Energy seems to be one of the most talked about issue in town recently. I think I might as well have a bit of a rant myself here too.

I thought environmental issues are getting people to rethink about energy consumption and all. Wireless sensor motes are leading on that front too to a certain extent, although it is more to do with their own longevity than about the environment, directly, as researchers seem to be coming up with many innovative ways of reducing power consumption on electronic devices. As mentioned in my previous post, countries/governments are even thinking about installing smart sensors/meters to help save some household energy consumption. People’s awareness on such issues are probably at their highest level since mankind exists. All seem very well, until I read this news about “a system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires” today. I think it is a big slap on the face for many who are trying to educate people to reduce energy consumption, hence the carbon footprint as well, at least for now as fossil fuels are still our main source of primary energy. And I myself thought that innovative technologies coming out from high-tech companies nowadays will at least try to be as green as possible. It feels a bit like for convenience sake we do not mind doing a bit more harm to the environment. Yeah, just the right technology for us at a time when what we want is to cut down our energy consumption isn’t it? Surely transmission of power over the air is going to consume more energy than via wireline?! Why bother saving that 2-3% of energy through smart meters/sensors at home when all we seem to care is convenience, convenience! For too long already we have been emphasising too much on convenience. I’d have thought that there will be a change in priorities now that people are more energy and environmentally aware. And I mean if we really want a real push on cutting down our carbon foot print, the last thing we want is to come up with something that will only encourage more energy usage isn’t it?

Great idea, but I will stick to my wired power system even when the wireless version is cheap and affordable to me.

Related blog posts:

• Smart meters
• Battery life for long term deployment
• Energy awareness, by human?

Yes, 26 million electricity and 22 million gas meters to be fitted at a cost of £7bn in the UK, according to plans unveiled by the government. It is apparently going to mean huge savings for energy firms. But only 2-3% savings for average consumers in terms of energy use. Yet households are required to foot a third of the cost! Absolutely incredible. Even though I work for the industry I must say that the smart meters are not going to benefit households all that much. I think £7 billion will be better used to educate the public on energy consumption!

Related blog posts:

• Saving energy? We need everyone to be doing that!
• Battery life for long term deployment
• Energy awareness, by human?

Climate change and energy shortage, potentially, are demanding people to think twice now when they want to switch on their heating or air-conditioning. Rightly so, human has been too wasteful for too long. Gas guzzling vehicles for style, for recognition. Electronic equipments switched on all day long for no good reasons. My company has just participated in the “Big Switch Off” this weekend to see how much energy companies have wasted had they not switched off unused equipments over the weekend.

Question is, do we actually need such studies to learn that we should be switching off unused equipments? It does not matter how much current the equipment draws. If it is not needed, turn it off! Simple as that. Sometimes it is just frustrating to see human’s ignorant behaviours. Of course companies would want to save their fuel bills, especially now when the economy is doing so badly, jobs cutting everywhere, everyday. But it is when it becomes the companies’ job to persuade employees to save energy that it seems a bit laughable.

It’s the same at home. There are products in the market where people can plug them onto their power sockets to see how much energy they are consuming on their devices before they will decide whether or not they will want to use less of those devices, for example when not needed! They want information in their face before they will consider changing their behaviours. Switching off things is just too “time-consuming”, sigh, as if most of these people are always so occupied.

With such inconsiderate human behaviour, it almost becomes inevitable that it makes sense to “institutionalise” plans to save energy. For example new buildings to be built need to meet certain level of energy efficiency criteria before they will be approved. Good news is this will present opportunities and incentives for builders to come up with better building designs that are energy efficient, sustainable and environmental friendly. It is true that wireless sensor networks will probably come in quite handy in helping to improve building design. But I think it will mostly be in the arena of improving comfort rather than energy efficiency, unfortunately. Afterall building materials are limited and are well studied by the construction industry already?

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• Wireless sensor that sits behind the ear
• Imagine
• Research jokes

As far as I am aware, off-the-shelf batteries are not designed for long lifetime use, in the order of years. Yet they are being used for long term deployment in WSN. I’ve seen theoretical projections of how long low power wireless motes can last. But there still seems to be an unknown quantity on the profiles of batteries, when used for a long time by wireless motes, drawing µA current…

Related blog posts:

• How ready is ZigBee?
• Energy awareness, by human?
• Smart meters