In My Back Yard

From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

The In My Backyard (IMBY) tool estimates the electricity you can produce with a solar photovoltaic (PV) array or wind turbine at your home or business. Homeowners, businesses, and researchers use IMBY to develop quick estimates of renewable energy production at locations throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, and northern Mexico.

Read more here.

More green progress.

From consumerenergyreport.com:

The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust announced two project grants to advance clean and renewable energy worth more than $20 million.

The first grant totals $3.2 million to 9 recipients involved in clean energy across the state.

The other grant is a $17 million funding block for the Commonwealth Solar program which was launched in the beginning of the year by Governor Deval Patrick.

“These nine grants will help build wind turbines, increase hydropower and install fuel cells, while the next round of funding for Commonwealth Solar will put solar panels on homes and businesses,” said the state’s secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles.

While we're on the topic of alternative forms of power:

Wind power is now considered a mainstream source of power generation, second only to natural gas plants in new capacity between 2005 and 2007. While the 2008 year-end figures have yet to be released, it is expected that the numbers will prove that the wind sector has kept up the pace it has set in the last few years.

Measured by market share, wind provided 35% of all new power generation added in the U.S. in 2007, the AWEA said in a press release.

The AWEA says that the industry is looking forward to the pledged policies of the incoming administration of Barack Obama which will encourage investment in renewable energy sources, especially in the wind sector.

According to the press release, long term policies which the industry hopes to see, include:

• adjusting the federal production tax credit (PTC) to make it more effective in the midst of the current economic downturn and extending it for a longer term (it expires at the end of 2009);
• establishing a national renewable electricity standard (RES) with a target of generating at least 25% of the nation’s electricity from renewables by 2025, and a near-term target of 10% by 2012 (a Washington Post poll in early December found that 84% of Americans support such a standard);
• legislation and initiatives to develop a high-voltage interstate transmission “highway” for renewable energy; and
• strong national climate change legislation.

For more information, see consumerenergyreport.com

As always, for all your building automation needs, come see us at MidwestBAS.com

Panasonic to buy Sanyo in $9 billion deal

Panasonic has begun a 800 billion yen ($9 billion) takeover of Japanese rival Sanyo, hoping that transforming into one of the world's biggest electronics companies will help it weather the toughest business conditions in a century.

Top shareholders, including Goldman Sachs, had been haggling over the price with Panasonic Corp. since it expressed interest in Sanyo last month, but Friday revealed they'd settled on a tender offer price of 131 yen ($1.47) a share.

The deal would also allow Panasonic, which makes Viera TVs and Diga Blu-ray disc players, to take advantage of struggling Sanyo's green businesses in solar panels and rechargeable batteries.

Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said that taking over Sanyo will provide an opportunity for his company to become more competitive to ride out the worsening global downturn.

"The alliance with Sanyo will provide an engine for growth for us," he said at a news conference in Osaka, central Japan, shown via satellite in Tokyo.

To read the whole article from the Associated Press, click here.

How this will affect the security products from both companies is yet to be seen.

The Midwest Building Automation Team

MidwestBAS- a Leading Supplier of Building Automation, HVAC, Access Control, Video and Fire Security Products.
2008 MidwestBAS
www.midwestbas.com

LONWORKS Networking Technology Becomes a series of ISO/IEC Standards

As posted from LonMark's website (here)

December 3, 2008 – San Jose, CA – LonMark International, a non-profit, member-driven standards development and industry trade association supporting the LonWorks control-networking technologies announces today that the voting members of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC 1) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have formally approved LonWorks control networking technology as ISO/IEC 14908, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

First introduced in 1990, the LonWorks control networking technology has been a worldwide embraced technology for control communications and has held European, American, and Chinese national standards designations for several years.Now ISO/IEC have approved the standard to the highest level of international standards recognition.

This ratification will enhance the adoption and usage of this technology within the worldwide controls market and specifically in the buildings vertical. While LonWorks is also used in many other markets, such as outdoor lighting, transportation, utility, process control, and home automation, the majority of the over 100 million installed devices have been installed in or around buildings projects.

“This formal, international recognition by ISO/IEC further validates the breadth and pervasiveness of LonWorks technologies,” says Jeremy J. Roberts, Technical Director of LonMark International. “Already American, European, and Chinese standards, it was the natural progression for LonWorks to be adopted by our larger, global community; paving the way for other nations to more easily specify LonWorks control systems without having to duplicate the standardization efforts within their own countries.”

The four parts of the standard set comprise the core protocol; the twisted-pair, free-topology-wiring transfer medium; the powerline transfer medium, and the use of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a tunneling transfer medium, respectively.

“This is very exciting news for the controls market,” states Ron Bernstein, Executive Director of LonMark International. “This announcement re-affirms the validity and strength of LonWorks worldwide and will pave the way for even greater adoption. LonWorks networking technology is used in nearly every aspect of building automation, monitoring, and control, aside from the many other uses of LonWorks technology in transportation, home automation, and various industrial applications. We are pleased to have been able to spearhead this standardization effort for our members and the market, and are looking forward to the opportunities it creates for all end users seeking true, open, interoperable control networks.”

LonMark International plans to host an educational seminar and press conference on ISO/IEC standardization at the upcoming AHR Expo in Chicago on January 27, 2009. Interested parties can find more information about these events and the standards on the LonMark website at www.lonmark.org. Additional white papers discussing the ISO/IEC standard and LonWorks will also be available on the LonMark website.

The Midwest Building Automation Team

MidwestBAS- a Leading Supplier of Building Automation, HVAC, Access Control, Video and Fire Security Products.
2008 MidwestBAS
www.midwestbas.com

It's getting cold outside, let's talk about winterizing your home.

It's that time of year. Time to prepare for the long, hard winter. There are plenty of reasons to go green, not the least of which is the amount of money you'll save on your utility bills. Doityourself.com has some excellent tips on winterizing your home inside and out. Some excerpts from the article:

Outside the home:

Doorways and Windows

• Check windows and doors to get an idea of the extent of necessary repairs.
• Check for caulk that is beginning to pull away from the surface. Remove the old caulk completely and dispose of it properly.
• Clean the surface area exposed by the removal of the old caulk.
• Allow the area to dry completely. Re-caulk the area.

Inside the home:

Air Leaks

• To retain the maximum amount of heat in your home, replace lighter weight curtains with heavy drapes.
• Caulk or add insulation plates to the electrical outlets to minimize heat loss due to air leaks.
• Caulk or add insulation to pipe fittings that have air leaks.
• Consider applying temporary weather stripping on your windows to prevent heat loss. At least consider this option for rooms that get little use.

Over at askthebuilder.com, Tim Carter explains why, in colder climates, "water, both in the liquid and vapor state, is your biggest enemy." If you leave your home for any period of time during winter months, turn off your main shutoff valve before you leave and remember "water that freezes in supply lines or traps in drainage lines can cause them to crack. Go to the lowest fixture in the house that has hot and cold water. Open those valves. Go to every plumbing fixture in the home and open all valves and flush all toilets. This will allow gravity to pull the water down through the system. Closed valves create vacuums that prevent water from draining."

And last, but certainly not least, the Alliance to Save Energy has some excellent winter tips on your home's "physical fitness."

These excellent tips, coupled with "smartening" up your home using some of our many excellent products here at MidwestBAS, are sure to save you a bundle during the cold months. As always, should you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Cisco and Pelco to make beautiful music together.

Steve Hunt over at Security Dreamer is always digging up interesting tidbits about the security industry and a recent post of his should bring a lot more interest Pelco's line of products.

A partnership between the leading supplier of networking equipment and one of the biggest, if not the biggest supplier of all things video is sure to bring more attention to the security industry.

Here at MidwestBAS, we carry just about everything security related and you can find Pelco products across a wide spectrum, ranging from access control to cameras to DVRs. We supply a vast number of Pelco products, and we're constantly adding more. Check back frequently and feel free to contact us if you can't find what your looking for.