Amazon’s electric delivery vans are making deliveries in more than 100 cities in the first holiday season with its fleet of 1,000 Rivian-built electric delivery vans, Amazon said Monday. It started making deliveries in Rivian EVs in August and plans to have 100,000 on the road by 2030.
Savant Systems expanded its energy management product line, bowing the LVL 2 electric vehicle charger Monday. When installed as part of a Savant Power System, the charger lets homeowners monitor energy consumption trends, manage power usage by automatically powering down other high-current devices while charging, and schedule charging so they can avoid peak utility rates, the company said. Savant partnered with Schumacher Electric to design the EV charger for Savant’s ecosystem; it will be sold exclusively by Savant. The hardwired 240-volt charger delivers up to 50 Amps of power and has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity to simplify installation and configuration, the company said. It will be available through the Savant Store next month for $1,100, it said.
Savant’s energy management system is available to North American builders and contractors via solar power distributors Soligent Distribution and Supplied Energy, the company emailed Thursday. The Savant Power System includes an automated software platform and app that's designed to work with electrical panels from brands including Schneider Electric, GE, Siemens, Eaton and ABB to let homeowners monitor their energy demands, understand their energy production levels and maximize available storage, the company said. By combining onsite energy generation, integrated battery storage, generator control and load management, Savant's system gives consumers control of energy assets and grid independence, it said. Consumers can shift between on-grid power and battery power, and excess power production beyond the requirements of the home can be accessed by the utility, Savant said.
EnergyGuide labels for TVs with screen sizes 69.5 inches and larger would need to boost their posted “applicable ranges of comparability for estimated annual energy costs” to $160 at the high range under the FTC’s proposed “routine updates,” says a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. That would represent a nearly 65% increase from the maximum $97 a year on a comparably sized TV under existing rules that took effect in July 2015. The estimated energy costs are based on using the TV for five hours a day in the on mode, and 19 hours daily in the standby mode, assuming a household that pays 14 kilowatts per hour for electricity, an increase of 2 cents from the 2015 rule. Comments on the proposed EnergyGuide labeling changes are due July 11.
A voluntary 2012 energy efficiency agreement among CTA, NCTA and CableLabs members cut annual energy consumption by cable boxes nearly in half between 2013 and 2020, even when accounting for declining numbers of pay-TV subscribers, said an independent audit report Monday by D+R International. It said the average weighted power consumption of annual new set-top box purchases fell from more than 120 kWh/year in 2013 to less than 64 kWh/year last year. It said the decline in energy consumption meant $2.2 billion savings on subscribers' utility bills and nearly 11.9 million fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The smart lighting and control systems market will reach $78.8 billion by 2026, from $35.7 billion last year, driven by sustainable green building initiatives, reported Global Industry Analysts Friday. The U.S. market is seen reaching $8.9 billion this year. Advances in sensor and electronics segments, evolution of wireless technology and the transition away from incandescent lamps will support expansion, it said.
A set-top box energy conservation agreement among MVPDs, manufacturers, energy efficiency advocates, NCTA and CTA saved consumers about $1.6 billion in energy costs last year, said CTA Tuesday. Over six years, it saved $5 billion in energy costs and avoided 28.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, said an independent audit by D+R International. D+R said 97.8 percent of service providers’ set-top purchases in 2018 met the agreement’s tier 2 levels that became applicable in 2017, exceeding each party’s commitment to have 90 percent of its purchases meet those levels. Some 78 percent of the signatories’ 2018 purchases met tier three levels scheduled to take effect in 2020, two years ahead of schedule, D+R said. The new-unit average power usage of the most energy-intensive type of set-top, the DVR, has fallen by 48 percent since 2012, it said. Participants bought half as many new set-tops in 2018 than in 2014, likely attributable to subscriber losses and consumers’ growing use of apps vs. an operator-supplied set-top box, said the auditor. Consumers used more than 36 million customer-owned devices such as smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and streaming players -- Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV -- to watch video services via app last year, up 33 percent year on year, it said. “With the increasing shift toward apps for streaming, the savings will grow even more because many consumers will no longer need a set top box to watch their shows,” said Noah Horowitz, Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist. NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg said the agreement’s flexibility enabled signatories to “save even more energy than initially projected while still adapting to changing technology and services.” Signatories include AT&T/DirecTV, Comcast, Charter, Dish, Verizon, Altice, Cox, Frontier, CenturyLink, Arris, Technicolor, NRDC and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; CableLabs also played a role. An energy report on home broadband gear was released Monday (see 1908120051).
Home energy monitoring company Sense tapped into Amazon Prime Day awareness to warn consumers how vampire power can lead to expensive utility bills. CE and other “always on” devices make up 23 percent of power consumption in the average U.S. household, costing residents an average $335 per year, it said, and about 10 percent pay more than $1,000 annually "to keep their gadgets on all the time.” Entertainment centers and audio systems are some of the biggest energy hogs, using $25-$60 a year in "vampire power," even when off, it said. Plasma TVs and amplifiers are the biggest culprits -- consuming five to 10 times as much -- or up to $350 a year, while a DVR can cost $30 a year in utility costs in standby mode. “An Alexa here, a camera there, a couple laptops charging adds up," said Sense, saying homes with 15 or more devices can spend $585 annually on vampire power. For Prime Day, the company recommended shopping for Energy Star-certified products and putting entertainment systems on smart strips that can be scheduled to power down when not in use.
AAA warned U.S. drivers Thursday about a “substantial drop” in electrical vehicle driving range during periods of extreme cold and heat. Frigid temperatures can cut driving range by as much as 41 percent, it reported. The roadside assistance provider tested five EVs with minimum EPA-estimated driving ranges of 100 miles, simulating real-world driving conditions using a dynamometer in a closed, temperature-controlled testing cell. Tests, done with the Automotive Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center, were designed to determine the effects of cold and hot weather conditions -- when using air conditioning and not -- vs. driving at an outside temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit. At up to 95 degrees, with air conditioning used inside the vehicle, driving range decreases by 17 percent, it said. Extreme temperatures can diminish driving range, but the use of HVAC in these conditions -- particularly the heat -- has the biggest effect on mileage, it said: An EV with a compromised by driving range requires more frequent charging, raising cost of operation. The study found that turning on heat during 20-degree temperatures adds almost $25 in charging cost for every 1,000 miles traveled compared with combined urban and highway driving cost at 75 degrees. When vehicles are traveling with the heat on and the outside temperature is 20 degrees, driving range is reduced to 59 miles for every 100 miles traveled, it said. The association urged EV owners to be aware of range reduction and the need to charge vehicles more often to minimize the risk of being stranded by a dead battery. It suggested making time to preheat or cool the inside of the vehicle while still connected to the charger to regulate cabin temperature before driving begins.
Roughly half of U.S. broadband homes are willing to adjust lights during peak energy consumption periods, but 29 percent of all households are willing to allow a utility or manufacturer to make adjustments automatically, said Parks Associates Thursday. "Consumers don't like the concept of someone else controlling their household devices, which is inhibiting wider adoption of energy programs," said analyst Elizabeth Parks. Utilities and energy providers need to build trust with customers, convincing them that time-of-use and load-control programs won’t cause them inconvenience or loss of control of their home, she said.