Control4 Green Initiative
Earlier this year, Control4 launched the aptly named Control4 Green Initiative. The goal is to reduce the use of electricity through the use of user-managed lighting, HVAC and other functions. Control4 claims 20% of all electricity consumption in the USA comes from lighting, and 5% of that is wasted with insufficient light sources and unoccupied rooms.
Control4 offers wireless dimmers (at $99 each) to replace your existing light switches. These dimmers are controlled through touchpanels, right on your TV screen or remote on a secure website. Dimming the light by 10% yields a 10% savings and the light bulb lasts twice as long. Dimming by 25% offers 20% savings and the bulb lasts 4 times as long! The savings can build up over time. You can customize macros so you can turn on the lights in a room for different scenes, including party, movie, dinner, etc and give lighting loads different currents to help save energy as well. Or you can get a third-party motion detector to sense when someone leaves the room and shut off the lights automatically.
These dimmers simply replace your existing switch, no additional wiring needed. They operate on a Zigbee mesh network so the more devices in your home the stronger the network. There is even a dimmer that plugs into a regular AC outlet for lamps you might want to control.
Control4 also offers wireless thermostats to replace your existing HVAC controller which allows you much greater flexibility than a normal thermostat to save on air conditioning and heating costs.
The coalition is growing, already bringing Southern California Edison (energy provider) on board. They will be implementing digital meters allowing the users instant access to their energy consumption to cut their bills and help the environment in the process. As much as electronics are exciting, they’ve been historically bad for the environment (with all those mercuries and lead in them), so it is good to see technology being used to help clean up this planet.
Watch the press conference at CustomRetailer
