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.

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.

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.

]]> http://www.enigingeek.com/2012/03/14/be-more-profitable-wherever-you-are/feed/ http://www.enigingeek.com/2012/01/23/blogging-on-the-move/ http://www.enigingeek.com/2012/01/23/blogging-on-the-move/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:01:17 +0000 enigin http://www.enigingeek.com/?p=83 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.

Just go to Apple’s App Store and see how many apps are available to update blogs.

Wordpress, the number one blogging software and facilities service, have a superb app which they have just upgraded for iPhones and iPads, with new Android and other mobile phone versions also upgraded.

With this app I can easily update many of my blogs from where ever I can get a WiFi or 3G connection.

I can also film some video on my iPhone and post it on the site from the iPhone - fantastic.

Technology advances so fast at times we rarely see where it will take us.

I am not limited now to being stuck in the office to write the blog, I can be out and about and still update Enigin’s blogs, like this one.

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.

No longer does the mechanic have to deal with the intricacies of engines and fuel systems - he runs a check through his computerised, diagnostic tool and then swaps out a small to large black box.

Cheap tweaks and adjustments can no longer be made, just one item pulled-out and a brand new piece of expensive equipment plugged back in.

Like so much u=in this technological world - life is simplified, as whole sections can be unplugged, updated and plugged back in. That is all very well, but also expensive and wasteful, as often it is just a tiny part that is broken or failing, but the whole circuit is ditched and whole new one is installed.

This is progress?

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.

Despite being used everywhere and by everyone, in direct or indirect ways, motors have a big flaw - they waste a lot of energy! Half of the world’s energy production is consumed by motors!

During the conversion from electrical energy to mechanical movement, losses occur in the system. These losses are transformed into heat, noise an vibrations, and they happen because the motor is sourcing more energy than it needs to do its job.

For instance, when engineers create a machine, they design it with an over-sized motor so as it can handle the worst case scenario, just in case: an escalator going upwards will be conceived so that it can be functional even if two heavy men stand on each of its steps.

Although this scenario almost never happens in real life, the motor powering the escalator is designed to produce enough energy to cater for this eventuality ALL THE TIME. It does not know how to adapt to the load on the escalator, hence sourcing the adequate amount of energy to make the escalator operate. It will therefore always use more energy than it needs, which is how energy is wasted.

Enigin PLC have a clever solution to this energy wasting problem. They have the iMEC - Intelligent Motor Energy Controllers. The iMEC gives a motor an ‘intelligence’, enabling it to analyse the amount of energy that is needed for the machine to perform, adapting to the variations in requirements. Enigin PLC’s iMEC is the most logical way to combat energy inefficiency due to over-working motors, and to save businesses a lot of money at the same time, through a reduction of energy bills (at least 40% savings in costs).

Consuming less energy also means reducing carbon emissions and increasing the life span of a business’ appliances, through eradicating heat, noise and vibrations associated to excess ‘lost’ energy.

Enigin provide businesses with an offer they can’t refuse, as energy bills seriously dent most businesses’ profitability. Implementing Enigin PLC’s high-tech devices is the evident choice for anyone who thinks hard-earned money should not be wasted on ridiculously high energy bills.

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.

As we get more smart meters things will improve, but still generally there is a delay in getting a reading as to what you are using - it isn’t in real-time.

At Enigin we have something far better than a smart meter - the Eniscope real-time energy monitor, which shows you what energy you are using now, and displaying graphically what savings are made as you switch an appliance off.

Flick the switch and the Eniscope display on your web browser will react, with dials or graphs reacting. Hence you can see what energy is being used, by what and how much.

Once armed with that information you can make decisions and change behaviour, right away as you have the energy use data as it happens - that’s smart.

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.

My grandson Seth, just 2 years old, already realises he has to slide his fingers on his mum’s iPhone to change pictures or access a new screen.

It is amazing how quickly such technology becomes the norm - what was science fiction a few years ago is now a reality beyond a predictors ability to see.

At Enigin we see the same development with energy saving.  Several int he Enigin fold have worked on energy efficiency for many years but suddenly it has gone from a fringe industry in to the main stream.

Along with that at Enigin we have seen the technology, such as our Eniscope or other developments, go from strength to strength - with what was revolutionary just a couple of years go now seeming everyday with the next developments sitting there exciting everyone involved.

Like the touch screen - being able to manage your energy use and save money is becoming common place - which is good news for us and the environment.

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.

Now I know that is not completely true - I like a good hike myself but again I am an mountaineer which is as far as you can get form rambling. Anyway, back to subject, it is good to see access to technology aiding those who wish to walk, hike, ramble or climb the hills.

I am traveling to my daughter’s home soon in the far North East of England, having a week off form the grind stone at Enigin.

As I am trying to save as much money as I can, to spend on new gadgets and technology, plus blowing any money I did have on three one TB hard drives for my Mac I going to stay at my daughters as it is far less (free) than a hotel, unless she catches on!

I surfed around the web for some walking routes, as walking is also cheap, and I found on a North East England tourist site, not only detailed descriptions and maps but also downloadble podcasts of the walks to take with you on your phone or mobile device.

Great news - although the earbuds leading from an iPod do not quite fit the picture of the rambler I am sure many others will want to join in with some physical activity if they can hear the route while enjoying the scenary - not only that I have a compass on my iPhone, let alone the maps.

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.

In the past they reckoned that by the time we hit the 21st Century we would hardly work, Robots would do that for us, and we would spend our time just playing.

It was partially right, with a worldwide recession a lot of people were not working but they weren’t playing! For the ones that do work, it hasn’t got easier but often it has involved longer hours and more stress! How come nobody predicted that.

Of course in the past the year 2000 was the pivotal point - in the year 2000 people will have this or that, and people would point to imagined technology and forecast all the things we would have, few of them came true.

As we are now at least a decade into the 21st Century what do we point to to as the next pivotal time, it seems by consensus to be 2020.

Lots of inventors and forecasters are stating that by 2020 we will have or do this or that.

For instance Sony have recently predicted they will have their wrist computer, the Nextep (is that Japanese for Next Step?), will be the sort of personal device we will have in 2020 - with a pull out keyboard and a OLED screen plus projecting holographs.

Here at Enigin, as we scour the internet for energy efficiency news we find that many targets are set for 2020 or 2030. The same thought process I guess - the future which seems so far away will bring untold possibilities and solutions.

In reality of course not much will change - yes technology will be better but will it make life better? We will have to wait and see.

At Enigin we are pleased to be on the edge of much of the energy saving technology around today and at the same time through our Eniscope real-time energy management solution ahead of the present with our emerging software.

Yes in 2020 the Eniscope Hub system will no doubt project energy usage and efficiency readings to individual wrist worn computers, while displaying a huge public holograph - oh of course all in 3D with a live video feed of the last wild Polar Bear struggling to survive!