Lamp lights without a socket or sun!

 the makers of the Zen light, still in the nascent stage of development, actually claim that it does not need any external source to light itself. It actually depends on the “magnetic engine” that the lamp is already equipped with. The way this lamp functions is both simple and intriguing. The magnets placed inside the lamp make sure that they create enough force to keep the lamp spinning. Now this spinning, in return, powers a series of LED diodes. The power thus generated helps the lamp light up without any external assistance.

The designs shown so far are sleek and very contemporary.

Just while penning this down, here is an afterthought. Since the idea is so simplistic and basic in nature, could we not adapt it (in its cheaper version of course!) and use it to light the kerosene-lit, forest-covered areas that still darken the world map of the 21st century.

Indian students create kinetically-powered, junk-made washing machine

Designed by a team of two students, Sourabh Siyal and Tushar Agarwal, from Christ College, Bangalore, India, Eco-wash is a junk-made washing machine that does laundry for you on mechanical and kinetic energy. The duo utilized a discarded plastic bottle and a pulley to create their version of an eco-friendly machine. With a plastic bottle working as a box for washing clothes, an attached pulley helps ease the washing process.

Sourabh Siyal, team member, says…

Our idea is to do away with electricity and come up with an alternative. The washing machine can be useful in big textile industries. We’re planning to give our idea to one of India’s leading garment manufacturing units.

Fluid-submerged data-center servers promise 95% cut in energy usage

Most data centers have been cooling there servers using air cooling method. While the method is used widely, it is not very cost-friendly and green because many times the cooling cost is almost equivalent or even higher than the equipment cost.

To solve this problem a company called Green Revolution Cooling has introduced a radical new approach to cooling via a liquid dielectric coolant in which the data server can be submerged.

The greatest advantage of this technology is that it reduces cooling energy use by 90-95 percent and the total energy usage by almost 50 percent. The fluid used for the cooling system is a clear, odorless, non-toxic, and low-cost non-conductive white mineral oil that can hold 1200 times more heat than air when the server is submerged in it.

There are certain visible advantages of the fluid cooling system over traditional air cooling methods:

•With liquid cooling environment servers do not gather dust on them and they remain virtually dust-free.

•There are no fans that can wear and tear and fail to work leading to server heating. Therefore, the servers’ life is indirectly increased.

•Liquid cooling makes it easy to recover the heat produced and use it for some other useful purpose.

•Overheating of the server and failure is minimized because the liquid cooling is more controlled than air cooling method.

•The use of digital technology is increasing every day and therefore the fluid cooling method gives a greener and energy efficient choice to maintain the server cloud than the air cooling system.

•Servers cooled with mineral oil are more safely overclocked therefore the same chips are run at a higher speed.

According to the manufacturers,

Our system will cool up to 100kW in a 42U rack in its current configuration. This is equivalent to an air-cooled system near 120kW since nearly 20kW of that 120kW would be used by server fans. Our system offers orders of magnitude better convective cooling than an air-cooled system and thus can handle higher densities.

The cost-wise advantage of this system is also noteworthy. For a brand new data center the upfront cost can be drastically reduced with smaller generator, smaller UPS, no CRACs, no chillers and no need for raised floor. Add to it the low energy usage and high performance and it is a complete win -win situation.

The liquid cooling system for data servers is surely a next generation green technology.

Minix aerodynamics breakthrough increases fuel efficiency by about 6%

Fuel efficiency and emissions are the two contexts in which aviation industry has invited bad press in perpetuity. A fair bit of scaling down can be expected in all of this with the Minix wing tip device. Developed by French aeronautics teacher Christian Hugues, the equipment which sits on the tip of an aircraft wing is a replacement for vertical and tilted winglets. Its aerodynamic design comprises cylindrical shape which reduces the drag by smoothening out and negating the high-pressure spiral vortices that form when a plane is in motion.

The Minix wing tip can be retrofitted to any aircraft wing. Apart from reducing the drag, the Minix system produces increased lift at the wing tip, which is especially useful during landing. Most importantly, according to Hughes the Minix wing tip is cheaper than a traditional winglet and on a recent prototype testing it showed a 6% gain in drag efficiency at Mach 0.8 which is the typical speed of an airliner.