Enigin Geek

How green was my internet?

Green technology has come on in leaps and bounds over the last thirty years. We recycle, we wash at 30 degrees, we make sure our appliances aren’t on standby. We each try to enjoy the rich benefits of technology while trying to be responsible in using our fair share of the world’s resources.

You might know how much energy you use when using your computer, but what about the websites you view? Are they using ecologically sound methods to serve you information?

Even people who think long and hard about where their food comes from may not stop to think about where their internet search results came from. Yet all major internet companies use massive server farms that guzzle electricity and hungrily munch through resources. Shouldn’t you look towards finding the search engine or social network that shares your concern about the safety and sustainability of our planet’s environment?

Well, here’s some good news. The excellent website RankABrand.com has studied the energy efficiency of some major internet services, and they’re found that if you’re a Google user then you’ve got nothing to worry about. Their system gives a ranking of some of the biggest internet companies:

Google (including Gmail and YouTube) - B
Facebook - D
Bing - D
Yahoo! - E
Twitter - E

Google are leading the way in showing that we can have a sustainable internet, but there must be some concern at the performance of other popular providers. Do something today. Let them know that this is important. If they want your support, they need to go green.

Get mobile and show off!

At a recent party I was witness to a common and increasingly normal activity, mobile phone comparing, or now as it has become mobile app comparing. Now while you could argue that this kills the art of conversation and is not such a rich social interaction this is the Enigin Geek Blog, and geeking out is most certainly allowed! It does though, highlight how deeply mobile technology has wrapped itself into our lives, our working lives and social. I’m not sure I can remember the last time I saw someone use a pay phone, let alone use one myself.

To take the business side of this issue, it means that where possible the public, customers and clients alike want access to information wherever they are, and they tend to want it quickly, myself included. The age of the multi-core silicon chip has created the expectation in us to get information in an instant. I expect it now, sooner rather than later, even though less than 20 years ago I was happy to load computer software on a tape cassette and go and eat dinner while it loaded. Ah how times have changed. This has put pressure on all business that produce useful information to do so in a mobile format. It will be no surprise to you that Enigin have done this for some time now. As with all software we can almost taste the quality, well at least now with touchscreen phones, feel the quality. Enigin PLC’s mobile app is superb, and I’m proud to show it off. It not only looks great but proves to be incredibly useful.

Of course the parent desktop app has always been slick but I wondered if it would transfer over to the mobile app, and it did, so my congratulation to the development team. If your new to Enigin products and the Eniscope allow me to explain, Eniscope and it’s pc application or mobile app work in conjunction to give you unrivaled information on your energy consumption and usage. This is no mere information service, it empowers you to deploy load-side energy saving products, that is products that very simply connect to your appliances to make real and dramatic money saving, typically in the region of 30 – 40 %. Our distributors also tell us Eniscope’s Real-time feature allows them to see factory or building productivity at a glance wherever they are at any time day or night. So if you did find yourself awake at night contemplating the universe and weather your factory or firm in actually running at full force as promised you can check. And thats what good apps should do, actually assist in running our businesses.

So my apologies to all at the party, but as Enigin Geeks it must surely be allowed to show off our mobile Eniscope app and how its helping business make serious energy saving round the clock.

Be More Profitable Wherever You Are.

This time I’d like to talk about something quite close to my heart, energy saving in Norway. A land with one of the best life quality indices available, and they will tell you so! Without a doubt its a wealthy country and some have even said immune to financial crisis, as their life blood is oil, and lots of it. Only recently have ‘they’ found another huge oil field that guarantees more fuel for decades to come. But, yes you were waiting for it weren’t you, there is a ‘but’, energy prices just increase and increase. Given that in Norway most energy demand is electric and supplied by hydro electric stations and other ‘greener’ sources you would be forgiven to think prices would be stable, not so. In times past high levels of rainfall meant cheaper electricity, as more water meant more hydro-electric power. But it seams that everywhere energy providing companies are bent on raising their own profit margin, so when it comes to reducing energy bills we are somewhat left on our own.

The Enigin Eniscope offers a real solution, rather than tackle the problem by producing more energy it does something far more effective, it makes energy saving possible. Its logical really that when you have a valuable commodity the best thing to do is use it wisely and certainly not waste it. If you are a business owner or manager you no doubt spend a good deal of your time developing your business, to help it grow with the goal of maximizing profitability. Saving energy and hence money can be as effective as a 20% increase in turn over for many companies. Fitting Eniscope is the first step in tapping into these types of savings. Eniscope does more than merely measure your energy demand minute by minute, it also reveals where you are using most energy and where it is being wasted. This empowers you to deploy load-side energy saving devices to make your business more energy efficient. When your appliances run efficiently they also run more smoothly causing less ware and creating further savings in maintenance costs.

One of the common trends here in Norway is to purchase a more economic vehicle, because as fuel costs rise we invest in more efficient transportation, maybe you have found yourself tapping the fuel nozzle for the last few drops of diesel, why? Because we know it’s good economy, it only makes sense to do the same with our appliances that power our businesses. From my viewpoint supply and demand should of course influence fuel prices but it seems they are set to rise whatever the case. The best way to compete this is to become lean energy efficient businesses focused on making profit not just from growing but from not wasting our valuable energy.

Blogging On The Move

Writing multiple Enigin and energy saving blogs can be great but it can also be limiting - you always need to be able to get online and sometimes you want to do so quickly - as the inspiration hits or while something is happening in front of you, as if live.

With mobile technology moving at a fast pace it is becoming ever easier to update your blog on the move.

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Mechanics or Electronic/Software Engineers

At Enigin many of us are “interested” in cars and bikes (bikes for me at least), often we get into chats about the various mechanical problems upgrades of the Enigin plc’s staff vehicles. But over the years things have changed.

An area that used to be the domain of the oily fingered has evolved over the years into the clean fingered brigade’s home. No longer do Enigin’s staff talk about Top Dead Centre’s and Points gaps (the younger ones amongst us think we are talking a foreign language). Everything is diagnosed by computer - at least Harley Davidson offer to sell you the diagnostic software.

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Enigin - Making The World Go Around

Most, if not all, of what we use and have around us has been made using an alternating current induction motor.

This is just the name given to an electric motoring unit that works like this: inside an electric motor, attracting and repelling forces (like magnets) create rotational motion. The process converts electrical energy into mechanical power, to allow the rotor to turn the machine it is attached to.

These motors are everywhere, in most businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, offices and even in our houses. Not to mention factories.

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What Energy Are You Using Right Now?

KEEPING an eye on your energy use is vital if you want to save energy - seems rather obvious but in reality can be harder to do than say.

For instance how much energy are you using at this very moment?

If you are still on a traditional power meter apart from seeing how fast that wheel spins round and the numbers change you cannot tell how much energy you are using, not until you get your bill, which is either weeks or even months later.

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Touch Screen Proliferation

Four years ago touch screens were not unknown but were rare, at least amongst the general populace.

Now you can’t turn around without banging into someone frantically sliding their fingers across the screen of their cell phones.

Since the launch of the iPhone 2007 touch screens have been the must-have for any cell phone and now all manufacturers have followed Apple’s lead, and exceeded what Apple have done in some instances.

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Walk the Talk with Podcasts

It is great to see more and more organisations begin to realise the importance of modern technology and the service it can provide.

Often the staid world of rambling is portrayed as tweed coats, stout boots, walking sticks and sad unfashionable people who are more akin to Luddites than us technophiles.

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2020 is the Future for Enigin and us All

I have been looking at some gadgets of late - there are so many now that it is difficult to filter through them all.

A part form gadgets of course we have the heavy weights like Apple’s iPad and all the gizmos that Google seem to be producing.

On one trawl across the web I kept on seeing predictive technology, what we are supposed to have in the future - all these amazing things that we look at in wonder but are often forgotten about or laughed at in the future.

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