For many families, it is important to know and be able to regulate how much energy their homes use. There are many ways that this can be accomplished. Many people go to turning off lights and devices when they are not using them and even unplugging ones that won’t be used for a while. There are now devices being designed to tell you what your home energy use is and how to control it.

The Cisco Home Energy Management device is just one of these devices that will help your family up to date with what energy is being used. This device will provide up to date energy and budgeting information that will allow you to get optimized home energy use. This device also allows you to see visually the amount of energy your home is using and will let you control how that energy is used. One of the features of the Cisco Home Energy Management device is the touchscreen display. The touchscreen allows you to find and use applications quickly and easily. Some of the other features that make this device great are common networking protocols/security and energy management applications. The Cisco Home Energy Management device will allow you control over the amount of energy that is used in your home and save you money.

Have you ever heard of super li-ion batteries? They were hot last year when the first details came out and apparently they charge “super fast” and last for much more than we are expected with the batteries these days. However, these days Toshiba just announced that they developed the Super Charge ion Batteries (SCiB) that will be used for industrial purposes at first and should be able to recharge in just 5 minutes (a 90% recharge).

This would probably be the development we needed to make hybrid cars a success and this is where Toshiba’s batteries will head at first. Another interesting feature is the fact that it can be recharged 5,000 times so I’d say that’s a lifetime of more than 10 years.

We should see it live in March 2008.

via DoDevice

All the electronic devices are based on electricity. And when you run out of battery that’s a big problem. I mean, it happens when you need the device mostly. However, this problem seems to be eradicated once the Betavoltaic batteries will enter the scene.

The scientists form U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory have discovered the miracle of producing energy for 30 years without recharging. The secret – the Betavoltaic batteries that are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source.

The batteries are not nuclear as you may think so. The energy is produced when an electron strikes a particular interface between two layers of material. The scientists assure us that no radioactive or chemical reactions are produced during the process. That’s why these batteries won’t be an environmental problem. After their life cycle the Betavoltaic batteries are totally inert and non-toxic.

Probably in a few years we could use them without problems. So, think a little about the great advantage of non-charging your laptop around 30 years. First you won’t need regular energy power. And secondly, you will need a cool laptop because in so many years it will be outdated.

via Newlaunches