Electrification of transportation, communication, working and living continues worldwide. Televisions, telephones, servers are an important part of everyday life. These loads and most sustainable sources as well, have one thing in common: Direct Current. The Dutch research and educational programme ‘DC – road to its full potential’ studies the impact of feeding these appliances from a DC grid. An improvement in energy efficiency is expected, other benefits are unknown and practical considerations are needed to come to a proper comparison with an AC grid. This paper starts with a brief introduction of the programme and its first stages. These stages encompass firstly the commissioning, selection and implementation of a safe and user friendly testing facility, to compare performance of domestic appliances when powered with AC and DC. Secondly, the relationship between the DC-testing facility and existing modeling and simulation assignments is explained. Thirdly, first results are discussed in a broad sense. An improved energy efficiency of 3% to 5% is already demonstrated for domestic appliances. That opens up questions for the performance of a domestic DC system as a whole. The paper then ends with proposed minor changes in the programme and guidelines for future projects. These changes encompass further studying of domestic appliances for product-development purposes, leaving less means for new and costly high-power testing facilities. Possible gains are 1) material and component savings 2) simpler and cheaper exteriors 3) stable and safe in-house infrastructure 4) whilst combined with local sustainable generation. That is the road ahead. 10.1109/DUE.2014.6827758
Lighting accounts for a significant amount of electrical energy consumption in office buildings, up to 45% of the total consumed. This energy consumption can be reduced by as much as 60% through an occupant-dependent lighting control strategy. With particular focus on open-plan offices, where the application of this strategy is more challenging to apply due to differences in individual occupancy patterns, this paper covers (1) to which extent individual occupancy-based lighting control has been tested, (2) developed, and (3) evaluated. Search terms were defined with use of three categories, namely ‘occupancy patterns’, ‘lighting control strategy’, and ‘office’. Relevant articles were selected by a structured search through key online scientific databases and journals. The 24 studies identified as eligible were evaluated on six criteria: (1) study characteristics, (2) office characteristics, (3) lighting system characteristics, (4) lighting control design, (5) post-occupancy evaluation, and (6) conclusions, and this was used to answer the research questions. It was concluded that the strategy has not been tested yet with field studies in open-plan offices, but that it needs further development before it can be applied in these type of offices. Although lighting currently tends to be controlled at workspace level, many aspects of the strategy can be further developed; there is potential to further increase energy savings on lighting within open-plan office spaces. Individual occupancy-based lighting control requires further validation, focussing on the factors influencing its energy savings, on its cost effectiveness, and on its acceptability for users.
People want to participate and not remain on the side-lines. Most people have good ideas for how to participate, but making those ideas a reality requires money, as well as knowledge, information and an enabling environment. There are, in fact, people amongst the lesser fortunate in society who want to be able to borrow money, take out insurance, transfer money and set aside money as savings at affordable prices and ideally as close as possible. An increasing number of people seized such opportunities empowered by microfinance. Today, a network of microfinance institutions is providing all kinds of services in many countries, ranging from micro loans (microcredit), micro insurance, micro savings to micro pensions. All of those services are offered in a way different to that which banks were used to. A new way of handling money and bringing people and finance together has developed. A network of new organisations has emerged that has gained attention. The success of microcredit has been given the attention it deserved, yet microfinance is now facing criticism. Does the money reach the right people? Why are the interest rates so high? Who actually benefits from it? Why are private investors interested to join? And why are microfinance organisations once set up with clear, social goals sold to private parties on the market? The question is rightly tabled whether financial inclusion is still being pursued. In order to contribute to that discussion, one needs to know what microcredit or microfinance actually is all about. What do we understand by these terms?
