TrickleStar recently released a new product that we call our "USB Motion Sensor" with model number TS1910. This is a new type of product that delivers active-state energy control over a computer without a software installation. This computer could be a commercial workstation computer or a computer in a residential home. However, testing data exist only for commercial workstation applications. Therefore, we suggest this new measure apply to commercial workstation applications only until further data is available to support a residential application. TrickleStar commissioned testing work with the California Plug Load Research Center ("CalPlug") to test and model expected energy savings for two products: (1) our TS1910 USB Motion Sensor, and (2) our TS1110 Tier 2 Advanced Power Strip for computer applications. Please review and consider the CalPlug testing data for our TS1910 USB Motion Sensor to support this new measure proposal. For an overview of CalPlug itself, please visit their website at http://calplug.org/about . CalPlug states in their attached report, "Workstation computers are a major contributor to home and commercial loads originating from service outlets (plug loads). In this study, CalPlug evaluated a commercial solution to trigger computer standby without the need for direct user intervention or centralized coordination by using motion as the sensing element for user activity for computer use at a workstation. The sensor itself can be used alone or in combination with a conventional Tier-1 Advanced Power Strip (APS) to produce a solution with Tier-2 APS functionality." The USB Motion Sensor acts like a human interface device ("HID") in that it will send a sleep command to Windows, Apple, or Linux-based operating systems when the USB Motion Sensor fails to detect motion over the duration of a programmable countdown timer (five to 30 minutes; 15-minute default timer setting). Please reference the attached product brochure document for a complete description of its operation. CalPlug states the following in their report with respect to the energy-savings potential of our USB Motion Sensor: "For a population of computers across the study with energy management in the as-found state (denoted Wildtype), the energy savings potential for the USB Motion Sensor (which provides whole-minute timer settings of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30) was determined to permit an average savings of between 880 minutes per day (at an intervention setting of 5 minutes) and 782 minutes per day Evaluation Report (Model TS1910) (at an intervention setting of 30 minutes), see Figure 5. There was a differential of 12.54% of savings between the two settings, see Figure 6. The large population of systems with no power management enabled lead to substantial savings predicted due to the large potential for extended idle times. For a population subset with sleep power management enabled (with various operating system PM timer settings), a savings of between 165 minutes per day (at an intervention setting of 5 minutes) and 97.61 minutes per day (at an intervention setting of 30 minutes) is predicted. A differential savings of 69.57% was predicted between the two settings. The large differential in savings potential for computers with PM enabled is due to a lower overall savings for the idle runtime baseline due to the existence of an operating system provided PM that acts as a backstop for excessive energy usage and extended idle periods. Runtime reductions are linearly related to overall energy savings. Considering a computer with 40 W of active power use and 2.5 W of standby power use, a reduction of 880 minutes of daily runtime (based on all subjects with a modeled timer setting of 5 minutes) results in a savings of 200.7 kWh/year from a baseline usage of 273.6 kWh/year, corresponding to 73.4% yearly energy usage reduction. For reduction of 782 minutes of daily runtime (all subjects, timer setting of 30 minutes) results in a savings of 178.3 kWh/year from a baseline usage of 273.6 kWh/year, corresponding to 65.3% yearly energy usage reduction. For the population only consisting of a data subset with PM enabled, at 166 minutes of daily runtime (PM subjects only, timer setting of 5 minutes), a savings of 37.5 kWh/year is estimated from a yearly (PM subset) baseline of 85.4 kWh/year. This results in an energy usage that is 43.9% of the baseline. At a reduction of 98 minutes of daily runtime (PM subjects only, timer setting of 30 minutes), a savings of 22.0 kWh/year is estimated from a yearly (PM subset) baseline of 85.4 kWh/year. This results in an energy usage that is 25.8% of the baseline. See Table 1 for a summary of these results. A model for an APS used in conjunction with the motion sensing system is shown in Table2." Therefore, we believe this is an ideal measure for commercial workstation applications in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. We can connect the RTF's CAT team to the research team at CalPlug. Please let us know what the next steps are with respect to advancing this new measure proposal. Thank you.
