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Intelligent Standby Energy Saver Wins Global Live EDGE Design Contest
Application has the potential to ‘save energy the world over'
Elizabeth Taurasi, Executive Editor -- Design News, April 7, 2009
Pedro Rodrigues of Portugal is the winner of this year's Premier Farnell's Global Live EDGE 2008 - Electronic Design for the Global Environment Challenge. Rodrigues' design, an Intelligent Standby Energy Saver, automatically detects the standby mode of electrical equipment and disconnects the power when it's not required. Power savings is achieved by the intelligent control of power to consumer items (such as televisions and entertainment systems) where the accumulated standby power is effectively reduced.
His design won out in a field of hundreds of entries in the second year of this competition.
The Live EDGE challenge requires entrants to submit designs utilizing electronic components in an innovative way to make a positive impact on the environment.
Premier Farnell CEO Harriet Green said during the announcement that Rodrigues' application has the potential to "save energy the world over."
Rodrigues says his main source of inspiration in creating this project was to be able to use artificial intelligence models to include equipment that has the ability to recognize standby and non-standby modes. His background includes teaching and investigation, specializing in artificial intelligence.
"I'm very happy and very honored to be here and help participate in this project," Rodrigues says. "Mostly what inspired me was the personal challenge. I think most of all my contribution ... has to do with this standby in electrical devices. My project allows us to recognize, through a learning process, what and if the equipment is on the standby mode or on the standard mode."
Rodrigues' Intelligent Standby Energy Saver can automatically determine whether electronic equipment should be withdrawn from its power supply or not. Sensors determine the right moment to restore power to the equipment. "This way we can achieve energy savings," Rodrigues says.
"The Intelligent Standby Energy Saver design takes a radically different and technically superior approach to determining power usages," says Sir Peter Gershon, chairman of Premier Farnell and Live EDGE judge. "The idea of using a neural network algorithm to accomplish Mr. Rodrigues' energy saving design is original and clearly more efficient than conventional energy savings methods."
Rodrigues received a prize package that includes a $25,000 cash prize and support services to bring the designs to market.
Two runners up to this year's contest were also announced. Each received $5,000 for their designs.
The first runner up, John Tillson from England, designed a PowerShift Power Controller designed to switch off critical loads during supply/demand imbalances, easing the burden on national power grids at times of peak demand. The system works by detecting the peak times of electrical power usage, then switching off any suitable electrical appliances to lessen the total load presented to the power grid.
The second runner up is Antonio Lalguna of Spain for his design of an automatic irrigation system to improve photovoltaic systems. This device is aimed at improving the efficiency of solar panels by 30 percent using a rainwater harvesting system to automatically clean and cool off the panels.
Last year's winner, John Noble, designed a product called MyFan – a ceiling fan that combines an electronically commutated motor and controller and aerodynamically efficient blade design that reduces fan input power by up to 66 percent of that of a traditional ceiling fan. It boasts auxiliary output channels that drive up to 20W of integrated LED lighting with up/down lighting modules. Noble anticipates having his winning design ready for distribution later this year.
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