's a complex question. Our belief is that energy management through clean technology should be intelligently applied. So while it's great to save energy through turning down your air-conditioner, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to sit and sweat for an hour each day to do so. To us, clean technology should enable both energy savings AND increased comfort and convenience.

With LED lighting, the energy savings is inherent in the technology, yet controls can deliver greater savings. What makes controls for LED lighting different is that while controls improves the energy efficiency of LED lighting a moderate amount, controls increase what you can do with LED lighting well beyond on and off.

Another barrier to home control falls...

We showed a new reference design for a new form factor in our power line transceiver aimed at the home market. The new design puts the full functionality of power line networking into a form factor almost 1/3 smaller than the existing version. Why's that important?

In Europe the standard electrical box is very small, much smaller than in the US. The boxes typically can hold three modules. For example, one could be a switch, one a light sensor, and one a motion sensor. The new design means that companies can put a communicating, power line based node into a single module, leaving the other two module slots available.

This really opens up the market according to Marco Conti, managing director of Powerline Automation Sagl. Marco is really excited about the prospect of putting networking into existing homes using existing outlets. With the new design he plans on bringing out products that give homeowners greater flexibility and functionality from their existing wiring locations. For instance, in a typical kitchen in Italy, Spain or the Middle East, some walls often have just the one light switch (single electrical box with space for three slim modules). He's thinking it wold be really attractive to homeowners to be able to have a networked power line switch AND a standard Schuko socket in the same housing.

Keynote Address

Keynotes from Ken Oshman, Echelon's CEO, and David Brewster, EnerNOC's President challenged the attendees with some interesting ideas. What is an energy management system? Is it an appreciating or depreciating asset? How do you calculate the ROI? Which is the market approach that solves the problem of scarce energy the fastest and most effectively, supply side or demand side?

From Ken's perspective, the answer is that an open control system, put in place to run a facility, city, or system on a day-to-day basis when used for simply that is a depreciating asset, losing it's value over time. But there's a better way. Put in an open system and then build a energy applications on top of it to transform a depreciating asset into an appreciating asset.

For example, Eddie Bauer's control system in their warehousing facilities, without energy savings would have had a multi-year payback. Easily justifiable. Eddie Bauer's system was used to optimize energy use, this put energy savings into their ROI calculation resulting in a sub-12 month ROI.

Ken focused on the opportunity that is in front of companies that want to put in energy management systems when coupled with the power of distributed, open control networks - showing the attendees that demand response, energy management, controls and operational efficiency are individually valuable, and together an unbeatable combination.

David Brewster followed with something new for the controls industry. Focus on the supply side of the energy equation. Guarantee energy suppliers capacity during peak by managing demand. Contract the utility side and put the energy management gateways in commercial/industrial sites for free. David gave us a new way of looking at the demand response business from the supply side that promises to leverage and drive the demand side. And the interesting thing is that it's all built on open standards on both the IT and controls side.

Seminar & Exhibit setup

Over 40 people attended the pre-LonWorld seminars on the Pyxos(r) embedded networking technology, i.LON(r) SmartServer and new solutions for high-end controllers (more on that in tomorrow's press release). Right now, it's standing room only for the SmartServer session.

The exhibition hall (10) is coming together with dozens of workers building the booths. Over 300 square meters of signage is going up. The only thing missing is heat. If LonWorld runs true to form, about 1200 people should be on site beginning tomorrow. The newly added keynote from EnerNOC's David Brewster should provide us with some interesting insights as to the ROI of energy management and how US utilities, in particular, view the problem of managing peak energy use during times of stress on the grid.

LonWorld 2; Echelon 0

7pm and setup is just about done. No trauma to speak of but the run-up to the event has already claimed two participants. One of our guys crashed his motorcycle and cracked 4 ribs along with puncturing a lung. He won't be making the trip to Amsterdam. Another guy took a hard shot to the head in field hockey. It's the concussion that'll keep him at home, not the stiches.

And show setup hasn't even really begun! More tomorrow...

Echelon Workshop setup day...

3PM and the Echelon crew is setting up for our pre-LonWorld workshop. It seems like there's a mile of cabling running all over Room P here at the RAI Centre, Hall 10. We're also tripping over dozens of boxes strewn across the floor in both the Workshop room and our staging room.

It's interesting to watch how people who haven't slept in 24 hours go about setting up development stations. Marc and Abhay have only been on the ground for an hour, heading straight to the RAI from the airport. Rich and Vijay have been here over a day so they're merely jet lagged.

No other activity going on as you'd expect given that the show doesn't start for a couple more days. Tomorrow we look forward to exhibitor setup.

Welcome to the LonWorld 2007 Blog

Check back here for up to date information about news and events happening at LonWorld 2007.
http://www.lonworldexpo.com