NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Sun-Powered Oven Makes Salt Water Drinkable

What if getting clean, drinkable water to developing countries was as simple as using a resource they already have in abundance? Sunlight. Designer Gabriele Diamanti believes this simple idea is key to solving the world's water problem -- so much so, that's he created the Eliodomestico oven, which turns salt water into drinkable water.

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Diamanti explains the oven by saying it works like an "upside down coffee maker." A boiler is filled with salt water and left out in the sun. As the temperature rises, pressure increases in the sealed oven producing steam, which is forced down through a pipe. The lid of the oven collects this steam and condenses it into drinking water. This oven only uses heat from the sun and requires absolutely no electricity.

Diamanti wants the project to remain open-sourced, meaning that it will always be evolving because anyone, from designers to local communities, can modify or improve it.

While a finished product is still in development, the oven has earned a Core 77 Design award and accolades from others in the design industry. The hope is that the recognition will lead to funding and help move this project out of the development phases and into the homes of the families that need drinkable water most.

Check out the video below for a full description from Diamanti.

Credit: Humans Invent

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Go Fly A Kite For A Better Wind Farm

Why tap a trickle, if you could tap a torrent? That's the idea behind Italian company KiteGen's new system for harvesting strong-blowing, high-altitude winds. Their system would fly tethered kites 2,624 feet into the air where they would harness winds that are, on average, six miles per hour faster than wind harnessed by stationary turbines on the ground. The kites would attach to mechanical arms and be flown over a predetermined flight path to maximize torque while taking advantage of stronger wind.

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According to KiteGen's calculations, the technology could help lower energy costs to between $0.02 and $0.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared to $0.05 and $0.09 per kWh for fossil fuel and $0.15 per kWh for current wind turbines.

On top of potentially being more efficient than wind turbines, the system would take up less space than convential wind farms. A 1,000 megawatt (MW) wind farm can cover up to 186 square miles, while KiteGen's says their system would take up as little as 3.5 square miles for the same output.

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While KiteGen's system is still in the development stage, the company is attempting to fund the first full-sized model with plans for an off-shore system also in the works.

 [Via GizMag]

Credit: KiteGen

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Poo-Powered Glowing Bacteria Light Up the House

The bioluminescence of fireflies and "Red Tide" are arguably two of nature's most beautiful phenomena, leaving us spellbound in a open field or on the shore with our mouths agape. But have you ever considered lighting your home with this kind of light?

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Dutch electronics company Phillips has. In fact, they've created Bio-light, a greener lighting system that's part of their Microbial Home (MH) system. It isn't powered by electricity or sunlight, but by glowing bioluminescent bacteria that thrive on waste generated in the average home.

The bioluminescent bacteria is housed in hand-blown glass cells, clustered together to form a lamp that could easily be displayed in a modern art museum. Each cell is connected to the lamp's reservoir base by thin silicon tubes that pipe methane gas from composted bathroom solids and vegetable scraps via a kitchen dodad that digests bio-waste.

As long as proper nutrients are supplied, the bio-light's living bacteria can be powered indefinitely. Although the light isn't bright enough to fully replace conventional lighting, it does make people conscious of household forms of wasted energy that could be tapped.

Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design, says drastic changes are required to reduce our environmental impact and designers must lead the way.

“Designers have an obligation to understand the urgency of the situation, and translate humanity’s needs into solutions," he said, according to Phillips Design's website. "Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far. We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resources.”

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Phillips envisions their bio-light technology being used on warning strips on curbs and steps, signs in theaters or clubs, and even night-time road markings.

[Via GizMag]

Image Courtesy of Philips

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Power Strip Slays Peripheral Vampires

TrickleStar Advanced PowerStrips: $29.95 - $54.95

Good neighbor that you are, you invited your friends who lost power to stay with you. And then what do they do? They hang out all night with the lights on, movies blaring, wasting power like they own the place. How rude!

Well, in an electrifyingly loose analogy, that's what happens every day with your power strips. You might turn off your PC or TV, but their little buddies -- a printer or external monitor here, a receiver or game console there -- continuously mooch juice.

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With adjustable thresholds, the circuitry in TrickleStar's line of advanced power strips senses changes in the current and is able to respond. In other words, when you turn your PC or TV off or on, the strip shuts off or turns on all the associated peripherals. It's an easy way to reduce vampire power, which saves you money. (On a related aside, TrickleStar is currently offering instant rebates to New York State customers.)

Additionally, another section of these transformer-friendly power strips is dedicated to devices you always want on, such as modems, routers, etc. They're offered in 4- to 12-outlet configurations, certain models of which also provide coaxial, telephone and/or Ethernet connections.

And on the safety side, because they all utilize ceramic-encased MOV (metal oxide varistor) components, they're all fireproof with tolerances in the hundreds of thousands of amps and thousands of joules. If that doesn't give you peace of mind, perhaps the $400,000 connected device warranty will.

Credit: TrickleStar

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iPod Maker Designs Smart Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat: $249.99

The innovative and intuitive technology that has come out recently serves the purpose of making life better and smarter. Every aspect of modern life has been improved upon by tech, but one important device has been barely updated: the lowly home thermostat. Enter the Nest. The Nest Learning Thermostat was created by Tony Fadell, former Apple SVP who had a big hand in creating the iPod.

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The thermostat learns from the heating and cooling preferences of home owner to create a custom heating and cooling schedule. It programs itself based on the temperatures set and learns the homeowner’s schedule throughout the week, which means it can turn down heating or cooling when you’re not home to save energy. Its simple design is in keeping its Apple cousin, just an outer ring to adjust the temperature and a color change, red for heating and blue for cooling. The Nest menu can be accessed by pushing on it, or through Wi-Fi to adjust schedules, temperature and check energy usage. No doubt this will be the “Dyson” of thermostats, it’s cleanly designed, smart and energy efficient. It also costs about three times more than a typical programmable thermostat.

Via: Reuters 

Credit: Nest Labs

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Nanosheet Filters Could Cut Cost of Gas

Zeolite has been known for decades as an absorbent and a catalyst in many industries. In the future, sheets of it just nanometers thick may be used to filter gasoline out of crude oil.

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota led by materials science professor Michael Tsapatsis, found a way to make ultra-thin sheets of zeolite that can speed up filtration and save a lot of energy (and money) in the process.

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Substances such as gasoline are usually distilled from the parent liquid. Gasoline, for example, is produced when crude oil is mixed with ordinary powdered zeolite, which helps to separate the gasoline and other products from the crude. Purifying gasoline -– or any other liquid –- requires additional filtration.

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But that can eat up a lot of energy. Filtration can be a good 15 percent of the energy used in separating liquids. A lot of that energy is lost because the whole filtering process isn’t very efficient. Rising energy prices have made it tougher for industry to ignore the extra costs.

A molecular membrane, one that let molecules of only a certain size pass through, would go a long way towards boosting that efficiency and that’s where the invention of nanometer-scale films of zeolite comes in.

The researchers used sound waves in a centrifuge to develop “carpets” of zeolite that are have just the right thickness. The resulting product can be used to separate molecules like a sieve. Ordinarily zeolite is not that hard to make, but forms chunks rather than ultra-thin sheets.

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If this can be commercialized, it could reduce costs in a lot of industrial processes, including purifying gasoline and separating precursors to polymers, or even purifying water.

Via University of Minnesota 

Image: University of Minnesota

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Solar 'Post-it' Panels Make Debut

The company that brought us Post-it Notes wants to do something similar for solar power. At the CEATEC conference in Japan, 3M unveiled its latest: a solar panel that's a translucent piece of sticky film.

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As an added bonus, the film also blocks a good percentage -- the company claims 90 percent -- of the incoming infrared light. That means it can cool a house that has a lot of window space, or an apartment whose windows don't open, reducing both the dreaded summertime greenhouse effect and the load on the air conditioner. Then there's the ease of installation. All you have to do is stick the film onto the window.

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The power generation isn't as efficient, as estimates run at about 20 percent of what you would get for a regular photovoltaic system. But the upside is that it doesn't have to be. 3M says it generates enough power to charge the average smartphone (in full sun) with one square meter, or about three feet by three feet. For an American home that is actually close to the typical window size in a lving room.

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For a single home that may not sound like much power. But imagine fitting an office building with the film. Even if it were only used to charge up office workers' cell phones and cut back on air conditioning, the power savings could be significant. Glass-faced office buildigs typically use a lot of energy to keep cool, and on top of that they don't always heat and cool evenly. This is why in some older buildings summertime indoors is comfortable for a snow leopard in one room and tropical in another.

3M says it hopes to start selling the film in the Japanese market next year, and will start with large-scale installations, such as government ad office buildings.

Via Physorg, CNET

Credit: Diego Cervo/Blend Images/Corbis

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Compact Washing Machine Does Laundry Anywhere

The Laundry Pod: $100

Laundry is a never ending nightmare for most of us, but for those who don't always have access to those kind of facilities, it's a luxury. The Laundry Pod aims to make washing clothes easier for weary travelers, campers and even broke college students.

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Clothes go into the Pod with water and detergent. After a soak, the salad spinner-like agitator is cranked and then the pod can be drained and refilled for a rinse cycle. Clothing can also go through a spin cycle, literally just spinning the clothes with the drainage nozzle open to let out excess water. The Pod can wash up to six garments, which isn't a lot, but it beats not having any clean clothes at all.

Credit: StoreBound

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Flexible Power Strip Makes All Outlets Usable

Pivot Power: $29.99

Blocky construction can sometimes keep power strips from fitting their full capacity due to the different size AC adapters some devices have. For those of us that live in small apartments with few outlets, this can be an issue. Pivot Power is a flexible power-strip with six outlets and jointed sections that can be moved around to fit every outlet, regardless of the plug.

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Pivot Power is one of the products that became a hit on the product development site Quirky. The site brings new consumer products every week by allowing inventors to submit ideas and have them evaluated by design staff and the internet community. If the product gets enough positive votes, the item gets manufactured. Pivot Power took about a month to develop and currently has 5,371 orders placed.

Credit: Quirky

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Wireless Solar Keyboard Available for Mac

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac: $59.99

The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 was released for PC users last year and had Mac users everywhere crying, "Foul!" Now it's available for all. The keyboard is powered by both indoor and outdoor light and can be used in total darkness, after a full charge, for three months. An app has been created by the company to keep track of the battery power on the keyboard as well as how much charge you're getting from your source. The K750 is not only environmentally friendly because of its solar charging, it’s also PVC-free and fully recyclable. 

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The keyboard comes in five colors and is lightweight and portable, measuring just 1/3-inch thick with built-in 2.4 GHz wireless. No software is needed for installation, just plug in the tiny unifying USB wireless receiver and type away.

Credit: Logitech

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