We brought your attention to the eco-friendly Knoll Systems GSZ67 whole house distributed music amplifier-controller a few months back.   Well if you are looking to have music delivered throughout your home as part of your remodel, and stay eco-friendly by reducing power consumption in the process, then you need to check out the new and even more affordable GSZ44!

The all new GSZ44 controller-amplifier (with keypads included) is just what you need if you want four separate areas of your home to have speakers and music flowing throughout.  With the GSZ44, your master retreat and master bath can be tuned to an Elton John CD, while outside the kids are playing in the yard to the sounds of High School Musical 3.   All the music coming from your single home stereo!  So you decide you’d rather tune to XM satellite, well just press the Source button on the keypad on your bedroom/bathroom wall.   Guests at parties can hear the same music throughout your home as they mingle.

For $999, the complete GSZ44 package enables whole house audio distribution in four separate areas of your home, and includes four keypads that are placed like light switches on your wall.  The keypads allow you to change from CD to radio to satellite to cable audio (and more), and adjust volume in the room you are occupying.

So what is so ‘green’?  Each GSZ44 controller-amplifier features award winning Eco-System™ circuitry, which offers twice the power and a tenth the energy consumption of its competitors.  This patent pending circuit determines which speakers are in use and delivers power only to those channels needing it. The channels that are “off” are truly off, not in “standby” or “mute”.

According to Knoll Systems, a typical homeowner will enjoy a savings of hundred dollars or more per year in electrical costs and that can be multiplied when taking into account the increased costs of air conditioning to extract unwanted heat produced by a typical multi-channel amplifier. A comparable amplifier without the Eco-System™ circuit  uses about 14 times (40 watts) as much power while idling in standby. By comparison the GSZ44 with Eco-System™ uses under 2 watts while idling!

We still haven’t seen a product like this for home audio at GetWithGreen.com.  If you are going to be including “distributed audio” or music in your home and want to get a bit more eco-friendly in the process then we think you should check out the GSZ44 at a Knoll Systems distributor!

More »

Is your energy bill scary? Slaying energy vampires during your remodel can help you and Americans save millions.

In the spirit of Halloween, the EPA today warns us all to be on the watch for lurking energy vampires – or vampire power. These are the electronics and adapters that consume electricity when they are not being used. Power adapters and phone chargers are easy vampires power suckers to spot, and also easy to slay. Every energy vampire you vanquish saves you money, helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and helps in the fight against climate change.

“EPA encourages everyone to look for vampires in their home and get rid of this energy waste,” said Brian McLean, director of EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Protection. “Using less energy means less greenhouse gas emissions.”

The average U.S. household spends $100 per year to power devices while they are off (or in standby mode). On a national basis, this standby power accounts for more than 100 billion kilowatt hours of annual U.S. electricity consumption and more than $10 billion in annual energy costs.

These simple steps can protect our homes from energy vampires:

• Unplugging power adapters or battery chargers when equipment is fully charged or disconnected from the charger.
• Using a power strip that can be switched off when electronics and appliances are not in use.
• Looking for the Energy Star label when purchasing products.

Come back soon to read more about vampire power products at GetWithGreen.com.  Boo!

More »

Today Linksys (a division of Cisco) announced that they are jumping on the greener bandwagon with the delivery of eco-friendly packaging around their home networking gear, as well as ENERGY STAR compliance for some of their router products. 

Just about every one of us homeowners will put in a new network during our remodel.  On the list will likely be a wireless router.  As you are looking, look harder at those manufacturers who are doing just a bit more like this.  

So what is so “green” about the Linksys packaging:

1. Linksys has removed the “sleeve” (outer packaging that contains all the printing and information about the product).  Instead of having a “sleeve,” Linksys plans to print all the information on the box itself, eliminating the extra “sleeve” material.
2. Linksys also reduced the size of the box its products come in.
3. All packaging and internal documents are printed on paper that is made from 80% recycled content and we now use vegetable and soy inks.
4. Internal packaging is transitioning to more recyclable material.
5. The use of plastic bags is being eliminated where possible.

The nice part is that Linksys is a leading provider of these products, and the scale of this effort across their market really does add up to some environmental savings.  The new eco-friendlier packaging and materials provides more than 40% reduction in waste materials compared to the previously offered packaging.  Linksys believes this is estimated to be equal to the following based on the sources the quote:

• Saving 790 acres of pine or fir forest trees (per year)*
       –1.3 million trees planted in a 5 ft by 5 ft space configuration**
• Taking 3,000 cars off the road (per year)*

The eco-friendlier packaging will be available this month throughout select retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart and online retailers on the Wireless-N Routers (skus: WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT610N, WRT110, WRT54GS).

How does Linksys comply with Energy Saving Standards?

Linksys received ENERGY STAR certification on more than thirty of its consumer networking products including wired and wireless routers, gateways, game adapters and modems.  This means these products meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.

The energy consumed by the power adapters has been cut almost in half.  For example, a router used 4.6 watts of power and a new router with one of the ENERGY STAR certified power adapters can use as little as 2.6 watts of power.**** This equates to a power reduction estimation between 14MW and 17MW (based on Linksys’ top 10 shipping product volume, which is approximately 11,000,000 units). That is enough power to light 14,000 houses for one full day.***

The ENERGY STAR certified products will be rolling out this month.   Look for the logo on the packaging of their products. 

*Source: Wal-Mart Sustainable Scorecard, Linksys and Moduslink
**Source: Warnell School of Forest Resources
*** Source: CNN.com 1MW is equal to lighting 1,000 houses a day.
**** Reference example only. Actual power consumption depends on environmental conditions, usage patterns and other factors.

More »

We covered the energy efficiency of the Knoll Systems multi-zone audio amplifiers earlier this year.  Just this week the company won Electronic House’s 2008 Product of the Year Award for the GSZ67 multi-room audio controller amplifier!  Congratulations!!

The GSZ67 is an amplifier that controls multiple speaker “zones” in your newly remodeled home.  The multi-room controller allows you to plug in 7 different audio sources (e.g. Sonus, iPod, Sirius, XM, Comcast, etc.) and play a different audio source in up to 6 different places in your home (or backyard). 

The significance of the GSZ67 is the innovative Knoll Systems Eco-System circuitry that, unlike other multi-zone amplifiers, dramatically reduces power consumption when zones in your home are not being used!   This reduction in energy usage, also contributes less to heat creation, further reducing your cooling needs.

If A/V is part of your remodel, take a look at the GSZ67.  We also hear there are some more great power saving audio innovations coming from Knoll at the CEDIA show in September!!

More »

As homeowners, many of us will use our home remodel as an opportunity to ?upgrade? our existing home audio and visual equipment such as televisions, amplifiers, satellite/cable box, DVD players, whole house audio, video games, etc. 

With these upgrades, you have an opportunity to reduce power consumption in your home ? making your home a greener home.  Further, if your new equipment is an addition to your power consumption, then there are products that are better choices than others relative to energy consumption. 

Today, we want to talk about the whole house audio category, and innovation which is occurring in the whole house audio market.  Whole house audio is sound that is piped to various locations in your home, and you hear it through speakers in your walls or ceiling.  You select a source (DVD, iPod, Pandora, XM Satellite) in the room you are occupying, your amplifier recognizes your selection, and then delivers the sound/music to your location. 

A key component of whole house audio system is a multi-channel amplifier.  Suppliers of multi-zone multi-channel amplifiers are company?s such as Knoll Systems, Russound, Xantech and others.  Most are installed by system integrators, or home theater installers.

Up until now, amplifiers in home audio systems consume significant power in standby mode.  Essentially if you have a computer for internet radio, a DVD player, a receiver for radio, a television, XM satellite, and Sonos connected, your amplifier is supplying power to run those products at all times — 24/7!   Whether they are being used or not, your amplifier is consuming power ? obviously extremely wasteful!  This wasted power is often referred to as ?parasitic power?. 

GetWithGreen.com recently sat down with Richard Hanson, Director of Marketing for Knoll Systems.  Knoll Systems has been supplying audio and amplifier products to the home theater market for over 10 years.  Kevin Knoll started, and has run the business for 24 years.  We wanted to learn more about what Knoll is doing to reduce power consumption, and make whole house audio less of a power pig when you?re not around.

In March Knoll Systems announced a revolutionary new circuit design for several of their multi-channel amplifiers.  Trademarked ?Eco-System circuit?, this new innovative patent-pending technology turns off any channels that not being used by a homeowner.  The Knoll Systems amplifiers are not in standby mode, they are not in mute mode, their amplifiers are completely shut down for channels not being used! 

Hanson tells GetWithGreen, that not only are you going to do better for our environment, but calculations show a savings of $100-150 per year for the typical homeowner in electrical costs.  A typical amplifier without an Eco-System circuit uses 14 times (40 watts) more power than an amplifier equipped with an Eco-System circuit.  A Knoll Systems amplifier equipped with an Eco-System circuit uses less than 4 watts when in idle mode.

The savings in dollars and the environment goes even further, Hanson tells us, because the Eco-System circuit shuts down channels when not in use — it generates far less heat!  Thus reducing electricity (e.g. fans) required for cooling your equipment while you are not around!

The products from Knoll that you want to check out are the GS8 eight Channel Amplifier (List: $1,178), the GS12 twelve Channel Amplifier (List: $1,238), or the GSZ67 seven source six room Controller Amplifier ($2,199).  All three are equipped with Eco-System circuit technology.

Knoll products are not found on the shelves of Best Buy or Circuit City.  You can purchase them from a network of Knoll distributors across the US and around the world.   Similar multi-channel amplifiers for your whole house audio system are available from Russound (Model: CAA66) and from Xantech (Model: MRC88CTL), but neither offer the energy saving technology of the Knoll Systems products from what we could tell.  Knoll Systems is working now to license Eco-System circuit technology to amplifier providers.  Let?s see who adopts them!

Finally, Gordon van Zuiden of CyberManorasked GetWithGreen.com as we were writing this article if the Knoll product had a latency when turning on a source.  Richard tells us that there is zero latency, and they prove it by using the amplifier to run their paging system at Knoll ? which must have zero latency to operate properly. 

So before you go out and purchase that new A/V system, please take some time and look at energy saving alternatives, such as amplifiers that contain Knoll Systems Eco-System circuit technologies.    

More »

“Heating and cooling systems in the U.S. emit 150 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, and also generate 12% of the nation’s sulfur dioxide and 4% of its nitrogen oxide, the chief ingredients in acid rain,” according to data that accompanies Crestron’s recent “Green Paper” entitled Intelligent Efficiency: Crestron Makes Life Greener.  How can we control the usage of these home systems (heating, AC, lighting, sprinklers, audio/visual) better, and optimize the duration and timing they remain in operation?  Home Automation.   

I had my first exposure to home automation while working with Kaleidescape whole house video/audio systems (not ENERGY STAR rated) some years back, and later working with Siemens.  Home automation systems and controls (like Crestron) can cut down the energy you use in your home.  With a home automation system you can automate the lighting in your home, as well as Heating, AC, computer and audio/visual to only operate during times it is needed, and to shut off automatically.  According to the Crestron paper, the potential savings on energy in your home can be 3% for scheduling and dimming lights, and 4% for automating thermostats — based on a 4,000 square foot home where lighting accounts for 10% of total energy usage and heating/cooling accounts for 31%.

In addition to the green paper, the Crestron team has a ”green” area of their website, www.crestron.com/gogreen.  GetWithGreen.com recommends taking a look at these systems and controls as you do your remodel.   A good time to get them quoted is once your architectural drawings are completed.  Typically you will purchase the systems through an audio/visual specialist in your area.

With their recent announcement, Crestron also published a 7-page “Green Paper”, entitled The paper discusses

Download the Crestron paper.  Note you will need to Name, Email, and State to get access. 

More »