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Honeywell International - Renewable Jet Fuel and the UtilityPro Thermostat

The Honeywell International can trace its roots back to 1885 when an inventor named Albert Butz patented a furnace regulator and alarm. Since that point Honeywell has grown. Throughout the history of the company there has been a continuing tradition of innovation in the field of thermostats and energy saving devices. Today 50% of Honeywell's products deliver energy efficiency savings.

Two interesting recent developments for Honeywell have been renewable jet fuel and the Honeywell UtilityPro which has recently become the fastest selling demand response thermostat on the market.

Jet Fuel

Honeywell will use its UOP jet fuel technology to supply 600,000 gallons of renewable jet fuel to the US Navy and US Air Force. The jet fuel was manufactured using algae, animal fats and camelina. This reperesents an important step in making the US armed forces more environmentally friendly. Traditionally the various branches of the US army have notorious gas guzzlers. It is a welcome development to see even the armed forces trying to embrace the green revolution.

The story starts back in 2007 when Honeywell won a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce renewable JP-8 fuel for the U.S. military. The technology was used to produce renewable jet fuel for demonstration flights conducted with Boeing, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines earlier this year (2010). In each flight, these biofuels met or exceeded performance specifications for petroleum-based jet fuel and displayed no adverse effects on any of the aircraft systems.

Although there is controversy surrounding the use of bio-mass fuels because of justified complaints that land that could be used for food production is taken up with bio-mass crops, the development of 'green' jet fuel is a welcome breakthrough. It is now to be seen how many military and commercial users start switching to renewable jet fuel.

Honeywell UtilityPro Demand Response Thermostat

Honeywell has long been associated with producing excellent programmable thermostats such as the rth8500d, the rth7500d, rth7600d, Honeywell THX9321R5000 Prestige HD and the Honeywell VisionPro 8000 that offer great accuracy, innovative functions and high energy efficiency. It is well known to the consumer the technology that Honeywell has produced for Utilities. Since 2008 when the technology was put on the market, Honeywell has shipped more than 350,000 touchscreen programmable thermostats which give utilities control over peak consumption.

It is a program that installs Honeywell UtilityPro thermostats in customers homes. These thermostats are connected to the internet and allows the Utility company to control the customers energy use. UtilityPRO allows utilities to cycle air conditioners on and off for brief intervals when energy use and prices spike, usually on the hottest days of the year. Utilities can also use more sophisticated strategies like temporarily increasing set points or pre-cooling a premise prior to a demand response event. The impact on comfort is negligible, but the collective decrease in demand helps utilities stabilize prices, reduce the need for additional power plants, and avoid disruptive brownouts and blackouts. In this way customers benefit from professional management of their energy consumption.

Utilities and end users access UtilityPRO through a built-in communication module. In addition, utilities can communicate directly with customers by sending customized text messages.

So far 33 Utility companies in the USA and Canada have signed up the program. The program represents the next stage in energy saving. Previously end users and utilities were unable to form such an instantaneous and mutually beneficial relationship: monotoring, feedback and modifications bring consumer and supplier together to promote better energy efficiency.