Work Products

In a surprise move, SunPower, the global PV efficiency leader, introduces a low-efficiency product. Does this tarnish the brand? Does it mean that high-efficiency is not a winning strategy?

TomTom have previewed the GO LIVE 1000, the first in a whole new generation of navigation devices, designed to bring real-time services to millions of drivers.

Lucid’s new product allows buildings to compare, and compete, head-to-head in energy use.

27% of North America's greenhouse gas comes from the production of electric power, so it makes sense to use as little of it as possible. That is why I am not as enthusiastic about ground source heat pumps as many others are; they run on electricity. If you are in a temperate part of the continent and can live without air conditioning, then there are perhaps better alternatives. One might be the NTS Matrix; Martin Holladay at Read the full story on TreeHugger

Red light emitting diodes were easy, and have been around for a while. Blue LEDs were harder; Shuji Nakamura won the million euro Millenium Technology Prize for figuring them out. Green LEDs have been tougher still. To get a good white light you need to mix all three, so designers have relied on a work-around, firing blue LEDs at a phosphor that emits green light, much like the ultraviolet light from mercury vapour excites the phosphors in a fluorescent light. 

Magazines are being printed in volumes every day, and the sheer bulk in waste is staggering. Time magazine prints more than four million copies a year, all in a slick glossy format that has not always been recyclable. But now, a technological gadget could provide a means for curbing the amount of glossy magazines that are produced–and therefore the number that end up in landfills.