Essentially, the Nest thermostat should look good when you see it and manage your environment automatically in the background. If that’s the case, the Nest should simply be forgotten once it learns your comfort zones. Does it achieve that goal? Yes, it does. In fact, it does it so well that I’ve had my review unit far longer than I should have because I haven’t needed to adjust the Nest in months.

Nest Installation is a snap

My home is relatively new; only about 8 years old and I had no problems installing the Nest. The wiring system is all color coded, so if your HVAC system is relatively modern — say from the last 20 years or so — I’m willing to bet that the Nest install will be relatively painless. All it all, it took about 15 minutes to screw the base plate to the wall, connect the wires and attach the Nest. The device has Wi-Fi built-in, which you connect to your home network at the time of installation. You can use the Nest with secured wireless networks.

Included with the Nest is a small screwdriver to assist with the installation. The base even has a built-in bubble level to ensure your Nest won’t be askew. And there are optional mounting plates, which you can paint, to cover up any holes from the prior thermostat. I used the largest one in my installation.

The old thermostat module I removed is also a smart, programmable device; I’ve been using it since 2010, even flipping on the heat from halfway round the world. More on which one I like better in a bit.

A thermostat can actually be sexy and fun to use

Most people don’t think “bling” when describing a thermostat, but the Nest is beautiful to see. It’s a round metal knob with a circular display on the front. That’s it. To navigate the Nest’s interface, you simply turn the wheel through menu options and push the Nest in to choose an option: Simple, effective and intuitive. You can manually adjust your temperature by turning the wheel. And the screen won’t waste energy by constantly displaying information.

Instead, the screen times out in a few minutes and automatically wakes up when it senses you nearby. Yes: there’s a motion detector in the Nest and it’s not just for the screen. When Nest senses you’re not at home, it can adjust the thermostat up or down to automatically save energy. When Nest “sees” you get home, it disables the Away mode. Other useful items on the display include a blue or red background when cooling or heating, respectively, the current temperature and a green leaf when you’re saving energy.

How smart is the Nest?

Unlike traditional programmable thermostats where you have to key in various temps, times and days, you simply set Nest manually throughout the day and evening for a few days. In about a week or less, the Nest learns your climate habits and tells you that you no longer need to adjust the thermostat. From then on, Nest handles it all.

You can manually modify your temperature at any time, of course, and Nest will keep learning from that interaction. But I found that I really didn’t have to adjust the thermostat much at all over time. Even better, the Nest app for iOS and Android make it easy to remotely adjust the temp without even walking over to the Nest. Or you can log in at Nest.com via a web browser to make the adjustment.

And that’s where the Nest really shines compared to my old smart thermostat. Because your thermostat is tied to a Nest account — via an email address — there’s no complex setup to get remote access to the Nest. In contrast, for me to remotely access my old device, I had to play with router tables, network configuration and punch a hole in my network firewall; all things that take away from the simplicity.

Does Nest save energy?

That’s a difficult question for me to answer, but I suspect so. My heat source is liquid propane in a 1,000 gallon tank and I can’t monitor the propane use at a very fine level. I can say that we went longer between propane fill-ups this past season. And our summer season has only just begun. You can view your Nest usage and schedule directly on the thermostat or in the app, however. It doesn’t show actual costs, but tells you the hours you spent heating or cooling, and if you saved any energy with little usage.

Additionally, the Nest team recently added a new cooling feature called Airwave that should save money. The theory is that your air conditioning keeps making cold air for 5 to 10 minutes after it shuts off. The Airwave feature takes advantage of that cool air by blowing it in the home after the A/C shuts down. As a result, your air conditioner could run a little less while still cooling the home.

Would I buy one?

Given that I already have a smart thermostat, you’d think I’d pass on the Nest. But after I return the review unit, I may spend the money on one anyway. There are pros and cons here for me, although I think most people would benefit from a Nest. Since I have a whole “smart home” project in mind, the Nest actually doesn’t fit it. Why? Because one of its strengths is a weakness in my home: It’s a standalone device. As a result, my home automation server can’t speak to the Nest and I can’t control it from the same app and framework used to control my lights, web-cams and doors.

Still, the simplicity of the device may trump this particular issue. And most consumers don’t already have a home automation system to integrate with a thermostat, so all in all, it’s likely not a problem for you. I’m on the fence for now, but chances are the good looks of the Nest will get the better of me and I’ll retire my old smart thermostat for a better looking, younger model.

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The main Conference of the parties, which includes all the parties that have signed on to the Kyoto protocol, is scheduled to last from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9. It will be live streamed with two feeds, with one picking up the floor audio, and another one providing English simulcast translations. There are also live streams from press conferences and other proceedings like the first meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, and all the daily live streams will be listed on this page. A detailed schedule for all meetings can be found here.

Two more things are worth noting: Durban is in the GMT +2 time zone, which means meetings that start at 10 a.m. local time can be watched at midnight PST and 3 a.m. EST. Also, the U.N. is using Microsoft’s Silverlight for live streaming, so you might want to update / download Silverlight before tuning in.

Image courtesy of Flickr user UNclimatechange.

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Apple has been in talks with Chinese environmental groups since those organizations have been levying accusations of environmental abuses at the company’s supplier partners, which were collected in a report released in August. Ma Jun, a leading Chinese environmentalist, told the Wall Street Journal  Apple met with leaders of five environmental groups on Tuesday, and it represented “a major step forward” for Apple and the aims of the environmental organizations.

Another environmental group leader, Li Li of EnviroFriends, said though it’s a step in the right direction, the groups and Apple “haven’t reached a consensus” and still disagree on many specific things. For instance, while Apple has acknowledged 15 of the 22 suppliers identified in the August report are indeed Apple suppliers, it wouldn’t single out which ones. Apple has a history of not making its supplier information public, possibly in order to keep a tighter lid on potential supply chain leaks regarding upcoming products.

The lack of openness is a problem, Li Chunhua, secretary general of the Green Stone Environmental Action Network told the IDG News Service: “What Apple has been doing is positive, but we want them to be more open with their supply chain.” For environmental groups, transparency with regards to suppliers translates into greater accountability for their actions on Apple’s part.

One of Apple’s key suppliers for its unibody Mac enclosures, Catcher Technologies, had to shut down a factory in October when nearby residents complained of pungent odors. It’s likely the attention this received that helped prompt the meeting on Tuesday, and Apple’s decision to open investigations into 15 of its suppliers.

Apple maintains a supplier responsibility policy, which in part insists its partners “use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes,” and releases a report each year detailing the findings of audits it conducts to ensure the policy is being met. Complaints like those from this group of Chinese environmentalist organizations suggest it may need to do more to satisfy growing scrutiny.

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Solyndra's Factory

About two years ago we posted an article on greentech venture investor Steve Westly’s predictions on which cleantech companies would soon go public. He was surprisingly accurate and picked one company that did go public (Tesla) and two companies that filed S-1′s, including Solyndra (which pulled its IPO) and Silver Spring Networks (which still hasn’t gone public yet). Now it looks like Westly has another, more ominous, prediction that’s come true: According to the New York Times, back in 2009 Westly cautioned the White House to avoid a visit to Solyndra because the company was potentially risky:

“I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press,” Steve Westly, a California venture capitalist and an Obama contributor, wrote in May 2010 to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president. “If it’s too late to change/postpone the meeting, the president should be careful about unrealistic/optimistic forecasts that could haunt him in the next 18 months if Solyndra hits the wall, files for bankruptcy, etc.”

Westly, a democratic campaign contributor, sent that email the day before President Obama’s visit to Solyndra. I’m pointing this out, because the potential risks associated with Solyndra were somewhat obvious to many that follow the sector. I wrote this piece the day of Solyndra’s visit: Was the DOE Loan Guarantee for Solyndra a Mistake? And as Neal Dikeman wrote about Solyndra in this piece:

But seriously, raise your hand if you DIDN’T see this coming . . . This deal’s been close to a running joke among the cleantech cynics for a couple of years now.

Even one of the investors in the Solyndra deal, Brad Jones of Redpoint Ventures, didn’t think the loan guarantee to Solyndra was a good idea. According to the New York Times, Jones wrote in an email in December 2009 to White House official Larry Summers:

One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million . . . While that is good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money . . . The allocation of spending to clean energy is haphazard; the government is just not well equipped to decide which companies should get the money and how much.

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Streaming uses less energy

First the good news: Streaming really does eat up less power than watching cable TV. We tested the Apple TV, Roku’s new Roku 2 XS, the Logitech Revue Google TV set-top box, the Boxee Box and the WD TV Live Plus, and all of them consumed significantly less electricity than your average cable setup. The NRDC estimates that a regular DVR consumes around 32 watts when on, with some of the devices tested by the Council eating up as much as 50 watts. Set-top box makers have started to produce more efficient devices, but those are slow to reach the market. Verizon recently told USA Today that 90 percent of its boxes don’t meet meet Energy Star criteria yet.

A multi-room DVR setup consumes 617 kWh per year, according to the National Resources Defense Council. Picture credit: NRDC.

An Apple TV on the other hand consumes less than 2 watts when streaming HD video from Netflix. That means that you could theoretically run 16 Apple TVs with the same power that is needed to run a single cable DVR. Of course, that’s a bit of a hypothetical situation, so let’s go with one of the examples used by the NRDC instead. The Council estimated that a typical multi-room DVR setup with one DVR running on high gear for nine hours a day and two clients each used for three hours a day uses a total of 617 kWh per year (check out all the details in its study).

If you replaced the entire setup with Apple TVs and streamed Netflix on them for the same periods of time, then you’d use merely 10.4 kWh per year. And if those numbers don’t really mean that much to you, consider this: The electricity of this multi-room DVR setup alone would cost you close to $70 per year, based on a national average of $0.11 per kWh. The three-room Apple TV alternative on the other hand only costs about $1.15 per year.

Some devices are greener than others

Not all streaming devices are created equal, and our tests revealed that the same is true for their energy footprint. The Apple TV is by far the most efficient device on the market, impressing with low consumption even during HD streaming and close to zero impact during standby. On the other end of the spectrum are devices like the Boxee Box and Logitech’s Revue, which both consumed around 13 watts while streaming HD content.

Check out a detailed comparison in the table below:

A few points worth noting:

• The culprit for the high consumption of the Logitech Revue and the Boxee Box seems to be Intel’s CE4100 Atom processor that both devices are based on. Boxee’s sleep mode also doesn’t really save any energy, but the device can be turned off with a dedicated on-off button, which helps to significantly reduce its energy consumption. Logitech’s Revue doesn’t even offer a standby mode because it’s meant to be used in conjunction with other always-on devices.
• Roku’s streaming performance is almost as good as the Apple TV’s, but its standby mode is a bit of a mystery: The device uses as much electricity when in standby than it does when it’s on.
• Penny pinchers may want to take notice that you can save a little bit of electricity by streaming the content via Ethernet as opposed to Wifi. It’s not enough to really make a dent, but it should also help to improve your Netflix quality.
• We measured all of this with the help of a Belkin Conserve energy monitor, and streamed an episode of Mad Men in HD in each instance.

But is it really greener?

Getting rid of your power-hungry cable box and replacing it with a lean and green streaming device can obviously save you some money on your utility bills, but is it really greener? Doesn’t it just outsource the same functionality to some data center that serves up Netflix content?

It’s true that the video bits have to come from somewhere, but a number of studies have shown that cloud computing as it is used by Netflix to serve up video actually could lead to billions in energy savings. Part of that has to do with the fact that cloud computing helps Netflix to only use servers when it needs it and customers are actually watching.

Compare that to your average DVR, which is constantly recording a half hour buffer of whatever station you watched last, and it becomes clear that on-demand video viewing in combination with an energy efficient streaming device may be the greener way to go.

Image courtesy of (CC-BY-SA) Flickr user jonathan mcintosh.

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The campaign has been produced by Howcast, and it’s the third time Howcast has helped GE leverage the power of online video. Last year, Howcast had the goal of driving 10 million views on YouTube for GE’s first Ecomagination campaign, Howcast’s VP of Strategic Programming Jeffrey Kaufman told us in a phone conversation. To date, that campaign has led to more than 15 million views and counting, thanks in large part to the power of prominent YouTubers, who produced a number of videos for GE.

However, this time around, Howcast chose an  bit of a different approach. Instead of just asking the YouTube A-list to chime in on being environmentalists, it developed a mini web series starring ShayCarl that has the comedian visiting various places around the country to highlight green technology. One of the stops has him visiting the California Academy of Science in San Francisco, while another has him trying out a solar-powered carousel in Austin, Texas. And of course, he also stops by a GE plant or two.

GE's Tag Your Green Facebook map

Along the way, he;s joined by a number of YouTube colleagues, who appear in the videos for short cameos. Some will also produce supporting videos, explained Kaufman. ShayCarl’s videos won’t just live on YouTube, but also on a map on Facebook that’s the centerpiece of the campaign, inviting users to add green projects in their own neighborhood. “It’s the most exciting when the most people add themselves to the map,” Kaufman said.

Howcast also features a number of its own how-to videos throughout the Tag Your Green campaign, for example, encouraging people to reuse cooking water for the watering of potted plants. These kinds of how-to videos are what Howcast is best known for, and that has turned the company into one of the biggest publishers on YouTube. So how do how-to fare and branded content like the videos produced for GE fit together?

Kaufman said he wouldn’t draw a fine line between these two areas. Howcast has been working with various companies, including Staples, Home Depot and of course GE, to produce branded content initiatives. At the same time, it has been busy producing between 8,000 and 10,000 pieces of original Howcast content.

“Even the stuff we do for ourselves is not created in a vacuum,” said Kaufman, explaining that the company is working with a number of distribution partners and on lots of different media formats that closely mirror what the company is ding for partners like GE. In a way, all off this is also branded content — except it’s featuring the Howcast brand.

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Scosche solBAT II

The manufacturer sent me a Scosche solBAT II Solar Charger and Backup Battery to try, and I was surprised at how small it is, at approximately 4″ x 2.25″. It’s pretty light, too, at only a couple of ounces.

It comes with a case and suction cups that are designed to be mounted in a car window, with the idea that the charger will collect sunlight and store it in an internal 1500mA lithium-ion battery, ready to use when you need to charge your phone. There’s also a carabiner mount for attaching the charger to luggage or a backpack.

This charger’s small size and weight means that its solar cell is small and doesn’t charge very rapidly. The instructions say that it can take up to five days to reach the battery’s full capacity, so it’s recommended to charge the battery via USB (in about 3 hours), then use the solar cell to maintain its full charge.The charger outputs 5V at 500mA, which should be sufficient for many mobile devices.

SunCharge Universal Solar Cell Phone Charger

The SunCharge Universal Solar Cell Phone Charger from Choice Solar takes a different approach. It has a 5.5″ x 9.5″ panel, much larger than the Scosche, but the SunCharge is still pretty light at 3 oz.

Thus, it can charge a portable device faster than the Scosche, in 3-5 hours according to the manufacturer, but it has no storage of its own, and only works during daylight and in the right weather conditions.

It includes eyelets, but you’ll need to provide your own suction-cup hooks if you want to mount it in a window. The model I tried includes a “hydra” cable with five connectors: Mini USB, Micro USB, Nokia 2mm thin pin, Nokia 3.5 mm thick pin, and Samsung connector. There are also specific models for Nokia, LG and Samsung phones.

Choice Solar also offers the SunCharge iPhone Solar Charger Bundle, which includes a SunCharge, a 5 pin connector, Kensington battery and USB cable. This bundle is compatible with most iPhones and iPods. Note that neither the Scosche or the Choice Solar chargers can output enough current to charge an iPad.

The Scosche solBAT II Solar Charger and Backup Battery is available for $29.95 from the company’s website. The Choice Solar SunCharge is available for $39.95 plus shipping from the company’s website. The iPhone and iPod-compatible version is $79.95 plus shipping.

Both the Scosche and Choice Solar chargers do what they’re designed to do; you’ll need to decide which system is appropriate for how you work.

How do you charge your portable devices?

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Carbon Footprint

The report, prepared by non-profit organization the Green Press Initiative (PDF), takes into account the average lifecycle of e-reading devices, and even accounts for the general impact of the iPad (in terms of the production process used in making one) on human health when compared to that of the average book. Using Apple’s own published environmental report regarding the iPad (it’s the only e-reader / tablet maker that even publishes one), Green Press Initiative determined that an iPad is responsible for 130 kg (287 lbs) of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over its average lifetime. The average printed book, by contrast, is responsible for only 8.85 lbs. So, an iPad owner needs only download 32.4 books instead of purchasing paper copies in order to reach the break even point when it comes to carbon footprint.

Resources and Human Health

But carbon emissions aren’t the only consideration when it comes to environmental impact. The report goes on to note that the iPad’s construction is roughly equivalent to between 40 and 50 books when it comes to fossil fuel, water and mineral consumption, and that a single e-book has 70 times the impact of a printed book on human health, owing to particulate matter resulting from energy use and the book’s production.

Known Unknowns

The report acknowledges that there are a few factors where the ultimate impact of the iPad and other e-reading devices isn’t yet known. These include energy consumption that occurs during the device’s use stage, which is obviously zero for paper books. It does point out that in some cases, even using a light while reading uses more energy than an active iPad, which uses about 3 watts when used specifically for reading e-books. Server storage energy use costs are another potential factor, but again the report stresses that this impact is likely relatively small and spread out across a large number of users.

E-waste and recycling are the biggest question marks when it comes to e-readers. Books can be recycled, but it’s not clear how many actually are. E-readers can also be recycled, but it’s a more difficult process and in some cases, recycling simply means a device handed down to less developed parts of the world for precious material recovery, with the remainder discarded in traditional landfills. This is by far the most difficult and nebulous cost to account for.

How Many Books?

In the end, the report suggests a sliding scale with ranges wherein the iPad and other e-readers might be more green than their paper counterparts. The more printed books you offset with an e-reading device, the better. At around the 30 to 70 book mark, the report estimates, is where the break-even point lies in terms of general environmental impact, and it’s between 60 and 90 titles where it starts to become better to buy e-books than paper ones. Matt Schneider, a researcher and graduate student working in digital and print culture, points out that the national average for books read per year in Canada is about 20. In the U.S., it’s is only around 9 (or 15 if you don’t include the Americans that read zero books). At these rates, it’s probably better for the environment that the general population continue to use paper books, while heavy readers move to digital formats.

The Green Press Initiative also points out, however, that since the iPad is a multi-purpose device, its environmental impact is defrayed over a number of activities, not just e-reading. Also, the impact of downloading an e-book for someone who already owns the iPad for other purposes is relatively small; so in fact it may be even more of an environmental do-gooder than even the Kindle, which has lower power requirements but is also generally a single-focus device.

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