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ZigBee Green Power Enables Battery-Less Home Devices
Feature set expected to spur innovation of energy-harvesting switches, sensors and controllers.
When the ZigBee Green Power standard is made available at the end of 2009, it may lead manufacturers to crank out “energy-harvesting” home products. Shown are some HAI ZigBee Pro products.
The ZigBee Alliance is looking to make 2009 the summer of ZigBee.
The wireless automation device protocol, looking to take the lead in the home automation standards race, has revealed its Green Power feature set that enables wireless home devices to draw from harvested energy and work without batteries.
These energy-efficient products can include ZigBee-friendly light dimmers, switches, motion detectors and more. They're expected to "harvest energy" from solar and other stored energy sources.
The ZigBee Green Power standard for ZigBee and ZigBee Pro networks is scheduled to be available to alliance members at the end of 2009. ZigBee says the energy harvesting capabilities will give manufacturers greater flexibility when designing ZigBee products and solutions.
“Having energy harvesting devices connected seamlessly to standard ZigBee networks will provide our customers with maintenance-free and even more environment-conscious solutions," says Frederic Vaillant, vice president, Technology Innovation at Schneider Electric.
The green news comes just before Control4 is scheduled to switch to ZigBee Pro, allowing about 1 million installed ZigBee products to interoperate with third-party devices.
The wireless automation device protocol, looking to take the lead in the home automation standards race, has revealed its Green Power feature set that enables wireless home devices to draw from harvested energy and work without batteries.
These energy-efficient products can include ZigBee-friendly light dimmers, switches, motion detectors and more. They're expected to "harvest energy" from solar and other stored energy sources.
The ZigBee Green Power standard for ZigBee and ZigBee Pro networks is scheduled to be available to alliance members at the end of 2009. ZigBee says the energy harvesting capabilities will give manufacturers greater flexibility when designing ZigBee products and solutions.
“Having energy harvesting devices connected seamlessly to standard ZigBee networks will provide our customers with maintenance-free and even more environment-conscious solutions," says Frederic Vaillant, vice president, Technology Innovation at Schneider Electric.
The green news comes just before Control4 is scheduled to switch to ZigBee Pro, allowing about 1 million installed ZigBee products to interoperate with third-party devices.
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Article Topics
News · Product News · Home Automation and Control · HVAC · Hvac · Home Automation ·About the Author
Tom LeBlanc, Senior Writer/Technology Editor, CE Pro
Tom has been covering consumer electronics for six years. Before that, he wrote for the sports department of the Boston Herald. Migrating to magazines, he was a staff editor for a golf publication and an outdoor sports publication. Now, as senior writer/technology editor of CE Pro magazine since 2003, he dabbles in all departments and offers expertise in marketing.
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