On @Nest, Personal Sustainability, and Simplicity in form and function

At The Green Radar, we're big fans of firms that put design first. Our belief is that design -- when used as an intrinsic function of the overall product,  when it is educated by human insight and a keen understanding of a given problem -- can scale up to alter behavior itself.

And with matters of personal sustainability, we feel it's going to be products like Nest's thermostat (pictured here) that will go a long way in helping achieve this.

Nest is a smart meter that learns your energy usage habits and can help you optimize and minimize any losses in energy use. It knows when you wake up, when you leave for work, when you get back, and adjusts the temperature accordingly. They also have other products in the works, like* a humidity control mechanism called Airwave.

It also helps to know that Nest was designed by Tony Fadell, the guy who designed the first iPod. A firm to watch for the future, certainly.

More here.


*Correction: Airwave is a part of the Nest thermostat, and not a separate product. Thanks to the Nest team for confirming this!

On distributed generation within the smart grid

We love this article on the benefits of distributed generation and smart grids -- micro-grids, if you will. This is a pet idea for us here at The Green Radar, and we believe that smaller, self-sustaining systems are better in the long run, both in terms of efficacy and reduced environmental impact.

Check out the examples on UCSD and The New York State Center for Future Energy Systems, too.