Solar homes by college designers compete in Madrid

Teams from across the globe will soon learn whether their green designs will take top prize at Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 ― a competition that challenges collegiate designers to build houses powered exclusively by the sun.

But beyond their use of photovoltaic panels, these sustainable homes of the future will also be judged on overall design, construction quality and the level of innovation.

The 19 small houses that run solely on solar power were built over two weeks in September at Villa Solar in Madrid, Spain, and provide an architectural spectacle that the public can tour for free.

Teams from Europe, China, Japan, Brazil and Egypt, designed these houses to produce minimal waste throughout the structures’ life cycle.

The lighting, heating and cooling must be fully functional in each house, as do any household appliances inside them, like televisions and ovens. Plumbing is the only component not set up in these showcase homes.

During their final days on display, the houses accumulate points through a series of 10 mini-contests, each measuring specific parameters like architecture, engineering, energy efficiency and market viability. The team with the most points after the final judging wins.

Ecolar, a team from Germany, is in fourth place right now but its team member, Jakob Winter, says just completing the house the way they had conceptualized it is gratifying enough.

“The most rewarding thing is the feedback of the visitors,” he said. “So many people have come to me after the tour to say what a wonderful building it is, and the atmosphere inside the house. We’re just very happy because we feel the same inside our house.”

Feedback is important for a team like Ecolar, which is one of the teams that already has concrete plans to take its prototype to the market.

“We already have several inquiries from all around the world of people who would very much like to purchase an Ecolar home,” Winter said.

Ecolar won the award for having the best engineering. It is a prefabricated modular home, meaning that they have designed several structures that can all be pieced together in a broader system.

The team enhanced the house’s “passive” temperature regulation to save energy, which meant using hemp in its walls, ceiling and floor for better insulation, and installing clay plates on the ceiling to absorb heat. Like several of the other houses, Ecolar uses vertical, semi-transparent solar panels on the house’s facade, which lets in natural light while helping to supply energy.

Amid the boxy structures, one house, designed by the team from the Technical University of Denmark, took an unusual yet striking shape. The house is called Fold, which looks lopsided with slanted walls and a slanted roof. The angles are meant to be adjustable, depending on where the house is built, to maximize the solar panels’ exposure to the sun.

Like many other of the entrants, Fold produces more energy than it consumes, which means the excess power can be sent through the grid for other uses. At Villa Solar, the prototype houses’ overall surplus energy powers event spaces.

The competition was spun off from the original Solar Decathlon held biannually by the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., and is the result of an agreement between the U.S. and Spain, which is hosting the European edition for the second time.

Peugeot 2008 Concept

Forging ahead with a competitive position in the B segment, Peugeot has extended its traditional position with a new, broader, all-encompassing approach. So, the 208 was designed in accordance with an ambitious specification to re-generate the small hatchback. It went on sale in Europe at the end of March 2012, and in the UK at the end of June, prior to an industrial and commercial launch in Latin America in 2013.

At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, the Marque is presenting the Peugeot 2008 Concept. This concept car gives further thrust to its international conquest strategy, for which all its talents have been mobilised. The engineers and stylists have worked together in Europe, China and Latin America to create this seductive future vehicle of the range.

From Sao Paulo to Shanghai, from London to Kuala Lumpur, from the Cape to Moscow, the city lives, evolves and grows. The human race is becoming increasingly urban, at a rate not seen before. A new generation of city dwellers is coming alive. Connected, curious, they share numerous aspirations, regarding the way in which they keep themselves informed of news occurring across the Planet.

With more than 15 million '2' series vehicles, Peugeot benefits from a credible history in the domain of compact cars. This is further reinforced by the new 208, which has re-generated the codes of the segment. Recently, the marque has acquired legitimacy in the domain of the Crossover, with the commercial success of the 3008 and the inspiration drawn from the SXC Concept Car shown at the Shanghai Motor Show in 2011.

Wishing to merge these two fields of excellence into a new vehicle, Peugeot has developed the Peugeot 2008 Concept, a small vehicle combining agility, compactness, versatility and a striking style for young-minded city dwellers who love the city, while also loving to escape from it.

Its unique identity originates from the marriage of the elegance and refinement of the hatchback, the impertinence and mischievousness of the SUV combined with remarkable versatility and occupant space for this segment. Capitalising on the process of re-generation unveiled by the 208, the urban nature of the Peugeot 2008 Concept is established by compact dimensions: 4.14m long and 1.74m wide.

The Peugeot 2008 Concept naturally bears the stylistic codes of the Marque. With its athletic and sleek lines it imposes its bold posture which overturns and reinvents the standards of the larger vehicles in the small-vehicles segment.

It is painted fluorescent yellow with Velvet matt varnish, a very luminous colour which is full of energy. The body is punctuated with Dark Chrome details, accentuating the modernity and elegance of this concept car.

From a coherent overall volume the Peugeot 2008 Concept succeeds in combining a variety of impressions. The front face is refined and full of presence, where bonnet and wings give a reassuring impression of protection and strength. This perception is identical at the rear where the shape combines solidity with dynamism. The profile unites the two faces by means of the slender link which begins with the inclined windscreen and continues with the continuous roof line to the spoiler. And so a profiled and very aerodynamic silhouette is outlined. The side lines, traced in the direction of the road, give the impression of a lively, sleek and dynamic vehicle.

The Peugeot 2008 Concept pays particular attention to detail. The 'floating grille' has a design cut into the metal, combined with a sophisticated dual-aspect treatment following the example of the new marque emblem. The headlamps, of a precise and unique design, bear the Peugeot identity. Their contours follow the technical functions as closely as possible and so form the sharp pupil of a cat. Chiselled in form, they are aligned with the front face, giving it an even more expressive and individual character.

Blue light starting to be viewed in an unsafe light

At a Jins glasses store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, a customer who does lighting design work came in complaining of eyestrain after staring at his computer all day at work.

Picking up glasses capable of blocking blue light, the 34-year-old man, who does not usually wear glasses, asked a clerk, “Will my eyestrain be reduced by wearing these?”

Jin Co., known for its low-cost Jins glasses brand, released eyewear to shield eyes from blue light in September last year.

As people are staring at computer screens and smartphone displays at home and offices for longer periods, the dangers of blue light in the visible light spectrum have increasingly surfaced.

Seeing Jin’s success with its new blue-light-blocking eyewear, several firms in the industry have begun selling similar products. Companies and other organizations are also taking protective measures.

Microsoft Japan Co. and Recruit Media Communications Co. have provided their workers with blue-light-blocking glasses.

Taisho University handed out such glasses to about 90 officials, or 70 percent of its staff, in November last year.

“Some officials reported the lessening of their headaches believed to be due to eyestrain caused by looking at their computer screens,” said a university official in charge of the distribution.

These days, retailers are selling protective film for computer and smartphone screens which reduces the amount of blue light transmitted by liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

Blue light has high energy, compared with other spectra in the visible light spectrum, and could damage photoreceptor cells in the retina. That risk had not been acknowledged as a problem so much as those cells are capable of repairing themselves. But in recent years, the risk has gained attention as computers, hand-held game machines and smartphones have become widely used.

According to research by Toshihiko Ueda, associate professor at Showa University School of Medicine, if people look directly at the sun right on the equator for about seven seconds, they will suffer an acute retinal injury due to the blue light wavelength.

With strong light from a photocopier for more than 50 hours, people could suffer an injury to the retina. Blue light from LCDs is weak, but Ueda said it is unknown how long a user can stare at an LCD screen before affecting their eyes.

In January, eight eye doctors and other doctors formed a study group called the Blue Light Society. The group plans to look into blue light’s effects on the retina and biological rhythms, and make their findings public.

The group studies the effects of light-emitting diodes, which give off higher levels of blue light than fluorescent light. (LCDs mainly use fluorescent lamps as a backlight.)

Demand for LEDs is growing because of power-saving measures since the nuclear accident following last year's Great East Japan Earthquake in March. And the light source is expected to be used even more, as the government recently called for companies to voluntarily restrain from production and sales of incandescent bulbs.

“Based on our research, we will offer suggestions to people on how to deal with blue light, such as reducing brightness of lights during the evening,” said Kazuo Tsubota, professor at Keio University School of Medicine and representative of the Blue Light Society.

Light up your garden

With garden lights in place, dark needn’t down the curtains on your alfresco parties. Safety apropos of frolicking accouchement and pets should not bother you now; ablaze up the paths, walkways and pool-sides abundantly to anticipate avalanche and injuries.

So, how do you accept garden lights?

First, account out a plan of your garden’s advised appearance. A extraordinary array of garden lights, anniversary adapted for a altered purpose is available. For lighting up an absolute ample space, ambient lighting by agency of ablaze lights army on lamp-posts or anchored to walls, besides blind lamps are helpful. For hassle-free movement, you allegation path-lights.

Marine lighting involves the use of underwater lights to brighten baptize areas like pools and ponds. If aesthetics amount top on your agenda, opt for emphasis lighting, breadth you’ll ablaze up a accurate adorable affection of your garden with down-lights or up-lights, be it a array of appealing pots, a huge timberline or some garden adornment like a statue. You can aswell position the lights to actualize either a contour or a adumbration effect. Wall lights can aswell be befuddled in.

Spike lights are usually broadcast about the garden, abnormally in the flower-beds. Draping blink lights about tree-trunks is one of the a lot of accepted ideas. You can absolve your creativity, innovate and watch your garden get adapted into a actual fairyland!

A advanced array of designs in antique, acceptable and abreast styles anticipate selection. The ‘garden torch’, aggressive by the age-old tiki torch, is ideal for a garden party. But, yield care, for it’s readily inflammable. So, fix it durably at spots breadth added sources of fire/light aren’t at hand, such that they can’t be calmly agape over. There are aswell braiding lights, flood lights and beam lights.

While alien wall-lights are installed primarily for aegis reasons, they can aswell be active to addition your garden’s aesthetics alongside. Solar column lights are recommended for lighting up paths and walkways. Solar-powered garden lights allegation an centralized array with sunlight.

There are both alone garden lights harbouring their own solar corpuscle after base and lights that can be active to a axial solar cell. The latter’s advantage is that the individual solar corpuscle can be placed in a atom able best sunlight. A part of individually-powered ones, however, those actual in adumbration during the day abort to afford ablaze at night.

What are the technicalities to consider? Firstly, depending on your accurate lighting scheme, accept from a part of halogen, LED, solar and acceptable garden lights. Energy-saving and low-voltage bulbs are environment-friendly options abounding ablaze that doesn’t blaze but is able for your specific purpose.

Wireless solar lights and LED lights are accepted energy-savers besides getting economical. If activating bulbs assume indispensable, at least, about-face them off if not required. Low voltage lights actualize a abundant safer alfresco space.

Take some precautions. Use alone high-quality, weather-proofed being even if expensive. Check whether lamp-location hinders watering or mowing of the backyard or if affairs or cables bisect inlaid watering-pipes.

When traveling for solar lighting, ensure the solar beef get acceptable sunlight. Refrain from lighting up every breadth in your garden for overuse of lighting is garish. Use the play of caliginosity subtly.

ilumisys Issues Apparent Authorization to LED All-around Supply for LED Beaming Tube Replacements

LED All-around Supply, a all-around benefactor of LED lighting solutions based in Westlake Village, California, appear today that is has been accepted a authorization for light-emitting diode (LED) beaming tube replacements by ilumisys, Inc., developer and ambassador of next-generation solid-state lighting technology.

The ilumisys licensing affairs allows LED All-around Supply to accommodate LED lighting articles to the bazaar at a aggressive price. The licensing acceding provides for ability payments in barter for rights to accomplish and advertise articles covered by the apparent portfolio of ilumisys' ancestor company, Altair Engineering.

"We accommodate outstanding amount to our barter by our accurate artefact selection, aggressive appraisement and the development of analytical industry relationships," said Michael Paganelli, architect and admiral of LED All-around Supply.

"By basic this affiliation with ilumisys, LED All-around Supply will added ensure the supply of superior articles to our barter and advance a college accepted of superior throughout the industry."

With added than 10 years in the LED marketplace, LED All-around Supply is one of the nation's arch distributors of LED lighting, including LED ablaze bulbs, dimmable LED ablaze bulbs and accessories.

"By accouterment licensees admission to our apparent portfolio, we can advice ensure that a array of articles access the bazaar and abide to access the animation of our industry," said Dave Simon, admiral of ilumisys. "The LED industry has been growing rapidly over the accomplished few years and we accept abundant aplomb that it will abide to advance as the appeal for avant-garde solid-state lighting increases."

Solid-state lighting technology has the abeyant to cut U.S. lighting activity acceptance by one-quarter and accord decidedly to the nation's climate-change solution, according to the U.S. Department of Activity (DOE). According to a contempo address from the DOE, it is estimated that switching to LED lighting over the next two decades could save the country $250 billion in activity costs over that period, abate the electricity burning for lighting by about one half, and abstain 1.8 billion metric bags of carbon emission.

ilumisys, formed in 2007, is a aftereffect of Altair, a all-around software and technology aggregation that has a growing attendance in the activity market. With the abetment of Altair, its majority owner, ilumisys has a abysmal and abundant investment in analysis and development that includes nine issued patents and added that 70 filings to date.

ilumisys, Inc. is a Troy, Mich.-based aggregation focused on next-generation solid-state lighting technology. The aggregation was formed in 2007 as a aftereffect adventure and wholly endemic accessory of Altair Engineering, Inc. Articles are acquired from Altair's bookish acreage for the absolute backup of beaming ablaze tubes with light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and absolute backup of beaming lamps.

LED All-around Supply is the trusted ability for LED lighting solutions abetment their articles and acknowledging their barter with LED All-around Supply's industry arch 5 year affirmation and 30 day accident chargeless agreement giving their audience the affirmation of purchasing the adapted LED lighting artefact for the appropriate project.