EE&T News: June 14, 2010

What's inside an electronic transmission

The May-June issue of EE&T is out. You can peruse the digital edition here. In it you'll get a look at a fully electronic transmission for EVs, what it takes to get an Energy Star rating now that candidate products must undergo third-party testing, and much more. As always, send us your energy efficiency news at [email protected].

Leland Teschler, Editor

Could this be the world's most efficient wind turbine?

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New meaning for "efficient" computer code

It used to be that a programmer who coded efficiently was someone able to get a lot done with a few lines of code. Now, the term "efficient code" could take on a new meaning. Researchers have come up with a way to devise computer code in a way that lets computer hardware use a minimum amount of power. Their approach: Devising a special adjunt to the Java programming language. READ MORE

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Researchers get better at recycling waste heat

Researchers at Oregon State University recently published a paper describing their work on a scheme they devised for reusing waste heat. It employs an organic rankine cycle engine which works with great efficiency thanks to the use of a special microchannel heat exchanger. The work is now in the prototype stage. A working demo the researchers created turned 80% of every kilowatt of waste heat into a kilowatt of cooling capability. READ MORE

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Energy shorts

Don't know nothin' bout no smart grid
HVAC standards not complicated enough: make them regional
A thermal harvester on a board
Power switch brings di/dt control to vehicles
Squeezing more juice out of lithium-ion packs

LEDs vs. T8 fluorescents: No contest

And the winner is....at least for now....the T8 fluorescent tube. Recently the DoE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ran a study examining LED-based lights designed to be drop-in replacements for linear fluorescent lamps (most commonly called T8 lamps. They tested the three best LED equivalents they could find. When the results came in, DoE had to conclude the LED equivalents never paid for the extra cost of the lamps and were dimmer to boot. READ MORE

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100-W open-frame ac/dc power supplies

Dimmable LED drivers

he VLED15 Series of ac-dc LED drivers are designed for driving high-powered LEDs. The constant-current drivers offer flicker-free operation when used with standard triac-based incandescent dimmers. The drivers come in either 115 or 230-Vac inputs and in 11 output-current configurations, ranging from 350 mA to 1.5 A. All units include active power correction and operate up to case temperatures of 90°C without derating. Protections for overvoltage, overcurrent, overtemperature, and short circuit are included.CUI Inc.

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